Hanford Works Monthly Report for April 1951 (Deleted)

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WOFtD WORKS XWTHLY XIPORT Operated f o r the Atomic Sergy Coinmission AND IS STORED ON THE OPTICAL DISK DRIVE A7Jr. : iA3i2

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Knolls Atondc Power Laboratory . Knolls Atomic Power Laborctory Hanford Operations Office Hmf ord Operations Office

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Technical Services Division ...................... Health Instrument Division ........................ General Accounting Division ....................... Plant Security and Services Mvisions Purchasing a d Stores Divisions ...................... Employee and Community Relations Division Plant Utilities & 2Wntenance Divisions Hmford Civil Defense ...............

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Product ion Mvis i o ~ A t o t a l of 83.25 tons of metal was discharged during the month. The special request program required 230 manhours for the month. tubes were charged into the piles for irradiation. were required f o r work on Chemical 68-56, The average time-operated efficiency for5pile operation was 89.7%. Eight special request An additional 150 manhours Turing April, seven slug failures occurred -0 six were uranium slugs and one a P-13 target slug, A total down time of 205.4 hours were required t o discharge the ruptured slugs, with an average of 311 hours for each slug. A small gain i n maximum operating levels was achieved, but the increased incidence of slug failures adversely affected the total production as compared amounted t o 46 Kf detailed as follows: The gains i n maximum operating levels for all piles The average operating level (IW) for each p i l e was as follows: the same as f o r Xhrch. The total acceptable pieces canned cras 92 tons ata yield of 89.5 percent. The melt plant produced 23 tons of billets at a yield of 88.2 percent and a solid metal yield of 95.1 percent. This is a new record for solid yield. - - Tke fabrication of approxi;nately 1300 test slugs for the du Font Company was : completed on April 1 2 . A total of 124 charges was started in the canyon buildings, .?, tota?. of 124 regular charges nas coq let ed through the concentration buildings i n addition t o two acid washes, four P-ll runs and six .Inaster recycle runs from A total of 127 re gul a runs was completed through isolation plus two acid washes, four F-11 runs and five rnaster recycle runss T5e average cooling tine wiis 49 days with the minimum cooling time for dissolved material. being 44 days. percent . The werage purity of completed charges ires 98.4

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Plant Utilities and Xaintenance Mvisiona The electric power dmands for the month of L?ril were: The decline in demands is inline with seasonal expectations. Unscheduled/ inter r qt ions of production resulted from the following electrical 1. A total electrical outage tothe 230 Areas was experienced on April 23, 1351 f o r approximately two hours w;-en a sub-contractor's A-,*ai.ie truck short circuited 13.8 KV lines near 251 substation, 2, 4 seven minute electrical outage affecting 105-DR on April 18, 1951 w a s caused by breaker failure a t 1 5 1 - D Substation. Complete loss of electrical power t o Richland and the 330 Area occurred on April 19, 1951 f o r a period of approximately one hour due to insulator failure on the 115\ KV bus a t BPx iedwag Station. The Electric d Division has developed a d established new procedures for sub nod electric power conditions, permitting two hour re-energieation time for Grade 'i; and authorizing agreements for Grsde Sad Wat the Assistant cnd Area Engineer levels respectively. flexibility with more direct ad prompt establishment 02 critical power conditions of the grades stated. The dperstion of steam driven condenser pumps inall 133 keas, 182 Reservoirs, Pump Houses, was discontinued, ;naMng possible appreciable savings i n steam consumption a d operational cost. This chwe should reflect greater A new Analytical Division has been formed, rnco..de up of the two Analytical Sections formerly organized zs p a r t of the Tecknicd Services Division. iJithin the Technical Services Division, the In fon it ion Group has become the Technical Information Section and the Str'tistics Groug has become t h e Hathematics Section. Pile Technoloq Division Investigations of pile operation included the use of thorium t o replace lithium-aluminuT cas poison columns, power generation of individual slugs, and tests of the tr<?.nsientr ec ct iv it y effects 02 hiyh plutonium concentrations. A delayed neutron monitoring system for detection of rurtured slugs Was completed for pile tests. Lattice design studies continued normally. inch lattice spacinq was completed. exponential pile with ai eight Studies f o r b Pile included graphite zoning, thc use of enriched uranium with the proyosed enlarged weter annulus, shielding effectiveness, md the induced radioactivity of balls for the third safaty system.

