H Division Progress Report (March 21 - April 20, 1963) (Redacted)

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LOS ALloloS SCIENTIFIC LABORATORY On April 8 , 1963, A spill of uranium occurred8t TA-46. Alpha contamination (35,000 c / m ) was detected on the furnace room flooz to monitor this Little - used area after contaminat ion was suspected. After renwal from the furnace, the elements ware held vertically and dust fell to the floor. The dust dispersed throughout the room due t o The elewnts wcre then taken t o an office uhere the Mntent re a i due warn scraped from the shcpas. ?our thousrnd c / m :'tare measured on the floor and bench of this ona room. H - 1 decontaminated the area,then discussed other ways of performing the work. The renwv8: from tne furnace c8n be controlled by using another technique: however, the scr8ping requires hood facilities.A monitor will be present next time to ouggest improvcd techniques and take air samples. 8 200 c R.k source was i n we. NO exposure was rac riva d, as indicated by doaimatera. A few items of equipment were contaminated t o 20 mr/hr. H - 1 h88 been heavily involved in the excavation of contaminated burial pits at Bay0 Canyon. Thi8 h8s included surveying the dirt, contamin8tion checks of personnel, truck decontamination, pictures of the opcr8tion, and atudyinq the surrounding terrain in preparation for the Jemer in dims e8rch and debris pick up. A great deal of salvage has a la0 been monitored.

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A permanent monitor was nosigned t o TA-50 on March 29, 1963. Thio seems t o be justified since som work with radioactive materials haa already begun. Inthe near future, GM-5 will be studying the attenuation through rater of gamma radiation frola a 100 c R.L. source. The work The new Cockcrof t-Walton accelerator atP a jari to has beon operating spasmodic sl ~ yand producing only X-t8yo dua to the target material. 200 t o 400 rnr/hr were measured at contact with the enclosure On narc?! 25, 1963 GMX-3 placed Pu238 wafers on a test device. NO cnn tam in rti cn wae encountered, and the rao i at fon level wan the same a8 found in early January of this year(2r / h r open shield Radactor at contact with unwrapped single wafer). The placement o f tha wafers was facilitated by vacuum tweezers. An SOP was written for handling the2curie Ca6' source i n A = Ac cid cnt Record 1/1/63 to 4/1/62 -1962 Manhou ri Worked 1,659 ,644 6 , 8 7 2 , 2 3 B. In bus trial AC cid ant ExDerirnce On lurch 25. 1963, -, SD-1, suffered abrasions uf left.sc cond,third and fourth fin q er - tips with loss of nail. He lost 6 days i n March and 4 days i n April. -was grinding a small piece or metal on abel tyr in dar when the piece slipped caurincr his fingers t o be thrown against the moving belt. 0

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Tkere were no fires during the report period. p. Uotot Vehicle Accidents 1/1/63 CCJ 4/1/63 Accident Cost per 130,000 Miles s 17 0 .oo $156.00 Therc were focr Laboratory motor vehicles involved i n accidents during March. One car, while baing driven, was hit by a skidding private vehicle : one slid into a drain o qt ditch in a parking lot : one, as dr f vcr was backing out of parking lot, was hit by a private vehicle w9ich was being backed into the parking lot, and one car,driver 1.8 ~ 8,rolled into ap wer pole. I. ln doc tri nation tours for Pire Department and Security 2. Shop Department foremen’s training program is continuing. 3. Health and Safety Newsletter 63-2 with regard t o eye care 4. Xnveatigation and report of explomion of detonator component a t GM%-7 was completed and published. 5. .\ briefing pertaining to the realignment of the8c curit y fencing arocn4 the Physics Build irq woa held by P Dfviaion and H Division ciroups to cv a lust ~s afety problems involving the perimeter and the pu kli c. vi8it.d LA!% on April 11 and 12: h e was a t t h e KTS (NRDS) on April 1 5 and 16 accompanied b y Roy bider.At LASL he reviewed procedures associated with the new hydrogen tube trailer facility, Supply and Property, TA-46 gas handling and H-3 safety manual wort. A t NRDS he attended safety meeting dealing with gas alarms and reviewed the test cell3 gaa detection systems.

