Core of light-water reactor
AssigneeKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
InventorsAkira Tanabe, Ritsuo Yoshioka, Makoto Ueda, Koichi Sakurada, Shouichi Watanabe
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A core of a light-water reactor comprises a plurality of fuel assemblies each including a number of fuel rods. The fuel rod is provided with at least one area interposed between fuel areas in a clad of the fuel rod. The interposed area contains extremely reduced or substantially no fissile nuclide. At least two areas or layers with high enrichment of the fissile nuclide are formed in the axial direction of the reactor by the location of the interposed areas throughout the whole fuel assemblies arranged in the light-water reactor core.
Claims10
A water reactor core comprising:
- a plurality of fuel assemblies each including a number of fuel rods,
- at least some of the fuel rods including upper, lower, and middle enriched fissile areas, at least two of the upper, lower, and middle enriched fissile areas having different vertical widths,
- at least some of the fuel rods including upper and lower interposed areas not enriched in fissile nuclide at axial predetermined portions between areas of enriched fissile nuclide, the upper interposed area being between the upper and middle enriched fissile area, the lower interposed area being between the middle and lower enriched fissile areas, the interposed areas including natural or depleted uranium, the upper interposed area having a vertical width different than that of the lower interposed area, the vertical widths of both the upper and the lower interposed areas each being between about 3 and 8 centimeters, and
- wherein a burnable poison is added to fuel pellets located in fuel rods adjacent to the upper and lower interposed areas.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.