Control device for can failures of liquid cooled nuclear reactor fuel elements

Checking of the fuel or breeding elements of, e.g., sodium-cooled reactors is done by detecting fission products in the coolant, with a flushing gas like argon removing the fission products from the coolant and carrying them to a detector system. In order to increase the escape rate of the fission products from the elements, these are lifted by a hoisting unit into a pit reaching down below the coolant level and are then heated. Heating is achieved by the decay heat or by an additional heating in the receiving pit which at this point is thermically insulated from the exterior. The flushing gas is blown radially into the receiving pit from below. The rising bubbles take along the fission products to a scintillation counter mounted on the head of the receiving vessel. This vessel may have double walls with coolant flowing through the interspace. (DG)