Gustavo Alonso

BWR fuel reloads design using a Tabu search technique

Abstract We have developed a system to design optimized boiling water reactor fuel reloads. This system is based on the Tabu Search technique along with the heuristic rules of Control Cell Core and Low Leakage. These heuristic rules are a common practice in fuel management to maximize fuel assembly utilization and minimize core vessel damage, respectively. The system uses the 3-D simulator code CM-PRESTO and it has as objective function to maximize the cycle length while satisfying the operational thermal limits and cold shutdown constraints. In the system tabu search ideas such as random dynamic tabu tenure, and frequency-based memory are used. To test this system an optimized boiling water reactor cycle was designed and compared against an actual operating cycle. Numerical experiments show an improved energy cycle compared with the loading patterns generated by engineer expertise and genetic algorithms.

Public opinion about nuclear energy in Mexico: a study

Currently, Mexico has adopted an energy policy to diversify the electricity sources, and nuclear energy is among the alternatives to achieve this goal. Public opinion plays a very important role in the policy to adopt the deployment of new nuclear reactors; therefore, it is necessary to define communication strategies to promote nuclear energy. The current study was performed to find what is the perception and positioning about nuclear energy as a starting point to define the way to improve public acceptance. The national study is divided in two parts. The first one is a qualitative study to know the

Nuclear Energy Economical Viability

Recent construction technique developments and technology evolution have made the nuclear option a cost competitive option with other load base technologies such as coal and combined cycle facilities based on natural gas. Construction period, from first concrete to commercial operation, is around five years, as it has been confirmed by the most recent reactors built in Asia (e.g. Japan and China). At present, the cost for a new nuclear power plant has dropped overnight and is lower than in the past. The different reactors suppliers are offering new plants between 1200 and 1600 USD/kW with an output power between 1100 and 1600 MWe. In this work different scenarios of electricity generation using combined cycles by using natural gas and nuclear power stations are assessed from an economical point of view. The scenarios considered comprise three different discount rates, 5 %, 8 % and 10 %.