H Division Progress Report (July 20 - August 20, 1961) (Redacted)

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hil it ary ................ I ** Includes 13 sumnrr and 1 5 casuals. A r.wnbcr of the group attended an AEC me c ting on shipment of radioactive materials which was held i n Denver, Colorado. l b o mmbers of the group visited the Sandia Pulsed Reactor

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One mar of tho Group visited th. ACTX facility in Albuquerque. -ration was carried out irith no significant exporut. t o personnel. equipamnt I n BuiIGing 24 a t TA-46 wa. monitored. hro henin for n rd of the results of the survey and given suggestions for control III~SUICS t o be used in future oper ~ tians. safe operation were given t o operatinq personnel. The equipmrnt from Shop 15 i n TA-1 h8S been transferred to SX-102 Th. beds of the trucks used to move the equip w nt were covered with c8rdborrd @nd the equipcaent was covered with ph stic sheeting. No contamination problems were encountered during th. transfer. box exhaust system and prelimiaary a i r samples ndicate a substantial reduction in I found i n other 8reas of filter. in the cell dry taken during operation Radiation S8fety ad ice has been provided for t h e Rover program. Standard operating procedures have been written and the disposal of The 0 m ~ g 8surqe tank has been vented into the stack by means of a three - m y solenoid valve. The gas from the water is normally released t o the 8tmoaphere. A power failure (or the operator) will send the 98s into the stack line. underpressure release vrlve of 1/2 l b / i n have been in at all ed. An wer pre a sure valve of 1 / 2 lb/in' and an

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-0 tiarion 9.8 releases occurred at the Gn qa West reactor during tho aonth. While neither of these was as e riou a health problem, they were of con mrna t the tim. 1. On Wprt7 the container i n which a uranium fuel 8lmWht warn king irradiated leaked. Contamination from the decay product8 of the g.888 was found on cars i n the parking l o t and around the building.Since the mote rial had a short half - life,there was no 2 . ai, August 2 1 the vent line from the reactor shield air exhaust was disconnected during work on the reactor. The line was not connected when the reactor was started up and argon was released into the room. The situation was corrected and no high personnel exposures were recordcd. Number of disabling injuries8 11 Number of days l o s t 1 2 , 1 4 8 ' 96 mi. include8 12,000 days which i s the ASA charge f o r two 1. On June 2 2 , y-1 SD-1, received a lacerated tendon when he ualkcd through some stainless steel turninqs and one of the turnings was dragged across his left heel. Loat time was 39 days. tendon of his left thumb whcfi a three-cornere4 scraper he was using slipped and cut the tendon. Lost tim was 9 dzvs. 0

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3. &gu& 1,0SD-S, was in jura d when 8 -tal cap, undar pm a sure, "he metal cap blew off and .truck -i n tb mouth and lacerated h i s upprr and Lower was being rsnovtd. mare were no Labor8tory fires during this report period. Blunkr of accidents 13 27 kte(k cid m nts per 100,000 milts) 1.3 1.4 Accident cost per 100,000 miles $ 9 2 .OO $94.00 There were two motor vehicle accidents involving Laboratory personnel during this report period. One vas a backing accident and the other one occurred when a vehicle struck a deer. A draft on "Raquirad Procedure8 for Work in Tankr o r Other 3 . Health and Safety Newrletttr 61-8 was distributed during this report period. 4.A mtzber of H-3 attended a meting of the Disaster and Defense Planning Committae t o discuss the use of Laboratory facilities for fallout shelters. 5. A tool taster for checking for shorts and proper grounds of power tools was loaned to four groups during t h i s re3ort period. 6. Standards for lift truck om?rations were rum it ted to rhe 7 . Shemood's high voltage t e a t lab was reviewi!d by the 8 . Safety proposal. f o r Van de Graaff maintenance operations

