H Division Progress Report (April 21 - May 20, 1964)

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LOS &AMOS SCIENTIFIC LABORATORY physics surveyor acted as courier for a source sent to the San Fernando Laboratory a t Pacoima, Cali for na. With the assistance of H - 1 and CMB- 4,Kf iv is on made an integrity teat of the Uhtrex reactor hot cells.A Co-60 source of ahout 1000 curies was manipulated inside the cell. The hottest beam was about 10 r / h r from one of the plugs. Up t o 12 mrhr was detected After removal of all the LAMPRE fuel elements and sodium, a radiation survey was made of the sodium loop plm bing. Tho moat active area, which read 1020 rhr as measured by dosimeter s, wata found 4 meters down inside the reactor call. The top of the surge The Omega stack monitor has been modified to report the output of the a tack in curies.In order to reduce the background, it was necessary t o move the stack monitor building awa'r from the stack. This pr wed more affective th rn was expected. A flow of 5Ipm will be drawn from the stack and diluted with about 200 lpm of clean air. Thib procedure still requires placing three lead plugs in front of the particulate monitor crystal to reduce the count rate to give a factor of about x 20 above the normal release before pegginq both the gas and particulate monitors. This factor of 20 is the emerg+ncy capability of the stack monitor: however, the area monitor atthe stack will provide adequate emergency capability. Eight OWR control rods were placed i n the radioactive waste disposal area. Each rod read 43 rhm. In order to remove sis o r these rods t o the contaminated dump, they were drawn up through D

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heavy shield held in a vertical position under water. Even though rods were within the shield. when loaded on the truck,the cab reading was 5mr / hr. and :he base of the shield had a reading of up to1 rfir. The man who put the rods i n the waste disposal well received old vertical Van de Graaff operated a t LO9 n/sec and 9 Uev. highest reading was 50 mrem/hr in the vicinity of the roll-up door. V - 9intends to shield the door with concrete blocks H - 1 surveyed the new tandem Van de Graaff area of P-9 while the The 8-1 IBM program pickc8 up a P-1 employee with a b e t a do.. of 1.85 rem. It was learned that the person found him wrist watch waa very beta active and had laid his film badge on his wrist watch for 100 hours.H - 1has been assured that the next time the man will get a special film badge for measurements of tkir t*/pe. Xn conjunction with the H - 1 program t o select a developer which rill extend the range of the Do Ponc 555film, *n extensive study was made of the Kodak developer now inuse. Durinq the processing of 7650 parBonnel films,a set of calibrated films waa processed with eazh group of 225 personnel films and the e fEe ct s of aging of the developer wt reo bse med. The results indicate a noticeable increase in density between the first and second sets of calibration films,but the density increases between subsequent sets were s liq ht. A new personnel film filing system was initiated this month. I n tile past.films wera filed according to film badge number and placed in ih divi dual anvelopes. Inthe new system, filing envelopes are arranged i q ascending order by 2 number. and attached tothe envelope is an IBM card giving the person's name, 2 number. and Each envelope will contain all f ihs issued to a person

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A membar of P-12 received an exposure of 1 . 4 5 rem uf x-rays: the cauda of the exposure is not certain,but during thi ? tin u there w.8 con8i ber able qa r king of then pide t arserab1y its the cyclotron. c ~ uain gt he acc e brat or to malEmctdon. On April 22, 1964, an ex plo ii on occurred i.? the Room 313. D P Weat, raq incinerator drybox following ignition of a batch of U-235 adjoining hood. The fire was cxtinguiahcd b y firomen a sainte d by CMB-8 personnel. The intense heat from the blaze cracked the rrafetyqlaes window on the drybox. Five gloves on the hood and ilqbOX were burned off. Surface contamination i n the incinerator road up t o 5.000 c / m.but ortly slight contamination wau tracked inco Room 313. Personnel involved i n the fire were monitored and no skin contamination was detected. Airborne contamination tests tak cn iri the roan during the fire were below the permissible levels No in7uries were report ea. and complete cleanup of the incinerator room wa5 accomplimhed. Afire broke out inthe drybox and spread into an A . Accident Record Jan. 1, 1964 t o Mav 1, 1964- & 9 S Number of Disabling Injuries2 12 Number of Days Loat 7 239 B. Industrial Accident Exp erie a There were no disabling injuries during th io report period. 1. On April21, 1964. at Build in5 260, TA-16, some explosives, whir3 were brrinq machined, ignited and burned. Damage to the nachfnn and loam of t h e explorivecl amounted to 23,061.

