Patent GB-934221-A (GB)
Title: Improvements relating to nuclear reactor refuelling arrangements
Inventor: POUNDER JOHN ORMEROD
IPC: G21C19/105
Filed: 1960-10-28
Abstract: 934,221. Servicing reactors. UNITED KINGDOM ATOMIC ENERGY AUTHORITY. Oct. 10, 1961 [Oct. 28, 1960], No. 37226/60. Class 39 (4). A reactor, Fig. 4, comprising a core (not shown) within an open-topped tank 10 containing liquid metal coolant, the tank cover being constituted by charge floor shielding 5, has means for removing a spent fuel element consisting of a carrier which may be positioned below the level of the coolant in the tank and immediately adjacent the exit from the core of the fuel element and a grab for loading the fuel element into the liquid-filled carrier and subsequently withdrawing the loaded carrier into a charging machine 8. The machine may then transport the carrier to a store 42. The core comprises a number of channels 11 (only one shown) of hexagonal cross-section to accommodate three contiguously clustered fuel element sub-assemblies 12, 13, 14 of rhomboid cross-section. A plate 15 over the core has openings of similar cross-section to the channels. A rotating shield assembly in the floor 5 comprises an inner shield 16 eccentrically disposed in an outer shield 16a, the inner shield having eccentrically disposed therein a rotary plug 17 having a central hole through which the machine 8 may operate. The level of the coolant in the tank 10 is denoted by line 18 in Fig. 1A. A tube 19 fixed in the hole in the plug 17 has guideways 21, Fig. 2, for a verticallymovable carriage 20 controlled by the machine 8, the carriage supporting a grab 22 eccentric to the axis of the tube. The grab has a pair of jaws (Fig. 3, not shown), which may be moved outwards to engage either a pair of diametrically-opposite recesses formed at the upper end of the inner surface of a fuel element subassembly or a pair of similar recesses formed in a carrier 29 for the sub-assembly. The carrier 29 is open-topped and for most of its length is of rhomboid cross-section to snugly receive a sub-assembly 12, 13 or 14, the lower end, however, is enlarged and of hexagonal outline to locate in the openings in the plate 15, the lower end including a wall 35. The tube 19 has a projection 36 diametrically opposite to the axis of the grab 22. In operation, the carrier 29 suspended from the grab 22 is aligned with the required channel 11 by rotation of the shields 16, 16a and, assuming that sub-assembly 12 is to be withdrawn, the plug 17 is rotated to align the wall 35 with that sub-assembly, Fig. 2. The carrier is lowered so that it rests on sub-assemblies 13, 14, Fig. 1A, the grab 22 is released and the plug 17 rotated through 180 degrees. The grab is lowered to engage the sub-assembly 12 and the latter is lifted above the level of the projection 36, the assembly, however, remaining below the level 18. During this lifting operation the projection 36, by overlying the carrier 29, Fig. 1B, prevents any tendency for the sub-assemblies 13, 14 to lift simultaneously. The plug 17 is again rotated through 180 degrees and the sub-assembly lowered into the carrier. The grab 22 is released from the sub-assembly 12 and engaged with the carrier, the latter, filled with the liquid metal and the sub-assembly, being hoisted into the machine 8. The machine has a system for circulating nitrogen cooling gas over the carrier. The store 42 comprises a magazine for receiving a number of carriers (Fig. 5, not shown).