Use of boron or enriched boron 10 in UO2
AssigneeWestinghouse Electric Corp.
InventorsEdward J. Lahoda, Lars Hallstadias
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Abstract
The present invention provides a nuclear fuel assembly, where a boron-containing compound is used as a burnable poison and is distributed in a majority of the rods in the assembly. The assembly comprises a plurality of fuel rods, each fuel rod containing a plurality of nuclear fuel pellets, wherein at least one fuel pellet in more than 50% of the fuel rods in the fuel assembly comprises a sintered admixture of a metal oxide, metal carbide or metal nitride and a boron-containing compound.
Claims18
A fuel assembly comprising a plurality of fuel rods, each fuel rod containing a plurality of nuclear fuel pellets, wherein at least one fuel pellet in more than 50% of said fuel rods in said fuel assembly comprises a sintered admixture of an actinide compound and a boron-containing compound, wherein the boron-containing compound is boron nitride, and wherein the actinide compound is constituted of one or a multiplicity of actinides compounded with nitrogen, the actinide selected from the group consisting of uranium, plutonium, thorium and a combination thereof.
A light water reactor having a fuel assembly, the fuel assembly comprising a plurality of fuel rods, each fuel rod containing a plurality of nuclear fuel pellets not requiring coatings, wherein at least one fuel pellet in more than 50% of said fuel rods in said fuel assembly comprises a sintered admixture of an actinide compound and a boron-containing compound, wherein the boron-containing compound is boron nitride, and wherein the actinide compound is constituted of one or a multiplicity of actinides compounded with nitrogen, the actinide selected from the group consisting of uranium, plutonium, thorium, and a combination thereof.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.