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7 . Peter Crickson, SNPO-N Nuclear Safety Specialist, visited tho Safety O ' f ice to review 3roject Rovor safety files and list port in ant critical it y safety standard. associated with Kiwi reactors and fuel elements. 8 . Reviaad Chapter I of Rover Teat Site Safety Manual was published and distributed. 9. Critical it y safety procedures were furnished to 10. Procedures for removal of all(explosive and radio - active contaminated) scrap from Bay0 Canyon wern prepared: the draft 11, The Nuclear Critical it y Safety Committee met cn April 10thto review several proposed AEC standards of critical it y 12. A Shewood work area illumination survey waa made by 13. A letter can tai ning safety instructions for the uae of hydrogen tube trailers was sent toWS Lua era. with a safety meeting attend*d by these users, CMP-9, Supply and This waa coordinated 14. Roy Reider spoke a t an SNPO-N staff meeting on the au bj ect of the hi at or ical developaient of hanc'ling in cr aaa ing quantities remarks on the conumrcial history of liquefied hydrogen. (Thio nIe ting was held T t XRDS on April 16, 1963.) 15. H - 3re pre a ent at ive at NRDS will be on an Alarm Review Group t o review all a a fe ty alsrma, hydrogen and critical it y. of thin group is t.> improve alarm reliability and effectiveness. firat meeting held at NWS on April 18, 1963 was attended by Roy hider.

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A. Evaluation and Control Work Air Sam lina Studies Sampling for beryllium was carried out inthe Beryllium Shop AIL concentrations found were below pern issibleand atP a jari to Site. by zfa draftsmen in tho Beryllium Shop and were found t o be sufficiently free of beryllium to be removed from th. area. Surface swipe samples were made on miscellaneous to018 used Toluene diisocyanate (TDI) samples vcre collected during the pouring of foam pl art ic in Building 306 at S Site and by Group CEO-9. adequately protected with respirators. Sampler collected €or dimethyl s ulf oxide (DMSO) during cleaning in Bbilding 260 at S Site demonstrated to the operators that the solvent was safe to use. Methyl chloroform air namplcs were collected during a buff in q and polishing operation 8t TA-35. mum air concentrat'.on found was 100 ppm. Carbon monoxide sample. were Collected a t TA-Sl prior to exposure of animals in thir room by f1-4. No detectable CO was found. A i r 8amples for uranium-233 and uranium-235 were collected with personal(lapel) samplers. The personal sampler8 indicated air concentrations approximately teI! times the concentration found with gener.1 air samplers. The aurvcy indicated respirators wera needed during handling and cleaning oE these ~ te rials. Normal atmospheric du8t concentrations were measured in Building 200 at S Site. The dust concentration was measured atthe request of Group Om-3 t o dttcmmine if the particle count in the room air constituted a problem durirrg assembly and in r pec tion. Varia ur Toxic U at cria le Investigations were made in the use of ace to seat DP West, cadmium fume exposures while silver soldering at the Sherwood Project, i*paxy resin operations in various groups and obnoxious odor6 throughout-I

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1the new Sigma Building which was found t o be due t o the use of Thiokol in the pla a tics furnace. machining of calcium, barium, strontium, phosphoroua and alloy8 Of rhenium and tungsten. In ve uti qat ions were also made of the U.8 Of anhydrous ammonia i n th. place of aqueous amuonia in oz alf d muchinem: howvot. no health hazard was indicated. Reconurnandations were made for t h e safe hro 7-day s8mple. and one 14-day sample were colleztcd duririq thia period at the north ?r. .ake of HRL duildinq. Rar ~ ira tors Durinq thi.8 period 26 men ware fitted with full f8ce ma8k8 and 6 m8n with half na8kr. A total of 16 respirators were issued. %pair and inspection has been coaplcted on all Scott Air Yaks that h8vc been on the project five years or more, n8ncc program will be continued t o aaaure that no Scott Air Pakr are used This preventive nain te - that have riot been ser vic ad within a five year period. Vent tlat ion Routine ventilation checks and surveys on exh8u.t hoods and equipment were made i n 1) a spray paint booth i n Zia crafts e ign ahhop, firing chamber exhaust,5) GWX-3 plastics section vc n tih tion system, 6 ) GWX-6 epoxy coating vent il rti on,7) new hood i n Shop 15, 8 ) exhaust for CO i n K-4 facilities,9) N-3 chemical fume hoods and 10) safety cut o f f V81vI for W-7 exhaust system. fnve8tig at ions and recoumendat ions were made for 1) ventilation requirements for soldering and qLase blouing i n P-16, 2 ) exhaust system for K-2 plutonium vacuum box, 3)ventilation of Uaqnaflux machines i n the main shop building,4)ventilation of ultrasonic clManer i n SD pattern shop, 5)air cleaning on exhaust from dry box contain!.ng radiofrequency plasma torch in CU8-7, 6) ventilation € o r ?I-3 cquipzertt, 7) ventilation for electron microscope room where plutonium is examined by CUP-5. and e ) adjustment of air flow from Cell9in Wing 9 of CKR Building.

