Nuclear fuel assembly with multi-pitch wire wrap
AssigneeTerraPower, LLC
InventorBrian C Johnson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
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.
Claims19
A method for increasing a pressure drop of a coolant fluid within a nuclear fuel assembly in an edge subchannel, comprising:
- providing a fuel assembly having a duct and configured to hold a plurality of fuel assembly components arranged in concentric rings within the duct;
- positioning a first fuel assembly component within an inner ring of the fuel assembly, the first fuel assembly component being wire wrapped at a first pitch, wherein a first plurality of the fuel assembly components within the inner ring of the fuel assembly create interior subchannels between two or more of the plurality of fuel assembly components within the inner ring;
- positioning a second fuel assembly component within an outermost ring of the fuel assembly, the second fuel assembly component being wire wrapped at a second pitch smaller than the first pitch, wherein positioning the second fuel assembly component includes a clocking angle that avoids contact between wire wrappings of the second fuel assembly component and wire wrappings of all immediately adjacent fuel assembly components in both the outermost ring and any adjacent inner ring, and wherein a second plurality of fuel assembly components within the outermost ring create edge subchannels between the second plurality of fuel assembly components and the duct;
- and
- flowing a coolant fluid through the fuel assembly, wherein the wire wrap at the second pitch increases the pressure drop of the coolant fluid flowing through the edge subchannels.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.