ML062720062

Annual Report for the Ohio State University Research Reactor

ML062720062
Person / Time
Site:	Ohio State University
Issue date:	09/25/2006
From:	Denning R Ohio State University
To:	Document Control Desk, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
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Download: ML062720062 (9)

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T The Ohio State University 1298 Kinnear Road Nuclear Reactor Laboratory Columbus, OH 43212 SFAJE SUNIVERSITY Phone 614-688-8220 Fax 614-292-2209 September 25, 2006 Document Control Desk U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission One White Flint North 11555 Rockville Pike Rockville, MD 20852-2738

SUBJECT:

Annual Report for The Ohio State University Research Reactor, License R-75, Docket 50-150 Please find enclosed the annual report for The Ohio State University Research Reactor, Docket No. 50-150. This report is being submitted as required by our Technical Specifications, Section 6.6.1. If you have questions on the content of this report, please contact Mr. Andrew Kauffman, Associate Director of the Nuclear Reactor Laboratory, at 614-688-8220.

I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.

Executed on 25-Sep-2006.

Sincerely, Richard Denning Director, OSU Nuclear Reactor Lab c: William A. "Bud" Baeslack III, OSU D. Hughes, USNRC A. Kauffman, OSURR

THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH REACTOR ANNUAL REPORT FOR FY 2005/2006 SEPTEMBER 2006 OSURR Annual Report Page 1 of 8 Sep 2006

Introduction As stated in The Ohio State University Research Reactor (OSURR) Technical Specifications, Section 6.6.1 Operating Reports, an annual report shall be made to the NRC by September 30 of each year. This report is to include the following seven sections.

1. A narrative summary of operating experience (including experiments performed) and of changes in facility design, performance characteristics, and operating procedures related to reactor safety occurring during the reporting period.

2. A tabulation showing the energy generated by the reactor (in kilowatt hours) and the number of hours the reactor was in use.

3. The results of safety-related maintenance and inspection. The reasons for corrective maintenance of safety-related items shall be included.

4. A table of unscheduled shutdowns and inadvertent scrams, including their reasons and the corrective actions taken.

5. A summary of changes to the facility or procedures, which affect reactor safety and performance of tests or experiments carried out under the conditions of sections 50.59 of 10CRF50.

6. A summary of the nature and amount of radioactive gaseous, liquids, and solid effluents released or discharged to the environs beyond the effective control of the licensee as measured or calculated at or prior to the point of such release or discharge.

7. A summary of radiation exposures received by facility personnel and visitors, including the dates and times of significant exposures.

These seven sections are discussed below. These are all for the period July 1, 2005 through June 30, 2006, except as noted for exposure records.

1. Summary of Operating Experience and Changes L.A. Experiments Performed The staff of The OSU Research Reactor is generally involved in four types of experiments at the Nuclear Reactor Laboratory. Included are introductions to nuclear research, neutron activation analysis, material irradiations, and classes that measure various reactor parameters. Typically when we introduce students, faculty or other experimenters to nuclear research, we do the following:

a. Discuss nuclear reactions and radiological safety.

b. Operate the reactor at 10kW-100kW

c. Have the individuals observe control room operations.

d. Complete a tour and demonstrate irradiation techniques.

Neutron activation analysis experiments are routinely completed for students ranging from high school to graduate school. The facilities normally utilized are the "rabbit" (pneumatic tube) and the "CIF" (Central Irradiation Facility). Much of the NAA work is geological samples.

Material irradiations, other than for NAA, are in four basic areas: isotope production; detector, electronic component and fiber optic testing; boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT); and irradiation of biological samples.

Isotope production has been done often for medical research. Detector and electronic component testing is done routinely. This testing is usually completed in the thermal column, or one of the beam ports, while fission OSURR Annual Report Page 2 of 8 Sep 2006

chamber testing is in the Central Irradiation Facility. The reactor thermal column is also utilized for other BNCT studies. Typically it is the location for cell samples to determine their boron content.

Various nuclear engineering or physics classes throughout Ohio utilize the reactor for the following basic experiments:

a. Approach to critical (using banked control rods rather than fuel loading).

b. Control rod calibration by rod drop, positive period, and subcritical multiplication.

c. Measurement of the reactor transfer function by noise analysis.

d. Temperature coefficient measurements.

e. Radiological surveys.

The reactor utilization for July 1, 2005 through June 30, 2006 is summarized in the following reports.

Funding for colleges and universities that utilize the OSU Research Reactor is provided in part by the DOE-funded Reactor Sharing Program. Please note that the utilization hours listed below only reflect actual reactor operating time. The list does not include hours spent on tasks supporting this reactor utilization.

The Ohio State University Nuclear Reactor Lab Reactor Utilization Report:

July 1 - December 31, 2005 Description Hours AFIT - Electronics damage 2.2 GE-RS FC testing 51.2 Tours (not including NE 505) 17.3 Class and lab groups (UC, NE 505) 22.8 NASA - electronics damage 14.7 OSU Mat. Science - Resin composition NAA 4.7 OSU-NE / Blue - SiC detectors 30.8 Scintiprox - source production 7.2 U Cincinnati - neutron irrad. of quartz disks 9.1 U Miami - source production 2.0 Purdue student group project 1.9 NAA of hair (Fentiman) 1.2 Requal / calibrations 17.4 182.5 OSURR Annual Report Page 3 of 8 Sep 2006

The Ohio State University Nuclear Reactor Lab Reactor Utilization Report:

January I - June 30, 2006 Description Hours AFIT - electronics damage 1.5 GE-RS fission-chamber testing 45.2 Tours (including NE 505) 49.5 Lab groups (including NE 742 and NE 744) 36.5 NASA - electronics damage 20.5 NASA - materials damage 18.4 OSU-NE / Blue - SiC detectors 17.8 OSU-NE / Blue - BNCT cells 6.4 Scintiprox - source production 2.6 U Dayton - material damage study 10.0 U Miami - source production 1.5 Purdue student group project 1.2 Luna Innovations - fiber-optic device testing 12.0 U Cincinnati (Glover) - material irradiation 4.5 NDSU - NAA of geology samples 4.2 Snead - Buckyballs irradiation 6.5 Fluke Biomedical (Victoreen) - Ar-41 production 0.8 SRO license exam 0.7 239.8 1.B. Changes in Facility Design There were no facility design changes that required a change to the Technical Specifications. IOCFR50.59 changes are described in Section 5.A of this report.