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Frogrms of test pile meastmmnts, critical :mss invest iga tih, and the xenon In-pile and Inborztory studies of water quality, Z i l m formztion and corrosion included preliminary tests of Vri Filmtt, mensuremcnts of in-pile corrosion rates of slugs ct elevatad temperetures, hispection of effects - o f magnesium dummies on front tube corrosion, m d flow lzboratory tcsts. X-ray mewuremmts of graphit2 samples removed from two counterbored process tube channels of the l7R Pile b v e indicatcd a general rzduction i n rate of damcgo i n the high flux regions; howcver, an unexplained increase i n damage was found ata loc=tion corresponding t o the inlct end of the metal charge. In-pile burnout measurements of graphite i n carbon moncaidc have indicated weight losses intermediztc between the rates obtained with carbon dioxide and with colygen under similcr conditions. The special ir rz di at ions program was continued nodly. progress included the hish prcssuro water cooled fuel element tests fork go Me National Laborztory, zirconium crzep n t 2600 C. f o r Vestinghouse Atomic Power Division, and a thcrmocouple slug f o r Hmford heet transfer studies. : b td lu rg icd studics o f inproved canning methods, the effects of uranium rolling temperatures, end c q flaws, and dilatometric methods of slug inspection wera i n progress at month end. The glass tritium extraction lines were opcrated on a n experimcntd basis. The metal tritium =traction equipment was rsady t o receive its first active charge after completion of t h e synthetic runs. Tritium extraction development studies included hydrogen diffusion through stainless stecl under various conditions, evaluation of magnesium for mter decomposition, improvements inmc - tal shipping containers, ‘and increased wcre conplcted during the month. Separztions Technology Division Additional production testing of reduccd Bismuth Phosphato process volumes has Seen continued tocdu - t c Fossible sl is ht loss increases with reduced bismuth concentration i next r x tion. resulted i n radioiodine rcmovals ranging from 87 t o 99.9 pcrccnt bascd on czlculated initid iodine values. from the Is ol sti on Building filters has indicatcd that the units were po b ably blinded from prolonged usqe. bo<?.ts i n tho 234-5 Building produced EL bL:tton slightly high i n nickel ancl. Continucd sparging of dissolvcr solutions has Evaluation of thc high product r ecw eric s The hydrofluorination of thrcc batchcs in In Rcdox a d TSP proccss devclopmcnt, Tlchniccl I - hual prcparntion has continued started a 6-week training p\;riod i n 3 2 1 Building. i n scv:r-.l ccrcfully selcctcd 2D-2E column runs. Thc sodium contc-zainztion ink do x urdu m product was dctcrmincd

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- In the research laboratory Redax head-end scavenging studies have demonstrzted that much improved h O 2 removal can be achieved by inserting a perforated baffle within the centrifuge t o intercept the liquid surface. of plutonium peroxide from as i dated Redox product stream (2BP) indicated good separation from aluminum, the major contaminant. P u r e conditions %ragiimproved by several factors by increasing the operating Investigation of methods for the destruction of iociide and oxalate i n 234 F'urification supernates has indicated hydrogen peroxide t o be very promising. Prodxction testing i n the recovery equipment is planned. cation obtained by one p:ruxide purification cycle a r e continuing. plutonium 111 fluoride prepared by the hydrofluorination of the oxalate waa reduced t o give a yield of 85 percent. The first six-month operating period for the B Plant silver reactor-Fiberglas unit has resulted in no detectable chmges i n particulate activity removal, iodine removal, or frictional pressure drop. Lead nitrate substituted for silver nitrate i n an experimental reactor resulted in an 80 percent removal of iodine versus the 99.9r percent obtained with the silver reactor. Uranium stripping under Effective April 15, the resp on sibi lit j for operation of the P-10 control laboratory and f o r following the progress of construction o f the new laboratory facilities in the IOe-B Building was transferred from the Analytical Research Section t o the .Lnalytical Service Section. personnel were involved i n the transfer. ixproving analytical equipment and met5ods has been retained by the Iies'earch One supervisor and eight other Responsibility for developing a d 1 device f o r removing P-IC) samples from the new :netal sampling bulbs f o r m3s spectometric analysis has been designed m d tested and appears t o work Continuing work on P-IO in-line smplin. techniques has included study of a capillary leak intended t o be attached on one end t o the process line and on the other end toa copper tube conducting the sa?rple t o the mass spectrometer. Previous work indicated no difficulties from background inteference and delayed response tochn > ein sample conposition. Addition21 work has shown that the sample pressure mzy vary within +SO$ of the value f o r which a particular leak is tailored, 5ut that constant pressure must be maintzined during the analysis. Encouraging results have been obtained with m adjustable leak thzt has the advmtzge of a 7 _ l d n ; sampling of gas of m y reasonable initial pressure, Consideratioil of nethods for ceterminirig i is sion product beta a d gamma activities in recovered C03 has indiccted that provision must be mde for the presence of U237and for the growth of urrnium daughter activities subsequent t o an cy a e the final urmiuin streams from the Redox -and TBP Plants rather than the identifying my over-specificrbion mate rid '2efore it is fed to the Oxide Process. h preliminmy separation of $37 w i l l be needed on analytical sanples from the Teptative Igreement has hcen reached on a proposal t o

