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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7333584 | Nuclear power plant and operation method thereof A nuclear power plant and method of operation for augmenting a second reactor thermal power output in a second operation cycle to a level larger than a first reactor thermal power output in the previous operation cycle. The plant is equipped, for example, with a rea... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7328133 | Method of managing maintenance and maintenance managing apparatus Structural members constructing a plant are classified into a plurality of groups on basis of a likeness criterion of a predetermined operation status. An index member having a higher degradation tendency than the structural members belonging to the group is install... | 02/05/2008 |
| 7222058 | Method of modeling and sizing a heat exchanger A method of modeling a heat exchanger is disclosed and comprises assigning input temperatures, assumed output temperatures, and a set of flow rates, inputting the parameters into a set of equations arranged to calculate a heat transfer coefficient, inputting paramet... | 05/22/2007 |
| 7178348 | Refrigeration power plant The invention relates to a power station comprising at least one steam turbine and/or gas turbine which is connected to at least one absorption type refrigeration machine in order to produce refrigeration, whereby the absorption type refrigeration machine is operate... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7158919 | Remote monitoring system A remote monitoring system including a sub-system, local to a nuclear power plant and a remote sub-system at an operations base. Process data is collected manually by a hand-held computer and automatically by instrumentation on the power plant. The data collected is... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7149655 | Methods and apparatus for safety controls in industrial processes A safety instrument suitable for use in an industrial application includes a logic card having a microcontroller configured to perform self-test of the instrument and surveillance functions of an external system that is monitored and/or controlled by the instrument.... | 12/12/2006 |
| 7149672 | Method of combining spatial models A method is provided of combining first and second models of a common region of space, such as a region of the earth below the surface, to form a third model. Common points have different positions in the first and second models. A predetermined correlation exists b... | 12/12/2006 |
| 7020580 | Method and system to facilitate reporting results of a defect inspection An invention to facilitate reporting results of a defect inspection. The defect inspection can relate to paint defects, structural defects, dimensional defects, and other defects. The invention is suited to products having multiple body portions. A portable computer... | 03/28/2006 |
| 6928132 | Methods and apparatus for operating a system A method for operating a system having a plurality of modes and interlocks between the modes is provided. The method includes operating the system in a first mode and switching the system to a second mode without going to a standby mode. ... | 08/09/2005 |
| 6924628 | Method and system for operating a generator using a dynamic capability curve Method and system are provided for operating a generator using a dynamic capability curve. In one embodiment, the method allows providing a family of static capability curves corresponding to nominal reference levels of pressure of a fluid for cooling the generator.... | 08/02/2005 |
| 6904380 | Simulator cart A test system (10) is coupled to a control system (20) in a manner which allows the test system to communicate with and drive the control system by sending and receiving signals via both the controller-I/O communication channel (160) and the fie... | 06/07/2005 |
| 6873671 | Reactor manual control system In a boiling water reactor controlling each control rod hydraulically by driving a solenoid valve, the control system comprises an operation control means 41 having a duplicated data processing unit for generating sequence patterns based on the timing of the ... | 03/29/2005 |
| 6862329 | In-cycle shuffle According to the method, a reactor core is shut down during the operation cycle. One or more fuel bundles of the reactor core are then moved to new positions within the reactor core to increase a total energy, output of the reactor core as compared to continuing ope... | 03/01/2005 |
| 6798859 | Branch amplifier card A branch amplifier card for a nuclear reactor control rod drive control system is provided. The control system includes a control processor, a plurality of transponder cards arranged in clusters with each cluster under the control of a branch amplifier card. The bra... | 09/28/2004 |
| 6697447 | Maximum extended load line limit analysis for a boiling water nuclear reactor A method for expanding the operating domain of a boiling water nuclear reactor that permits safe operation of the reactor at low core flows is described. The operating domain is characterized by a map of the reactor thermal power and core flow. In an exem... | 02/24/2004 |
| 6674826 | Method of operating a nuclear power plant at multiple power levels A method of operating a nuclear power plant includes determining and licensing a maximum power level at which the power plant can be operated subsequent to the beginning of a fuel cycle, and with the power plant being operated at less than its maximum pow... | 01/06/2004 |
| 6650722 | Hydraulic control unit transponder card A transponder card for a nuclear reactor control rod drive control system is provided. The control system includes a control processor and a plurality of electrical devices operationally coupled to the control processor. The transponder card is configured... | 11/18/2003 |
| 6611572 | Determination of operating limit minimum critical power ratio A method and system for thermal-dynamic modeling and performance evaluation of a nuclear Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) core design is presented. A data processing system is used to execute specific program routines that simultaneously simulate the thermal o... | 08/26/2003 |
| 6608878 | Method and device for monitoring the power rise during startup of a nuclear reactor (diversitary excursion monitoring) A method and a device are provided for monitoring a power rise during startup of a nuclear reactor (diversitary excursion monitoring). In order to be able to shut down the reactor during startup in the event of prompt critical states, a power band situate... | 08/19/2003 |
| 6553090 | Control system of nuclear power plant, and control method thereof A method of controlling a nuclear power plant includes determining a first maximum linear heat generation rate and a first minimum critical power ratio by a core monitoring system, and determining a second maximum linear heat generation rate and a second ... | 04/22/2003 |
