ML22229A563
| ML22229A563 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Reed College |
| Issue date: | 08/17/2022 |
| From: | Newhouse J Reed College |
| To: | Document Control Desk, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| References | |
| 2022-039 | |
| Download: ML22229A563 (16) | |
Text
REED COLLEGE Reed Research Reactor 3203 SE Woodstock Boulevard, Portland, Oregon 97202-8199 phone: 503/777-7222. email: reactor@reed.edu August 17, 2022 2022-039 ATTN: Document Control Desk U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20555-0001 Enclosed is the annual report for Reed College (Docket 50-288, License No. R-112) for the period July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022.
Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
Jerry Digitally signed by Jerry Newhouse Newhouse Date: 2022.08.17 14:54:00
-07'00' Jerry Newhouse Director, Reed Research Reactor
Enclosure:
Reed Research Reactor Annual Report July 1, 2021 - June 30, 2022 cc Dr. Kathryn C. Oleson, Dean of the Faculty, Reed College
REED RESEARCH REACTOR ANNUAL REPORT July 1, 2021 -- June 30, 2022 3203 Southeast Woodstock Blvd.
Portland, Oregon 97202-8199 503-517-7222 https://reactor.reed.edu reactor@reed.edu
Table Of Contents Overview .................................................................................................................................... 1 People ......................................................................................................................................... 2 Reactor Staff ....................................................................................................................................... 2 Reactor Operations Committee (ROC)....................................................................................... 3 Facilities ..................................................................................................................................... 4 Reactor Facility ................................................................................................................................. 4 Rotating Specimen Rack Facility ................................................................................................. 4 Pneumatic Transfer System .......................................................................................................... 4 In-Core Facilities ............................................................................................................................... 4 In-Pool Facilities ............................................................................................................................... 4 Beam Facilities .................................................................................................................................. 4 Inspections and Audits ............................................................................................................. 5 Users ............................................................................................................................................ 6 Reactor Operations Seminar ........................................................................................................ 6 Outside Users ..................................................................................................................................... 7 High School Student Projects ........................................................................................................ 7 Reed Classes ....................................................................................................................................... 7 Industrial and Commercial Applications.................................................................................. 7 Reactor Operations................................................................................................................. 9 Operations .......................................................................................................................................... 9 Unplanned Reactor Shutdowns ................................................................................................. 10 Reactor Maintenance ........................................................................................................... 11 Significant Maintenance ............................................................................................................... 11 Radiation Protection ............................................................................................................ 12 Personnel Dosimetry..................................................................................................................... 12 Fixed Area Dosimetry.................................................................................................................... 12 Gaseous Releases ............................................................................................................................ 13 Liquid Waste Releases .................................................................................................................. 13 Solid Waste Disposal ..................................................................................................................... 13 Environmental Sampling ............................................................................................................. 13
OVERVIEW This report covers the period from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022, and is intended to fulfill the reporting requirements of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission License No. R-112, Docket 50-288, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Oregon Department of Energy Rule No. 345-030-010.
Reed College operates a 250 kW TRIGA Mark I reactor. The Reed College Research Reactor has been a resource for research and educational projects in the Portland area since 1968. The main uses of the Reed Research Reactor are instruction and research.
Tours were reopened to the general public during the Spring of 2022. Through tours, the reactor facility supports Reed Colleges community outreach efforts. Tours for local high schools typically include a laboratory portion in which students monitor the decay of radioactive Vanadium-52 and calculate its half-life. During the reporting period 631 visitors toured the reactor facility.
During the reporting period the reactor was taken critical 273 times on 133 days. The total energy produced was approximately 17.89 megawatt-hours.
The reactor staff consists of a Director, a Reactor Operations Manager, and Reed College undergraduate students. The student staff consist of technicians, trainees, and students who are licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as reactor operators or senior reactor operators. During the reporting period, 19 RO candidates and 1 SRO-I staff candidate received licenses.
There were no radiation exposures to individuals in excess of any limits during the year.
There were no releases of liquid radioactive material from the facility. Airborne releases were well within regulatory limits. There were no shipments of low-level radioactive waste from the facility.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission conducted two inspections during this reporting period: April 25-28, 2022 and May 2-4, 2022.
Reactor operations largely returned to normal as vaccinations and other methods of coping with the Covid-19 pandemic became available. In-person operator requalification training and initial licensing training resumed with good results.
