Updates to two handbooks will support continued efforts to achieve zero fuel failures at nuclear plants.

EPRI published two handbooks over the last year that should be on every nuclear fuel engineer's reference shelf. One outlines technical considerations to support fuel design verification and manufacturing; the other summarizes fuel failure experience and failure monitoring practices.

The Fuel Design Evaluation Handbook (1022424), which provides a set of concise technical performance considerations for nuclear fuel and core components, can provide multiple benefits:

• Reduce the number of fuel and core component-related operational issues
• Increase fuel reliability to achieve and sustain operation with zero defects
Enable increases in fuel burnup in future designs, with improved margins to thermal and mechanical limits.

The handbook supersedes a previous technical requirements document (EPRI report TR-110689) published more than a decade ago. The updated Fuel Design Evaluation Handbook incorporates operating experience since the original release and expands the discussion to include core components. Most of the technical guidance is provided in easy-to-use tables organized by functional group: fuel rod, fuel assembly, and core components and then by sub-assembly/component. These tables identify key attributes for performance, design verification, and manufacturing, and provide a list of questions that should be addressed prior to implementation. The example below identifies key design and manufacturing attributes for fuel assembly grids.

The second revision to the Fuel Reliability Monitoring and Failure Evaluation Handbook (1019107), also known as the Failed Fuel Handbook, documents the current status of light water reactor fuel integrity monitoring activities in the United States, Europe and Asia, with an emphasis on current fuel reliability methods and fuel failure mitigation techniques. If a fuel failure is suspected, nuclear plant operators can use this handbook for guidance on integrity monitoring, including detailed information on sample collection and interpretation to characterize the number and types of failures present. The handbook also includes sections on action planning, power suppression testing, and failure assessment. The Failed Fuel Handbook contains experience-based knowledge, supplemented by theory and expert analysis and interpretation.

To support technology transfer, both handbooks include portions translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese, and also can be used as training materials for new engineers. For more information, contact Erik Mader at 208.881.9225 or emader@epri.com.