Hanford Laboratories Monthly Activities Report December 1963

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MONTHLY ACTIVITIES REPORT THIS DOCUHENT HAS BEEN SCANNED AND IS STORED ON THE OPTICAL DISK DRIVE THIS DOCUMENT IS PUBLICLY HANFORD ATOMIC PRODUCTS OPERATION

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This report was prepared as on account of Government sponsored work. Neither the United States, nor the Commission, nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission: Makes any warranty or representation, expressed or implied, with respect to the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of the information contoined in this report, or that the use of any informotion, 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, opporotus, 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

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This document consists, - P. R. No. Location Route Date Signature and Date MONTHLY ACTIVITIES REPORT HANFORD ATOMIC PRODUCTS OPERATION PRELIMINARY RE PORT This report was prepared only for use within General Electric Company in the course of work under Atomic Energy Commission Contract AT(45-1)-1350. Any views o r opinions expressed in the report are those of the author only, Excluded from automatic downgrading

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Atomic Energy Commission, Richland Operations Office F. P. Baranowski, Director, Division of Production Savannah River Operations Office, Aiken, South Carolina

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Force Report and Personnel Status Changes . Reactor and Fuels Laboratory Physics and Instruments Laboratory Applied Mathematics Operation Radiation Protection Operation Finance and Administration Operation Test Reactor and Auxiliaries Operation

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BUDGET AND COST SUMMARY December operating costs totaled $2,566,000, a decrease of $313,000under the previous month; fiscal year to date costs are $16,134,000 o r 49.670 of the $32,547,000 tentative control budget. research and development costs for December compared with last month and the tentative control budget are shown below: RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT To Date Budget 1. Reactor and Fuels Two fluted single tube N-Reactor fuel elements have been irradiated t o an exp a sure of 1600 Mwd/ton. Although the elements incurred a 0.9% increase in volume, the elements continue t o show no evidence of damage and the irradiation will continue. Destructive examination of a n N-Reactor outer fuel component irradiated to 3100 Mwd/ton has shown no deficiencies in the performance of the closures, clad, o r bond.

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Evaluation af target elements discharged at a calculated GVR of 8 has shown a GVR of 13 zs measured by vacuum fusion. An extrusion process developed in conjunction with the fabrication of lithium aluminum t.arget elements has produced excellent surfaces on soft I100 aluminum. The process combines the use of a thin electroplate of copper and a commercial lubricant. A prototype N-Reactor fuel fouling detector, fueled with Th-1. 5 wt% E valuation of irradiated Z irc alo y - 2 clad uranium rods containing internal zladding striations have shown that the depth of the s tri ation remained unchanged during irradiation and that necking occurs primarily inward from the external cladding surface. A hot straightening process developed in Hanford Laboratories has been used to straighten 49 NIE warp reject fuels. These components were initially warped from 0.035 in. to over0.230 inch. Forty - seven of the 49 elements were straightened t o within the 0.030 in. warp limit. A novel swaging technique has been developed which permits tubing stock originally swaged over am and rel to be increased in diameter by a swaging pass and thus be easily removed from the original m and rel. Room temperature burst tests of Z irc alo y - 2 N-Reactor process tubing have been performed at hydride concentrations of 275 ppm and 180 ppm. Both failed at about the same stress as normal material (about 30 ppm H), but ductility was severely affected. The ' stress at which a defected process tube specimen (milled slot about 1 in. long) fails w a s reduced about 2070 by the uniform hydride and reduced more than 807' by the uniform hydride plus massive case. A digital computer program was written and put into useto handle the data obtained in the heat transfer experiments with the full scale

