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

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Roqte To Read By ,AND I S STORED ON THE OPTICAL DISK DRIVE

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

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Metal Preparation Section ................ Maintenance and Renovation Unit........... Gga-1 through Gga-6 Police Unit................... .Community and Residential Property Unit...... Ggc-1 through Ggc-9 Public Works and Recreation Unit......... Ggh-1 through Ggh-3 Financial Department ....................... 1-1 through 1-27 Plant Auxiliary 0,e ratio m Department Plant Protection Section .................

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HANFORD ATOMIC PRODUCTS OPERATION The net production f o r t h e month of acceptable slugs was 332 tons, which established a new production record. Following the adoption of the Hanford Bare Slug Inspection Standards a t Fernald on August 27, a marked improvzment i n bare slug surface quality has been noted, and the bare slug reject rate dropped t o four percent i n September as compared t o 16 percent , The pluto dum output production was slightly below ( 2 percent) the forecast. was due primarily t o t h e gradual increase in high g/t goal concentrations t o base plus 125 MWD/ton at all reactors except D and C. tion was increased t o base plus 225 MWD/ton t o monitor rupture experience atthe At the D Reactor the goal concentraThe monthly productions atthe Redax and T Plants were 97 percent and 112 percent of the forecast respectively with the quarter production being 9 1 percent and 130 percent of forecast. Low g/t plutonium continued t o be produced at the T Plant. For the first time it appears possible t o analyze plutonium in a separations process feed solution by a direct chemical (coulometric) method. of a complete chemical material balance across a separations plant with elimination of discrepancies resulting from the use ofa combined radioassay - chemical assay This opens up the possibility The successful alpha phase extrusion of thirty-two unalloyed uranium billets was carried out by Bridgeport Brass at Adrian on August 31 and September 1. of the extruded material showed the hole t o be round and concentric within desired hollow uranium rods with a l/’r i n c h hole have been developed. PERSONNEL AND SERVICES Reduced salary rates for community firemen, resulting from a new agreement with the don effective September 13, 19sL, were made effective during the month. One major injury in Operations brought t o an end the best safety record ever t o be achieved by a General Electric plant, 2l& days operation without a major injury. This represents more than 9,&00,000 man hours. Community. Minor injuries continued low. From this extrusion trial the conditions necessarg for production of No major injuries occurred inthe

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'Ibe net prodnction f o r the mnth of acceptable sluge YBCI 332 tom, which established a new prodmztion record. c a s t due t o lower than anticipated yields becaase of poor bonding and subsequent reut. 2he q,,erly prodnction va8 56 percent of the official forecast because of low material receipts in the early part of the qnarter and lov yields resulting from poor bonding in September. ~hcmonthly production was 96 percent of the officicil foreThe canning yield va8 76 percent in September as cornparad to 81.4 percent i n There were no autoclave failurea during the month. Blluwing the adoption of the W o r d Bsre Slug Inspection Standards at Fernald on August q, a e e d improvenwnt in bare slug surface quality has been noted, and the bare slug reject rate dmpped to4 percent in September as compared t o 16 percent in The t o t a l monthly input pltrtoniuu production wse 133 percent of the-forecast. higher than forecasted production was dud t o improved reactor t i m e operated efficiency, portponemant of a two weehe venturi and horizontal rod work outage at the D Reactor, and a one week outage for pigtail replacement at the C Reactor. for the quarter was ~6 percent of forecast, B e Overall reactor operating efficiency waa 91.6 percent which was the highest e f f i - ciency during the petst twelve months. There were no increases in the established mxbmm operating levels of the reactors. One re- uranium slug mpture occurred d e the month. slug and one enriched slug (not cmfinahd) also ruptured. sulting from these ruptures was 30.2 hours. The plutonium output production was slightly below (2 percent) the forecast. due primarily t o the gradual increase in high g/t goal concentrations t o base plus was increased t o base plus 225 WD/ton t o monitor rupture experience at the higher conand other concentrations material discharged was 203 and 15 tons respectively. In addition, one thorium Bt the D Reactor the goal concentration B e C Reactor remsined on the low concentration program. Wing September, 15 reactor scrams occurred. Panellit system difficulties. 0961 (Recirculation Studies} while controlled boiling i n the tube was attempted; three O f these, four were caused by normal Other scrams were as follow : five at H Reactor'from tube

