SLEEVING OF TUBES OF STEAM GENERATOR IN HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT

摘要

During a sleeving operation, to limit the exposure of personnel to radioactivity within the channel head of a nuclear steam generator, a cartridge sleeve-blank loader for automatically sleeving a plurality of linear tubes is provided. The loader includes a removable turret or drum which carries a plurality of preloaded slightly bowed and indexed sleeve blanks to be inserted by a lifter into selected tubes. The tube receiving the sleeve holds the sleeve in the tube when the lifter is retracted. In inserting the sleeve blank, the lifter moves at a low speed until the leading end of the sleeve enters a tube, and then moves faster. An operator briefly enters the manway of the channel head and replaces the unloaded turret with a preloaded turret.