Hanford Engineer Works Monthly Report December 1946 (Deleted)

Page 1

THIS DOCUMENT HAS EEEN SCANNED AND IS STORED O N THE OPTICAL DISK DRIVE

Page 2

Plant Statistics.............. IO U ed ical Department............. 126 Design a d Construction Departnent ....... 1%

Page 3

- The p mer levels of the Piles a t 100 D and 100 F were nr in tai ned Far ip seven batches were started in the Caqyon Buildings and fiftyseven were delivered frm the Isola tian Building. There were no major injuries during December. record as of December 31 was seventy-seven days. On December 2 Darmitory 7-10 was dedicated t o the Educational Program of the Hanford Eslgineer 7orks. This program vi11 be under the direction of F. Ellis Johnson and will be rapidly expanded as soon as the dormitory facilities are converted into classrooms. The operating time efficiency The plant safety &.C, C. Tall man has been appointed Assistant tothe !Imager and will be responsible for coordinating the activities on labor rela - survey of plant operations t o determine the probable liability under Plans have been completed for the installation of the General Electric Colspany procedures i n place of the du Pat procedures that were retai-ned in effect after the September 1transfer. The mv procedures will become effective as of January 1. I&. Tallnanfs first activity will be directed at an overall

Page 10

Does not include 1,367 unbonded pieces a t 5 units. Dae s not include 507 bonded pieces at2 units. Figures adjusted t o nev factor weight of 7.80 as determined physical inventory as of Decaber 31, 1946,

Page 12

.and 200 M,V, respectively except f o r scheduled outages and one 9crm a water flow of 4000 g,p.mr The 300 Area production r a t e continued on a 60 ton per month basis t o meet the 100 Area requirements. - The BPile was maintained i n standby condition with -. II. ORGANIZATION AND PEWO ~ JEZ One shift supervfsor, C, G. Lewis, returned t o the Project’during the month and was assigned t o the 100 Areas. Clu ugh and Y. T* Lewis, were transferred frm the Health Instrument section of the Medical Department d assigned t o the 100 Areas as request from the 300 Area t o the Maintenance Department to fill uepartm en troll. Two operators wre transferred at their Number of scrams - Number of purges 0 * Month end figures +wThe t o t a l metal discharged is below quota‘bocause of the necessity of taking camplcte physical inventory of metal. , . The scheduled December 31 push a t D &ea t~ils postponed until Jwuary 2 t o expedite this work.

Page 13

Tha unscheduled outage a t D Area on December 10 was caused by tho accidental. tripping of a phase load relay in the D Area Electrical A number of Special Request slugs mre procossod during the month. Details may be found i n thc Technical Scction of this report, The increased loading of bismuth into the F-Pile as part of M expanded program of irradiation of this material was completed on tained mgLtlar metal were discharged and then recharged with 45 slugs each of bismuth; tubes No. 1274-F and 2m5-F which contained 60 irradiated bismuth slugs each mre discharged and recharged 31th 45 each. Tho bismuth loading pattern at the F-Pile now consists of 12 stringers e?ch containing 45 slugs. Bs rccommendod in Classified Doctrmcnt No. 7-5288 tho average concentration per slug is being increased by charging fewer sl- In each tube, loading of bismuth into the D Pile w i l l be completed in February. In conformance with Production Test No, 105-74-P, are activity test of F-Pile was performod cm Decembcr 3 and of D-Pile on December 27. An additional m activity tost and rod calibrrrtion were made a t &Pile on December 18. lhe results of the tests mill be reported separately by the Technical Department. factor i ly at B-Pllc on December 2 axxi a t F-PFlc on December 26. D-Pile High Tank chock vdves m i l l be tcstcd in Jmuary. Thc monthly foil oxposurc in the B - Pile was made December 17 members of t h e Technical Dcpartment, On December II, Tubs No. 3171-F,'3172-F and 3277-F verc discharged - of regular metal and each recharged with 5 capsule ("papooseM) slugs and 26 regulzr metal slugs as provided in Production Test No, 105-1-P,

