Monthly Report Hanford Atomic Products Operation for November 1954 (Deleted)

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Operated for the Atomic Energy Commission General Electric Company PRIVACY ACT MATERIAL REMOV

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Atomic Energy Commission Hanford Operations Office Atomic Energy Commission Hanford Operations Office Atomic Energy Commission

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Community Operations Sub-Sec ti on Operations Research Study ..e.................... J-1 and 5-2

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QECIASSIFIEO MONTHLY REPORT HANFORD ATOMIC PRODUCTS OPEFATION The net production of hlh tons of acceptable slugs was 105 percent of the official forecast. On November 19, a new one-day production record of 5,575 slugs was established with five lines in operation. the first half of the month, but increased receipts resulted ina workable inventory by t h e end of the month. A critically low bare metal inventory existed . The reactor input plutonium production was 98 percent of the forecast. forecasted production was due principally t o the outages at D and C Eieactors for venturi installations and rear pigtail replacements respectively. These outages had been previously scheduled f o r other periods, and were not included i n the There were no regular uranium,slug failures during the month. The Redox and T Plant production w a s 124 and 104 percent of t h e ofi'icial forecast Results of an examination of operational data from DPile indicate that present power-exposure limits based on expected slug rupture rates are conservative. A possible goal exposure of 850 MWD/T or higher a t maximum tube powers of 800 KW without an excessive failure rate, was indicated. Operation of the 16-inch diameter semiworks scale continuous calciner for UOo3 manufacture was begun. t h e earilier h-inch diameter unit. The operability of the system is distinctly improved over Design activity on the b Program continued t o expand on a priority basis. Proj e c t proposals were completed during the month and have been submitted t o the AEC and divide the program i n t o three projects as follows: PERSONNEL AND SERVICES Increased ground contamination near the Redox stack was noted. consisted of particles of lesser activity than previously encountered. of construction and military personnel was begun at several locations. An agreement was reached with the HOO-AEC Finance Division i n November t o charge the overhead allowance t o production costs a t W O and KAPL instead of carrying it as an overhead item on t h e consolidated financial statements.

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he rations Research Study Salary & Wage Adme Emp. Corn. &Pub. Rel. Engineering De pah ent WORD ATOMIC PRODUCTS OPERATION NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES Radiological Sciences Department

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The n e t production of Is& tons of acceptable slugs w a s 105 percent of the slugs was established with flve lines i n operation. A critically low bare . metal inventory as ted the first half of the month, but increased receipts resulted ina workable inventory by the end of the month. The canning yield for November w a s 85 percent-us cbmpared t o 83 percent for October. The increased yield i s attributed t o contimed development i n the On November 19 a new one-day-production- record of 5575 There were four normal uranium slug autoclave failures during the month. One resulted from a pinhole in the weld, and the other three were app gently caused by defective cans. Arrangements were being made during the month t o s t a r t the canning of the cored uranium pieces i n December. A total of 9b acceptable C slugs were canned during t h e month with a canning field of 87 percent. The reactor input plutonium production w a s 98 percent of t h e forecast. Lower than forecasted production was due principally tothe outages atD and C Reactors for venturi installations and rear pigtail replacements respectively. outages had been previously scheduled for other periods; and were not included i n the November forecast. The time operated efficiency for the month was 81 percent, resulting from large amounts of outage time. outages, maintenance time required for rupture removal and process tube leak testing, and down time resulting from failure t o recover f r o m scrams because of vertical rod malfunctioning. The plutonium output production w a s 8h percent. of t h e forecast and was low because of the lower than forecasted disc hq ge of metal a t the C Reactor. A low operating efficiency of 67.5 percent atC resulted i n failure t o achieve goal concentration i n forecast amounts of low concentration material. raising of high goal concentrations, particularly a t D Reactor, which resulted in metal remaining i n the reactor longer than schedulbd, also contributed to the below forecast output production. material discharge were 130 and 120 respectively. These periods include such items as the D and C reactor The tonnages of l o w and high concentra,tion

