Application of the MOAA for the optimization of CORAIL assemblies for nuclear reactors

The Multi-objective Alliance Algorithm (MOAA), a recently introduced optimization algorithm, is used for the optimization of heterogeneous low-enriched uranium (LEU) + mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) assemblies for pressurized water reactors (PWRs). This is a constrained nuclear problem with two objectives and a mixed-integer solution space. The efficacy of the algorithm is demonstrated through comparisons with NSGA-II for between 300 and 2000 function evaluations. Through the epsilon and hypervolume indicators and the Kruskal-Wallis statistical test, we show that the MOAA outperforms NSGA-II on this problem. The MOAA was also able to find a set of solutions that are better than the `expert solution´ for this problem.