Hanford Laboratories Operation Monthly Activities Report November, 1959

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HANFORD LABORATORIES OPERATION MONTHLY ACTIVITIES REPORT THIS DOCUMENT HAS EEEN SCANNED AND IS STORED ON T H E 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 accuracy, 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 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, disseminotes, 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 of 159 pages. Copy No. THIS DOCUMENT IS PUBLICLY HANFORD LABORATORIES OPERATION 73273 MONTHLY ACTIVITIES REPORT HANFORD ATOMIC PRODUCTS OPERATION RIC HLAND, WASHINGTON 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.

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

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Force Report and Personnel Status Changes .... Reactor and Fuels Research and Development Physics and Instrument Research and Development Chemical Research and Development Operation ... Operations Research and Synthesis Operation .... Radiation Protect ion Operation .......... Laboratory Auxiliaries Operation ......... Professional Placement and Relations Practices . .

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Manager, Operations Research and Synthesis ...C. A. Bennett Manager, Physics and Instrument Research and Manager, Reactor and Fuels Research and Manager, Professional Placement and Relations

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BUDGETS AND COSTS Costs for November were $1,948, 000, a decrease of $23,000 from October. Fiscal year-to-date costs are 4170 of the amounts currently authorized to Hanford Labo'ratories. The amounts currently authorized have been adjusted to include the increase of $1, 140, 000 a s authorized by the Division of Reactor Development this month. Hanford Laboratories programs at November 30, 1959 have the following cost - budget relationship. Cost Budget % Spent Research and Development costs for the Hanford Product Departments w e r e in line with amounts authorized except for the New Production Reactor. Funds forFY 1959 were 55y0 spent a t the end of November. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 1. Reactor and Fuels PRTR Phase 11-A (River Pump Structure) has been completed, and over - all PRTR construction is 5470 complete. The Plutonium Fab - rication Pilot Plant Phase I11 equipment installation contract was terminated November 15, 1959, with contract completion estimated The remaining w o r k will be done by the J. A. Jones ConDesign and analysis work on PRTR and associated facilities included completion of the Pressurized Gas Cooled Loop transient analysis, issue of the PR TR Final Safeguards Analysis, completion and cir - culation for approval of the High Pressure Loop (Project CAH-841) Project Proposal, completion of the scope description for the PRTR Rupture Loop (Project CA-867), and issue for comment of design criteria for the PRTR Critical Reactivity Measuring Facility (Project

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HW-62734, a report summarizing findings of the PRTR helium compress or test program, was issued. The plutonium fuel rods to be used at PRTR startup consist of an extruded A1-PLI core in an unbonded Z r - 2 jacket. In e x - reactor thermal cycling tests warping and dimensional change have frequently occurred. It now appears that by careful control of gap dimensions between core and cladding this difficulty can be overcome. T h r e e elements having a minimum gap of 0.0049 inch withstood 77 thermal cycles without in progress : a 19-rod cluster in the ETR 6"x9" loop facility, a seven-rod cluster in the ETR 3"x3" facility, and a seven-rod cluster in KER Loop 1. High density 0. 0259 a / o PuO2-UO2 mixed crystal oxide pellets irra - diated to 4. 4 x 1020 nvt had a micro structure very similar to that of irradiated U02. Fission gas release data are being obtained. The liquidus of the PuO2-UO2 s y s t e m has been determined; the curve follows the general form for simple systems of this type, and no deviations from uniformity were observed. Indications of slight loss of oxygen of Pu02 at high temperatures were also obtained. Pu02 held for one hour a t 2000 C in vacuo formed some -203. Fabrication of cold swaged U02 fuel elements for the first PR TR loading was started about nine months ago. tensive process development has reduced unit fabrication costs s ev - During that period inQuantitative cost data are being developed a s the work The grain size of U02appears to have a marked effect on its thermal Electron microscope studies of thin films of U02irradiated at low temperatures reveal discrete fission tracks at low exposures and sumably by sublimation. An i n - reactor creep test capsule is still functioning properly after three months exposure in KW Reactor, a gratifying performance in view of the difficulties in this kind of experiment. C r e e p has not

