Patent Number: 052271250
Section: summary

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a tool for handling a cluster of rods of consumable poison, used particularly in a fuel building of a nuclear power station, for example of the PWR type, in order to carry out handling operations on clusters of rods of consumable poison. The tool is used especially during the first refuelling of the nuclear reactor and makes it possible to extract under water the clusters of rods of consumable poison inserted in the fuel assemblies or into cells of spent-fuel storage racks equipped with adaptors. The tool is attached to a winch of a platform displaceable in the fuel building and comprises a head for gripping the cluster, connected to the end of a handling member displaceable slidably in a tool body between an active position, in which the head and at least part of the member project from the body in order to grip the cluster, and a retracted position, in which the member, the gripping head and part of the cluster extend within the body for the displacement of the cluster. Moreover, the tool comprises combs for guiding the rods, provided at the corresponding end of the body and displaceable by raising between a retracted position, in which they extend substantially along the wall of the body, and an active position, in which they extend substantially perpendicularly to the wall in order to guide the rods when these extend at least partially within the body. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In the prior art, the displacement of these combs between the retracted and active positions is effected by means of an operating linkage actuable, for example, by a user. However, such a linkage has a relatively complex structure, its bulky and risks jamming of the combs. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of the invention is to solve these problems by providing a handling tool of simple structure and reduced bulk in which the displacement of the combs between the active and retracted positions is carried out in a highly reliable way and without the risk of jamming. To this end, the subject of the invention is a handling tool of the type described above, comprising elastic means for stressing the combs into the active position and means for retracting the combs counter to the stress of the elastic means, displaceable between an active position of retraction of the combs and a retracted position of release of the combs by the gripping head and/or the handling member during their displacement between their active position and their position retracted within the body .