An Overview of Defective Fuel Analysis in CANDU and Light Water Reactors

Abstract

The theory used in various defective-fuel monitoring packages for both CANDU and Light Water Reactors is reviewed. A fuel-oxidation model is proposed for operating defective fuel rods to account for high-pressure and radiolysis effects. Based on the results of the fuel oxidation model, a correlation is proposed to predict the power of the defective rods from the measured coolant activity at two different power levels of the reactor.