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and rags which were awaiting burning for or alloy recovery ware pramatusel;. ignited in a glove box and rasul tad in $ 200 damage. No act ive material was Lost. 3 . On May 12, 1964, a box of trash which was located on thm loading dock a t Sigma Building, TA-I. was ignited by an unknown source. The fire was contained t o the box of trash and there was no Rate (Accj.dants per 1,000,000 Miles) 1 2 10 Accidaat Cost par 100.000 Miles $86.00 5115.00 There was on. motor vehicle accident during April involving a Liboratory driver Th io was a backing accident. E. chner al Remarks . Health and Safety Newsletter No. 64-2, "Teetrr and 2An annual iibspection for loone exp lcs ives was made of 3. Seven bran-.h shops were inspected during this report This is the beginning of a pragram leoigned to inspect eachperiod branch shop twice a year. revised and distributed for uae a\: NRDS. 2.A iist of LASL's disabling injuries which hevc occurrbd a t NROS was prepared for SNPO-N at their request.

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111. GROUP H-5, INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE (Harm P. Schu lte. Leader) A.Evaluation and Control Work 1. Air Sanmlinq Studies During this period,a total of 71 air sampler and 13 swipe sanrples were collected in five differ eni areas for bQrylliUm analysis. The largest number of samples were collected in Shop 4 and al.1 samples showed concentrations well bel- permissible levels. Pour air samples were collected duxinq the oper nti on of polishing the cylinder on a Xerox machine and have been analyzed for selenium app tec i able amounts uf selenium were found on the polishing cloth. None was found in the duplication povder inthe machine. Air samples for osmi:>m analysis were collected in Group N-5 during plating operations. Mercury spills were cleaned up and evaluated at TA-9 and inthe Old There have not yet been analyzed. -2 .fn vest iq at ions of Varf.ms Toxic Materials blembere ofthe group c un sul ted on possible exposures tu a considerable number of toxic moterib's 911 were investigated and appropriate recommendations made wen nec css a * .y. There includad mnqneajum fluoride used b y GMX-9, phosgene from rags saturated with trich l oro ethylene adjacent t~ welding operations fn the CW-9 Shop, oxides of nitrogen from copper dipping operations by Zia employees a t TA-45, trich l oro ethylene cleaning of the old Van de Graaff tank, Air concentrations of fallout materials in the atmo8plicrt remained low although these concentrations approximately dcubled during the week of May 11 thrcugh May 17. However. this concentration was still in sign if i cast at7 pc/M .3

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Durinq this period48 men were fitted with full and half inthe use of Scott Air Pak s. Four demand type self - contained breath in q apparatus units were completely repaired and tested an the H-5 test Ventilation studies were carried out and recommendations made where appropriate in 19 areas of the Laboaratory. A wide variety of fume hoods, special hoods and room ventilation systems were involved. Six sets of plans were reviewed and approveci. The wind tiinnel was moved from the baa*:r,icnt of HRZ. tothe metal building, 3M-177 where it was then used for the cali brat i - n of all vsLometcrs and thermoanenoConsiderable time was spent cill i brat in q and modifying the portable DOP filter testing unit for CMB-11 and in training their air sampler atthe Omega stack was modified and calibrated rotmeters installed. Pralirnlnary tests were made with minor columns ot silica gel at.d carbon to determine their suitability for iodine sampling on the Omega stack. B. Research and Deve lopment 1. A cooperative study with the New Mexico State Health Department is being conducted to correlate lead analysis and coproporphyrin excretion. Ar. exchange of samples has bcen accomplished. 2. A satisfactory procedure for the analysis of samples ,< Par melenium has been adapted € o r use. taken on the taxi city of var i our nitra mines and nitro so amines. Animal studies are being mads.

