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AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsDavid P. Ketcham, Vernon John Fullerton, David Grey Smith, Rex Gormen Robinson, Gerald A. Luciano
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A method of aligning a nuclear fuel bundle and handling selected fuel rods within the fuel bundle located in a spent fuel pool of a nuclear power plant. The bundle includes water rods, full-length and part-length fuel rods extending through a plurality of fuel spacers provided between top and bottom ends of the bundle, each spacer having a plurality of cells accommodating corresponding fuel and water rods. The method includes insertion of a rod grapple tool into a top end of a fuel bundle and down to a desired location within the bundle. A guide pin retrieval tool inserts into a side of the fuel bundle to remove a guide pin from a distal end of a gripper of the rod grapple tool, allowing the guide pin retrieval tool to grip a part-length fuel rod within the fuel bundle.
A method of removing a part-length fuel rod from a fuel bundle, the fuel bundle residing in a spent fuel pool of a nuclear reactor plant, the method comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.