Apparatus for coating nuclear fuel pellets with a burnable absorber

摘要

Apparatus for depositing a coating (such as a burnable absorber) on nuclear fuel pellets. Pallets 16 hold a single layer of fuel pellets 22 between lower and upper screened parts 18 and 20. A rotating drum 14 holds the pallets 16 on its circumference. A chamber 12 encloses the drum 14. A sputtering machine 24 has stationary, sputter-frangible, upper and lower targets (such as zirconium diboride) 26 and 28. The stationary upper targets 26 are placed inside the drum's circumference above its longitudinal axis and are pointed facing generally upward and radially outward. The stationary lower targets 28 are placed outside the drum's circumference below its longitudinal axis and are pointed facing generally upward and radially inward. The target material is sputtered onto the fuel pellets 22 as the pallets 16 on the drum 14 rotate past.