Discrete Event Simulation of Fuel Transfer Strategies for Defueling a Nuclear Reactor

Abstract

Fuel handling and condition ing activities for the decommissioning of the Experimental Breeder Reactor Il are being performed at Argonne National Laboratory. Discrete event simulation and optimization techniques are being investigated to plan, supervise and perform these activities in such a way that productivity can be improved. The idea is to characterize this operation as a collec tion of interconnected serving cells, and then apply operational research tech niques to identify appropriate planning schedules for the given scenarios. This paper describes an application of discrete event simulation to evaluate fuel transfer strategies and identify optimal solutions among distributed resources.