Control rod drive for reactor shutdown

Patent · Mon Jan 19 23:00:00 EST 1976

OSTI ID:862454

McKeehan, Ernest R ^[1]; Shawver, Bruce M ^[2]; Schiro, Donald J ^[2]; Taft, William E ^[1]

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1. Los Gatos, CA
2. San Jose, CA

A means for rapidly shutting down or scramming a nuclear reactor, such as a liquid metal-cooled fast breeder reactor, and serves as a backup to the primary shutdown system. The control rod drive consists basically of an in-core assembly, a drive shaft and seal assembly, and a control drive mechanism. The control rod is driven into the core region of the reactor by gravity and hydraulic pressure forces supplied by the reactor coolant, thus assuring that common mode failures will not interfere with or prohibit scramming the reactor when necessary.

• Research Organization: General Electric Co., Sunnyvale, Calif. (USA). Breeder Reactor Dept.
• DOE Contract Number: AT(04-3)-893
• Assignee: United States of America as represented by United States Energy (Washington, DC)
• Patent Number(s): US 3933581
• Application Number: 05/476,173
• OSTI ID: 862454
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

/376/976/
assembly
assuring
backup
basically
breeder
breeder reactor
common
common mode
consists
control
control drive
control rod
coolant
cooled fast
core
core assembly
core region
drive
drive mechanism
drive shaft
driven
failures
fast
fast breeder
forces
gravity
hydraulic
hydraulic pressure
in-core
interfere
liquid
liquid metal
liquid metal-cooled
means
mechanism
metal-cooled
metal-cooled fast
mode
nuclear
nuclear reactor
pressure
pressure forces
primary
prohibit
rapidly
reactor
reactor coolant
reactor shutdown
region
rod
rod drive
scramming
seal
seal assembly
serves
shaft
shutdown
shutting
supplied