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Beckman trim occurred, two at C and one a t F Reactor; two scrama at B resulted from the B-C tie-in and the-C Reactor trips, and a third resulted from a burned out holding relay on #2 safety circuit. Auguet as the result of a Panellit scram and continued into September. The total outage time charged t o these scrams was 35.8 O f this, 20 hums were charged for the balance of an outage which began in 21vo process leak testing programs occurred in September. creasing water coUectbn rates, approximately 830 process tubes were leak tested. rear nozzle flange leaks were found and were com c ted by tightening the nozzles. Start - up from this a t a g e was rmide September 30, precludfng month end confirmation of these leaks aa the cause of the increased water collection rate. At H Reactor, also on the basis of increasing water collection rate., a process tube leak testing program was started late i n the month. A t mnth end, the testing program was continuing, with approxixu8tely 450 tubes tested and no leaks determined. The F Reactor leak testing program required app rom t ely 30 outage hours. had been devoted t o the H Reactor program. A t rmnth end, approximately LO outage hours Horizontal rod experience dnring September wsa excellent. No rods were removed from service, and maintenance was limited t o fluahing mda at C Reactor t o remove sediment accumulations. An' increase in uit cooling water pressure was noted following the flush, although three of the roda remained within three pounds of the low pressure out of service, and Bo. 5 continues in limited operation due t o binding at the 160No change occurred in the status of D Beactor horizontal rods. No. 7 remains Ihe t r i t i u m inpat production was 36 percent mer the forecast because of the high DR Reactor operating efficiency of 100 percent. greater than forecast rate in August and September contributed t o the higher than forecast input production for this product. The charging of thorium tubes a t a me offsite shipment of J slugs continued during September. The monthly productions at the WOXand T Plants w e r e 97 percent and 112 percent of the forecast respectively with the quarter production belng 9l percent and 130 percent of forecaet, I#u g/t plutoaium continued t o be produced at the T Plant. A production rate of approximutely 7 tons/day w86 maintained i n the Redox Plant during the first part of the month; however, it waa necessary t o reduce the rate to6 tons/day after the 1088 of the D-13 (waate receiver) agitator, weight factor and discharge j e t on September 7, 199, uh&n a vapor phase reaction took place in the tank. shutdown started on 9-12-54 vas taken t o inspect the waste receiver tank and effect repairs; however, no corrective action was taken as the tap of the tank was so distorted t h a t it was impossible t o effect repairs short of replacement of the vessel. With the .defective D-13 eq-pment, the rate was limited t o 6 tons/day for the remainder of the month. were necessary t o replace a faulty head-end transfer Jet and t o rework a head-end batch. ltro other shutdowns, 17 hours on 9-18-54 and 26 hours on 9-22, 9-23-44,

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Operations at the T plaat during the m n t h were essentially normal. A 12 percent increase in the capacity of the extraction cycle wa8 obtsined, without affecting the quality of the final pmduct, by Increasing chemical addition rates and reducing Bm TBP Plant monthly production was 157 percent of the forecast and the quarterly production was 142 percent of forecast. d w t o 8 continnation of @le1 operatians vith no outage being required as forecast to prepare the plant for series operation. was 118 and llk hours respectively for the A and B Lines. 'Ihese outages were taken f o r Ilne flushes and minor maintenance. material, the plant proceased 92 tons of out of specification Redox UIH. basis the plant was umucceesful in decontaminating 2.2 year old metal In a 3 - 4 percent feed blend with older material. 'Ihe production was higher than the forecast ?he total outage time for the mnth In addition t o the regular tank farm feed 2he UO production was 110 percent of the forecaat for the month and ll0 percent for the q&er. Only minor quantities of Bedox UNH was received during the month, and the feed material f o r 9 was principally from TBP. The 2 9 - 5 production of shapes f o r the qyarter was lo5 percent and 100 percent for the large and nn#ll modela. of forecast f o r the quarter. of the forecast. A total of 10 cars of powder The production of unfabrlcated buttons was 100 percent The qyarterly production of nitrate was 114 percent B e waste evaparstora operated with vol w reductions of 41 percent and 29 percent Remwal of metal waate fram undergroud storage was decelerated as availability of older metal wastes decreased. material with I1x furzlishing a small amount. mid-month follaring the unsuccessful decontamination in TBP. Ibe BX farm supplied a large portion of the TBP feed Sluicing of green material halted in Totd on September 1, 19% 3639 Wtal on Roll September 30, 1954 3672 rDoes not include Intra department transfers.

