Apparatus for shearing spent nuclear fuel assemblies

Patent · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1980

OSTI ID:863493

Weil, Bradley S ^[1]

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1. Knoxville, TN

A method and apparatus are described for shearing spent nuclear fuel assemblies of the type comprising an array of fuel pins disposed within an outer metal shell or shroud. A spent fuel assembly is first compacted in a known manner and then incrementally sheared using fixed and movable shear blades having matched laterally projecting teeth which slidably intermesh to provide the desired shearing action. Incremental advancement of the fuel assembly after each shear cycle is limited to a distance corresponding to the lateral projection of the teeth to ensure fuel assembly breakup into small uniform segments which are amenable to remote chemical processing.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN
• Assignee: United States of America as represented by United States (Washington, DC)
• Patent Number(s): US 4186657
• OSTI ID: 863493
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

/100/72/83/376/976/
action
advancement
amenable
apparatus
array
assemblies
assembly
blades
breakup
chemical
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chemical processing
compacted
comprising
corresponding
cycle
described
desired
disposed
distance
ensure
fixed
fuel
fuel assemblies
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fuel pins
incremental
incrementally
intermesh
lateral
laterally
limited
manner
matched
metal
metal shell
method
movable
nuclear
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outer
outer metal
pins
processing
projecting
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provide
remote
segments
shear
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shearing
shearing spent
shell
shroud
slidably
spent
spent fuel
spent nuclear
teeth
type
type comprising
uniform