Hanford Laboratories Operation Monthly Activities Report February, 1961

Page 1

HANFORD LABORATORIES OPERATION MONTHLY ACTIVITIES REPORT THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN SCANNED AND IS STORED ON THE OPTICAL DISK DRIVE HANFORD A?OMlC PRODUCTS OPERATION

Page 2

This report w a s prepared as am account of Government sponsored work. Neither the United States, nor the Commission, nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission: .A: Makes any warranty or representation, expressed or implied, with respect to the accuracy, completeneu, or usefulness of the information contained in this report, or that the use of ony information, apparatus, method, or process disclosed in this report may not infringe privately owned rights; or Assumes any liabilities with respect to the use of, or for damages resulting from the use of any information, apparatus, method, or process disclosed in this report. As used in the above, 'person acting on behalf of the Commission" includes any employee or contractor of the Commission, or employee of such contractor, to the extent that such employee or contractor of the Commission, or employee of such contractor prepares, disseminates, or provides access to, any information pursuant to his employment or contract with the Commission, or his employment with

Page 3

This document consists ,d HANFORD LABORATORIES OPERATION P. R. No. Location Route Date Signature and Date Operat ion Managers This report was prepared only for use within General Company i n the course of work under Atomic Energy Contract AT(45-11-1350. Any views of opinions expressed in report are those of the author only.

Page 4

Atomic Energy Commission, Hanford Operations Office G. F. Quinn, Director, Division of Production, Savannah River Operations Office, Aikerr, South Carolina

Page 5

TABLE OF CONTENTS Force Report and Personnel Status Changes ... Reactor and Fuels Research and Development Physics and Instrument Research and Development Chemical Research and Development Operation . . Operations Research and Synthesis Operation ... Radiation Protection Operation ......... Laboratory Auxiliaries Operation ........ Professional Placement and Relations Practices.

Page 7

BUDGETS AND COSTS February operating costs totaled $2, 036, 000; fiscal year-to-date costs are $16, 716, 000 or 6470 of the $25,951, 000 budget. Hanford Laboratories research and development costs for February compared with last month and the control budget are as foll,ows: (Dollars in Thousands) Current Month To Date RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 1. Reactor and Fuels The Plutonium Recycle Test Reactor with exceptions. Construction of the includes the Rupture Loop Annex and Phase III-A constrcction is complete, Maintenance and Mockup FaciliTy, which Critical Facility Building, is estimated to be 5070 complete over-all. Installation of gas loop auxiliaries and s e r v i c e for delivery by Mav 15 of one main gas blower to be run at reduced operatmg Negotiations are in progress with Bris'ol-Szddeley Additional analyses of PRTR critical test results show :he radial ref1ec:or worth t o be about 40 milli-k. calculated but is consistent with results observed elsewhere :CVTR Critical Facility). The discrepancy is ascribed largely to the void effect of t h e dump chamber. The negative reactivity effects due to replacement of n o r m a l fuel channels with gas loop and rupture loop componen+,swere found t o be in reasonable agreement with previous estimates. This value is about one-half tha? previously Specimens of Hastelloy R-235, Inconel, Inconel-702 and AISI-406 showed no reductions in room temperature ducnlity after irradiation to over 102' Thermal nvt in a Hanford reactor test hole in an environment of 650 C helium. data are markedly different than commonly obtained via room temperature o r 300 C irradiation of structural metals.

Page 8

Using an electrically heated model, boiling burnout heat flux for the 19-rod cluster PRTR fuel element was determlned to be 900, 000 B / h r - s q ft o r gre at er. Fabrication of aluminum-plutonium spike elements for replacement u s e in the PRTR is approximately 5070 complete. tubes continues to be a problem. Availability of Zircaloy cladding Plutonium standards have been made to t e s t the feasibility of monitoring the distribution of plutonium in a finished PuO2-UO2 fuel element by gamma sintered and ground pellets has now attained an exposure of 2300 M W D I T in the ETR under simulated PRTR conditions. Zirconium clad plutonium plates have been success f ~ ill yrolled in preliminary development directed toward an economlral plutonium spike elemen!. difficulties were encountered at the higher ratios of plutonium to cladding. Radiometallurgy examination of a prototype PRTR spike element indicates that no significant physical changes occurred as a result of 72 thermal cycles in the ETR loop. The corrosion rate of the Al-Ni-Pu core materia! of the spike element w a s tested in an ex-reactor loop under PRTR coolant conditions - pH 10, 300 C water - and found to be acceptably low., about 400 mils/month. Reduction of PuOb to Pu2O3 by d r y hydrogen w a s not found t.0 occur below 1440 C. U 0 2 and Pu02 pellets and intermediate mixtures were sintered for 75 hours at 1500 C in hydrogen. Eight Pu02 pellets completely vaporized while the U 0 2 and the UO2-20 weight percent Pu02 pellets m o r e than tripled in weight by condensation of plutonium oxides. Addition of 1 0 weight percent Pu02 to U 0 2 w a s found :o ralse the meltlng weight percent material melts at 2700 C. PuC w a s found to $existover the compositlon range of 44 to 50 a / o carbon. Plutonia-thoria and plutonia-zirconia systems were further investigated to establish composition limits and sintering behavior. A Mark II-C nested tubular U 0 2 fuel element has been fabricated by vibrational compaction for high flux irradiation testing in the ETR 6x9 A four-rod cluster fuel element containing recycled electrodeposited U 0 2 was returned to HAP0 after irradiation in the MTR. tions show no abnormalities o r dimensional changes. The element is now at the reactor site awaiting charging. Preliminary ob serva -

