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:
Apr. 25, 1978
Filed:
Sep. 07, 1976
Paul Michael Anderson, San Diego, CA (US);
General Atomic Company, San Diego, CA (US);
Abstract
A method for refueling a nuclear reactor core inside a pressure vessel is described. The method is used with a core which has at least one region comprised of a plurality of layers, each layer being comprised of a plurality of individual fuel elements with the corresponding fuel elements in respective layers forming columns extending transversely of the layers. Unspent fuel elements are first removed from the pressure vessel to expose at least one but not all of the spent fuel elements. The exposed spent fuel elements are then removed and the unspent elements are shuffled within the reactor core without being removed therefrom to expose additional spent fuel elements. These are removed and the shuffling process is repeated until all of the spent fuel elements have been removed. The initially removed unspent elements are then returned to the pressure vessel and placed in the core. New unspent fuel elements are then placed in the pressure vessel to complete the core.