ML20205K385
| ML20205K385 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Dow Chemical Company |
| Issue date: | 12/31/1998 |
| From: | Rigot W DOW CHEMICAL CO. |
| To: | NRC OFFICE OF INFORMATION RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (IRM) |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 9904130180 | |
| Download: ML20205K385 (5) | |
Text
i; ?
3:
r
~
s The Dow Chemical Company M dlard, Mpigan 48667 i
March 30,1999 document Control Desk United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission .
Washington D.C.,20555 4
Dear Sir; Enclosed is the annual report for The Dow TRIGA Research Nuclear Reactor, Docket No. 50-264. If you have any questions, please contact me at (517) 636-6584.
l J -
Cs Ward L. Rigot Reactor Supervisor Dow Chemical Research Reactor Enclosure CC: Alexander Adams; USNRC Thomas Burdick, USNRC ,
Susan Butts,1897 gQ - I Stan Dombrowski,1803 l
9904130190 981231'17 PDR ADOCK 05000264!; .)
s, R ; FDR'L.
-j, -
il _iAm __1. '
..c.,,,,4
=
r __ . . . _
DOW171GA RESEARCH REACTOR N
ANNUAL REPORT- 1998 \ s Tliere were no US NRC inspections in 1998. The required annual audit was conducted by an outside consultar.t; recommendations were made and the Reactor Operations Committee has responded to N'
these recommendations. The normal in-house audits of the radiation protection program, safety and housekeeping, and records were also performed and the recommendations acted upon.
A. Staff, Licenses, and Training Ward Rigot assumed additional responsibilities during 1998. These include serving as facility director of The DOW TRIGA Research Reactor. Susan Butts, the previous facility director has assumed the role of first level ma..ager for the facility, replacing Jesse Ro:ck. The staff consists of four Senior Reactor Operators, who are listed below.
W. L. Rigot Reactor Supervisor and Facility Director T. J. Quinn Assistant Reactor Supervisor J. D. Romick Assistant Reactor Supervisor M. E. Buchmann Senior Reactor Operator Licenses are c trrent. Rigot end Quinn licenses will be up for renewal in 1999, while the Buchmann and Romick licenses were renewed in 1997. All operators are current in their required medical examinations; which were taken during 1998.
The current two-year re-qualificatioa program started in the second quaner 1998 and will be completed during 2000. The previous re-qualiEcation program ended in 1998 ar.d was fallowed by a comprehensive written examination which was .successfully completed by all senior reactor operators, during this past year. Four quanerly re-qualification sessions were held during 1998; all operators have participated and successfully coinpleted the requirements for these sessions. The SRos are current with operating experience and participation in emergency preparedness drills, Reactor Operation Comr,ittee meetings, an annual operating examination, and the annual fuel inventory.
Operation of the reactor is an important part of the training program, since this reactor is operated on an as-needed basis, which results in numerous operations each involving reactivity manipulations, use of the control console, placement and retrieval of samples and handling of radioactive materials. The minimum experience of an operator during 1998 was 26 hours3.009259e-4 days <br />0.00722 hours <br />4.298942e-5 weeks <br />9.893e-6 months <br /> of actual operating time, involving 174 reactivity manipulations, and the maximum experience was 181.4 hours4.62963e-5 days <br />0.00111 hours <br />6.613757e-6 weeks <br />1.522e-6 months <br /> of actual operating time, involving 789 reactivity manipulations.
Furthermore, each licensed person performed about 1/4 of the daily checkout procedures and at least two monthly checkout procedures.
. a DOW TRIGA RESEARCH REACTOR ANNUAL REPORT - 1998 J. A. Grappin remains the Radiation Safety Officer and sits as a member of the Reactor Operations Committee. Jerry Cassiday has replaced Poirer as the Health Physics Technician for the Midland Area and assists in support of the reactor facility. The en' ire composition of the Reactor Operations Committee is listed below.