Page 9

Preliminary autoradiographic studies of transverse surfaces of irradiated U02 fuel rods reveal evidence of non-uniform fission product distribution. Investigation of the cause of the previously reported s e v e r e corrosion and hydriding of a KER-1 Zircaloy-2 process tube has continued. corrosion data on rings cut f r o m an Enirradiated section of the tube indicate that the corrosion rate in 300 C, pH 10 water is e r r a t i c and much higher than that of standard specimens. Also, it is now believed that recrystallization occurred during cut-off operations and not in-reactor. Failure to obtain a black oxide autoclave coating on beryllium-brazed Zircaloy-clad fuel elements can be eliminated by u s e of moderate agitation and by removing at least 1-1/ 2 mils of surface metal during etching. Metal tear defects in NPR p r o c e s s tubes continue to plague the vendor, having affected about 50 tubes to date. Nondestructive tests are being developed a t Hanford to detect these defects. Measurement of the activation energy for creep of annealed Zr-2 at 15, 000 psi have now shown an abrupt increase from6, 500 cal / mole at 281 C to 57, 800 work on this transition temperature. Additional testing will be c a r r i e d out to evaluate the effect of cold It has been found that non-fissionable metals irradiated with neutrons exhibit remarkable similarities in the post-irradiation annealing behavior. thesis of irradiation data for Cu, Ni, AI, W and Mo reveals a sequence of recovery processes classified according to kinetics and falling into five temperature ranges which can be roughly normalized according t o reduced melting point correlations e Failures of Z r - 2 coextrusion-clad uranium rods and Tubes as a result of localized clad straining have occurred in both NaK capsules and i n high of cladding thickness over a very short gage length. of equal mag t ni we but occurring over a larger gage length have not caused These failures may be correlated with a major variation Variasions in thickness The f i r s t KER loading of enriched, single-tube NPR-type fuel elements with brazed closures, discharged in ,January at an expos ire of 1200 MWD/T shows no evidence of damage. In-basin density measuremen's show a l a 3% increase in uranium volume. This figure correlates well with swelling data from previous testing. U-zf diffusion couples a r e now being irradiated for sntdy of the mobilities of rare gas fission products in uranium. verse section from an extrusion which has a core of depleted uranium and a shell of enriched uranium. Each specimen consists of a trans -

Page 10

S elf-sustained burning in the full-scale mockup of the EGCR lattice with dummy fuel elements, graphite fuel sleeves coated with silicon carbide, and EGCR moderator graphite occurs above 675 C. Candidate graphites for the Dragon Project high-temperature gas-cooled reactor contracted during high temperat-ure irradiations at two to six times the CSF contraction rate. This is tentatively attributed to the relatively large fraction of non-graphitic carbon in these materials. Work was started on heat transfer and fluid flow studies in support of the CANDU power reactor design. Chemical Research and Development Ten measurements averaged over the lasr, TWO months' operation of the pilot scale reactor effluent aluminum bed decontamination .facility showed the following removal percentages for principal radioisotopes: A s - 7 6 , 53%; A high temperature vapor phase chromatographic techniqLe was developed to characterize the number and relative quantity of organic components in hydrocarbon diluents used in solvent extraction. The method can identify the number of normal paraffin, branched chain, and aromatic componenxs after prior fractionation of the hydrocarbon mixtures mto these compound classes. Normal paraffins, for instance, can be recovered co-precipitated with u r e a which acts as a specific carrier for straight chained organic compounds. Characterization of the common hydrocarbon diluents is reported. Plutonium elution f r o m previously loaded Florida pebble phosphate rock may be m o r e difficult than last monthjs resirIrs indicated. In support of the flowsheet for the Hot Semiworks recovery of st~ront,:urn-90, a mini mixer-settler rim was made using one k+er of Pxex strontium conhowever, cerium decontamination was poor. Subsequent experimental rms a r e expected Co improve these features. aqueous st,ream to waste and did not c a r r y any significant amount of strontium., centrate as feed. Reasonably good strontium recovery was demonstrated; i Fine soiids in the feed followed the No strontium-90 was recovered from the ion exchdnge equipment in :he High Level Radiochemistry Facility during The month because of repairs m der way. the in-cell columns may be increased Zy a factor of t h r e e by simply dilwing shows Sr-'30 content and purity to be within specificat.ionF=. Analytical results on :he composited strontium-90 producr. soluxion A second hot demonstration of the Sa:: Cvcle Process was completed using 220 grams of irradiated UO2 feed and :he salt residue from the first run. By-product U 0 2 was again cleanly separa:ed f r o m p!ufon:um and fission

