Hanford Laboratories Operation Monthly Activities Report March 1959

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HANFORD LABORATORIES OPERATION MONTHLY ACTIVITIES REPORT THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN SCANNED AND IS STORED O N THE OPTICAL DISK DRIVE HANFORD ATOMIC PRODUCTS OPERATION

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This roport was preparod as an account of Government sponmrd work Neither the United States, nor the Commission, nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission: A. Makes any warranty or representation, expressed or implid, with respect to the accuracy, completeness, or udulnoss of the information contained in this roport, or that the use of any information, apparatus, method, or process disclosed in this report may not infringe privately owned rights; or h u m a s any liabilitios with respect to the UI. 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

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This document consists HANFORD LABORATORIES OPERATION MONTHLY ACTIVITIES REPORT - P. R. No. Location Route Date Signature and Date HANFORD ATOMIC PRODUCTS OPERATION This report was prepared only for use within General Electric Company in the course of work under Atomic Energy Commission the report are those of the authors only. Any views o r opinions expressed in

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

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 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 ..... Employee Relations Operation ......

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- BUDGETS AND COSTS Costs f o r March were $1,886,000, an increase o f $224,000 over the month of February. The major change was i n the Plutonium Recycle Program which increased $149,000 over February to $548,000 f o r the nmnth. Fiscal year-to-date costs are 69s of the operating budget of $20,510,,000. 1. Reactor and Fuels Progress on PIITR construction is a s follows: scheduled; Phase 11, 84$ completed versus 90s scheduled; and Phase 11-A, 58% completed versus %$ scheduled. Plant, Phase 11, is 89s completed versus 97s scheduled. Construction of the Plutonium Fabrication Pilot Preliminary project proposals have been prepared for the PRTR Reactivity Measurement Facility and for the PRTR high pressure water loop. rupture test loop is in preparation. proposal, to increase the maximum temperature from 1100 F to 1500 F, has also A revision t o the PRTR gas-cooled loop The redesigned PRTR shim control assemblies a r e based on a lead screw drive, with three half rods in each assembly. core i n the event of chain drive rupture. and reduce the reactivity carried in These features preclude loss of a shim from the The f i r s t twenty Zircaloy-2 PRTR process tubes have been inspected and accepted a t the vendor's plant, and will be shipped in April. hproved x-ray diffraction techniques now permit the accurste determination of the s l i p planes in extruded Zircaloy tubing and rolled Zircaloy sheet. ference in orientation of the planes in the two materials accounts f o r the commonly observed 30 percent greater circumferential strength in tubing as compared t o sheeA careful analysis of the recrystallization and grain growth characteristics of 50 percent cold worked zirconium heat treated in helium reveal that re crystal li - zation takes place by a process of nucleation and growth. No evidence of recrystallization is noted a t 400 C, whereas the process is complete a f t e r 1000 crystallization as the degree of cold work is decreased. Studies reveal that higher temperatures are required for reUsing vibratory compaction, been readied for MllR and ETR irradiation. A one-inch diameter loose powder element was operated ata heat transfer rate in excessive jacket temperatures and ultimate rupture of the test piece by s o l i d state reaction between the L Q and the Zircaloy cladding. exceeding the limits of the UOpZircaloy system were defined. Seven-rod elements exposed f o r four months in KER revealed no evidence of fuel has been compacted t o a density of 82 percent Rod cluster elements with cores compacted in this manner have A partial collapse of the can wall resulted i n Conditions of operation

