Nuclear fuel pellet loading method and machine for same
AssigneeFramatome Cogema Fuel Co.
InventorsWilliam E. Bailey, Dimick D. Heller, Steven D. Overby
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An automated machine for loading nuclear reactor fuel, BP, or APSR pellets from small trays having rows of pellets into reactor rods of long length wherein the pellets are individually counted and loaded into rows of a loading tray according to the desired number of pellets per row and total number of pellets per tray with the loading tray controls being moved to a que tray where they may be weighted and there from to an unloading tray for sequential row loading into the reactor rod.
Claims15
An automated system for loading nuclear reactor pellets into tubes used to control power in the reactor comprising;
- a pellet-loading tray comprising rows of pellet holders;
- means for feeding individual pellets to the rows of said loading tray;
- a counter for determining that a preset number of pellets are loaded into said loading tray;
- a que tray and a pellet-unloading tray having rows of pellet holders and being sequentialy connected to said pellet-loading tray;
- a long length reactor control tube connected to said unloading tray and able to hold all the pellet filled rows of said unloading tray;
- and
- control means for moving the pellets from said pellet loading tray to said que tray when said loading tray is filled with the preset number of pellets and therefrom to said unloading tray for sequential row loading into said reactor control tube.
A method of automatically filling nuclear reactor control tubes with the proper amount of reactor pellets from trays having rows for holding pellets therein comprising the steps of:
- filling each row of the loading tray with the preset number of pellets counted by the counter;
- moving the pellets from the loading tray to a que tray when the total number of desired pellets are counted by the counter;
- moving the pellets from the que tray to an unloading tray whenever the contents of the loading tray are moved to the que tray;
- and
- sequentially moving the pellets from each row of the unloading tray into a control tube.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.