Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. A method for determining a safety limit minimum critical power ratio for a nuclear fuel core of a particular Boiling Water Reactor, comprising:determining, by a computer, a generic transient change-in-critical-power-ratio distribution of values based at least upon a pre-computed nominal change-in-critical-power-ratio bias value and a change-in-critical-power-ratio standard deviation;determining, by the computer, an initial critical power ratio for each of a plurality of fuel rods in the core;determining, by the computer, a plurality of transient minimum critical power ratios for the plurality of fuel rods in the core by applying the generic transient change-in-critical-power-ratio distribution of values to each determined initial critical power ratio;determining, by the computer, an operating limit minimum critical power ratio (OLMCPR) value by computing a mean number of fuel rods subject to a boiling transition corresponding to a histogram of the plurality of transient minimum critical power ratios and selecting an operating limit minimum critical power ratio value as a transient minimum critical power ratio which results in a corresponding mean number of fuel rods subject to a boiling transition value that is less than a cutoff value; anddetermining, by the computer, the safety limit minimum power ratio using the operating limit minimum power ratio, the nominal change-in-critical-power-ratio bias value, and the change-in-critical-power-ratio standard deviation. 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:adjusting a confidence level of the determined safety limit minimum critical power ratio by multiplying the standard deviation by a statistical multiplier. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the statistical multiplier is 2. 4. The method of claim 2, wherein the adjusting of the confidence level of the safety limit minimum critical power ratio includes multiplying the standard deviation by the statistic multiplier to provide a 95% confidence level. 5. The method of claim 2, wherein the determining of the safety limit minimum critical power ratio is accomplished using the following equation:SLMCPR=OLMCPR[1−(u+k*σ)]where,SLMCPR=the safety limit minimum power ratio,OLMCPR=the operating limit minimum power ratio,u=the pre-computed nominal change-in-critical-power-ration bias value,k=the statistical multiplier,σ=the change-in-critical-power-ration standard deviation. 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the pre-computed nominal change-in-critical-power-ratio bias value and the standard deviation are determined by conventional statistical analysis of one or more computer simulations of the particular Boiling Water Reactor plant type and for a particular fuel type. 7. The method of claim 1, wherein said initial critical power ratios are determined for a particular transient event during a particular fuel cycle. 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the generic transient change-in-critical-power-ratio distribution of values is determined by statistical analysis of one or more computer simulations of the particular Boiling Water Reactor plant type and for a particular fuel type.