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US 8,559,586 B2Granted
Distributed clumping of part-length rods for a reactor fuel bundle
AssigneeGlobal Nuclear Fuel - Americas, LLC
InventorsLukas Trosman, Cary L. Kunz, Russell E. Stachowski, Russell M. Fawcett, Shingo Fujimaki, Daisuke Goto
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A reactor fuel bundle includes both full-length fuel rods and part-length fuel rods. The part-length rods are clumped in two groups—a first rod group surrounds one or more water passages which are generally centrally disposed in a channel of the fuel bundle, and a second rod group is distributed about an inner perimeter wall of the channel.
Claims3
A fuel bundle for a boiling water reactor, comprising:
- a single, square-shaped water passage located off-center within a 10×10 fuel-rod matrix bounded by four sides of a generally square, hollow tube, the fuel rods including full-length and part-length fuel rods,
- wherein the 10×10 fuel-rod matrix includes a first rod group comprising two pairs of part-length rods arranged on either side of a corner of the square water-passage, and a second rod group comprising two pairs of part-length rods and at least two non-paired part-length rods, each of the two pairs and the at least two non-paired part-length rods located in a corresponding outermost row or column of the matrix adjacent a corresponding side of the tube.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.