Control rod drive

Patent · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:865839

Hawke, Basil C.

A control rod drive uses gravitational forces to insert one or more control rods upwardly into a reactor core from beneath the reactor core under emergency conditions. The preferred control rod drive includes a vertically movable weight and a mechanism operatively associating the weight with the control rod so that downward movement of the weight is translated into upward movement of the control rod. The preferred control rod drive further includes an electric motor for driving the control rods under normal conditions, an electrically actuated clutch which automatically disengages the motor during a power failure and a decelerator for bringing the control rod to a controlled stop when it is inserted under emergency conditions into a reactor core.

• Research Organization: GA Technologies, Inc., San Diego, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AT03-76SF70046
• Assignee: United States of America as represented by U.S. Department of Energy (Washington, DC)
• Patent Number(s): 4,587,084
• Application Number: 06/526,349
• OSTI ID: 865839
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

/376/185/976/
actuated
associating
automatically
beneath
bringing
clutch
conditions
control
control rod
control rods
controlled
core
decelerator
disengages
downward
downward movement
drive
driving
electric
electric motor
electrically
electrically actuated
emergency
emergency conditions
failure
forces
gravitational
gravitational force
insert
inserted
mechanism
motor
movable
movement
normal
normal condition
normal conditions
operatively
power
power failure
preferred
reactor
reactor core
rod
rod drive
rods
stop
translated
upward
upward movement
upwardly
vertically
vertically movable
weight