Granted Patent B2

US 9,514,852 · App. 13/612,921 · Granted Dec 6, 2016

Abstract

Claims (9)

1. A method of reducing the volume of an elongated boiling water reactor fuel assembly fuel channel having a plurality of sides, with each side connected along the elongated dimension to two other sides, for storage, comprising, substantially in the following order, performed under water, the steps of:

enclosing the fuel channel with the plurality of sides connected, in an outer sleeve that extends over the entire elongated dimension of the fuel channel, and is malleable, wherein a portion of the outer sleeve is perforated to allow the water to escape and the perforations have traps to prevent debris from escaping with the water;

inserting an inner sleeve within the fuel channel with the inner sleeve extending over the elongated dimension around an inside surface of the fuel channel;

attaching a top of the outer sleeve to a top of the inner sleeve and a bottom of the outer sleeve to a bottom of the inner sleeve around an entire circumference of the fuel channel; and

laterally compacting the fuel channel within the outer sleeve over the entire length of the outer sleeve at the same time.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the outer sleeve is constructed from a material selected from a group of metals comprising aluminum and copper.

3. The method of claim 1 including the step of laterally segmenting the fuel channel in the outer sleeve into segmented pieces of a desired length, after the laterally compacting step.

4. The method of claim 3 including the step of packaging the segmented pieces for storage.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the step of laterally segmenting the fuel channel includes the step of shearing the outer sleeve and fuel channel.

Assignments (8)