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1. The preliminary evaluation 0.' three Case lla peroonal sun p lars rt cri vee duriag this period was crmpleted. indicate that the mI ~ Vsamplers are very reliable and per fo mrc cord in q to the manufacturer ' s claims. 2. Xn cooperation with a representative of the Lovelace Pcundation, Phase I ot the "comparative particle sizing " study waa react iv it rd. directly on electron microecops screens and xi lli porc f ilters. Prom these samples, electron micrographs of the aerosol were prepared and distributed to eight labor a to rie r participating in this study. U02 was generated in the H-5 chamber and collect e9 3. -cent results of an ion exchange procedure f o r the isolation of plutonium have Seen cncouraqing. in prc par at ion. An interim report i8 4. The alpha phosphor counters used for routine e kal hati on (other than nuclear track preparations)haw been outstandingly successful and objective tv alu at - o n of their performance is being An industrial hyqienc, survey of all the Zia shops located S8fety Engineering Department, is the first complete survey of the 2-18 shops undertaken by our group. Thin survey, made in cooperation with the Zia A draft of the riper, 'Iodine Sampling with Silver-Impregnated Society meting, which will be held in New York City in Jvnc. Atalk on solvents vas presented et the CUB-6 safety mating and a demonstration of Scott Air Paks was given atthe CMB-14 safety meeting. Two members of the group prenented Lecturer on industrial hyqi6ne for the health and emfc course currently being presented t o

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An evaluation of the hazards associate6 with the hurninq of urani%n warn made and Corvardcrl ta 11-1. On t pri lI, the 0. S. We.,iher Bcreau resumed computntiun and transmission of upper air data for us0 by Civil ncfenmc organizations. The local advisory yroup was notified and selected trbnsn'issions &(?re forwarded t a the group for revic'd of techritques. a. A number o f minor c lima to logical sunmarits were made and €orwarded t o the requesting grcups. b. Work on the general c lima to logical summary has Empkauis now has been shift ud to the compilation o € wind 1. menty - four soil samples were taken in Bayo Canyon and Three b8ric areas were sampled. a . Samples taken frcrn the material used € or filling were found t o be sufficient la ; luw in strontium to :ecom;nnd continued use of b. Samples taker. surrounding structure No. 40 had suf - fic i ent ly low content, and it wa5 recommended that excavation hc ceased and the area filled. e. Samples taken near str irc tur r No. 49 wsre found t o have

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for po as i ble lOC8tiOn8 of waters ~ mplin qsites. One location ha8 been tmnt at iv ely re1ect.d and others arc under consideration. an8lyte d during the month. (350 d/m/l) and Tvrkey Crcek (1,100 d/m/l) 4. Spot 8amples of the drinking and chilled cooling Uat-f Drinking water None do tec ted 5. Several of the ueekly air sampler ccunted for alpha activity Chilled cooling water n8X: 50 had readings m liq ht ly mxcecding our 5 d/m cutoff point. attributed to the ex ces a ive air borne material resulting fr m sustained periods of relatively strong winds. 6 . The continuoua readout cornunity gamma monitors shaved a few reading. above normal backqi-oucd and theae could be at tri b - itcd to yam?s from t h e Omega stack.

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Tho flw to the plant was relatively high this period,but activity of the urate was below normal. eguil mmnt a t SC1-700 witha Winnerpolis-Honey*rl'. system ifl acdorrlancc Radioactivity of manples of waste from Sigma Building at Th-1 varies as follows: High level wastes from Wing 9. CMR Buj.ldiny, have been increasing in quantity and activity. Equipment for irnprov-d sampling mathods has bee.! ordered and systems for trans!:'er of exceedingly8ctive wastes are being studied. Engineering ha. taken steps to implimtnt the following H-7 recm,and at ions for improvement of faci ! i tier bat the high level chemistry 2. Install a waste sump high level alarm. 3. Install e waste sump sampling Fystem. 4. Install integrating timrr on the sump pumps. 5.Install b GontrolleA cooling water cystom for the Waste fiwr and activities w:re normal this pri od. tinuod ata mcotd-breakiny Ciite. Progrtsm in tho installation of "cia remote:y-controlled electrically - operated f hal holding tank valve system has been very S LM.

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About 26,800 q all on s of waste were received in the holding tanks this period. gallons of wamte and storage Sp8ce is again plentiful. The ion elr-hanqe columns were u8ed to t r e a t 1Os,500 Plans have been made to replace tho Ueds-Northrup p H has required ewcessive maintenance. A cursory inspection, by request, of the chilled water recirculating aya ten revealed across - connection with the potable water rupply and rc coa a end at ions were made for its removal. The general contractor, McKee, replaced all media in the plant filter a during this period. and repainting the interior cf the flo c cul5tor - clar if i or …