Monthly Report Hanford Atomic Products Operation for July 1953

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HANFORD ATOMIC PROWCTS OPERATION 51632 Operated for the Atomic Energy Commission General Electric Company

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IC. R. Van Tassel Atomic Energy Conmdssion Hanfqrd Operations Offlca Atomic Energy Commission Word Operations Office Atomic Energy om mission For: B. M e Fry, AEC, Washington

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Xd ical Departamnt ...................... 0-1 through (3-13 Financial Department ...................... 1-1 through 1-5 Plant Auxiliary Operations Department cornunity op erationa and Real Estate Department L-1 and L-2 Recreation and Civic Affairs Unit.......... Ld-1 through Ld-4

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The stprtup of the fourth canning lins on July 6 WOB a major step i n achieving a produatlon 1-9 uhichwos a record pewformame and waa five p e a & over the forecast. Use of the melt plant aa~a production facility was discontinued on Reactor input produotion for the month of July exoeeded the pr dous record by 12 peroents while the m o n w forecast waa surpassed by 8.9 percent. There waa one slug failure drpring the math. This vaa a regular metal, Group 8 piwe, and occurred at pila. at alJ. reactoras and the earthquake detector inetallatiiona were t i e d into the autolartiu sera u irc u it a in the reaetora during the month, Radar production for the month established a new record and uaa 135 peroent of production waa 18 percmt over forecwt. Uae te metal removal was completed in The new Ball. 3X facilities were placed in automatic operation Production a t the TBP plant ofps 88 percent of forecast, and UOJ plant Ebgineering and Technoloqg: The R,diolaetallurgy Euildlng was turned over t o the General Electric Company on tion of equipment is in progress. Approximately 2,OOO slugs were canned with Tru - line cana and well-type, Ru-Une capso Far tube charges were made in the F pile on July 17, and the remainder are scheduled t o be charged during August0 Design progress on Project CA-s12-R, 100-X Reactor Facilities, oras advanced to The first work on irradiated materials has been performed urd installaHghteen.informal radiation incidents, 6 C l a s s I, and 4 Class I1 incidents, were recorded. EJcceseive releases of radioiodine from the Redox plant continuedo Personnel and Servlces An analysis of expenditurea f o r plant and equipment at Hanford, representjng apendituree under the du Pont contract as well as those made by the General h c t r i c Company since it assumed its responsibiUties on September 1, 1946, disclosed that t h e Government's capital investment as of June 309 1953, w a s 8736,020,000e T b completion of currently planned projects, including Program X, will bring the total to an estimated #~oo66,000,000. bjor InJury No. 97, making eight for the year t o date, occurred in the 100-F Area and involved a power operator who sustained a dislocated right thumb, mloyee separation rate decreased from lesi'%i n June t o l,Ol% i n July, absenteeism was 1,lS as compared with less in June while total absenteeism was 1 0 7 8 as compared with 2.23% i n June,

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Ibsistant to the General Manager, Teahniaal e e Ua Io Patnode Manager, Employee and Publio Relatlona ...e. (3, GoId1 Manager, Plant Auxiliarg Operationa e a Ho D o Middel Manager, Community Operations snd Real Estate a L. F. Huck

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waa five percent over the iorec8at. The stutq of the fourth caml ng line on July 6 ua8 I) -or stap in rchieving this production level. overall C- field increased t o 73 percent as a result of lowered rejection rates dua to non-seating end poor bonding. The melt plaat operation waa discontinued se a facility on July 15, 1953 with the casting of the past production billet. Lead Up caanlng of all material copllraneed on July 27 on a production test basis. There vas one 8-inch slug autoclave failure during the month with none on 4-inch T%e input prodPCtion f o r the m t h of July exceeded the prcvioue record by 12 percent. The production achievement resulted from a very high overall timh operated efficiency and the increased power level at E reactor. The established -mum operating level at H reactor vas increased l25 MU dprine July (amximum level included 18 MU of "C" metal burnout) as a result of opersting under tha "trip before boiling" philosophy. The P-10 Lqut prodaction at the DR reactor m a Ihe mnthly forecast uas surpassed by 8.9 parcent. There was one rlug failure duriog the month. piece, and occurred at H pile. This was a regular metal, Groap 8 A total of 23.5 hour8 outage time was chargeable The new Ball 3X facilities were placed in automatic operation at all reactors. Also, the earth- detector installstions were tied into the automatic scram circuits in the remtors during the month. I)arine July, nine reactor scrams occuzmd i w o l m outage time of 2.9 hours. major interest VILB the scram caused by a lead disc pl wing a cone screen at C actor, a c h was csased by the failure of a resistor in the "R" relay coil circuit. The outage f o r the recovery of the balls waa 64.3 hours. The ninth scram involved the dropplq of the third safety balls a t D reThe Redox production for the month established a new record and was 135 percent Of the forecast. A t o t a l ofAnew record of 158 tons of uranium was produced.

