Fuel Channel Inspection Equipment for RBMK Reactors.

Abstract This paper describes fuel channel inspection equipment for RBMK reactors. Specially designed equipment for inspecting RBMK reactor fuel channels has been manufactured by a Japanese joint company group and supplied to the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant. Three different heads of the equipment were used to detect flaws in the fuel channel especially in the diffusion weld between Zr and stainless steel, measure wall thickness, inside diameter, curvature, oxidized layer thickness and the length of the telescopic engagement of fuel channels, and the inside diameter of graphite blocks. The capabilities of these inspection functions were confirmed using a spent fuel channel at the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant as one part of an acceptance test. The test results are introduced in this paper. KEYWORDS: RBMK type reactorsfuel channel inspectionflaw detectionwall thicknessinside diametercurvatureoxidized layer thicknesstelescopic engagement