Hanford Laboratories Operation Monthly Activities Report January, 1961

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

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This report was prepared as an 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 occuracy, completeness, 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 8. 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 repart. 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 ro, any information pursuant to his employment or contract with the Commission, or his employment with

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This document consists HANFORD LABORATORIES OPERATION MONTHLY ACTIVITIES REPORT , I HANFORD ATOMIC PRODUCTS OPERATION This report was prepared only for use withm General Electric: Company in the course of work under Atomic Energy Commiss:m the report a r e those of the author only. Any views or opinions expressed in

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Atomic Energy Comrmssion, Hanford Operations Office G. F. Quinn, Director, Divlsron of Production Savannah River Operations Office, Aiken, South Carolina

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Force Report and Personnel Status Changes . 1v Reactor and Fuels Research and Development Chemical Research and Development Operation C - 1 through C-20 Physics and Instrument Research and Development Lab oratory Auxilia ries Ope rat ion , 1-1 through 1-4Professional Placement and Relations Practices

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BUDGETS AND COSTS January operating costs totaled $2, 122, 000; fiscal year-to-date costs a r e $14, 680, 000, o r 5770 of the $25, 911, 000 control budget. Hanford Laboratories research and development costs for January compared with last month and the control budget a r e a s follow: (Dollars in Thousands) Current Last RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT Reactor and Fuels Construction completion of PRTR and associated facilities is a s follows: includes the Rupture Loop Annex and the Critical Facility Building, 3370; and Gas Loop, 55%. Designs of the Critical Facility and Rupture Loop a r e complete. Beneficial use of the PRTR stack filter was obtained during the PRTR Critical Tests continued with further determinations of moderator level coefficients, shim s y s t e m strength and coolant void effects, sild wit:: sub-critical measurements using all-plutonium fuel loadings. A maximum total s him system strength of about 130 milli-k, and a maximum single-rod strength of about four milli-k were found. higher than previous estimates based on single rod measurements. lated results of sub-critical measurements indicate criticality with 12 RJ-A1 fuel elements loaded in the central tubes at a moderator level of 101 inches and with 36 Pu-A1 elements at a moderator level greater than 30 inches. These values a r e about 3 0 percent Experiments on arc-melted PuC-UC systems indicate that increased additions of UC tend to suppress the quantity of pUzC3 formed upon.passing the PuC peritectic temperature of 1650 C. Complete stabilization ‘of the

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face-centered cubic PUC-UC structure occurs with slightly greater than 25 "Salt cycle" U02 remotely fabricated into a fuel element was successfuiiy irradiated in the Materials Testing Reactor to an exposure of 700 MWD/T at a maximum surface heat flux of 600, 000 BTU/hr-ft .2 Ex-reactor thermal conductivites of irradiated U02 are markedly lower than for unirradiated materials at low temperatures. about 175C but lower thermal conductivity, by about 10-157'0, still remains Annealing begins at The first KER loading of enriched single tube elements was discharged after attaining an exposure of 1200 MWD/T. Basin examination showed no obvioils changes, in the elements as a result of irradiation. No apparent dimensiona! instability or swelling in the heat-affected zone of the braze closure a r e a in refreshed and static autoclaves is governed by the concentration of oxygen in the system. C r e e p studies of annealed Z r - 2 and 207'0 cold worked Zr-2 in the temperature range of 200 C to 270 C show that the activation energy for c r e e p is negligible in this temperature range. With technical assistance f r o m Hanford, one fabricator has successfully produced and delivered nine Zircaloy-2 tubes for the overbore test at C Reactor within nine weeks of the date of signing the contract. The fifth intentional fuel rupture test in the Engineering Test Reactor operat;$:d at full power for 2-1/2 hours after the defect cap was sheared off. swelling of the tubular N P R specimens nearly blocked the water annubis, making removal from the basket difficult. It is believed that non-uniform clad thickness on NPR fuel i s the primary contributing factor in the mechanism which caused failure by clad splitting of several NPR fuel elements. Excellent dimensional stability was shown by a U-Mg fuel element irradiated to 15,000 MWD/T in the ETR. material revealed that the original spherical uranium particles have been greatly distorted and the magnesium matrix material has accommodated this distortion by plastic yielding. Microscopic examination of the U-Mg core The effect on heat transfer conditions of the non-coaxiai'placement of I&E fuel elements within a process tube was demonstrated i?.the laboratory.

