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

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Operated f o r the Atomic Energy commission Oeneral Electric Company THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN SCANNED IAND IS STORED ON THE OPTICAL DISK DRIVE I

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Reactor Section ..................... .m tiOM Section 0 0 0. 0 Financial Dep - d 0 .. . 1-1 through 1-24 Plant Auxiliary Operations l)epaz%mnt

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In the Metal Praparation Section production of n o d charge mpterial canrarting sntimly to winch slug production toward the end of the The total rsrctor input plutonium production was 102.9 percent of the official forucast and the output upd 112.3 percent of forecast. P-10 production uas n o d uranium slugs, OM "P slug, twa "E? slues, and one 10-66 piece. Ii Of LO-* A tatrl of 2L rUptUrW 0Cc-d d h g bril including 20 On 4d 28, Ute Perricr sulfate water troatxwnt p rws s s uas changed t o the alumactivated silica co8gul&t proteas at B Reactor. activated silica in the preparation of process uater. A l l areas are nay using alumThe first irradiated J lppterial of the present J-N program was shipped offsite on The Redox production vas l2b percent of forecast for the month. 167 percent of the official forecast. fabricated buttons vhich mre 99 percent achieved. lJO3 facility production YM 150 percent of dll coamnitments f o r 23b-5 production uem Et uith the exception of uncentrator, which upd .dvpnced t o 75 pement completion. Detail design of the 300 Area Expansion, C A - D , flos advancad t o 90 percent completion. Overall design on Co-558, Reactor Plant Modipicatian for Ipcreosed Production, was advanced t o 15-6 Thia does not include the design of the waste self-conhranty-e info&, five C l a a s I and one Class XI radiation incidents were recorded. No major injuries were mported in Agril. mor injuries increased from 313 t o 387. The employee separation rate increased from .52 percent for March to .67 p e r c a d On April 1s a bill was presented t o Congress f o r disposal of federally-owned properties at mchland, and studies are being made of the proposed $egislation. As of April 30 there we= 267 housing applications pending. Three sub-major injuries uere repmted.

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Eltc. Dist. & Telspbom 30 '&amporktiLon upprchaaing at Stoma 52 General & Personnel Accounting Employee & Public Relations Dept. (a- Included i n Mministratiw Practices Department at 3/31/54. In addition nine other employees included above as Financial Department were i n Mdnistrative k act ices

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The net probetian of acrceptabla slugs was 241 tons whlch was 96 percent of the converting ext i rely to four-inch slug prodnetion tovard the end of the morrth. in mdnced production rates. aud the mmmhing 18 tons as four-inch meterialpercent and 65 percent, respectidy. in the poor bond tspe rejeats. affected by lnaxmwed poor bond typa rejeete vhich occurred in large PlIlljbex-8 with the defeote &Owlng as d pinholes in the a i d e of the veld. The cause has not Ihe lavler than foreca6ted prodnctian ass due principally t o of four-inch material combinad vlth the low yields resulted A total of 223 tapa was canned as elght-inch slugs 'Ehe aanning yields were 85.3 me o v e r 4 canning field was 83.7 perThe inprorcrent in the elgh%-iikh canning field resulted from a reduetion Ima four-inch Seld on the other hand was adversely '&e canning of enriched uranium alloy fuel dugs contirmed with 9,582 slugs being cold canned vith a field of 75 percent. slugs was cold canned with a yield of 79 percent, A total of ll,lOO lithium alloy target A canuhg yield of 56 percent vas realized on the hot press canning of 391 extruded fuel slugs d e the month, Poor banding vas the major reject cause. Ihe tatd reactor hput plutanitnn production was 102.9 percent of the official forecast, and the outppt was U , 3 percent of forecast. operating efficiency f o r the month was 78.8 percent. was due principally t o the outages associated with 24 ruptured slugs. Ihe established nmximm operating levels (excluding enrichment burnout) were increased a total of 64 MU dnring Ape including 15 at the B Reactor, 25 (PU and P-10) at the DR Reactor and 24 at the H Reactor. At the B Reactor the increase was attributed t o improved flattening; at the DR Reactor t o a revision of exit water temperature permissible limits (now based on average of highest ten tubes rather than the highest individual tube temperature); creased helium concentrations up t o 50 percent as permitted by the production t e s t on irrsdiation of thorium and U-235 alloy slugs for U-233 production. The aver - d l reactor at the H Reactor t o inme program for discharging the normal irradiated uranium metal, a t two concentrations as originally planned, continued with a total of 94 tons of metal being dis - charged a t the low and 189 tons a t the higher concentrations.

