A fuel element for a nuclear reactor has fuel rods with nuclear fuel guided through
spacers. The spacers are equipped with devices that exert a swirling impulse upon
a coolant flowing along the fuel rods. In order to present as little flow resistance
as possible for the coolant, these swirl-introducing devices have the form of a
vane with a spoonlike or bladelike shape and they extend into the coolant flow.
Owing to the shape-here the vane is curved in the longitudinal and in the transverse
directions-practically all cross sections of the vane have such a high geometrical
moment of inertia that even a vane made of a thin sheet metal is sufficiently rigid.
Fuel elements configured according to the invention are particularly suitable for
use in boiling water nuclear reactors.
