Hanford Laboratories Monthly Activities Report, June, 1964

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MONTHLY ACTIVITIES PEPORT THIS DOCUMENT 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 wos prepared as on occount of Government sponsored work. Neither the United States, nor the Commission, nor any person octing on behalf of the Commission: Mokcs any warranty or representation, expressed or implied, with respect to the occuracy, completeness, or usefulness of the information contained in t h i s report, or that the use of ony information, apparatus, method, or process disclosed in t h i s 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 As used in the obove, 'perron acting on behalf of the Commission' includes any employee or contractor of the Commission, or employee of such contractor, to the extent h o t such employee or contractor of the Commission, or employee of such controctor prepares, disseminates, or provides occess to, ony information pursuant to his employment or contract with the Commission, or hir amplopent with any information, apparotus, method, or process disclosed in this report.

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This document consists of 1 6 6 pages. Copy No. of 25 copies. Series Location Route Date and Date MONTHLY ACTIVITIES REPORT 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 or opinions expressed in the report are those of the author only.

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Atomic Energy Commission, Richland Operations Office Savannah River Operations Office, Aiken, South Carolina

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Force Report and Personnel Status Changes ...........iv 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 June operating costs totaled $3, 319,000,o ran increase of Fiscal year - t o - date cost sar e$758,000 from the previous month. $32,794,000, o r 9870of the $33, 420,000 control budget. Hanford Laboratories ! research and development costs for June compared to last month and the control budget are shown below:

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RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 1. Reactor and Fuels Thirteen N - Reactor co producer fuel elements have been irradiated to an average exposure of 1300 Mwd/ton. in the target component, nor was there evidence of bonding between the Z irc alo y - 4can and the aluminum target. There was no evidence of swelling The first co producer product hn test irradiated in theN - Reactor proper will involve nearly 800 elements. target fabrication in June. one - third complete with completion scheduled for August 1. Hanford Laboratories began T o date, the target elements fabrication is over A thorium fueled fouling probe designed and fabricated in Hanford Laboratories has been examined after receiving 1000 Mwd/ ton exposure. No deficiency in performance was observed.A second detector is operating satisfactorily in a KER loop. Preparation of end caps for the hot-headed projection welding end closure has been improved in cost and quality using electron beam evap or a - t’7n to place the b raze layer on the end cap. Crud deposition on zirconium - clad fuel elements exposed in the stainless steel Hanford KER loops to high - temperature pH 10 ammonia ted water was duller and darker in appearance than that which had been encountered in a carbon steel loop with ammonia it was also much heavier than had been encountered in these stainless loops using LiOH. Tests were conducted to determine whether residual pickling acid during fabrication could have caused the observed inter granular attack on the N - Reactor steam generator tubing. samples %hatw ere then subjected to the same conditions as in the manufacture of the steam generators. Drops of acid were placed on Inter granular attack was produced. Analyses were continued of laboratory experiments ; an electrically heated, full scale model of the downstream half of anN - Reactor fuel column was used. pressure - drop flow data to pre wu res other than those used for the Equations were developed t o allow extrapolation of the

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Aqueous ammonium hydroxide solutions were irradiated in the single The conversion ratio(moles of N2H4 formed per mole of NH3 pass facility t o study the formation of hydrazine from ammonia in aqueous concentration was increased from 30 to 800 ppm, but decreased as the holdup time was increased from 22 t o 240 minutes. Three thorium - uranium fuel elements in the E TR have now received 7400 Mwd / ton exposure and show 0.8 vel% swelling. operate data heat flux of 850 to 1 million Btu / (hr)(ft2) and show a theoretical minimum volume expansion. These elements have EDTA (Na)4 was found to be a promising possible reagent for single step decontamination of stainless steel. PR TR jumper samples were obtained in beaker tests. Decontamination factors up to 1 4 on exposed 200 days at water temperatures in excess of 400 F (233 C), showed twice the corrosion product weight-gain i n the flux zone of 4 x 1012 t o 2 x 10l3 nv (> 1mev) as in un irradiated sections of the same tube. Pit depth measurements on the PR TR de aerator have been repeated. The pits are deepening at the rate of 40 mils / y r ; the deepest observed was The first irradiation of a long,, water tube element was successfully idefltified ih a failed PRTR element. A new mode of Z irc alo y cladding penetration was Six PRTR fuel elements were fabricated. Forty - eight kilograms of mixed oxide were densified by the Nupac Irradiation s of prototypic EBWR fuel rod segments continue to reveal anticipated satisfactory performance at heat ratings well in excess of that proposed for EBWR.

