NUCLEAR REACTOR FUEL ASSEMBLY Russian patent published in 2013 - IPC G21C3/30 

FIELD: power engineering.

SUBSTANCE: nuclear reactor fuel assembly comprises fuel elements connected to an end lattice by tips, every of which has a cylindrical part, in which there is at least one longitudinal slot, at least on a part of its length from the end, providing for elasticity in the cross section, a tip is installed in a seating hole made in the end lattice, and has a collar on the specified end, which contacts with the surface of the hole arranged in the end lattice. The tip has a circular groove on the cylindrical surface, the side wall of which is a surface of the collar contacting with the end lattice. At the same time it is preferable that the surface of the end lattice contacting with the collar and the responsive surface of the end lattice have conical shape with a top directed to the side of the fixed end of the fuel element. Besides, in its elastic part the cylinder has cross section in the form of a ring or a circle.

EFFECT: higher reliability of fuel element tips fixation in an end lattice, first of all, through provision of tight contact between a tip and a plane of a bearing lattice.

6 cl, 5 dwg