ML20046C367
| ML20046C367 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | University of California - Irvine |
| Issue date: | 06/30/1993 |
| From: | Geoffrey Miller CALIFORNIA, UNIV. OF, IRVINE, CA |
| To: | NRC OFFICE OF INFORMATION RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (IRM) |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 9308100191 | |
| Download: ML20046C367 (10) | |
Text
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE h .# ~~h s ,
Bt.R.KrLiv . DAVib e IRVINE e LOS ANCELES e RIVERSIDE e SAN DIEGO e SAN IRANCISCO . o SANTA BARBARA e SANT A CRUZ ws!
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY IRVINE. CALIFORNIA 92717 NUCLEAR REACTOR FACIUTY SUPERVISOR: DR. G E MILLER TEL:(714) 85MM9 OR 714 8564*2 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission July 30th 1993 Document Control Desk Mail Station PI-137 Washington, D.C. 20555 Re: Docket 50-326, License R-116 Annual Report Submittal, Tech Spec 6.7f Ladies / Gentlemen:
Please find enclosed three(3) copies of the annual report for the UCI Nuclear Reactor Facility, covering the period July 1st 1992 through June 30th 1993. This report is submitted in accord with license regulations and Technical Specifications as referenced above.
Sincerely, C
W T. & '
4 George E. Miller Reactor Supervisor GEM /mm cc: Region V, NRC,1450 Maria Lane, Suite 210, Walnut Creek CA 94596 American Nuclear Insurance, The Exchange,270 Farmington Ave, Farmington, CT 06032, Policy NF-176 Reactor Operations Committee members and alternates F. Feher, Vice Chair, Chemistry i
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9308100191 PDR ADOCK 05000326 b 930630 M l/
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U.C.lRVINE Nuclear Reactor Facility Annual Repon for July 1st 1992 to June 30th 1993 -
Facility License R-116 Docket 50-326 Prepared in Accordance with Pan 6.7f of the Facility Technical Specifications 1
by -l
.Dr G.E. Miller Reactor Supervisor -
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'P Section 1.
Onerations !
Operation of this facility is in support of the Department of Chemistry program of research and -
education in the use and application of radiochemical techniques and radioisotopes in chemical :
studies. r i
Reactor utilization, apart from operator training and maintenance, is thus entirely for sample irradiation. Samples come from diverse or gms related to forensic science, fossil fuels, ,
geochemistry, art, and archaeological studies, chemice.1 synthesis, industrial quality control, 1 enzyme studies, trace element pollution studies, etc. Tne reactor is also used in class work by undergraduates learning tracer and activation analysis techniques using small quantities of short- ,
lived activated materials.
4 Some use is made of the facility by other educationalinstitutions supported by the Reactor Sharing l Program of DOE since September 1st 1987. This program has involved tours, class demonstrations, and analyses of samples submitted by students and faculty. Recently a short ;
course for high school teachers was presented. .
A number of items have needed main:enance during this period (see Section 4), but most e
inspections have found the facility to be in good condition. During the annual inspection, no abnomialities were found for the fuel or control rod systems.
An emergency drill planning meeting was held was held on January 27th 1993. This reviewed the !
pervious year's efforts and decided that on-campus response was good, but that the next drill should involve off-site personnel such as Orange County. Ilealth Department and the City of Irvine Police Department. This would take longer to set up because of personnel scheduling difficulties, !
and is now scheduled for early in the fall (September). Meanwhile a building response team has met and held a table-top exercise in disaster response as part of the campus-wide implementation of '
l disaster response ple ming. All reactor staff were involved in this exercise and the prior briefing meeting with the building response coonlinator, i 4
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l UCI Reactor Facility AnnualReport 1992/93 Page 2 l
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Section 2.
Data Tabulations for the Period July 1st.1992 to June 30th.1993 TABLEL j Experiment Approvals on file 8 Experiments performed (including repeats) 242 Samples irradiated 757 ,
Energy generated this period (Megawatt hours) 10.8 Total,69 element core = 127.0
>74 element core = 1097.4 Total energy generated since initial criticality 1224.4 Mwh Pulse operation this period 14 Total pulses to 6/30/92 969 Ilours critical this period 119.5 Total hours critical to date 6787 Inadvertent scrams or unplanned shutdowns 7 (All related to electronic circuit switching transients, connector corrosion, or lamp failures)
Visitors to reactor- admitted 961 Maximum dosimeter recorded for visitors O mrem Visiting researchers (dosimeter issues) 23 Maximum dose recorded 4 mrem Visiting researchers (badged) 2 i TABLEll Reactor Status 6730/92 !