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9. St8ndards for electrical port.bh8 for use innide tanks 10. The following films were shom durhg this report priod : ' bo talks were given t o new employees as part of their "Knwing's Not Enough" shown 25 t i m s to 1075 people. l2. A safety meeting was held in the SH-43 8uditorium for 8.11 jcolylvlr hp or tmnt pe csonns 1. A t a l k on "Coapres8ed 0.888 and High Pro88ure Systems" was h r r;n.Dlea were collected during the month inthe E&flium Shop, CHB-1, N-5. a0 w e l l as soil samples a t R Site and sludge &+tation8 below permissible levels. All samples collected shrwcd During this period an accident occurred i n the Beryllium nich indicated there was a short period ii. which the concentration brd th. 8hOrt tolerance level of 25 bgfi. The nmchiniet was s feap4.rator while drilling a small piece of beryllium using a xh&ust hood. The bit stuck and knocked the sxhauet hood off the 1 Creating ir visible du8t cloud which wi! observed by the

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n reh in i at. H. left the shop i n leas than a minute. One out of three air -le8 collect od within 4 feet of the drill press showed a cone rn t ration slightly above the short term tolerance. Hwvor, d w to thr fact that ha W.8 wraring a -11 fitted respirator with an ultra filter. we do not believe h. received an expoeure more than 1/10 tho rhort tarm tolerance level. Poll wing the incident the respirator was refitted and found t o give a reliable face *it. ?our air samples were collected in the (348-6 electroplating laboratory during the addition of 6 kg of gold potaasium cyanide t o gold plating solution. Only trace quantities of HCN -re detected i n the air directly over the solution in the period when it was converted from an alkaline to an acid solution. Two air samples were collected for HCN while checking fOK The test. were made while wearing all - sew ice masks. The result. ware negative, indicating no leaklrge problem. A total of 10 air samples were collect cd tor TUT at S Site, hwa var, no detectable TNT was found irr any of the air samples. 5. Vent ila tio q R.commend8tions were made to ventilate the kryl liu n evapr8tor which will be used by Croup P-4. Recommendations were also made for a fume hood to be used for cleaning t r a p s from coating furnace. operated by CMB-3 a t DP East. of the chemical fume hoods was completed throughout this rite when an additional 145 fume hoods were checked. During this pcriod a survey During the past month 33 persons were fitted in the test ch8mber. In add it im.2talks on r aspirator y protective devices were

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-1 given to several groups durinq their rsgular safety mecinga. Ali reactor oparating per8ONW1 were instructed in the use of Scott Air PBk8. Each mnala0 donned the device i n order that he would know the proper WBY t o wear it i n an emergency. A8 a remult of a conferopce with CnB-1. it was decided th8t all personne!. would wear full face masks a s soon as fitting to str -re complet.4. We plan to increase the use of full face Msks tor all personnel working with plutonium as r8pidly as possible in order t o achieve out goal of using the full face mask as minimum respiratory protection against plutonium and its compounds. given t o group safety committee meetings durinq this period. Ono of the talks on solvents was oiven to the entire Shops Department and 8ubjects covered included requests on welding and soldering, mercury, epoxy resins 8nd plastics, and threahold limit values. These talks have provon t o be very popular during regularly scheduled group S8fety rneetinga and several additional trl ka have been planned for During this period an extensive evaluation was made of 1 personal air sampler manufactured by Fil tron rcs, 1r.c. The rc?ort of thi8 evaluation vas prepared and circulated to interested pi'rscns i n Visitors to the Group dur'.ng thu month included Mr. Ralph Wilde of t h e Anaconda Company i n Grants, New Mexico: Carl Jensen and Maliton Garcia cf the New I%txico State Health Department. 1. Air ranples collected or f i e l d tests made for:

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Hydrogen cy anide an it at ion Uranium (flu ore ac imt ric) Bezyllium in soil Lubricating oil insolvents Plutonium in tissues Urmia min soil a . In work t o determine the exposure necessary to mark the filu with the name and Z-numher, it was found that abet 40 times more -xposure was necessary through the typewritten had strip than through the perforated code strip. At: this high level of exposure €or the typewritten laad strip unac7eptable scatter intensity was found t o Pog the shiclckd portions of the film. For this reason a more contrast hg, ih nt if ying strip in being sought. We are now investigating the

