Container for irradiated nuclear fuels - has walls made of sandwich of lead between steel shells with surfaces fitting with precision determinable in advance

摘要

Method of making containers for the storage and transport of irradiated fuel, comprises constituting the walls on the sandwich principle, of lead or lead alloy between inner and outer sheets of steel. Method consists of carrying out a first moulding of the lead layer on the internal shell to a thickness less than the desired final thickness, placing this first ensemble concentrically within the outer shell so as to realise an annular space, and injecting in this annular space the small quantity of lead necessary to fill it after the outer shell has been brough to a calculated temp. Cooling of the shell then brings about binding on the lead layer with a given precision determinable in advance. In contrast to existing processes the process allows the realisation of a sandwich fabrication of containers in which the surfaces of the constituents pieces in contact fit one another figorously and are put into a compression which can be calculated as the constructor wishes.