The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 23, 2018
Filed:
Jul. 25, 2016
Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation, Los Alamos, NM (US);
Lance Lewis Snead, Knoxville, TN (US);
ULTRA SAFE NUCLEAR CORPORATION, Los Alamos, NM (US);
Abstract
Currently, the commercial fuel of choice, UO-zircaloy, is economical due to an established and simple fabrication process. However, the alternatives to the UO-zircaloy that may improve on system safety are sought. The fully ceramic microencapsulated (FCM) fuel system that is potentially inherently safe fuel and is an improvement on the UO-zircaloy system is prohibitively expensive because of the known methods to produce it. Disclosed herein is a new production route and fixturing that produces identical or superior FCM fuel consistent with mass production by providing a plurality of tristructural-isotropic fuel particles; mixing the plurality of tristructural-isotropic fuel particles with ceramic powder to form a mixture; placing the mixture in a die; and applying a current to the die so as to sinter the mixture by direct current sintering into a fuel element.