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:
Mar. 15, 2022
Filed:
Nov. 06, 2019
Terrapower, Llc, Bellevue, WA (US);
Anselmo T. Cisneros, Jr., Seattle, WA (US);
Ken Czerwinski, Seattle, WA (US);
Bassem S. El-Dasher, Sammamish, WA (US);
Brian C. Kelleher, Seattle, WA (US);
William M. Kerlin, Bellevue, WA (US);
Kevin Kramer, Redmond, WA (US);
Jeffery F. Latkowski, Mercer Island, WA (US);
Robert C. Petroski, Seattle, WA (US);
Joshua C. Walter, Kirkland, WA (US);
TerraPower, LLC, Bellevue, WA (US);
Abstract
An anti-proliferation technique is disclosed to reduce the likelihood of nuclear proliferation due to the use fissionable fuel salts. The technique includes doping the fuel salt with one or more elements (referred to herein as activation dopants) that, upon exposure to neutrons such as would occur in the fuel salt when a reactor is in operation, undergo a nuclear reaction to, directly or indirectly, form highly active 'protecting isotopes' (of the same element as the activation dopant or a different element). A sufficient mass of activation dopants is used so that the Figure of Merit (FOM) of the fuel salt is decreased to below 1.0 within some target number of days of fission. This allows the FOM of the fuel salt to be controlled so that the fuel becomes too dangerous to handle before to the creation of a significant amount of weaponizable isotopes.