Development of a Graphical User Interface for In-Core Fuel Management Using MCODE

Abstract

In the present work, a graphical user interface is developed to automate in-core fuel management using MCODE, an MCNP-ORIGEN linkage code. Data abstraction is achieved by means of five object classes that define the run, fuel assembly locations, fuel assemblies, fuel paths, and materials. The GUI and an associated fuel management wrapper were developed in Python, with the PyQt extension being used for GUI-specific features. To validate the fuel management wrapper, a model of the MIT Reactor core was used to run an equilibrium core. The results show that the wrapper performs reliably. Together, these tools will help the staff at the MITR perform in-core fuel management calculations quickly and with a higher level of detail than that previously possible.