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20 ~ l bV~LB started in the T plant and the production was 67 percent of the forecast. But Redox plant operated at a 5.1 ton per day rate, trm tion batteries - 6 tons per operating b y -til July 24, when the rate vas crtlcking of U and 1s feed cautrol valves, and foaalq in D-4 condensate concentrator. Since h d - end crc~~ve- operations were not posslble due t o centrifuge di if i cul ties, it VM necesa~4ryto continue operat- with three uranium and three pllrtaniun cycles thmu&mt the month, extmslva ewpment replacement, column flushing, and mlscellaneoua repairs. The Igp phut produced 212 tons of UEE which WB 88 percent of forecast. plan%operated at a 6.8 ton per day rate, w i t h an efficiency of 88 percent, rater varied for both lines, frap 3 t o 6 tons per day, being dependent on decontm in lt ion performarme and waste l08sea. Continued buildup of contamineted solids in the columm and vessels which neaersltated frequent and extensive Line flushes made surrtained line rates practically impossible. feed (mlnirmrm 2.5 yssrs old) rerrulted in poor performance. The standard rate f o r the exOperattng difficulties experienced included the A t month end the plant was shut down for We rally, the sluicing opention operation in the various tank farms was very good over the month. Qle -le p ~ l pfailed on July 13 In 1064 and one Byron-Jackson Waste metal removal was completed i n tanka 1024 and The UO pleat production mu 18 percent over forecast with a record production of 388 A.A m8xlaum prodwtlon rate of 17.5 tons of uranium was achieved for a 24-hour period, The average dally uprating r a t e f o r the month was 12.2 tons. The E a s t Area evaporator mu ahut doM for repairs on July 9 after completion of t h e re-evaporation of first cyale bottoms. orating 'PBP vrrrrte and is obtaining a 50 percent reduction. The 234-5 facility made the colenitment. A review of the f i s c a l Year 1954 coal contract bids resulted in the redection of t h e low bid submitted. that accepting the bid and burning this coal would have resulted i n higher cost per pound of steam produced. would be $465,000 more than utilizing the c o a l offered by the second low bidder, The re-bids brought in a new low bidder offering a high quality coal. The cost per million BTU on the re-bid was 2-3/4 percent lower than the cost per million BTU on the initial bid. This year's coal contract, for the first time, will contain a rejection clause which will enable the Manuiacturing Department t o reject any coal which does not perform satisfactorily under our operating conPrevious evaluation teats on this specific coal proved %e cost for the year, utilizing the above coal,

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All p.rWM enlpumd in e thrt ml@rt reasomably be expected t o remalt in lm8xtioarrr or diroolariarr M a e that, to tihe be8t of their kmov1-e and -si, no inllantlaau or dlocoveriee were made in the cmurae of their mrk ull m ted bdm. Such persona further drise that, for the period there- oumrad by tbi8 report, notebook recorde, if any, kept in the aour8e Oi their uork ham been exemhed for po8sible Inventions or the mrlod cumred by this report except

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Section ll - Technical and calculated m l u s a prodded by SF Accountability

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Reaponsibllitlea of the Natal Reparation Section remained un-ed. Julyl - June To Date Acceptable Pieces Canned (8")(~ons)Gross 2 0 5 Total Accepteble Pieces Canned (T0ns)Gross 2 l g Total Acceptable Pieces Csnned (Tons)Ret 215 Acceptable Pieces Canned (4")(Tons) Ret

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Metal Reparation Section chip Bhaovery Tield (5) Qide Burned (WrQgM out tons) Chemical. 68-56 Canned (Number Pieces) Chemical 10-66 Carmed (hmber Pieces) spacial Requests ( N u l Boas) July June To DateAverage Steam Generated (M lbs/hr) 16.4 16.8 Total Steam Generated (M lbs) ieoo 12300 %tal Water Average Rate (gpm) 1044 896 Sanitary Vater from 3000 Area l?he net production of acceptable aluga ~8 2 1 5 t o m (a new high) of resulting pripurily fram reductionr in non-seating and braze vldth and poor bond reJecte for four-inch pieces. A fourth canna llne was started on July 6, 1953. One eight-inch autoclave failure dura the month vas believed t o have been caused by a defective caa. The melt plant operation was discontinued on July l'j, 1953. mainder of the month was devoted t o cleaning up the melt plant i n preparation for transfer to the mine e ring Department. Work was started during the month t o prepare used bronze crucibles and melt plant insulation for shipment off-site f o r uranium recovery. Acceptance testing of a shipment of caps by statistical sampling methods vas initiated this month. quicker evaluation of the condition of the shipment and permits suffiThe use of such a sampling plan permits a

