Fuel performance in the United States

Monitoring in-reactor performance of nuclear fuel in U.S. commercial light water reactors yields important feedback for safety considerations and licensing procedures. A series of annual reports (the most recent is eighth, which covers 1985) has been implemented by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission through a program at Battelle-Pacific Northwest Laboratories in which fuel performance is evaluated and annual summaries are prepared. Events involving fuel and fuel-related systems are also described in the reports. This paper describes their findings.