Hanford Laboratories Monthly Activities Report April 1964

Page 1

MONTHLY ACTIVITIES REPORT THIS DOCUMENT H A S BEEN SCANNED AND IS STORED ON THE OPTICAL DISK DRIVE HANFORD ATOMIC PRODUCTS OPERATION

Page 2

This roport was preparod 01an account of Government sponsored work. Neither the United Stares, nor the Commission, nor any porson acting on behalf of the Commission: A. Makes any warranty or reprosonmtion, expressed or implied, with respect to the accuracy, complotones, or usefulness of the information contained in this report, or that the use of any information, apparatus, method, or process d i s c 1 4 in this report may not infringe privately owned rights; or Assuma any liabilities with respoct to the use of, or for damages resulting from the use of any information, apparatus, mothod, or process disclosed in this report. As usod in the obove, 'person acting on bohalf 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 P. R . No. Location Route Date Signature and Date MONTHLY ACTIVITIES REPORT C om piled by HANFORD ATOMIC PRODUCTS OPERA RIC HLA ND, WASHING TON PRELIMINARY RE PORT 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.

Page 4

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

Page 5

Force Report and Personnel Status Changes . Reactor and Fuels Laboratory Physics and Instruments Laboratory Applied Mathematics Operation Radiation Protection 0p e r ation Finance and Administration Operation Test Reactor and Auxiliaries Operation UNC LASS IFIE D

Page 7

BUDGET AND COST SUMMARY April operating cost totaled $2,905,000,a n increase of $404,000 over the previous month; fiscal year-to-date costs are $26,914,000, o r and development costs for April, compared with last month and the current control budget, are shown below: Authorized funds for the nonproduction research and development programs assigned to Hanford Laboratories w e r e adjusted as follows : Plutonium Re cycle Program $ 20 000 Fueled Graphite Studies 220 000 RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 1. Reactor and Fuels An N-Reactor outer fuel component that experienced 3. 6 vol70 fuel swelling at 3100 Mwd/ton exposure in KER Loop 3 is being examined in the

Page 8

small voids that appear t o be formed by grain boundary tearing. Microscopic examination shows the presence of The measurements of prototypic N-Reactor outer fuel elements from two KER loop tests (K-3-18 ana K-4-15) have been ccmpleted. The swelling of the elements calculated from these data are in good agreement with the swelling data obtained from direct density measurements. severe or unexpected dimensional changes were observed. Two N-Reactor single tube fuel elements with fluted outer surfaces have successfully accumulated exposures of approximately 2000 Mwd /ton during irradiation in the ETRM - 3 loop. The volume increase is 1. 670. Two charges of KSE-5 single tube fuel elements are being irradiated in KER Loops 1 and 2 to provide a comparison of swelling behavior of alloyed and unalloyed fuel over a range of exposures and fuel operating t e m - Postirradiation examination of target elements that were irradiated in KER Loop 2 has continued. Analysis shows a gas content of 26.5 c m 3 of gas (helium + tritium) percm3 of target core with no indication of tritium in the Zircaloy-4 can o r annulus. Experimental target core material has been successfully extruded Zircaloy-2 clad r o d s , 0. 6 in. diameter, have been fabricated from several experimental uranium alloys. Evaluation of these rods is under way, and additional alloy billets are being prepared. On the basis of free energy measurements, several experimental uranium base alloys have been shown to have a low corrosion potential. Autoclave and thermal cycling tests have been performed on resistance projection welded fuel elements. No evidence of damage w a s observed

Page 9

Approximately 100 tests have been performed to determine friction \- factors for various fuel elements -process tube combination. test data is under way. Analysis of the - _ Only slight corrosion (0to0.2 mil) was found in the crevices under N-Reactor fuel element supports welded to electricaliy heated Zircaloy-2 clad specimens after exposure t o recirculating water at 314 C , pH 10, with NH40H for 56 and 120 days at a heat flux of 200, 000 B t u / ( h r ) ( f t 2 ) . Following decontamination, no rise i n cladding temperature of either thermocouple element in KER-1 w a s noted during 43 days of operating at pH 10 with NH OH. A red-brown crud deposit was found on the discharged elements. A corrosion rate of 0.3mil / year was measured for carbon steel samples in pH 10 ammoniated water at 300 C . Transient experiments investigating loss -of-coolant accidents for N-Reactor process tubes were continued. connector rupturing during the primary system heatup, preliminary results showed no significant temperature increases occurred in the simulated fuel element during the transient. In tests simulating a n inlet An experiment was performed on an ek ct ric zl ly heated, simulated fuel column t o investigate steam formation when ?old water is valved into an uncooled fuel column heated to 1500 F, as might occur in N-Reactor upon reestablishment of coolant flow following aloss of coolant. situation occurred upon flow reestablishment with large oscillations in both flow rate and surface temperature. tions could be expected in N-Reactor following such an incident. It was concluded that similar oscillaExperiments w e r e performed to investigate the pressure surges associated with the hydraulic seating of the fuel elements in a present production reactor. The results indicated, that under certain cord itions, surges can be produced during the hydraulic seating processes that would be sufficient to cause a Panellit pressure trip.

