ML20012A349
| ML20012A349 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | General Atomics |
| Issue date: | 12/31/1989 |
| From: | GENERAL ATOMICS (FORMERLY GA TECHNOLOGIES, INC./GENER |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20012A348 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 9003090297 | |
| Download: ML20012A349 (18) | |
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. TRIGA REACTORS FACILITY t
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L TRIGA-Mark F Reactor
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ANNUAL REPORT i
prepared to satisfy the requirements of U.S. Nucleer Regulatory Commission-License No. R-67
.9 February,1990 9003090297 900301 PDR ADOCK 05000163 R
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TRIGA Reactors Facility ANNUAL REPORT TRIGA Mark F Reactor This report documents operation of the General Atomics (GA) TRIGA Mark F s
lon-power reactor-for the period January 1 - December 1989.
The Mark F re-actor - one of-two reactors operated by GA at its San Diego, California fa-cilitie
- is a pulsing type reactor with a licensed steady state operating power of 1500 kilowatts, and maximum reactivity-insertions during transient operations of $5.50.
It is operated by GA under License No. R-67 granted by the Nuclear Regulatory Conmission (Docket No. 50-163).
This report is presented in eight parts, consistent with the information re-quired by Section 9.6(e) of the R-38 (Mark I) Technical Specifications.
The administrative requirements in the R-67 (Mark F) Technical Specifications do j
not have annual reporting requirements.
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- 1.
SUMMARY
OF OPERATIONS.
1.1 Operating Experience.
The TRIGA Mark F reactor was operated during calendar year 1989 in the steady-state mode only, primarily for in--
core irradiations of direct conversion.(thermionic) devices.
Periodi-cally, irradiation of other types of samples was also required and carried out as necessary.
Operation was continuous, except for shut-downs - typically one to two weeks - required for annual reactor re-lated maintenance activities and neutron radiography inspection of the l'
thermionic experimental devices.
The following represents a summary of reactor use during this period:
1.1.1 The reactor generated a total of 10,040 MWh of energy.
Total operating time was 7.504 hours0.00583 days <br />0.14 hours <br />8.333333e-4 weeks <br />1.91772e-4 months <br /> during calendar year 1989.
A total of 18,028 cumulative test hours were logged on the ther-mionic devices during this period.
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1.1.2 The reactor was not pulsed.
Pulsing capability has been re-moved for the performance of continuous, in-core' irradiations L
of thermionic fuel elements.
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1.1.3 The reactor consumed $77.12 grams of U-235.
1.1.4 A total of 9 1rradiation requesto were processed during the period.
1.1.5 There were two reportable occurrences during the periods (1) the inability of a control rod to drop upon initiation of a scram and (ii) the detection of fission product activity from an apparently failed fuel element.
Neither occurrence had any -
isnpact on the safe operation of the facility, not resulted in any external or internal exposures to personnel.-
1.1.6 Four applications for facility modifications under 10CFR50.59 3
were approved and implemented.
1.1.7 One Special Experiment, to allow transfer of irradiated ther-mionic devices from the reactor pool to the GA hot cell facil-ity for destructive examination, was approved and carried out.
1.1.8 No license amendments were submitted nor granted during this period.
1.1.9 The facility conducted a reactor operator training program for two trainees (one RO and one SRO), and one RO upgrade to SRO.-
-All candidates successfully passed the NRC license examination during the year.
1.1.10 One new irradiation capsule with a thermionic device was fab-ricated and installed in the Mark F during 1989. '
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1.1.11 There were no changes of note in-tramp uranium related occur-I rences with the Mark F FLIP fuel, that were first observed and reported in 1978.
One apparent indication of tramp uranium effects was observed, but created no personnel exposure ' or contamination problems.
1.2 Facility Changes and Modifications.
There_were no major changes made in reactor performance characteristics or mechanical design during the reporting period.
The facility has continued to operate primarily as a thermionics test facility since early 1985.
Several changes to the reactor instrumenation and control _ system to install state-of-the-art components and_ systems were made during the course of the year.
Where appropriate, applications under 10CFR50.59 were made and approved prior to incorporating the changes.
These and other modifications are discussed below:
l'.2.1 Changes to Instrumentation and Control Systems.
the fuel temperature monitoring and reactor trip in-
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strumentation was modified to incorporate the use of Action Paks (compact plug-in-modules manufactured for a variety of applications for process measurecent and control).
