Spent fuel consolidation system

Abstract

The spent fuel consolidation system provides a system for vertically and remotely dismantling an irradiated nuclear fuel assembly while the fuel assembly remains submerged in a coolant and for consolidating the spent fuel rods of the dismantled fuel assembly. The system comprises a platform rotatably mounted on a vertical support with a fuel assembly station, a consolidation station, and a canister station attached to the platform. A gripper mechanism is slidably disposed on the vertical support for transferring spent fuel rods from one station to another as the various stations are rotated into alignment with the gripper mechanism. The fuel assembly station provides a station for holding the fuel assembly while the spent fuel rods are removed therefrom, the consolidation station provides a station for consolidating the spent fuel rods, and the canister station provides a station for holding the consolidated spent fuel rods.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.