The main objective of this paper is to present a comparative study of uniform and non-uniform volumetric energy generation in a rectangular nuclear fuel element washed by upward moving stream of liquid sodium. Employing finite difference schemes, the boundary layer equations governing the flow and thermal fields in the fluid domain are solved simultaneously with two-dimensional energy equation in the solid domain by satisfying the continuity of temperature and heat flux at the solid-fluid interface. Numerical results are presented for a wide range of aspect ratio, A(r), conduction-convection parameter, N-cc, total energy generation parameter, Q, and flow Reynolds number, Re-H. It is concluded that for the same total energy generation, a somewhat realistic non-uniform volumetric energy generation puts greater restriction on the thermal power generation as compared to the idealistic uniform volumetric energy generation. Further, it is found that despite the total energy generation being the same for two cases, the non-uniform volumetric energy generation within the fuel element results in considerably higher energy dissipation rate. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.