This instrumenation replaced _ original ana-log circuitry using optical relays for_ trip signals, which was becoming1 increasingly dif ficult to operate and maintain.
- a new continuous air monitoring-(CAM) system for air-borne radioactivity was installed.
The'new CAM re-places an older existing unit which was showing dete-riorating detection efficiencies and was becoming very hard to maintain..
, a. personal ~ computer - based' console monitoring - system (PCCMS) was developed and installed as a console moni-tor, trend recorder and alarm annunciator.
While PC-CMS - continuously scans reactor operating parameters-and displays current values on a console monitor, it-performs none of the license required control and-safety functions: its sole purpose is to aid the oper-ator in the monitoring and reporting of various.oper-ating parameters.
reactor pool water level (low and high) sensors with alarms was installed.
t a new flow rate sensor and readout was installed for control room monitoring of flow rate in the pool water treatment system.
- a second pool water temperature sensor was installed.-
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t 1.2.2 Changes to Reactor, Hechanical and Auxiliary Systems.
- an air filtration system consisting of activated char-coal filters, blower, ducting and associated controls was installed in the Mark F reactor room for absorp-tion of radiciodine in the unlikely event that fission products are released from the thermionic devices.
Installation of this filter system was necessitated by a reduction in the GA site boundary to 115 meters (the previous boundary was 350 meters), coupled with the continuation of round-the-clock-reactor operations with thermionic devices present in the reactor room,.
and the necessity of maintaining dose rates from such a release below 10CFR20 limits for unrestricted areas.
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'0' License amendment No. 40 granted in 1988 amended the R-67 Technical Specifications to allow thermionic tests conducted with the reduced boundary.
Operation of the TRIGA Mark F reactor without the presence of thermionic devices in the reactor room does not re-quire this filter because of the. high retention of fission products within TRIGA reactor fuel itself.
The above modifications are discussed further in Sections 4 and 5 of this report.
1.3 Surveillance Tests and Inspections.
Surveillance tests and inspec-tions were perfomed as required by Sections 4.0 (Reactor Pool), 5.0 (Reactor Core) and 6.0 (Control'and. Safety Systems).
A summary of the results are presented below:
1.3.1 -Pool Water.
The pool water was sampled on a continuous basis-for conductivity using a sensor installed in the reactor tank.-
Water conductivity was maintained well below the limit of 5 micro-mhos per centimeter averaged over one calendar month' required by the Technical Specifications.
New water level sensors were ' installed during the reporting periods this ensured that the pool-water level always was maintained at acceptable levels.
In addition, a visual ~ check of pool water level was made daily.
l Redundant pool water temperature monitors were used to ensure that bulk pool water temperature was maintained within ac-ceptable limits.
1.3.2 Reactor Core.
The reactor fuel was inspected for bending and l
length changes, as well visually for deterioration and dam-age, during June and July, 1989. In addition, the inspection L
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also used a gage' test to check for swollen or deformed clad-ding, and to ensure that the elements can be: removed and re-inserted from the core grid plate without stacking.
To perform these inspections, each' fuel element is removed f rom the core, and then reinserted.
None of the elements failed the bending and length l change tests, with fourteen el-ements failing the 1/32" bend test but passing the 1/16' test. _In-addition, four FLIP fuel elements could not be re-moved from the core for this_ inspection, and as a result, the core had to be disassembled (remove top grid plate) to allow removal.of these four elements.
While these elements passed the bending'and length tests, they were removed from service because of their apparent swollen or other clad deformity which was causing them to stick in the core grid. plate. These four FLIP fuel elements and their respective core locations l
are:
y-FE 5875 Location F30 FE 5880 Location F3 FE 5882 Location D6
~FE 6379 Location B2
.l.3.3 Control' Rods.
All control rods were removed.from the core and visually' inspected for deterioration in July, 1989.
All were found to be in satisfactory condition.
1.3.4 Reactor Safety Systems.
Surveillance and calibration of. reactor safety systems was carried out as specified in the R-67 Technical Specificatiens and reactor operating procedures.
The calibrations and checks on the scram-
- functions of the minumum required safety system scrams were verified on a routine basis, with the surveillance on power level, fuel temperature measuring channels and manual scram capability performed on a
daily basis (except during,
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continuous operations) prior to reactor startup, - to ensure that the channels are operating as intended,land that the set points for these channels are within the limits specified in 1
the Technical Specifications.