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The maximum established reactor power levels were incr d t o t a l of 60 megawatts, ko atB Reactor and 20atD Reactor, during November. AtB Reactor the increase is.attributed to additional gains made possible by the 105 C effluent water temperature Umit established i n October, the seasonal decrease in inlet water temperature, and improved flattening. AtD Reactor the increase is at tri - buted t o the increased effluent water temperature Umit established i n November, the increased flow of cooling water permitted by the November venturi installation, and the seasonal decrease in inlet water temperature. There were no regular uranium slug failures k i n g the month. of 24 other type slugs failed as follows: two J and 13 C slugs at C, fiveJ slugs a t Et, and three C slugs a t H. outage time of 9b.9 hours were required for the rupture removals. During November, 17 reactor scrd occurred. caused by normal PanelUt system variables. The other scram occurred a t B Reactor when a 190 B pump was tripped during a routine pump unit transfer. t o t a l outage time resulting from these scrams was 101.1 hours. is unusually high as the result of failure t o recover from two scrams a t C Reactor, one because of insufficient reactivity and one because of the sticldng of a vertical rod. One Production Test slug a t B Reactor, Of-these, 16 at a l l reactors were This outage time Process tube leak testing was done atC and F Reactors i n November. leak indications coupled with subsequent rupture indications enabled immediate detection of a.leakLng process tube containing a rupture. During the middle o f the month, approfimately 720 tubes were tested at F Reactor with two rear nozzle leaks detected. When water collection rates remained high, an additional 1200 tubes were t e s t e d With three leaking tubes fmnd and several mlnor nozzle leaks found and corrected. A t month end, waten collection rates had returned t o normal atC Reactor, but were still high atF Reactor, presumably because of resi - Leak testing programs involved approximately 123 hours of outage Horizontal rod difficulties continued i n November with rods Nos. A and katF Reactor removed from servlce because of leaking thimbles. thimble was replaced and the rod was returned to service. thimble was removed. Installation of a new thimble was not successful due t o an obstruction inthe channel. An unscheduled outage a t F Reactor, approximately 31 hours long, resulted when a leak developed in an expansion joint in the steel effluent line approximately 200 feet from Building 105-F. At 0 Reautor, during a five-day outage, venturis o r double orifices were installed on all tubel, 500 Panel lit gages were reset and recalibrated, and equalization of tube f l o w from crossheaders was accomplished. An increase i n reactor cooling flow o f approxLmately 2000 gpm resulted from the reorificing program. On November 27, C Reactor was shut down for an outage t o replace the-neoprene covered rear pigtails with aluminum pigtails. ment, reorificing o f fringe zones wa3 done t o provide greater economy o f cooling water flow. The outage contihued a t month end. Concurrently with pigtail replace-

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The tritium and U-233 production programs continued throughout the month u i t h input productions of 88 and 98 percent of the forecast respectively. The tritium input was low because of above forecast production i n previous months resulting in earlier than forecast discharge and replacement with uranium. The U-233 was low due t o the pigtail outage atC Reactor. The charge-discharge activities associated with these two major special irradiation programs included the discharge (and replacement with regular uranium s l u g s ) , of 198 J-N tubes a t LIR Reactor and two J-N tubes a t C Reactor, leaving a balance a t month end of 538 and 80 J-N tubes a t DR and C Reactors, respectively. AtC Reactor, eight J-Q tubes were charged and one tube was discharged, giving a net increase of seven tubes under irradiation. The month end t o t a l of J-Q tubes being irradiated was 320, 160 each atC and H Reactors. The Redox and T Plant production was 12k and lob percent of the official forecast An operating rate of sixto seven tons per day was maintained until November 2 when a shutdown of 113 hours w a s required t o replace a first cycle feed pump along with the associated feed valve and ro to mter jumper assembly. Following startup, the rate was increased to8 tons per day, but steady operations could not be maintained due to partial loss of vacuum in the H-& oxidizer, On November 10, a head end shutdoun for five hours was taken t o attempt t o restore proper vacuum, but the effort was unsuccessful. urdum product receiver t o UNH storage pump failed, and a shutdown of 1 2 hours t o replace the pump was required. This outage allowed an inventory increase of metal feed for a subsequent 8 ton per day feed rate. experienced an emrgency shutdown as the r e s u l t of the presence of emulsified hexone i n the system. t o be reworked. In order to improve the vacuum on head end treatment vessels the H-& oxldizer fume line to H-5 was replaced. perndt a steady 8 ton per day r a t e for the remainder of the month following startup on November 19. The u r a n i u m decontamination which has been poor since the Phase 11 equipment installation was greatly improved by the lowering of the 2D and 3D column inter - faces into the scrub section of the column. During the last ten days of the month the final uranium pro act was within specifications, and a t the end o f the month the operation was returned t o the backcycle flou sheet. On November 1 2 the E-12 On November 1s the plant Fourteen batches of product contaminated w i t h uranium had Enough vacuum was recovered to The facility downtime for the month was 99.6 hours. Although 3.5 days of production time was lost in the T Plant due t o equipment replacements and reworking of wastes i n 224-T Building, the production for the nonth exceeded the forecast, reducing the overall plant t h e cycle. Efforts continued and progress was made toward

