US 4,063,962 AGranted

Method and apparatus for cleaning nuclear fuel elements

AssigneeGeneral Atomic Company

InventorsSatya Prakash Arya, Walter Woodrow Godsin

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Abstract

In a method and apparatus for cleaning nuclear fuel elements to remove carbonized pitch residue and the like, the cleaning operation preferably being conducted within an enclosure to permit containment of the removed residue, each fuel element being introduced into the enclosure through an airlock, the end surfaces and lateral surfaces of the fuel element being cleaned and one or more longitudinal passages within the fuel element being cleaned by means of a probe unit for initially determining the configuration and position of the longitudinal passages and causing cleaning elements to be aligned with the respective longitudinal passages and extended therethrough, the flow resistance of those longitudinal passages designed for gas flow being monitored by a gauging unit, clean fuel elements being removed from the enclosure through another air-lock.

Claims13

Dependent claims

Apparatus for cleaning carbonized pitch residue from surfaces of nuclear fuel elements following in-block, high temperature curing of the nuclear fuel containing pitch, the fuel element having opposed end surfaces with a plurality of lateral surfaces therebetween and one or more longitudinal passages extending through the fuel element between its end surfaces, comprising

an enclosure for preventing escape of pitch residue from the surfaces of the fuel element into the environment during cleaning,
air-lock means for introducing the fuel element into the enclosure,
means for moving the fuel element between a plurality of stations within the enclosure, the stations including
means for cleaning one end surface of the fuel element,
means for cleaning the other end surface of the fuel element,
probe means engageable with one end of the fuel element for determining the presence of certain longitudinal passages therein,
means responsive to the probe means for aligning cleaning elements with respective longitudinal passages in the fuel element, the cleaning elements being extendable through the longitudinal passages in order to engage and clean the surrounding surfaces of the fuel element along the length of the passages,
means for cleaning the lateral surfaces of the fuel element, and
air-lock means for permitting exit of the fuel element from the enclosure after cleaning.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.