Utility companies that operate commercial nuclear power plants are faced with many complex issues and unique needs related to in-core fuel management analysis.
Traditionally, fuel vendors supply software and services to assist the utility with core design and core follow. However, that forces the utility to be reliant on the efficiency and accuracy of one solution.
Missing in this approach is any oversight by the utility to independently evaluate in-core fuel management issues or to confirm vendor results. A more efficient core design might be possible, but without independent analysis, that opportunity may be missed.
The vendor analysis solution does not offer flexibility to change fuel vendors or to benefit from potential cost advantages of a mixed-vendor solution, for example, a core monitoring system supplied by one fuel vendor and the fuel supplied by a different vendor. Additionally, significant time, money, and engineering resources can be saved by only having to train staff on one software package.
Studsvik has a rich history of helping utilities eliminate these shortfalls by offering fuel vendor-independent analysis software and engineering services. These products cover the entire reactor analysis lifecycle, including:
Organizations understand the value of conducting their own fuel vendor-independent core design and analysis, and having the flexibility to change fuel vendors without changing internal analysis capabilities. Utilities with multiple plants are able to deploy engineering resources where they are needed, since the same Studsvik software is applicable to all PWR and BWR reactor designs.
Over 60 organizations in nearly 20 countries currently use Studsvik products to improve their operating efficiency.
Our customers have performed analyses of every commercially available PWR and BWR fuel and core design, comprising thousands of reactor operating cycles of analysis. This rich base of experience is continuously fed back into code development to further enrich the efficiency and accuracy of our products.
Relying on robust, first-principle physics modeling, advanced numerical techniques, and engineering features such as automation of routine engineering calculations, Studsvik has created the most robust and easy-to-use in-core fuel management suite in the world.
