ML23345A083

Pennsylvania State University, Submittal of Annual Operating Report

ML23345A083
Person / Time
Site:	Pennsylvania State University
Issue date:	12/11/2023
From:	Guether J Penn State College of Engineering, Pennsylvania State Univ, University Park, PA
To:	Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, Document Control Desk
References
Download: ML23345A083 (1)

Text

Penn State College of Eng ineering RADIATION SCIENCE &

ENGINEERING CENTER The Pennsylvania State Unive rsity College of Engineering Radi ation Science and Engineering Center Breazeale Nuclear Reactor University Park, PA 16802-2301 Phone: 8 I4-865-635 1 Fax: 8 I4-863-4840 67 BREAZEALE Nuclear Reactor 11 December 2023 Attention: Document Control Desk US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20555-0001 To Whom It May Concern, Enclosed please find the Annual Operating Report for the Penn State Breazeale Reactor (PSBR) located at the Radiation Science and Engineering Center. This report covers the period from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023, as required by our Facility Operating License R-2, Appendix A, Section 6.6.1.

Please contact me with any questions you have regarding this report.

Sincerely, J fA~ \

Acting Director Associate Director for Operations PSU Radiation Science and Engineering Center 109 Breazeale Nuclear Reactor University Park, PA 16802

Enclosure:

Annual Operating Report, FY22-23 cc: A. Read A.Atchley T. Peeples C. Davison A. Wilmot X. Yin, NRC M. Balazik, NRC J. Lovett, NRC D. Morrell, INL College of Engineering An Equal Opportuni ty University

Penn State Breazeale Reactor Annual Operating Report, FY 2022 - 2023 License R-2, Docket 50-005 Reactor Utilization The Radiation Science and Engineering Center (RSEC) houses the Penn State Breazeale Reactor (PSBR), a TRI GA Mark III reactor capable of 1 MW steady state operation and pulses of up to approximately 2000 MW peak power. Utilization of the reactor and its associated facilities falls into three major categories:

Education The RSEC's several radiation laboratories allow for an interactive learning environment and supply the equipment necessaiy for several Nuclear Engineering courses. The RSEC hosts approximately 3000 visitors each year for public outreach and educational support. These visits vary from visiting faculty and graduate level classes to scouting and middle school field trips.

Our facility also strives to educate members of the public about the many benefits of nuclear power as well as the diverse applications of radiation across several fields of study. Some of the major topics covered in public outreach sessions are radiation basics, nuclear security, and reactor physics. Recent upgrades to the neutron beam laboratory include the addition of new faculty, graduate student, and visiting scientist offices to better integrate the education and research missions of the facility.

Research The research performed at the RSEC is associated with several different colleges as the University.

RSEC staff, professors, and graduate students all play a key role in maintaining a constant flow of research projects through the facility. The RSEC maintains flexibility with radiation laboratories and equipment to support research such as thermo-acoustic testing, reactor instrumentation testing, neutron and gamma ray detection, radiation signatures from used fuel elements, neutron activation analysis, and neutron imaging applications. The RSEC has completed the expansion of its neutron beam laborat01y in order to accommodate a Small Angle Neutron Spectrometer (SANS) donated by Helmholtz Zentrum-Berlin. SANS delive1y will likely take place early in 2024, cmTently estimated to be March 2024, having slipped from an original date of 2022. Once installation is complete, PSU will be the only US university equipped with a small angle neutron spectrometer.

The SANS is expected to increase the demand for Breazeale reactor operation. This increase in demand will increase urgency both for new fuel to be provide to PSU from DOE and for spent fuel disposal. Another research highlight was the production of Ac225 in a demonstration experiment in May 2023. For this experiment, the reactor was operated for 48 continuous hours at high power.

Service The resources available at the RSEC, paired with the diverse capabilities of the PSBR, allow us to serve the nuclear industly and satisfy the unique needs of several domestic and international

companies. The RSEC is frequently involved in neutron radiography for composition uniformity testing as well as providing fast neutron i1rndiation fluxes to supp01i the nation' s defense infrastructure. Also, the RSEC remains at the forefront of neutron transmission testing for spent fuel storage and equipment to be used at nuclear utilities.

The PSBR facility operates on an 8 AM - 5 PM shift, five days per week, with early morning, evening, and weekend shifts as necessary to accommodate laboratory courses, public education, university research, or industrial service projects.

Technical Specification 6.6.1.a - Summary of Reactor Operating Experience Between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023, the PSBR was utilized as follows .

