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:
May. 18, 2004
Filed:
Oct. 25, 2002
Francesco Venneri, Los Alamos, NM (US);
Alan M. Baxter, Los Alamos, NM (US);
Carmelo Rodriguez, Cardiff, CA (US);
Donald McEachern, Poway, CA (US);
Mike Fikani, Albuquerque, NM (US);
General Atomics, San Diego, CA (US);
Abstract
A method for transmuting spent fuel from a nuclear reactor includes the step of separating the waste into components including a driver fuel component and a transmutation fuel component. The driver fuel, which includes fissile materials such as Plutonium , is used to initiate a critical, fission reaction in a reactor. The transmutation fuel, which includes non-fissile transuranic isotopes, is transmuted by thermal neutrons generated during fission of the driver fuel. The system is designed to promote fission of the driver fuel and reduce neutron capture by the driver fuel. Reacted driver fuel is separated into transuranics and fission products using a dry cleanup process and the resulting transuranics are mixed with transmutation fuel and re-introduced into the reactor. Transmutation fuel from the reactor is introduced into a second reactor for further transmutation by neutrons generated using a proton beam and spallation target.