ML20237F763
| ML20237F763 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 08/10/1987 |
| From: | Harper J Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | Merschoff E Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| References | |
| REF-QA-99901090, REF-QA-99901093 IEIN-87-026, IEIN-87-26, NUDOCS 8708130152 | |
| Download: ML20237F763 (6) | |
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'o UNITED STATES g
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
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g WASHINGTON, D. C. 20555 r.....);E August 10, 1987 Docket Nos. 99901090 and 99901093 MEMORANDUM FOR:
Ellis W. Merschoff, Acting Chief Vendor Inspection Branch J
Division of Reactor Inspection and Safeguards FROM:
Jeffrey C. Harper Vendor Inspection Branch Division of Reactor Inspection and Safeguards j
SUBJECT:
NMSS ASSIST VISITS TO EL'00RADO NUCLEAR LIMITED AND W. H. STEWART COMPANY Eldorado Nuclear, Limited The purpose of this memo is to document the work performed, in support of NMSS, to resolve the issue regarding cracks in stiffening rings on 48-inch diameter UF cylinders. An inspection was performed 4/8-9/87 at Eldorado Nuclear,LikitedbyaDOE-NRCtechnicalinspectionteaminordertoevaluate cracks found in the cylinders.
Three cylinders were evaluated, two of the cylinders were owned by Eldorado and one was owned by Kerr McGee. All three cylinders were manufactured by the W. H. Stewart Company (WHS).
It was con-cluded from the inspection that the stiffening ring damage was apparently due to impact loading which caused cracking and damage of the rings. At that time the rings were believed to be AISI 1045 material instead of the specified A36 material. Figure 1 is a view of a typical cylinder. The cracks propagated from the outer ring edge to the weldment area and continued to propagate in an elliptical and symmetrical pattern to the opposite outer ring edge (see figure 2 and 3). Note that in figure 3 the stiffening ring was weld repaired in order to keep the cracked portion of the ring attached to the cylinder. One ring had the elliptical section completely sheared off (see figure 4 and 5).
Notice the fracture surface appeared fiberous, therefore evidence of brittle fracture.
The crack was arrested by the more ductile weld and shell material since there was no evidence of crack propagation into the cylinder shell material (Figure 4).
Figure 6 shows a top view of the stiffening ring portion shown in Figure 2, notice that the ring is plastica 11y deformed and bowed out of straightness.
Again, this plastic deformation was apparently a result of side impact loading.
W. H. Stewart Company
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The W. H. Stewart Company (WHS) was visited in order to determine the facts.
l regarding accusations by Eldorado Nuclear, Limited that the cracked stiffening rings were AISI 1045 material instead of the specified A36 material. At the time of the inspection the WHS records (from the 1975 time period) were in total disarray.
Their record retention requirements for this time frame had been exceeded, as a result they did not have many of the applicable documents on hand.
8708130152 870810 PDR GA999 EMVELDDR 99901090 PDR
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Ellis W. Merschoff, Acting Chief August 10, 1987 Purchase order (P0) #6799, dated May 5, 1975 from WHS to U.S. Steel Corporation l
indicated that 490 pieces of 7/8" x 21" x 15'6" long, hot rolled-(HR) SA36 square edge bar were ordered. UHS received a total of 670 pieces of ASTM A-206-64 Grade 75 from U.S. Steel. Grade 60 was typed on the invoice, however, it was j
marked out and grade 75 was hand written in apparently by U.S. Steel. Review of the certified test report from U.S. Steel indicated that 670 pieces of HR
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Bars ASTM A-306-64 Grade 75, 7/8 x 2) x 15'6" were delivered.
The UF cylinders wtre purchased from WHS by Sequoyah Fuels and Eldorado Nuclear pursuabttotherecommendedstandardofANSIN14.1-1971, American National Standard Packaging of Uranium Hexaflouride for Transport. According to H14.1 paragraph 5.1.1 "...nonpressure parts, such as skirts, may be fabricated from the materials listed or from equivalent American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Code [11] approved materials which are compatible with fabrication of the cylinders involved...." The ANSI N14.1-1971 listed ASTM A-36 as the specified material for UF cylinder stiffening rings and lifting lugs.
The [11] foot notereferstokSMECodeSectionVIII, Division 1,1971 Edition.
Subsection C,
" Requirements Pertaining to Classes of Materials," paragraph UCS-5 " General" (materials) describes the requirements for materials to be used on UF cylinders.
c UCS-5 states in part, "...(b) carbon or low-alloy steel having a carb0n content of more than.35 percent by Ladle Analysis shall not be used in welded construction or be shaped by oxygen cutting (except as provided elsewhere in this division)...." Upon review of the material supplied to WHS by U.S. Steel for P0 #67f3 it was observed that material supplied to WHS by U.S. Steel had a carbon content that exceeded.35 percent. The carbon content ASTM A306, Grade 60 is approximately the same as that of A36 material. WHS has not been able to ascertain how or why the order was changed by the mill. is the NRC Information Notice #87-26:
Cracks in Stiffening Rings is the WHS analysis of the severityoftheproblek. Cylinders.WHS isolated the problems to cylinders 2309-2333, On 48-inch Diameter UF 2442-2617, 2782-2828 for a total of 248 cylinders.
They derived this number by analyzing code dates for all 46X and 48Y cylinders manufactured during the 01-01-75 to 04-20-77 time period.