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When an electrically heated element was displaced 5070 and 7570 of the distance upwards toward the wall of the process tube, the water temperatures at the top of the annulus increased significantly and boiling burnout took place at a reduced heat flux. A zirconium process tube and fittings procured for the overbore program at C Reactor were installed in the 189-D hydraulics laboratory to verify the hydraulic design of the tube and self-supported I&E fuel elements. pressure drop a s measured across the fuel elements was 1270 less than the design value of 270 psi but can be compensated for by increasing the p r e s s u r e drop across other components in the tube. Purified fused silica is the most radiation resistant optical grade glass o r plastic of several considered for use on in-reactor optical equipment. is virtually unaffected by a gamma dose of 5 x l o 9 roentgens. 2. Chemical Research and Development A mixture of aluminum sulfate and calcium chloride formed an effective and cheap scavenging precipitate for treating N P R decontamination solution. This method appears superior to using ferrous sulfate and potassium permanThirteen and one-half kilocuries of strontium-90 were recovered in pure form from two ion exchange runs made during the month. the product was 5670 strontium-90, very close to the theoretical ratio'of Sr-90 to total strontium. Other than Sr-90 and i t s yttrium daughter, no other radioactivie impurity was detectable in the product material. solids in the strontium concentrate feed, a lower than expected r e s i n capacity, and.radiolytic reduction of copper in the resin system all were problems encountered in these experiments. future recoveries is underway. Initial decontamination of cell equipment was started to allow repair of some leaks before subsequent recoveries are Isotopic purity of Work to minimize these complications in Conversion of the Hot Semiworks for strontium-90 recovery is about 85% complete. Flowsheet developments continue to be encouraging and pre para - tions for miniature mixer settler runs using actual Purex strontium-90 concentrate were virtually completed. solutions showed the s y s t e m was stable for time periods expected during surveillance, however. Final strontium product preparation and shipping problems a r e under study. Radiolysis studies of synthetic feed Radiolytic effects in actual processing will require careful Continuing experiments to define the mechanisms by which plutonium and uranium oxides co-deposit in the Salt Cycle Process showed air and / o r water vapor play a role in the process. These results coupled with electrode

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polarization studies provided sever a1 hypo theses regarding reactor me chams ms but conclusive results await more testing data. Study of KCl-PbClZ salt mixtures a s an alternate to KC1-NaC1 for Salt Cycle media showed uranium dioxide dissolution and electrodeposition character is - tics which are quite favorable by comparison and, of course, occur at a much lower temperature (450 C vice 700 C). It is clear that electrodeposition characteristics in the KCl-PbC12 system are distinctly different from those in KC1-NaC1. These favorable results must be tempered by planned studies of plutonium behavior in the KC1-PbClZ system. The Radiant Heat Spray Calciner has been reassembled with an improved filter unit. Two runs indicated satisfactory filter performance. The new filter design shortens the unit to allow ultimate in-cell testing in the High Level Radiochemistry Facility. A bed of Florida pebble phosphate w a s found to be effective for removing plutonium from234 - 5 sump waste, adsorbing more than 90% from over 400 bed volumes processed. Adsorbed plutonium is easily removed with 3. Physics and Instrument Research and Development Continual progress in NPR support work was highlighted by measurements of the fuel temperature reactivity coefficient at temperatures fifty percent above those previously attained anywhere in such experiments with uranium metal fuels. Data were obtained at temperatures up to 968' C. work, strengths of several control rod configurations were determined in exponential experiments, the first u s e of this technique locally. Calculations of neutron behavior in the lattice cell using the RBU code made progres s as did instrumentation support work in %hea reas of fuel failure and ur,der study following its successful simulation reported last month and data for m e in design of automatic control systems were obtained from observations on an existing reactor. Transient behavior of the NPR system continued At the Critical Mass Laboratory testing of safety and control mechanisms and instruments proceeded satisfactorily and minor modifications to the building were completed. a r e under discussion with CPD before being formalized. Meanwhile the correlation of existing data on plutonium solutions with calculation methods made progress with resolution of previous difficulties in treating reflected supplied to CPD for u s e in the calcination of plut.onium. nitrate solution. Procedures to be followed in event of an emergency The method w a s then applied in obtaining nuclear safety limits The shim rod system of the PRTR is as strong as&iginally expected according to results of recent tests which dispelled some concern on ths