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Metal. Reparation Section cient tiPa f o r corrective action t o be taken if necessary, before the material i 8 scheduled for production use. During the Ilant;b a noticeable inorease in corrosion during autoclave testing waa noted. The nature of the corrosion pits ma similar t o those arperienced rp pro xi ~ tel ya year ago when mercury was suspected as the cause. Careful examination of the entire cann- and autoclave are8 falled t o reveal detectable presence of mercury. invartl@~tionit was felt that the major cause of this difficulty may haw been due to insufficient cleaning of autoclave baskets and l i n e r s prior t o loading and testing. It .has been previously reported that addition of small amounts of -alumin= t o the t i n bath had reduced the incidence of poor bond rejects ilrprorepsnt is not apparent. Leboratory analyses are being made t o determine if t h i s practice is profitable from the standpoint of effecting Continued investigation indicates that over longer periods this A total of 2628 lithium-aluminum alloy target slugs were canned wlth an complete and it ia anticipated that this program vi11 be completed i n Target slug fabrication is approxinrstely 95$ There remaim t o be canned in August, 642 enriched ursnlum-aluminum alloy fuel slugs which have been reduced i n diameter by sizing. will be uedM replacementa for pile failures and will cq let e the Lead dip canning of eight-inch beta heat treated uranium slugs under prOvlsiOn8 of PT-313-105-25M was started on July 27. mately 190 tom of material available for this test and it is scheduled for completion i n August. Acceptable slug production exceeded forecast by 59 a8 a result of i m - proved canning yields and the production of a higher percentage of eight-inch slugs than was planned. Lost production time increased about 2$ over the previous month, mainly due t o eleven furnace failures.

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Metal Preparation Section 2. Inspections, MliiPtanruroe and Replacsmants Boilers rimer 2 and 4 were inspected by a Traveler's Insurance Company inspector rad found in &ood condition. The twenty autoclaves in building 314 &re also Inspected and found t o be i n good condition. c. Improvement Expe rience Tests on this material were completed by the Engineering Department during the month. yield of 749, about 3000 were ehipped t o Reactor. what high frost test rejection rate, canning performance of t h i s material was nom. O f appnurimstely 3900 slugs canned with a canning P~-313-105-16~- nEpdlustion of Dlversey 514 as an Etchant i n the AluProce8s specifications have been revised t o allow use of Diversey 514 and it will be used (LB etchant when the present supply of phosphoric mid is exhausted. PT-313-105-19M - "Irrsdiation of Triple Dip Canned Slugs f r o m Rods Can a bg under this production test was temporarily discontinued during canning yields. About 120,OOO pieces have been shipped t o Reactor f o r About 225,000 slues have been canned t o date with normal About 2000 slugs were fabricated under this test during the month with a yield of about 73s. Difficulty waa experienced due t o lack of special C- tools for this operation. after welding, production delays were exgerienced. Testing was also i m - paired as these slugs do not fit existing f r o s t test trays o r autoclave As facing is required before and PT-313-105-25M - "Lead Dip Canning and Irradiation of Uranium Slugs Machined from S a l t Bath Heat Treated Fernald Rolled Rods" (Bw-28149). Early i n the month it was found necessary t o make several revisions t o the ultrasonic transformation testing equipment. test started on July 27, 1953. jects were detected i n the form of small voids o r gas bubbles. on evaluation by the Engineering Department, braze inspection standards were revised t o accept such pieces as this appears t o be peculiar t o the lead dip canning process. Frost test rejects on this material are running about 12s as compared t o approximately 2s on triple dip canned Canning under this An excessive number of braze line reOverall canning yield t o date is approximately 73%.

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Metal Preparation Saction m-28906 &groxlm6tely 1200 pieces were canned under t h i s test during the month. producrtion rate8 were comparsble t o normal processing. Weld bead width and ~ et rat lo nwere good in all cases. &%isfactory cleaning of rejected slugs was obtained by the use of a 159 a s u t i …