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been observed on the Zircaloy-2 test specimen o r the e x - reactor control specimen as temperatures and stresses have been progressively raised to the present 315 C and 22,000 psi. Unirradiated sections of heavy-wall Zircaloy-2 tubing are being burst tested at room temperature in preparation for burst testing sections of irradiated KER Zircaloy-2 tubing at essentially room temperature. Three smooth-bore Zircaloy-2 replacement process tubes, to be installed in C Reactor, have arrived on-site after fabrication by Bridgeport Brass Company. A simple electrographic technique has been developed to detect both copper contamination on pickled coextruded NPR fuel tubes and u r - anium contamination of the weld area. A viewing cell has been constructed which permits visual ob serva - diated) metallic uranium fuel rod exposed in hot water at 300 C and lected and measured as an indicator of the water-uranium reaction The hydrogen gas evolved by the reaction is a l s o colFailures due to hot spots from touching fuel rods are regarded as heated (30 kw/ft), and in s u r f a c e contact at one point, did not rupture after3.75 hours in a flow loop a t 300 C and 20 fps water Two coextruded uranium-Zircaloy fuel rods electrically The use of HNO3 vice H3PO4 to adjust water pH to 4. 5resulted in an eight-fold increase in the corrosion rate of X-8001 aluminum in a Samples of needle coke graphite irradiated at 600 C and above, cons is tent ly undergo less contraction than samples of CSF graphite o r other non-needle coke graphites. Also, the out-of-reactor oxidation rate of one candidate needle coke graphite, measured in C02 at 750 C, was slightly less than the rate for CSF graphite. Initial results indicate the feasibility of increasing the size of outlet hydraulic connectors on old reactor process tubes; however, Panellit protection would be reduced slightly.

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HW-62798, "Single Tube Flow Rates at Low Header Pressures with Nozzle Caps Removed - - All Reactors, " was issued. 2. Chemical Research and Development F i r s t experiments indicated that plutonium may be dissolved and subsequently precipitated as - 02from the Salt Cycle Process media by using appropriate reagents. The Pu02 precipitation was done with uranium present in the melt, thus permitting a simultaneous parti - tion. Exploratory tests were started on potential pyrochemical decladding schemes to handle Zircaloy-clad U02 in a fashion compatible with the Salt Cycle Process. Summary analysis of fourteen pilot plant tests showed the dissolution behavior of standard HAP0 fuel slugs in the re circulating ' Flooded T r a y Dissolver to be essentially identical with a conventional batch Special methods of "potting" with metallic or plaster materials were shown to be effective ways to prevent excessive vibration while extra neo us hardware was cut off of power fuels. employed for the test series. Power hacksaws were Electrolytic methods w e r e shown to be an effective way to depassify stainless steel in a sulfuric acid medium (Sulfea) even when low concentrations of nitrate ion were present. Concurrent precipitation of iron salts complicates recovery of fission product strontium by the sulfate precipitation method reported last also indicated i t may be possible to utilize a carrier precipitate to r e - The use of complexing reagents may solve the problem. Tests The original scintillation phosphor on the contact alpha counter located on the Purex2BP stream operated for twenty-two months before failu r e to demonstrate the durability of this development. 3 . Physics and Instrument Research and Development In the Plutonium Recycle Program,measurements of the lattice para - meters of low exposure plutonium fuel elements are progressing satis - factorily in spite of a large neutron background arising from the (a,n) reaction of the plutonium on the aluminum matrix. The intermediate

