Internal attachment of laser beam welded stainless steel sheathed thermocouples into stainless steel upper end caps in nuclear fuel rods for the LOFT reactor
Abstract
The feasibility of laser welding a single 0.063 inch diameter stainless steel (304) sheathed thermocouple into a stainless steel (316) upper end cap for nuclear fuel rods was determined. A laser beam was selected because of the extremely high energy input in unit volume that can be achieved allowing local fusion of a small area irrespective of the difference in material thickness to be joined. A special weld fixture was designed and fabricated to hold the end cap and the thermocouple with angular and rotational adjustment under the laser beam. A commercial pulsed laser and energy control system was used to make the welds.
- Publication:
-
NASA STI/Recon Technical Report N
- Pub Date:
- 1980
- Bibcode:
- 1980STIN...8111369W
- Keywords:
-
- Laser Welding;
- Nuclear Fuel Elements;
- Stainless Steels;
- Thermocouples;
- Laser Fusion;
- Reactor Cores;
- Reactor Technology;
- Instrumentation and Photography