Mode of Operation Time [hours] Hours per Shift I Critical 760.3 2.9 I Sub-Critical 171.6 0.7 I Shutdown 484.6 1.9 I TOTAL 1244.9 4.8 The reactor was pulsed a total of 65 times with the following reactivities:

Reactivity Number of Pulses I <$2.00 14 I

$2.00 to $2.50 48 I > $2.50 3 I TOTAL 65 The square wave mode was used a total of 32 times to operate the reactor with power levels between approximately 100 and 500 kilowatts. Total energy produced during this rep01iing period was 504.9 MWh, co1Tesponding to the consumption of approximately 26.5 g of 235U. Fuel burnup is expected to increase substantially following SANS installation due to a forecast for increased demand for operations at high power.

Technical Specification 6.6.1.b - Unscheduled Shutdowns The following unscheduled shutdowns and unplanned reactor trips occmTed during the rep01iing period. Reactor trips with the key on but the reactor in a subcritical state, such as a reactor trip during the daily checkout procedure, are not included.

7/7/2022 Reactor scram due to a regulating rod interlock validation failure with the reactor in AUTO mode at 900 kW.

8/9/2022 Interlock validation failure scram while at approximately 2.8 kW, while preparing for a pulse.

8/22/2022 Watchdog scram while at 1 MW in AUTO mode.

9/20/2022 High power scram (1.07 MW) due to operator error. Operator did not account for the reactivity difference between the open pool position and D2O tank position when planning rod heights and had transient rod pre-positioned inconectly. When the safety, shim, and regulating rods began to approach their upper limit, the operator reacted by withdrawing the transient rod to achieve the desired power level. However, the standard rods could not be inserted quickly enough to compensate for the transient rod reactivity inse1iion, and the reactor reached the power scram setpoint.

11/17/2022 A square wave terminated by scram at 102 seconds even though the duration preset was 300 seconds. This was attributed to a timer block error.

12/2/2022 The reactor was shut down to diagnose a safety motor trouble enor message.

1/30/2023 The reactor was scrammed and the building was evacuated due to a radiation monitor alarm when operating at 1 MW. The signal was caused by a hardware failure, and was not due to high radiation levels.

3/10/2023 The reactor was scrammed from 900 kW due to a high fuel temperature trip caused by a faulty thermocouple.

3/20/2023 The reactor operator shut down the reactor from 900 kW due to the observation of anomalous radiation levels on the radiation monitors over the reactor pool. Investigation ruled out fission product release but the cause was not discovered.

Technical Specification 6.6.1.c - Major Corrective or Preventative Maintenance with Safety Significance TS-required maintenance and surveillances were completed within required time frames. Non-routine maintenance and repair is documented under facility procedure # AP-13. Safety-related maintenance during the repo1iing period was as follows.

AP-13 2022-01 7/11/22 The safety rod drive rack and pinion gear were replaced due to damaged teeth.

AP-13 2022-02 9/12/22 The regulating rod magnet lead wire was repaired.

AP-13 2022-03 9/14/22 A correction was made to a control console programming block label.

AP-13 2022-04 12/10/22 Control console computer DCS-X boot-up issue resolved through system recovery process.

AP-13 2033-01 1/18/23 A control block was disabled to eliminate reactor stepback from reactor being coupled to the beam ports.

AP-13 2023-02 1/30/23 Repair of radiation monitor which had failed, resulting in building evacuation.

AP-13 2023-03 3/13/23 Corrective action for spurious fuel temperature scram on 3/10/23.

Thermocouple used for reactor safety system input was switched to remove dependence on faulty thermocouple after observation of repeated spikes in reported temperature on a thermocouple reader.

AP-13 2023-04 5/25/23 The reactor pool water transfer pump was replaced.

Technical Specification 6.6.1.d - Major Changes Reportable Under 10 CFR 50.59 Facility changes are processed via procedure AP-12. From July 2022 - June 2023, no changes requiring a 10CFR50.59 review were completed. Records are maintained for minor changes which did not screen in to a 50.59 review; these are available for review upon request.

Procedures Procedures are normally reviewed biennially, and on an as-needed basis. Numerous minor changes and updates are made during the year and do not require a rep01i under 10CFR50.59.

New Tests and Experiments The tests/ experiments performed at the RSEC during FY2022-2023 did not require 10CFR50.59 evaluation or rep01iing. One experiment (SOP-5 2020-20) involved the inadiation of ~ 1 mg Ra226 to demonstrate production of Ac225 in the reactor central thimble. This experiment did not involve the use of new experimental fixtures, but due to the radiological concerns of handling radium and a target irradiated for 48 hours5.555556e-4 days <br />0.0133 hours <br />7.936508e-5 weeks <br />1.8264e-5 months <br />, the experiment authorization process included review and approval by the Reactor Safeguards Committee and an ALARA review by the reactor Associate Director for Operations and the Radiation Safety Officer.

