Fuel Channel Installation Tooling for Retubing Bruce Reactors

Abstract

Installing replacement fuel channels in CANDU reactors as part of a large scale fuel channel replacement program ("retubing") involves the use of a large number and variety of highly specialized tools. During the retubing of the Pickering reactors, the tooling proved to be a key factor in outage time, dose consumption and the final quality of the installed channels. As the Pickering A units were successively retubed, the tools underwent continuous development and refinement. Today, many of these tools form the basis of a new generation of tools currently being developed for retubing the Bruce A reactors