Hanford Laboratories Monthly Activities Report - May 1964

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This report was prepared a s 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 representotion, expressed or implied, with respect to the accurocy, completeness, or usefulness of the information contained in this report, or that the use of any information, apparatus, method, or process disclosed in this report moy 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 controctor prepares, disseminates, or provides occess to, any information pursuant to his employment or contract with the Commission, or his employment with

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HANFORD ATOMIC PRODUCTS OPERATI Signature and Date This report was prepGred only for use within General Electric Company in the course of work under Atomic Energy Commission Contract AT(45-1)-1350. Any views cr opinions expressed in the report are those of the author only.

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Atomic Energy Commission, Richland Operations Office F. P. Baranowski, Director, Division of Production S a van mh 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 Ope ration Test Reactor and Auxiliaries Operation

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BUDGET AND COST SUMMARY May operating costs totaled $2, 561, 000, or a decrease of $344,000 from the previous month. 8870 of the $33, 571,000 control budget. Fiscal year-to-date costs are $29, 475, 000, or Hanford Laboratories’ research and development costs for May compared to last month and the c u r r e n t control budget are shown below: Month M2nth To Date RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 1. Reactor and Fuels Examination of the irradiated cranium in N-Reactor assemblies by electron microscopy is continuing in an endeavor to differentiate between the contributions of grain boundary tearing and fission gas swelling. Two fluted single tube fuel eiements in the E T R have achieved a n exposure of 2200 Mwd/ton a t an operating fuel temperature of 550 C. Studies of uranium aLioys containing iron, silicon, aluminum, o r zirconium is continuing. iron-aluminum additions greatly retard the crystallization of cold worked Property studies of these alloys have shown that

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Examination of target elements irradiated i n high pressure loops has shown unexpected bonding between the outer Zircaloy sheath and the internal aluminum can. decanning and might cause tritium pi:kup in the Zircaloy can. Ti:: 3 bonding would interfere with postirradiation Aluminum -lithium billets have been received for the fabrication of of the charge of target elements has been initiated. Preliminary studies of lithium containing glasses have shown that the glass composition incurs extensive sr;iking during cooling. appears to have little promise as 2target material. The required a r c melting, coextrusion, end closure brazing, and thermocouple brazing have been completed on 1 2 thorium -uranium crud probes. These probes w i l i be used i n the N-Reactor during fuel ascension. Improved hot heading techniques and welding conditions have been used in the fabrication of 20 outer tubes f o r N-Reactor elements. examination of selected pieces is i n progress. A brief study of the effect of U 0 2 disper,cion in iron has shown that the strength of the dispersed product is double that of the base iron a t 800 C. Beryllium-zirconium w i r e , 0.025 in. in diameter, has been produced by drawing. The w i r e stock will he used in a modified brkze closure technique. The multipurpose capsule containing iithium -bearing target materials and zirconium oxidation-hydriding experiments has accumulated 48 days of exposure. It will be discharged for postirradiation examination during the next reactor outage. Corrosion tests on aluminum exposed as a rotating disk t o pH adjusted 300 Area water revealed a decrease in pitting as pH was increased. C r a c k propagation tests, made a? two different crack initiating slot lengths in KER Loop 1 Zircaloy tubing after3 yr of i n - reactor service, show no change in brittle fracture characteristics.

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Borescope examination of an out-of - reactor Zircaloy-2 process tube t e s t section operating at N-Reactor coolant conditions revealed numerous fretting m a r k s of unknown depth on the intericr surface where the N-Reactor fuel element supports Lnd tubular s p a c e r projections contacted the tube wall. External vibration (peak-to-peak amplitude 3 . 5 mil?) had been applied to this test section during ope-ation. Transient heat transfer e2:;eriments were performed to determine the consequences foXow;ng 8 rupture of an inlet connector feeding a single in the inlet connector rem a med open, no significant increase in the fuel tem - perature would occur, even i f the reactor scram was delayed for as much as flow, a temperature rise woxld occur i f the scram was delayed more than 1.5 sec and could increase 500 F for a scram delay time of 5aec. r', u as concluded that i f the flow-adjusting valve However, if the valve ciosed because of the action of the reversed A second experiment i n the graphite -zircorium compatibility loop - 7disclosed a rate of graphite oxidation of 3 x 10 ples, thereby confirming the results of the first experiment. The presence of mercury introduced from a vacuum system was found to have no effect on the radiation-induced reaction of carbon monoxide and water vapor. Three 19-rod assemblies were fabricated for the PRTR. The first 20 PRCF mixed oxide rods were completed. Prototypic segments of EBWR fuel rods have reached 4500 Mwd/ton exposure at rod powers to 3 5 kw/ft. Performance is excellent. The entire PRTR fuel loading w a s inspected and found to be in The second generation shim control assembly has operated continuously during the report period with nc mechanical faults.