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printed circuit borrd technique i n which lead will be deposited on tho remaining copper after dtching. atrip of such contrast that it will require no more expoaure than the binary cod.d & dMl a trip now doe.. It i r hop.d this will giw ua a b. I n oor 8tte-t t o -lee our fila filter a leas brit th than the powder mmtalluryy ones we have ken helci up by trying to find suitable foil. of erbium and gadolinium. These rare earth foils have t o be 8bout 0.15 gms per em2 i n thicknoss. iaawd an order t o the Plastics Section of CMB-6 t o attempt fabricating such foils of the oxides imbedded in a flexible p18StiC auch as rubber or polyethylene. In addition,after consulting with Carl Oachneider of C W - 5 we have obtained some mtrllic form of t h e s e a lew nt a from him and requested R. W.Keil af CHB-6 t o attempt t o roll theso umtals t o appropriate thicknesses. To this end we have c. The first film coding syst en for the 2 - nudnr, which waa i n the hand. of W.W. Steqer of P - 1 for a ever al months and for which he &signed and had built the necessary electronics,was recently found to be un8uitabla. A new syotcm eliminating the shortcomings of the old one has been designed and he is n w redesigning the electronics for the new one. d. The neutron energy dependence of the converted Peewee now seems to be i n doubt a2 a result of calibration to thermals i n tln 81- graphite pile of P-Division. The indication is that perhaps th. meter is about 10 times more sensitive than the published curve shows. h redetermination of the spectral sensitivity is now planned to obtain mote reliable data for planning the shieldi1;g of thz new e . More Eilm exporurcr t o the raCiation from the Phermex prototype machine were made uaing 5different film typcs Talibrated the nuchine with a spread of 2.30% from the average. These filme gave values of the apparent output of

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enclo8a thew film in ur adeq\l.te amount of electron e quil i br8tlng amterial in future rar8suren;ntr whrch are aw8iting some changes i n the inverse 8qu8ro Iw from the target. After the eh8nges 8re m8dQ i n th. machina vh.n th. poa it jon of the target will k known with greater Lil m to indicate the actual axis of the k8m from the targ8t. identifying d8ta onto the fiiaa ina continuous flaw h88 been de8i9-d of about 4 inches to 6 inches per second through the nuchine, giving 8 tot81 eL8pmed tir of about one second per hdqe. b. The responses of Du Pont T y p e s 555 and 508 war. SO t o 1250 kev: i n Prototype IV,0.7to 1.3 for SSS* a d 0.5 to 1.0 for 508; i n Prototype V, 0.7 to 1.7 f o r 555. and 0.7 t o 1.35 €or 508. c . The effect of the nhtiV.orientation of the film packets i n the f i l m badge has been invertig8t4d. It -8 found that when the front8 of the film packets artf8dng one 8nother inthe badge the differ tnc e in the response of the film with direction of incident r8di8tiOn is mini-1, king about 10 t o 15%. This difference my be 888ily doubled i f the packets are turned around. d. The studies of latent imago fading i n the Du Pont types 508 8nd 555 h8ve shown the following results.Film8exposed and stored in a refrigerator for 1, 2 , and 3 months before devclopmnt: 508 is d m by 5% i n responae, while 555 is down by 10%. Films exposed and stored at room tamQerature for 1, 2 , 8nd 3 months before development: SO8 La down by 20%, and 5 5 5 is down by 30%. Since moat of these

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i.:.q. .. changes Ire over in one month and only smll changes follow during the next two months, it is planned t o investigafe the changes by mekly intetv818 during the first month. a. Section personnel nut with N-Olvi8ion and l hro jct in Albuquerque relative to having a werther observation phoned into the USWB at Albuquerque once a day. It is planned to a haft observation the. t o 1600 MST t o provide better cl in u to lo q ical data. 8nticipat.d a t this ti- to institute this service on September 1. By phoning tha UgwB this info muti on in the afternoon the local TV stations could use this information for their evening bmathercasts. discuss and ln rp ect the location for the UHTRE reactor and the necessary tmmperature soundings t o determine temperature inversions, their heights,strength, and duration. This has been done a t the proposed site. Miom p.rsonne1 Irt with Doh Umrnmr of K-Divlmim t o d. Section personnel assisted the AEC Communications Section in determining a new loeation for the taxi radio net base @ t ation for c muni cation m between Lor Ahn108 and Albuquerque. This was accoapllshed by taking an imoplane antenna aloft on a balloon t o different altitudes and locations in the county and comparing signal e. Minor instrument repairs were made on the rain gauge f . The temperature study for the Pojoaque weather station I

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a. Work continue. on the l o c a l climatological study. …