Patent ID: 8774344

Claim:
A method of forming a nuclear reactor fuel assembly with multiple LWR TRISO fuel pellets held within a LWR fuel rod, said fuel pellet having a density of approximately 5 gm/cm 3 , said method comprising the step of forming a LWR TRISO fuel pellet consisting solely of low enriched TRISO uranium microsphere fuel having an enrichment in U 235 of above 5% uniformly and homogeneously distributed throughout a stable inert metal or metal alloy matrix, immobilizing said microspheres within said matrix, forming said LWR TRISO fuel pellets with overall dimensions substantially the same as those of the standard LWR uranium dioxide fuel pellets that said LWR TRISO fuel pellets are intended to replace by conforming the height and outer diameter of said fuel pellets to the height and outer diameter of the uranium dioxide fuel pellets, combining fuel rods containing only said LWR TRISO fuel pellets into an array forming the LWR fuel assembly and excluding non-TRISO fuel rods containing conventional uranium dioxide, said kernel being coated with silicon carbide, the nuclear fuel kernel of the LWR TRISO microsphere being low enriched uranium or its oxides, and said density value being a nonhomogenous volumetric average of the density of said uranium kernel, said spherical coating and said matrix.