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electrically-heated model of the downstream half of a n N-Reactor fuel column and process tube. Several preliminary shipping cask designs for irradiated N-Reactor fuel elements were reviewed for adequacy of heat dissipation capabilities. A review of four boiling burnout correlations was made to determine the accuracy with which they would predict burnout heat flux for the labor a - tory tests performed for N-Reactor. No correlation was found which would predict burnout over the entire range of test conditions Heat transfer tests were continued to determine the thermal hydraulic characteristics of self-supported I&E fuel elements in zirconium tubes at the K - Reactors. The results indicate that the present procedures for fixing operating limits will have to be modified only slightly for the K-V selfsupported fuel charge. An out - o f - reactor rupture test on an irradiated N-Reactor fuel piece did not demonstrate any advantage from a rupture behavior standpoint of alloying the core with small amounts of iron and silicon. In out - o f - reactor tests, aluminum corrosion was less in process water adjusted t o pH 6. 6 with C02 than in neutral process water. primary coolant showed (13 no excessive crud formation on crud detector surfaces,(2) no accelerated corrosion of fuel and coolant systems compo-' nents, and (3) low oxygen concentrations in the coolant even during lowGraphite burnout monitors showed rates of less than 1% p e r 1000 operating days for exposures in F- and KW-Reactors. Measurement of contraction of large bars of graphite irradiated to 25,000 Mwd/adjacent ton in C - Reactor reaffirmed the higher contraction rate of large bars as compared to small samples.

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Of 12selected PRTR fuel elements examined in the PRTR basin, six were found to be acceptable for recharging, four were rejected because of broken wire wraps, and two (Al - Pu elements)were rejected as suspected Two PRTR fuel elements repaired by splicing rod wire wraps success - fully completed three PRTR cycles. A PRTR fuel element having c irc um fe rent i a lz irc alo y bands on the end hanger that has been flow tested with imposed vibration several months in the T F - 7 loop was discharged. The new design of end fixtures success - fully prevented fretting corrosion. Capsules containing prototypic PRTR fuel contaminated with known quantities of water and oil were discharged from the MTR on December 25, after one cycle of irradiation to determine the effect of excessive oil and / o r water on Z irc alo y cladding integrity. Z irc alo y capsules containing clean and oily U02-Pu02powder were irradiated to 10 R by a Co60 source, and heated to 400 Cfor 100 hours. The capsuie with clean material showed no change while the capsule with oily powder appeared to exhibit excessive hydriding. Ultrasonic techniques not previously available revealed defects in -3570 of a group of Z irc alo y - 4 cladding tubes previously accepted for fabric a - tion of swaged ceramic fuel rods. Newly found were metal chips impressed Irradiation test capsules containing prototypic EBWR fuel (pneumatically impacted UOz- 1.5 wt% Pu02) are being prepared for irradiation in 3 - rod clusters of prototypic EBWR rods in a Hanford reactor were completed Components fora 42-rod, PRTR - size dummy element for flow tests were Flow tests and heat transfer calculations for irradiation of

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A fuel element designed to determine the effect of surface roughness on burnout heat flux is being fabricated. Post irradiation examination of a ceramic(U02) fuel element that was originally enriched by means of a coaxial Pu--15 wt% Z r wire showed that the wire disappeared, as desired, leaving no evidence of a second phase. The wire presumably was oxidized and dispersed in the molten U02. impacted to densities greater than 9670 TD. at 1300 C)decreased the cer met density appreciably. F o u r swaged PRTR fuel elements containing outgassed Nupac Welding parameters were established for the closure of PRTR Vipac fuel elements ; the crevice between the end plug and the cladding has been I n - reactor inspections of PRTR pressure tubes since June 1962, indicate that the severity of fretting in the PRTR process tubes has diminished In general, it was found that considerable deviation exists between the experimental data and the predictions of pressure drop in steam - water mixBoiling burnout data obtained during the past2years with 19-rod bundle test sections were correlated, making special allowance for coolant mixing within the bundle. Information developed on the transient heating of U02 in mixed Pu02 - U02 oxides was presented to the General Electric Technological in Doppler coefficient feedback. The calculations indicated no appreciable delay in

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Three plutonium cer mets were prepared for irradiation testing: P u by arc melting. A chapter titled "Plutonium Refractory Compounds" is being revised and updated for the Plutonium Handbook t o be presented by the AEC at the A long term, low temperature irradiation study was begun on eight carefully characterized U02specimens, including both irradiated and nonUN-W and UN-Mo cer mets were dimensionally and chemically stable during 2 1 days of irradiation at cladding surface temperatures greater than Vibrationally compacted Tho2elements are being irradiated in MTR for later evaluation of fuel loss through cladding defects and conversion t o exchange with AERE, Harwell, England. Pre - and postheat controls were added t o the magnetic force resistance welder to increase its versatility. Three tungsten-clad cer met pellets were fabricated using newly developed powder cladding techniques. Load bearing studies on annular insulation for the coaxial piping of the model gas loop indicate it has adequate strength to hold the inner piping A computer programmed analysis of the pressure drop through the mode? gas loop indicates the blower a t design capacity will deliver the desired 500 lb of helium perhr at any loop pressure over 270 psig when the test section temperature is 2000 F.

