CANDU Reactor Experience: Fuel Performance

Abstract

Ontario Hydro has more than 126 reactor years experience in operating CANDU reactors. Fuel performance has been excellent with 47 000 channel fuelling operations successfully completed and 99.92 of the more than 380 000 bundles irradiated operating as designed. Fuel performance limits and fuel defects have had a negligible effect on station safety, reliability, the environment and cost. The actual incapability charged to fuel is less than 0.1% over the stations' lifetimes, and more recently has been zero.