DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Status of Claims
Claims 1-7 are pending in the application and examined herein.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the following features in claim 1 must be shown or the features canceled from the claim. No new matter should be entered.
“a power generation device in the nuclear reactor-supercritical carbon dioxide Brayton cycle system”
“the heliostat field is located below the receiving tower”
“the molten flow pipe is provided in the receiver”
“a power generation device in the solar-supercritical carbon dioxide Brayton cycle system”
pipelines between the diverter valve and the confluence valve in the heat compensation system and the solar tower power generation system are connected in parallel”
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the Applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 3-5, and 7 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1: “an inlet o a hot side” should be amended to recite “an inlet of a hot side”
Claim 3: “wherein a mass fractions” should be amended to recite “wherein [[a]] mass fractions”
Claim 4: “the confluence valve (14.3)is” should be amended to recite “the confluence valve (14.3) is” (space added after “(14.3)”)
Claim 5: “the molten salt pool temperature monitoring system (4) ) feedback” should be amended to recite “the molten salt pool temperature monitoring system (4) [[ ) ]] feedback” (removal of extra parenthesis)
Claim 7: “a clod side” should be amended to recite “a cold
Claim 7: “to completes” should be amended to recite “to complete[[s]]”
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(b)
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 1-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
There is insufficient antecedent basis for the following terms/phrases in claims 1, 3, and 5-7:
“the top” (claim 1)
“the molten salt flow pipe” (claim 1)
“the secondary circuit” (claim 3)
“the temperature” (claim 5)
“the temperature result” (claim 5)
“the flow” (claim 5)
“the cold end” (claim 6)
“the low temperature molten salt” (claim 7)
The following terms in claims 1, 4, and 6-7 are relative terms which renders the claims indefinite. The terms are not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention.
“small” (claim 1)
“high-temperature” (claim 1)
“cold” (multiple recitations) (claims 1, 6-7)
“low temperature” (claims 1, 7)
“hot” (multiple recitations) (claims 1, 7)
“sufficient” (claim 4)
“insufficient” (claim 4)
Claim 1 recites “a KNO3/NaNO3-CO2 heat exchanger”. It is unclear what is meant by the “/” in the claim. For example, it is unclear if the heat exchanger involves both KNO3 and NaNO3, one of either KNO3 or NaNO3, or another interpretation.
Claim 5 recites “the molten salt pool temperature monitoring system feedback the temperature result to the flow control system”. There appears to be a word and/or phrase missing from this limitation. What does it mean for the system to “feedback the temperature result”? Does the molten salt pool temperature monitoring system provide “feedback” to the flow control system? Does the molten salt pool temperature monitoring system send temperature data to the flow control system?
Claim 7 recites “an external power grid” and “a receiver”. It is unclear if these features are referring to the same features as the “external power grid” and “receiver” previously recited in parent claim 1 or different features.
Any claim not explicitly addressed above is rejected because it is dependent on a rejected base claim.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-7 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: Zhao (“Conceptual design and preliminary performance analysis of a hybrid nuclear-solar power system with molten-salt packed-bed thermal energy storage for on-demand power supply”) discloses a combined nuclear-solar power generation system, but does not disclose a heat compensation system or all of the claimed features of the nuclear reactor power generation system or solar tower power generation system. While Greene (“Pre-Conceptual Design of a Fluoride-Salt-Cooled Small Modular Advanced High-Temperature Reactor (SmAHTR)”) teaches a nuclear reactor power generation system and Litwin (US Publication NO. 2010/0024421) teaches a solar tower power generation system, the prior art does not teach or suggest the combined arrangement of the features of the nuclear reactor power generation system and the solar tower power generation system as recited in the claims.
Application Status Information
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Interview Information
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, Applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
Contact Information
Examiner Jinney Kil can be reached at (571) 272-3191, on Monday-Thursday from 7:30AM-5:30PM ET. Supervisor Jack Keith (SPE) can be reached at (571) 272-6878.
/JINNEY KIL/Examiner, Art Unit 3646
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