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Fifteen thermal and bending cycles of Grayloc connections for the ATR gas loop have been performed manually with no detectable leakage of helium. Micro structural examination of irradiated AIS1 348 SS reveals that micro z racks initiate a t nonmetallic inclusions. Room temperature tensile tests were completed on Inconel 625, These alloys were irradiated in 280 C (536 FS water to exposures as high Tensile tests at room temperature on Cb-752 and Cb-1 Z r refractory metal alloys irradiated at 50 C(122 I?) to exposures of 8.8x 1021 t o strength and a marked decrease in total percent eiongation of the Cb-752 irradiated to the same exposure. These tests showed a 5070 increase in yield A 2070 increase in yield strength was observed in the C b - 1Zr alloy In addition to the steady state creep correlation with the Arrhenius plot, it has been possible to correlate creep data before reactor shutdowns with Dorn ' s theta parameter. With this parameter, it is possible to predict creeps trains at constant stress at temperatures much lower than those actually used in testing. Bright etched and preautoelaved Z irc alo y - 2corrosion specimens of the core differed markedly in appearance after 18 days of exposure. The response of the preautoclaved samples was typical of normal out - o f - reactor corrosion behavior. Weight gains for etched material were two or three times expected values and rough, grey-white oxide films were established. The relationship between hydrogen pressure and the composition of the zirconium hydride phase with which the gas is in equilibrium has been determined at 750 C (1382 F) and compared with the limited available literature. The agreement is fair.

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Long-term irradiation s of the EGCR and N-Reactor graphite in the GE TR continued satisfactorily. Graphites prepared with fur fury l alcohol binder t o maximum exposures of 7 x 1021 nvt, E > 0.18 Mev, contracted more than pitch bonded Continued study of the effects of irradiation on the reaction of carbon monoxide-water vapor mixtures has shown the G values to be relatively unaffected by variations in the w a t e r and CO concentrations. was relatively unaffected by changes i n total pressure and surface areas of the reaction vessels. A new high temperature dil a to meter was received and has been calibrated at 1150 C . The standard deviation is about f 0.00002 in. /in. Samples of boronated graphite are being irradiated in KW - Reactor in the newly installed 2C facility. The two temperature zones of the capsule are operating respectively at 650 F and 850 F within limits of the design An additional case of core size reduction for the Military Compact Reactor is being studied, together with some changes in control arrangement, refinement of estimates of thermal hydraulic parameters, and comparison with a smaller size United Nuclear design for the MCR. An extended run of over 500 h r duration has been completed in the EDEL-I Loop study of fretting corrosion in the PRTR. An "excessive vibration" detector to indicate possible incipient fretting conditions has been designed and tested in the laboratory and installed on a PRTR inlet jumper. Scope design of the prototype liquid sodium loop is complete, including schematic flow and instrumentation diagrams,a component and pipe layout, heat balances, and pressure drop calculations.

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The re determined steady state creep rates of the beta and gamma phases of plutonium under a compressive stress of 112 k g / c m It has been established that a thin plastic coating on metallographic specimens of plutonium not only retards oxidation but also prevents spread of contam inat ion. There is preliminary and indirect evidence that beta rolling does not introduce a deformation texture in plutonium, at least not to a n extent comparable to that found after alpha rolling. Plutonium metal with a diffraction pattern that had been significantly Thea lte red by 3-month postcasting storage was vacuum melted and recast. diffraction peak resolution expected in freshly cast material was restored. Metallographic examination of un irradiated high purity uranium control specimens which were annealed a t 625 C (1157 F) for 30 days in NaK and in high vacuum, respectively, revealed that exaggerated grain growth and a small amount of second phase particle coalescence had observed with specimens irradiated at 625C for times as long as 200 days. Fission products are apparently extremely effective in controlling grain This is in sharp contrast to the complete lack of grain growth The examination of replicas prepared from uranium specimens subjected t o postirradiation, pulse annealing has continued. Fourier analysis of x-ray peak profile changes in irradiated molybdenum foils has shown that the maximum rms displacement of lattice …