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The TBP facility production was 325 percent of the official forecast. This large percentage was due t o the delay of the forecasted scheduled shutdown of the plant for series conversion. During November the A line remained d m the entire month while the B line was dam for the last 15 days i n order that the equipment changes and new installations for the series operation could be made. entire job v89 82 percent completed. A t month end the The 003 plant production vas 107 percent of the official forecast. Production activities wetre curtailed for the major portion of the month due toa shortage of feed material. facility t o resum operation ata high level. However, near month end the Redox Plant output enabled t h e The 23b-5 production for t h e fabricated & l o r shapes was 100 percent. The production of the larger shape uas discontinued f o r the month because the commdtraent waa met the pmviow month. pieues and the nitrate w a 8 also met. The.coamdtment for t h e unfabricated There waa no processing i n the waste evaporators cfuring the month. Metal waate removal waa -tailed becawe of the TBP mant shutdown and the law av.ilabillty of the older wastes. The scavenging of the TBP waste continued but tha dboontaual.nrtion raaults were not up t o expectations. roo v qed waste waa temporarily suspended a t month end. Cribbing of this Total 'QOI Roll Naoenbrc 1, 1954 Total on Roll Nowmbor 30, 1954

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All persons engaged i n work that might reasonably be expected t o result i n inventions o r discoveries advise that,to the best of their knowledge and belief, no inventions or discoveries were made i n the course of t h e i r work during the period covered by this report except as listed below. Such persons further advise that, for the period therein covered by this report, notebook records, i f any, kept i n the course of their work have been examiaed for possible inventions p r Improved Canvas Shoe

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MGTAL PREPARATION SECTION Them was no change i n responsibility during this period. Acceptable Pieces Canned (8")iTons)Gross Acceptable Pieces Canned (8")(Tons)Net Total Acceptable Pieces Canned (Tons)Gross Total Acceptable Pieces Canned (Tons)Net Total Acceptable Pieces Canned ($ of Forecast) Special Request (man hours) 305 Routine Testa (man hours) 305 Special Teats (man hours) Total Water frssn 3000 Area (Avg.Rate-GPM) 1,266 Sanitary Water from 3000 Area (million gals.) 54.7

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Metal Preparation Section A net pr duct ion of 414 tons cf acceptable slugs was achieved wnich was 105 percent of the November corpmitmetnt. record of 5575 slugs vas established with five lines operating on a full relief lblt for five lines with relief. existed a t the beginning of the month and by November 19th the t o t a l inventory of bare metal was less than o m day's supply. replenished the inventory and sufficient metal was received for the balance of the month. On November 19 a new single-day production This represents a production achievement of very near a theoretical A critically low bare metal inventory Receipts over the weekend . An improvenmnt i n the canning yleld t o 85 percent in Novsmber from 83 percent in October vae due primsrily t o the continuation of the out-gassing process developed lsat month t o release hydrogen from the surface of the slug and thus minimize the poor bonds ("porosity") experienced i n September. There was as lig bt increase in frost test rejects caused by non-wetting of cans. The reason for this has not yet been determined. ThFee hundretd …