A calorimetric determination 'of reactor power is required.
atleast semiannually, and can be performed more often if dic-tated by the needs of the experiments being carried - out. In-conformance with reactor operating procedures, the calibra-tion of the power measuring channels was considered accept-able if the deviation of the measured value from the indi-cated power was less than five percents the power measuring channels were adjusted to. conform to the calorimetric value if the deviation was greater than five percent.
Duringothe reporting period, four power calibrations were performed, and one adjustment - where measured power differed from indicated' power by greater than 5% - in the power level channel indica-s tions was-necessary.
-l 1.3.5. Radiation Monitoring.
The primary instruments utilized dur-
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ing the reporting period for facility radiation monitoring were a continuous beta-garna air monitor, radiation area mon-itors, water and air filter. monitors, a thermionic cell top monitor, control room monitor..and a variety of portable sur-o vey meters.
Their use and calibration is described below Cont-inuous Air Monitor (CAM).
During 1989, the ' continuous air monitoring system that was in use for monitoring the air j
above the reactor pool was upgraded with a newer system pro-cured from Ludlum Measurements, Inc., that provides si6nifi-cantly higher detection efficiencies as well as reliability..
The CAM alert and alarm set points were checked on a weekly basis by activating them with a check source. Calibration of the system was performed semiannually using two Sr-90/Y-90.
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calibiation sources with calibration traceable to the. ' Na-tional Institute of Standards ' and Technology _(NIST).-
Two sources were used to allow calibration et low and high count rates.
Radiation Area Monitors (RAM).
Two area monitors. (Eberline Instrument Corp.) were used for monitoring area - radiation levels in the reactor room.
The low level' monitor was used to provide an alarm when the area radiation levels exceeded l
20 mR/h: the high level monitor alarmed at levels exceeding
- 100 mR/h.
The alarm set points vere checked daily, with alarm testing itself performed biweekly using a check source.
Calibration was performed semiannually using a 4 mci'Cs-137 source on a calibration range.
All calibrations were trace-able-to NIST.
- Water and Air Radiation Monitors.
Separate radiation moni-tors were used to monitor the radiation levels in thel reactor
- pool water and the reactor room air ventilation system.
Alarm set points (45 mR/h and - 5 mR/h) were checked on a O
weekly basis, with calibrations performed on a semiannual -
basis.
1 Thermionic Cell Top Monitor.
A radiation monitor is present above the reactor pool water level to indicate a gross leak :
age of fission products into the purgeable secondary contain-ment for the encapsulated thermionic devices.
The alarm set point.(28 mR/h) was checked on a weekly basis, with calibra-
- tions performed on a semiannual basis.
T Control Room Monitor.
A radiation monitor is present in the
-reactor control room to monitor dose rates at the control console.
The alarm set point (2.5 mR/h) was checked on a weekly basis, with calibrations performed on a semiannual ba-
- sis, m.
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Portable Radiation Monitors.
Several. types of portable radi-ation monitors were in use at the facility.
Examples are the Eberline ' R02 and R02A beta-gamma survey meters, the Ludlum pancake probes, the Ludlum MicroR meter and the LFE. SN00FY neutron survey meter.
All portable radiation monitors were calibrated on a semiannual basis, e
- 2. ENERGY GENERATION The total energy generated during calendar year 1989 as a result of Mark F'
'I operations was 10.040 megawatt-hours.
Figure 1 is a bargraph showing reac-tor usage on a monthly basis during the year.
The relatively lower usage during the months of July, August and December reflects reactor shutdowns for reactor maintenance, thermionic device inspections via underwater neu--
tron radiography, and year-end holiday shutdowns respectively.
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- 3. EMERGENCY SHUTDOWNS AND INADVERTENT SCRAMS The. total number of unscheduled scrams during 1989 operations was 6.
None of the 6 scrams experienced in 1989 had any effect on, or consequence for, the safe operation of the Mark F reactor.
In. fact, all safety systems functioned as intended in shutting down the reactor when trip setpoints were reached, or an error condition was otherwise detected ' in the reactor operating or experimental systems.
The causes of the scrams are sununarized below:
Scram Channel Cause Number External Loss of site power 4
External Thermionic device 1
- blown fuse in power supply External Thermionic device 1
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- inadvertent loss of water flow 6
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TRIGA MARK F USAGE FOR 1989 (Mwh)
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JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC 1989
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- 4. MAINTENANCE ACTIVITIES All maintenance activities performed during the year generally fall into three categories:
(i) routine preventative maintenance, (ii) routine call.
bration activities and (iii) ongoing upgrade activities associated with replacement of' older components and systemo with state-of-the-art technol-
.ogy, or simply due to wear and tear from the many years of use.
