Triad National Security, LLC

University of California

Robert Stowers Reid

Patrick Ray McClure

Morgan T Biel

David Irvin Poston

Venkateswara Rao Dasari

Robert A Zimmerman

David Duff Dixon

Katrina M Sweetland

Lindsey M Gaspar

Richard J Kapernick

Martin J Ward

Todd Andrew Jankowski

Cody Mathew Williams

Kirk Weisbrod

Stephen J Obrey

Justin Simpson

Lydia Wermer

Gregory W Swift

William C Ward

Felicity A Kubic

Tana Cardenas

Nicholas M Diskerud

Kyle B Hammond

A heat pipe reactor may include a heat pipe array with a reactor core at any distance along the length of the heat pipe array. Heat exchangers may be placed on both sides of reactor core. The heat pipe array may also be attached to one or more decay or similar heat exchangers placed near one or both sides of the reactor core, allowing heat removal following shutdown.

Heat pipe reactors with arbitrary heat exchangers

A method for forming an annular heat pipe wick in a controlled atmosphere includes wrapping a plurality of layers of a fine mesh screen around a mandrel to form a wick. The method also includes inserting the mandrel and the wick into a sheath, and compressing the wick between the sheath and the mandrel to form an assembly. The compressing of the wick comprises applying pressure to an exterior of the mandrel and the sheath. The method further includes diffusion bonding the assembly at a temperature sufficiently high achieving self-diffusion of the plurality of layers of the fine mesh screen used to form the wick to themselves. The method also includes cooling the diffusion bonded assembly to room temperature, and etching the mandrel and sheath from the diffusion bonded assembly, leaving the wick as a porous tube.

Heat pipe wick formation

A mobile heat pipe cooled fast nuclear reactor may be configured for transportation to remote locations and may be able to provide 0.5 to 2 megawatts of power. The mobile heat pipe cooled fast reactor may contain a plurality of heat pipes that are proximate to a plurality of fuel pins inside the reactor. The plurality of heat pipes may extend out of the reactor. The reactor may be configured to be placed in a standard shipping container, and may further be configured to be contained within a cask and attached to a skid for easier transportation.

Mobile heat pipe cooled fast reactor system

A heat pipe cooled nuclear reactor core ('reactor core') includes an array of fuel, an array of primary heat rejection heat pipes, and an array of moderator cooling heat pipes or thermosiphons. Each moderator cooling heat pipe in the array of moderator cooling heat pipes is surrounded by metal hydride moderator materials, slowing neutrons from a fission energy range to a lower energy range in the reactor core.

Moderated nuclear reactor

An apparatus includes a reactor core with one or more heat pipes passing through in an x-direction, one or more heat pipes passing through in a y-direction, and one or more heat pipes passing through in a z-direction. The one or more heat pipes passing through in the z-direction are pumped heat pipes.

Multi-directional heat pipes

A pump assisted heat pipe may combine the low mass flow rate required of latent heat pipe transfer loops with a hermetically sealed pump to overcome the typical heat pipe capillary limit. This may result in a device with substantially higher heat transfer capacity over conventional pumped single-phase loops, heat pipes, loop heat pipes, and capillary pumped loops with very modest power requirements to operate. Further, one or more embodiments overcome the gravitation limitations in the conventional heat pipe configuration, e.g., when the heat addition zone is above the heat rejection zone, the capillary forces are required to transfer the liquid from the heat rejection zone to the heat addition zone against gravity.

Counter gravity heat pipe techniques

A fill tool system that fills, seals, and inspects a heat pipe array, which includes one or more heat pipes with heat pipe working fluid.

Method to fill heat pipe arrays

Technique(s) to mitigate creep and/or cascade failure in high temperature heat pipe reactor cores may include gas loading each heat pipe such that when one or more heat pipes in the heat pipe array fail, the adjacent heat pipes can accommodate added heat load with little change in temperature.

Creep and cascade failure mitigation in heat pipe reactors

A heat pipe reactor may include a reactor core and one or more heat exchangers positioned on one or both sides of the reactor core. The heat pipe reactor may also include a plurality of heat pipes extending from the reactor core and out through the one or more heat exchangers. The reactor core may be composed of a plurality of monolithic blocks.

Heat pipe reactor core and heat exchangers formation and deployment

Energy transfer apparatus has a resonator for supporting standing acoustic waves at a selected frequency with a steady flow process fluid thermodynamic medium and a solid medium having heat capacity. The fluid medium and the solid medium are disposed within the resonator for thermal contact therebetween and for relative motion therebetween. The relative motion is produced by a first means for producing a steady velocity component and second means for producing an oscillating velocity component at the selected frequency and concomitant wavelength of the standing acoustic wave. The oscillating velocity and associated oscillating pressure component provide energy transfer between the steady flow process fluid and the solid medium as the steady flow process fluid moves through the resonator.

Growing community of inventors

Santa Fe, NM, United States of America

Robert Stowers Reid