Nuclear fuel assembly with multi-pitch wire wrap
AssigneeTerraPower, LLC
InventorBrian C Johnson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A nuclear fuel assembly is constructed with fuel assembly components that are wire wrapped and positioned in hexagonal rings within a fuel assembly duct. The fuel assembly components positioned in an outermost ring of the fuel assembly are wire wrapped with a pitch that is shorter than fuel assembly components positioned at an interior ring of the fuel assembly. The shorter pitch at the outer ring of the fuel assembly increases pressure drop of a coolant fluid at the edge and corner subchannels and thereby reduces the temperature gradient across the fuel assembly, which provides a higher output temperature of the nuclear reactor without substantially increasing peak temperature of the fuel cladding.
Claims14
A fuel assembly for a nuclear reactor, comprising:
- a first set of fuel pins, each of the first set of fuel pins having a longitudinal axis, and further having a first wire wrapping in a first rotational direction about the longitudinal axis, the first wire wrapping having a first pitch that avoids contact between the first wire wrapping of individual fuel pins of the first set of fuel pins;
- and
- a second set of fuel pins, each of the second set of fuel pins having a longitudinal axis, and further having a second wire wrapping in the first rotational direction about the longitudinal axis, the second wire wrapping having a second pitch that avoids contact between the second wire wrapping of individual fuel pins of the second set of fuel pins, the second pitch being different than the first pitch;
- and wherein the first wire wrapping and the second wire wrapping have a clocking angle that avoids contact between the first wire wrapping of the first set of fuel pins and the second wire wrapping of the second set of fuel pins.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.