Locating of Fuel Assemblies with Defective Fuel Elements After Reactor Shut-Down.

The author considers methods currently employed in nuclear power stations with boiling water and pressurized water reactors to locate fuel assemblies with defective fuel cans during refuelling operations. The checking of fuel assemblies after reactor shut-down consists of: 1) sampling water from the fuel assemblies and 2) determining the reference isotope concentrations in the samples. Special attention is devoted to the question of obtaining representative water samples from the fuel assemblies.