Hanford Laboratories Operation Monthly Activities Report December, 1961

Page 1

HANFORD LABORATORIES OPERATION MONTHLY ACTIVITIES REPORT RE POSITORV POL DECEMBER, 1961 BOX NO. 83 Ifl THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN SCANNED AND IS STORED ON THE OPTICAL DISK DRIVE HANFORD ATOMIC PRODUCTS OPERATION

Page 2

This report was prepored 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 informotion, apparatus, method, or process disclored 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

Page 3

This document consists , Signature and Date 80892. Q & LLI HANFORD LABORATORIES OPERATION 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 o r opinions expressed in the report a r e those of the author only.

Page 4

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

Page 5

TABLE OF CONTENTS . - 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 Protection Operation . Laboratory Auxiliaries Operation . Technical Administration Operation , Test Reactor and Auxiliaries Operation

Page 7

BUDGETS AND COSTS December operating costs totaled $2, 312, 000; fiscal year-to-date costs are $13, 743,000 o r 51% of the $27, 138,000 control budget. Hanford Laboratories' research and development costs for December, compared with last month and the control budget are as follows: Month Month To Date 1. Reactor and Fuels An additional number of favorable results pertinent to the. NPR were In a test of end closure integrity, two tubular metallic elements containing prototypic NPR brazed end closures have been irradiated for six MTR , cycles (cold water) without incident. is proceeding in the 6x6 ETR loop and has currently achieved an average The resistance spike power welding process has been accepted a$ the method of attaching locking clips for N fuel elements. processes for attaching supports and locking clips to the N fuel elements have been put in place in the manufacturing plant. All required welding

Page 8

Twenty-three boiling burnout points w e r e obtained with an electrically heated, 46-inch long test section simulating the outer surface and the outside flow annulus of the NPR fuel element. The results obtained on this test section w e r e found to compare favorably with previous results using a test section one-half as long, indicating that test section length is not a contributing factor in boiling burnout for the conditions considered. Work on various aspects of Zircaloy continued: The ultimate tensile stress for non;irradiated Zircaloy-2 was observed to follow the relation 6 = a + b In , where c is the ultimate tensile stress, 'E is the strain rate (varied from 0.0025 to 2.5 min-l), and a and bare constants. The uniform strain decreases with increase in strain rate in the annealed condition but is insensitive to strain rate in the cold worked states. Spacing members have been successfully attached to tubular Zircaloy fuel cladding, using 150 KV electron beam welders. appears to be superior, quality-wise, to any previously investigated for ceramic fuel elements. A "brittle fracture" test has been developed for Zircaloy pressure tubing. While the tube is pressurized at the test temperature, a wedgeshaped projectile is fired through the tube w a l l ; the test is intended to delineate conditions under which a brittle crack will propagate. The electrical resistance across the ZrO2 protective film on Zircaloy drops nearly a factor of l o 4 when exposed in either a dry He gas o r a dry vacuum at 450 C. Ha leads to eventual rapid hydriding, but admission of moisture restores the original electrical resistance and the normal protectiveness of the film. In the low resistance state admission of dry The Phoenix capsule (GEH-21-1) containing plutonium with 6.25 w / o plutonium-240 has completed its second cycle of irradiation in the MTR, and reactivity measurements have been completed in the ARMF. has successfully completed its second irradiation cycle and reactivity measurements will be made after an appropriate cooling period. Reactivity transient measurements have been completed on the capsule containing plutonium with 16.13 w / o plutonium-240 and it is being irradiated for i t s second cycle in the MTR.

