Abstract: A boiler furnace normally used for firing natural gas and designed for temporary operation with an emergency fuel consisting of fuel oil is equipped with a device which makes use of blowers for delivering air to the burners. The device includes in particular an auxiliary blower for delivering a supplemental air flow to the burners while they are being used for firing fuel oil. No provision is made for recycling of flue gases in the flue-gas removal circuit and the burners are preferably of a tiltable type.

Abstract: Apparatus for the purification of the liquid metal for cooling the core of a fast neutron reactor comprising a heat insulating envelope immersed in the reactor core and suspended from the protective slab surmounting the latter, a removable plug disposed in said slab and giving access to the upper part of the inside of the envelope and, within the latter, a cooling coil for cooling a liquid metal flow taken from the reactor core to a temperature which ensures the solidification of impurities, a filter cartridge for filtering the cooled liquid metal, a heat exchanger for the at least partial heating of the purified metal prior to its return to the reactor core and a valve for regulating the purified metal flow returned to the core, wherein it comprises a passage for returning to the upper part of the envelope purified metal from the filter cartridge, the purified metal being returned to the reactor core with the purified metal in heat exchange with the metal to be purified in a regulated flow, the regulating va

Abstract: Apparatus for distribution and preliminary separation of a vapor-liquid mixture in a separator with horizontal axis, from a neck 10 on the lower generatrix of the separator, it comprising two symmetrical deflectors 11, 12 in the form of portions of cylinders, with parallel axes perpendicular to that of the separator, each cut by two oblique planes, and completed by three partitions 17, 18. Their edges are provided with troughs 21 for collecting and discharging the water deposited on their concave surface, issuing into spaces separated from the neck. The invention has application to separator-superheaters for wet water vapor from an expansion turbine.

Abstract: An assembly of two plane flanges of possibly different flexibilities clamped together by studs. It comprises sealing means including a lip weld in the plane of the join and centering rings disposed around each stud in each bore. Application to flanges connected to asymmetrical structures such as a collar and a cover.

Abstract: An auxiliary cooling device for a primary fluid heat exchanger of a rapid neutron nuclear reactor, the exchanger having at least one nest of tubes in which there flows water to be heated to superheated steam and around whose tubes and inside whose casing there flows a liquid alkaline metal constituting the primary fluid. The casing of the exchanger is surrounded by a jacket having an air inlet tube and an air outlet tube at opposite ends. Inside the jacket there are auxiliary heat exchange surfaces such as spikes projecting from the casing of the primary heat exchanger proper. Application is to the absorption of residual power produced by a rapid neutron reactor after it is shut down.

Abstract: The heat exchanger comprises an outer cylindrical casing and an inner cylindrical sleeve coaxially mounted therein. Dry superheated steam circulates in the jacket between the outer casing and the inner sleeve, and may be extracted at any convenient point along the casing. Wet steam is introduced into the inner casing whose lower portion comprises a separation baffle for removing water from the wet steam and whose upper portion has nests of heat exchanging tubes for superheating the steam.

Abstract: A heat exchanger has a plurality of modules in parallel, each module has a nest of tubes for circulating first fluid to be heated, vaporized and/or superheated. The nest is disposed between two perforated discs in a casing for the flow of a second fluid, inlet collectors for the second fluid at the top part of the modules connected to a common feed cylinder and outlet collectors for the second fluid at the bottom part of the modules connected to a common discharge cylinder. The axes of the modules are set at a constant angle on a circle having as its axis, the vertical axis common to the cylinders and the modules are connected by short straight collectors to the common feed cylinders, while the discharge cylinder is connected by generally U-shaped collectors which are sufficiently resilient to allow for expansion of the module in the event of accidental reaction between the sodium and the water. Application to nuclear power stations using a sodium-cooled rapid neutron nuclear reactor.

Abstract: A device for separating drops of liquid from a stream of gas or steam comprises a closed casing having a horizontal inlet and an outlet respectively having their openings in two compartments separated by a vertical grid, a deflecting nozzle in coaxial relation with the inlet and providing a slit leading to a gap external of the nozzle forming part of a first collecting chamber which communicates with a reservoir, a cusped inner shell cooperating with the nozzle coaxially and provided with a trailing edge forming a slit with an overlapping edge of a second collecting chamber which also communicates with the reservoir, and means for the fine separation of liquid known in the prior art which are placed between the vertical grid and the outlet.