ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,254,994, issued on March 18, was assigned to UT-BATTELLE LLC (Oak Ridge, Tenn.).
"Fusion reactor having nested pebble bed blanket" was invented by Vittorio Badalassi (Oak Ridge, Tenn.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A nested pebble bed blanket surrounds a fusion reactor's vacuum chamber. The blanket includes stacks of nested pebbles composed of neutron multiplier shells filled with breeding spheroids. The shells have perforations passing through their inner and outer surfaces. The shells include therein perforated coolant distributor elements coupled to or unitary with the inner surfaces. Each perforated element is in line with a respect...