Computerised Automatic Pellet Inspection Unit for FBTR Fuel

摘要

Physical inspection and certification of nuclear reactor fuel element components is an activity demanding utmost imagination and skill in devising accurate measuring systems. There is also need for remote handling, automation, rapid processing and inspection data print out when dealing with reactor fuel material. This report deals with an automatic computerised fuel pellet inspection system that has been developed in Radiometallurgy Division, B.A.R.C. to carry out dimensional and weight measurements on fuel pellets for the Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) at Kalpakkam near Madras. The system consists of several subsystems each developed especially for a specific purpose and as such items are not available off the shelf from manufacturers in India. If a general approach is adopted towards the report, there are many innovations and ideas that can be used in the automatic inspection of a variety of products in industry. As the system is fairly involved the report does not attempt to deal with detailed description of the equipment. The function of the system is to accept a certain quantity of fuel pellets in a bowl feeder, separate the pellets rejected owing to their exceeding dimensional and weight limits and form columns of accepted pellets. Dimensional and weight limits can be set as required and all inspection data are presented in a printed format. The system processes pellets at the rate of 15 per minute. The entire system can be run by operators with no special skills. The unit is currently in use for the inspection of mixed carbide fuel pellets for FBTR. 7 figs. (Atomindex citation 18:002443)