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fretting corrosion caused by the wire wrap. The first 19-rod fuel element for the first mnth. PRTR loading was assembled during the The development of a swage feeding mechanism employing canted rubber r o l l s has resulted in improved straightness and a reduction of 50 percent i n swaging time was convincin'ay demonstrated by means of motion pictures o f the die action i n both the stationary and rotary die machines. The necessity of a drive mechanism capable of slipping The s inter ability of mechanically mixed PU02-UO2 has been determined over the range from 0 to lo$ Pu@ and temperatures from 1000 to 1600 C for one hour sintering time Densities of Pu02-UO2 systems were l e s s than for only a t the same sintering b a d i n g of extruded Pu-AI. cores into Zircaloy sheathing while maintaining an extremely small gap in the finally assembled fuel rod has been difficult. machine has now been developed and is available t o correct the i.d. variation of Zircaloy tubing to within one-ha1f.mil over a length of eight feet. Heat transfer experiments confirmed the validity of present K Reactor outlet temperature limits in the event of low front header pressure o r a failed-front Two seven-rod metallic uranium fuel elements with inter-rod spacings varying from 0.025" to 0.060" were exposed t o 1250 W / Tin KER bop 1. Only the rod with the minimum clearance to both adjacent rods showed measurable increase in diameter. The increase was presumably caused by the higher internal temperature and was consistent w i t h an increasing amunt of evidence that swelling becomes a severe problem a t temperatures above about 450 C. Two tube-and-rod elements are now operating a t 80 kw/ft in 240 C water in KER A closure with considerable promise f o r NPR rod elements consists of projection welding a plug on the end of a fuel rod with $he jacket thickened by a previous die upsetting operation. Preliminary tests SLOW thata secondary, circumferentia. fusion weld can be successfully applied leading to a closure with high strength and good corrosion resistance. Studies show that several aluminum alloys, including X-8001, dissolve more rapidly in molten AlSi than does 25 aluminum. the canning bath may be more critical when using alloy cans, i f excessive penetration is to be avoided. Useful new techniques for following the rate of rupturing of pre-defected, unirradiated, jacketed fuel in an autoclave a t 300 C have been developed, involving two different methods for continuously measuring the rate of release of hydrogen This Fmplies that temperature control of The f i r s t successful out-of-reactor rupture test has been conducted in a flowing system with electrical heating of the fuel rod t o simulate in-reactor heat gen-

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eration. Two of the three 25-mil pre-defected pin holes i n the jacket exhibited raised areas essentially similar t o previous tests without heat generat,ion i n the Decontamination o f reactor systems with strongly alkaline decontaminating ager,t, such as might be used in the presence of carbon steel, appears t o be undesirable if both aluminum and Zircaloy a r e present in the system. tained o f hydriding of the Zircaloy by hydrogen released by reamion beween the aluminum and the alkaline decontaminating agent* Evidence has been obIt appears quite probable that the initial expansion which has been observed in graphite irradiated a t high temperatures may be due to the annealing out o f a mechanical “compression set” imposed on the graphite during manufactupo an1 Chemical Research and Development Continued laboratory investigations on nep3uaium recovery have emphasized a flowsheet utilizing lower nitric acid concentration and the addition o f ferrous sulfamate and hydrazine reducing agents. precise determination of the half - life of neptunium-237 has resolved difrerences i n analytical results between coulometric titration and specific alpha activity Mini iaboratory pilot runs were enAThe process will be utilized in the next Pura Plant campaign. The new established half - life is 2.14 r”, 0.01 x 106 years. Laboratory study o f rare earth reco-aery from Purex 1WW wastes showed thata previous method of re w val by sulfate precipitation i s complicated by current 1 W W composition which is more concentrated anh contains a higher iron con+,en’;, A tentative promethium recovery and purification method is presented buz much experimental work remains t o be done. Work on the potential recovery of plutonium from recuplex was5e streams by means of anion exchange resics has progressed to a point where the technical data have been transmitted to CPD for consideration of detailed design for z lant appiicatior Several significant items are reported on Non-Production Fuels processing studiec Mechanical tests on fuel chopping o r sawing hare progressed 30 .s%udies or. shear blade life, zirconium sawing, with it.s pyrophoric problem, some work on part fc uh filtration, tests on the consequences of cut%ing into so dim or NaK bonde3. fuel elements i n the presence of waterg and also experimental ~xp0su-p~of f u e l segaects containing sodium o r NaK +a dissclver media. the presence of ferric nitrate greatsly stabilizes dissclvzr solutions o f uraniunnitric acid of uraaiuro-mlybdeoum alloys, uranium metal, o r uranium dioxide. explanation is apparent yet f o r _the anomalous dissolusicc behavior of stainless steel in the Hastelloy-F Niflex dissclver. the Niflex pilot plant is behaving sa+,isfactorily. The prac5ical discolrory was Hade thaz Ferric nitrate additive also increases +,he dissolution rate irOther than %his somewhat minor prcblem Work i s progressing t o assure $hat Y - explosive residues rernsin 01:Aissolutior. of zirconium-uranium metallic syste, ... whizh w i l l be encountered from ei$her zirconium co-extruded clad uranium metal o r from power fuels utilizing uraniumzirconium alloy cores.

