Hanford Laboratories Monthly Activities Report - November, 1963

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MONTHLY ACTIVITIES REPORT THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN SCANNED AND 1s STORED ON THE OPTICAL DISK DRIVE THIS DOCUMENT IS PUBLICLY 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: A. Makes any warranty or representation, expressed or implied, with respect to the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of the informotion contained in this report, or that the use of any 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

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This document consists P. R . No. Location Route Date Signature and Date MONTHLY ACTIVITIES REPORT Sect ion Managers HANFORD ATOMIC PRODUCTS OPERATION 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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Force Report and Personnel Status Changes .iv General Summary..v through xxxi Reactor and Fuels Laboratory.. A-1 through A-64 Physics and Instruments Laboratory.. B-1 through B-36 Test Reactor and Auxiliaries Operation . . 1-1 through 1-6

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BUDGET AND COST SUMMARY November operating costs totaled $2,879,000, an increase of $105,000 over the previous month; fiscal year-to-date costs are $13,568,000 o r 4270 of the $32,447,000control budget. and development costs for November compared with last month and the control budget a r e shown below: Hanford Laboratories ' research (Dollars in Cur rent Prev lou s RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 1. Reactor and Fuels Radiometallurgical examination of an outer N-fuel component irradiated t o 3100 Mwd/ton was started. swelling; visual examination has revealed no deficiencies in the per for - mance of the component. The component incurred 2.570 Fluted,N single tube N-fuel elements being irradiated in the ETR have achieved an exposure of 1400 Mwd/ton at a maximum fuel temperature Ninety-four Zircaloy-2 clad uranium rods have been irradiated, examined visually, and diameter measurements completed for the study of clad thinning. With uniform cladding, below a clad temperature of

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of 325-350 C , the cladding strain limit is approximately 1. 570. which reduce clad thickness by 1570, reduce the strain limit t o approxiA device has been completed for measuring the geometry of the end cap region of N-fuel elements. A Zircaloy-2 clad, Th-U fueled crud probe is successfully opera t - ing in a pressurized loop under prototypic N-Reactor conditions. Two tubes of poison column elements and four tubes of target ele - ments, complete with steel surfaced aluminum supports,were completed well ahead of a December1 deadline. These elements will be used for physics measurements in N-Reactor startup. Sixteen outer N -fuel components have been closed by projection welding on a 1200 kva welder at Rocky Mountain Arsenal. test demonstrates that the welder has adequate capacity, but some redesign of tooling will be required. A lubrication process which permits the extrusion of 2-S aluminum leaving extremely good finish has been developed. Three tubular Zircaloy-2 clad Th-U fuel elements have been irradiated to 3600 Mwd/ton and have shown a fuel volume increase of only 0.570 f o r the highest exposure element. Capsules containing Zircaloy-2 clad uranium rods have been assembled to test the swelling resistance imparted by submicron platelets of uranium carbide within the uranium metal.These capsules are scheduled for reactor charging in December. Gas phase hydriding at 400 Chas been performed on two N-Reactor Both specimens were subjected at room temperature t ob ur st specimens. brittle fracture test; both failed in a brittle manner at pressures onesixth to one-fourth that required for a nonhydrided specimen. At 190 C (374 F), the creep rate of the beta phase plutonium was 80 times the creep rate of gamma phase plutonium.

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Evidence indicates that self-damage exerts a significant effect upon Material which was rolled withthe physical properties of alpha plutonium. very little difficulty in its freshly cast condition has been found t o be unworkable after about 3 mo. Crystallographic anisotropy, which has a marked effect on the tensile properties of unirradiated Zircaloy-2, continues to influence tensile proper - ties after irradiation s to2xlo2 ' nvt. Tne yield strength in both longitudinal and transverse directions continues to increase with irradiation. Additional Z irc alo y samples confirm the 10-fold increase in corro - sion associated with irradiation, in the loop, but out of the flux zone, did not experience accelerated Samples exposed to the irradiated coolant The 3000 psi, 300 C stress rupture tests on steam generator tubing containing flaws through greater than 79% of the tube wall are continuing. Of the original 25 tubes, 13 failed in less than 500 h r and the remaining 1 2 tubes have undergone 1200 h r of testing. flaw depth was started at conditions of 4500 psi and 300 C. failures have occurred after 325 h r of test. Atest of material of the same To date, no Nickel and iron base alloy corrosion rates in 550 C steam from atmospheric pressure to 5000 psi are virtually pressure independent. Elimination of the pressure variable should simplify further corrosion testing in high temperatures team. Heat transfer experiments were continued with an electrically heated test section representing the downstream half of an N-Reactor fuel column with prototypic coolant piping. At a heat generation rate in the test section of 2500 kw (equivalent toa 5000 kw maximum tube power on the reactor), flow reductions were induced in each of the fuel element flow channels to determine resulting changes i n coolant flow and heat generation rate of 3100 kw to determine heat transfer conditions at In another experiment, the test section was run at a heat