Signifi-cant activities in this area are described below 4.1 Instrumentation and Control Systems.
January, 1989.
' Reactor On" lights were wired such that the lamps are turned on or off whenever control rod magnet
.j power is applied.
g March, 1989.
The new continuous air monitor (CAM) procured from Ludlum Heasurments Inc. was wired into the scram circuit, as part on-line testing for eventual re-placement of the existing monitor.
At this time, it was simply functioning as a redundant unit pending i
approval and subsequent removal of the old unit (Section 5.4).
June, 1989.
Installation of a flow sensor and readout was com-L pleted for monitoring pool water treatment system I
flow.
A digital readout now allows monitoring of-this flow directly on the operator console.
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New fuel temperature monitoring and trip circuits were installed.
The new circuitry, which utilizes industry standard temperature measurement equipment, l
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greatly enhanced system reliability and the capabil-ity of performing accurate calibrations._
July, 1989.
Installation of hardware and interface circuitry for'-
the use of the personal computer based console moni-ter (PCCMS) was completed.
The primary installation I
here was the isolation circuitry needed to isolate
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outputs from each monitored. channel, f rom the data input card for the computer.
L All calibrations associated with semiannual calibra-tion and maintainance activities (control rods, power indicating channels and fuel temperature chan-nels), were completed.
September, 1989.
Sof tware-enhancements were installed on PCCMS, pri-marily consisting of improvements to the graphing-capabilities, t
Pit level sensors (low and high) and associated alarm circuitry for monitoring reactor pool water l
1evel were installed.
A second pit water temperature monitor-was in-p stalled.
This' monitor uses a Boltzmann's. Law sensor
- versus a thermistor type sensor used for-the first monitor thus providing diversity and redundancy for this parameter.
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1 4.2 Reactor, Mechanical and Aurillary Systems.
l September, 1989 An automatic air vent were installed in the water system.
This allows air that may creep into the va-l l
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ter system flow to be automatically-vented to atmo-sphere.
. December, 1989 Installation and testing of the activated charcoal filter system in the reactor room was completed (Section 1.2.2).
5.10CFR50.59 FACILITY MODIFICATIONS AND SPECIAL EXPERIMENTS Four applications for facility modifications under 10CFR50.59 to the R-67 facility, and one Special Experiment as defined in the applicable Technical Specifications, were approved and implemented.
These are c'escribed belowr 5.1 Preparation and Transfer of Irradiated Thermionic Capsules from Mark F
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Reactor Room. Approval was requested - and received during March, 1989 1
- to prepare and transfer to adjacent hot cell facilities, irradiated i
thermionic capsules for post-irradiation destructive examination (PIE).
j Approval for these operations was granted by the Safety Committee under j
the Special Experiment provisions of the R-67 Technical Specifications.
l The transfer of these capsules was necessitated by technical require-ments to perform PIE on irradiated devices to determine the post--
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-irradiation condition at end-of-life, and (11) practical considerations dictated by space requirements within the reactor pool. The uniqueness
.j of this transfer - thus necessitating Safety Committee review and ap-proval - lay in the unusual size and geometry of the thermionic cap-sules, which are 24 feet long and thus require-that a portion.'of the 9
capsule be cut off before loading into a shipping cask.
Therefore, de-
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tailed procedures had to be developed to minimize the potential for re-lease of radioactivity from the capsule containment structure during the cutting and transfer processes.
The transfer of three such cap-sules was successfully completed during March, 1989.
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5.2 Upgrade'of Fuel Temperature Monitoring and Trip Instrumentation.
.Ap-proval was requested under a 10CFR50.59 application - cud received in-May' 1989'- to replace - the original fuel temperature monitoring and trip circuitry on the Mark F instrumentation and control (IEC) system, with state-of-the-art-instrumentation, similiar to ' the circuitry : in use with the Mark I (R-38) microprocessor based I&C system.
The in-creased difficulties that were being ' experienced in maintaining and calibrating the original equipment, prompted the design and installa-tion of temperature measuring instrumentation which utilizes commer-cially available ' process measurement and control devices, and which also had the advantage of being thoroughly tested in operations with the Mark I reactor.
Installation of the new instrumentation was com-pleted in June,.1989.
