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US 4,786,461 AGranted
Reactor internals hold down spring
AssigneeWestinghouse Electric Corp.
InventorsLuciano Veronesi, Stephen N. Tower
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed is a reactor internals hold down spring and upper head region cooling passage. The hold down spring utilizes a plurality of stacks of Belleville spring washers to provide spring load and deflection capability to hold down the reactor vessel internals. Each spring assembly includes a generally leak tight means for passing an adjustable coolant flow to the upper reactor vessel head region in order to maintain that region at inlet coolant temperature. The spring assemblies are angularly spaced about a core barrel support flange to cooperate with coolant flow passage formed therein.
Claims15
A nuclear reactor comprising:
- a reactor pressure vessel;
- a lower-internals assembly disposed within the reactor pressure vessel including a core barrel having a flange with a plurality of first annularly-spaced coolant passages;
- an upper-internals assembly disposed within the reactor pressure vessel including an upper-internals barrel having a flange, axially disposed above said core-barrel flange, with a plurality of second annularly-spaced coolant passages;
- each of said plurality of second passages being positioned to be in coolant-passage communication with a corresponding one of said plurality of said first passages;
- a plurality of reactor-internals hold-down spring assemblies annularly-spaced about said core-barrel flange, each of said spring assemblies being disposed between said core-barrel flange and said upper-internals barrel flange and being associated with one of said plurality of second passages and said corresponding one of said plurality of first passages;
- each said spring assembly comprising:
- a resilient biasing device;
- a retainer means for carrying said resilient biasing device and having therein a central bore;
- and
- means, disposed in said central bore, for defining a connecting flow passage for coolant between a said second and said corresponding first coolant passages with which said each spring assembly is associated.
7 more elements
A nuclear reactor comprising:
- a reactor pressure vessel,
- a lower-internals assembly disposed within the reactor pressure vessel including a core barrel having a flange with a plurality of first annularly-spaced coolant passages;
- an upper-internals assembly disposed within the reactor pressure vessel including an upper-internals barrel having a flange, axially disposed above said core-barrel flange, with a plurality of second annularly-spaced coolant passages;
- each of said plurality of second passages being positioned to be in coolant-passage communication with a corresponding one of said plurality of said first passages;
- a plurality of reactor-internals hold-down spring assemblies annularly-spaced about said core-barrel flange, each of said spring assemblies being disposed between said core-barrel flange and said upper-internals barrel flange and being associated with one of said plurality of second passages and said corresponding one of said plurality of first passages;
- each said spring assembly comprising:
- a resilient biasing device;
- a retainer means for carrying said resilient biasing device and having therein a central bore;
- and
- means disposed in said central bore, for defining a connecting flow passage for coolant between a said second and said corresponding first coolant passages with which said each spring assembly is associated;
- said defining means comprising:
- a bellows flange, fixed at one end of said central bore, and having a central opening therein;
- a spring bellows carried by said bellows flange and disposed within said central bore;
- a movable plunger carried by said spring bellows and having a central opening therein;
- said plunger being biased by said spring bellows against the one of said plurality of first coolant passages with which it is associated.
12 more elements
A nuclear reactor comprising:
- a reactor pressure vessel;
- a lower-internals assembly disposed within the reactor pressure vessel including a core barrel having a flange with a plurality of first annularly-spaced coolant passages;
- an upper-internals assembly disposed within the reactor pressure vessel including an upper-internals barrel having a flange, axially disposed above said core-barrel flange, with a plurality of second annularly-spaced coolant passages;
- each of said plurality of second passages being positioned to be in coolant-passage communication with a corresponding one of said plurality of said first passages;
- a plurality of reactor-internals hold-down spring assemblies annularly-spaced about said core-barrel flange, each of said spring assemblies being disposed between said core-barrel flange and said upper-internals barrel flange and being associated with one of said plurality of second passages and said corresponding one of said plurality of first passages;
- each said spring assembly comprising:
- a resilient biasing device;
- a retainer means for carrying said resilient biasing device and having therein a central bore;
- and
- means disposed in said central bore, for defining a connecting flow passage for coolant between a said second and said corresponding first coolant passages with which said each spring assembly is associated;
- said defining means comprising:
- a first movable plunger, movably retained within one end of said central bore and having a central opening therein;
- a second movable plunger movably disposed within another end of said central bore, and having a central opening therein;
- and
- a spring bellows disposed within said central bore and between said first and second plungers for biasing said first and second plungers against the second coolant passageway associated with said defining means and the corresponding one of the first coolant passageways in communication with said second coolant passages.
12 more elements
A nuclear reactor comprising:
- a reactor pressure vessel;
- a lower-internals assembly disposed within said reactor pressure vessel, said assembly including a core barrel having a flange with a plurality of first annularly-spaced coolant passages;
- an upper-internals assembly disposed within said reactor pressure vessel, said upper-internals assembly including an upper-internals barrel having a flange, axially disposed above said core-barrel flange, with a plurality of second annularly-spaced coolant passages;
- each of said second passages being positioned to be in coolant passage communication with a corresponding one of said first passages;
- a head secured to said vessel defining an upper-head region between it and said upper-internals assembly with said second passages in communication with said upper-head region;
- a reactor hold-down spring assembly disposed between said core-barrel flange and said upper-internals barrel flange at each associated first and corresponding second passages between said flanges;
- each said hold-down spring assembly having a bore in coolant communication between each associated first passage and the corresponding second passage;
- an inlet nozzle in said pressure vessel;
- and
- means, connected to said inlet nozzle, for conducting the coolant flowing into said inlet nozzle to the upper-head region through said first and second passages and through said bore.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.