General Electric Company

Douglas K Ethridge

Frank Ortega

Robert S Tsukida

John Geddes Erbes

Bettadapur N Sridhar

Jeffrey L Thompson

Harry I Russell

Vincent R Cantacessi

Martin Daniel Kaylor

Herbert B Dela Rosa

Dale M Oliver

A method and an apparatus for repairing a core plate having a cracked support structure. The method entails the step of providing a vertical compression load path between the core plate and one or more control rod guide tubes. This is accomplished by installing a plurality of load-bearing wedges between the core plate and the step of each guide tube. Each load-bearing wedge is placed between the core plate and the guide tube machined step so that core plate pressure loads are reacted by the weight of the fuel rather than the core plate support structure. The load-bearing wedges can be installed without removing the guide tube or the fuel support casting.

Core plate repair using guide tube gap wedges

A tool for removal of the internal bushings from a piston coupling of a CRD. The tool incorporates a spring-loaded and hardened collet supported on one end of a ram. The collet has a pair of arms with shoulders or projections which latch inside the internal bushing ring to be removed. The tool is inserted into the piston coupling from either end, depending on which internal bushing is to be removed. The tool is inserted until the latching shoulders or projections snap behind the radially inwardly projecting internal bushing, with the contact surfaces of the shoulders or projections in contact with a radial end surface of the bushing. The bushing can then be dislodged, from the inside out, by impacting the other end of the ram with a hammer.

Internal bushing removal tool

A multi-port tool which tests for leaks in the seals of a control rod drive that has been removed from its housing. The fixture is attached to the flange of the control rod drive using quick-release clamps. Two ports of the fixture are respectively coupled to the insert and withdraw ports of the control rod drive. A source of demineralized water at a constant pressure is applied to an inlet port of the leak test fixture. The pressurized water is applied to the control rod drive while the index tube is restrained by a restraining rig. A number of valves are selectively opened or closed to provide a flow path for the pressurized water to either the insert port or the withdraw port. The leakage rate at each of a number of leakage points is determined when the pressurized water is applied at the insert port only and again when the pressurized water is applied at the withdraw port only.

Leak test fixture

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Douglas K Ethridge