Optimization of nuclear reactor reloading patterns

The loading pattern of fuel bundles in a reactor core determines the characteristics of the reloading cycle. The problem of maximizing fuel utilization during a cycle may be formulated as a nonlinear mixed integer programming (NLMIP) problem, and has until now mostly been treated by heuristic optimization methods like simulated annealing. This paper evalutes the performance of state-of-the-art nonlinear programming routines on this problem, and compare results with available heuristic solutions.