General Electric Company

Ge-hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas LLC

Global Nuclear Fuel - Americas, LLC

Russell Edward Stachowski

David Grey Smith

Russell M Fawcett

William Earl Russell, Ii

Michael T Kiernan

Lukas Trosman

Russell Patrick Higgins

Robert Bryant James

Steven Bruce Shelton

Randy Peter Gonzales

Anthony P Reese

Robert B Elkins

Christopher J Monetta

Cary L Kunz

Robert A Rand

Michael Scott DeFilippis

Carlton Wayne Clark

Gerald A Potts

Gerald Anthony Luciano

Roland Otto Jackson

John Frederick Schardt

Thomas Alfred Caine

Richard Carl Longren

Angelo Chopelas

Dana Christine Miranda

Harold Hartney Yeager

Daisuke Goto

Shingo Fujimaki

William Earl Russell

Peter J Savoia

Charles McNeely

Sten O Akerlund

Robert Schneider

Russell Morgan Fawcett

William Earl Russell Ii

Michael Thomas Kiernan

Ii William Earl Russell

A nuclear reactor is operated with irradiation target holders fit in open locations inside of an operating commercial nuclear core and placed with ends at vertical bottom and top of the core or any position therebetween to directly expose holders to nuclear fuel reactions. Holders have ends and overall shape that are joined with existing reactor structures, while fitting closely with fuel and moderator and being easily removable from the same. Holders are fabricated of any reactor-compatible material that will retain irradiation targets and daughter products. Holders securely retain irradiation targets and daughter products of any shape or phase throughout reactor operation. Holders can be installed during reactor outages and irradiated during operation without risk of movement or interference with operation. After a desired period of operation and irradiation, holders can be harvested from the core independent of other core structures and fuel.

Generating isotopes in an irradiation target holder installed in a nuclear reactor startup source holder position

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

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

Example embodiments are directed to apparatuses and methods for producing radioisotopes in instrumentation tubes of operating commercial nuclear reactors. Irradiation targets may be inserted and removed from instrumentation tubes during operation and converted to radioisotopes otherwise unavailable from nuclear reactors. Example apparatuses may continuously insert, remove, and store irradiation targets to be converted to useable radioisotopes.

Apparatuses and methods for production of radioisotopes in nuclear reactor instrumentation tubes

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 system and method for assessing failure of fuel rods are disclosed. The method may include monitoring fuel rod operational conditions, comparing the fuel rod parameters to parameters limits, calculating the fuel rod performance parameters to determine the likelihood of failure of individual fuel rods, and updating plant operating parameters based on the calculated fuel rod parameters. The system may input the calculated fuel rod parameters into a fuel failure model to assess the probability of failure, and predict the probability of failure of individual fuel rods based on fuel rod parameters in the fuel failure model.

Method and system for assessing failures of fuel rods

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

A nuclear fuel bundle has differential peak power limits for the edge or peripheral fuel rods and the interior fuel rods. Also, the magnitude of nuclear fuel in the edge or peripheral rods is decreased in comparison with the magnitude of nuclear fuel in the interior rods. The nuclear reactor can thus operate at higher power output by decreasing the margins between the power outputs and peak power limit of the interior rods, as well as by decreasing the margins between the power outputs of the edge or peripheral rods and the increased peak power limit of those rods. The outer or peripheral edge rods can also be enriched for enhanced power output.

Nuclear fuel bundle having different peak power limits

A nuclear fuel bundle includes a square array of fuel rods each having a concentration of enriched uranium and plutonium. Each rod of an interior array of the rods also has a concentration of gadolinium. The interior array of rods is surrounded by an exterior array of rods void of gadolinium. By this design, usage of plutonium in the nuclear reactor is enhanced.

Fuel bundle design for enhanced usage of plutonium fuel

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Wilmington, NC, United States of America

Russell Edward Stachowski