Korean Experience in Fuel Performance and Burnup Extension

Abstract

Since the commercial operation on April 22nd, 1983 Wolsong Nuclear Power Plant has achieved significantly improved fuel performance and burnup extension annually. Especially Korean-built fuels by Korea Advanced Energy Research Institute have been loaded from September 1987 which are reaching about 4,000 bundles as of the end of last year. The progressive efforts on burnup extension and fuel. performance technology improvements have been carried and have led to the successful performance of Wolsong fuels. This paper presents briefly the summary of fuel performance records such as the number of bundles discharged a year, discharged fuel burnup, refuelling rate, defect fuel rate, failed fuel. history, fuelling machine visit rate per 100 full power days interval, cumulative discharged burnup per 100 FPD interval, average excess reactivity in core, fuelling machine visit per channel during reactor lifetime to last year, the number of channels visited in each zone and direction, the number of discharged fuel bundles per 500 MWD/MTU interval, and Korean-built fuel performance from commercial operation to the end of 1988.