DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF PROTOTYPE REMOTE-CONTROLLED SODIUM-BONDING AND BOND-INSPECTION PROCESSES FOR EBR-II FUEL CYCLE FACILITY

摘要

The EBR-II plant includes an integral, remote-controlled Fuel Cycle Facility wherein spent fuel elements are to be pyrometallurgically refined, refabricated, inspected, and reassembled for return to the reactor. This report describes the experimentally supported changes and refinements made in the prototype sodium-bonding and bond-inspection equipment to ensure:(1) acceptable fuel elements for the initial core loading;and (2) equally acceptable elements in production quantities in the parent installation. More specifically, the mode of imparting bonding energy to the fuel element was changed from a vibratory action to a series of timed impacts. This reflected an increase in the yield of acceptable elements and a reduction of machine operation time. A nondestructive, eddy-current instrument was developed and demonstrated as capable of detecting all defects in the liquid sodium bond.