Patent Number: 043081002
Section: abstract

Apparatus for charging a nuclear reactor disposed at the bottom of a pool. The reactor is constituted by a plurality of tiers of combustible assemblies having different stages of enrichment, each assembly having combustible rods and an auxiliary cluster associated with the particular tier of the assembly. The apparatus comprises a rolling bridge supported for movement in a plane above the pool, and carrying a turnable platform which supports a plurality of vertical telescopic manipulation arms arranged in angular spaced relation thereon. Each arm carries a respective grappling unit for respectively engaging a complete combustible assembly or at least one type of auxiliary cluster. The auxiliary clusters may include control clusters, sealing clusters and poison consumable clusters. In a particular embodiment three manipulation arms are provided one with a grappling unit to engage a complete combustible assembly a second with a grappling unit to engage a control cluster, and a third with a unit to engage a sealing cluster or a poison consumable cluster. The turnable platform has as many angular stop positions as there are telescopic arms and it has an active position at which each telescopic arm is selectively fixed in operative position. At the other angular positions, the arms are inactive. At the active position, each of the telescopic arms can be extended and retracted.