Arrangement for receiving and method for handling spent nuclear reactor fuel rods

A packing assembly for arranging in a densely packed array spent nuclear reactor fuel rods upon removal thereof from a nuclear fuel assembly in a nuclear power plant, said packing assembly comprising:

• a transport and storage container having a first jacket part, a first bottom part detachably connected to said jacket part at one end thereof and a top part removably mounted to said jacket part at an end thereof opposite said bottom part, said jacket part having a length substantially equal to the length of the fuel rods and a cross-sectional area substantially equal to the area of the densely packed array of fuel rods;
• a dense-packing container 81 including a second jacket part of larger dimensions that said first jacket part, a second bottom part fixed to said second jacket part at one end thereof and an outwardly extending connecting flange at an end of said second jacket part opposite said second bottom part, at least said first jacket part of said transport and storage container being insertable into said dense-packing container 81 upon a loading of spent fuel rods thereinto and upon a lateral shifting of the fuel rods from a first geometric array into a seond geometric array more densely packed than said first geometric array;
• coupling means at least partially mounted to said second bottom part and engageable with said first bottom part and said first jacket part for alternately coupling and decoupling said first bottom part to said first jacket part;
• guide means, removably insertable into said dense-packing container 81 prior to a loading of fuel rods thereinto, for guiding the fuel rods into positions in said first geometric array during the loading of said rods into said dense-packing container 81, said second jacket part having inside dimensions larger than outside dimensions of said guide means;
• first clamping means including pressure bars shiftably mounted to said second jacket part on an inner side thereof in the region of said second bottom part for engaging and temporarily securing said first bottom part to said dense-packing container 81;
• second clamping means, mounted to said second jacket part at a plurality of longitudinally spaced positions along an inner side of said second jacket part and inwardly shiftable at each of said spaced positions independently of the other spaced positions, for engaging said fuel rods in said dense-packing container 81 and shifting said fuel rods transversely to a longitudinal axis of said second jacket part from said first geometric array to said second geometric array upon removal of said guide means from said dense-packing container 81 after a loading of said fuel rods into said dense-packing container 81.