Monthly Report Hanford Atomic Products Operation for June 1955 (Deleted)

Page 1

Operated f o r the Atomic Energy Commission General Electric Company THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN SCANNED .AND IS STORED ON THE OPTICAL DISK DRIVE PRIVACY ACT MATERIAL REMOVED-

Page 2

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

Page 3

Commercial and Residential Property Unit.. Ggc-1 through Ggc-8 Auxiliary Operations and Plant Protection Section ... Gh-1 through Gh-30

Page 4

ATONIC PZCDUZTS OPERATION On June 10, while the water flow was being lowered normally a t F Reactor i n preparation for the discharge of a ruptured slug, the 3X system balls were released Prom all hoppers but one which was locked out. The causes or" the incident were determined t o be a 5rezkdown 01' cable insulation which caused a short circuit and erratic r day operation. ilpproxiAnately146 hours of outage tix were x quir zd for ball removal. The TBP Plant operated at rates ~p t o nine tons per day duri.?g the first half of the month following the correction or" the waste loss problem i n late May. high ,oamna product began to apFewj and prublsns ai'isirg from t h i j source continued till nonth end despite steps taker? t o rzprove decontamination efficiency. The plant was shut down on June 20 f o r thorough column flushing, and a t nonth end the system was i n the r'inal stages of being cleared of all young waste material i n preparation Tor zotting the plant back t o efficient, operation on older netal waste. ProTress t o aate on procursnent or' ribbed zirconium process tubes f o r high pressure, high temperature recirculation tests i n tne KER Facility, is not encouraging. date EO billets have been unsuccessfully extruded. To Two leaking process tubes reaoved from the central zone of DPile had heavily corroded areas which cor.tained minLnun tube wall thicknesses o f 1 0 t o 50 nils f o r normal areas. showed severe intergranular corrosion of t h e aluminum jacket i n the area of rupture. Apparently, this region of the slug had not been adequately cooled during pile Tentative agreement has been reached with the Commission and criteria and procedures estaolished fora nodification t o the current inspection policy on engneered equipment t o provide f o r inspection by one of the following: The higher reactor productivity i n lS54 compared to that e-qerienced i n 1953 is PEFGOMNEL AND SERVICES During the month o f May expendi%ures for Construction Work i n Progress totaled $2.5 million, t i x largest expenditure in any one month s i w e ivIarchg 195%. The large increase i n :Jay above the previous 12-month average of $1.7 million is primarily due duction", which accounted for lJt% oi the to tai construction expenditures i n Nay. A major injury t o an operaticcs eniployee on June 2 1 ended l k 3 dzys oL' no lost, time winning of the Central Sar'ety Councii's award. Effective rmdnight June 30 both policing ad fire protsction for North Richland was discontinued by UP0 with the Lacter iunctions being tJrned over t o tne Army. 0,7550342 nan hours 01' exposure w e accumulated and resulted inthe

Page 6

Bmloueo & Public Rolations Salary & Uago Administration Emp. Corn. & Pub. Rol. Aux. mor. & Plant hot. CY Proporty Accounting Radioloaical Scionces Dooartmurt

Page 8

A net production of 376 tons of acceptable finished slugs, of cored slugs, was achieved i n June. This production w&s lo& percent of the The canning yields for solid and cored slugs were 73 and 71 percent respectively. The composite yield was 73 percent, which i s a drop of nine percent from the yield experience of May. The causes for most of the r e j e c t s were poor bonds, bad welds, inc'lusions and mamed surfaces. The poor bond rejecfi experience actually improved one percent during the month. investigated for conditions which could cause t h i s final inspection defect. However, the inclusion rejects increased from one Both, the sleeve honing and the autoclave operation a r e being The canned slug inventory was reduced t o l e s s than three weeks supply at month end due t o heavy discharges from the KWReactor. Bare slug inventory remained a t approrLmately a two and one half week supply. There were no autoclave failures during the month. A t o t a l of 660 tru-line uranium-enriched aluudaum alloy slugs were hot press canned with a yield of 86 percent. included 898 lead poison slugs and 1176 thorium slugs, both canned by the c o l d unbonded method . Other canning production during the month The total. and plutonium input productions were 114.9 and llh.7 percent of the official forecast respectively. The forecast was exceeded due t o higher than anticipated levels and to postponing a horizontal rod replacement outage. The time operated efficiency was 77.3 percent which is approximately 2 percent lower than the May efficiency. The major factors contributing t o the l o w efficiency were the continued high frequency of slug failures, the dropping of the 3X system b a l l s at F Reactor, the process leak tube testing program, and the continued large amount of charge-discharge time required by the low concentration