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exposure plutonium containing 207'0 Pu240 which we had expected to u s e in continuing this work to higher exposure plutonium will be unavailwhen material is available from the MTR. Extension of the work to higher exposures will be undertaken Acceptance testing of phototubes and crystals for the PRTR rupture monitor continued during the month. tubes was 20-257'0 and that on crystals was considerably higher. The rejection rate on photoIn the NPR Program it has been necessary to redesign the graphite for the exponential experiments to correspond m o r e closely to a similar redesign of the actual NPR stack. continue on lattices and fuel elements of types s i m i l a r to that of economy in the NPR when combined with measurements with the These data will permit a better assessment of the neutron Mechanical design of the NPR fast scan fuel rupture monitor is 5% complete while fabrication of equipment to simulate its action for laboratory tests is nearing completion. ment of radiation monitoring instruments for use around reactors included the development of a long flexible light pipe f o r investigating pigtail contamination and the development of an improved head for the 105-N Building beta-gamma a i r monitor. Other work f o r the developIn the Nuclear Safety Program a series of experiments was begun to determine the relationship of other geometrical shapes to the cylindr ical shape in which such experiments have customarily been car - ried out for reasons of convenience. Measurements also continued to higher concentrations of 370-enriched uranium homogeneously mixed in hydrogeneous moderator. The construction of the Critical Mass Laboratory is proceeding nearly on schedule to date, but delayed delivery of the control panel and a s - sociated instrumentation may result from the effects of the steel strike. During the month nuclear safety advice was furnished to C P D on the design of equipment for processing non-production fuels and in the design of casks and cask cars for the transportation of NPR fuel elements. An experimental check of the nuclear safety of the NPR cask design is planned when sufficient NPR fuel elements become

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In the Nondestructive Testing Program promising preliminary results were obtained on a method for simultaneously measuring zirconium jacket thickness and the thickness of the air gap between the jacket and the contained fuel rod. plication in the Plutonium Recycle P r o g r a m as well as in other fuel element fabrication programs throughout the AEC. If successful this method will have direct apOne source of the small amounts of Zd5 detected in people examined at the Shielded Personnel Monitoring Station, a s previously reported, is now believed to be Pacific Ocean seafood. Similar results, but showing lower concentrations, have been recently reported from other sites on Atlantic Coast seafood. date occurred in oysters but were less than 5O%tof the maximum per - miss i ble concentration for Zn65 in water. Maximum concentrations found to In the Gas -Cooled Reactor Program measurements were completed on the effect of a control rod inserted into a gas-cooled reactor lattice. Results obtained were in excellent agreement with predictions from theoretical calculations. Development of a satisfactory calibration technique by the Analytical Chemistry Operation has greatly aided work on the compilation and analysis of the results obtained in last summer ' s atmospheric physics Force for the preparation of the reports, A schedule has been laid out in collaboration with the Air Orderly progress was made on the many ' projects in the radiation monitoring instrument field. a s -built drawings on the Alpha-Beta-Gamma Scintillation Trans - is to rize d Hand and Shoe Monitor which had operated continuously for9 months with only minor servicing in the 329 Building. Noteworthy was the decision to prepare The mass spectrometer developed for the Division of Research operated routinely during the month with sample runs being made on 16 of the 19 working days. Biological monitoring tests proceeded without notable changes in contamination levels o r effects of reactor effluents.

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Work on a strontium and calcium problem, which earlier s ug ested hazards in terms of a ratio, is now contributing to some important knowledge of calcium metabolism, particularly in terms of relationship between dietary calcium and physiological turnover of the the lack of validity in assumptions being made in assessing Sr590 Ce- 144-Pr144injected into a r a m showed interesting variation in tissue concentration. The pituitary, for example, had a concentration 20 times greater than the plasma. Work at Rochester several years ago suggested that the pulmonary lymph nodes may be the critical organ for inhaled radioactive of the nodes. somewhere between two and ten weeks after inhalation the lymph nodes contain a higher concentration of plutonium than the lung. Since then, we have noted similar concentrating abilities Recent work on pU23902 in lungs of dogs indicate that Although caution must be exercised in drawing any conclusions from this, a tumor was found under the skin of a rabbit which had been exposed to 16, 000 rad s from P32 four years ago We believe this to be the first skin tumor caused by irradiation of rabbit skin. Polyvinylpyrrolidone may be a reasonable substance for diagnosing intestinal radiation injury. Work with the substance, when labelled with 1131, showed that 750 r whole-body exposure doubled the normal loss of the substance into the intestine. One thousand r quadrupled it. Swine were given bone marrow cells after exposure to 900 r, total this may be the first time a lethally irradiated pig has survived beyond two weeks, the result is still preliminary. A report on ionium (thorium-230) for preparation of the potentially useful radioisotopes U-232 and Th-228 was prepared. …