5.3 Access to Scram Bypass and Scram Reset Panels. Approval was requested and received in May, 1989 - to amend previous 10CFR50.59 applica-tions giving the Reactor Engineer and Deputy Physicist-in-Charge (PIC).
access to instrumentation which allowed scrams to be bypassed for testing of the circuits, replacement of defective components, or resetting of individually tripped channels. The previous applications required that only the PIC and Associate PIC shall control access to -
and therefore the use - of - these two circuits.
This administrative amendment was necessitated by changing needs and responsibilities at the facility.
5.4 Replacement of Continuous Air Monitoring System.
Approval was re-quested - and received in June, 1989 - to replace the existing beta--
gamma continuous air monitor (CAM) used for the detection of airborne radioactivity above the reactor pool.
The age of the existing monitor (a 1960s vintage Nuclear Measurements Corp. (NMC) Model CRM-51).-cou-pled with low detecticn efficiencies it provided, necessitated the move to replace this unit with a Ludlum Measurements Model 333-4 Con-tinuous Air Monitor.
Both units are fixed filter type air and partic-f..
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.N ulate monitors utilizing standard pancake G-M probes for radiation.de-tection.
The new system provides the facility with a. more reliable radiation monitoring system, and far greater operational flexibility than that provided by the older NMC' unit.
5.5 Installation of a Personal Computer Console Monitoring System (PCCMS).
Approval was requested - and received in June,_1989 - to install and use PCCHS, a personal computer based console monitor, trend indicator and alarm annunciator in the conduct of reactor operations.
PCCMS al-lows a multitude of. reactor operating parameters to be centrally moni-tored, displayed and recorded on a permanent mediums and any parame-i ters that are out of normal operating ranges are promptly displayed to-j i
the operator for proper action.
Prior to development and installation j
of this system, no system existed on the Mark F which could perform j
L such a valuable function, and it was decided that, with the powerful l
personal computers and associated hardware now available, such a sys-tem would be a significant aid to the operator in carrying out the va-I riety of monitoring activities associated with reactor operations, es-pecially in a round-the-clock operating mode.
To'that end, PCCMS was designed and installed, ensuring that this monitoring system is q
. properly isolated from the control and safety systems of the reactor, and thus can operate completely independently and without any impact on any of the reactor's control and safety systems.
PCCMS was installed and put into operation in August, 1989.
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- 6. RADIOACTIVE EFFLUENTS DISCHARGED TO THE ENVIRONMENT j
During the calendar year _1989, 2.39 curies of Argon-41 were released from the Mark I facility stack to the atmosphere.
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1 All' liquid and solid wastes were transferred to GA's licensed (under NRC license SNM-696) Nuclear Waste Processing Facility for ultimate disposal.
All waste _was measured for specific radionuclide activity prior to the transfer.
Solid wastes are packaged and shipped to an authorized disposal
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' facility., -Liquid wastes are handled in a similiar manner, or-trace quantitles : of low level wastes may also be released into the municipal i
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sewage. system within the limits and criteria specified by applicable local, state and U.S. NRC regulations.
- 7. ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEYS f
There were no significant changes in ' the GA Environmental Surveillance Program during 1989.
- 8.
SUMMARY
OF RADIATION EXPOSURES AND RADIOLOGICAL SURVEYS i
h 8.1 Reactor Facility Personnel Whole Body Exposures Number of employees monitored:
24 High Exposure:
0.300 Rem
' Low Exposure:
0 Average Exposure:
0.0.081 8.2 Nonfacility GA Personnel Whole Body Exposures Number of employees monitored:
27 High Exposure:
0.315 Rem
. Low Exposure:
0 Average Exposure:
0.042 i
8.3-. Contractor and Customer' Personnel Whole Body Exposures i
i Number of persons monitored:
90 High Exposure:
0.500 Rem Low Exposure:
0 Average Exposure:
0.032 1-
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- 71 C j, < '
8.4 VisitorW$oleBodyExposures
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- Number;of persons monitored:
37 High1 Exposures.
0.255 Rem Low Exposure:
0
' Average Exposure:
0.009
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8~5 Routine Wipe Surveys of Facility P
High Wipe 1863 dpm(beta)/100 cm2 Low Wipe
<1 Average Wipe 16 8.6 Routine Radiction Measurements of Facility
.High Measurement:
100 mR/h at 1 foot 1
Low Measurements
< 0.1 Average Level:
3.9 l
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l RO. Box 85608 e San Diego, CA e 92138 5608 (619) 455-3000 ^
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