Page 10

Recent tests have shown that KS graphite monitors exposed simultaneously with TSGBF monitors have a sevenfcid kigher weight l o s s as compared to a two to threefold difference determined in laboratory F -Reactor monitors showed acceptably low burnout rates. The first results have been obtilined for large graphite blocks exposed to a water oxidizing atmosphere in the simulated N-Reactor loop. Surface oxidation rates were tenfold greater than rates observed at positions greater than 3 /8 in. below the surface. The dual purpose tritium evolution and zirconium -gas atmosphere capsule was charged and has been in operation since April 5, 1964. per a ture coefficients for tritium evolution will be determined. lithium ceramics are being irradiated for evaluation. atmosphere capsule is operating satisfactorily at design temperature. The rate of oxidation of an irradiated lithium-aluminum alloy in high temperature water was measured. The gas retention in the oxide is being The zirconium -graphite compatibility loop completed 1 month of 1000 ppm water in helium. Zircaloy-2 samples, exposed simultaneously, oxidized at the expected rates and absorbed only hydrogen f r o m the water corrosion reaction. Graphite oxidation data w e r e obtained by GRAD at Confirming inhibition of gas phase hydriding, Oxidation rates of Zircaloy-2 and crystal bar zirconium in C02 at 350 and 450 C ( 6 6 2 and 842 F) have been measured f o r 143 days. data show the oxidation rate in C 0 2 to be considerably less than i n dilute fraction of weight gain may be due to traces of water in the C02. Hydrogen pickup data for zirconium indicate that a major Burst tests have been made on slotted pressure tube specimens instrumented with strain gages. These show as tr z s s intensification factor

Page 11

of 2.4at the tip of the slot and an as-yet unexplained compressive hoop stress in the area of the tube immediately adjacent to the midpoint of the Long t e r m irradiation of N-Reactor graphite continues satisfactorily. Revision of the "Foils" Fortran program is complete and is reported Swaged U 0 2 fuel elements exceeded 5840 Mwdlton in the PRTR. A seven-tube water tube (inverted cluster'r fuel element was constructed for irradiation in PRTR. Sixty-two percent of the EBWR Zircaloy-2 cladding w a s rejected. Eight EBWR prototypic fuel rod capsules, w e r e discharged from 19-rod clusters for physics tests also were completed. The Dynapak machine operated routinely without a Facility) is progressing stais f actor ily . misfire or broken Fabrication of PCTR (Physics Constants Testing Reactor) fuel elements is complete. A flow test was performed on a model cf a proposed PRTR ''inverted cluster" fuel element (Mk IXB) to determine the pressure loss characteristics and flow distribution. theoretical predictions that an imbalance exists between heat-transfer surface The results of tne experiment confirmed earlier area and coolant flow rate in this particular design.

Page 12

The results of recent analyses of the Doppler delay problem in mixed oxide fuel were presented to General Electric Technological Hazards this fuel in EBWR. On the basis of these analyses, GETHC has approved the use of oxalic-peroxide-peracetic)w ere found to be effective in dissolving Pu02in A dilute APAC decontamination process was tested and found to be ineffective in removal of rupture debris from a metallic uranium fuel Testing of the second generation shim rod in the environmental shim rod test facility continued through April with at manifestations of rod sticking o r other problems which have plagued the present PRTR shim rods. Additional transducers installed on three PRTR inlet jumpers indicate maximum peak-to-peak amplitude of jumpers of 4 . 0 to 4 . 5 m i l s , compared to previously measured amplitudes of 7 to 8 mils which occurred during the period that a primary pump motor bearing failed. A specimen from PRTR tube 6079 was burst tested at room temperature. The ultimate hoop strength of this specimen w a s approximately 119, 000 psi. A pressure of 11,400 psi was required to burst the specimen. amount of plastic deformation was produced before the burst; the. burst origin wasin this region of plastic deformation. Pu02 was explosively melted by passing a high current pulse through a direct resistance heated sample. Irradiated specimens of Pu02 and PJ N are being examined after exposures of about 20 x lo2' fission s / cm. A high temperature vacuum pushrod dilatometer was put in operation. Apparatus for measuring the thermionic w o r k function and emission constant using a c,ontact potential difference technique was completed.

