AbstractThe fuel management optimization of a nuclear power plant is separable from the over-all optimum design. It has weak interactions with the core design and poison management which may be expressed by constraints upon the maximum permissible fuel burnup and ratio of peak-to-average power density (power peaking). Each time the reactor becomes subcritical, a decision must be made as to which fuel should be discharged and replaced and to what degree rearrangement is advantageous. This is a multistage decision process whose objective is the minimum power cost over the plant life. A dynamic programing algorithm and a computer program have been developed to optimize the refueling policies of a single-enrichment, three-zone, 1000-MWe PWR core for a minimum unit power cost. The major assumptions necessary for this method are the representation of the fuel composition by the sole parameter, burnup, and the prediction of the system behavior by least-squares polynomial curves fitted to prior calculations. These approximations have been verified and their accuracy is about 3%. Many problems are displayed to demonstrate the application of the method. The cost figures given in the numerical examples are for illustration purposes only and may not reflect current manufacturers' and utilities' policies.