US Patent Issued to TERRAPOWER on July 14 for "Passive heat removal system for nuclear reactors" (Washington Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 14 -- United States Patent no. 12,683,034, issued on July 14, was assigned to TERRAPOWER LLC (Bellevue, Wash.).

"Passive heat removal system for nuclear reactors" was invented by Pavel Hejzlar (Kirkland, Wash.) and Peter McNabb (Bellevue, Wash.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A nuclear reactor is configured with an intermediate coolant loop for transferring thermal energy from the reactor core for a useful purpose. The intermediate coolant loop includes a bypass flowpath with an air heat exchanger for dumping reactor heat during startup and/or shutdown. A fluidic diode along the bypass flowpath asymmetrically restricts flow across the bypass flowpath, inhibiting flow in a...