Apparatus for dismantling and disposing of fuel assemblies

Apparatus for dismantling, shearing, and compacting an elongated fuel assembly frame skeleton remaining after removal of a top nozzle and fuel rods of a nuclear fuel assembly, comprising:

• a superstructure adapted for positioning, substantially underwater, in a transfer canal of a fuel handling building of a nuclear power generating facility, adjacent to a spent fuel pit contained therein;
• bottom nozzle removal operating means contained within the superstructure supported at a level below the surface water level of the transfer canal, the bottom nozzle removal operating means including a guillotine blade for severing a bottom nozzle from thimble tubes and grids of the fuel assembly frame skeleton;
• compactor operating means supported within said superstructure at a level below the surface of the water level of the transfer canal for compacting the remainder of the frame skeleton after the bottom nozzle has been removed and prior to shearing thereof, to a width which is substantially less than the original width in cross-section in a directional orthogonal to the longitudinal axis of the frame skeleton;
• skeleton shear operating means supported by said superstructure below the surface level of the water in the transfer canal for shearing the compacted skeleton into pieces of a shorter length than the original length in the longitudinal direction;
• conveyor means operatively associated with said superstructure, the spent fuel pit and the transfer canal for conveying the frame skeleton from the fuel pit to said superstructure after the top nozzle and the fuel rods are removed in the fuel pit from the fuel assembly, said conveyor means also cooperating with the bottom nozzle removal operating means, the compactor operating means and the shear operating means for transferring the frame skeleton from one of the aforementioned operating means to another;
• a transfer container for receiving the severed bottom nozzle and sheared sections of the frame skeleton assembly;
• a first chute connected between the bottom nozzle removal operating means and the transfer container for transferring the severed bottom nozzle to the transfer container;
• and
• a second chute connected between the skeleton shear operating means and the transfer container for transferring the severed sheared skeleton sections to the transfer container.