+
Fuel elements in core (including 2 fuel followers) 82 Fuel elements in storage (reactor tank - used) 25 Fuel elements unused (4 instrumented elements + 1 element + 1 FFCR) 6 Graphite reflector elements in core 33 Graphite reflector elements in reactor tank storage 1 Water filled fuel element positions 6 Experimental facilities in core positions 4 Non-fuel control rods 2 Total core pocitions accounted for 127 Core excess, cold, no xenon $2.93 Control rod worths (2/02/93)
REG S2.95 SIIIM $3.64 ATR $1.82 Em $0.73 Total: $9.14 Maximum possible pulse insertion $2.55 Maximum peak power recorded (5/17/93) 900. Mw Maximum peak temperature recorded (B-ring) 254. C UCI Reactor Facility AnnualReport 1992/93 Page 3
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Section 3.
Inadvertent Scrams and Unnlanned Shutdowns TABLE III.
Da Time Power Tyne and Cause l
1992 l l
9/10 19:30 200 kw Period and linear scrams on operating mode switch.
9/10 19:49 200 kw Period and linear scrams on operating mode switch.
I1/02 13:05 <l.5 w Period scram during stan-up. Electronic surge of unknown origin. l 11/29 15:27 250 kw % Power scram at 105% from gamma build-up from samples. Other - ;
power indications at 100%.
I1/29 15:37 250 kw Repeat of above. Power reduced slightly to avoid funher repeats. ;
12/14 14:47 <1 w Period circuit failure. Operator aborted start-up when observed no response.
I 1993 1/14 18:25 <0.1w Stan-up checks aborted. IIV scram and Soume Level interlock i prevented operation. Iligh voltage drained by short in connector at poolside.
Section 4 ,
Maintenance and Surveillance The following non-routine maintenance activities were canied out during this period:
7/4/92 Pool lights were dismantled, cleaned and new lamps installed.
A small pump and filter system was installed in the reactor control room so an operator can obtained a reactor room air paniculate sample without opening doors, during a release emergency.
8/19N2 Water filter unit serviced. new gaskets, drain plugs, etc. were installed.
8/29N2 old rod position indicator units were removed and replaced with new LCD indicator units. All functions checked and control rods recalibrated prior to operation restart. ,
9Kv'92 The control system for the secondary cooling water flow was bypassed. This had been faulty for some time, and was restricting flow of cooling water to the heat exchanger.
The full flow can now be obtained with resultant better cooling of the pool during long !
runs.
9/xxB2 Ilot water piping entry to the building leaked in the rear laboratory of the facility and had to be repaired by plumbing staff on several different days before final status was :
attained. ;
10/15N2 The scram actuator lamp had to be replaced in the fuel temperature scram channel.
i UCI Reactor Facility AnnualReport 1992/93 Page 4 I
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4 11KW2 excessive water was inadvertently added to the reactor pool resulting in water entering ,
the lazy Susan rack and flooding several electrical connectors at the top of the pool. the I water was carefully assayed and was able to be disposed to regular drains. however, ;
the water in the lazy Susan, when vacuumed out, proved to be contaminated with .
cobalt-60 ( about 4 millicuries total, nis was evaporated down to a small volume and converted to dry waste for disposal. The rack was finally dried oput using calcium ;
sulfate filled tubes to temove final moisture. i 11/19/92 He fission counter preamplifier was rebuilt to replace water damaged components.
12/14/92 The period channel failed to function. The switch contacts were cleaned on the ;
operations switch in the rear of the console. this appeared to cure the problem. l t
1/14/93 A false radiation alarm was tripped on the Lazy Susan unload tube in the middle of the night. De problem was eventually traced to a loose connector at the reactor bridge !
Icvel.
1/15S3 The IIigh Voltage was found to be dmined down low due to shorting in an MIIV connector at the reactor bridge because of earlier water incursion. A new connector was . 3 installed and all circuits restored. :
1/23/93 Routine inspection found the lab fume hood to be non-functional. New fan belts were ?
needed. No experiments with hazardous materials were carried out during the down period. :
1/26/93 The LOG channel compensation voltage connector was found to be loose and had to be l reconnected. ;
1/29/93 Pool lamps were replaced before the start of annual maintenance. l 1
2/3/93 A note was made of strange markings on the tank weld seams. carefulinspection of thsoe near the surface indicated that algae sticking to the rougher surface of the weld was the cause. No sign of weld integrity loss could be detected of those areas easily ,
reached from the surface. 1 6/3/93 The pool was again filled to too high a level during a top-up operation. This time no l water entry to the Lazy Susan was involved, and no contamination of water, or I problems with water entry to connectors occurred. Since this time a piping system has been installed for water top-up containing a water delivery timer, so that operators cannot inadvertently overfill as a result of inattention.
