Westinghouse Electric Company LLC

Ho Q Lam

Edward Jean Lahoda

Radu O Pomirleanu

Sumit Ray

Robert L Oelrich

Michael J Hone

Frank A Boylan

Raymond E Schneider

Mitchell E Nissley

Zeses E Karoutas

Robert W Flammang

Patrick J Sebastiani

Yung-An Chao

Vefa N Kucukboyaci

Zeses Karoutas

William H Slagle

A control rod for a nuclear fuel assembly is described herein that includes a neutron absorbing material having a melting point greater than 1500° C. that does not form a eutectic with a melting point less than 1500° C., and may further include a cladding material having a melting point greater than 1500° C. The cladding material is selected from the group consisting of silicon carbide, zirconium, a zirconium alloy, tungsten, and molybdenum. The absorbing material is selected from the group consisting of GdO, Ir, BC, Re, and Hf. The metal cladding or the absorbing material may be coated with an anti-oxidation coating of Cr with or without a Nb intermediate layer.

Control rods for light water reactors

A control rod for a nuclear fuel assembly is described herein that includes a neutron absorbing material having a melting point greater than 1500&#xb0; C. that does not form a eutectic with a melting point less than 1500&#xb0; C., and may further include a cladding material having a melting point greater than 1500&#xb0; C. The cladding material is selected from the group consisting of silicon carbide, zirconium, a zirconium alloy, tungsten, and molybdenum. The absorbing material is selected from the group consisting of GdO, Ir, BC, Re, and Hf. The metal cladding or the absorbing material may be coated with an anti-oxidation coating of Cr with or without a Nb intermediate layer.

A system and method for measuring and monitoring axial flux to determine subcriticality in a spent fuel pool of a nuclear power plant. In certain embodiments of this invention, one or more neutron detectors are operable to generate signals resulting from neutron interactions in the spent fuel pool, a counting device counts the signals which are generated by the one or more neutron detectors, a connecting means electrically connects the one or more neutron detectors to the counting device, a signal analyzer is used to determine reactivity of the fuel assemblies in the spent fuel pool based on the counted signals, a power supply provides power for the neutron detectors, the counting device and the system analyzer, and a software code containing an axial flux curve index is used to correlate the counted signals to determine the subcriticality of the spent fuel pool.

Systems and methods for spent fuel pool subcriticality measurement and monitoring

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Verona, PA, United States of America

Ho Q Lam