ML20085C543
| ML20085C543 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Saxton File:GPU Nuclear icon.png |
| Issue date: | 06/30/1961 |
| From: | Neidig R SAXTON NUCLEAR EXPERIMENTAL CORP. |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20083L048 | List:
|
| References | |
| FOIA-91-17 NUDOCS 9110030073 | |
| Download: ML20085C543 (5) | |
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' SAITON NUCLEAR EXPERIMENTAL CORPORATION l .
Application for Reactor Construction Permit and Operating License Docket No. 50-lh6 er DN ci Ccmgance Amendment No. 7 I
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In support of its pending application for an operating license and in response to letters dated April 11, 1961 and June 9, 1961 from Mr. R. L. Kirk, Saxton Nuclear Expetimental Corporation (SNEC) submits the following additional information
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- 1. Precipitation Hardened Stainless Steel- -
There is no precipitation hardened stainless. steel in the Saxton Reactor. ,
- 2. Responsibility i
As a licensee and operator SNEC will have undirided responsi-bility for the safe operation of the entire reactor facility. Mtile final responsibility for nuclear safety shall be assumed by the Saxton General Manager, authority to shut down the reactor at any time because of an unsafe condition or any unresolved deviation from normal operating cenditions shall be delegated to the SNEC supervisory personnel at the l site including the Reactor Plant Supervisors on duty at'all times, l
3 Training and Qualifications of SNEC Personnel-In addition to the operator training and experience described-in paragraph C of Subsection 301 of the SNEC Final Safeguards Report, -
one of the Reactor Plant Supervisors and one Test Engineer are being given additional training on the Westinghouse Testing Reactor for the-purpose of obtaining an operators' license. These men should tt.sn os able to obtain a license on the Saxton Reactor so that they can assist -
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in the atartup-program.
The General Manager of- the Saxton Pr' apt is a graduate mechanical engineer who has had approximately 15 years' experience in the design, operation, and maintenance of coal-fired steam generating I stations. He attended the Oak Ridge School of Reactor Technology in l 1951-52 and worked for approximately 1} years with the Dow Chemical-Detroit Edison stut group which was the predecessor of Atomic Power Development Associatee. He was ~ Assistant Su?erintendent of Production for the Metropolitan Edison Company from 1954 until 1959 when he was appointed General Manager of- the Saxton Project.
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I In addition to the Saxton staff desribed in paragraph B (
and Table 301-1 of Subsection 301 of the SNEC Final Safeguards Report, a Navy engineering officer, who has had broad experience in the 4 submarine re:mtor field, is expected to join the Project prior to reactor startup. This un, who is presently a lieutenant commander, is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy with a B.S. degree and haJ attended the Sutaarine School at New London, Connecticut. In adaition to participating in the inspection, expediting, training and plant reliability review of the USS Nautilus and its land-based prototype, ne qualified and participated rs a Chief Operator of the land-based prototype. His submarine service includes a tour of duty with the USS Nautilus crew that made the first trip under the North Pole)
Engineer Officer, Executive Officer, Navigator, and Operations Officer on the USS Skate; Executive Officer on the USS Scorpion, and Engineering and Material Officer for Nuclear Powered Polaris Missile firing sub-
. marines of Submarine Squadron lb. He will be the Assistant General Manager of the Saxton Project with primary responsibilities in the areas of training and operation.
The Radiation Protection Engineer will come under the general supervision of the Supervisor of Reactor Plant Services who will establish policy as far as radiation limits and procedures are concerned. One of the test engineers who is a graduate engineer and attended courses in basic radiological health and safety and reactor environmental health problems et the Robert A. Taft Sanitary Ehgineering Center will be available to assist with the health physics work and will serve as a backup for the Radiation Protection Engineer during his absence on account of sickness and vacation. A qualified health physics organiza-tien will also be retained on a consulting basis.
- h. Westinghouse Startup Personnel Two technically qualified and experienced Westinghouse reactor operators will supervise and train the Saxton personnel during the period of initial fuel loading, initial criticality, and core parameter measure-ments. D1 ring this period, the reactor will be operated on primarily a one-shift basis. After the core safety parameters are obtained, the second shift may be used primarily for the training of operators. These n.en will be made available full time to the Saxton Project, approximately September 1,1961, in sufficient time to become licensed on- the Sarton Reactor approximately one month prior to fuel loading and will remain at Saxton for at least two months after a sufficient number of Saxter.
supervisory personnel and operators have been licensed to permit round-the-clock operation at a substantial power lwel.
One of the men presently scheduled for this assignment is a graduate engineer with approximately five years' experience in the nuclear reactor field. He has served as a reactor operations engineer for the Materials Testing Reactor and has had one year's experience as a licensed operator on the Westinghouse Testing Reactor. He also participated in the loading and startup for the Yankee Atomic Plant for which he obtained an operator's license. He is licensed to operate all three of the critical assemblies at the Westinghouse Reactor Fiom C0 Hdges,'
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Evaluation Center and is responsible for the operator training program.
The other man presently scheduled to become licensed on the Saxton Reactor for titartup is a graduate engineer with approximately 11 years' experience in the nuclear reactor field. He served as reactor operations supervisor at the Hanford Works prior to joining the Westinghouse Atomic Power Department in 1957. He participated in the loading and startup of the Yankee Atomic Plant for which he obtained an operating license. He has prepared or supervised the preparation of operating instructions for both the Yankee Flant and the Saxton Plant.
One Westinghouse reactor physics man will be made available on site as a regular assignment to follow the preparation for reactor startup, fuel loading, initial criticality, and physics tests to determine core parameters and reactor behavior. The man presently scheduled to serve in this capacity has a Ph.D. degree in physics.
For the past year he has been working at the Westinghouse Reactor Evaluation Center on multi-region critical assemblies, and he is licensed to operate the three critical assemblies at the Center.
Westinghouse will also provide other technical support personnel, such as a mechanical design engineer during initial fuel loading and control rod installation. Other nuclear power service engineers and eyetem and equipment design engineers will be available -
on call whenever needed. A Westinghouse graduate engineer will also be assigned full time to the Saxton site for the purpose of co-ordinating the five-year experimental program.
While at Saxton these Westinghouse personnel will come under the general supervision of the SNEC Supervisor tf Operations and Tests or the Nuclear Plant Superintendent who will coordinate their activities and assume responsibility for decisions regarding the nuclear safety of the plant.
- 5. Testing control nods To insure the scram capabilities of the Skxton Reactor, scram settings and scram circuit response times will be measured at least every six months in normal operation and after changing settings or repairing control system or rod drive mechanisms. In testing the scram
' capabilities the time required te release the rods after ceram initiation, the time required for the roda to f all and effectiveness of control rod dash pots will be obLerved. These parameters will be evaluated from high speed recorder traces. The recorder tracos will be evaluated to assure a scram time from scram initiation to scram completien of less than 1.5 seconds and a deceleration of the control rods to limit the maximum cor. trol rod drive train loading to 10 0's or less.
- 6. Equipment Access Opening in Containment Vessel The equipment access coor is a bolted, gasketed door with containment vessel pressure acting on the elliptical inner surface of bom 00. H645 I
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the door to furt her seal the r,askt ted closure. To insure the integrity of thic access daer the racket will be inspected just prior to closing and a strict precedure will 1 e followed in tightening the bolts securing the door. She tiaht' ess of this door will be checked each time the door is unbolted, either as a part of an over-all low pressure con-tainment vessel leak test or by means of a low pressure soap bubble test or low pressure halogen test of just the access door gasketed joint.
The equipnent access door will be unbolted on3y when the reactor main coolant is less than 150 psig and 3000F, and the reactor is suberitical by at least 5 percent under ambient temperature condi-tion. Whenever the equipnent access door is unbolted, the scram circuit breaker will be locked open and no reactivity irisertions such as additions of fuel or removal of boron or control rods will be made.
It ir only intended to use the equipment access opening for the passage of the spent fuel shipping cask.
- 7. Fuel Rod Gaps between Pellets The Saxton reactor fuel tubes are loaded with fuel pellets by assembling a pellet stack within tolerance limits and then pushing this pellet stack into the tube. The tube minimum inside diameter and pellet maximun outside diameter are such that the pellets can move freely inside the tubo. After loading the pellets into the tubes an axial gap of from one-half to one inch is left in the top erd of the tube prior to placing T.he end plugs in the tubes. Thus, after handling the tubes and assembling them into fuel assemblies, there is a free gap which shot,ld be at the top of the fuel tubes. Although very improbable, a gap of from one-half to one inch could exist in a pellet stack as a result of handling or jarring of the fuel assemblies while in transit or during core loading.
Investigation of the effect of pellet stack gaps in the core indicates that approximately 10 percent of the fuel tubes would have to have gaps of from one-half to one inch in order to raise any question of safety from the standpoint of reactivity or flux peaking. Also, for flux peaking, it would require that the gaps be lined up to form a horizontal plane in the core. If 10 percent of the fuel tubes should have gaps so located, the initial core flux plots at zero power would indicate the situation and the reactor would be shut down. Such corrective action would be taken even if no question of safety were involved in order to assure that futtu e closing of such gaps would not affect the results of future experimentb.
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- 8. Fuel Rod Leak Tightness The completed fuel rods are placed in a fixture which is evacuated and filled with helium under pressure. After standing in a pressurized helium atmosphere for a period of time the pressure is reduced and the rods are removed from the fixture and left in air to remove surface helium. The rods are then placed in a second fixture pom CO a M
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which is evacuated and checkad for helium leaking from rods. This procedure is performed on a number of rods simultaneously and if leaks are detected, the individual rods are checked to determine the leaking rod o* rods. Each individual fuel rod is tested in this manner.
- 9. Control Rod Nickel Plating The nickel plating process has been thoroughly developed and this process is properly controlled to give a uniform plating thickness. The plating on each control rod absorber section will be checked for uniform thickness by an eddy current method. The plating will also be given a visual inspection with a magnifying glass for blisters and pinhole defects.
SAIT0N NUCLEAR EIPLTtIMENTAL CORPORATION (S E A L)
By /s/ R. E. Neidig President Attest:
/s/ E. L. Barth Secretary Sworn and subscribed to before me this 30th day of June, 1961.
/s/ Martin A. Kohr Notary Public Huhlenberg Township, Berks County My Comission Expires Feb. h,1962 (S E A L)
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