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The vibration level of PRTR inlet jumpers 1354 and 1963 w e r e generally constant throughout the recent 23 -day operating period. Several instances w e r e noted in which tkie amplitudes associated with bcth channels changed abruptly and simultaneocjusly, but attempts to correlate these changes with known operating conditions have been unsuccessful. Analyses of the Doppler delay problem w e ” € extended to include fuel typical of fast oxide breeders. T i m e ccnstants were derived which indicate Doppler safety in uniform mechanically mixed fxels is attainable for a wide range of reactor types. Corrosion rates oi aluminum-ciad fil5:l elements exposed to pH 7 deionized water at 260 C outlet temperature inC - 1 Loop varied uniformly f r o m 3 mils / m o at the upstream end to I 4 mils ’mo at the downstream end, based on weight losses before cleaning. was slightly less than for X-8001. Corrosion of A-288 and KYZ alloys Corrosion tests show aluminum to be compatible with a 10 ppm solution of boric acid. This work is being done i n support of a potential shim New pressure tube inspection equipment was installed and operated for the first time. 5were approaching the minimum allowable gas gap between the pressure and aluminum shroud tube. Of the 15 process tubes examined with this equipment, In general, equipment operation w a s good. Remote nondestructive examimtion of flaws on the inside of PRTR pressure tube 5690 by eddy current tezhnicjues confirmed opinions based on normal monitoring inspection that the fiaw was a blister. It is located 7 f t , 11 in. f r o m the flange and is about 0.040 in. deep. No reactions between PUN and graphite were detected after heating PUN in a graphite holder for 1 hr at 1725 C in nitrogen. ThN was prepared by arc melting thorium metal under 1 atm of nitrogen. and returned t o Hanford from the MTR for radiometallurgical examination

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Radiochemical data show significantly high concentrations of C s and S r g O in the free uranium phzse of irradiated U 0 2 fuel elements. Initial tests of the image intensifier system with the electron mizro - scope demonstrated that considerabie increases in image brightness are Tungsten-to-tur,gster.-VO cer met bonding has been enhanced by using thin metai films to initlate diffusicn. a homogeneous fuel element. A thoria element containing 1000 ppm nitrate is being irradiated. Centerline fuel temperature in the thoria element reached 1080 C after A general swelling capsule controlled at 700 C (1292 F), containing high purity uranium specimens of varying specimen geometry, reached its goal exposure and w a s discharged. A capsule controlled at 400 C (752 F) Optical and electron metailography is complete on specimens of irradiated to 0. 11 at.% burnup a t 5 3 5 C 1995 i?). alloy specimens were vastly superior in swelling resistance to the F e - S i In this capsule the Fe-A1 Metallography is complete on the as -extruded high purity uranium specimen irradiated to 0.11 at.% burnup at 575 C (1067 F). Extreme porosity was noted commensurate with the large density decrease that was Annealed AIS1 304 stainless steel currently being tested in-reactor No increase in rate has been observed during at 20, 000 psi and 500 C ( 9 3 2 F>is creeping so slowly that c r e e p rate at this time cannot be determined. the short periods of re az tor outage. Several tensile specimens of nickel base alloys irradiated at about