Reed Research Reactor Annual Report 2021-2022 1
PEOPLE Reactor Staff During the reporting period the staff consisted of the following:
Table 1 Supervisory Staff Reactor Director Jerry Newhouse 10/20 - present Reactor Operations Manager Toria Ellis 6/19 - present Radiation Safety Officer April Sams 5/16 - present Operations Supervisor Amelia Schaeffer 5/21 - present Training Supervisor Montreal Benesch 5/20 - 5/22 Genevieve Childers 5/20 - present Hope Palmer 5/22 - present Requalification Supervisor Kaitlyn Li 5/20 - 5/22 Henry Jacques 5/22 - present Projects Supervisor Nicholas Lutz 5/21 - present Vivian Chen 5/22 - present Table 2 Staff Senior Reactor Operators (SRO)
Montreal Benesch Jerry Newhouse Toria Ellis Kaitlyn Li Reactor Operators (RO)
Abdur-Rauf Ahmed Ismayn Ditter Hart Monyatovsky Maxwell VanLandschoot Amelie Andreas Riyaz Ditter Auden Oliveri Elijah Whitlam-Sandler Hima Aramona Gavin Dury Hope Palmer Valerie Wu He Bai Sarah Ellis Ali Pardini Ziqi Xie Conor Bekaert Joaquin Fernandez Odell Victoria Parker Nicole Xu Sol Bixby Henry Jacques Own Ross Tommy Yoon Leandra Bruggink Pratik Kafle Laura Smith Vivian Chen Orion Lee Sydney Stitt Genevieve Childers Nicholas Lutz Sophia Subramanian Daniel Collier Miles McCall Kathryn Trent Reactor Technicians Laura Estridge Sol McClain Anika Nicolas Ethan Shek Samantha Hordyk Clementine McTaggart-Ivezic Patrick Park Teddie Stewart Gianmatteo Martinez Nat Mills Kyle Petersen The list of operators includes everyone who held a license at any time during the reporting period. Reactor Operators who upgraded their licenses to Senior Reactor Operators during the reporting period are listed under Senior Reactor Operators. On June 30, 2022 there were 40 licensed operators at Reed College.
2 Reed Research Reactor Annual Report 2021-2022
Reactor Operations Committee (ROC)
The membership of the Reactor Operation committee during the reporting period is listed.
Reactor Operations Committee
§ Dan Gerrity, ROC Chair (Chemistry Faculty, Reed College)
§ Steve Reese (Radiation Center Director, Oregon State University)
§ Wayne Lei (Portland General Electric-retired)
§ Norm Dyer (OAR Services-retired)
§ Kathy Oleson (Dean of the Faculty, Reed College)
§ April Sams (Director, Reed Environmental Health and Safety)
§ Jerry Shurman (Math Faculty, Reed College)
§ Mark Beck, (Physics Faculty, Reed College)
§ Jerry Newhouse (Director, RRR)
§ Toria Ellis (Reactor Operations Manager, RRR)
§ Amelia Shaeffer (Operations Supervisor, RRR)
Reed Research Reactor Annual Report 2021-2022 3
FACILITIES Reactor Facility In addition to the reactor, the Reed Research Reactor has a radiochemistry lab. The equipment includes: high purity germanium gamma spectrometers, ion chambers, beta counters, Geiger Muller tubes, and alpha detectors. These instruments are used for experiments, and training in nuclear science and radiation detection. One exit monitor is in the control room. A liquid scintillation detector serves both the reactor and broad scope license users. The reactor facility has several systems for performing irradiations, described below.
Rotating Specimen Rack Facility The rotating specimen rack is located in a well on top of the graphite reflector surrounding the core. The rack consists of a circular array of 40 tubular receptacles, each of which can hold two irradiation tubes. The rack automatically rotates during irradiation to ensure each sample receives the same neutron fluence. The thermal neutron flux in a rotating rack position at full power is approximately 1.7 x1012 n/cm2s with a cadmium ratio of 6.
Pneumatic Transfer System The pneumatic transfer system (rabbit) consists of an irradiation chamber in the outermost F-ring of the core and its associated glovebox, blower, and piping. This allows samples to be transferred in and out of the reactor core very rapidly while the reactor is at power. The flux in the core terminal at full power is approximately 5x1012 n/cm2s.
In-Core Facilities The central thimble is a water-filled irradiation chamber about 3 cm in diameter. It provides the highest available neutron flux at full power, approximately 1x1013 n/cm2s.
Foil-insertion holes, 0.8 cm in diameter, are drilled at various positions through the grid plates. These holes allow the insertion of special holders containing flux wires into the core to obtain three-dimensional neutron flux maps of the core.
In-Pool Facilities Near core, in-pool irradiation facilities can accommodate larger samples. Neutron fluxes are lower than in the rotary specimen rack. An iridium gamma irradiator is also in the reactor pool for gamma-only irradiations.