Page 14

O n Decomber 26, in conform3ncc Kith Production Tost No. 105-79-P, -nUR" which mere rec'umcd f'ran u s t o c k of unbonded pieces in tho 300 'marked qnwhich worn extrudad in the normal f'ashion but cast Prom thc same matcrid as that marked nRft, A total. of 10 tubes at D-Plle and 15 tubes at F-Pile w i s plug gauged CIB stipulated in Production Test No. 105-81-P t o determine the mount of bonding a t the inner ends of t h e gun barrels. tOsts are analyzed in the Tochnical s cc tion of this report. The results of these The remining 17 thimbles of the verticals set y rod system a t the D-Pile were pnoumaticrrlly tcsted on Deccmbcr 3. semi - d testing of the vor t ical thimbles a t E, D, m d F-Piles. This completes the During the Outage of Decombor 4, the No. 2 horizontal rod thimble a t . the F-Pile wus boroacoped t o detormiue the cause-of scratching nhich had been observed previously along the top of the rod t i p . obstructions mre found and there appoared t o be no excessive corro- " sion i n the thimble; a ccd tian of water-droplets on the rod itself. #and some indicntiod of water leaking d m the near face of the pile below the lipof the hydrostatic ally tested at 80 lbs/sq, in. of water was evident about 5" from the underneath side of thc tip end early in Jiznxary w i t h the only complete spar0 on hand; Progress is . ._ being made t o purchase or f3b rica tc additional spares. fs bcing expedited in that an December 30, the No. 9 3od of the B P i l e On Dcccmber 4, nmw mattress plate extension m s instA.led in the The replaced extension ph teas bxdly torn. A t the sCme time, tho mattress plates mere rearranged so that those i n the best condition wcre located ne-2 the contor of the basin, this being the poin the most severe servico 'is encountered. On Decdmbor 3, mcmbcrs of t h ~Technical Department ran 3 hydroa specified for studying graphite oxpansion under Productim Test It was noted, hmvor, that there ms an On December 26 the rad was mithdrmx~from the p i l e and A nearly continuous dri;, The rod was loft out of th opi lc and will be replaced was found t o be leaking 3150;

Page 15

hstrlllation will be do at the B-Pfie in Jmur-u'y, tho F-Pile in November tux still present in minor form. Repairs made with plastic sealing c mpd were not canpletely succossful. A now Qpe mterhl is on ordor and mill bo applied as soon as mcoivcd. -. At the D-Pfle, Vertic,d S a f e t y Rod No. 37 continued to give trouble while tho pilo was shut domn, but mhon tested about 12 hours after st crt up would not move freely. if thc rod guide Is out of plumb. rod guido a t t h e D-Pile, which had givon some trouble thrbugh binding, mere buf'fed on Decembor 17. On December 3 and 17, the rod tc s ted satisfactorily Further work is planned t o dotermino Vertic,d Safety Rod No, 25 and its The assembly hzs since operzted purposely rcputurcd a t the rcar Van Stonc flange on December 24 d removed from the p i l a . The tubc has not yet bcen replaced, pending -completion of the in vc s tim tion of the chmol by members of the The oriflcos on Tubes Bo. 378S-D, 3887-D, 39864, 4084-D, and 41804 were changed from 0.175" t o 0,200" diameter on December 17. this change, the temperatures o f these tubes limited tho operating bvol of the pile during the first 12 hours aft or a startup. t o assure proper mter flow, the period December 13 t o 15, On Decembcr 3, the lines to the No. 1 and No. 2Purification Rooms mere blanked off t o segregTtr! these rooms from the D-Pile helium circulation system. The lines me not used and this miU. eliminate g m leakage t o or from the circulation systcm a t this point., This changs mas deatB Area same time ago and will be mado atF Area. Minor contamination still ox is ts in theF Ana ash In st ment group is making as cr ics of studies t o dctcrnfno if a exists in the sewer line bet men thc Pilo Building its my to tho ash pit..

Page 16

rusim. Gutaassins!. and Machining Extrusion, Machining, and Billet Yields mr- as fofiorJs % Piold To Date Ektrusim opcrated December 3, with soma difficulty on startup due t o excessive oxidation of the first few bill ct s apparently caused by vapors trapped i n the rotary furnace resulting from flushing the ball race on Nuvember 29. On Docomber 4 , tnenty-seven TX billets were satisfactorily extruded from the ,lugust and September ship on t, Inspection of the ball race in ths rotary furnace iddicatcd the original flushing mas only about 75% effective in tbo removal o f thc beginning December 9, using A-15 flushing oil. and Duponal solution. The ball race mas completely cleaned and lubrioatcd v i t h 3-7 greaser In order t o prevent tho difficulty proviously expcricncod nith the oxidation of billets following flushing, furnace was proheated for 64 hours a t U0Oo F, 48 hours a t 1700 F (opcrating tenpcrature), and purged sufficiently to remove all undesirable impurities from the furnace atmosphere prior t o extruding Doccmber 18. normal on this date. The rods mere packed and Tho furnace wns flushed again during the mok A t & pow thermocouple vas Installed in one of thc in s put ion ph kS t o check the temperature of the ball race during operation, The remaining sixty - b o TX billet a from tho August atxi September shipents were Bxtruded December 18 under "Supplement A" of production test No. 3l4-4.2-M. The rods mill be machined and tc s ted Building test p i l e during the next month. the 305 A total of 223 four-inch slugs wore machined toA dinensions for production test Nor 313-834. Eloven tons of r o l l e d rods wore recoivcd from Fort Wayne and vem machined Fn December. The rods were grouped into four machining lots based on anal pti cd l data. Tke fourth lot, consisting of tnont? of the longest rods, is king held follo;ri,ig machining fora production tcst. The remaining throe lots v ill be processed norm&, ThC mchinkg yield on the four lots was '70.4%. The sub nod fldd WEIS chiefly due t o irregular rod lengths.

