Westinghouse continues to expand the VVER market with support of reliable fuel products. The NOVA E-6 is the next design of the Westinghouse 440 fuel based on operating experience of previous generations. It offers improved fuel economy and delivers additional margins.
Top of Assembly
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Middle of Assembly
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Bottom of Assembly
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Functions as the upper structural element of the fuel assembly. The top nozzle is hexagonal with a hollow cylinder that engages with the upper core plate.
Additively manufactured from stainless steel, enabling fully integrated ligaments that prevent fuel rod ejection. It allows unobstructed passage of the instrument probe through the top flow plate.
Composed of straps, which are laser welded together to form the grid structure and maintain contact force through end of life. The top grid has integral grid strap springs with a low force to mitigate fuel rod bow.
Six spring-loaded plungers bear on the lower side of the reactor upper core plate and prevent fuel assembly lift-off due to flow. The plungers contain a coil spring and a retaining pin providing axial restraint to the fuel assembly.
Provides the channel for the instrumentation probe. The ZIRLO instrumentation tube gives support of the fuel assembly skeleton. Bulge joints are used to attach the instrumentation tube to the grid ferrules.
The shroud tube incorporates bypass flow holes for coolant flow and screw holes for attachment to the top and bottom nozzles. It can be removed from the assembly to allow the fuel bundle to be inspected or for reconstitution.
Fabricated from Low Tin ZIRLO™ material. The mid grids have springs and dimples integral to the straps, to provide fuel rod support.
Made from Optimized ZIRLO™ which provides additional margin against corrosion. The fuel rod contains UO2 pellets stabilized by a plenum spring to mitigate pellet stack movement.
Regular UO2 that is blended with Gadolinia (Gd2O3) as the burnable absorber material. This absorber is the most common in the nuclear industry for PWR, BWR and VVER types of reactors.
The bottom grid has integral grid strap springs with a high force to maintain contact with the fuel rod through end of life.
Additively manufactured, the bottom flow plate contains holes on a triangular pitch to accommodate the fuel rod, which is attached to the bottom flow plate by a slotted bottom end plug that is inserted into the plate.
The stainless steel bottom nozzle is hexagonal, transitioning to a cylindrical barrel that is located in the lower core plate.
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