Technical Specification 6.6.1.e - Radiological Effluents Released Liquid There were no planned or unplanned liquid effluent releases under the reactor license for the repmiing period.

Liquid radioactive waste from the radioisotope laboratories at the PSBR is under the University byproduct materials license and is transfened to the Radiation Protection Office for disposal with the waste from other campus laboratories. Liquid waste disposal techniques include storage for decay, release to sanitary sewer per 10CFR20, and solidification for shipment to licensed disposal sites.

Gaseous All gaseous releases were less than 10% of the allowed concentrations and do not require a specific repmi.

Argon-41 (41 Ar)

Gaseous effluent 41 Ar is generated from dissolved air in the reactor pool water, air in dry irradiation tubes, air in neutron beam pmis, and air leakage to and from the CO2-operated pneumatic sample transfer system (i.e., "rabbit"). The amount of 41 Ar released from the reactor pool is dependent on the operating power level and the length of time at power. The release per MWh is highest for extended high power runs and lowest for intermittent low power runs. The concentration of 41 Ar in the reactor bay and bay exhaust were measured by the Radiation Protection staff during the summer of 1986. Measurements were made for conditions of low and high power runs simulating typical operating cycles.

For a conservative calculation of 41 Ar release, all power operations were assumed to take place at the Fast Neutron Irradiator (FNI) Tube, the location of the greatest 41 Ar production and release.

The calculation method includes direct release from the pool in addition to release from the FNI.

During the annual NRC inspection enors were discovered in past repmied values of the argon release. The following table includes re-calculated totals from the past six years. In all cases, the estimated concentration of 41Ar in the umestricted area is a small fraction of the pe1missible concentration of I.O x 10-8 µCi/mL. For 2022-2023, a quantity of2051 mCi of 41 Ar was produced for the 504.9 MWh of total energy produced by the reactor. A po1iion of the 41 Ar will decay in place, however, if all of the 41 Ar were released, it represents 2.3% of the annual limit.

Fiscal Year 17-18 18-19 19-20 20-21 21-22 22-23 I Energy produced (MWh) -

487.2 344.5 242.9- 238.7 233.2 504.9 l Ar quantity produced (mCi) 1979 1399 987 970 947 2051 I Ar cone., unrestricted area (x 10- 10 uCi I mL) 4.66 2.69 1.60 1.57 1.51 4.92 I

% of Permissible concentration 4.66 2.69 1.60 1.57 1.52 4.92 I Calculated effective dose, unrestricted area (mrem I year) 2.23 1.57 1.12 1.09 1.07 2.30 I

Tritium (3 H)

Normally tritium is only released from the reactor facility due to the evaporation of reactor pool water. The total makeup to the reactor pool for FY2022-2023 was 10723 gallons, or 1.22 gal / hr.

The evaporative loss rate is dependent on air movement, relative humidity, temperature of air and water, etc. Based on the measured average pool tritium concentration of 29811 pCi / L (averaged between July, 2022 - June, 2023), the total tritium activity released through ventilation would be

~ 1203 µCi. A dilution of factor of 2.0 x 10 8 mL / sec was used to calculate that umestricted area concentration. This is from 200 m2 (cross sectional area of the building) times an assumed wind speed of 1 m / sec. These are the same values used in the reactor Safety Analysis Report.

Parameter Value Units I Tritium released 1203 ~LCi I Average concentration, unrestricted area 1.91 X 10- 13 µCi lmL I Permissible concentration, unrestricted area 1.00 X 10-7 µCi lmL I Percentae:e of permissible concentration 0.00019  %

I Calculated effected dose equivalent, unrestricted area - 1 X 10-4 mrem I Technical Specification 6.6.1.f- Environmental Surveys The only environmental surveys performed were the routine environmental dosimeter measurements at the facility fence line and an off-site point at a childcare center approximately 100 yards from facility. The number of monitoring points along the reactor fence line increased due to the reactor beam laboratory expansion but the new points were not installed until 2023. The following table summarizes the net measurements, in millirem, for the cmTent reporting period.

Quarter North South South North South East West Childcare Fence Central SANS East Fence Fence Fence Fence Fence Fence

-NIA 12022 Q3 2022 Q4 10 rmreml 10 NIA rmreml rmreml NIA NIA NIA rmreml NIA 11 rmreml 12 12 rmreml 12 15 rmreml 11 0 [mrem]

3 I

I 2023 Ql 13 6 5 9 14 14 14 0 I 2023 Q2 0 7 7 2 4 3 6 1