Analysis: U. S. Patents, Ultrasonic Fuel Cleaning

          U. S. Patents, Ultrasonic Fuel Cleaning     

Number	Inventor	Filed	Issued	Owner
5,467,791	Kato	Feb-94	Nov-95	Toshiba
6,396,892	Frattini	Apr-00	May-02	EPRI
7,542,539	Frattini	Dec-01	Jun-09	EPRI
7,134,441	Gross	Jul-03	Nov-06	Dominion
8,165,261	Hussey	Jan-09	Apr-12	EPRI
8,372,206	Gross	Jan-09	Feb-13	Dominion

 
The above list of patents is revealing.  Toshiba filed its patent application more than six years prior to EPRI.  Although EPRI cites  Toshiba in its patent, EPRI has not acknowledged Toshiba's pioneering work in its publications.  (More later on this.)  

It is interesting that EPRI and Dominion are each separate owners among the above six patents.  In the case of EPRI 6,396,892 that was filed during April 2000, there are three inventors: Frattini, Varrin and Hunt.  Frattini worked for EPRI in Palo Alto, CA, while Varrin and Hunt  were employed by Dominion Engineering, Inc. of Reston, VA.  Very likely EPRI paid the bills while Dominion did the bulk, if not all of the inventing.

Of course, I do not have time to explore the shenanigans, but there are two  EPRI patents with Frattini as well as the same inventors from Dominion Engineering, Inc.  It is amazing.  The two Frattini-EPRI patents have the same title and summary, identical figures and brief descriptions,  but with different law firms, a different set of claims, different examiners, filing dates of April 2000 and December 2001, and corresponding issue dates  of May 2002 and June 2009.


Looking at the total picture of patents owned by EPRI and Dominion would take a lot of time and none of the parties are likely to disclose the games; but clearly there are shenanigans, and the expenses are likely mostly paid by EPRI (its supporting utilities and ultimately the by those who pay for juice).

The most recent patent is Dominion 8,372, 206 that issued during February 2013.  Dominion therein references deficiencies in the EPRI process as follows:
A number of ultrasonic cleaning systems have been developed for cleaning irradiated nuclear fuel assemblies including systems utilizing radial omni-directional ultrasonic cleaning technology as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,396,892, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference, in their entirety. FIG. 1 illustrates representative before and after photographs of fuel rods 100 in a fuel bundle cleaned using conventional radial omni-directional ultrasonic cleaning technology. Although, as reflected in FIG. 1, there is clear visual evidence of deposits being removed from the fuel assemblies, the cleaning is neither uniform nor complete, particularly with respect to the peripheral rods.

 Dominion further references deficiences of the EPRI omni-directional process as folows:
The inventors have determined that the tenacious layer currently associated with PWR fuel deposits has a threshold ultrasonic power density of approximately 200 watts/gallon (52.8 watts/liter) (as calculated using the methodology outlined below in Table 1). The invention consists of an ultrasonic cleaning device configured to achieve an ultrasonic power density on the order of 200 watts/gallon (52.8 watts/liter) or more. The invention utilizes arrays of planar transducers to achieve these high power densities rather than the conventional radial omni-directional transducers currently used for ultrasonic fuel cleaning.

As I said above, more later.