Patents by Inventor Robert A. Petrusek

Robert A. Petrusek has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 5000908
    Abstract: The present invention relates to intermittently introducing, under carefully controlled conditions, an inert gas, into at least the channel head primary coolant water outlet side of steam generators during the drain-down of a nuclear-powered steam generating system. Predetermined quantities of such gas are introduced into open ends of the inverted U-tubes which terminate at the tubesheet in the channel heads to thereby alleviate the propensity for formation of vacuum pockets at the tops thereof, and at the same time to provide that water columns defined severely near their tops by the water within each such tube and collectively near their bottoms by the water extending downward through the steam generator channel head, are not disrupted by the inadvertent formation of a gas/water interface formed in the general vicinity of the tubesheet and resulting from the flooding of the underside thereof with said gas.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 1989
    Date of Patent: March 19, 1991
    Assignee: Tennessee Valley Authority
    Inventor: Robert A. Petrusek