Basically, WHS claims that prior to using the material purcured for P0 6799, they had 780 A36 bars in stock to fill other orders for 250 cylinders (750 rings). There were 30 bars remaining prior to receiving bars for PO 6799.
These 30 bars were applied to P0 6799.
September 3, 1975, was the estimated date that WHS would have depleted their stock of the 30 A36 bars and started applying the A306 grade 75 bars. To complete the job for PO 6799 WHS had to reorder an additional 44 bars (to finish manufacturing cylinders for P0 6799 through code date 12-07-76). This resulted in 44 (WHS could not find a copy of the P0 for these bars) of the 66 rings being used on Eldorado manufactured cylinders 2807-2828 meeting the less than 35% carbon limit (see Attachment 2).
The next order of rings was for P0 2687 dated on February 4, 1977.
The order was for 236 A36 rings.
The rings were received on March 1 3 l
1977 and met specifications.
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4 Ellis W. Herschoff, Acting Chief August 10, 1987 j
It should be noted that uncertainties exist regarding WHS's identification of l
the affected cylinders.
It is unclear as to the exact date that<the bars of l
l PO 6799 were sent to Gates City Steel for rolling and returned to UHS to be attached on the cylinders. The exact date could not be' determined from the records. However, a starting date for use of the AISI 1045 material was estimated to be September 3, 1975 by determining when the stock of A36 bars would have been depleted.
In addition, there was no objective evidence that the affected rings were used in sequence, three rings per cylinder, until depletion, as they were received from the rolling mill.
ff Jeffrey C. Harper Program Development and Reactive Inspection Section Vendor Inspection Branch Division of Reactor Inspection and Safeguards
Enclosures:
As stated cc:
see next page
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Ellis W. Merschoff, ~ Acting' Cliief August 10, 1987
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"" cc:. Douglas Nilton Kerr McGee 3301 Northwest 150th Street P. O. Box 25861 Oklahou City, OK' 73125 William Crawford l
Eldorado Resources Limited
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Fuel Services One:Eldorado P" ace l
Port Hope, Ontario Canada L1A3Al l.
Lowell Stewart l -
W. H.' Stewart Company 500 East Sheridan' Oklahoma-City, OK 73104 Jack Honey Allied Corporation-P. O. Box 430 Metroplis, IL. 62960 Michele Warigler DOT Office.of Hazardous Materials Transportation DHM-21 400 7th Street, SW Washington, D.C.
20590 Randy Reynolds hartin-Marietta Energy Systems P. O. Box 1410 Hobbs Road Pac'ucah KY 42001 l
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.e Ellis W. Merschoff, Acting Chief August 10, 1987 cc: Douglas Milton Kerr McGee 3301 Northwest 150th Street P. O. Box 25861 Oklahoma City, OK 73125 William Crawford Eldorado Resources Limited Fuel Services One Eldorado Place Port Hope, Ontario Canada L1A3Al Lowell Stewart' W. H. Stewart Company 500 East Sheridan Oklahoma City, OK 73104 Jack Honey Allied Corporation P. 0. Box 430 tietroplis, IL 62960 Michele Wangler DOT Office of Hazardous Materials Transportation DHil-21 l
400 7th Street, SW Washington, D.C.
20590 Randy Reynolds Martin-Marietta Energy Systems I
P. O. Box 1410 Hobbs Road Paducah KY 42001 DISTRIBUTION:F/0000l05'IT M CRIDS:CodenIE:09 DRIS^ Reading
\\\\n VIB Reading V
JPartlow BGrimes EHerschoff JStone JHarper BFisher, RIV CMacDonald, NMSS RCunningham, 14 MSS RChaple, NMSS i
LRouse
- See previous page for concurrence.
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- VIB:DRIS
- 5C/VIB:DRIS :ABC/VIB:DRI5:
NAME :JHarper:tt*
- JStone*
- Ellerschoff* :
DATE :07/09/87
- 07/20/87
- 07/29/87
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-Ellis W.Merschoff, Acting Chief ~
Augt:st 10, 1987 cc:. Douglas Milton Kerr McGee 3301 Northwest 150th Street P. O. Box 25861 Oklahoma City, OK 73125 William Crawford Eldorado Resources Limited Fuel Services One Eldorado Place Port Hope, Ontario Canada L1A3Al
.Lowell Stewart
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W. H. Stewart Company 1
500 East Sheridan Oklahoma-City, OK 73104 Jack Honey l
Allied Corporation P. O. Box 430 iletroplis, IL 62960-Michele Wangler DOT Office of Hazardous Materials Transportation DHM-21 400 7th Street, SW Washington, D.C.
20590 Randy Reynolds Martin-Marietta Energy Systems P. O. Box 1410 Hobbs Road Paducah KY 42001 DISTRIBUTION: v/0 e.sc/Muf5 RIDS Code IE:09 DRIS Reading
.VIB Reading JPartlow BGrimes EHerschoff JStone JHarper BFisher, RIV CMacDonald, hMSS RCunningham, HMSS RChaple, NMSS LRouse
- See previous page for concurrence.
FC :VIB:DRIS
- 5C/VIB:DRIS :ABC/VIB:DRI5:
NAME :JHarper:tt*
- JStone*
- EMerschoff* :
DATE :07/09/87
- 07/20/87
- 07/29/87
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