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"Flight by machines heavier than air is unpractical and insignificant, if not utterly impossible."
Simon Newcomb, astronomer ; Said in 1902, less than two years before the first flight at Kitty Hawk
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7912170 | Protection systems for nuclear boiling water reactors A protection system for a nuclear boiling water reactor may include a device configured to monitor reactor power; a device configured to monitor reactor pressure; a device configured to determine a power-dependent high reactor pressure setpoint, based on the monitor... | 03/22/2011 |
| 7676015 | Boundary condition adjustment methods and systems Methods and systems for reactor lattice depletion are disclosed. One exemplary method, among others, comprises the steps of defining a reactor eigenvalue, the reactor eigenvalue being a specified ratio of actual neutron production to loss in the reactor; producing a... | 03/09/2010 |
| 7634043 | Protection systems for and methods of operating nuclear boiling water reactors A protection system for a BWR may include a power-dependent high reactor pressure setpoint. The high reactor pressure setpoint that corresponds to at least one value of percent power in an operating domain of the reactor may be less than the high reactor pressure se... | 12/15/2009 |
| 7532698 | Systems and methods of predicting a critical effective k for a nuclear reactor Systems and methods for a method for determining a critical effective k at an off-rated core state of a nuclear power plant includes determining, for the off-rated core state a control rod density, a percent core power, a gadolinium reactivity worth, a doppler react... | 05/12/2009 |
| 7426458 | Nuclear reactor reload licensing analysis system and method A system and computer implemented method for automatically performing reload licensing analysis of a nuclear reactor and preparing and generating a reload licensing report. The system and method include collecting input data and processing a plurality of nuclear rea... | 09/16/2008 |
| 7420165 | Method of determining the power transfer of nuclear component with a layer of material placed upon a heating surface of the component A method to characterize the power transfer of a nuclear component is provided including the steps of obtaining a sample of a deposit layer on a side of a nuclear component, obtaining a scanning electron microscope image of an outside surface of the sample, obtainin... | 09/02/2008 |
| 7409032 | Method of fuel bundle consideration in a reactor A method of fuel bundle consideration in a reactor. The method includes creating or editing bundle groups including fuel bundles. ... | 08/05/2008 |
| 7388369 | Method and apparatus for measuring hydrogen concentration in zirconium alloy components in the fuel pool of a nuclear power plant The present invention provides a method for measuring hydrogen concentration in an electrically conductive material, such as a nuclear fuel rod, comprising calibrating an eddy current probe at a plurality of hydrogen concentrations; measuring eddy currents at a plur... | 06/17/2008 |
| 7386086 | Printed circuit card A nuclear reactor plant protection system printed circuit card comprises a first logic device having a number of basic logic circuits, and a second logic device operatively connected with the first logic device for testing the number of basic logic circuits without ... | 06/10/2008 |
| 7349517 | System for measuring burn-out of fuel elements of a high-temperature reactor The burnout of a fuel element in a reactor is determined by first transferring a fuel element from a reactor to a measuring position and then subjecting the transferred fuel element at the position to a neutron flux. A first detector measures the total γ radiation ... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7347104 | Arrangement and method for the analysis of the strength of a specimen of reducible material that contains iron A method for the analysis of the strength of a test specimen of reducible material that contains iron during the use of an arrangement comprises: a) arranging a test specimen between adjacent contact surfaces of first and second devices of the arrangement; b) contin... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7347105 | Method for the analysis of a test specimen of reducible material that contains iron A method for the analysis of the properties of a test specimen comprises: arranging a test specimen between contact surfaces; continuously reducing the distance between the contact surfaces; measuring the diameter of the test specimen when the test specimen makes co... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7340387 | Control rod driving simulator for verification of control rod driving mechanism control system of atomic power plant A control rod driving simulator has a control rod driving unit having a plurality of coil members vertically mounted therein, a control rod mounted vertically movably through the centers of the coil members, a cart having a reserve tank storing cooling water, a cool... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7333585 | Radiation measurement device A radiation measurement device includes a radiation detector generating an analog signal containing pulse components, an A/D converter converting the analog signal into sampled data, an n-th power pulse discrimination unit calculating n-th power values of the sample... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7319743 | Method for enabling a user interface for a network telephone According to the present invention, methods, data structures, and computer-readable media for processing input to a telephone having an interactive user interlace are disclosed. A telephone user inputs commands through buttons and keys on an interactive user interfa... | 01/15/2008 |
| 7314343 | Miniature manipulator for servicing the interior of nuclear steam generator tubes A manipulator for servicing tubes extending through a tube sheet having three major components: a base member, a block member, and a foot member. The base member has a holder for supporting tooling or inspection devices. The base member also has at least one gripper... | 01/01/2008 |
| 7308069 | Device and method for controlling the exterior aspect of fuel rods for nuclear reactors The invention concerns a device (1) for controlling the exterior aspect of fuel rods (2) for nuclear reactors, said device comprising optical means (40) having at least one camera (42, 42′) and linked to an image acquisition and process... | 12/11/2007 |
| 7308068 | Device and method for controlling the exterior aspect of fuel rods for nuclear reactors The invention concerns a device (1) for controlling the exterior aspect of fuel rods (2) for nuclear reactors, said device comprising optical means (40) having at least one camera (42, 42′) and linked to an image acquisition and process... | 12/11/2007 |