Page 9

The plutonium output production w a s 142.9 percent of forecast due t o increased discharges t o compensate f o r longer basin cooling time and a KW discharge which had originally been scheduled f o r July. Tonnages of low and high concentration metal discharged were 372 and 55 respectively. The established mnrtmum reactor power levels, excluding burnout, were increased a total of 80 megawatts, 45 a t DR Reactor, 1s a t KE Reactor, and 20 at KW Reactor. A t Hz Reactor, flattening improvement resulted i n the increase, while at KE and WReactors long t e r m gains contributed to the increase. A t o t a l of 28 slug failures occurred dnring June. The individual reactor experience was as follows: AtC Reactor there were a total of 11 ruptures including four regular uranium, four zirconium canned slugs on production test, one C type enrichment slug and tu0 J type enrichment slugs i n a single tube; D Reactor experienced nine regular uranium slug ruptures; F Reactor experlenced two regular uranium slug ruptures; a t H Reactor there w a s one regular uranium rupture and five J type enrichment slug ruptures ina single production test tube. time required for slug removal was 398.4 hours. .Sixteen reactor scrams occurred, of which 1 2 were caused by normal P a n e U t system occurred during an instrument voltage adjustment. due t o high pressure trips resulting from pressure manipulation a t the 1706-KE The total outage One scram at %E Reactor resulted from a low level pile trip which ICE Reactor w a s scrammed twice C Reactor w a s scrammed once due to a process water pump The total outage time attributed t o scrams was 52:lr. hours. On June 10, while the water flow was being lowered normally atF Reactor i n preparation for the discharge of aN pk red slug, the 3X systemballs were releaaed from all hoppers but one which was locked out. cident were determined t o be a breakdown of cable insulation which caused a short circuit Ad erratic relay operation. time were required for ball removal. B y D, and H Reactors were each.partially leak tested as the result of abnormal water collection rates. No leaking tubes were found a t B Reactor, two le&% tubes uere found at H Reactor, and tvo tube leaks and three Van Stone leaks were found a t D Reactor. had returned t o normal. The causes of thein - Approximately 116 hours of outage A t month end, water collection rates a t these reactors Outage time involved i n leak testing amounted t o approxThe U-233 input production was u 2 . 2 percent o f the forecast as the result of cancelling the scheduled June discharges of the material because of shipping uas 3.8 and 3.2 percent of the total, respectively. The shipment of irradiated J material continued at a reduced rate during,the. month with a total of 2800 pieces being shipped. Production charged to thorium irradiation at C and H Reactors

Page 10

The monthly production of all facilities, with the exception o f TRP and UO3, exceeded the official forecast quotas. quarterly forecast quotas. All facilities met or exceeded the The ReQx Plant operated a t a rate of 9 tons of uranium per day from the beginning of the month until June ll when a pluggedline on the f i n a l plutonium concentrator caused a 223 hour shutdown. were continued a t 9 tons per day u n t i l the depletion of aged feed material on June 13 when the plant was shut down f o r 11% days f o r decontamination and repair work t o the 60-ton crane. tained through the month end. forecast by one percent. The plant resumed operation on June 25 On June 27 the rate was raised to8 tons per day and mainThe monthly production exceeded the official The T Plant production was curtailed during the first t e n days of the month due t o operational and equipment difficulties. In spite of these difficulties, new all-time records were established i n the tons o f metal dissolved and plutonium produced. The production was 115 percent o f the official Xorecast quota The TBP Plant operated at rates u p - t o 9 tons per day durFng the first half of the month following the correction of the waste loss problem in late May. On June 16 high gannna product began t o appear, and problems arising from t h i s source continued till month end despite steps taken t o improve decontamination efficiency. The break-through of fission products was attributed at first, but not conclusively, t o the unexpected failure of the flawsheet t o remove zirconium, niobium and ruthenium from feed streams made up of approximately 50 percent young metal wastes aged 17 months as compared t o the older 2* year aged metal previously processed. thorough colum flushing, following which the plant still failed to decontaminate. A t month end the system was i n the final stages o f being cleared of all young waste material i n preparation for getting the plant back to efficient operation on older mtal waste. of the official forecast, although the quarterly forecast production was exceeded. The plant wa.9 shut down on June 20 f o r The production for the month was only 79 percent Operation i n the U03 Plant waa normal but limited i n feed material by the TBP process problems and the ll* day shutdown of Bedox Plant. The production f o r the month was 90 percent of the official forecast, but the quarterly production forecast quota was exceeded substantially. Processing activities in the Isolation Building were rel a tiw ly normal. operating activity in metal fabrication w8s concentrated upon meeting the unusually high production schedule. forecast quotas, and established an all t i m e record in the numbers of cores The Fabrication Plant exceeded the monthly

