The demand for nuclear fuel for research reactors is rising worldwide. Thus, the production facilities of this kind of fuel need reliable guidance on how to augment their production in order to meet the increasing demand efficiently and safely. We proposed a specific procedure for increasing production capacity. That procedure was tested with data from a real plant, which produces plate-type fuel elements loaded with LEU U 3 Si 2 -Al fuel. The test was made by means of discrete event simulation, and the results indicated the proposed procedure is efficient in raising production capacity.
Several fuel plants that supply nuclear research reactors need to increase their production capacity in order to meet the growing demand for this kind of nuclear fuel. After the enlargement of the production capacity of such plants, there will be the need of managing the new production level. That level is usually the industrial one, which poses challenges to the managerial staff. Such challenges come from the fact that several of those plants operate today on a laboratorial basis and do not carry inventory. The change to the industrial production pace asks for new actions regarding planning and control. The production process based on the hydrolysis of UF6 is not a frequent production route for nuclear fuel. Production planning and control of the industrial level of fuel production on that production route is a new field of studies. The approach of the paper consists in the creation of a mathematical linear model for minimization of costs. We also carried out a sensitivity analysis of the model. The results help in minimizing costs in different production schemes and show the need of inventory. The mathematical model is dynamic, so that it issues better results if performed monthly. The management team will therefore have a clearer view of the costs and of the new, necessary production and inventory levels.
The demand for nuclear fuel for research reactors is increasing worldwide. However, some nuclear fuel factories have small production volumes. There is a gap in the literature regarding how to expand capacity of those facilities in a safe and reliable way. Thus, the purpose of this work is to propose and validate a conceptual model to increase the production capacity of these factories. We addressed factories that produce plate-type fuel elements loaded with LEU U3Si2-Al, which are typically used in nuclear research reactors. We collected data from a real nuclear fuel plant and applied the model to that data, i.e., we set up a case study. We developed two different strategies for the use of the model, thus generating several production scenarios. Each scenario is an experiment of the different possibilities to enlarge the capacity. We applied discrete events simulation in order to cover all production scenarios. Our tests indicated significant increases in productive capacity, thus showing that the model has fully achieved its proposed objective. One of the main conclusions that we point out is the model’s effectiveness. That effectiveness was demonstrated by using the model in two different strategies and obtaining increases in capacity with both of them.
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