Patent Number: 061119288
Section: description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The numeral 10 generally designates a typical prior art annular canopy seal weld configuration between a control rod drive mechanism nozzle 12 of a reactor vessel head (not shown) and a mating part 14. The mating part 14 could be a spare capped CRDM, a core exiting thermocouple nozzle assembly or a CRDM housing. It mates with a nozzle flange 18. A canopy seal 16, called an "omega seal" because of its shape, is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,631,936 assigned to the same assignee as the instant application. The omega seal of that patent is a flexible graphite seal, although the configuration of the canopy seal of the instant arrangement is different in that it is on the top of the nozzle 12 and requires that the applied seating pressure comes from a compressing top plate of the novel top mount canopy seal mechanical clamp assembly of the invention generally designated 20 rather than from the housing 14 (or cap) itself. The top mount canopy seal mechanical clamp assembly (TM-CSCA) 20, as seen in FIG. 2, is made of stainless steel and is designed to repair leaking in the canopy seal 16 weld. This weld, and thus seal 16, has a tendency to develop cracks as a result of mechanical stress and/or stress corrosion cracking. These cracks propagate through the weld wall until leakage occurs. The TM-CSCA 20 is a non-welded mechanical method of stopping leakage in the canopy seal weld 16. The TM-CSCA 20 seals the leaking weld 16 and introduces a compressive load into the canopy seal, which tends to close and arrest the crack propagation. The TM-CSCA 20 seals the leaking weld by compressing a flexible graphite seal 22 over the entire annular seal weld area 16 as shown in FIG. 2. The flexible graphite seal material is preferably GRAFOIL.RTM. available from the Union Carbide Corporation. The TM-CSCA 20 has an annular housing 24 which is lowered below the flange 18 of nozzle 12. Housing 24 has a radially inwardly directed flange 26 of such dimension as to permit it to telescopically pass the nozzle flange 18 having the canopy seal weld 16. Insert support halves 28 and 30 are lowered and placed in the housing 24 one at a time. The halves 28 and 30 are of semi-annular shape and are seated concentrically with an annular shoulder 32 thereof in face to face engagement with an axially facing inner surface of the annular hollow housing flange 26. An annular top plate 34 of stainless steel is placed in register concentrically with the annular hollow housing 24 and surrounds the annular canopy 10. A seal seat 36 is provided in top plate 34 over and radially outward of canopy seal 16. An annular seal support ring 38 fits in a slot 40 in top plate 34 to confine the flexible graphite seal 22 over the annular seal weld area 16. The slot 40 is deeper than the width of ring 38 to permit movement of top plate 34 relative to insert support halves 28 and 30 by means of cap screws 42 engaging threaded bores 44 in housing 24. In this way cap screws 42 can draw the top plate 34 and housing 24 together to create compressive force on the flexible graphite seal 22 against canopy seal weld 16 to create a flexible graphite leak stopping seal at the weld 16. The cap screws 42 are provided with Belleville washers 46 between their heads and the top plate 34 to provide and maintain the necessary retaining loading force.