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. 27, 1999
Filed:
Oct. 07, 1997
Douglas A Barger, Forest, VA (US);
Anthony A Pugh, Forest, VA (US);
Framatome Technologies, Inc., Lynchburg, VA (US);
Abstract
A fuel assembly locator for guiding and inserting nuclear fuel assemblies into a grid plate of a reactor vessel during reload. In the preferred embodiment, the fuel assembly locator includes a plurality of generally trapezoidal guides each having a multiplicity of serially increasing tiered slope regions for gradually directing the fuel assembly precisely into a grid plate opening. The increasing slope regions allow greater positional tolerance between the exterior of the fuel assembly and the interior opening of the grid plate opening initially, thus requiring less time and precision to align the fuel assembly with respect to the grid plate opening. The tolerance then gradually decreases since the slope of each successive tier is greater than the previous tier, thus precisely directing the fuel assembly into alignment with the grid plate opening for insertion therein.