Recently, Beijing Raymond-CBE Nuclear Equipment Technology Institute Co, Ltd. (referred to as “Raymond-CBE”) has successfully obtained a national invention patent for its independently developed technology and method for transporting core fuel components in nuclear reactors. The patent number is ZL202510644983.0.

Pressurized water reactors are currently the most widely used type of reactors in the nuclear power industry. Due to the continuous consumption of fuel, nuclear power plants must regularly shut down the reactors to replace the fuel components in the core. However, existing transfer devices generally have four major problems: the need to install separate flipping mechanisms in both the fuel hall and the reactor hall makes the control procedures complex and increases construction costs; transfer carts are prone to jamming during operation; the carriers rely on steel cables for flipping, resulting in insufficient reliability and a risk of fuel components falling; and the loading and unloading of fuel components takes a long time, leading to low efficiency in fuel replacement.

In response to the challenges faced by the aforementioned industry, Raymond-CBE Science and Technology's R&D team has developed an integrated and systematic solution. This device consists of four components: a driving mechanism, transfer tracks, transfer carts, and carriers. The core innovations include three aspects: First, the rigid push-pull mechanism replaces the traditional flexible drive mechanism, thereby reducing control complexity and costs, while also eliminating the risk of transfer carts getting stuck. Second, the simple support structure flipping mechanism offers stronger constraints and higher reliability compared to the single-axis flipping method, effectively eliminating the risk of fuel components falling. Third, the offset loading and unloading method involves innovative ways of loading and unloading carriers, significantly improving the efficiency of fuel exchange operations.

The successful grant of this invention patent is a significant achievement of Raymond-CBE’s long-term efforts in the field of nuclear power equipment replacement technologies. In the future, the company will leverage its own technological capabilities to continue developing advanced nuclear power equipment, thereby providing safer and more efficient technical support for nuclear power plant equipment replacement operations.