Patent ID: 8137090

Claim:
A device for producing nuclear fuel pellets comprising: a press provided with dies, a conveyor intended to transport pellets from the press to a sintering area, means for transferring pellets from the press to the conveyor, means for inspecting at least one nuclear fuel pellet at the exit of a press, said inspection means including means for identifying each pellet according to its die of origin, said identification means being formed by a succession of housings borne by the surface of the conveyor, and each capable of receiving a pellet, each of the housings being associated with a determined die, means for allowing the housing of the surface of the conveyor to be aligned with the dies, means for stopping the conveyor for loading the pellets in the housings of the conveyor; an analyzer to analyze the picked-up pellets; and at least one means for picking up the at least one pellet on a determined die to bring it to the analysis device, and wherein the means for picking up the at least one pellet is configured to pick up a pellet originating from a die different from the one of the a previously picked-up pellet and loading of the pellets is carried out by organized displacement of the conveyor such that at any instant the origin of each pellet is known and used by the inspection means to provide intelligent selection of pellets for inspection.