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score created by earlier incomplete results. experiments indicated that the effect of the reflector was l e s s than indicated by the calcula?:on methods used. Analysis of other critical In other PRP work, design improvements were incorporated in the Gas Annulus Measurement probe and development continued on the process TAbe w a l l thickness probe. Technical planning for studies with high exposure plutonium contmied in an effort to achieve technical sophisti cation while remaining within the limits of what is achievable experimentally. In the Nondestructive Testing Program, continued encouraging results were obtained in the development of direct %herma1methods to bond testing with the laboratory application of the met,hod to a number of Hanford, AlSi process, Orderly progress was made on the many instrument development studies including completion of new data handling equipment at, the whole body counter, improved techniques for using thermoluminescent dosimeter s - and completion of a calibration system for i n - reactor creep measurements. About half of the waterfowl sampled f r o m local hunters contained dete'z-able amounts of P323 indicating that this may be amore significant source of exposure to people in the Tri-Ciiy a r e a than estimated in the past. The virulence of columnaris-o rg an isms isolated from local fish varied with the month of collection. (water temperature 66 F), the most virulent was obtained in October (68 F\, and the s t r a i n obtained in November ( 6 1 F) was intermediate. The least, virulent strain was obtained in July Radiation dose measurements of Cs137 in sheep indicate that the gonads and the whole body a r e of about equal importance as the ';urnover rate for cesii_tm in the heart muscle was found to be very fast -- exceeding 200 percent p e r day comparGd with 10 percent p e r day in voluntary mus c le. Whole-body coun?mg looks promising as a means of determining the body burden of Sr-90 in vivo. indicate that after prolonged feeding, the body burden is about 10 to 15 t i m e s the dose fed daily. Preliminary results with this method on swine_Work with swine showed that if a s m a l l skin wound is-contaminated with p'lltonium, over 8070 will be removed by the scab which forms. In studies wi?h pU23902 particles, there was an ind$c%tion that particle size and total quantity of Pu deposited affected lung re tent bn and urinary excretion.

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Such factors a r e important to inhalation hazard evaluation and to bioassay Recently-completed parameterized computer calculations of fuel costs for stainless steel clad vs. zircaloy clad fuel assemblies are expected to be valuable to fuel development personnel in guiding the design of m o r e economlt-a! fuel elements for various reactor uses. The design study of the Beloyarsk Russian Superheat reactor has provided a convenient check c a s e for the Specific Fuel Cycle Analysis computer codes. For batch irradiation of the fuel, the calculated minimum value of plutonium is approximately $ 1 4 / g r a m , which is close to the mean value calculated for the Advanced Pressurized Water Reactor (APWR). An integrated plutonium value analysis computer code is nearing completion. The code combines physics, economics; reactor operating, and fuel coat parameters to calculate the value of plutonium as a power reactor fuel for a selected range of reactor systems, and is intended to help guide reactor design and fuel development activities toward optimum utilization of TECHNICAL AND OTHER SERVICES There are17currently active projects having combined authorized funds in the amount of $1g3 047, 000. The total estimated cost of these projects is $20, 9 2 2 000. Total expenditures. on these projects, through December w e r e $14, 7 5 7 , 000. In addition, project proposals have been submitted to the Commission requesting authorization of $670, 000 on six new projects for which the total combined costs a r e expected to approach $5, 620, 000. Of the 1 7 authorized projects all but two are on o r ahead of schedule. Project CGH-819 - Increased Laboratory Waste Facilities, was completed during the month with only minor exceptions remaining. Authorized funds were $193, 765, with a scheduled completion date of May 31, 1961, compared to actual costs of $165, 000 and completion January 31, 1961. Both the cost arid schedule reflect less contamination problems during construction than were estimated as well as the …