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A l l persona engaged in work that might reasonably be expected to result in inventions or discoveries advise that, to the best of their knowledge and belief, no inventions or discoveries were made in the course of their work durfng the period covered by this report except as listed below. Such persons -her advise that, f o r the period therein covered by -this report, notebook recorda, if any, kept in the course of their work have been examined for possible inventions or W. W. Culbert, Separations Section mu ation of a suggestion submitted through the Suggestion System by a welder, W. W, Culbert, who has since terminated, reveals the possibility that the type of cutting torch he proposed may possibly be patentable." Reed Overson, Separations Section) "Portable bulk msterials dispensing hopper handled by a fork lift truck. "

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There was no c- in responsibility during t h i s period. Accepteble Pieces Canned (8")(Toms)Qross Total Acceptable Pieces C a m & (Torrs)Cross Total Acceptable Pieces Canned (ToM)Het Acceptable Pieces Canned ($ of Borecast) Special Request (man hours) 305 Routine Tests (man hours) 305 Special Teats (man hours) Sanitary Water from 3000 Area (Million Gals.) Total Water from 3000 Area (Average Bate-4PM)

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Metal Preparation Secc The net production of acceptable slugs reached a new high of 332 tons for the month. The canning yield dropped t o 7% from 81.4% for the previous month. The msjority of rejections were due t o poor bonds and this reject category t o be caused by out-gassing of the slug. i n those instances of greatest porosity with increased bydrogen content of the changes in the heat treating operation at Fernald. Fernald, was still in grogrsss a t month-end. Porosity i n the bonding layer began suddenly and appeared There seemad t o be a strong correlation The hi-r hydrogen content appeared t o be a result of recent A remedial program is in Extensive inveetigation into this problem, both at Word and Five canning lines operated during the month with full relief. No autoclave failures occurred during the month. On August 27, the National Lead Company adopted the Haniord Bare Slug Inspection Standards at Fernald. Since adoption of the new standards at Femald, a marked Improvement i n bare slug surface quality has been noted, with a C,otal rejection rate of 4s for September. This confirms the assumption that vas reached in August, then based on short experience, that the number of reJect slugs returned t o Fernald would decrease considerably. It is believed that the heat treating operation on the finished slug tends t o accentuate surface defects slightly which may accowt for the difference i n reject rates between the t v o types of material. Heat treated slng rejection rate was only 1.4%. Approval was obtained and procedures id tia ted for recovery of lathe scrap for use as canning metal. experience has been gained. Two shipments bi cans were received which were found by statistical inspection t o be tbiw gercrnt defective because of thin can walls. The loo$ Inspection which necg@aarllyfollowed confinnsd very closely the statistical inspection The nev hot press f8ci il ties in the 313 Building were utilized i n the canning of aluminum dummies and em ched uraaium-aluminum alloy fuel slugs but problems i n blister- and excessive flash were encountered. The hot press canning of this material has been temporarily curtailed due t o reduced requirements and the af~remmtionedproblems. Major effort is being directed toward the correction of these problems. Estimated savings will be reported as soon as sufficient T h e salt bath heat treating uperation continued as scheduled. Acceptable canned slug production was four percent below forecast due t o lower yield than anticipated and insufficient autoclave capacity a t month-end, which resulted in a build-up of in-process inventory. when the new autoclaves. i n the 313 building becorns available. The training of new operators f o r additional production lines accounted somewht for the This situation will be relieved increasai reject rate. ~

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Metal Preparation Section 1 7 'phe C- line efficiency was 94% which vas an Increase of one percent over August. Less dm time for emergency maintenance and mora efficient utilizatian of manpower with close follow-up with Maintenance contributed t o this 2. Inspection, M8intenance and Replacements The "kit" lllethod of replacing dull lathe tools MS adopted for facing tools used in 313 building. returned t o the shop for regrinding. reduced set-up and regrinding t …