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Cooperation with o f f - s i t e laboratories continues and two new runs were completed a t ORNL on power reactor fuel feeds to simulated Redox solvent extraction systems; ANL has begun a study of synthetic Pura1WW waste calcinazion in their fluid bed waste calciner prototype. Uranium dioxide was found to dissolve rapidly i n mol%en sodium chloride, poTassim chloride mixture when phosgene is bubbled through the solution. lieved to be uranyl chloride, precipitates uranium dioxide when zinc o r zinc magnesium alloy is added to the melt. application i n reprocessing power reactor fuel. This simple uranium dioxide cycle could have The method does not work well f o r It was determined that afull size PRTR fuel element can be charged in existing Redox dissolvers provided a special folding bail is used. The use of metallic aluminum turnings to remove radioisotopes from regcfor effluent water has mved t o the p i l o t plant stage where pressure - flow charscteris tics are being determined on beds of aluminum turnings. studies of reactor effluent water radioisotopes indicate t h a t chronaiurc-5l acfi7:ity may exist as three distinct chemical species. Six out of ten rats injected with erioglaucine 10 minutes prior to receiving a radiation dose of 900 r of x-radiation were alive 30 days af*erwards. of ten uninjected control animals survived. This corroborates sizilar r a t i o s on the first test of t h i s kind using mice, and further indicates that the erioglaucinc blue dye inhibits damaging radiation effects t o living systems. Over 400 correlations indicate that residual moisture i n vadose zone s o i l can be closely estimated by means of centrifuge tests which can be easily carried out in 3. Physics and Instrument Research a d Development Exponential p i l e measurements continued on massive uranium slugs as par? of a program to build up physics information to assist in the selection of good he1 element designs f o r the NPR. Reactor lattice physics experiments began i n support of the Gas Cooled Reactar a seven-rod cluster of uranium oxide rods in a graphite moderated core. PC!FR data suitable f o r calculating physics parameters were obtained on A safe batch size of two tons was recommended for d is sol vh g 0.954 enriched I and E fuel elements i n the present dissolver after a review of recen5 experimental results and of the var€ous contingencies which might reasonably be exEqerimental work to accumulate critical mass information continued with 3% and 1.25$ enriched uranium i n homogeneous and heterogeneous configurations. Installation of towers and poles f o r this sumerpsexperimental program i n atmospheric physics was begun a f t e r completion of the survey of the course. curement of the additional temporary employees w a s completed.

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In the basic data field, agreement of cross-section measurements on graphite by American, British, and French laboratories was iurpmved even further, as compared to the situation reported last mnth, by the direct measurement in the FCTR of the absolute value o f the cross section of one bar. Studies of the neutron scatter hg properties of light water continued on the XE neutron spectrometer. Testing of a prototype critical it y alarm was completed and the instrument was demonstrated f o r product department personnel. 30,000 r/hr indicated no tendency t o block o r overload. A directive to proceed with construction of Phase I of the Critical Mas3 Laboratory was received. Tests in a &amms field of F'urther important information is being obtained relative to "observed ratios" It seems that not only do similar cations a f f e c t the uptake of one another bu+, dissimilar ones also do. The effectiveness of ELTA o r a l l y administered is continuing to be investigated. A t this t i m e , there is good reason to have hopes for the development of an Good progress is being made in radioactive particle work with bgs. numbers of these animals have recently arrived t o promise interesting results Turnover times from the lung to other organs and excreta are being A detailed study of a schedule f o r charging, discharging, and chemical processing of PRTR fuel was completed. useful in the procurement of plutonium and f o r the planning of chemical processin, The Meleager A and B fuel cycle analysis codes were compikd add run. o f cross-section and related input information was essentially completed. The study was presented in chart form ard should be Consultations were held on the possible use of iodine-131 as a fracer in meteorological experiments designed …