Page 9

Post-irradiation studies revealed that in a fuel specimen containing pieces of highly enriched U 0 2 heterogeneously distributed in natural U 0 2 no "hot Apparently homogenization occurred rather quickly. Uranium metal inclusions, presumably formed during irradiation of U 0 2 at very high temperatures, have been detected in irradiated U02. confirmed, this discovery will have important implications to many other PUN was formed by arc melting alpha-plutonium under a static atmosphere After high temperature irradiation in the GETR to a peak dose (E > 0.18 MeV) of approximately 8.7 x 1021 nvt, o r 58, 000 EGCR equivalent MWD/AT, EGCR graphite samples show no diminution in the irradiation-induced contraction rate. Similar long t e r m irradiations of NPR graphite in the GETR were initiated during the month. The new shielding computer code has been used to correlate experimental data for the Hanford iron-masonite shield configuration. flux calculations agreed with experimental data within a factor of two through the entire thickness of the shield assembly. Conceptual design studies included very preliminary work on two types of reactors: special purpose plutonium-fueled reactors and a chemonuclear reactor using fission fragment energies for fuel cell regeneration. A detailed study of pressure piping code compliance and materials selection in the high pressure PRTR systems was completed, It was determined that the secondary and helium systems w e r e designed in accordance with code. The primary system had several (previously documented) deviations, and. one in which the Hanford Works Standard w a s given precedence over the American Standard Code For Pressure Piping. 2. Chemical Research and Development Information of several types relating to waste disposal has been obtained: -a. The laboratory study of the addition of sodium silicate to reactor process water continues to show a significant reduction in the adsorption of As-76 and P-32 on aluminum surfaces, even those on which a corrosion film has been allowed to develop. These results have prompted an early in-reactor test. /

Page 10

b. Fission product tritium originating from Purex and Redox condensate wastes is detected in ground water at concentrations of 4 x 10'2 and the 200 East Area. p c / c c at four and seven miles southeast, respectively, of c. Reproducibility in sampling stack gases for 1-131 and subsequent laboratory analysis w a s determined to be entirely adequate, ranging from one to nine per cent. d. First evidence of a ground-water mound under are actor was obtained froma leveling survey of the monitoring wells in the vicinity of 100-B. Further developments in the molten salt P u fuel recovery work included containing 0.1 weight per cent plutonium precipitated 90 per cent of weight per cent uranium. promethium and uranium w a s obtained. Recovery w a s not affected by the presence of 10 Satisfactory decontamination from b. U 0 2 crystals weighing as much as 1.5 g r a m s and with O/U ratios as low as 2.005 have been produced from the LiC1-KC1 system. c. A micro-scale deposition system has been developed to determine the "dryness" of a mixed chloride melt to be used in pilot plant w a s used to produce a 50-pound deposit of electrolytic U 0 2 with an O / U ratio of 2.0036. Furthermore, the low density structure usually found near the electrode w a s ,absent. than those obtained with less dry systems, indicating a possible limitation to production rates. Using this control device, a large batch of PbC12-2. 5 KC1 Current densities were lower In the development of methods of preparing fission products for utilization: a. The development of equipment stations for bulk fission product packaging is nearing completion. of operation as follows: (1) filling the canister and thermal stabilization of the product, ( 2 ) capping and sealing the canister, (3) remote welding, and (4) decontamination and leak detection. The stations provide for a sequence b. The absorption capacity of Duolite C-3 for cesium w a s improved by a factor of 2.6 by the addition of excess sodium hydroxide to Purex adsorption of technetium on Amberlite 401. The excess caustic has no effect on the Procedures for purifying

Page 11

technetium eluted from r e s i n columns were developed in the laboratory. At month's end a large scale run w a s in progress to purify about 15 c. Clinoptilolite columns were used effectively to remove cesium from is highly selective for trace cesium and strontium in solutions containing magnesium and aluminum. d. Conditions for the extraction of strontium and rare earths from formaldehyde-treated Purex wastes have been further defined. Extraction of promethium is limiting. , e. Attempted use of the demonstration spray calciner to prepare strontium glasses w a s successful only in part. 3. Phvsics and Instrumentation Research and DeveloDment a. Experiments w e r e completed to select a satisfactory neutron detector for the forthcoming nuclear purity tests of the graphite as laid. Meanwhile a comparison standard value w a s obtained in measurements carried out in the exponential mockup of theNPR lattice. of all the items required for the t e s t s is progressing satisfactorily. b. It w a s found that the strength of control rods in the NPR will increase if the annuli around the process'tubes become flooded according to results of recent exponential pile tests. reduce by two-thirds the gain in reactivity (2% in k) associated with the effects of steam vent flooding. This increase in strength will The investigation will be extended to measurement of c. Technical evaluations of vendor drawings and plans for the NPR Integrated Data and Temperature Monitor System were compiled for the NPR Project Section and instrument specifications and costs estimates were provided IPD for their use in acquiring fuel rupture detection equipment for the PRTR Fuel Element Test Facility. d. Major effort continued on nondestructive and destructive test evaluation of NPR primary loop piping. possible methods for testing the piping for proper heat treatment; residual stress analysis by X-ray diffraction shows promise. Attention also w a s given to

