Production of a cross section of an absorber control rod by arrangement of square tubes and laser welding processes.

摘要

An apparatus and process for the construction of a cruciformed section control rod is disclosed. The control rod is constructed of square exterior sectioned tubes with central cylindrical volumes for the containment of neutron absorbing poisons. In the process, these tubes are welded together at the corners of the square sections to form the planar members of the cruciformed shaped rods. An apparatus and process is disclosed in which the rods (T) are all held by a jig (J1,J2) in the same configuration as is ultimately fabricated. Thereafter, the jig is drawn through fixtures, which fixtures accurately guide the rods to be joined by welding past a laser welding unit preferably comprising paired and opposed laser welding heads. By the expedient of positioning the laser and rapidly welding the braced together tubes by the laser, control rod fabrication occurs. There results a solid, integral control rod constituting a suitable pressure vessel for neutron absorbers for control of nuclear reactions.