APPARATUS FOR COATING NUCLEAR PELLETS WITH A BURNABLE ABSORBER

The equipment of this invention contains a barrel with open space, at the periphary of which racks are mounted for supporting the fuel elements. Each rack has two spacing plates which are separate but jointed together to hold one layer of fuel elements. The spacing plates are facing to the radial direction of the barrel. The removable racks are mounted in the open space at the periphary of the barrel. In operation, the barrel in a closed chamber rotates around the horizontal axis. The sputtering device is provided with two static targets, the upper one of which is located at the upper part of the vertical axis in the barrel and the lower is located at the lower part outside the barrel. The orientation of the upper target is upward and outward along the radial direction and that of the lower is upward and inward along the radial direction. When the racks on the rotating barrel pass the upper and the lower targets, the target material will be sputtered onto the fuel elements.