Various types of spent fuel assembly in nuclear power plants have been transported to a post irradiation examination facility (PIEF) in KAERI to examine the mechanical and chemical properties of fuel and cladding. Once the fuel assembly arrive at PIEF, it is dismantled in a pool area to extract the fuel rods. Dismantling of the fuel assembly is performed by cutting the top nozzle. Currently, couple of dismantled assemblies have been stored in a storage pool without the top nozzle in PIEF. These assemblies cannot be handled directly using a gantry crane in the pool, and thus are contained in a special basket to handle. In this research, we developed a restoration method for a dismantled spent fuel assembly, especially for 16×16 Korea Optimized Fuel Assembly (KOFA). After reviewing the original design document and reports of KOFA, two tools are devised; an assembly tool and a tightening tool for a bolt. Since the top nozzle and dismantled KOFA can be re-assembled using a bolt, we follow the original design, size, and materials of the previously used bolt. The bolt to restore the top nozzle of KOFA is made of 321 stainless steel and has a design that fits the guideline of DIN 13-21 international standard. Our procedure can potentially be used to restore and repair the dismantled spent fuel assembly.

• Jae-Han Kim(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI)) Corresponding author
• In-Chan Kwon(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI))
• Myungchul Park(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI))