ML20070H637

Univ. of Maryland - College Park - Transmittal of Annual Report for the Period Beginning January 1, 2019 and Ending December 31, 2019

ML20070H637
Person / Time
Site:	University of Maryland
Issue date:	03/05/2020
From:	Andrea Johnson Univ of Maryland - College Park
To:	Document Control Desk, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
References
Download: ML20070H637 (6)

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Amber S. Johnson Director, Radiation Facilities 4418 Stadium Drive College Park, Maryland 20742 301-405-7756 TEL ajohns37@umd.edu radiation. umd.edu March 5, 2020 Document Control Desk US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington D.C. 20555-0001 RE: Annual Report for the Maryland University Training Reactor (MUTR), License No. R-70 Enclosed please find the University of Maryland's Annual Report for the period beginning January 1, 2019 and ending December 31, 2019 for the MUTR, License No. R-70.

Sincerely, Amber S. Johnson Director, Nuclear Reactor and Radiation Facilities

18 56 Annual *Operating* Report:

Jantiary 1, 2019 *~ December.31; 2019 MUTR Technical Specificati9n 6.7.1 License No. R-70, Docket No. 50-166 A. James Clark School of Engineering Department of Materials Science and Engineering

• University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 L

Maryland University Training Reactor Annual Operating Report, 2019 1 Introduction The Maryland University Training Reactor (MUTR) is an open-pool type, TRIGA conversion licensed for operation at 250 kW thermal power. The reac-tor is one of the primary components of the University of Maryland Radiation Facilities, part of the Department of Materials ,Science and Engineering in the A. James Clark School of Engineering. The Radiation Facilities also include an electron liil?,c, a Co-6b panor~~ic 'irradiatbr, and a cyclotron. The MUTR is used for classes, operator tra~ning, tours for groµps internal and external to the university, neutron and gamm:~*'.ifradiations, 'neutron radi°bgraphy, and neutron activation analysis experimen~~ [o~ undergraduate lab. classes. and research.

2 Reactor lJsage:*artd. ()p~raMd.ns Between January 1, 2019 to December 31; 2019, . theMUIT'R operated for a total of 100 runs, which 11re categorized as follo~s: , . . .

Operator Training aiid RequaHfic;ation 39 runs Tours, Labs, and* Demonstrations 20 runs Calibration, Maintenance, and Surveillance 33 runs Radiography, Irradiations, or Activations 8 runs One of the focuses of the reactor is a training program for undergraduate stu-dents to become reactor operators. The majority of the runs for training are in support of this program. Additionally, the reactor is frequently run for tours for local schools, university classes, summer camps, and government agencies.

The total was burnup of 0.27 grams of U-23.5 during this reporting period.

• ' * * * ' * * * **

• f Reporting Period Energy Generated U-235 Burnup 2019 6.2 MWh 0.27g 2018 5.6 MWh 0.25g 2017 5.6 MWh 0.25g 3 Surveiliance. Tests and Inspections All required surveillance tests and inspections were preformed at the intervals required by Technical Specification 4.0 No equipment or material failures were observed during surveillances, and no significant differences with from last year's surveillances were noted. Neutron detector positions were adjusted to properly Page 1

Maryland University Training Reactor Annual Operating Report, 2019 account for thermal power. The reactor excess reactivity was $0.69 and the shutdown margin was $3.61.

3.1 Maintenance Operations In addition to the above surveillance items, the following maintenance opera-tions were performed on the indicated dates:

6/10/19 Primary Coolant Ion Exchange Resin replaced 8/12/19 Mak&up Water Ion Exchange Resin replaced Additional minor maintenance was performed such as light bulb replacement and fin&tuning of equipment as necessary.

4 Changes to Facility and Ongoing Projects There were no major changes to the facility during this time period; a minor change was the addition of a computer to the control room for references and data logging.

5 Environmental Surveys of Surrounding Areas Environmental surveys include the routine environmental dosimeter measur&

ments at the facility perimeter and the remainder of the locations on campus.

Measurements at all points were well within the historical norms.

Environmental Survey Results for the Maryland University Training Reactor January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019 MONITOR LOCATION DOSE ( MREM) 2 308 m NE of MUTR 12 a 3 1.1 km SW of MUTR 3 4 758 m NW of MUTR 1 5 387 m SE of MUTR 4 6 North, side MUTR fence line 1 7, East, adjacent to MUTR and IRR 2 8 West, adjacent to MUTR 3 9 606 m S of MUTR 7 10 950 m W of MUTR 6 11 South, courtyard adjacent to MUTR 35 12 248 m NW of MUTR 24 14 External to MUTR Lower Entrance South 3 0

Dose received is attributed to naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) in the construction bricks of the building.

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Maryland University Training Reactor Annual Operating Report, 2019

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Figure 1: Location of dosimeters and MUTR 6 Radioactive Release and Discharge to the En-vironment 6.1 Liquid The Reactor Storage Sump was not discharged during this reporting period.

6.2 G aseous and A rgon-41 The only release from the MUTR to the environment consists of Argon-41 pro-duced from the activation of natural Argon dissolved in pool water and natural Argon present in air within the interstitial spaces of beams and ports. Argon-41 escapes from the pool and spaces into the MUTR reactor building and then leaks to areas outside the building. The main area for assessment of public dose due to effluent release is outside the lower reception room into the hallway 1398.

For this reporting period the reactor was operated for 172.66 hours7.638889e-4 days <br />0.0183 hours <br />1.09127e-4 weeks <br />2.5113e-5 months <br />. EPA CAP88 was utilized to determine the dose in the hallway 1398 from any effluent release is 3.15x10- 1 mrem.

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Maryland University Training Reactor Annual Operating Report, 2019 7 Summary of Exposure Received by Facility Personnel and Visitors As part of the annual ALARA audit, facility management reviewed exposure records and found all badged personnel received less than 10% of their annual dose limit. The pocket dosimeters recorded minimal exposure for all guests and service personnel.

8 Unscheduled Shutdown/Reportable Occurrences During this reporting period, there were 3 unscheduled shutdowns.

• Run# 4750 Unscheduled shutdown due to brief power outage - No correc-tive actions were necessary as power was soon restored.

• Run# 4814 Manual Scram due to rabbit that did not properly return - The problem was quickly traced to a loose wire on the rabbit valve controller and the rabbit was safely removed from the core.

• Run# 4836 External Scram due to undercount on Bridge RAM - No cor-rective actions were take. Undercounts occasionally happen due to the stochastic nature of radioactive decay. The count rate immediately re-turned to normal and the reactor was restarted.

There were no reportable occurrences during this reporting period.

9 Experiments During this time the only experiments performed were neutron images and ac-tivations in the Pneumatic Transfer System.

10 Changes in Facility Staff Significant changes in the MUTR Organization took place in 2019:

• Amber Johnson replaced Dr. Tim Koeth as the Facility Director.

• Dr. JC Zhao replaced Dr. Raymond Phaneuf as the Chair of the Mate-rials Science and Engineering Department (Level 1 Management for the MUTR).

• Luke Gilde was hired as Reactor Operations Manager.

• Throughout the year, 5 SROs were removed from the roster, and 4 ROs were added.

The MUTR currently has 2 SROs and 4 ROs.

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