A methodology for the analysis of In-Core fuel management configurations in BWR's

A configuration for the integral problem of in-core fuel management consists of a fuel lattice and a fuel assembly designs, as well as a fuel reload and a control rod pattern design, so that the different criteria for the proper operation of a BWR reactor are met. Such a configuration or solution is not unique. There is an universe of potential candidate solutions that solve the problem in different ways. Departing from a database of candidate configurations, we describe and show the application of a multicriteria analysis methodology based on intervals and possibility function. The nuclear engineer must define his/her preferences in terms of the relevance assigned to the configurations' features and next, using the methodology, those configurations are ranked. Besides this, the methodology can help us to identify the role that play some fuel lattice variables into the in-core fuel problem performance.