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...Daniel Webster invented a "bull plow" to pull out tree stumps. It didn't catch on because it was huge and required four oxen to pull it!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7940883 | Fuel assembly A fuel assembly is charged in a reactor core of a nuclear reactor using a liquid metal as a coolant and includes a wrapper tube storing a plurality of fuel pins and including an entrance nozzle at a lower end thereof for introducing the coolant and an operation hand... | 05/10/2011 |
| 7889829 | Nuclear fuel assembly protective grid An integral multilevel debris-catching system for a nuclear reactor fuel assembly having a lower protective grid incorporating laterally offset debris-catching arches at several elevations, extended solid fuel rod bottom end plugs and a bottom debris-filtering nozzl... | 02/15/2011 |
| 7822166 | Fuel assembly for a boiling water reactor A fuel assembly for a boiling water reactor contains a plurality of fuel rods maintained laterally by spacers and surrounded by a fuel assembly case. The outer walls of a spacer are provided with projecting elements that maintain a minimum space between the outer su... | 10/26/2010 |
| 7804931 | Spacer and a fuel unit for a nuclear plant The invention refers to a spacer for holding a number if elongated fuel rods intended to be located in a nuclear plant and to a fuel unit having such spacers. The spacer encloses a number of cells, which each has a longitudinal axis and is arranged to receive a fuel... | 09/28/2010 |
| 7804930 | Nuclear fuel assembly comprising a reinforcing mesh device and the use of one such device in a nuclear fuel assembly The nuclear fuel assembly having nuclear fuel rods and a support skeleton having two nozzles, guide tubes interconnecting the nozzles, and spacer grids for holding the rods, the grids being secured to the guide tubes. The assembly further has at least one lattice re... | 09/28/2010 |
| 7792236 | Fuel assembly and plug-in distance element This invention relates to nuclear engineering and may be used in structures of nuclear fuel assemblies, especially those used in PWR and BWR nuclear reactors. A fuel assembly comprises spacing grids comprising cells formed by orthogonal crossing plates. An insertabl... | 09/07/2010 |
| 7469030 | Spacer grid for a fuel unit in a nuclear reactor cooled by light water A spacer grid for a fuel assembly in a light-water-cooled nuclear reactor, for providing the transverse retention of a bundle of fuel rods in mutually parallel arrangements, having an array of cells juxtaposed and placed in a regular lattice, each bounded and separa... | 12/23/2008 |
| 7424086 | Fuel assembly for a pressurized-water nuclear reactor A fuel element for a pressurized water reactor has fuel rods guided through a number of axially spaced spacers. The spacers form a square grid with mesh openings arranged in rows and columns. Support tubes that do not contain fuel pass through a number of the mesh h... | 09/09/2008 |
| 7418072 | Spacer A spacer for a fuel assembly for a light water nuclear reactor contains a plurality of intercrossed segments, which form a grid. The segments are formed from first and second metal strips which are assembled and provided with protruding parts or corrugations in such... | 08/26/2008 |
| 7267164 | Anti-vibration tube support A tube support device for a plurality of elongated members is disclosed. The support device includes an elongated longitudinally extending strip having a pair of opposing faces. The strip includes a plurality of engaging members extending from the pair of opposing f... | 09/11/2007 |
| 7215728 | Spent fuel housing square pipe, basket and spent fuel housing container Corner of each square pipe is molded into a terrace shape having steps. When a basket is constructed by these square pipes, steps of adjoining square pipes are assembled together face to face. Fuel rod aggregates are housed inside the square pipes and in a cells for... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7149273 | Method of fabricating a nuclear reactor fuel assembly grid A method of fabricating a fuel assembly grid that includes providing a plurality of interconnected straps that form a lattice pattern, wherein the lattice pattern of the straps defines a plurality of cells, providing a sleeve that has a cylindrical portion and a fla... | 12/12/2006 |
| 7085340 | Nuclear reactor fuel assemblies A nuclear fuel assembly having a parallel array of elongated fuel elements supported between an upper and lower nozzle. Main support grids are substantially evenly spaced along the elongated dimension of the assembly to maintain the spacing between fuel elements. A ... | 08/01/2006 |