Section 5 Facility Changes and Snecial Experiments Annroved No significant changes or special experiments were approved during this period.
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UCI Reactor Facility Annual Report 1992/93 Page 5
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. . i Section 6 Radioactive Ef0uent Release.
(a) Gav s.
The major direct release to the envimns is Argon-41 produced during normal operations.
Very small amounts of other gases may be released from irradiated materials in expedments.
Releases are computed based on original estimates at point of origin within the facility and taking only dilution into account. Since much of the release is from operation of the pneumatic transfer system for samples, this is a conservative estimate in that assumption is made that all use of the 170 is at full steady state power level (250 kwatts) when, in fact, some use is with the reactor at a lower power level. In view of the small numbers involved, and the fact that an integrated dose check is provided by an envimnmental dosimeter (CaSO -Dy) hanging directly in the exhaust at 4
the point of stack discharge,it is considered unnecessary to provide further checks of these estimates. The dosimeter data confirm that an individual standing directly in the exhaust flow for one year would receive an additional submersion dose from the exhaust less than the reliability limit of the dosimeters, or less than 20 mrem per year. The dosimeter data are presented separately in Section 7. Table IV. Over the years that data have been collected, the accumulated exposure at the exhaust location have been lower than for " control" points because oflower masses of concrete structures in the vicinity. In fact the data have been consistently at 20-25 mrem per year background level, so confidence of exposure less than 5 mrem over background seems possible.
Release estimates based on operational parameters are as follows:
(1) Operation of pneumatic tonsfer system (7/1/92-6/30/93):
- a. Minutes of operation: 236.9 minutes
- b. Release rate assumed: 6. x 10-8 microcuries/ml
- c. Flow rate of exhaust air: 1.2 x 10 ml/ min.
3 Total release computed: (a x b x c) = 1.7 x 10 microcuries (2) Release from pool surface (7/1/92-6/30/93): 4
- a. Total hours of operation at power (Mwh x 4) = 43 hours4.976852e-4 days <br />0.0119 hours <br />7.109788e-5 weeks <br />1.63615e-5 months <br />
- b. Release rate assumed: <l . x 10~8 microcuries/ml 8
- c. Flow rate of exhaust air: 1.2 x 10 ml/ min.
3 Total release computed: (a x 60 x b x c) = 3.1 x 10 microcuries Total of (1) and (2) emission in 1 year = 4.8 x 10 3 microcuries 0
Concentration averaged over 12 months = < I.0 x 10 microcuries/ml This remains similar to values reported in previous years and remains lower than MPC even assuming no dilution of the plume at the stack.
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l UCI Reactor Facility AnnualReport 1992/93 Foge 6 )
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(b) Lioulds and Solids.
Liquid and solid wastes from utilization of by-product materials are disposed through a ;
- University contract. Waste is transfer:rd to the custody of the Campus Environmental Health and i Safety Office (E,H&S). Direct disposals from this facility are given below. It is important to note ;
that activity values are estimated at the time of transfer to E,H&S control. In allinstances, . }
considerable time elapses before final shipment from campus, so that substantial decay may occur for medium-lived radionuclides.
1 DRY WASTES: 8 cubic feet- < 4 microcuries mixed activation products 3.5 millicuries of MCo (washings of rotating specimen rack) .
< 1 millicurie of 3H l
LIQUIDS: 3 gallons - < 1 millicurie, mostly H 3 with <0.001 mci of 14C. This was from student !
laboratory work with materials produced with the reactor, or purchased. )
Section 7.
Environmental Surveillance.
Calcium sulfate / Dysprosium thermoluminescent dosimeters in packs supplied by the Radiation Detection Company, Sunnyvale, California are placed at nine locations around the UCI Campus. One pack is kept on the edge of campus in a wood frame house in University Hills. In fact, the average of the more remotely located " concrete environment" packs on campus is used as the background for comparison purposes, since a mom similar microenvironment is experienced .
by such packs.
Table of Locations.
- 1. Window of reactor room east wall (inside the facility).
- 2. In hallway on exterior of south wall of facility, j
- 3. Loading dock, adjacent to west wall of reactor room.
