Some basic attributes of light water reactor fuel performance, determined by measurements, are evaluated. In particular, data on fuel volume swelling, cladding creep/growth, fission product gas release and cladding deformation due to pellet-clad mechanical interaction of rods irradiated in power reactors to rod burnups up to about 70 MWd/kgU are presented and appraised. Athermal fuel matrix swelling caused by fission products shows a linear increase in the fuel volume fraction with burnup up to 70 MWd/kgU with a mean rate of 0.76% per 10 MWd/kgU at a best-estimate level. Cladding hoop strain data due to in-reactor creep as a function of burnup from 15 to 70 MWd/kgU for pressurized water reactor (PWR) rods and from 5 to 50 MWd/kgU for boiling water reactor (BWR) rods are presented. The maximum measured cladding creep-down hoop strain in the considered BWR rods is ε_θ ≈ -0.5% and in the PWR rods ε_θ ≈-1.25% . Rod growth data on BWR and PWR rods as a function of burnup are presented and discussed. Rod internal free volume data, measured and calculated as a function of burnup, are presented. Recent high burnup (52-70 MWd/kgU) fission product gas release data obtained by destructive methods are evaluated with the STAV7 computer code. Finally, slow power ramp experiments conducted at the Studsvik R2 reactor are simulated with the STAV7 code and it is observed that by accounting the contribution of fuel thermal gaseous swelling, the code describes the clad diameter increase due to pellet-clad mechanical interaction under the power bump satisfactorily.