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9 UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT Memorandum Eber R. Price, Assistant Director DATE:
FE3 2 7 $$4 To Division of Licensing and Regulation L. Kornblith, Jr., Assistant Director FROM g
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Division of Compliance U. S. ARMY MATERIAL RESEARM AGENCY
SUBJECT:
D00tET No. 50-47 ATTN:
R. G. Page Attached is a report by our field inspector of a visit to the subject facility on Januarf 20, 1964. No items of noncompliance were noted during the visit.
Attachment:
C0 Rpt No. 47/64-1 dtd 2/7/64 by J. R. Sears Distribution:
Sears, Region I (3)
M. L. Ernst, Region II H. D. Thornburg, Region III J. W. Flora, Region IV R. H. Engelken, Region 7 7
C. A. Nelson, INS, w/o act.
l' D. J. Skovholt, La E. G. Case, LR R. H. 3ryan, LR (2)
LR Files
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3 8204210509 811005 PDR FOIA KADAT-Z81-311 PDR eem a
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U. S. ATCHIC ENEL'T CCHMISSION REGION I DIVISION OF COMPLIANCE February 7, 19%
C0 REPORT NO. 47/ M-1
Title:
U. S. ARMY MATERIAL RESEARG AGENCY LICENSE NO. R-65 Data of Visit: January 20, 19 %
By:
John 1. Sears, Reactor Inspector
SUMMARY
A vicit was made to the Watertown Arsenal reactor. An aluminum heat exchanger had leaked, but the secondary system activity had never approached Part 20 limits..,A_ five foot water leg has been installed in the containment building as an overpressure relief. An interlock now prevents simultaneous fission chamber and rod movement. The annual Army inspection was stated to be an improvement over previous A transistorized control rod magnet amplifier bas been designed years.
but will not be installed without prior Consnission approval.
No items of noncompliance were obsei-red.
DETAILS I.
Scope of Visit A visit was made to the Watertown Arsenal reactor at Watertown, Massachusetts, on January 20,19%, by'Willis Browne, Inspection l
Specialist (Criticality) and John R. Sears, Reactor Inspector, Region I, Division of Compliance. The visit included a tour of the reactor, review of reactor operational records, health physics records, and minutes of the Reactor Safeguards Consmittee meetings, and discussions with members of the operating staff.
Persons contacted during the visit include the following:
Mr. John O'Connor, Reactor Director Mr. Richard Stanton, Reactor Engineer Mr. Charles Dady, Health Physicist (continued) l r
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2 II. Results of Visit A.
Health Physics The inspectors reviewed' the records of liquid and gaseous effluents discharged from the reactor building. These indicate that the maximum con-centration of gaseous activity released from tts stack occurred during the period October 7 - 14, 1963, when the concentration reached a level of 3.3 x 10-6 ue/ce. This is well within licensed limits for this reactor since the license new includes a dilution f actor because of the 150 foot stack. Mr. Dady staged that the activity was principally due to A-41 frem the pneumatic tube facility and from the slant tube facility in which the AVC0 Corporation representatives were irradiating electronic components.
Radioactive liquid waste from this facility is normally dis-charged to one of three waste tanks where it is analyzed before it is discharged to the Metropolitan District s' ver system. It is also pdpsible a
to discharge waste first to an underground concrete holdup tank before sending it over to the regular vaste tanks. The records indicate that the discharge to the Metropolitan District sewer over a period of one year amounted to 167,000 gallons of liquid which contained 1,017 uc of activity.
From the beginning of operations of this reactor on June 21, 1960, there has now been a total of 574,500 gallons of liquid waste discharged which contained a total of 1,677 uc of activity. Mr. gady stated that the principal source of high level vaste occurred du; ring the regeneration of the ion exchange column en the primary coolant system. About 200 gallons of waste water are accumulated during the backwash cycle of the regeneration process. Normally, this water is discharged to the underground tank and the activity is allowed to decay for a period of a few menths before it is sent to the vaste tanks. It is then analyzed for radioactivity and diluted with other discharge water before it is finally discharged to the sewer system.
The inspectors reviewed the records of personnel exposures. The maxinum exposure accumulated by any person since the start of this facility has been 980 millirem received by Mr. Dady, the Chief Health Physicist.
I B.
