Internal attachment of laser beam welded stainless steel sheathed thermocouples into stainless steel upper end caps in nuclear fuel rods for the LOFT Reactor

The Exxon Nuclear Company, Inc., acting as a subcontractor to EG and G Idaho Inc., Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Idaho Falls, Idaho, conducted a laser beam welding study to attach internal stainless steel thermocouples into stainless steel upper end caps in nuclear fuel rods. The objective of this study was to determine 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. 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.