The TracWorks® data management system provides nuclear plant operators, engineers, and administrators with a comprehensive, current, single source of fuel- and component-related information.

Background
In most cases, utilities manage the various fuel assembly data sets (Special Nuclear Materials data, inventory information or refueling campaign information) as separate entities and integrate the various pieces by hand. The same information required by different organizations can have different sources, histories, and pedigrees, which may lead to inconsistencies and the potential for errors. TracWorks provides life-cycle tracking, data management, and reporting for all fuel assemblies and components.

Benefits

• The TracWorks system provides an exceptional level of protection against costly, time-consuming errors in assembly selection and placement. It also can help to reduce the time needed to perform both routine and specialized plant operating, maintenance, and administrative activities.
• It can significantly reduce the probability of fuel selection errors such as selecting the wrong assembly or attempting to place a spent assembly in an occupied storage location during refueling, eliminating the time required to resolve errors and reducing the possibility of NRC involvement.
• The effort spent in generating and checking the fuel shuffle can be reduced by several man-weeks (versus preparing the shuffle by hand) and the shuffle itself can be optimized to potentially minimize critical path refueling time.
• TracWorks virtually eliminates the effort required to generate SNM reports for the NRC.
• The administrative controls required, even for very complex burnup credit racks, can be automated to reduce the required effort and improve reliability, as well as to provide support for whatever controls might be required to account for absorber degradation.
• The availability of the fuel rod and fuel assembly manufacturing data can significantly reduce the time required on-site for an audit of the manufacturing plant.
• TracWorks provides a single, universally available, controlled access source of the various fuel assembly data.

Description
TracWorks software streamlines tracking, data management, and regulatory reporting for the entire life cycle of fuel assemblies and core components. It collects, maintains, and provides information about assembly and component locations and movements during the refueling process and operation, assembly burnup, and isotopic inventory (both in-core and out-of-core), fuel rod burnup and isotopics for fuel that has been removed from its original assembly, fuel assembly and component inspection results, and manufacturing data.
TracWorks has three baseline modules and three additional modules:

• Inventory management for assembly and core components from delivery to final disposal
• Fuel properties tracking for up-to-date information about individual fuel assemblies, including isotopic histories and burnup histories
• Reporting for regulatory requirements

Additional Modules

• Fuel movement planning
• Move sequence tracking
• Manufacturing data integration

Available services include continuing hardware procurement services, the support of the initial historical data load, base or full Engineering System Control Module (ESCM) installation, upgrades, and maintenance.
TracWorks can be integrated with the Westinghouse APA core design system and the BEACONâ„?core monitoring system. It uses the APA-developed final core loading plan information to make sure that the reload move sequence provides the proper in-core fuel and component arrangement. BEACONâ„?provides TracWorks with burnup and isotopic information during core operation for current inventory and depletion information, move sequence generation, burnup credit compliance monitoring, and SNM reporting.