Page 17

- Chir, Rec oven and Oxide Burning: Chip Recovory m a operated seven days during Decembcr, Adapr was installed in tho circulating air duct of the centrifuge t o docrcaso the air flow, three fires occurred N uv ember 25, were processed through tho ccntrifuge with the damper set to cut off approximately one-third of the circulating air, without any fires being oncounbrod. occurred during the month, but mas due t o a centrif'uge basket being loaded with chips which had partially dried before centrifuging. Parts of the same lots of turnings processed nhcn The 12,450 puunds of turnings received from Fort maple w r o processed succossfully during this pericd. Tho yield on briquetting m a s 95,4%. The Oxide Burner GIZS shut dm Doccrnbor 2for repairs. and pnrt of tho exhaust duct mre rononcd. in so mice WI Deccmbor 13 and has boon operztod daily. The material burned is as'follovs: The feed hopper The burner m s placed back Extrusion Skirts & Floor Chip Recovory Floor Sneepings fD-2) 0 999 U19 Chip Recavory Cxides (D-6) 565 1460 16190 Fort Ifape has n m been bmed, Metal Slugs - Type c w d and yields were as follows: To Date To Date -.-

Page 18

Soven hundrod md fiftp tno Bismuth slugs wrc canned during Decembsr. production test No. 3U-83-M.. The fbl yield mas 82,9$, vith kclve rejections for nrhklcd cans, five marrod surface, six frost test, one air pockat, two thin cap, one iK-Si, eight no-scats, and one complete failuro in autoclave. The minkled cas were found t o be dwto slight coll ct depressions, resulting from cutting 8" cans t o sizc, These depressions were not readily visible until after c,Uming, improvement of yields w i l l be forthcoming through tho modificstion of equipment and the development of canning tachnique folloming receipt Canning rejocts, by cause, were: . AI. S i on Outside of Can The raCoV~ryof BE6 (Uranium Oxide) from bronze f l u x was continued on a twenty-four hour schedulo. a~OXinLatQb18,000 pounds of bronze were recovered this period. A production test, No. 3l3-85-U, was started Dcconher 2 to dotemino i f it would be feasible to use tho call etch acid (H PO ) tmo mocks or Production test No, 313-82-M was run from December 10 through Decembar 25 t o dotcrmine if the ,Uminum silicon canning baths could bc used two dqm without ex coe dbz specification limits one and one-half days' use on Deccmber 13, it was neccsszry t o recharge the canning baths with virgin metal since tho limit on tin h3d been A total of 12,264 pounds of d for tno days throughout the remainder of tho t o s t , although tho maximum bit fort in was vcry closely rrpproachcd in several instances, test is still in progress.

Page 19

to as n all mbonded area at the base of the cap, - The other showed eviaence .of penetzation to a point near the c a i ' surface. The thm failure involved 2 material s d was d w t o 3 small unbonded area on the sidewall of th the yield to date is 94,5%. A total of 5,280 aluminun boss type caps were received f o r csnning four-inch uranium slugs; the field on @.. The final etch ( € NO) acid has norr hen us& througlh eight tvro-meek of px duct ion test No, 33.344-N: Tho second phase of tho tost started December 23 uld involves using thc acid for ,c. Ahree-wee On Docembsr 2 the high voltnge tmmforner failed in the and hrrs baon functioniag nomall;.. &on succcs ful& r qa ircd znd is being held in resame, pericds with satisaa c t o q results.' %is completes tha initial

Page 20

300 Area - Test Pile on canned slugs, sixteen test3 on TX bare slug f o r production test …