Patent ID: 7437276
Filing Date: 2008-10-14
Classification: G21D,Y02E

Abstract:
1. A method of evaluating a proposed solution to a nuclear reactor constraint problem, comprising: providing an objective function definition generic to constraint problems, the generic objective function definition being a sum of a first number of credit terms plus a sum of a second number of penalty terms; configuring the generic objective function into a nuclear reactor constraint problem objective function, the configuring including defining at least one of the second number of penalty terms to increase in significance within the configured objective function as an amount of fuel bundle movement in the proposed solution increases; receiving a value of at least one variable in at least one credit term in the configured objective function, the credit term variable being related to the proposed solution; receiving a value of at least one variable in at least one penalty term in the configured objective function, the penalty term variable being related to the proposed solution, at least one penalty term variable value representing an amount of fuel bundle movement; and generating a figure of merit for the proposed solution based on the credit term variable and the penalty term variable using the configured objective function.