ML20217P634
| ML20217P634 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Dow Chemical Company |
| Issue date: | 12/31/1997 |
| From: | Rigot W DOW CHEMICAL CO. |
| To: | NRC OFFICE OF INFORMATION RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (IRM) |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 9804100140 | |
| Download: ML20217P634 (5) | |
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!- The Dow Chemical Company
- e Midland. Michgan 48667 March 31,1998 Document Control Desk United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission i Washington D.C.,20555 )
j 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.
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OAa4 C' 1 < l Ward L. Rigot Reactor Supervisor Dow Chemical Research Enclosure i
CC: Alexander Adams; USNRC l Thomas Burdick, USNRC j ]
Susan Butts,1897 g g Stan Dombrowski,1803 ;
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DOW TRIGA RESEARCH REACTOR ANNUAL REPORT- 1997 During 1997 there were several challenges faced by the operations staff. The most significant was the replacement of the rotary specimen rack. This was completed in December without incident and with a minimum of disruption of operations. Operation of the reactor was again plagued with an unacceptably large number of unintentional shutdowns (scrams), most of which seem to be caused by the control system itself. This should be minimized in subsequent years due to the issuance of Amendment No. 7 to our license. Part of the amendment allows for replacement of the period scram with a rod withdrawal prohibit.
There were two US NRC inspections in 1997; one routine, announced inspection included aspects of organization, periodic and special reports, and operations and maintenance; operations and I maintenance procedures; requalification trainingisurveillance; experiments; radiation controls; environmental protection; design, audit, and review; emergency preparedness; fuel handling activities; transportation activities; and review of licensee reports. The other inspections was conducted to observe the replacement of the rotary specimen rack and to observe the annual emergency preparedness drill. The required annual audit was conducted by an outside consultant; recommendations were made and the Reactor Operations Committee has responded to 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 The staff consists of four Senior Reactor Operators. There have been no staffing changes during this period.
W. L. Rigot Reactor Supervisor Assistant Reactor Supervisor T. J. Quinn J. D. Romick Assistant Reactor Supervisor M. E. Buchmann Senior Reactor Opeiator Licenses are current. Rigot and 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 1996.
The current two-year re-qualification program started in the second quarter 1996 and will be completed during 1998. The previous re-qualification program ended in 1996 and was followed by a comprehensive written examination which was successfully completed by all senior reactor operators. Four quarterly re-qualification sessions were held during 1997; all operators have participated and successfully completed the requirements for these sessions. The SROs are current with operating experience and participation in emergency preparedness drills, Reactor Operation Committee meetings, an annual operating examination, and the annual fuel inventory.
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DOW TRIGA RESEARCH REACTOR
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ANNUAL REPORT - 1997 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 1997 was 17.3 hours3.472222e-5 days <br />8.333333e-4 hours <br />4.960317e-6 weeks <br />1.1415e-6 months <br /> of actual operating time, involving 152 reactivity manipulations, and the maximum experience was 182.6 hours6.944444e-5 days <br />0.00167 hours <br />9.920635e-6 weeks <br />2.283e-6 months <br /> of actual operating time, involving 643 reactivity manipulations .
Furthermore, each licensed person performed about 1/4 of the daily checkout procedures and at least two monthly checkout procedures.
J. A. Grappin remains the Radiation Safety Officer and sits as a member of the Reactor Operations Committee. The entire composition of the Reactor Operations Committee is listed below. Carol Poirer continues as the Health Physics Technician for the Midland Area and assists in support of the reactor facility. .
S. B. Butts Facility Director; Chairman W. L. Rigot Reactor Supervisor 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 Safety 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 for 1.92 Megawatt-days during 1997 for a total of 392 hours0.00454 days <br />0.109 hours <br />6.481481e-4 weeks <br />1.49156e-4 months <br /> (an average of 24.9% of the available normal working hours) and 1778 reactivity manipulations, including checkouts and testing as well as the irradiation of samples. The increase in operating time and % usage is attributable t,o increased demand for Neutron Activation Analysis services.
The number of experirnents introduced into the facility grew from 5560 to 6090, an increase of
- 9.5%.
C. Major Changes During 1997 replacement of the rotary specimen rack was necessary. A new rack, along with motor and sample index was purchased from General Atomics. The connecting rod, pinion gear and dry tubes were manufactured to General Atomic's specifications by The Dow Chemical Company's Mechanical Development and Operations department. A 50.59 review was completed and reviewed by USNRC during the visit by Thomas Burdick, during his t
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DOW TRIGA RESEARCH REACTOR ANNUAL REPORT- 1997 )
inspection; the review was determined to be satisfactory. The replacement occurred in December and required three days to complete. The annual fuel inspection and annual calibration and maintenance were performed during the same time period to minimize interruption of operations.
u Amendment No. 7 to the operating license was approved by USNRC. The significant changes include replacement of the period scram at 7 seconds with a rod withdrawal prohibit at 3 seconds. An additional change reducing the number of fuel element which are required for annual inspection was also approved. Only 25% of the fuel elements need to be inspected, down from 100%, which was previously required. Additional changes were mainly to clarify definitions and to clarify the organization chart.
Changes were made to the facility security plan, which were determined not to reduce the effectiveness of the plan.
D. Unscheduled Shutdowns There were 55 unscheduled shutdowns (scrams) during 1997. This represents an increase of the previous year's total of 40.
l About 98% of the scrams were associated with the operation of the console: the digital smoothing process (about 56 %), computer crashes (about 27 %), and " Key Switch Off' scrams (about 15 %). About 2 % of the scrams were associated with operator errors.
With the issuance of Amendment No. 7, the scrams caused by the smoothing algorithm will no longer be possible.
l E. Major Preventive and Corrective Maintenance of Safety Significance There was no maintenance, which had safety significance performed during 1997. Two changes were made to systems which are safety related. He first was replacement of the preamplifier to the NM-1000 Wide Range Power Channel. The preamplifier failed and would not pass the required pre start checks. It was determined that the pre amplifier needed replacement. A new preamplifier was purchased from General Atomics, installed and calibrated to specifications. A thermal calibration was also performed to assure that internal calibrations were correct. The second safety related system which had maintenance performed was the continuous air monitor. The pump which samples the room air failed. The pump was replaced with a spare and the failed pump was serviced.
F. Radioactive Effluents The only radioactive 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 31 March 1997- Page 3 of 4
'DOW TRIGA RESEARCH REACTOR ANNUAL REPORT- 1997
. a 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 Exposures -
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.
W. L. Rigot Reactor Supervisor 31 March 1997
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