- 4. Laboratory 152, directly over reactor facility, approximately over core center.
- 5. In roof exhaust air flow from reactor room, roof level (hung in center of duct at final release point). i
- 6. Biological Sciences 2 building,5th floor, laboratory near window *.
- 7. Main library building across campus,5th floor office.
- 8. Computer Science building,4th floor office, in window.
- 9. Fume hood exhaust, roof level, from reactor laboratory (hung in center of duct).
10.12 Perkins Court, University Hills, private residence (wood frame house).
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UCI Reactor Facility AnnualReport1992/93 Page 7 i
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9 Table IV shows the data as received from RDC for the period. Starting on July 1st 1992 (beginning of the 3rd quaner,1992), the monitors in locations 5 and 9 were placed in aluminum reactor specimen tubes as convenient devices to hold them centrally in the air flow. Problems had been experienced with the former plastic holders deteriorating in the solar radiation. The two tubes -
selected were thought to have been unused for reactorirradiations. Unfonunately,it transpires that !
one of the tubes (used for location 5) had been used briefly and so had very minor radioactive contamination present. This led to an approxima*.ely 25 mr per quarter exposure record instead of the usual 3-5 mr. The holder has now been replaced and we have reverted to plastic tube containers which will simply be replaced frequently as they become embrittled. Gamma-ray ,
spectrometry tests on the tubes confirm this conclusion. Cobalt-60 radioactivity is observed above background levels in the location 5 tube. ,
All other levels are as expected and are similar to those reponed in recent years. As noted ;
before, areas (1) and (2) am also panly controlled so that maximum possible exposure to an individual in an uncontrolled area is very minimal at this facility with current operations. The air released fmm the facility (measured by location #9) continues to give no detectable exposure above background for the dosimeter immersed in it. An explanation has been given above for why ,
location 5 data are unsual. Location 7 consistently shows higher readings presumably because it is in a window above a wann, outside, cement wall. Over many years, the data at each location have shown remarkable consistency. The results obtained with the contaminated holder confinn that an appreciable change is readily noticeable. Even if the location 5 data were a correct record of the i integrated exposure for the air leaving the facility, this would only have amounted to 56 mr over the entire year to an individual standing continuously in the stack breathing only air from the stack. . ;
TABLE IV.
Environmental Dosimetrv Data. ,
1992-1993 l Average Exoosures in mr.
Iocation. Ouarter Iolal Totalless 2S2 3S2 4/92 1/93 backcround (231 21) 1 3 5 10 4 22 0 2 5 8 24 7 44 21 3 5 7 11 8 31 8 i 4 0 0 2 0 2 0 5 3 27 24 25 79 56 6 0 3 6 4 13 0 7 8 12 19 13 52 29 8 0 0 4 0 4 0 9 0 4 7 4 16 0 10 0 0 3 0 3 0 ;
Average of locations 6,7, and 8 used for " background" ( = 23) l l
UCI Reactor Facility AnnualReport1992/93 Page 8
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- . l Section1 Radiation Exrosure to Personnel.
The annual exposures reported as a result of finger dosimeter ring and film badge dosimetry are presented in Table V. Much of this exposure is acquired in the course ofisotope handling experiments, and in some instances has been accumulated in areas outside the facility, in locations licensed by the State of California. Exposure reducation has been accomplished by reducing the need for calibration sources to be handled frequently.
Nineteen (19) persons were monitored on a continual basis using film badges, and all of these were also issued with finger dosimeter rings. These were required to be worn while handling isotopes. Film badges were generally worn at waist level by all personnel. An additional twenty-two(22) students were issued badges during the Winter quaner,1993 for a laboratory course in radioisotopes, during which they spent some hours in the facility. These exposure listings have been included in this table.
Certain additional monitoring is done of visiting individuals who are issued with direct-reading pocket dosimeters in addition to film badges and finger dosimeter rings.
Contamination surveys consisting of wipe tests and G-M surveys have shown significant removable contamination only in areas coming into direct contact with samples removed from the reactor, and on sample handling tools.
TABLE V.
Personnel Exrosure Summarv for 5/1/92 to 4/30/93 (in mrem)
Individuals Whole Body Finger Ring Deep Shallow Shallow 1 O O 40 18 0 0 , 0 22 0 0 0 '
(students in class)
Totals 41 Q 0 40 Additional aggregated data from self-reading dosimeters issued to researchers:
1 6 (2 visits) 1 0 (1 visit) l
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