Hanford Laboratories Operation Monthly Activities Report September, 1959

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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 contoined 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 As used in the obove, "person acting on behalf of the Commission" includes ony 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 any information, apparatus, method, or process disclosed in this report.

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HANFORD LABORATORIES OPERATION MONTHLY ACTIVITIES REPORT P. R. No. Location Route Date Signature and Date Ope rat 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 or opinions expressed in the report are those of the author only,

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

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VF orce Report and Personnel Status Changes. General Summary............vi through xvi Reactor and Fuels Research and Development Physics and Instrument Research and Development Professional Placement and Relations Practices 1-1 through 1-6

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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 September were $ 2,009, 000, an increase of $199, 000 over August. Fiscal year-to-date costs are 2570 of the amounts currently authorized to Plutonium Recycle Program costs are $1,438, 000 (2870 of annual authorized funds) for the first fiscal quarter which will require a substantial reduction in level of effort to stay within the authorized cost ceiling Adjustment in the level of effort on IPD New Production Reactor w i l l also be required a s the cost of this program when annualized indicates a potential overrun of available funds. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 1. Reactor and Fuels Preliminary laboratory studies indicated that an adequate degree of flow mixing is obtained within NPR type, w i r e wrapped, seven-rod cluster fuel elements A survey of the shielding properties of high dersity concretes indicates that the p r o p e r mixture of iron, serpentine, and cement in the density range of 210 l b / f t 3 is a good candidate for biological shield application where the ambient temperature of the shield may reach 300 C Contrary to the behavior of ingot metal, b a r e dingot uranium does not appear to corrode in water by a hydride-controlled reaction a t 200 C. This is attributed to the absence of carbide stringers in dingot mater - ial. However, when confined i n a pre-defected jacket, dingot metal appears to corrode by a hydride-controlled reaction, at this temper - Corrosion rates of uranium - 2% Z r metal in water a t 200 and 300 C w e r e found to be approximately one-fifth of those observed for unalloyed The effectiveness of bicarbonate-peroxide reagent for removing UO; rupture product froma mixed stainless steel-carbon steel system has been established by three loop tests. Effective decontaminating agents for an NPR-type mixed stainless steel-carbon steel system have been demonstrated in loop tests, except that the corrosion of the carbon steel surface is approximately one mil per decontamination, o r five times the desired maximum corr os ioe

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A section of 18 percent cold worked NPR Zircaloy-2 process tubing burst at 9000 psig internal pressure when tested a t 340 C, indicating greater than a four-fold safety factor over design operating conditions. Preliminary data for the high temperature irradiation of needle-type Continental Coke graphite indicates a contraction of 0. 08 percent after three MTR cycles at approximately 900 C. less than half of the contraction rate of TSGBF, and slightly l e s s than the rate of CSF graphite, at this temperature. This is, tentatively, Examination of a Zircaloy-2 process tube in KER loop service for 2 5 months revealed the following: (1) a friable, rust-brown film was generally visible except in those regions where fuel had s c o r e d the tube, ( 2 ) pits approximately 0 . 005" deep w e r e observed on the downstream end of the tube, observed which in at least one instance extended through the wall, and, (4) small unidentified rod shaped inclusions were observed. (3)areas of equiaxed grains were Testing continues to reveal marked differences in the creep behavior of 2570 and 4570 cold worked Zircaloy-2. Daily measurements of the strain measuring transducers in the inreactor (KW) creep capsul indicate no radiation induced zero shift. The Zircaloy-2 specimen will be subjected to a creep test when its A KER nine-foot charge of enriched tube-tube elements showed a measured temperature imbalanceof 27Cfrom the central hole to the outer annulus at full power. require are design of the fuel, This imbalance is sufficient to Two tube-rod elements irradiated to 2000 MWD/T in KER currently undergoing radiometallurgy examination a t BMI show a dia met ral increase of about six percent. Evaluation of ultrasonic welding for attaching self-supports to present reactor fuels indicates a satisfactory product and that this method may be more amenable to mass production than spot welding. Short lengths of coextruded NPR tubular fuel have been successfully hot headed in a manner analogous to that successfully developed f o r the satisfactory projection weld of aring cap to the ends of the tubes for the final closure. The jacket thickening appears sufficient to permit