Page 12

In the area of plutonium fueled reactors: The first modified fuel elements to be irradiated in the PRTR primarily for obtaining physics data on fuel burnup w e r e loaded into the reactor during the month. The first burnup data, however, will come from a standard Mark I Pu-A1 element recently removed from the reactor because of a faulty end-spider; after some cooling samples will be obtained from burnup analyses. The effect of fuel temperature changes on the reactivity of Pu-A1 fueled reactors may be predicted with more certainty as a result of PCTR experiments completed this month. exposure plutonium-aluminum fuel w a s insensitive to changes in fuel reactivity as the fuel temperature w a s raised. The reactivity of low High exposure plutonium-aluminum fuel decreased in The desirability of a fueling strategy involving a fast-thermal reactor complex w a s again emphasized by resuLts of a study of the effectiveness of Pu-239 and Pu-241 in fast spectra. In a large fast oxide breeder it w a s found that Pu-239 w a s 60% more valuable than U-235 and P - 2 4 1 was found to be more than twice a s valuable a s U-235. To satisfy the immediate needs of preliminary hazards evaluation and planning of the initial program in the PRP-CF, a broad scope survey of the characteristics of a wide range of loading configurations has been completed for D 2 0 moderated, 19-rod clusters with low exposure plutonium and natural U 0 2 fuel. In connection with the older production reactors: An improved version of a mechanism for measuring process tube distortion in the old reactors has been assembled which affords increased ease of reading and a computer program has been prepared to facilitate the reduction of the data. In programs to improve the effectiveness and ease of control of the existing reactors, control rod position readout equipment w a s installed at 105-KW to obtain data relating rod positions to in-core neutron flux for studies on automatic control. Also, an analog simulation study w a s begun to determine the best locations in the reactors for scram circuit ion chambers.

Page 13

Instrumentation research and development included the following: a. The ultrasonic test for fuel sheath tubing has been improved so that small pits and pieces of impressed material are now readily detected. b. Specifications were completed for use in soliciting commercial fabrication of modified pencil dosimeters which are to be incorporated in field prototypes of pocket dosimeters which will give an audible alarm when a preset dose is accumulated. c. Solutions have been developed for most of the equipment difficulties experienced with the Atmospheric Physics radiotelemetry system. The necessary conversions and modifications have been planned and assigned to the maintenance group for completion. Of interest also are the facts that a. At the Critical M a s s Laboratory the effectiveness of concrete as a neutron reflector proved to be unexpectedly high giving the lowest critical masses yet measured for plutonium solutions. Meanwhile calculational work proceeded with the exploration of the effects of nitric acid and Pu-240 content upon the critical mass. b. 1-131 in human thyroids w a s detected in measurements at the Whole Body Counter. It is thought to be due to fallout from recent Russian tests since its r i s e and fall coincides approximately with such fallout. The levels were such that if they had been due to Hanford operations they would have put Hanford in Federal Radiation Council Range 11. c. In the basic data area, gaps in the existing knowledge of neutron total cross sections should be reduced as a result of experiments conducted during the month. to measure the velocities of neutrons in the 3 to 15 MeV' energy region, and the c r o s s sections of Li, Na, K, Al, Fe and Cu in this region were determined. Time-of-flight techniques were …