Optimizing In-Bay Fuel Inspection Capability to Meet the Needs of Today's CANDU Fleet

Abstract

Utilities typically complete in-bay inspections on anywhere from 20 to 500 bundles in a year. Bundles are selected for inspection for any number of reasons – with general surveillance, monitoring compliance with the operating envelope, and follow-up on any operational events or conditions being typical motives for most stations. With the recent return to service of many CANDU® units, aging of all others, increasingly competitive energy market and aging hot cell infrastructure – there exists now a greater need for timely, inexpensive and reliable collection of irradiated fuel performance data in the bays of each station. The recent development of simple in-bay tools allows utilities to characterize the condition of irradiated fuel and foreign material quicker and more economically than ever. Use of these tools permits timely engineering review and disposition of emerging issues to enable reliable operation of the CANDU® fleet. This paper describes industry capability to complete detailed inspection of irradiated CANDU® fuel and highlights the benefits this provides to those groups tasked with fuel performance assessments.