Spent fuel rod horizontal consolidation system and method

摘要

The system of the invention includes a downender station 10 which receives and secures a spent fuel assembly 20 in a vertical disposition and is then pivoted to a horizontal position after the upper nozzle has been removed, and a second station 12 generally aligned with the first station includes a multiple rod gripper 56 which is used to grip onto the exposed fuel rod ends and pull the fuel rods to an upper horizontal location in the second station, with horizontal and vertical combs 60 and 62 maintaining the original square pitch array of the rods, and the rods are then dropped into a reconfiguring structure 70 where they assume a more compact array, the rods then being pushed by pusher 74 into a storage canister 26 carried by the downender below the fuel assembly 20. The arrangement permits compacting fuel rods from two fuel assemblies into a storage canister 26 having approximately the same transverse cross-sectional area as a single fuel assembly.