Page 11

products. The product deposition of plutonium and uranium was better controlled in this run by an extended controlled humidity air spar ge prior to electrolysis. A s expected, an increased concentraxon of the trivalent rare earth fission products carried alcmg with the plutonium in the ro-deposivon In other work on Salt Cycle, there are indications that nickel-aluminum alloys may be sufficiently resistant to corrosion to form acceptable process Laboratory results indicated that some radioactlve anions may be effectively removed from solution by mineral replacement reactions. The :ncorporaf,:on of radio-phosphorus and radio-sulfur during the replacement of gypsum 3. Physics and Instrument Research and Development Predictions of control rod effectiveness in the NPR w e r e substantiated when exponential experiments gave results in good agreement with calculations. In other NPR support work, the recently completed measurements on t h e fuel temperature reactivity coefficients w e r e reduced to an analytical expression useful for hazards analyses. A larger surge tank may be needed on the NPR secondary loop according 70 results of an analog computer simulation of t h a t system. toward simulation of the total NPR plant was assisted by simplificarion of two existing heat transfer models. Difficult requirements for radiation, a r e a monitoring instrumentation in the NPR building may be met by a new s y s t e m which has completed six weeks of successful performance in the laboratory. Previously developed sys-ems gave unsatisfactory performance after occasional exposures t o high level Irradiated fuel inspection and other operational activixes ar The NPR w i l l be aided by newly designed improved portable periscopess binocular underwater periscopes. and borescope cameras, and by an optIra! instrcmen' now linder development for me a sur mg fuel channel d:stortions, Analysis of data from the startup experiments a' the PRTR has c0nfirrnf.d :he value of improvements in calculation techniques devised since ?he design of PRTR and now incorporated in +,heMELEAGER code. Results also tend A t :he Plutonium Critical Mass Laboratory the hooa chosen for the ini-iai experiments has successfully passed performance replacement of faulty valves will MeanwhileThe vendor has agreed to supply the replacemen-s.

Page 12

tests and improvements in the control system w l ll ST111 fi;rther reduce chances of critica1i:y incidents occurring. Predictions of critical mass by calculations took astep forward with application of recently developed methods *to unmoderated Pu-A1 alloys where good agreement w a s obtained with the only existine experimental data: all plutonium and half plutonium. Remote measurement of high radiation levels in the environs of a radiation incident may be possible in the future through installation of newly developed inexpensive detectors at locations where nuclear accidents might conceivably The u s e of inconvenient headphones with portable radiation detection instruments may be avoidable in the future through a new development. acceptance of a prototype miniature plug-in resonant air column speaker has The quality of fuel element bonds as indicated by ultrasonic tests does not correlate in many cases with heat transfer properties measured with direct thermal testing methods recently developed. These differences are being thoroughly investigated concurrently with further improvement of the :herma1 A major step forward in the automatic interpretation of electromagnetic test results was achieved with laboratory demonstration of an electronic method for time reversal of the signals, a necessary link in the interpretafion process. The operating safety of the PCTR has been re-evaluated following a recent addition of fuel channels. The effectiveness of fuel i n old and new channels w a s compared experimentally a s was the st.rength of control rods in various impaired by the modifications. The results confirmed that the safety of the PCTR was not Some assistance has been given to CPD,:n response to a reques: for aid in determining the causes for unsatisfacTory performance of automatic contour control on renently purchased lathes. Some difference in virulence w a s noted in C. columnaris organisms isolated last year from fish taken from var ioc s !cca!ixes i n the Co7umbia River. The most virulent …