Primary Inventor: Krishna P. Singh
Contributing Inventor(s): Paul Stefan Anton, Richard Springman
Date: Aug. 1, 2023
Status: Granted
Jurisdiction: USA
Equipment Type: MPC
Docket Number: HOL-100
Application Number: 17/080,966
Patent Number: US 11,715,575 B2
Prior Publication Data: US 2021/0057118 A1 – Feb. 25, 2021
Related U.S. Application Data:
- Continuation-in-part of application No. 15/570,790, filed as PCT/US2016/030809 on May 4, 2016, now Pat. No. US 10,854,346 B2, application No. 17/080,966 is a continuation-in-part of application No. 16/690,228, filed on Nov. 21, 2019. now Pat. No. 10.861,612, which is a continuation of application No. 16/086.961, filed as application No. PCT/US2017/022648 on Mar. 16. 2017, now Pat. No. 10,515,730, application No. 17/080,966 is a continuation-in-part of application No. 16/520,698, filed on Jul. 24, 2019, now Pat. No. 11.081,248. which is a continuation of application No. 15/639,332, filed on Jun. 30, 2017, now Pat. No. 10,410,756, application No. 17/080,966 is a continuation-in-part of application No. 16/900,820. filed on Jun. 12, 2020, now abandoned, which is a continuation of application No. 16/175,143, filed on Oct. 30, 2018, now Pat. No. 10,714,223, application No. 17/080,966 is a continuation-in-part ofapplication No. 16/407,992, filed on May 9, 2019, now Pat. No. 11,282,615, and a continuation-in-part of application No. 16/434,620, filed on Jun. ,7 2019, now Pat. No. 11,043,312, and a continuation-in-part of application No. 16/568.078, filed on Sep. 11, 2019, now Pat. No. 10,878,973.
- Provisional application No. 62/156,604, filed on May 4, 2015, provisional application No. 62/311,540, filed on Mar. 22, 2016, provisional application No. 62/357,603, filed on Jul. 1, 2016, provisional application No. 62/581,229, filed on Nov. 3, 2017, provisional application No. 62/669,665, filed on May 10, 2018, provisional application No. 62/681,731, filed on Jun. 7 2018, provisional application No. 62/729,482, filed on Sep. 11, 2018.
Foreign Patents: 10-2039918
Abstract: A primary component of any dry storage, transportation, or repository “cask” is the “Fuel Basket”. A fuel basket is typically an open ended multi-cavity structure wherein each cavity serves to accommodate one used fuel assembly. The fuel basket resides inside the cavity of the cask and, therefore, its size dictates the overall size and weight of the cask. The function of the fuel basket is to i) provide structural support for the fuel assemblies to maintain a given geometric arrangement, ii) provide reactivity control of the contained nuclear materials, and iii) provide for heat transfer of the fuel assembly decay heat. The objective to any fuel cask design is to optimize the number of assemblies inside the cask within the provided design constraints, which are typically imposed by operational considerations that limit the overall weight and dimensions of the cask.
There are two types of fuel baskets that predominate the industry, i) flux-trap baskets and ii) non-flux trap baskets. The two different designs are dictated by two different approaches to manage reactivity control in compliance with the prescribed regulatory limits.