Page 11

The West Area Evaporator continued operation during the month on f i r s t cycle evaporator bottoms with a volume reduction of 25.7 percent. Metal waste removal continued during the month, supplying the TEP Plant with feed consisting mainly of blends of material aged 1 7 months and 23 A t month end, due t o difficulttes encountered i n the TBP Plant, only 2_iyear old wastes from the .TX tanks were being removed. On Roll June 1, 1955

Page 12

All persons engaged in work that might reasonably be expekted t o result i n inventions o r discoveries advise that, t o the best of their knowledge and belief, no inventions o r discoveries were made i n the course of the%r work during the period covered by this report except as l i s t e d below. Such persons further advise that, for the period therein comred by this report, notebook records, i f any, kept i n the course of their work have been examined f o r possible inventions or Bonney Type Gasket Retainer This isa devise for remotely positioning and retaining a gasket on the Hanford type connector head or any flat surfaced pipe connector head o f similar design. The ease and rapidity with which it can be installed or removed makes i t ideal for all purpose use. Bonney Type "In-Linelf Orifice Cleaner This is a device for cleaning o r unplugging an orifice used i n flow control of liquids o r gases. It is adaptabh t o any size flow line and makes possible the unplugging of an orifice without removing the orifice from the flow line.

Page 21

There was no chsnge i n responsibility during this period. Total Aaceflable Slugs Canned (Tona) Forecast Achievemant (Current cormnitment) N e t Aaceptable Solid Slugs (Tons) R e t Acceptable Cored Slugs (Tons) Slugs Returned from Reactor (Tons) Acceptable 10-66 Slugs Canned (Pieces) Total Steam Generated (Mlbs) ! 2 0 b 5 5 8 Sanitary Water from 3000 Area (Million Gals.) June May t o date

Page 22

r Metal Preparation Section A net production of 376 tons of acceptable finished slugs, achieved in twenty two vorking days, was essentially lo& percent of forecast. Eighteen tons of .this total were cored slugs. SIX canning line shifts per day were operated throughont the month and l i n e reUef vas provided when manpower was available. Actusl'productian for FY 1955 completed in Juna w a s 45.40 tons. T h e production ccmmitmnt for the f i s c a l year of 4374 tons was exceeded by approximately four A compoeite yield of seventy tbree percent was experienced i n June (seventythree percent for solid slugs and seventy-one percent for cored slugs). This is a drap of nine percent fromthe yield experienced i n May. for rejects were : poor bond, bad welds, inclusions, marred surfaces and frost The major causes The inclusion reJects which increased from approximately one percent t o nearly twenty percent during the month vere formerly included i n the miscellaneous inum surface of the canned slug. operations are being investigated for condition8 which could cause this defect. The poor bond or "dimple" reject experience previously reported, improved from two percent t o one percent during the mnth. It appears that the occurrence of this reject may be influenced in part,at least, by removal of impurities b u i l t up at the lead slsi -tal inter-face in the canning operation. These appear at final inspection as a visible defect i n the alumBoth the sleeve honing and the autoclave Approval to coms …