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4. The batch process of ion exchange is provinq s cff ici ent ly accurato for an a lys as of tissues for plutonium. Recovery from special solution. is bain g investigated. 5 . Work is cont in i ing on the air aampLea collected in the uranium mines at -ab, Utah. Much of tha particulate matter 18 carbon, probably from the diesel equipment used inthe mines. Two marabars of thv Laboratory Section assisted Group H - 8 during the recent Kiwi test operation at NTS. Most mmmbcrs of the group spent considerable time reviewinq final plans for the new Occupational Health Lalcoratory whic!i will house the group in the future. Final inspections were made on the remaining buildings in T A - 1including Old Sigma Building. Disposal of spent plating solutions a t TD-Site wart checked and approved. Discussions are continuing with personnel from P-11 and J-ll on the health aspects of the proposed Meson Facility. There is particular interest in the ventilation require n ants and in the potential A patent has batn applied for on the use of micro column8 of 1. Air samples coLlected or f i e l d tests made for:

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AM ric i um Trich l oro acc tic acid Miace ~ laneo us Zinc and Titanium, smoke tube A.Ue te or ol my a . Approximately four years temperature and relative humidity data were tabulated during the period. b. A numbtr of c lima to logical summaries were prepared

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1. Tho community remote qamma monitors i.nrlicated no readingr above the normal background. 2 . None of the air samples col-lectad during this period and counted for gross alpha activity exceeded our cutoef point of 4 x 3 . The continuous strip air sampler had no raadinge above a pilot run of thermolumeniscent dosimeters €or lonq period Lackgroand 4. Arrangemantm have been made with H-1 t* procure and try 5 . Summary of daily rainwater and air samples for the month o€ April follows: Avq/Day Max/Dav n in hay To tai 6. Sixteen water sampler and ten soil samples were collected throughout the area. Tracea of plutonium were tound i n some of t h e Mortandad Canyon and Otowi Seep i n Pumblo Canyon. value was 6 )q/l i n Renc?ija Canyon Well #1 - the new supply well. A value of 0.04 d/m/cc wag found ina sample from Ressmpling and reassay have been started.

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Tho volume and activity of wastes from TA-1 have cont in utd to dec ruas e aa the deadline €or abandonment of the site approaches. period. No s lod qe was filtered tnd i t is probable that th z s operatj.on W.LL be required only at the final cleanup Coll wing cessazion of In compJ,iance with a request irom thc MC, the a ravi ty cast iron acid sewor line Erom 51.1-700 t o TA-45 'ha3 abandoned and plans were completed for instal.1at ion o f emergency power and additional storage capacity at SM-700. The ,:ondoit was in place and all wires before the end of this period. The alpha radioactivity and raw waste volume wece normal and eff l rien t quality was very satis fact cry Nore circulation was CHR Building. were added t o the raw wastes this period and treated by and 48liter ti of mixed fission product waste were transferred to the Flan tin fluent flow by batch methods, Twenty liters of color residue containing 200 rngU Leaks i n t!ie final effluent holding tank wall have increased and it appears likely that the wall will have to be sealed inside the tank. A work order t o connect the force main from TI\-48 to the gravity sewer line to TA-50 and to alter the sump pilmps in accordance with the new head conditions was placed this peribil.

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A a light increame in both flow volume and alpha activity was noted this period. however, was very s a tim factory. The quality of effluent discharged tothe canyoa, Plans fot Building 207, DP Eaat,will include directing acid wastea to neutralization in the new facility in Building 206, constructing a line to the Building DEW-35 plant and providing two holding tanks. The tanks will permit rani to ring the wamte and dincharging it ci thar to treatment or to the old absorption beda. The Building DPE-206 neutralization facility was placed in operation on Americium waste receipt and treatmbnt were again below normal. The waste storage tank developed additional leaks and a re quer t was placed with ENC-4 to replace the storage tank witha similar unit original lv intended for caustic. A 130 b b l . load of cement was de1i.veted on Hay 1. Approximately 9,900 gallons of waste w : r e received this period. No wastes were treated and none xerc pumped t o TA-50 for The newer type h ck flow prevent err which permit servicing without removal from the lines have been received and replacement of the old a run its will begin shortly. An installed by-pass of a back fl m prevent er was Lound by YNO-4 a t one of the out ly icq sites and immediate steps for removal

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8pecfal war to tra a tnn t devised. Apapr 18 being prep8nd for publicatim on the Treat nun t i8 simplified by the UN of The third, and last, in a series of paprs for Cat8mic 8oaking 8nd dry in q equip mn thaw ken Lncorporated. tachnique8 indicated a migration of rad ~ oaucl ~ d e st aratd the surf an of …