| 7078581 | Encapsulation of waste A ceramic waste immobilizing material for the encapsulation of high level radioactive waste (HLW), e.g. resulting from the reprocessing of irradiated nuclear fuel. The ceramic waste immobilising material enables waste ions from at least fission products in irradiate... | 07/18/2006 |
| 7032655 | Anti-vibration tube support A tube support device comprises an elongated strip inserted in a tube lane between the tubes of the tube bundle. Raised-tube-engaging zones are disposed in transverse rows across the strip at successive longitudinal locations along its length; these tube-engaging zo... | 04/25/2006 |
| 6997141 | Anti-vibration support for steam generator heat transfer tubes and method for making same A tube support structure for heat transfer tubes in a steam generator has a plurality of tube support bars which are installed between the heat transfer tubes. At least one of the support bars has a first metal layer and a second metal layer. The first metal layer i... | 02/14/2006 |
| 6934350 | Core configuration for a nuclear reactor In an embodiment of the present invention, the core of a nuclear reactor includes a plurality of fuel cells and a plurality of large control rods. Each large control rod is about two times the width of a conventional control rod and includes four control rod blades ... | 08/23/2005 |
| 6934351 | Boiling water reactor fuel assembly An fuel assembly with a connection between a fuel channel and a lower tie plate to allow the fuel channel to be removed from an internal fuel rod assembly without the necessity of moving interior fuel rods during removal of the fuel channel. ... | 08/23/2005 |
| 6912264 | Fuel assembly A fuel element for a nuclear reactor has fuel rods with nuclear fuel guided through spacers. The spacers are equipped with devices that exert a swirling impulse upon a coolant flowing along the fuel rods. In order to present as little flow resistance as possible for... | 06/28/2005 |
| 6909766 | Production method for a nuclear fuel assembly support grid and a nuclear fuel assembly support grid produced by the same One object of the present invention is to provide a production method for a nuclear fuel assembly support grid that improves the corrosion resistance of welded parts without impairing the characteristics of the support grid so as to be able adequately withstand high... | 06/21/2005 |
| 6901128 | Foreign matter filter for fuel assembly in pressurized water reactor A foreign matter filter provided between a DFBN and a lower grid has two adjacent thin straps assembled into a lattice. The straps are equipped on the front and back sides with axially continuous protrusions. ... | 05/31/2005 |
| 6888911 | Method for preventing fretting damage to fuel rods, nuclear reactor fuel element, device for preventing fretting damage, and spacer in a fuel assembly of a nuclear reactor Transverse vibrations of the pellet columns included in the fuel rods of fuel elements are limited by elastically mounting the fuel rod jacket tubes in the mesh of spacer grids. When the fuel rods are supported in this way, flexural vibrations of a higher order occu... | 05/03/2005 |
| 6819733 | Fuel assembly and associated grid for nuclear reactor An improved grid for use in a fuel assembly of a nuclear reactor includes a plurality of straps that are interconnected with one another in a lattice fashion to define a plurality of cells, with the straps being configured to include a plurality of relatively more c... | 11/16/2004 |
| 6813327 | Core support for an F-lattice core of a boiling water nuclear reactor A core plate assembly for a nuclear reactor includes a plurality of support beams, a flat plate positioned on top of the support beams, a plurality of control rod guide tube openings arranged in staggered rows, and a plurality of fuel supports extending through the ... | 11/02/2004 |
| 6807246 | Lips-type multi-purposed nuclear fuel assembly spacer grid A lips-type multi-purposed spacer grid for supporting fuel rods within a nuclear fuel assembly is disclosed. In the spacer grid, the fuel rods are in contact with dimples and water strider-type springs in an equiangular surface contact manner. The spacer grid distri... | 10/19/2004 |
| 6778625 | Spent fuel housing square pipe, basket and spent fuel housing container Corner of each square pipe is molded into a terrace shape having steps. When a basket is constructed by these square pipes, steps of adjoining square pipes are assembled together face to face. Fuel rod aggregates are housed inside the square pipes and in a cells for... | 08/17/2004 |