Beam Facilities The central thimble can be evacuated with gas, producing a vertical neutron beam. The flux above the beam exit at full power is approximately 1x106 n/cm2s.
4 Reed Research Reactor Annual Report 2021-2022
INSPECTIONS AND AUDITS The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission conducted two inspections during this reporting period: April 25-28, 2022 and May 2-4, 2022.
The April 25-28, 2022 inspection was a routine safety inspection, and there were no items opened. Details of the inspection may be found in Inspection Report No.
The May 2-4, 2022 inspection was a routine security inspection. Details of the inspection may be found in Inspection Report No. 05000288/2022201.
Dr. Mary Lou Dunzik-Gougar performed an audit of the Reed Research Reactor for the Reactor Operations Committee in August 2022. Results of this audit will be discussed in the 2022-2023 annual report.
Reed Research Reactor Annual Report 2021-2022 5
USERS Reactor Operations Seminar The Reed Research Reactor conducts an annual seminar series. This non-credit course serves as an introduction to nuclear reactor theory, health physics, and reactor operation.
Up to 15 of the students are hired each year to continue with in-depth reactor operator training. Most subsequently apply for a Reactor Operator license.
The NRC administered three exams during the reporting period: one in October 2021, one in March 2022, and one in May 2022. The October 2021 exam included both an SRO-I exams and initial RO. The March 2021 exam included initial RO exams. The May 2022 exam included SRO upgrade exams.
Figure 1 shows the pass rate for RO and SRO for the past ten years. Figure 2 shows the number of RO and SRO license candidates for the past ten years.
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 SRO pass rate RO pass rate Figure 1 NRC License Exam Results 35 30 ROs SROs 25 20 15 10 5
0 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Figure 2 NRC License Candidates 6 Reed Research Reactor Annual Report 2021-2022
Outside Users Tours reopened to the public in the Spring of 2022. Between that time and the end of the reporting period, there were 371 visitors from schools, institutions of higher learning, and special groups. Additionally, 260 individuals visited as part of Reed College Activities (prospective students, newly admitted students, family members of students, Reed classes, etc.).
Figure 3 is a graph showing the history of visiting groups for the past 10 years.
60 Academic Special Groups 50 40 Number of Tours 30 20 10 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Figure 3 Visiting Groups High School Student Projects The reactor facility resumed hosting two high school interns through the ASE Saturday Academy program. This years interns learned the basics of nuclear science, experiment design, and completed independent research projects monitoring environmental pollution.
Reed Classes Theses:
- One Biochemistry and Molecular Biology major used the reactor facility to support her thesis, Radioresistant Bacteria of the Reed Research Reactor.
Industrial and Commercial Applications The Reed Research Reactor is available for industrial or commercial concerns when it does not conflict with our educational goals. During the reporting period we completed an extensive material purity project in collaboration for Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporations EmberCore project.
Reed Research Reactor Annual Report 2021-2022 7
The facility also provides radiation protection training to interested parties and schools in the area, including an annual Radiation Safety Officer (RSO) class, as well as provides radiation meter calibration if requested.
8 Reed Research Reactor Annual Report 2021-2022
REACTOR OPERATIONS Operations During the reporting period the reactor was taken critical 273 times on 133 days. The total energy produced was approximately 17.89 megawatt-hours. Operating history by month appears in Table 3. A history of the data is shown in Figure 4.
Table 3 Operating History by Month Times Critical Days Operated MW-Hours July 2021 9 9 1.40 August 2021 21 9 0.58 September 2021 21 12 0.78 October 2021 14 8 1.01 November 2021 24 18 2.01 December 2021 23 9 0.32 January 2022 7 4 1.17 February 2022 21 9 3.36 March 2022 52 18 2.57 April 2022 36 14 2.00 May 2022 23 10 1.97 June 2022 22 13 0.72 Total 273 133 17.89 600 500 400 Times Critical 300 Days Operated MW-hrs 200 100 0
2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 Figure 4 Operating History Reed Research Reactor Annual Report 2021-2022 9
Unplanned Reactor Shutdowns There were five inadvertent reactor shutdowns (scrams) during the reporting period as shown in Table 4. The number of unplanned reactor shutdowns in the past 10 years is shown in Figure 5.
