ML23080A104
| ML23080A104 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | University of Maryland |
| Issue date: | 03/06/2023 |
| From: | Andrea Johnson Univ of Maryland - College Park |
| To: | Document Control Desk, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| References | |
| Download: ML23080A104 (1) | |
Text
Amber S. Johnson Director, Radiation Facilities 4418 Stadium Drive College Park, Maryland 20742 301-405-7756 TEL ajohns37@umd.edu radiation. umd.edu March 6, 2023 Document Control Desk US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington D.C. 20555-0001 RE: Annual Report for the Maryland University Training Reactor (MUTR), License No. R-70 Enclosed please find the University of Maryland's Annual Report for the period beginning January 1, 2022 and ending December 31, 2022 for the MUTR, License No. R-70.
Sincerely, Amber S. Johnson Director, Nuclear Reactor and Radiation Facilities
Annual Operating Report:
January 1, 2022 - December 31, 2022 MUTR Technical Specification 6.7.1 License No. R-70, Docket No. 50-166 A. James Clark School of Engineering Department of Materials Science and Engineering University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742
Maryland University Training Reactor Annual Operating Report, 2022 1 Introduction The Maryland University Training Reactor (MUTR) is an open-pool type, TRIGA conversion reactor licensed for operation at 250 kW of thermal power.
The reactor is one of the primary components of the University of Maryland Radiation Facilities, part of the Department of Materials Science and Engineer-ing in the A. James Clark School of Engineering. The Radiation Facilities also include an electron linac, a Co-60 panoramic irradiator, and a cyclotron. The MUTR is used for classes, operator training, tours for groups internal and ex-ternal to the university, neutron and gamma irradiations, neutron radiography, neutron activation analysis, and isotope production.
2 Reactor Usage and Operations Between January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022, the MUTR operated 141 times, which are categorized as follows:
Operator Training and Requalification 38 Operations Tours and Outreach Activities 29 Operations Calibration, Maintenance, and Surveillance 33 Operations Experiments, Radiography, or Activations 41 Operations The total burnup was 0. 71 grams of U-235 during this reporting period.
Reporting Period Energy Generated U-235 Burnup 2022 16.2 MWh 0.71g 2021 15.5 MWh 0.69g 2020 6.1 MWh 0.27g 2019 6.1 MWh 0.27g 2018 5.6 MWh 0.25g 3 Surveillance Tests and Inspections All surveillance tests and inspections were preformed at the intervals required by Technical Specification 4.0. No equipment or material failures were observed during surveillances, and no significant differences with from last year's surveil-lances were noted. Neutron detector positions were adjusted to calibrate ther-mal power readings. The reactor excess reactivity was $0.61 and the shutdown margin was $3.97.
Page 1
Maryland University Training Reactor Annual Operating Report, 2022 3.1 Maintenance Operations In addition to the above surveillance items, the following maintenance opera-tions were performed on the indicated dates:
2/17/2022 Replaced Neutron Detector Air Supply Regulator 2/22/2022 Rebuilt Secondary Coolant Backflow Preventer 2/24/2022 Cleaned Dust and Debris from Through Tube 3/7/2022 Replaced Period Signal Converter Op-Amp 6/14/2022 Measured Power and Fuel Temperature Coefficients of Reactivity 6/21/2022 Replaced Bridge RAM Electronics Module 6/22/2022 Replaced CRDM Magnet Up Microswitch 8/23/2022 Replaced DI Column Outlet Fittings 9/12-24/2022 Painted Reactor Building Penthouse 9/21-28/2022 Installed new Radiation Area Monitor System 12/16/2022 Installed Console Exhaust Fans Additional minor maintenance was performed such as cleaning, replacement of consumables, and fine-tuning of equipment as necessary.
Page 2
Maryland University Training Reactor Annual Operating Report, 2022 4 Changes to Facility and Ongoing Projects During this reporting period, no 50.59 Reviews were performed. 50.59 Screen-ings were performed for:
- Replacement of Regulator Used for the Neutron Detector Air Supply
- Addition of Collars to Poison Connecting Rods
- Use of a Pool Mixer and In-Pool Thermocouples for a Power Calibration Experiment
- Replacement of thed MUTR's Eberline RMS-II based Radiation Area Monitor System with a Ludlum Model 375 based system
- Repair of Leaks at the Primary Coolant DI Column Outlet
- Upgrades to the MUTR Rabbit System
- Replacement of Console Exhaust Fans 50.59 screenings were also performed for updates to procedures SP208: Sump Operations, MP304: Control Rod Drive and Control Rod Removal, and MP308:
Primary System Particle Filter Replacement.
5 Environmental Surveys of Surrounding Areas Environmental surveys include the routine environmental dosimeter measure-ments at the facility perimeter and the remainder. of the locations on campus.
Measurements at all points were well within the historical norms.
