Improved determination of positions of fuel assembly elements

Abstract

A method for determining positions of fuel assembly elements arranged in a vessel, each fuel assembly comprising at least one element, at least one geometric constraint of the fuel assembly or the vessel being pre-defined, the method comprising the following steps: previously obtaining a first set of estimated positions of the elements; determining a criterion representative of the distances between the positions of the first set and parameters to be optimized, the parameters locating possible positions of the element, the possible positions respecting the pre-defined geometric constraint; and determining a second set of estimated positions optimized on the basis of said parameters for which the criterion is minimized as per a pre-determined norm.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.