Patent Number: 059404620
Section: description

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to the figures of the drawings in detail and first, particularly, to FIG. 1 thereof, there is seen a coil gripping device or tool 2 which is constructed to rotate about its center and on the periphery of which an absorber finger or an absorber sheet 3 can be wound up in spiral form. The sheet 3 is formed of elongated components of control elements in which spent absorber material is gas-tightly enclosed. For this purpose, a fixing device 13 is disposed on the outer periphery of the coil gripping device 2. A start of the absorber finger or of the absorber sheet 3 can be secured on the periphery of the coil gripping device 2 with the fixing device 13. A compact coil having a spiral winding is produced from the elongated absorber finger or absorber sheet or component 3 by rotation about a winding spindle 14 and winding-up. The winding device has a bending roller 1 for pressing the absorber finger or the absorber sheet 3 against the outer periphery of the coil that is already wound up on to the coil gripping device 2. The result which this achieves is that the winding material fed to the coil makes firm contact with the outer periphery of the latter and as dense a winding as possible is produced. The winding spindle 14 of the coil gripping device 2 can be moved along an axis in the direction of arrows 4, that is to say perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis of the winding material (which is the absorber finger or absorber sheet), in order to compensate for the constant increase in the circumference of the coil produced during the winding-up. The winding material is advantageously moved in turn in its longitudinal direction in accordance with the winding speed. Once a predetermined, maximum circumference of the wound-up coil has been reached, an associated cutting tool 5 can separate the absorber finger or the absorber sheet 3 from the remaining coil. In this connection, advantageously only one mounting of the component on other parts of the control element is cut through in order to obtain the component as a gas-tight cladding of the absorber material. It is therefore also possible to determine the internal diameter which the coil should have for a given maximum circumference of the wound-up coil, i.e. the distance between the bending roller 1 and the winding spindle 14 at which the winding-up is started. FIG. 2 shows a section of a winding device according to FIG. 1, in which elements having the identical function are denoted by identical reference symbols to those in FIG. 1. The coil gripping device 2 is constructed with a suitable drive 4' so as to be rotatable about its winding spindle 14 and it has an associated support element 15 which fixes the coil produced on the coil gripping device 2 through the use of an associated winding coil 6 on the coil gripping device 2. The finished coil made of the absorber fingers or absorber sheets 3 can then be kept in the wound-up state by folding in lateral jaws of the winding coil 6 surrounding the coil with the aid of a folding element 16. However, according to the invention, the finished coil may also be kept in the wound-up state by a retention belt. In order to remove the coil, the coil gripping device 2 can be moved in the direction of arrows 7 along its winding spindle 14 in order to separate the coil gripping device 2 from the supporting element 15 and release the coil. The coil gripping device 2 can then perform a pivoting movement about a pivoting axis 8 and the retained coil can be pulled off the coil gripping device 2. FIG. 3 shows a plurality of coils 10 which have been produced by a winding device and which are retained by folding in the lateral jaws of winding coils on which the absorber fingers are wound up. The coils are stacked in the interior of a basket 9 having external dimensions which fit into a standard shielded container 17. A hollow center 12 of the coils is densely filled with compacted residual material 11 of control elements in order to enable an efficient space utilization of the shielded container 17. According to the invention, such a device can be disposed in a stationary or temporary manner in a water pond of a light-water-cooled nuclear reactor and can prepare elongated components originating from a spent control element of the nuclear reactor and containing gas-tightly enclosed absorber material, for storage in a storage container. According to FIGS. 1 and 2, in particular, such a device has the rotational drive 4' for the winding spindle 14, which is disposed next to the component and approximately perpendicularly to the longitudinal direction of the component (absorber finger or absorber sheet) and which is part of a gripping tool that, for example, supports the coil gripping device 2 and to which a free end of the originally elongated component can be attached. The component can be moved relative to the gripping tool in its longitudinal direction, while the pressing and bending roller 1 is disposed on its other side and situated opposite the winding spindle of the gripping tool. The distance between the pressing and bending roller 1 and the winding spindle is variable to suit the thickness of the winding being produced. In this way, coils are produced which are composed of an originally elongated component containing absorber material of a spent control element of a light-water-cooled nuclear reactor and which can be intermediately stored or finally stored in a space-saving manner in standard storage containers. In is therefore possible to avoid the escape of fairly large amounts of radioactive substances from the absorber material.