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power level conditlons equivalent t o 124% of the maximum design tube power for the reactor. predicted from earlier tests with smaller test sections was observed. N o sign of fuel temperatures higher thar those Laboratory heat transfer experiments were started to determine the thermal hydraulic characteristics of the K-V I&E fuel elements in nary data indicate that more mixing of the coolant occurs in the last few feet of the fuel charge than had been anticipated. The results of the prelim i - The corrosion of aluminum coupons exposed t o effluent water in a half-plant test at D-Reactor show corrosion rates of aluminum alloys 1.2 to 1.7times greater at pH 7.0 than at pH 6.6. test at F - Reactor,corrosion of 1,100 and 6061 alloy aluminum coupons was higher in water treated with 18 ppm alum than with water treated with Sodium nitrite (100 ppm) and sodium dichromate (100 ppm), but not sodium silicate (10-200 ppm Si02),were found t o be effective i n inhibiting the corrosion of carbon steel in stagnant process water. Operation of KER-1 using NH40Hfor pH control continues t o be The two instrumented crud detectors continue t o functions at is factory. well and give no indications of c r u d deposition. in KER-2 { stainless steel, LiOH) was measured to be 2-5 times that in Radioactivity of the piping Corrosion of Zircaloy-2 in crevices under N-Reactor fuel element supports on an electrically heated sample was found t o be less (1 mil vs. 7 m i l s ) in a test using pH 10 PU'H40H than in a previous test with LiOH. The test results were compromised by the inadvertent introduction of LiOH during the latter part of the test. Samples of N-Reactor silver - plated retaining rings and seal rings were tested at 550 F with pH 10 NH40H adjusted water. completely corroded away in 2 wk, were also corroded. Silver - bronze and copper samples

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A section of pitted tubing from IS-Reactor steam generator 4A was propagation of a pinhole leak. After 3days,a crack1 in. long suddenly developed ? - 1 / 2 in. f r o m the pinhole. The pinhole leak w a s produced by cver - pressurizing the tubing before testing, hence is not typical of An outer N-Reactor fuel element which had been irradiated to about 150% of goal exposure in 262 C water was rupture tested at 300 C with a normal N-Reactor shutdown cooling rate. Rupture started after 95 min incubation. The ruptured area was2 in, in diameter. Weight loss A modified Winkler procedure was developed which permits analysis for O2 in the presence of high concentrations of N2H4 and N2S03. improved ultrasonic nonde st ruztive testing techniques are being applied t o the Z irc alo y tubing now being used for fabrication of swaged the basis of tests conducted with less sensitive equipment at the time the tubing was procured. A few defects have been found in tubing originally passed on Extensive postirradiation exarmnation of recently failed, swage compacted PRTR fuel elements and new analyses of the irradiated fuel and cf nonirradiated archive samples support the hypothesis that the fuel was contaminated with an organic compound, probably from malfunctioning of equipment used i n the fuel processing. PRTR fuel capsules containing typical fuel contaminated with known quantities of water and oil were shipped to the MTR for irradiation to provide the needed information on the effects of w a t e r and hydrocarbon impurities on Z irc alo y caldding failure rate A number of prototypic Work continued on the determination and control of moisture in detected by heating the sample to 180 C and 90 ppm of additional water One sample of fines (-325 mesh) contained 160 ppm water

