French nuclear industry mainstay AREVA said this week that it had been awarded three patents for employee inventions that were developed “to enhance the safe operations of existing nuclear reactors and to recycle rare materials form used control rod assemblies.”
Two of the patents involve innovations for servicing existing reactors. Two employees, Charles Graves and Dave Waskey, AREVA said, have developed new repair procedures to prevent primary water stress corrosion cracking in both pressurized and boiling water reactors.
A second patent, developed by Ryan Welsh and Thomas Busic, involves an improved permanent seal for the refueling canal in a nuclear facility. The seal is expected to increase safety during outage preparations, AREVA said.
A third team of inventors, Brett Mathews and Wesley Davis, were awarded a patent for a concept and associated technology that aids in the retrieval and recycling of silver-indium-cadmium material from control rod assemblies. These rare and valuable materials can be harvested and reused in new control components using a safe procedure developed by Mathews and Davis. This will help reduce energy waste and reduce the need for mining these natural resources, AREVA noted.