Table 4 Unplanned Shutdowns Date Scram Channel Cause of Scram Feb 16, 2022 All Trainee operating under direction reset console Trainee operating under direction increased power too Mar 22, 2022 Linear quickly for the linear channel to range up from the 25kW scale Mar 31, 2022 Percent RO overshot desired power RO increased power too quickly for the linear channel May 13, 2022 Linear to range up from the 25kW scale Trainee operating under direction increased power too May 25, 2022 Linear quickly for the linear channel to range up from the 25kW scale 14 12 10 8
6 4
2 0
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Figure 5 Unplanned Shutdowns 10 Reed Research Reactor Annual Report 2021-2022
REACTOR MAINTENANCE Significant Maintenance Most maintenance items do not require a 50.59 Evaluation because they screen out. There were no 50.59 Evaluations required during the reporting period. Reactor staff performed routine equipment checks on a daily, biweekly, bimonthly, semiannual (January and July) and annual (January) basis as required by facility procedures. Reed College maintenance personnel assisted with routine preventative maintenance to auxiliary equipment. The following significant maintenance items were competed during the reporting period:
- Replaced primary coolant pump impeller
- Replaced a valve and portion of piping in the secondary coolant chemical loop
- Opened and cleaned the heat exchanger
- Replaced primary coolant loop highpoint vent
- Replaced a worn nut on the regulating rod down limit switch to improve reliability
- Replaced tubing on the Gaseous Stack Monitor to reduce embrittlement
- Remounted Air Particulate Monitor and Gaseous Stack Monitor detector housings to improve stability
- Repaired a leak in the Air Particular Monitor and Gaseous Stack Monitor pump to improve airflow rate Reed Research Reactor Annual Report 2021-2022 11
RADIATION PROTECTION Personnel Dosimetry Dosimeters are changed on a calendar quarter schedule. Individuals are issued beta-gamma sensitive ring badges and whole-body badges.
The highest individual doses received were 4 mrem/quarter Deep Dose Equivalent (DDE) and 76 mrem/quarter Shallow Dose Equivalent (SDE). These doses are well below occupational dose limits and no further action was required.
Fixed Area Dosimetry Radiation levels are continually monitored to provide an indication of the average radiation levels in the reactor bay and dose outside the facility. All dosimeters monitor beta and gamma radiation. Five locations also measure neutron dose.
The Deep Dose Equivalent (DDE) radiation measured by fixed dosimeters during the period April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022 are shown in Table 5. The dosimeters from April 1, 2022 to June 30, 2022 are currently being processed. An M indicates less than 1 mrem above background during the quarter.
Table 5 Area Radiation Dosimeters (doses are in mrem per calendar quarter)
Height Radiation Apr 1 - Jul 1 - Oct 1 - Jan 1 -
Location Total (m) Detected Jun 30 Sep 30 Dec 31 Mar 31 Reactor East Wall 1.5 b, g, n 3 3 3 3 12 Reactor North Wall 1.6 b, g, n 4 7 7 2 20 Reactor West Wall 1.0 b, g, n 3 4 6 5 18 Reactor South Wall 1.6 b, g, n 1 3 4 M 8 Reactor North Wall - High 2.3 b, g 3 4 3 3 13 Control Room 1.5 b, g 2 3 3 4 12 Outside North 2.8 b, g M 5 M M 5 Outside Roof 0.4 b, g, n M M M M <1 Outside East 1.5 b, g M M M M <1 Outside South 0.4 b, g M M M M <1 Counting Room 1.5 b, g M M M M <1 12 Reed Research Reactor Annual Report 2021-2022
Gaseous Releases The only routine release of gaseous radioactivity is from 41Ar (1.83-hour half-life) and 16N (7.13-second half-life). These come from activation of pool water and air in the pool water and in the irradiation facilities. For the reporting period, the average gaseous activity at the site boundary was 1.93 x 10-10 µCi/ml, which would deliver a dose to a member of the public of approximately 0.97 mrem, well below regulatory guidelines and constraints.
Figure 6 shows the gaseous releases for the past 10 years.
5.00E-10 4.50E-10 4.00E-10 3.50E-10 3.00E-10 2.50E-10 2.00E-10 1.50E-10 1.00E-10 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 Figure 6 Gaseous Release Activity (µCi/ml) at Site Boundary Liquid Waste Releases No liquid radioactive waste was released from the Reed Research Reactor during this reporting period.
Solid Waste Disposal There were no shipments of low-level radioactive waste from the facility during this reporting period.
Environmental Sampling All environmental samples were counted in a high purity gamma spectroscopy system. Soil samples taken from the area surrounding the facility showed no activity above background.
Water from the facilitys secondary cooling system and the nearby canyon were sampled for activation products and tritium; the water samples showed no activity above background.
Reed Research Reactor Annual Report 2021-2022 13