| 7285784 | Real time method and computer system for identifying radioactive materials from HPGe gamma-ray spectroscopy A real-time method and computer system for identifying radioactive materials which collects gamma count rates from a HPGe gamma-radiation detector to produce a high-resolution gamma-ray energy spectrum. A library of nuclear material definitions (“library definitio... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7284428 | Sensor housing for use in a storage vessel A detection apparatus for use in a vessel for measuring a fluid includes a tubular connected to a housing containing sensors, wherein the housing includes a top, a bottom, and a hole disposed in the top of the housing. The housing containing sensors includes an oute... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7286130 | Polygonal chart drawing processing method, device and computer-readable medium recording a program of the same The polygonal chart drawing processing device inputs information including the number N of evaluation items, the length M of an evaluation axis, evaluation items and values for the drawing object from the radar chart drawing processing device. The device generates b... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7284456 | Apparatus for moving a measuring device along a pipe The apparatus is for displacing a measurement device along a pipe. The apparatus comprises a bracelet; a support device for supporting the measurement device in relation to the bracelet; at least one drive wheel each having an axis, mounted on the bracelet and orien... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7280946 | Method and arrangement for determining pin enrichments in fuel bundle of nuclear reactor A method and arrangement of determining pin enrichments for a fuel bundle of a nuclear reactor, where a plurality of input parameters and target conditions may be input and enrichment changes, to be made across the fuel bundle, may be calculated using response matri... | 10/09/2007 |
| 7266992 | Remote pipeline acoustic inspection A pipe inspection apparatus comprising an acoustic source (3) for location at a first position in a pipe or pipe network, one or more acoustic or pressure detectors (4) for location at one or more positions in the pipe or pipe network, means for record... | 09/11/2007 |
| 7260512 | Method for determining threshold value of a nuclear reactor operating parameter, corresponding system, computer programme and support A method of determining a threshold value of a nuclear reactor operating parameter having the steps of simulating at least a transient operational occurrence of the nuclear reactor, calculating the value reached by a physical quantity during the transient operationa... | 08/21/2007 |
| 7254518 | Pressure transmitter with diagnostics In one embodiment, a pressure transmitter is provided which diagnoses the condition of a primary element and/or an impulse line which connects to a pressure sensor. A difference circuit coupled to the pressure sensor has a difference output which represents the sens... | 08/07/2007 |
| 7233886 | Adaptive modeling of changed states in predictive condition monitoring An improved empirical model-based surveillance or control system for monitoring or controlling a process or machine provides adaptation of the empirical model in response to new operational states that are deemed normal or non-exceptional for the process or machine.... | 06/19/2007 |
| 7231333 | Method and arrangement for developing core loading patterns in nuclear reactors In the method, a set of limits applicable to a core may be defined, and a test core loading pattern design, to be used for loading the core, may be determined based on the limits. Reactor operation on at least a subset of the core may be simulated to produce a plura... | 06/12/2007 |
| 7222061 | Method and arrangement for developing rod patterns in nuclear reactors In the method, a set of limits applicable to a test rod pattern design are defined, and a sequence strategy for positioning one or more subsets of the test rod pattern design is established. Reactor operation on a subset of the test rod pattern design, which may be ... | 05/22/2007 |
| 7214944 | Radiation detection system allowing improved counting of events The invention concerns a radiation detection device comprising a plurality of detector elements (DET1, DET2), each detector element (DET1) being associated with a circuit (AMP1-CMP1) for acquiring pulse signals (H1) and for ... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7216057 | Method and system for analyzing control circuit performance in industrial process The invention relates to a method for measuring and analyzing the performance of a control circuit in an industrial process. Different parameters (indices) illustrating the state of the control circuit are combined in an intelligent manner such that each combination... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7210329 | Method for determining temporal and amplitude threshold values of gates during ultrasound testing of spot welding joints The invention relates to a method for determining the threshold value of screens which enable an evaluation of a sound coupling during the ultrasound testing of a series of spot welding joints of a selected type. Initially, a geometrical minimal thickness dMin is es... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7200541 | Method and arrangement for determining nuclear reactor core designs In the method, a set of limits are defined and a reference core design is generated based on the limits, and includes an initial loading pattern of current fresh fuel bundles arranged in a plurality of fuel locations. A unique subset of fresh fuel bundles is selecte... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7190350 | Touch screen with rotationally isolated force sensor A touch screen uses one or more force sensors to determine location of the touch on the screen. Bending or twisting of the touch screen overlay, or of the support structure upon which the touch screen is mounted, may result in the detection of undesirable forces by ... | 03/13/2007 |
| 7191108 | Structured approach for risk-informing deterministic safety analyses A risk-informed method for safety analyses of nuclear power generating systems is provided. In an exemplary embodiment, the method includes ordering events by an initiating event frequency, defining an initiating event frequency threshold value, defining acceptance ... | 03/13/2007 |
| 7177383 | Method and system for safety regulation in nuclear power regulating systems A system and method for monitoring rod moving coils in nuclear power system. The system ensures that these coils are each functioning properly, and thus prevent movement of the other coils when a dysfunctional coil is detected. The method for accomplishing this moni... | 02/13/2007 |
| 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 |
| 7155715 | Distributed software system visualization A data management system stores and visualizes data generated during process management. The data management system provides different data management services and definitions of these are stored in a database. Management of data in this database is carried out by a... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7151262 | Radioactive gas measurement apparatus and failed fuel detection system To provide a radioactive gas measurement apparatus that is simply constructed and can efficiently measure Xe-133 in a radioactive gas on-line under the condition that the radioactive gas is mixed with interference N-13, an apparatus is provided for measuring a radia... | 12/19/2006 |
| 7139355 | 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 power rating a... | 11/21/2006 |
