Plate type nuclear micro reactor
AssigneeWestinghouse Electric Corp.
InventorsYasir Arafat, Jurie J. Van Wyk
Life of this patent
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Abstract
This invention provides a nuclear reactor design that can enable automated or semi-automated manufacturing of a small reactor in a mechanized factory. This is possible by following a layered approach to combine simple “plate” geometries with the use of diffusion bonding and computer aided manufacturing techniques that integrate all the fuel, axial reflectors, axial gamma and neutron shields, fuel gas plenum, heat removal mechanism, primary heat exchangers and moderator all in one block or component. The final assembled block has no welds and limits or eliminates manual operations. This design has the potential to reduce the fabrication time of an entire nuclear reactor to just a few days.
Claims15
A nuclear reactor system formed as an integral block in a plurality of layers, the plurality of layers comprising:
- a first layer comprising:
- a nuclear fuel,
- a neutron reflector,
- a gas plenum,
- a gamma shield, and
- a neutron shield;
- and
- a second layer comprising a heat transport system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.