S. B. Butts Chsirman W. L. Rigot Reactor Supervisor and Facility Director J. A. Grappin Radiation Safety Officer T. J. Quinn Assistant Reactor Supervisor T. D. Lickly Research Associate S. B. Butts is the Resource Leader for the Atomic Spectroscopy and Inorganic Analysis Discipline within the Global Analytical Sciences Laboratory; Rigot and Quinn report administratively to Butts; Grappin is the Dow Midland location Radiation SJery Officer as well as the TRIGA Radiation Safety Officer and reports, as does Lickly, to the Dow Environmental, Health, Safety and Security department.
B. Reactor Operating Experience The reactor was operated nur 1.85 Megawatt-days during 1998 for a total of 354 hours0.0041 days <br />0.0983 hours <br />5.853175e-4 weeks <br />1.34697e-4 months <br /> (an average of 18.2% of the available normal working hours) and 1847 reactivity manipulations, including checkouts and testing as well as the irradiation of samples. Operational experience is similar to recent years. The main purpose cf operations at the Dow freility is to perform neutron activation analysis. The number of experiments introduced into the facility grew from 6090 to 6651, an increase of~ 9.2%.
C. Major Changes Amendment No. 8 to the operating license was approved by USNRC. The significant change was modifying the allowable time to operate with a temporary replacement for the area monitor. During 1998, the area monitor failed and after examination by o'r electronics technician, it was determined that replacement was necessary. Due to the fact that our preferred supplier was undergoing a product change, delivery before the 30 day limit (TS 3.6) could not be assured. TS 3.6 was amended to extent the length of time to 60 days.
Changes were also made to the facility Emergency plan. Major enany,es included modification of emergency action levels to more realir' slly reflect credible scenarios. The respiratory protection program was changed to be co.. astent with current regulatory expectations. A change in the number of emergency classifications which are credible at our facility. It was agreed that there no longer is a need to plan for eme gencies at the ' Alert' classification level.
Frequency of calibration of emergency equipment was changed from quarterly to annual.
There were several grammatical changes and clarification of some definitions.
31 March 1997- Page 2
DOW TRIGA RESEARCil REACTOR ANNUAL REPORT - 1998 D. Unscheduled Shutdowns There were 17 unscheduled shutdowns (scrams) during 1998. This represents a significant improvement from previous years. This is directly attributable to removal of the requirements for a period scram from the TS. 12 scrams were computer related; either loss of communications or loss of function. In all cases, safety systems initiated the required automatic shutdowns. Four scrams were high power scrams. These resulted from coming to power on an increased period. These scrams are attributable to unfamiliarity with responses to our facilities kinetics near the limiting conditions of operations (LCOs). These scrams occurred during the months shortly following the removal of the period scram. Adjustments were made to the rod withdrawal prohibit to minimize the potential of these types of shutdowns. A satisfactory accommodation was found.
E. Major Preventive and Corrective Maintenance of Safety Significence There was no maintenance, which had safety significance performed during 1998. Three maintenance items were performed on safety related systems during 1998. As mentioned earlier, the area monitor was replaced. The replacement was installed, the alarm setpoints adjusted and calibrated as per precedures. No changes to the calibration procedures were necessary. The new readout for the area monitor has the additional capability of two setpoints.
One is used as before indicating an alarm condition, the seccnd is used as a warning, with a set point less than one-half the alann setpoint. During calibration of tiv: continuous air monitor the thin window detector was broken. A new detector was installed and calibration was completed. During operation of the reactor, the 'down' button on the Shim 2 rod failed to oprate. No scram functions, either manual or automatic were affected. The reactor was secu ed and it was determined than t' s contact switch was broken. The switch was replaced and tested to assure proper performance.
)
F. Radioactive Effluents The only ~_dioactive material normally released to the environment from the facility is argon-41, which is produced from activation of the natural argon dissolved in the pool water and subsequently escapes from the pool into the reactor room and from there to the outside of the building, and from the natural argon present in the air used to transport samples from a laboratory into a terminus in the core of the reactor.
G. Radiation Exposurn Radiation exposures received by facility personnel and visitors are monitored using film badges and thermoluminescent detectors. No persons have received exposures approaching 25% of those allowed or recommended in 10CFR20.
31 March 1997. Page 3
1 i , (
4 , 8 s
' DOW TRIGA RESEARCH REACTOR ANNUAL REPORT- 1998 W. L. Rigot Reactor Supervisor 30 March 1998 31 March 1997 Page 4 3