ML20215L655
| ML20215L655 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute |
| Issue date: | 10/17/1986 |
| From: | Harris D, Rodriguezvera RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, TROY, NY |
| To: | NRC OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATION (ADM), Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8610290229 | |
| Download: ML20215L655 (2) | |
Text
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Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, New York 12180-3590 October 17, 1986 Director of Nuclear Reactor Regulation U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission ATTN: Document Control Desk Washington, D.C.
20555
Dear Sir:
In the process of upgrading the RPI reactor, including conversion from highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel, RPI is expecting to receive 600 SPERT (F-1) unirradiated fuel pins, with 4.81 w/o enrichment in U-235, from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
This letter requests an amendment to License No. CX-22, Docket No.
50-225, in order to allow RPI to receive the SPERT fuel pins at the Critical Facility. Currently, we have 25 fuel assemblies of HEU MIR fuel plates, which will be returned to the POE shortly. The fuel storage vault at the RPI Critical Facility provides adequate and safe storage to accommodate the SPERT fuel pins, as is explained in the enclosed ammendment. It is not anticipated that the old HEU fuel and the new LEU fuel will be stored in the fuel storage vault at the same time.
Your attention to this matter will be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely, Francisco guez-Vera, Supervisor Criti Experiments Facility Dr./Donal'd R. Harris, Director Critical Experiments Facility bd 8610290229 861017 D
PDR ADOCK 05000225 i l P
AMMENDMENT TO RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE CRITICAL EXPERIMENTS FACILITY LICENSE License No. CK-22 Docket No. 50-225 i
Purpose:
Receive and store 600 SPERT (F-1) unirradiated fuel pins from the U.S. DOE at the RPI Critical Facility.
a.
The Safety Analysis Report for the RPI Critical Facility, approved by NRC on December 2,1983, in Section 3: Design of Structures, Systems and_
Components, page 18, provides a description of the Storage Vault. There are 81 cells made up of stainless steel tubes five inches in diameter surrounded by 0.015 inches of cadmium metal, which are bolted to the unistrut frame in l
parallel rows. Each cell can safely accommodate up to 1 KG of U-235.
The
{-
center-to-center spacing of the storage tubes together with the cadmium clad steel tubes assures that the infinite multiplication factor is much less than 0.90 when flooded with water. The mass of the new LEU fuel is approximately 60% of the mass of the maximum amount of old HEU fuel for which the fuel rack was designed.
When not in use, the 25 fuel assemblies of the present core configuration, containing 177 HEU fuel plates, are stored within the storage vault. Thus, 25 storage tubes are occupied in this case.
I The SPERT (F-1) fuel pins to be received contain 35.2 gm of U-235 per pin, and 15 fuel pins will be accommodated in each storage tube, for a total of 40 storage tubes occupied by the 600 SPERT (F-1} fuel pins. Under this situation -(15 pins / tube) there will be 0.528 KG of 0-235 per tube, which is below the 1 KG of U-235 limit already approved. On the other hand,15 fuel pins with an outside diameter equal to 0.466" will occupy about 30% of the storage tube cross sectional area, which is 5.0" in diameter.
Changes to the - Safety Analysis Report - There are no changes to the Safety Analysis Report which was approved by NRC on December 2,1983.
l~
Changes to the Technical Specifications - At the beginning of Section 5.6, page 5-3, the following paragraph should be inserted:
1 i
i Section 5.6 - Fuel Storage and Transfer Storage tubes of the storage vault can not contain more L
than 15 SPERT (F-1) fuel pins at any time.
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