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The quenching of an irradiated uranium disk specimen at rates comparable to those to which fuel is subjected i n - reactor, produced macrocracks identical in appearance to those observed in some irradiated rod cluster elements. A second mockup of the rupture mechanism for ETR "push-button" ruptures operated satisfactorily after exposure in ELMO4 for three days a t 300 C. The special fuel for the rupture tests was discharged from the Hanford reactors without damage and has been shipped to Laboratory experiments showed that with 5070 eccentricity of the inner tube boiling burnout of the PRTR Mark I1 fuel element o c c u r s ata heat flux about 4070 less than fora concentric geometry. However, this is s t i l l twice the PRTR design flux. Continued difficulty was experienced with the Hofer high pressure compress erg as discharge check valves and oil compensating pumps. Redesigned check valves a r e being tested. injection oil pumps are being sought for use with these compressors. Cadmium was selected a s the most practical material for thermal neutron shielding for the l a r g e penetrations of the PRTR bottom The PRTR Final Safeguards Report, HW-61236, was issued in rough draft form for comment. The over - all PRTR contract is 4770 completed versus 4270 scheduled, based on the official schedule. The contract for the PRTR stack and stack sample facilities was awarded to Custodus Chimney Company on the b a s i s of a low bid of PFPP Phase 11 is estimated a t 9370 complete versus 9870 scheduled. A revised PFPP project proposal, which requests additional authorization of $230, 000 to cover the value of plant capital equipment planned to be transferred to the project, is being circulated for apThe linear thermal expansion of Pu02 sintered to 9070 of theoretical density has been determined to be 15. 2 x 10'G/OC f r o m 122 to 911 C. In comparison the thermal expansion of U02 is about 10 x 30-6/oC.

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Corrosion t e s t s of aluminum-base plutonium fuel alloys employing aluminum matrix materials of various compositions have disclosed two compositions having markedly superior resistance to 350 C water. Use of one of these alloys will minimize the dispersal of fission products in the event of r u p t u r e of an A1-Pu element in PRTR at the cost of a slight reduction in attainable exposure. A technique h a s been developed for casting aluminum base fuel alloys directly into aluminum cans , thus eliminating all billet machining, decontamination, welding and outgassing steps in preparing billets Experience gained in the first sustained fabrication of *PRTR fuel cores indicates that three billets of plutonium-aluminum alloy can be extruded, straightened, cut to length, weighed, gauged and cleaned to produce six fuel rods per man-day. grams of plutonium. ) month showed no dimensional change from irradiation. (Each fuel rod contains 18 A total of 340 fGel rods for PRTR was swaged during the month. The u s e of tubing which had successfully' passed the fluorescent penetrant inspection reduced the rejection rate of swaged rods from 50 percent to seven percent, with most of the rejects being reclaimable. Swaged U 0 2 capsules have attained an estimated maximum exposure of 10, 000 MWD/T in the MTR. No failures of these capsules o r any other swaged fuel elements have occurred to date. Operation of a defected, swaged U 0 2 rod in the MTR resulted in (1) a much smaller release of fission products than anticipated, with a decrease in activity of the coolant while the element was being irradiated a t constant power; and (2) no disintegration of the Zircaloy-2 jacket due to waterlogging o r hydriding. A non-destructive testing of the PRTR Zircaloy-2 process tubes is 80'percent complete, with only one tube detected with a serious defect. Some bowing has occurred on autoclaving requiring straightening tern al ribs to thin-wall Zircaloy jacket tubing has been delivered to Hanford from the New Rochelle Tool Corp.

