Hybrid nuclear fuel assembly with reduced linear heat generation rates
AssigneeExxon Nuclear Company, Inc.
InventorsLamar P. Bupp, George A. Sofer
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Abstract
A hybrid fuel assembly for use in nuclear fuel reactors, such as a large pressurized water reactor, including a fuel assembly having a matrix of fuel rods of different sizes, wherein fuel rods of a first large size are disposed in island arrays which are located within the matrix of fuel rods of the second small size in the vicinity of the control rod guide tubes of the assembly, such that retention of the control rods normally associated with a reactor fuel assembly employing fuel rods only of the first size is possible while still allowing for the maximum linear heat generation rate (LHGR) for the larger first size rods to be reduced to the LHGR normal for the second smaller size fuel rods or lower.
Claims10
A hybrid fuel assembly to reduce the maximum and average linear heat generation rates for use in a nuclear reactor having a plurality of control rods comprising a plurality of elongated fuel rods disposed in spaced parallel array, said fuel rods including a first plurality of said fuel rods having a first diameter and a second plurality of said fuel rods having a second diameter greater than said first diameter, said first plurality of fuel rods includes a first fuel enrichment and said second plurality of fuel rods includes a second fuel enrichment different from said first fuel enrichment, said second plurality of fuel rods being divided into clusters of fuel rods forming islands, said islands including guide tubes having diameters substantially the same as said second plurality of fuel rods, one guide tube corresponding to each of said control rods, said islands located within said assembly so that said guide tubes may receive all of said control rods, said islands being symmetrically located relative to the intersecting diagonal centerlines of said fuel assembly.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.