Page 3
Maryland University Training Reactor Annual Operating Report, 2022 Environmental UTVlT Re *ult for the MarylancJ nin,n.ity Training Rr, ctor Jauuar' 1, 2022 to December 31. 2022 MONITOR LOCATION DOSE (MILLIREM) 2 ~m~~MUIB W 3 1.1 km SW of MUTR 3 5 758 m Wof MUTR 3 5 387 m SE of MUTR 5 6 North, side MUTR fence line 1 7 East, adjacent to M TR and IRR 3 8 West, adjacent to MUTR 4 9 606 m S of MUTR 20 10 950 m W of MUTR 13 11 South, courtyard adjacent to MUTR 38 12 248 m NW of MUTR 40 14 External to MUTR Lower Entrance South 7 Figure 1: Location of dosimeters and MUTR Page4
Maryland University Training Reactor Annual Operating Report, 2022 6 Radioactive Release and Discharge to the En-vironment 6.1 Liquid Effluents The Reactor Storage Sump was discharged 2 times during this reporting period and 197 microcuries of H-3 were released to the sewer in the water discharged.
All liquid effluents were well within concentration and activity limits for release to sewers 6.2 Gaseous Effluents The only gaseous release from the MUTR to the environment was Argon-41 pro-duced from the activation of natural Argon dissolved in pool water and natural Argon present in air within the interstitial spaces of beams and ports. Argon-41 escapes from the pool and spaces into the MUTR reactor building and then leaks to areas outside the building.
For this reporting period the reactor was operated for 348.13 hours1.50463e-4 days <br />0.00361 hours <br />2.149471e-5 weeks <br />4.9465e-6 months <br /> and an estimated 48 millicuries of Ar-41 were released from the MUTR into the atmo-sphere.
7 Summary of Exposure Received by Facility Personnel and Visitors All MUTR personnel and visitors to the facility received radiation doses of less than 25% of the limits specified in 10 CFR Part 20.
Page 5
Maryland University Training Reactor Annual Operating Report, 2022 8 Unscheduled Shutdown/Reportable Occurrences During this reporting period, there were 34 unscheduled shutdowns. There were an abnormally large number of spurious unscheduled shutdowns from the Radiation Area Monitors "undercounting" (indicating a detector failure after not detecting any counts in a specified time period). The cause of this issue is not known, the Radiation Area Monitors had been identified as needing to be upgraded in 2020, and funding to make the upgrade was obtained in 2021. Due to supply chain problems, the necessary equipment was not delivered until late June 2022, and the new Radiation Area Monitors were installed in September 2022. Following the replacement of this system, there was only 1 additional unscheduled shutdown for the remainder of the reporting period. The excessive number of unscheduled shutdowns was an inconvenience, but did not present any safety concerns.
- Undercount Scrams during operation #s 5032, 5039, 5041, 5047, 5048, 5057 5079, 5081, 5085, 5095, 5011, 5116, 5124, 5128, 5129, 5132, and 5133. Note that some of these operations included multiple scrams.
- Operation# 5062: Reactor was manually scrammed when operators smelled an unusual (possibly burning) smell. The source could not be isolated and was believed to be outside the reactor. No corrective actions were neces-sary.
- Operation # 5092: The reactor was manually shut down when the CIC did not respond during the reactor startup. This was traced to a cable that had been left disconnected following troubleshooting for noise. The cable was reconnected, and the CIC was found to operate normally.
- Operation# 5119: Unscheduled Shutdown due to the operator inadver-tently pressing the Magnet Power button. No corrective actions were necessary.
- Operation # 5128: Period Scram. The reactor was being operated for sev-eral hours at low power for rod worth measurements leading to a number of RAM undercount scrams. Following 1 of these scrams, the reactor was being brought critical again when the Source Range Count Rate dropped to less than 1 count per second, interlocking control rod motion. Wben the startup neutron source was inserted with the control rods partially withdrawn, a period scram resulted. No corrective actions were necessary.
- Operation# 5141: External Scram due to Bridge RAM High Alarm. This occurred when the first Rabbit sample following the installation of the new RAM system was returned from the core. The new RAM system's detector was positioned closer to the Rabbit tube and has a faster response than the old system leading to its setpoint being exceeded when the Rabbit sample returned. The detector was relocated to the original position of the Bridge RAM and the issue no longer occurs.
Page 6
Maryland University Training Reactor Annual Operating Report, 2022 There were no reportable occurrences during this reporting period.
9 Experiments One new experiment was approved during this reporting period to provide a method for measuring the temperature of strongly neutron absorbing samples being irradiated in the MUTR Rabbit. Other experiments continued using the MUTR Rabbit and Thermal Column to perform Neutron Activation Analysis, Neutron Imaging, Neutron Detector Testing, and Irradiations in accordance with established procedures.
10 Changes in Facility Staff 2 Reactor Operators were licensed.
1 Reactor Operator's license was terminated.
At the conclusion of the reporting period the MUTR had 3 SROs and 1 RO.
Page 7