Page 13

Radiation self-damage of PuC s e e m s to be saturating after 975 A computer code for determining optimum particle size distributions for maximum compacted density in cylindrical and annular Isl:,nfiguration tions has been developed in cooperation with Applied Mathematics. Less than one-half the total fission gas was released from an insulated U 0 2 capsule that operated, with ail the fuel molten, at 2700 C cladding surface temperature. Pneumatically impacted ThO ( 5 . 5 m /g) released 0.53 c c gas per Central fuel temperature of an instrumented Tho2 fuel element increased from 480 C to 1050 C during a 30-day irradiation in the MTR. Pneumatically impacted UN was irradiated in the MTR. Highly loaded U02 - stainless steel cer met cores were clad with stainless steel tubing and fabricated into tubular sections using the shot" pneumatic impaction process. Tungsten coated spherical U02 and U02-tungsten powder blends were fabricated into tungsten clad U02-tungsten cer mets with powdered tungsten end caps. U02-niobium cer met cores were ciad with niobium tubing and sealed with niobium powder end caps using the pneumatic impaction process. A good end closure weld was achieved with one of four French beryllium cladding tubes now being studied. The high temperature Brew furnace wss successfully heated to 2800 C in flowing hydrogen atmosphere. Single crystals of TO2 were shipped to several sites for basic studies, and high surface area was received through EURATOM.

Page 14

The melting points and micro hardness of Nd203 and Sm203 have The absorption spectra for single crystal Tho2was measured between 0.3 and 2.5 p, showing a characteristic absorption edge a t 3.9 ev. Solid fission products were transferred from an irradiated sample to a n unirradiated one along a potentia? gradient. no consistent relation between fraction pickup and Cux or cold work w a s Oxidation rates of arc czst molybdenum in the fully annealed and stress relieved conditions were similar in 1 oxygen partial pressure at Four Inconel X-750 tensile and stress -rupture specimens were discharged from the E T R and will be scheduled for testing. had been given an experimental heat treatment to provide finely dispersed To provide a high resistance to buckling, Specimens for low cycle fatigue studies were designed with an hourglass shape rather than a cylindrical Tensile specimens of Hastelloy X-280, Pnconei 625, Incoloy 800, and Insonel 600, irradiated at 50 C ( 1 2 2 F) to exposures of 9 . 8 x lo1', 4.61 x 10 showed an increase in strength with smd1decreases in uniform elongation. 20 nvt (E> 1 Mevj w e r e tested at room temperature. Results Three genera: swelling capsules containing high purity uranium samples having U235 contents of natural, twice natura?, and four times natural enrichment were opened in Radio met d lu rgy and the specimens were liminary metallographie examination of the specimens revealed crystallographically aligned porosity typical of the higher irradiation temperature, and grain boundary tearing typical of the lower irradiation temper sture. N o obvious effect or' burnup rate was evident. Pre-

Page 15

Irradiation of H2-CO and CH4-C02 mixtures at ambient tempera - tures showed smaller yields of CH than i rm di ation at 550 C. is attributed to the stability of carbon suboxide polymers that at the higher temperature decomposes to carbon which can then react with hydrogen t o NO. The extent of reaction increases with surface area of the carbon. Long t e r m irradiations of EGCR graphite continues satisfactorily. Revision of the method of calculating exposure has resulted in exposure values that are 6070 of those formerly reported. Using the high contraction rate of certain carbons to produce a tensile stress in graphite specimens has resulted in failure of the specimens at a The thermal expansion behavior of a series of monitored graphites was found to be relatively insensitive to the temperature of graphitization. CSF graphite irradiated at 600 C and annealed to 2500 C contracted at the very much lower rate in a subsequent irradiation than did a n unannealed The behavior is opposite of that observed with lampblackAnalysis of the dimensional changes in boronated graphites irradiated to 10'' nvt E > 0.18 Mev disclcsed larger changes than would be observed in nuclear graphite. The behavior of 7 wt% g r a y boronated graphite was anomalous, showin expansion in the direct im parallel to the extrusion axis. The compressive strength of unirradiated biack …