Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. A dry storage canister for storing and/or transporting spent nuclear fuel rods comprising:a pressure vessel forming a gas-tight containment boundary about a cavity; anda basket apparatus positioned in the cavity, the basket apparatus comprising;a plurality of disk-like grates, each disk-like grate having a plurality of cells formed by a gridwork of beams;the disk-like grates arranged in a spaced manner with respect to one another so that the cells of the disk-like grates are aligned;wherein the plurality of cells comprises fuel cells; anda plurality of ventilated tubes positioned within the fuel cells, each of the ventilated tubes comprising a tubular body portion, a closed bottom end, and a ventilated cap portion, the tubular body portion forming a cavity in which a plurality of spent nuclear fuel rods are positioned. 2. The dry storage canister of claim 1, wherein the plurality of cells further comprises poison rod cells, the fuels cells being larger than the poison rod cells. 3. The dry storage canister of claim 2, further comprising a plurality of poison rods extending through the poison rod cells of the disk-like grates. 4. The dry storage canister of claim 1, whereinthe disk-like grates further comprise a ring-like structure encompassing the gridwork of beams;the gridwork of beams comprising a first series of parallel beams, a second series of parallel beams and a third series of parallel beams; andwherein the first, second and third series of parallel beams are arranged in the ring-like structures so as to intersect and form the plurality of cells. 5. The dry storage canister of claim 2, whereinthe disk-like grates further comprise a ring-like structure encompassing the gridwork of beams; andthe gridwork of beams comprising a first series of parallel beams, a second series of parallel beams and a third series of parallel beams; andwherein the first, second and third series of parallel beams are arranged in the ring-like structures so as to intersect and form a plurality of hexagonal shaped cells and a plurality of triangular shaped cells. 6. The dry storage canister claim 5, wherein the poison rod cells are triangular shaped cells; andthe fuel cells are hexagonal shaped cells. 7. The dry storage canister of claim 1 wherein the disk-like grates are arranged in a spaced manner by a plurality of tie-rods having tubular spacers. 8. The dry storage canister of claim 1 wherein the beams are rectangular strips of metal having notches, the notches arranged on the rectangular strips so that when the strips are arranged in the desired gridwork, the notches of the strips are aligned and the strips slidably mate with one another.