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US 2004/0105520 A1Published application
Method and apparatus for the ex-core production of nuclear isotopes in commercial PWRs
OwnerGary Shelton Carterinventor
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OwnerGary Shelton Carterinventor
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Method and apparatus for utilizing currently operating commercial electric Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) core former plate cooling water flow holes for the ex-core production of nuclear isotopes. In operating PWRs with existing, or modified, core former plates (3) incorporating in-line coolant flow holes (4), it is possible to directly access and install isotope target materials inside an isotope target holder (2) that is connected to a flow enabler (1). The axial mid-plane of a flow enabler (1) would be located at the elevation of the core former plates (3). Thus by continuing the assembly of an isotope target holder (3) both above and below a flow enabler (1) such that a number of the isotope target holders (2) are located between the former plates, an isotope target holder assembly can be formed. The target holder assembly can then be directly inserted into, (or removed from) certain operating PWRs during normal reactor refueling operations. During refuel operations the upper flow holes (4) are exposed during the process of gaining access to the nuclear core. With the proposed ex-core isotope target holder assembly and integral flow enablers, a highly significant portion of the coolant flow can continue to pass through a selected series of in-line coolant flow holes (4). Thus commercial PWRs will be afforded a method and apparatus to produce commercially viable isotopes without any significant reactor equipment, refuel outage or fuel cycle management modifications.
A device that is capable of being inserted into and/or through, and then removed from, existing reactor coolant flow holes in the former plates of pressurized water reactors during reactor refueling operations, where the said device permits a minimum of 52% of the normally available frontal flow area through the flow hole such that the flow hole remains open and is not totally blocked for coolant flow through the former plate hole, while also providing structural attachments at either end for nuclear isotope target holders to be located between two vertically adjacent former plates that contain coolant flow hole diameters and patterns such that any one of many possible flow holes in the uppermost former plate is in vertical axial alignment with a series of similar flow holes in former plates at increasingly lower elevations inside the core support structure of the reactor, with the said device comprising
A method whereby existing, in-line and vertically accessible reactor coolant flow holes located in the former plates of pressurized water reactors can be utilized for the insertion and removal of assembled nuclear isotope production target holders containing flow enabler connecting hardware, during reactor refueling operations.
A method whereby existing, in-line and vertically accessible reactor coolant flow holes located in the former plates of pressurized water reactors can be utilized for the insertion and removal of nuclear isotope production target holders and connecting hardware that includes a reactor coolant flow enabling device which not only provides structural support and connectivity for the isotope target holders that can be located at either end of the device, but also through its unique design, enables a second function of continuing to provide a nominal 52% of the previously available frontal flow area for the reactor coolant flow that normally flows through the coolant flow holes in the core former plates of operating pressurized water reactors and thus makes practical, during reactor refueling operations, the utilization of vertically accessible and in-line flow holes in the reactor core support former plates for the purpose of producing nuclear isotopes outside the nuclear core in a region of the reactor internals where the neutron fluence is sufficient to irradiate target materials designed for the subsequent production of nuclear isotopes during reactor operation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.