US Patent Issued to TERRAPOWER on April 8 for "Passive reactivity control in a nuclear fission reactor" (Washington Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,272,466, issued on April 8, was assigned to TERRAPOWER LLC (Bellevue, Wash.).

"Passive reactivity control in a nuclear fission reactor" was invented by Jesse R. Cheatham III (Seattle), John R. Gilleland (Kirkland, Wash.) and Jon D. McWhirter (Kirkland, Wash.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A nuclear reactor includes a passive reactivity control nuclear fuel device located in a nuclear reactor core. The passive reactivity control nuclear fuel device includes a multiple-walled fuel chamber having an outer wall chamber and an inner wall chamber contained within the outer wall chamber. The inner wall chamber is positioned within the outer wal...