HEAT-GENERATING ELEMENT FOR RESEARCH REACTORS AND A BASED ON IT HEAT-GENERATING ASSEMBLY (VERSIONS) Russian patent published in 2005 - IPC

FIELD: nuclear power engineering; production of heat-generating elements and heat-generating assemblies for research reactors.

SUBSTANCE: the invention is pertaining to the field of nuclear power engineering, in particular, to production of heat-generating elements (further - fuel elements) and the heat-generating assemblies (further - fuel elements assemblies) for research reactors using a low (less than 20 %) enriched nuclear material. The technical result of the invention is enhancement of production capabilities for upgrading the existing research reactors, the fissile regions of which differ in dimensions and forms, using the universal rod-shaped fuel element and the based on it fuel elements assembly. The fuel element is made in the form of a tubular sealed on its end faces by plugs shell made out of an aluminum alloy of 0.30 up to 0.45 mm thick with four distancing screw-type ribs on the outer surface. The diameter of a circumscribed circle of a fuel element cross section makes from 4.0 - 8.0 mm. Each rib protrudes above the shell from 0.4 up to 1,0 mm in height and is placed in the cross section plane at an angle of 90° to the neighboring rib and twisted in spiral with a step from 100 up to 400 mm, predominantly from 300 up to 340 m. Inside the shell there is a fuel core made out of a dispersive composition of uranium-containing particles and an aluminum alloy, in which a volumetric content of uranium-containing particles makes up to 45 %, the uranium-containing particles dimension makes from 63 up to 315 microns, and the shell and the core have a diffusion cohesion among themselves, formed at the fuel elements manufacture by the method of a joint extrusion through a forming array of a composite cylindrical blank consisting of the fuel element core, the plugs and the shell. On the basis of the aforesaid fuel element the versions of the heat-generating assemblies are developed for research reactors of different types with various geometrical forms of the fissile regions.

EFFECT: the invention ensures enhancement of production capabilities to upgrade the existing research reactors with different dimensions and forms of their fissile regions with the help of the universal rod-shaped fuel element and the based on it fuel elements assembly.

9 cl, 6 dwg