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.

Date of Patent:
Apr. 15, 1986

Filed:

Jan. 08, 1982
Applicant:
Inventors:

Mark G Watts, Linavady, GB;

Robert F Barry, Monroeville, PA (US);

Assignee:

Westinghouse Electric Corp., Pittsburgh, PA (US);

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G21C / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
376218 ; 376217 ; 376241 ; 364527 ;
Abstract

The fissile inventory required in operating a negative power coefficient nuclear reactor in an electric power generating system is reduced by cycling the load imposed on the system when 100% power can no longer be maintained at equilibrium due to xenon poisoning in order to induce an oscillation in the xenon concentration which is in antiphase wtih the power requirements so that 100% power can be maintained at least during part of the day. The load can be progressively reduced by a preset amount each night or a xenon suppression controller which forecasts the xenon reactivity at the time selected for a return to full power as a function reactor history, current reactor flux and an arbitrary load schedule can be used to determine the maximum reduced power level that will permit operation at full power at the selected time.


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