Development of joining techniques for fabrication of fuel rod simulators. [LMFBR]

Technical Report · Wed Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1980

OSTI ID:5033086

Moorhead, A J; McCulloch, R W; Reed, R W; Woodhouse, J J

Much of the safety-related thermal-hydraulic tests on nuclear reactors are conducted not in the reactor itself, but in mockup segments of a core that uses resistance-heated fuel rod simulators (FRS) in place of the radioactive fuel rods. Laser welding and furnace brazing techniques are described for joining subassemblies for FRS that have survived up to 1000 h steady-state operation at 700 to 1100/sup 0/C cladding temperatures and over 5000 thermal transients, ranging from 10 to 100/sup 0/C/s. A pulsed-laser welding procedure that includes use of small-diameter filler wire is used to join one end of a resistance heating element of Pt-8 W, Fe-22 Cr-5.5 Al-0.5 Co, or 80 Ni-20 Cr (wt %) to a tubular conductor of an appropriate intermediate material. The other end of the heating element is laser welded to an end plug, which in turn is welded to a central conductor rod.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• OSTI ID: 5033086
• Report Number(s): ORNL-5673
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
210500* -- Power Reactors
Breeding
BRAZING
BREEDER REACTORS
EPITHERMAL REACTORS
FABRICATION
FAST REACTORS
FBR TYPE REACTORS
FUEL ELEMENTS
FUEL PINS
JOINING
LASER WELDING
LIQUID METAL COOLED REACTORS
LMFBR TYPE REACTORS
MOCKUP
REACTOR COMPONENTS
REACTORS
STRUCTURAL MODELS
TEST FACILITIES
WELDING