Framatome ANP recently completed reload analyses for five plants using engineering databases to store plant- and cycle-specific input data. Engineering automation software accesses these databases and performs the nuclear and thermal-hydraulic reload analysis calculations. While the automation software has significantly improved the speed at which high-quality calculations can be performed, the calculations themselves depend on the high-quality data obtained from these databases.

The safe operation of a reload core depends upon the engineering analyses. To perform these analyses, a large variety of data is required including physical plant characteristics, plant operations requirements, reload fuel and core design data, technical specification requirements, and other plant design bases. The Framatome ANP engineering databases provide quality control for these data as well as a convenient and robust storage medium.

As information is entered into the database for a particular reactor unit, an electronic identification of the analyst is stored. Data entries may be stored as singular values, lists or tables. The engineering units (e.g. inches or centimeters) corresponding to the data are stored as well as the reference documents and any comments. The data then are reviewed independently and the electronic identification of the reviewer also is stored. The automation software obtains input from these databases, verifies that retrieved data is complete with a Quality Assurance stamp, and that the data is converted to the required engineering units.

The use of engineering databases has significantly improved the configuration control issues faced by the reload analyst. Use of these databases to locate qualified data has provided significant improvements in reload analysis process time while maintaining excellent quality characteristics.