General Electric Company

Ge-hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas LLC

Global Nuclear Fuel - Americas, LLC

Global Nuclear Fuel-japan Co., Ltd.

Lukas Trosman

William Earl Russell, Ii

Russell M Fawcett

David Grey Smith

Russell Edward Stachowski

Robert Bryant James

Russell Patrick Higgins

Michael T Kiernan

Steven Bruce Shelton

Randy Peter Gonzales

Christopher J Monetta

David Joseph Kropaczek

Steven Barry Sutton

Christian Carlos Oyarzun

Carlton Wayne Clark

Anthony P Reese

William Charles Cline

Gerald Dean Kvaall, Jr

Glen Alan Watford

John Dean Fuller

Cary L Kunz

Daisuke Goto

Shingo Fujimaki

Russell Morgan Fawcett

Michael Thomas Kiernan

John D Fuller

Gerald Dean Kvaall Jr

Anthony Paul Reese

Ii William Earl Russell

Russell E Stachowski

William Earl Russell Ii

William Earl Russell

In a method of producing isotopes in a light water power reactor, one or more targets within the reactor may be irradiated under a neutron flux to produce one or more isotopes. The targets may be assembled into one or more fuel bundles that are to be loaded in a core of the reactor at a given outage. Power operations in the reactor irradiate the fuel bundles so as to generate desired isotopes, such as one or more radioisotopes at a desired specific activity or stable isotopes at a desired concentration.

Method of producing isotopes in power nuclear reactors

A fuel bundle for a nuclear reactor core is provided. The fuel bundle may include a plurality of rods comprised of nuclear fuel rods and/or isotope production rods. Each rod includes a plurality of interconnected rod segments, wherein at least two of the rod segments of at least one rod have different outside diameters. The fuel bundle may additionally include a plurality of rod spacer grids securely retained between axially adjacent, interconnected rod segments. The rod spacer grids interconnected between axially adjacent rod segments form an array of substantially equally spaced rods. The fuel bundle may further include an elongate tubular channel in which the arrayed rods are housed.

Fail-free fuel bundle assembly

Example embodiments are directed to materials useable as burnable poisons in nuclear reactors, components using the same, and methods of using the same. Example embodiment burnable poison materials produce desired daughter products as they burn out, thereby permitting placement and use for neutronic characteristic improvement and/or neutron flux shielding in locations conventionally barred as uneconomical. Example embodiment burnable poison materials may include natural iridium and enriched iridium-193. Example embodiment components may be fabricated, shaped, and placed to provide desired burnable poison effects in the reactor core in conventional locations and locations not conventionally used due to economic infeasibility. Example methods include use of example embodiment components, including determining locations benefiting from burnable poison effects, fabricating example embodiment components of a desired amount of example embodiment burnable poison materials, placing the example embodiment components, exposing example embodiment components to flux within the operating nuclear reactor, removing and harvesting example embodiment burnable poison components for desired daughter products produced from example embodiment burnable poison materials.

Burnable poison materials and apparatuses for nuclear reactors and methods of using the same

Disclosed are a fuel rod and a fuel bundle using the fuel rod. The fuel rod may include first enriched uranium in a boost zone of the fuel rod, wherein the boost zone may be arranged directly at a bottom of the fuel rod. The fuel rod may also include second enriched uranium in a second zone of the fuel rod, wherein the second zone is arranged over the boost zone. The fuel rod may also include natural uranium in a third zone of the fuel rod, wherein the third zone is arranged over the second zone. In this fuel rod, a percent of enrichment of the enriched uranium in the boost zone is at least one percent.

Exposure boost zone for boiling water reactor nuclear bundles

A rod assembly for a fuel bundle of a nuclear reactor may include an upper end piece, lower end piece and a plurality of rod segments attached between the upper and lower end pieces and to each other so as to form an axial length of the rod assembly. The rod assembly may include an adaptor subassembly provided at given connection points for connecting adjacent rod segments or a given rod segment with one of the upper and lower end pieces. The connection points along the axial length of the rod assembly may be located where the rod assembly contacts a spacer in the fuel bundle. One (or more) of the rod segments may include an irradiation target therein for producing a desired isotope when a fuel bundle containing one (or more) rod assemblies is irradiated in a core of the reactor.

Rod assembly for nuclear reactors

A reactor fuel bundle includes both full-length fuel rods and part-length fuel rods. The part-length rods are clumped in two groups&#x2014;a first rod group surrounds one or more water passages which are generally centrally disposed in a channel of the fuel bundle, and a second rod group is distributed about an inner perimeter wall of the channel.

Distributed clumping of part-length rods for a reactor fuel bundle

In a method of determining an operating margin to a given operating limit in a nuclear reactor, operational plant data from an on-line nuclear reactor plant is accessed, and reactor operation is simulated off-line using the operational plant data to generate predicted dependent variable data representative of the given operating limit. The predicted dependent variable data is normalized for evaluation with normalized historical dependent variable data from stored operating cycles of plants having a similar plant configuration to the on-line plant. A time-dependent average bias and a time-dependent uncertainty value for the predicted dependent variable data are determined using the normalized historical dependent variable data, and a risk-tolerance level for the on-line plant is obtained. An operating margin to the given operating limit is determined based on the determined time time-dependent average bias value and time-dependent uncertainty value so as to satisfy the risk-tolerance level of the evaluated plant.

Method of determining margins to operating limits for nuclear reactor operation

Growing community of inventors

Wilmington, NC, United States of America

Lukas Trosman