Spacer capture mechansim for non-round water rods

US5727039A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• General Electric Company · US

Inventors

• John L. Harmon · Wilmington, US
• Richard G. Patterson · Rialto, US
• Robert Bruce Elkins, II · San Jose, US
• Russell Patrick Higgins · Wilmington, US
• Edward A. Croteau · Wilmington, US
• Harold B. King · Wrightsville Beach, US
• Christian D. Frederickson · Wilmington, US
• Gerald M. Latter · Wilmington, US
• Anthony P. Reese · Wilmington, US
• David W. White · Wilmington, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Mar 19, 1996
• Grant date: Mar 10, 1998
• Expiry date: Mar 19, 2016

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y02E30/30
• WIPO field: Engines, pumps, turbines
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

In a nuclear reactor fuel bundle assembly having a plurality of fuel rods and a non-round water rod extending between upper and lower tie plates, and having at least one fuel rod spacer located along the non-round water rod, an improvement which includes cooperating components on the fuel rod spacer and on the water rod for permitting movement of the spacer along the water rod to a desired axial location and for thereafter preventing further axial movement of the spacer in at least one of two opposite axial directions, the cooperating components including at least one spring on one of the spacer and the water rod.