Heat Exchanger The heat exchanger for primary coolant is of all aluminum con-struction. The prtnary water is on the tube side and the secondary water on the shell side. The secondary water comes frma any of three different sources - from the Arsenal's own well, frca the city water system, or from a combination of the two. The secondary water system does not appear to be a very pure system. During the past gyar there have been a number of tube f&ilures in the heat exchanger. For a while, these tube failures were handled by' plugging up the end of the tube sheet with an epoxy resin plug. Final {y, the whole tube bundle was replaced. The inspectors exanined (continued)
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3 Results of 71 sit (continued) the old bundle. It appeared to be full of crud and corrosion products and there was a heavy coating of black crust on the outer ring of the tubes. The possibility exists that this coating was so heavy that the flow velocity was increased in this area and that some of the tubes may have eroded because of the high flow. Mr. O' Connor stated that he is sending the old bundle for examination by Watertown Arsenal metallurgists in the hope that they will come up with some answer as to what sort of water treatment should be empi,oyed on the secondary side. At the present time, the treatment on the secondary side consists solely of a screen to keep out large objects. The seceudary water discharges directly to the Charles River. Normally, there is only background level activity in this discharge. Mr. O'Connor said that a 30 ml gross water sample is taken and analyted every morning by their reactor operations crew.
Every Monday morning a 1,000 milliliter sample is evaporated to dryness for a more accurata determination of any activity. If the daily gross water sample indicates an increase in activity level, a larger sample is taken immediately. The inspectors reviewed the records of the samples which were taken at the time of the leaks in the heat exchanger. They indicate that there were no discharges to the river above the limits of Part 20.
During operation, the secondary side of the heat exchanger operatas at a slightly higher pressure than the pri=ary side so that if there is a leak, it would be into the reactor pool rather than the other way.
Normal activity level in the primary coolant is 2 x 10-6 uc/mi when the reactor is shut down. Over' the weekend, the secondary pumps are shut down. Primary system pressure is then higher due to the head of water in the reactor pool and the location of the heat exchanger in the basement. Monday morning secondary water analysis would thus indicate a leaking tube.
Mr. O'Connor is considering changing the system so that the flow of the secondary water is through the tubes rather than through the shell side. This would allow for easier cleaning of the tubes of any accumulation of corrosion products. Another solution being considered is the installation of an all stainless steel heat exchanger.
(continued)
D,
-4 Results of Visit (continued)
C.
Army Inspection
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Mr. O' Connor stated that the facility had been inspected during June 1963 by the Corps of gngineers. ' The inspection team this year con-sisted of five people. Mr. O'Connor thought that the inspection this year was a better inspection than in previous years whed the team had consisted of fourteen and nine men. He said one of the items that they had picked up was something his own staff was aware of, but simply had not gotten around to rectifying. A rwo-inch air line enters the cen-tainment building to furnish compressed air at 50 pounds / square inch to various experimental facility stations. This line is also used to The pressurize the containment shell during the containment test.
over a weekend when no one is in attendance possibility exists that, inside the building, a malfunction to this compressed air line could occur and pressure above the design LLaits of the containment shell could build up. Mr. O'Connor said that it takes about six hours to pump A five foot water leg has now up the building for a containment test.
been installed in the building to act as. a relief valve in case of over-pressure.
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D.
Reactor Safeguards Committee The inspectors reviewed the records of meetings of the Reactor Safeguards Committee since the last reactor inspection visit. Meetings had been held in May, June, September, and November 1963. Approval was t
l given for installation of the slow chopper, and for a new fire emergency These procedure, and for a series of activation analysis irradiations.
records indicate that an adequate analysis of potential hazards is made by this cenmittee before experiments are performed in or on the reactor. -
The records do not indicate that this committee does an internal audit The latter point was discussed with Mr. O'Connor sort of inspection.
this is done by yearly visits of Dr. Robert Cochran of who stated that the University of Texas.
E.
Reactor Operations Records The inspectors reviewed the console logbook. The only unusual occurrence uncovered during the review occurred during a reshuffling of fuel elements during the late fall of 1963. According to the logbook, This was during the movement of fuel there had been a period scram.
discussed with Mr. O'Connor who stated that it is the normal practice
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to make any fuel or reflector changes in the core with the safety rods cocked. The operator had moved a handling rod holding a fuel element too close to the Log N - Period chamber and the scram resulted.
Mr. O'Connor said that there has never been a real period or high level screm.
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Results of Visit (continued)
E. Miscellaneous During the visit, the reactor was shut down, and the control room was manned by a licensed operator who demonstrated to the inspectors that an electrical interlock new prevents simultaneous control rod and fission chamber movement.
' A discussion was held with Mr. Richard Stanton on his design of a transistorized control rod magnet amplifier. He said that he had as yet completely analyzed the reliability of the circuit when one not considers that each transistor may fail in either the open or short condition.
Mr. Stanton demonstrated the operation of the circuit in a bench test. He said that he will not install the circuit in the reactor system without approval of LR, and will furnish LR with ecmplete information on the design when his reliability analysis is complete. The design does not include a means of making periodic tests. Stanton also said that he prefers the word " efficiency" of a system rather than reliability, and that He true efficiency depends upon an adequate preventive naintenance system.
regularly replaces safety system amplifiers on a three-month basis and usually finds that some component in the discharged amplifier had started to go bad.
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