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I h e P-10 prog~amat DE Reactor continued dralng 4- vith the charging of an sdditional 327 J-B tubes as part of the second P-10 irradfstion cycle. P-10 program at C Reactor contipuhd drrring april without incidcat, and wlthout the cbargine of any Sdditionsl tubes. 'Ihe Irradiation of 12 J-Q (thorium) tubes, charged at H Reactor in March on a production test basis t o Investigate the feasibility of large scale thorium inadistian, contirmed vith no difficulties during April. one J slug, two the umaium pieces, tbirtear were eight-inch and seven the fora-inch materid. A total of 470 h0f;trS of uutage thm resulted from the *urea. During A p r i l 24 scrams occurred. Hineken of *the scrams at C, D, DR, and F Reactors were caused by mrml Fanut system dSficulties. Reactor resulted from an electrical power surge on the BPA system. Two scrams occurred at H Reactor, opt caused by an electrical fin in Bo. 22 vertical rod switch i n the control room, and one as the result of mallunctianing of a temperat u r e monitorixg instnmacnt on a production test recirculation tube. One scram at C Reactor occurred as a result of improper bg-passing of the B-C Reactor Safety circuit inter-tie vhile making revisions to tae B Reactor portion of the inter-tie. Qle lov pressure scram occurred at D Reactor on a water Qudity production test tube when the supply pump failed causing am nt ary drop in pressure. outage tim charged to these scrams was 8.0 hours. One process tube leak occurred at the C Reactor in conJunction with a ruptured 285 gallons of water were rerPoved from the reactor. During reactor operation, subsequent t o the tube replacement, a total of The F Reactor continued t o operate during &ril Kith a distorted flat tea pattern t o compensate t o r the loss of reactivity (approximately 100 ih) attributed t o boron in the graphite. thimble leak late in February. lhis incident resulted from a horizontal rod and Durlng a gas leak testing program atB Reactor on April 29, horizontal rod thimbles No. l& E, 4 and 7 were found t o be l e u . Rods 30. 4 and 7 were removed from serrrice and the thimbles blanked off p e w repairs scheduled for the next outage. A t that time, blanking oif of A and/or B thimbles for subsequent replacement is included removal and replacement of No. 6 thimble at B Reactor, and removal from Other horizontal rod work durlng April, necessary because of thinrble leaks, , s&ce of m0. 5 rod at DR Reactor vith blanking ofl of the thimble. On April 28 the ferric sulfate water treatment process was changed tothe alumactivated silica coagulant process atB Reactor. All areas are now using alumactivated silica in the preparation of process water.

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'2he Beddot product- warn 12b parcent of the of fia i al forecast far the mrrth. operation oi the II1.d &ring the iirst brll of the nrerartb was directed toward a program of rsrrsel cleawut .nd and processing startad on April 22. on April 26 forced suspension of operstiaam mat= April 28 when the D-1 tank was replaced and vessel fluahlags were cfnupleted. transferred irapr the Cangopl to the Ccm cent r rtl on BuIldbg am 4rIl30. e mztlrities in preparation for the Failure of tha Cancentmtion Buildizlg D-1 tank The first ai the at- yas charged on 17 (me iirst batch of nuterial was Ihe Redox plant shutdown far crrna decomtadnation sad PnFnt-e on &wch 29 was feed me- was mrrer~edto seven tons per b y on until April 19, when plaggiag 4 a warst& -fer jet resulted in a reduction t o 5 tons per day. for the replacmmzrt of the ctntrifmge feed tapk mgitatcm. April 21, and apersti.0~~3costlnaed on rates when the plant was shut &un becanse of the 1-8 colunm feed valve failure. and codtimrta, at this rate (h April 20 tbij-iCa B8tterles were shut dam for 15 hours -up was resumed on from 5to7 tons rmtil April 29 The revisions of the hcad-ead feed preparation procedure t o provide ample reflux before the addition of -te, and ai increase in the permanganate temperature ham been instrumntul in l c ~ ~ ~ r l , n gruthemlum emission t o below one-half curie per batch of feed oxidized. Data irrw the recently in std led strip filter have also permitted cprtailment of reflux during the latter porticm of the oxidation, comequently shortening the t- c p l e by nearly three hours. 2he completion of the recycle addition facilities has permitted addition of bolation and Metal Fabrication-recycle t o the Redox process. Isohtion Bull- 2s npv being received on a current basis without noticeable effects on the process, and testing of various types of recycle from the *tal Fabrication The TBP marrt prod&ian vae 167 percent of the official forecast. rates of 15.5 tom per day were attained, and the overall rate for the month was tons per day. 19.5 hours for the B me. motor, t w o waste ccmcentxator pumps, and the A Line RA column feed pump. of the heated extractant (EX) was contirmed throughout the month. tinued t o be low at an average of 0.81 percent f o r the month. Recycle Oram the milding is in progress. - lhese were caused by failure of the condenser vent blower mor outages for the plant for April were U O hours for A Line and facility production w l ~ s150 percent of a e official forecast. An average %lerate90 14 tans per day was achieved for the mnth. First calcinations were conducted in one of the newly installed gas fired Azrnsces (-key pots) durlng the as an additive t o improve the oxide reactivity. One carload of uranium oxide has been produced incorporating sulfamic acid

