NUCLEAR FUEL PELLET SINTERING BOAT LOADING SYSTEM

摘要

The invention relates to a system for loading nuclear-fuel pellets from a pellet press into a sintering boat.
The system comprises a drum (22) including at least one channel for holding a row of pellets; means (28) for rotating the drum so as to move the or each channel successively to a pellet-receiving position, a pellet-discharging position, and again to the pellet-receiving position; pellet transferring means (14, 32, 34) for receiving the pellets (10) from the press (12) and inserting them into the channel disposed in the pellet-receiving position; pellet-row transferring means (44 or 46) for transferring the row of pellets from the channel in the pellet-discharging position into a sintering boat (18 or 20); and means (47 or 48, 50, 51) for changing the relative position between the pellet-row transferring means and the sintering boat after each pellet-row transfer to assure stacking of successive pellet rows in a predetermined order. A controller, preferably comprising a microprocessor, controls and coordinates the operation of the various system components.