Westinghouse Electric Corporation

Westinghouse Electric Company LLC

Daniel M Trombola

Robert E Meuschke

Alexander W Harkness

Daniel Merkovsky

A method of temporarily sealing a reactor pressure vessel during an outage permits the water level in the vessel to be drawn down to a level which enables the interior surfaces of associated structures and equipment in the primary coolant loop to be inspected while dry when the vessel is submerged in a pool of water. A reactor pressure vessel internals lifting rig is used to position a temporary reactor pressure vessel head having an elliptical shaped dome with a circumferential flange retaining a pair of spaced apart, circumferential seal rings onto a reactor pressure vessel circumferential flange without marking or damaging the reactor pressure vessel flange. Advantageously, the weight of the temporary head (together with the static head of water, which must be supported by the elliptical design of the dome) is sufficient to cause the seal rings to seal against the reactor pressure vessel flange without the need for studs or other mechanical fasteners or the need to pump out leakage from the pool of water above the reactor pressure vessel. The flanges and the rings define a space which is tested for leak-tightness.

Method of sealing a reactor pressure vessel

A cabling arrangement is provided for a nuclear reactor located within a containment. Structure inside the containment is characterized by a wall having a near side surrounding the reactor vessel defining a cavity, an operating deck outside the cavity, a sub-space below the deck and on a far side of the wall spaced from the near side, and an operating area above the deck. The arrangement includes a movable frame supporting a plurality of cables extending through the frame, each connectable at a first end to a head package on the reactor vessel and each having a second end located in the sub-space. The frame is movable, with the cables, between a first position during normal operation of the reactor when the cables are connected to the head package, located outside the sub-space proximate the head package, and a second position during refueling when the cables are disconnected from the head package, located in the sub-space. In a preferred embodiment, the frame straddles the top of the wall in a substantially horizontal orientation in the first position, pivots about an end distal from the head package to a substantially vertically oriented intermediate position, and is guided, while remaining about vertically oriented, along a track in the sub-space to the second position.

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Murrysville, PA, United States of America

Daniel M Trombola