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were tested a t room temperature. 625 show a substantial loss in strength and ductility at the higher irradiation Initiai results of these data f o r Inconel Tensile tests were performed on specimens irradiated at 50 C ( 1 2 2 F), AIS1 348 stainless steel amount to only a 2 o r 3% increase in strength, but the total elongation is decreased in some c a s e s by a s muck as 10 to 1570. Changes i n the mechanical properties of Zircaloy-2 taken from a libasket" Cube exposed In the M - 3 position of the ETR water loop for 80 days t o 260 C :590 F: and a maximum fast flux of 1.5x 1013 revealed a weight gain four times greater than woilld be expected from a similar out-of - reactor exposure. Long-term irradiation of EGCR graphite continues satisfactorily. Samples of four graphites designed to determine the effect of sample size on radiation induced contraztion were charged into a Hanford reactor Measurement of samples of isotropic graphite after an exposure of 1. 13 x 1021 nvt at 620 C disclosed smaller contraction rates than observed Analysis of thermal expimslon coefficients for graphites a t temperatures ranging from 1370 to 2700 C suggests that pores formed during the graphitization process are of greater significance than microcracks that formed during the cooling process. Measurement of graphites that w e r e impregnated with furfuryl alcohol and regraphitized showed an expansion i n the transverse direction in the last Pyrolytic graphite on continued irradiation at 600 C continues to show an expansion in the c-directicn and a contraction i n the -a-direction.- The second irradiation capsule with boronated graphite samples continues to operate satisfactorily. A buildup cf helium produced by the ( n , a )

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reaction has been noted. tion disclosed lithium contents of 0 . 3 5 to 0 . 40%. Analysis of the samples from the first ir radi a - An increase of compressive strength of 2000 to 2500 psi was found f o r boronated graphite samples irradiated to 10'' nvt. Thermal conductivity wcs measured on irradiated and unirradiated Significant finding was a 6 - to 8-foid reduc-boronated graphite samples. tion in thermal conductivity dter irradiLtion A series of boronated graphite samples wag charged in the ETR with the objective of irradisting to l o 2 ' nvt <E> 0 . 16 Mev). Three tubular Th-LJ fuei elements being irradiated in the ETR have The irradiation is continuing.now achieved an exposure of 7100 Mwd/?on. Capsule irradistion of uranium containing submicron uranium carbide particles has achieved a goal exposure of 0 . 3 at.% burnup. additional capsules will be charged in the next E T R shutdown. Heat transfer experiments were completed for the comparison of boiling burnout data between horizontal and vertical positioning of 19 -rod found that the burnout data w e r e identical for the two positions, except at very low flow rates. fluxes were 2570 greater for verticai positioning of the test section because of less stratification of the steam -water coolant. Using a 6. 3 f% long electrically heated t e s t section, it was Single crystals of moiybdenum that were deformed after irradiation have been sectioned in certain crystallographic: directions and thinned for t o the study of slip traces on irradiated molybdenum bend specimens. A replication technique has been developed and applied Lattice parameters of irradiated single crystals of molybdenum containing 15 ppm and 450 ppm carbon as intentional impurity have been

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A paper entitled "Qilench -Hardening i n Polycrystalline Nickel'' is being prepared for publication. saturation of vacancies m a g be retained in nickel by quenching, and these vacancies form large aggregates apon anneLling. Briefly, the results show that a high super - The lattice parameter of high purity rhenium fails, which were annealed i n preparation fsr ica dia tic n experiments, have been determined studied do not lend themszlv5s .;z line breadth measurements. The investigaticn c: the s:eady state creep characteristics of the six allotropes of high purity plutonicm 1s essentially complete. of the anomalies is t h e significzntly higher -,reep rate of the beta phase after The most notable X - r a y diffraction studies indicate that a randomly oriented, finegrained alpha plutonium structure can only be produced by quenching from the epsilon phase, about 600 C (1112 Fj. the necessary absorption data to permit corrections to be applied to the pole figure goniometer data. The goniometer is a l s o being employed in the further investigation of the columnar grained structure developed by the transformation of beta to alpha under slight pressures. The previously reported alignment of the 020 plane perpendicular to the direction of appiied stress has been confirmed. A specimer, so quenched has provided The study of texturing i n plutonium can now proceed. Project CAH-136 was approved. This $150,000 project is t o provide additional offices, lunchroom, and locker room facilities in 327 Building and will make available laboratory s p a c e currently in use as offices. An additional 260 3BWR rods w e r e completed for physics tests. In the screening of materials for the HTLTR, materials were exposed to a nitrogen gas graphite envircnment a t I200 Cfor 840 hr. …