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was found to occur at a higher temperature than for pure U02. was started to provide extremely dry atmospheres in selected glove boxes used for ceramic fuel fabrication. A n eddy current sensing coil was successfully incorporated into a vibrationally compacted U02fuel rod. being fabricated for assembly into aMark - I PRTR fuel element to be used for vibration tests in the EDEL-I Loop and in the PRTR. Twenty similar fuel rods are Test capsules containing an early fuel formulation for EBWR fuel rods were recharged into the ETR for irradiation to approximately pellets revealed a depressed Ru106 concentration often associated with the outer limit of the subgrain structure of the large columnar grain Five swaged fuel elements containing impacted, 1 wt70 PuOz-U02 were fabricated for PRTR tests. Sufficient fuel material is in process for Air leakage into hoods of the vibrational compaction line was essentially eliminated by application of a silicone rubber sealant to all A glove box was designed, fabricated and installed t o house a large billet heating furnace. Seven impaction cans, each holding about 15 l b of oxide, can be heated to increase the impaction production rate, using a Model 1220-B Dynapak machine, The second cycle rejuvenation fuel element was r e - enriched and returned to the MTR for a third cycle of irradiation,

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PRTR fuel elements (5117 and 5119), which had broken rod wire wraps repaired in October, were examined in the PRTR basin. elements appeared to be in a satisfactory condition after irradiation during October and November. Mark I11 tube monitoring equipment has been completed and is ready for use upon installation. A specimen from the eleventh Zircaloy-2 PRTR pressure tube t o be destructively examined burst in a ductile fashion at room temperature and 9200 p s i g , The burst was a through crack, initiated at 16 mil deep ID pit, which allowed almost instantaneous de pressurization from the burst pre s - tube specimen was again burst tested at room temperature. 8800 psig to cause brittle propagation of this starting crack. With the use of an elastic patch over the ID side of this crack, the Calculations were made for boiling burnout conditions in the PRTR Rupture Loop when fueled with a fuel element designed for irradiation in the EBWR. It w a s found that a maximum tube power of 1800 kw would be possible at a flow rate of 123 gpm and an outlet temperature of 500 F. Calculations were summarized which indicated (1) the possibility of PRTR operation at 125 Mw without modifications t o the pressure relief valve and ( 2 ) that convective cooling of the fuel e l e m e n t s would be adequate in the event of a complete l o s s of pumping pownro Fretting corrosion investigations of the EDEL-I pressure tube having "sharpened" end brackets showed that fretting could be started in less than 123 h r at PRTR primary system conditions. ments of eight selected tubes in the PRTR were completed and the data are being analyzed ~ Zirconium concentrations i n the PRTR primary water were normal, indicating no significant fretting in PRTR during the month. Fretting corrosion of 1 mi1 in 1 mo of both the supports and the pressure tube was found through atest in TF-7 of a PRTR fuel element

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with the original thin supports. tions,fretting did not occur with 360' supports,) Hydriding of 200-300 ppm was found near the fretted region of a PRTR wire wrap compared to 50 ppm in unfretted regions L. [In a previous test under the same condiA modified oxalic-peroxide-peracetic solution was successfully used in IRPto decentaminate mixed uranium oxides. UN-20 wt%PUN solid solution pellets are being prepared for ir ra - diation testing in the MTR, Samples of PUN have been sintered to 97% TD. The high temperature brew furnace is now installed in the A new apparatus to measure electrical conductivity has operated The reflection electron microscope has been altered to allow obser - vations at temperatures to 3100 C. tungsten cer met using the new equipment, An improved electron microscope replication method for irradiated specimens has been developed and appears to give highly Resolution of autoradiographs obtained from irradiated fuel elements has been further improved by using a "stripping" film technique. Recent studies reveal that many small pores observed in ir radi - This finding isated fuel elements may actually be metallic inclusions. significant to interpretations of micro structures of irradiated fuel Final resolution of uncertainties of fuel structure associated with central melting during irradiation of U02fuel elements was achieved by a series of short - and long-term irradiation s of fuel pellets in which tungsten shot was relocated from its originally random distribution throughout the fuel.

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U ew factors have been derived fcr -.on flux having energy greater thant o ne …