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me 234.5 compitrmat of iirral shapes w a s 99 percent of the of the forecast, and of the unfabricated buttans was attained. 2he Ihc waste -tom operated thraughout tbe modh vith -1- reduction of 'he feed for both evaporators was TBP Ihe! uastc metal fanrrrsl m t e s vere vcly satisfactory, wLth no major equipment exceeded t& fancast by 63 percart. Product purity averaged f o r msterlal had been processed. (h 4 r l l 2 6 , 0Pcra;tians veh suspended as a U amdlable feed lucnbcrs of the Detroit IQbiscm of I)lrsctors were caaducted on a t o u r of

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All persons engaged In work that m i g h t reasonably be expected to result in invartlons or discoveries advlse that, to the best of their knowledge snd belief, no imeotians or discoveries were made In the course of their work during the period cuvered by this report except as Usted below. therein covered by this report, notebook records, if any, kept In the aourse of their work have been e x a d p d far parsible inventions Such persons further adTise that, for the period

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Acaeptsble Pieces cuxned (4")(~opls)~)mes 19 Acceptable pieuses canned (4")(~ms)Bct 18 Acceptable Pieces Cauned (8")(Tans)Gzmss 224 Total Acceptable Pleces Canned (T0nS)Gmss

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Aa a result of the c- of the P-10 w,20 operators were Ip.dQ available for tmf er to tha Reactor Section which will complete the seniority e p l l t between the 300 and 100 Areas. During the reaeat difficulties vlth crack sensitive caps caused by u1 t o mlnlmlre reJects of this type. Aa most of the crack sensitive material has been utillred, the process has been converted t o the standard single weld pass method. It is believed this assures the greatest weld integrity of the finished piece.. kr order t o 8ssure adequate quality control protection a t low cost, the Process Sub-section hre msuprad t h e responsibility from the -1 Technology Stfb-Section for the product rad process conformance checking at c8rrled out by t h e Erqineering Department through “red tag” saaqles which were shipped*from Word to Feed. Ia the new procedure, metallurgical samples were selected and prepared by Fernald according t o HAP0 direction and arc interpreted by Hanf’ord obsemers during regular vfsits t o Fernald.

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in tha area of the ebad in a procp.sl designed t o prarlde s tur dr rds cluslona have been obsemed on the radiograph -and several of these In all owes t-, faalng lathe turnings constitute the -or source of scrap thst is belag caprsldared for reuse in the cmnir\n bath. 'Ihis will produce about 1900 pmmdm of &le 8181 per week UIc- with the nom weekly mUS lIust m& the dy t ical and thermsl analysis specifications set forth in the 7"prxcess. ~ u r ethe weld metal that covers the voids. mtal pratecting the slugs from water attack has Prior to use in the canning furnaces, reme P-10 production reverted t o a two-shift basis on 4ril 12, 1954 and target slug c- was further reduced t o one shift on April 26. It l a expaeted that the first phase of the P-10 slug canning operation will be completed by the mlddle of 1Ly. A tow ail 9,582 enriched uraniumaluminum elloy fuel slugs were canned by the rasplrr "C" process wlth a canning yield of 76 percent and 11,100 Wthlum alloy target slugs -re cmmed w i t h Q canning fiela of 79 percent. A a m field of 56 percent w a s realized on the hot press c- of the 391 extruded fuel slws which were canned at the end of March. bond rejects was the major cause for rejection. Two hundred twenty-two eight-inch alpha extruded normal uranium slugs were canned under the provisions of PT-313-105-3lM. Canned slug production was 96 percent of forecast because of the low field realized on the four-inch slug C-.

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Approximately 41,500 elght - m slugs canned an an extension of thio prodamtion test are in starage b the 300 Area. Ihe four-lnah 8 1 x 8 canned undem this test have …