Patent ID: 8149983

Claim:
A method of evaluating pellet-cladding interaction in a core of a nuclear reactor, said nuclear reactor core having a reactor protection system, and including a plurality of elongated fuel rods, said fuel rods each including a cladding tube surrounding a plurality of nuclear fuel pellets with a gap being defined between said nuclear fuel pellets and said cladding tube, said reactor protection system defining a number of operational limits for a plurality of parameters of said core, said operational limits being based, at least in part, upon a predetermined set of technical specifications for said core, said method comprising the steps of: selecting a number of said parameters of said core to be analyzed, including xenon-135 distribution in said core; evaluating the selected parameters at a plurality of statepoints, each of said statepoints corresponding to a predetermined point in time for a predetermined core condition, wherein a set of said statepoints defines a history point, said history point being representative of the operational history of one or more of said fuel rods of said core; generating a model of an operating space of said core based, at least in part, upon said statepoints and plotting said model of said operating space on a display; selecting a loci of statepoints from said statepoints of said model and subjecting said loci of statepoints to a predetermined simulated transient, wherein each of said statepoints of said loci of statepoints falls within the operational limits of said reactor protection system, said loci of statepoints defining a subset of said statepoints within said operating space of said core, the selection of said loci of statepoints being based, at least in part, upon one or more said history point; evaluating said loci of statepoints for pellet-cladding interaction in response to said simulated transient, prior to operation of said nuclear reactor; if pellet-cladding interaction is predicted, then rearranging said fuel rods or adjusting the operational limits of said reactor protection system; and if pellet-cladding interaction is not predicted, then accepting the arrangement of said fuel rods for safe operation in said core.