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Chemical analysis confirmed the uniform distribution of plutonium, orig ball y introduced as a coaxial alloy wire, throughout the initially molten regions of aU02 fuel element. A brief study was made to compare the economics of boiling H20 coolant with liquid o r boiling D20 coolants inD20moderated reactors. was tentatively concluded that H20 cooling had a net advantage of 0. 5to Laboratory experiments indicated that existing theories for critical Cow of st earn - water mixtures discharging from pipes would not apply t o It was found that pressure fluctuations caused a change in the location and magnitude of boiling burnout heat fluxes for flow through a 0. 444 in. - electrically heated tube. PuB2 is the only stable plutonium bo ride found below 900 C. can be prepared by reacting plutonium hydride with Application of a n image intensification system to x- and gamma - ray radio graph y provided resolution and sensitivity, with dw a mic response, that appeared to exceed that available using conventional time exposure radio graphic techniques. were discharged from the MTR. Homogeneous distribution of plutonium, equivalent to that in (U,P u)Oz made by co precipitation,was demonstrated in impacted,dry ball milled UN irradiated at rod powers sufficient to cause melting in U02 did not reach sintering temperature,thus demonstrating its greater thermal

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pellets melted by direct induction heating in a dried argon 87'0 Ha remained nearly stoic hio metric. Radiochemical analyses showed that cesium and silicon concentrate i n tlranium inclusions formed in U O irradiated a t high temperatures. BeO-nickel coated PuOz mixtures were densified by impaction. The high temperature dil a to meter was calibrated to 1600 C, and data were obtained on an uranium dioxide single crystal specimen. Electrical resistivity data were obtained forU02 at approximately the melting point. Uniform, adherent deposits of vapor plated tungsten were made on during pneumatic impaction. Elimination of a second phase present in a batch of U02for the EBWR loading appears to correct difficulties experienced in pneumatically impacting the material to 99% TD. Three hundred and twenty additional EBWR fuel rods were fabricated for physics tests. Sixty to seventy percent recovery of internally damaged EBWR fuel rod cladding tubes was achieved by internal honing. Sample tubes were exchanged with ANL to further " compare non destructive test procedures. The Hanford developed exposure unit for comparing fast neutron irradiation effects caused by nelitron fluxes of varying spectra was tested successfully with ductility data from two different reactor sources. Oxidation data for small samples of graphite in helium containing water vapor were successfully used to calculate the oxidation rates of samples having larger diameters. Platinum was successfully demonstrated as a standard for thermal diffusivity measurements over the range 25 t o 500 C.

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The 2C- 2capsule containing boronated graphite samples continues to operate satisfactorily. increasing tendency for expansion with decreasing temperature of the Irradiation tests run at low temperature indicated Two uranium specimens that were irradiated at 525 and 575 C (977 and 1067 F), respectively,were pulse - heated into the beta phase. No density change occurred, but preliminary metal lo graphic examination indicated that much of the crystallographic ally aligned porosity which existed in the as1 Isradiated condition has moved to original alpha boundaries. Solution and precipitation hard enable nickel base alloys have been irradiated to an exposure of 5 x lo1' nvt a t 280, 580, and 740 C(536, 1076, and 1364 F); in addition, the mechanical properties of the alloys have Seen tested at room temperature. A formal report, "Second-Phase Particles in Dilute Uranium Alloys - Quantitative Metallography, 'I HW-80349, was presented at the June 22- 24, 1964, Eighteenth Meeting of t h e AEC Metallography Group. . Corrosion of molybdenum and TZM molybdenum alloy i n 1000 C (1832 F) oxygen is highly pressure sensitive in the range5xlom 4t o Additions tothe work force for the model gas loop accelerated colistp.iction significantly. As of June 18, 196 4, construction of the model high temperature gas loop was 8070 complete. By the end of June,the gas - bearing compressor will be used to circulate air,at standard temperature and pressure,inthe loop for the ipitial phase of loop startup. An absorption column for the gas chromatograph packed with Linde 13X mole m lar sieve has produced absorption peaks of improved sharpness. Pre irradiation characterization of annealed rhenium foils has been completed, and four capsules with a total of 24 samples have been prepared A formal technical report, "Quench-Hardening in Poly crystalline Wickel, I' HW-8 2708, has been prepared for publication.

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The beta - t o - alpha transformation kinetics of 0. 005-in. -thick wafers transformation was complete after 5 sec, of internal voids was small. The physical damage in the form The steady state creep rate of the beta phase of plutonium was found to depend upon the previous transformation, i. e., the creep rate of the beta phase formed by transformation from alpha wasat least two orders of magnitude greater than that formed by transformation from the gamma phase. Or, the other hand, the steady - state creep rate of the gamma phase was Investigation of the fiber texture in alpha plutonium resulting from transformation under pressure has continued. from (203)p lanes consistently aligned parallel to the fiber axis. The observed sensitivity of doublet to sample orientation has been shown to result Exploratory experiments with a 600 kva resistance welder indicate that welding of graphite with this machine maybe possible. A fuel element design consisting of me ch gni call y interlocked W - U02 Another design being developed uses three tungsten rods to align fuel plates forming a continuous ''egg crate" is under study for Lewis Research the cer met grid sections that are supported on the alignment rod seats. Simulated fuel grids and related parts are being fabricated for assembly and mechanical stability studies. pared using specially purified components and additional heat treatment after Two time - lapse movies have been taken of a small slice (0.2 x 1 x8mm) of a Rover fuel element during heating in the reflection stage of the electron microscope. Densities of 96. 1 to 98. 570 TD were obtained in a study of the effect of pressure and temperature on the density of tungsten and W - U02 cer met fabricated by pneumatic impaction.