Patent Number: 047479957
Section: summary

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In previous art the previous application, Ser. No. 692,849 to A. H. Krieg, filed Mar. 11, 1985, a control rod crushing device was introduced. This device was developed in order to reduce the volume of spent radioactive BWR control rods. In the process of development, it was determined that the velocity limiter end of the control rod was too substantial to crush and a method had to be developed to remove this portion of the control rod without polluting the containment pool. For this reason we developed the velocity limiter shear for BWR control rods. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of this invention is to provide a machine that can operate underwater in hazardous environment via remote control, shear off the velocity limiter from the BWR control rod and carry out this function without the release of any of the materials contained in the fins of the control rod. Furthermore, the invention is foreseen with a method for positioning and aligning the control rod in a simple and practical manner. This second portion of the invention is called an alignment system. A third function of the invention is that 2 fins of the control rod are sheared simultaneously so that side pressure or the inherent intrinsic slippage, is met with a counter action to a one sided shearing function, and is by equal pressure from both sides contained. Yet another function of this invention is the rotation of the control rod so as to allow the second set of fins to be sheared. Referring now to the drawings in which like numeral refer to like parts: In FIG. 1, we see a side view representative of the apparatus where #13 is the handle attached to #11 control rod with #12 "D" shaped holes located near the bottom end of the #11 control rod where the #15 cylindrical protrusion and #17 wheel like protrusions are. The #18 shearing heads are fed into cutting position by #19 retraction and feeding cylinders and are activated by #20 shear activating cylinders. After the first shearing operation is completed, the #18 shearing heads are retracted and the #14 rotary table cylinder turns the #16 rotary table which rotates the #11 control rod 90.degree. for the next shearing operation. In FIG. 2, we see a top view representative of the apparatus where the #11 control rod is positioned in the shearing apparatus and #18 shearing heads are being activated by #20 shear activating cylinders. The #19 retraction and feeding cylinders hold the #18 shearing heads in place while the shearing function is performed. A further function is the ability to retract the shearing heads from their forward cutting and working position, so as to allow the control rod to be rotated.