Patent GB-1216168-A (GB)
Title: Refuelling apparatus and method for nuclear reactors
IPC: G21C3/14
Filed: 1969-09-19
Abstract: 1,216,168. Fuelling reactors. UNITED STATES ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION. 19 Sept., 1969 [2 Oct., 1968], No. 46412/69. Heading G6C. The core 13 of a sodium-cooled fast reactor comprises hexagonal-shaped fuel bundles 12 arranged side-byside and having three - armed lifting handles 17 provided with notches 18. Some of the fuel bundles, e.g. bundle 12<SP>1</SP>, incorporate a control rod guide tube 16. The core 13 is situated in a vessel 39 filled with sodium to the level 44. Also within the vessel is a temporary storage facility 40 which may receive transfer cups 41 each containing a fuel bundle 12. The fuelling apparatus comprises a refuelling machine 11 for transferring fuel bundles between the core 13 and facility 40 and a fuel removal device 42 for introducing new fuel bundles into the facility 40 and for removing spent fuel bundles from the facility. The machine 11 comprises a carriage 22 horizontally movable on a carriage 24, the latter being movable horizontally in a direction 27 perpendicular to the direction of movement of the carriage 22. The carriage 22 carries a hexagonal-shaped tube 10 which is movable vertically by a pinion 20 and rack 19. When the tube 10 is aligned with the appropriate part of the core 13 by means of the carriages 22, 24 and the tube is lowered, the wall of the tube rests on the walls 14 of the six bundles which surround that part of the core whereby when the bundle related to that part is raised the surrounding bundles are prevented from rising. A grapple assembly 30 rotatably mounted by a bearing 29 on the upper end of the tube 10 comprises a rack 33 driven by a pinion 32 and carrying at its lower end a grapple 34. The grapple 34 has three lugs 36 which engage the corresponding corners of the tube 10 whereby rotation of the grapple within the tube is normally prevented. However, when the tube 10 is lowered on to the core and the grapple is lowered to the bottom of the tube to permit the arms of the handle 17 to enter openings 37 in the grapple, the lugs 36 become opposite three slots 15 provided in the tube wall. The grapple 34 may now be rotated through 60 degrees to retain the notches 18 in the openings 37, the lugs 36 moving through the slots 15. The spent bundle 12 is lifted into the tube, the tube is raised and the bundle is moved laterally beneath the sodium level 44 through an opening 43 into an empty cup 41 in the facility 40. During this movement unwanted release of the fuel bundle is prevented by the engagement of the lugs 36 with corners of the tube 10. A spent fuel bundle 12 in a cup 41 is transferred to a decay tank (not shown) by the fuel removal device 42. This device includes a natural convection cooling system comprising a loop filled with NaK. The lower end of the loop comprises one or more tubes 48 which dip into the sodium of the cup 41 when the device 42 is lowered to enable lugs 50 on a grapple 47 to enter lifting slots 51 in the cup. The tubes 48 communicate through a column 45 with a heat exchanger 46 where heat from the NaK is transferred to the argon atmosphere provided above the sodium level 44. Thus when the fuel bundle is raised in the cup 41 above the level 44 by the device 42 it is continuously cooled during transfer to the decay tank.