Nuclear fuel assembly wear sleeve
AssigneeWestinghouse Electric Corp.
InventorsStanley Kmonk, Dennis J. Cadwell
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An improved control rod guide tube for use in a fuel assembly in a nuclear reactor. The guide tube extends the complete length of the fuel assembly and has its upper end fastened in a cylindrical housing by swaging the guide tube material into grooves formed in the housing walls. To eliminate wear on the guide tube inner walls caused by hydraulic induced vibratory forces on a control rod adapted to move therein, a thin-walled chrome plated sleeve is threaded into the top end of the guide thimble and extends downwardly a distance sufficient to be engaged by the control rod during reactor operation. The sleeve serves as a highly resistant wear surface between the control rod and walls on the guide tube in the fuel assembly.
Claims8
An improved control rod guide tube for a nuclear reactor fuel assembly comprising a tube adapted to extend the length of said fuel assembly;
- a housing enclosing the upper part of said tube, said housing extending through a supporting spider at its upper end and being attached at its lower end to a top nozzle adapter plate, and means securing the tube to said housing;
- a wear sleeve in said tube having an inner diameter only slightly greater than a control rod adapted to be positioned in the upper end of said tube,
- said sleeve being of a length which extends inwardy into the tube a distance beyond the lower surface of said adapter plate in the top nozzle;
- threaded means fastening said wear sleeve to said housing at a location above said top nozzle adapter plate;
- and
- said wear sleeve comprising a material highly resistant to wear, the wear action on said sleeve being caused by a control rod moving relative thereto during operation of the reactor in which the control rod guide tube is adapted to be used.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.