GB947217A - Fuel element handling device for a nuclear reactor - Google Patents

Abstract

947,217. Fuelling reactors. COMMISSARIAT A L'ENERGIE ATOMIQUE. May 9, 1960 [May 19, 1959], No. 16298/60. Heading G6C. In a refuelling arrangement in which a rotatable plug 6 is eccentrically mounted in a larger rotatable plug 5 so that a fuel element handling aperture 9 in the plug 6 may be moved above the reactor core 1, a handling plug, Fig. 2, is inserted in the aperture 9 after removal of a solid plug (not shown). The handling plug comprises a biological shield part 54 from which downwardly extends a fuel element guide skirt 22a, a casing 55 extending upwardly from the skirt containing a cable winder 24 driven by a motor unit 23. The winder cable 32 extends through a liquid seal bath 34 and a non-rectilinear passage in the shield part 54, the cable being guided by rollers 37 . . . 43 and carrying at its lower end a grab 31 for engaging the head 20 of a fuel element 19. The handling plug enables a fuel element to be raised to the position shown in Fig. 2 in which it is still immersed in the reactor coolant 21. A refuelling machine 13 for extracting a solid plug from the aperture 9 and inserting a handling plug comprises a mobile carriage 14 and a lead tower 15 enclosing a magazine 16 having three compartments, each compartment including a winch 17 and cable 18. Initially, one compartment is loaded with a handling plug coupled to a new fuel element and another compartment is loaded with a free handling plug. In operation, the machine 13 is moved over the reactor shield 4 so that the empty compartment of the magazine 16 may be aligned with the aperture 9, this aperture having been previously aligned with the fuel element 19 to be removed. The solid plug (not shown) in this aperture is withdrawn into the magazine by a winch 17 and the magazine rotated so that the free handling plug may be lowered by the cable 18 into the aperture, the plug skirt 22a passing through a skirt 22 attached to the plug 6. The winder 24 on the handling plug is operated to raise the fuel element 19 to the Fig. 2 position and the cable 18, which is engaged with a coupling 50 on the handling plug, lifts this plug together with the suspended fuel element into the magazine. The magazine is further rotated so that the handling plug coupled to the new fuel element may be lowered into the aperture and the fuel element lowered into the reactor core 1. The handling plug is then replaced by the solid plug in the magazine and the machine 13 moved to a deactivation pit 10 where the handling plug coupled to the spent fuel element is unloaded. In a modification (Fig. 4, not shown) the winder 24 is situated above the unit 23 whilst in a further modification (Fig. 5, not shown) the cable 32 is replaced by a metal tape.