| 6744842 | Fuel assembly for a pressurized-water reactor A fuel assembly for a pressurized-water reactor includes fuel rods held in cells of spacers, control rod guide tubes, and a headpiece and a foot piece, by which it is fixed to upper and lower core grids, respectively. A spacer having a first part, which lies on a ra... | 06/01/2004 |
| 6728329 | Fuel assembly A fuel assembly having a plurality of fuel rods arranged in a square lattice array. The fuel rods include a plurality of short-length fuel rods each having a fuel active length shorter than that of each of remaining ones of the fuel rods. At least one water rod is a... | 04/27/2004 |
| 6721384 | Spacer grid with side welding support and flow mixing vane for nuclear reactor fuel assembly A spacer grid for nuclear fuel assemblies is disclosed. This spacer grid has a plurality of side weld supports, that is, main supports, upper sub-supports and lower sub-supports, on its interlaced inner straps, with two flow mixing vanes integrally extending upward ... | 04/13/2004 |
| 6714619 | Spacer grid with double deflected vanes for nuclear fuel assemblies A spacer grid for use in a nuclear fuel assembly has double-deflected vanes that guide an axial flow of coolant around fuel rods and thereby generate swirl flow. The vanes each have a double bend projecting upwardly from first inner straps and projecting toward one ... | 03/30/2004 |
| 6650723 | Double strip mixing grid for nuclear reactor fuel assemblies A double strip mixing grid for nuclear reactor fuel assemblies is disclosed. This grid is fabricated by intersecting at right angles a plurality of double strips, each fabricated by welding two thin sheets together into a single structure with coolant cha... | 11/18/2003 |
| 6621885 | Apparatus and a method for assembling a spacer grid of a fuel assembly for a nuclear reactor The assembly apparatus comprises a frame for supporting the straps of the first set of straps in mutually parallel positions, clamping and engagement for clamping on each of the straps of a second set of straps in succession and for engaging them with the... | 09/16/2003 |
| 6608881 | Duct-type spacer grid with swirl flow vane for nuclear fuel assembly A duct-type spacer grid for nuclear fuel assemblies is disclosed. In this spacer grid, a plurality of duct-shaped grid elements, individually having an octagonal cell, are closely arranged in parallel and are welded together, thus forming a matrix structu... | 08/19/2003 |
| 6606369 | Nuclear reactor with improved grid An improved grid for use in a fuel assembly of a nuclear reactor includes a plurality of straps connected in a lattice, with a plurality of mixing vanes being disposed on the straps and being arranged such that the hydraulic forces on the mixing vanes gen... | 08/12/2003 |
| 6600799 | Fuel element with fuel rods for a boiling water reactor For the redistribution of a coolant flow from a first region into a second region, in particular in boiling-water-reactor fuel elements having an eccentrically disposed water passage, a fuel-rod bundle is constructed in a mirror symmetry manner relative t... | 07/29/2003 |
| 6600800 | Fuel element for a boiling water nuclear reactor In a boiling water fuel assembly, some of the fuel rods are shortened. It is necessary to establish a sufficiently high maximum power for transition to boiling. To optimize this power, spacers are at a constant distance at a bottom and are at a shorter di... | 07/29/2003 |
| 6544361 | Process for manufacturing thin components made of zirconium-based alloy and straps thus produced The present invention relates to a method for making flat, thin elements which consist of: producing a zirconium alloy blank also containing, besides the inevitable impurities, 0.8 to 1.3% of niobium, 1100 to 1800 ppm of oxygen, and 10 to 35 ppm of sulfur... | 04/08/2003 |
| 6542567 | Grid for nuclear fuel assembly and a strap for such a grid At regular intervals, the grid strap has formed therein notches for assembly with transverse straps. Between at least some pairs of notches, it has a rod-holding spring comprising two resilient strips cut out from the plane wall of the strap and integral ... | 04/01/2003 |
| 6522710 | Fastened spacer for grid of a nuclear reactor with associated method A spacer for use with a protective grid of a fuel assembly of a nuclear reactor is a generally washer-shaped plate of material having an engagement surface and a retention surface opposite one another. The protective grid is formed of a plurality of strap... | 02/18/2003 |
| 6519309 | Pressurized water reactor fuel assembly spacer grid A spacer grid for PWR assemblies is characterized by curved flow channels between adjacent fuel rods and straight, essentially flat strips connecting opposite side plates of the spacer. The latter strips prevent bowing-out of the side plates during fuel a... | 02/11/2003 |