| 6516041 | Method and apparatus to eliminate confirmation switches and channel demultiplexer from soft control man-machine interface (MMI) A method and apparatus for controlling components in a component control system in a nuclear power plant includes an image processing system and display processor (IPS-DP) for issuing an encrypted command for a selected component in a component command sy... | 02/04/2003 |
| 6477218 | Control system of nuclear power plant, and control method thereof A control system, and a control method, of a nuclear power plant capable of easily executing automatic output regulation by an automatic power regulator system even when a lower-accuracy maximum linear heat generation rate and a lower-accuracy minimum cri... | 11/05/2002 |
| 6477219 | Nuclear reactor power distribution monitoring system and method including nuclear reactor instrumentation system A nuclear reactor instrumentation system including a plurality of incore nuclear instrumentation assemblies arranged in a gap between a number of fuel assemblies charged in a reactor core. The incore nuclear instrumentation assemblies each include a fixed... | 11/05/2002 |
| 6470281 | Method and apparatus for measuring a throttle point In a process and a device for measuring a throttle point, a fluid under pressure is applied to the throttle point by a pump, at least one operating parameter of the pump is acquired and stored, at least two reference operating parameters of two reference ... | 10/22/2002 |
| 6408041 | In-core fixed nuclear instrumentation system and power distribution monitoring system In an in-core fixed nuclear instrumentation system for a reactor, each of a plurality of in-core nuclear instrumentation assemblies has a nuclear instrumentation tube. LPRM detectors are housed in the nuclear instrumentation tube for detecting LPRM signal... | 06/18/2002 |
| 6339629 | System for monitoring power of nuclear reactor In a system for monitoring power of a nuclear reactor, a plurality of neutron flux measuring devices are arranged in a reactor core of the nuclear reactor for measuring neutron flux so as to generate neutron flux signals on the basis of the measured neutr... | 01/15/2002 |
| 6292523 | Digital engineered safety features actuation system An interface between a Plant Protection System and Engineered Safety Features in a nuclear power plant is disclosed for continuously monitoring the plant protection system initiation circuit for each remotely actuated Engineered Safety Feature system to e... | 09/18/2001 |
| 6202038 | Ultrasensitive surveillance of sensors and processes A method and apparatus for monitoring a source of data for determining an operating state of a working system. The method includes determining a sensor (or source of data) arrangement associated with monitoring the source of data for a system, activating ... | 03/13/2001 |
| 6061412 | Nuclear reaction protection system A safety grade protection system for monitoring parameters indicative of the status of a core of a nuclear reactor, and reducing the criticality of the nuclear reaction when the onset of unsafe conditions are detected. The invention directly detects, in r... | 05/09/2000 |
| 5987399 | Ultrasensitive surveillance of sensors and processes A method and apparatus for monitoring a source of data for determining an operating state of a working system. The method includes determining a sensor (or source of data) arrangement associated with monitoring the source of data for a system, activating ... | 11/16/1999 |
| 5817958 | Plant monitoring and diagnosing method and system, as well as plant equipped with the system Plant operating conditions 1, apparatus operating conditions 2 and environment conditions 3 are accumulated, combined and put together as a set of plant status variables 8 through a monitor 6, while water chemistry information 4 is accumulated as another ... | 10/06/1998 |
| 5790616 | Method and system for determining nuclear reactor core control blade positioning The present invention, in one aspect, is a method for identifying an optimum control blade positioning arrangement. The method generally has an initialization phase and a running, or search, phase. In the initialization phase, an initial control blade pos... | 08/04/1998 |
| 5524030 | Multistage control rod drive uncoupling tool An uncoupling tool has a two-module design: one module being a driver assembly for developing the uncoupling movement and the other module being a probe assembly for verifying the uncoupled condition. The probe assembly attaches to the threaded end of the... | 06/04/1996 |
| 5481575 | Method and a device for detecting core oscillations in a nuclear reactor A method and a device for detecting oscillations in the core of a boiling-water nuclear reactor (BWR) comprising a plurality of neutron detectors, wherein instability is detected based on oscillations in the output signals of the neutron detectors. For ea... | 01/02/1996 |
| 5459675 | System for monitoring an industrial process and determining sensor status A method and system for monitoring an industrial process and a sensor. The method and system include generating a first and second signal characteristic of an industrial process variable. One of the signals can be an artificial signal generated by an auto... | 10/17/1995 |
| 5442555 | Combined expert system/neural networks method for process fault diagnosis A two-level hierarchical approach for process fault diagnosis is an operating system employs a function-oriented approach at a first level and a component characteristic-oriented approach at a second level, where the decision-making procedure is structure... | 08/15/1995 |
| 5410492 | Processing data base information having nonwhite noise A method and system for processing a set of data from an industrial process and/or a sensor. The method and system can include processing data from either real or calculated data related to an industrial process variable. One of the data sets can be an ar... | 04/25/1995 |
| 5392320 | Core automated monitoring system An automated monitoring system and method of operation is provided for a nuclear reactor having a pressure vessel containing a reactor core for boiling water to generate steam. A plurality of monitors provide signals for respective monitoring parameters f... | 02/21/1995 |
| 5379328 | Nuclear core trip setpoints A method for generating an on-line trip signal when a measured one (p1') of a plurality of operating parameters (p1, p2, p3, . . . pN) which define a limit surface on a multidimensional reactor operating space, exceeds a limit value (*p1) on the limit sur... | 01/03/1995 |
| 5351200 | Process facility monitor using fuzzy logic A method for monitoring operation of a process facility comprising the steps of storing at least one planned sequence of hypothesized plant states using multi-valued logic to define calculation of a congruence factor for each of the hypothesized plant sta... | 09/27/1994 |