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2 . Chemical Research and Development One hundred curies of cerium-144 were recoverd from Pure x 1WW in the multicurie cell by the double sulfate process and successfully isolated by oxalate precipitation, thus proving that the intense radiation field does not seriously interfere with the formation o r stability of the oxalA TBP-25 (high aluminum) waste was successfully calcined to a dense vitreous glass by addition of sodium tetra borate. marked contrast to the calcination of the straight TBP-25 waste, which gives a powdery product of very low bulk density. This result is i n Optimum conditions for the peroxy - acetate process (for separation of trivalent rare earths from cerium)were firmed up in preparation for m early Pure x plant test. tion during cerium precipitation and subsequent cake dissolution was crucial to approval of the test. in both steps was found, a s expected, to be entirely negligible, (below analytical detection limit). Demonstration of low ruthenium volatilizaThe amount of ruthenium envolved Five kilograms of U02 have been prepared by .the electrolytic r e - duction of U02C12 in fused NaC1-KC1 and turned over to C e r a m i c Fuels Development Operation for evaluation asa fuel material. Three grams of Olive have been acquired for studies of Palmolive Careful t e s t s showed precision manometers capable of measuring solution volumes in tanks of several thousand gallon capacity with an error of only 0. 3 percent. Results are important for materials accountability on power reactor fuels processing. 3.Physics and Instrument Research and Development Nuclear safety in the dissolving of fuel elements containing 1%U-235 can be achieved by adding s m a l l amounts of boron according to experiments which indicate that 3gm / liter of boric acid would permit a safe batch size of 100 tons. Processing of solutions of 3% enriched uranium can be carried out without volume limitations when concentrations of less than 600 gm sUper liter of water can be assured according to experiments run in the PCTR.

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Meanwhile experiments are in progress to assist in determining safe s i z e s of equipment when higher concentrations cannot be excluded. In other activities in this area, design progressed on the criticality vessels and associated piping for the first series of experiments to be run in the Critical Mass Laboratory. A nuclear safety review of the Fuel Cladding Facilities plans was conducted for FPD and s o m e improvements recommended; and assistance was given in preparing nuclear safety specifications for new t a s k s in 231 and 234-5 BuildHAP0readiness to take necessary action following a criticality accident was improved by calibration work a t the Shielded Personnel Monitoring Station which w i l l facilitate determination of neutron d o s e s to individuals by measuring the activity induced in them. In other activities at this facility nearly 100 people w e r e counted during the month to build up our knowledge of the "normal background" to be Safety of operation of the existing production reactors was materially aided by the completion of analog computer studies which defined limiting combinations of power level and reactivity tied up in coolant for I and E loads. These limits result from the criterion that the fuel should not melt during an excursion following loss of coolant pressure. In the NPR program, the reactivity of cluster fuel elements of 1% enrichment w a s determined in the PCTR and comparison experiments with natural uranium were readied. ment of a remote area radiation monitoring system and on the fuel element rupture detector. the frequency response of the primary coolant loop and on the primary heat exchanger performance. characteristics of an automatic control system for this reactor. Work progressed on the developDesign was aided by computer studies on A study was begun on the required In the Plutonium Recycle Program, improved circuitry for the PRTR rupture monitor was recommended and preparations were made to test the controller by using the Analog Computer as are actor simulator. The experimental phase of the AEC-AF program in Atmospheric Physics was completed by two additional experiments and full attention turned to the task of data reduction and analysis. Improved equipment for gamma and beta monitoring Of remote areas

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successfully passed experimental testing, decades of intensity with errors no greater than 20’%. This equipment covers three In the basic data field, it was determined that for Pu241 fission becomes more probable relative to capture a s mo rat or temperature in cras es. This behavior is in contrast to that of €5~‘” and to some extent U where the opposite holds. The prosecution of research and development work,was assisted by the demonstration of an infrared pyrometer for metallographic work and a simple optical means for underwater measurement of the inside diameter of irradiated fuel elements. development of a technique for forming large metallic crystals for use in the neutron spectrometers. Also of note was the It appears that the dose to gonads in aram is less from Zn65 in the gonads than …