US-based nuclear fuel technology company Lightbridge Corporation has received a patent from the Eurasian Patent Office for its innovative nuclear fuel assemblies. This is a divisional patent and covers an all-metal fuel assembly design with a mixed grid fuel rod arrangement inside the fuel assembly.

Lightbridge said it is developing its advanced metallic fuel designed to make both existing and new nuclear power plants more efficient, more cost-competitive, and even safer. Seth Grae, Lightbridge President & CEO,  said: “We are proud to add this latest patent to our growing portfolio of intellectual property. Eurasia includes countries that are signatories to the Eurasian Patent Convention, such as Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyz Republic, and the Republic of Moldova.  These countries represent an attractive market for our proprietary technology, which is designed to enhance the operating safety and efficiency of existing reactors as well as new reactors.”

At the end of May, Lightbridge received a similar patent from the Australian Patent Office. The application covers an alternative embodiment for an all-metal fuel assembly design incorporating Lightbridge-designed four-lobe helically twisted fuel rods for use in pressurized water reactors. 

Grae said: “Australia is one the world’s leading uranium producers and increasingly considering pursuing nuclear power generation, it could become [a] future market for Lightbridge Fuel.”