ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,770,746, issued on Oct. 20, was assigned to Hitachi Ltd. (Tokyo).
"Fuel assembly" was invented by Kiyoshi Fujimoto (Tokyo), Takuji Nagayoshi (Tokyo), Hajime Furuichi (Tokyo) and Takeshi Mitsuyasu (Tokyo).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A fuel assembly according to the present invention includes an end plug disposed on both upper and lower end portions of a fuel rod, and a tie plate that supports at least an upper portion of the end plug. The end plug includes a plurality of support protrusions on a surface of the end plug, and a closed-loop spring having a portion that is inserted through an opening portion formed in the end plug and is st...