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Inthe service 125oratories, the numbcr of reported determinations per month increased t o ovsr 33,000. Several met'nods have bcen put into use t o provide required new m dy tic r rl service. number of control determinations hzve shown most t o be under good control; two det&rmincltions were somewhat out of control and remedial action is being Stand ud sample studies on a considerable Technical Services Iiivision 90th the Design Group and t h e Technical Shops continued with an excessive backlog of urzent work i n support of technical development progrzm and spec id equipmcnt needs 02 Building 22243. accordingly, a 6-dzy work week was initiated for both cc ti vi tics. Technical Shops work cross-ordered tothe Instrument a d the Md n ten ace Divisions was being psrformed b y them on this same overtime basis. Construction vork on Building 2224, the new Redox hboratory, w a s completed except for the in at all ation of flurre hoods, ventilation balancing, and certain tuward Technic-1 Divisions ncczptance of thc building (with exceptions) on May 1. In the Works Leboratory Progrm, construction bid invitations for the Radiochelaistry Building were ssnt out 2nd t \ ebid opening date is May 29. APart 11 prop osd covr,ring construction of thc Q.diometallurgy Buildin; was forwaded t o theA & B Committee, with a estimated tot.9. project cost i or this facility of ?l,720,030 (up from original allocstion of $1,463,000). covering final construction of the Plot Plm4Utilities Projcct was i n preparation ct month end. ?ima acceptmce procedures were i n process at month end, pointed The Dix Steel Compmy co.nploted the concretc footings for thc Xechmical Developfabricctcd structure zs soon as the steel m ives. A.E.C. authorizztion was received &or the Phase I1 construction of tP,is building, This interior work a d mch of the design involved hx ebc m submitted toDix r?s a prelMnc.ry t o The mchitect-engineer (C. T. :{sin Co,) continued t o m & s good progrcss on t h e dasign of the Pil c Technology 3ui Ming a5 the Lij rz ry 23 ? iles Building. authorization was rcquestcd f o r maciii'ying thc: scope of work proposed for the Pile Technoloq Building t o include utilization of an ori & dly uncxcavatcd The daily di s tri but ion OP Pac ll it gq c : przssure incrkascs for the H-13 loc ding bzing detcmincd by the IBM Conputing LaborEtory i n support o f the coEtrol prozrzm formuktcd t o pcrmit cnrly P Division detection of P-13-,, slugs thct arc swelling i n thc process of rupture. excessivo backlog of urgent mathGmaticn1 computation, th; Computing Group bcgm As required by ~ t n

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The Plant Library work volume continued t o rise and the circulation of books and periodicals reached a all-time high.. The collection of these reference resources now totals 10,564 books and b,8& bound periodicals, largely assigned tothe 1W.n Library in the 390 Area but with si&fj.cazt holdings inthe two documents in the Central Files progressed satisfactorily. being given t o research and development reports, $inventorying of which must be coinpleted and reForted t o the A.E.C. by June 30. First attention is HEALTH INSTRUXW DNIS rms There were three informal investigations and six Class I investigations. Surveys by t h e Operational Division showed 110 notable deviation from acceptable radiation protection standards W i t 1 1 t h e exception of increased 113' deposition, results from control programs in t h e Bfology and Developinent Divisions showed no significant charge from previously reported data. Research and development activities progressed satisfactorily and without incident. "here was one mjor injury during the month, makin? a total of two for the year t o dzte, and 8 frequency rate of 0.380 There were four minor fires in the industrial areas. Loss was $3.09. Laundry volume continues at near capaclty for a five-day week. Tectative plans .=re being m,deto place the 200dest kundry on a two shift operation depending Additions equipment has been received inthe Printin: Plant which should aid i n cutting dom the lxge backlog of work now i n existance. A procedure wcs established whereby cert c in employees inthe ComIUnity, i.iedicd, Eqinzering 2nd Construction and Trmsyortation Divisions would only be processed f o r formil ltP1' clearance, thereby effecting a substcntial reduction inthe number of "Q" cleared personnel i n the future. The number of a*-plicantsinterviewed decreased from 1,671 i n Imch t o 1,221 i n with General Electric for the first tiqe. decreased …