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. 20, 1993
Filed:
Dec. 09, 1991
Larry E Fennern, San Jose, CA (US);
General Electric Company, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
Fuel management in a boiling-water nuclear reactor involves arranging fuel bundles in upper and lower matrices of the reactor core. During a refueling operation, some bundles in the upper matrix are removed and retired, while fresh bundles are inserted in the lower matrix and some bundles originally in the lower matrix are transferred to the upper matrix. In the transfer, fuel bundles are inverted so that included fuel rods in the lower matrix have their plenums oriented downward, while fuel rods in the upper matrix have their plenums oriented upward. This method provides greater flexibility in repositioning fuel bundles for longer burnups and lower high-level waste. In particular, problems with axial spectral variations in neutron flux can be compensated for using the disclosed refueling procedure.