1.C. Changes in Performance Characteristics There have been no changes in performance characteristics related to reactor safety in the last year.

I.D. Changes in Operating Procedures There were no changes in operating procedures related to reactor safety in the last year. 10CFR50.59 changes are described in Section 5.B of this report.

OSURR Annual Report Page 4 of 8 Sep 2006

2. Energy Generated and Hours of Use Kilowatt-Hours of Operation: 27,660 Hours of Utilization: 422

3. Safety Related Maintenance None

4. Unscheduled Shutdowns From July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006 there were 2 unplanned shutdowns. These are summarized below.

Reason Corrective Action High current on primary pump (1) Do not run pump at 100% with bypass open LSA signal loss (1) Reseated LSA module

5. Changes in Facility and Procedures Accordance with 10CFR50.59 5.A. Facility Modifications During the period July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006, no OSURR Modification Requests were completed by the reactor staff:

5.B. Procedure changes The following is a list of procedure changes made under IOCFR50.59 from July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006 in accordance with Administrative Procedure AP-05, entitled Format for Writing, Revising, and Approving Procedures.

Procedure Procedure Revision Number Title Date RS-09 Area Radiation Surveys 9/22/05 IM-0 1 Scram Checks 8/25/05 EP-01 Emergency Procedures 12/28/05 EP-04 Emergency Equipment Inventory 12/22/05 SP-0 1 Authorized Access to the NRL 1/31/06 SP-03 Access Control to NRL 9/24/05 SP-04 Security Orientation 9/24/05 SP-05 Monthly Security Alarm Test 9/24/05 SP-06 Operation of Security System 9/24/05

6. Radioactive Effluents 6.A. Gaseous Effluent OSURR Annual Report Page 5 of 8 Sep 2006

The only effluent measured is the release of Ar-41. For the period July 1 - Dec. 31, 2005, Ar-41 releases measured 0.44 % of the annual average concentration limit. From Jan. 1 - June 30, 2006, releases measured 1.10% of the annual average concentration limit.

In accordance with the requirements of 10CFR20. 1101 (d), the COMPLY code was run using the total Ar-41 release for the period July 1, 2005 - June 30, 2006 of 115 mCi. Using level 2 in the code, the effective dose equivalent rate at the facility fence was computed to be 0.08 mrem/yr. This is well below the 10 mrem/yr constraint specified in the regulation.

6.B. Liquid Releases Hot sink releases are recorded and reported through the OSU Office of Radiation Safety. One release was made to the sanitary sewer system during the period July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006. It included I jtCi of Co-60 and 1 pCi of Cs-137.

6.C. Solid Releases No releases of solid radioactive material were made to the uncontrolled environment.

7. Radiation Exposures Since the firm that maintains records for The Ohio State University keeps a year to date record, it is easier to report this by the nearest completed calendar year. Therefore film badge exposures in this report are for the period January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2005. Seven individuals were monitored as radiation workers for the entire year or a major part of it. These are tabulated below. They are consistent with the ALARA policy for The Ohio State University and represent a fraction of allowed limits. All doses are in mrem.

Individual DDE LDE SDE, WB SDE, ME Visitors 0 0 0 N/A 1 35 35 37 N/A 2 14 16 19 30 3 159 217 297 560 4 46 53 70 90 5 6 6 8 N/A 6 129 587 1178 970 7 38 52 91 360 OSURR Annual Report Page 6 of 8 Sep 2006

COMPLY: V1.5d. 9/ 5/ 6 12: 4 2 40 CFR Part 61 National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants REPORT ON COMPLIANCE WITH THE CLEAN AIR ACT LIMITS FOR RADIONUCLIDE EMISSIONS FROM THE COMPLY CODE, VERSION 1.5d Prepared by:

The Ohio State University Nuclear Reactor Lab 1298 Kinnear Road Andrew Kauffman 614-688-8220 Prepared for:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Radiation Programs Washington, D.C. 20460 OSURR Annual Report Page 7 of 8 Sep 2006

COMPLY: Vi.5d. 9/ 5/ 6 12:42 NRL 2006 SCREENING LEVEL 2 DATA ENTERED:

Release Rate Nuclide (curies/YEAR)

AR-41 1.150E-01 Release height 10 meters.

Building height 11 meters.

The source and receptor are not on the same building.

Distance from the source to the receptor is 15 meters.

Building width 25 meters.

Default mean wind speed used (2.0 m/sec).

NOTES:

Input parameters outside the "normal" range:

None.

RESULTS:

Effective dose equivalent: 7.9E-02 mrem/yr.

• • • Comply at level 2.

This facility is in COMPLIANCE.

It may or may not be EXEMPT from reporting to the EPA.

You may contact your regional EPA office for more information.

• • • • • • • • • • END OF COMPLIANCE REPORT *********

OSURR Annual Report Page 8 of 8 Sep 2006