Global Nuclear Fuel - Americas, LLC

Richard Carl Longren

Carlton Wayne Clark

David Grey Smith

Robert B Elkins

Gerald M Latter

Gerald Anthony Luciano

Brandon P Smith

Michael Scott DeFilippis

Russell M Fawcett

Russell Edward Stachowski

Michael T Kiernan

Peter Ray Diller

David Smith

Michael Kiernan

Russell Morgan Fawcett

Michael S De Filippis

Russell Stachowski

Debris filters fit in fuel assembly lower tie plates and filter fluids passing therethrough. Filters use a series of adjacent plates with aligned peaks and valleys to create several channels. The plates have small excisions in diamond, triangle, or other debris-catching shapes, such as near a lower portion of the filter where fluid enters the filter. Excisions may alternate around each channel, such as four alternating cut-outs in 90-degree intervals about a channel circumference. Excisions may be sized to entrap smaller debris common in reactor coolant flow and liable for fretting damage to fuel cladding. Multiple vertical stages can be used in filters, with different channels for each stage. Ligaments may hold each stage to the next, potentially with a gap between stages for intermixing. Plates, peaks, valleys, ligaments, and excisions may all be formed in a single stamping operation to eliminate excess or overlapping pieces or extensions.

Methods of forming debris filters for nuclear fuel assemblies

Debris filters for nuclear fuel assembly and method of using the same

A nuclear reactor fuel bundle assembly including: a fuel bundle including an array of fuel rods and water rods mounted in an upper tie plate and housed in walls of a channel, and a pore type debris shield mounted at least partially in the channel, above or below the upper tie plate, the shield extending to or over the walls of the channel, whereby deflecting and/or capturing falling debris from entering the fuel assembly, wherein the shield is design to be durable, yet flexible, and porous.

Debris shield upper tie plate for nuclear fuel assembly and method to shield assembly from debris

A debris exclusion and retention device traps and retains foreign material within the lower tie plate of the fuel assembly utilizing the existing flow paths within the lower tie plate, and without redirecting coolant flow. Flow through the inlet nozzle of the lower tie plate into an enlarged lower tie plate housing creates strong jet impingement against the center of the lower tie plate grid or debris filter, if present, which has a tendency to push debris to the periphery of the lower tie plate. Low flow zones around the periphery of the lower tie plate allow debris to fall back toward the inlet nozzle. The retention device traps and retains debris in these low flow zones without impacting existing flow patterns in the lower tie plate. Thus, the retention device has minimal or no impact on lower tie plate pressure drop.

Debris exclusion and retention device for a fuel assembly

A debris filter for reactor coolant includes a plurality of adjacent plates defining a plurality of channels therebetween, each of said channels being at an angle to the flow path of the coolant into the filter.

Debris filter

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Wilmington, NC, United States of America

Richard Carl Longren