Nuclear at Argonne: Gripper Test Assembly, and in-vessel nuclear fuel handling technology

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Argonne National Laboratory is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory where scientists research and develop world-class innovation in nuclear energy.

In this video, you will learn how researchers are designing and developing a new fuel handling technology that will be tested in Argonne’s Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop (METL) facility. The METL facility is the largest liquid metal test facility in the United States. It tests small- and medium-sized components for use in sodium-cooled fast reactors.

The new fuel handling technology – called the Gripper Test Assembly – is a part of an overall in-vessel fuel handling machine that is designed to go inside liquid sodium fast-cooled reactors, attach to the fuel assembly in the reactor’s core and safely remove a fuel assembly component for storage, reprocessing or replacement. The team at METL is testing mechanisms of the in-vessel fuel handling machine technology and also how the Gripper Test Assembly components would work while submerged in liquid sodium. The METL facility simulates the environment in advanced sodium-cooled fast reactors.

Engineers need to know how equipment used inside the reactor will work when it is submerged in liquid sodium.

Research at Argonne and METL helps the U.S. nuclear industry design and build clean energy power plants that will help the U.S. reach its decarbonization and net-zero emission goals.

For more information about the Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop (METL) facility and this research ►►

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This research was funded in part by DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy Advanced Reactor Technology program. Argonne’s METL facility’s operations and maintenance are funded by DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy National Reactor Innovation Center.

ABOUT ARGONNE
Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology by conducting leading-edge basic and applied research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

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