ML24262A221
| ML24262A221 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | University of Wisconsin |
| Issue date: | 09/13/2024 |
| From: | Agasie R Univ of Wisconsin |
| To: | Document Control Desk, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| References | |
| Download: ML24262A221 (1) | |
Text
UWNR Nuclear Reactor Laboratory University of Wisconsin-Madison 1513 University Avenue, Room 1215 ME, Madison, WI 53706-1687, Tel: (608) 262-3392, FAX: (608) 262-8590 email: reactor@engr.wisc.edu, http://reactor.engr.wisc.edu License R-74 Docket 50-156 September 13, 2024 U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission ATTN :
- Document Control Desk Washington, D. C.
20555 Enclosed is a copy of t he 2023-2024 Annual Report for the University of Wisconsin Nuclear Reactor Laboratory as required by Technical Specification 6. 7. 1(1).
Sincerely, Rf};;. sie Reactor Director Enc.
(Annual Report) cc :
Compliance Inspector, Craig Bassett Facility Project Manager, Paulette Torres Reactor Safety Committee, RSC 1546
I' I I THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN NUCLEAR REACTOR LABORATORY FISCAL YEAR 2023-2024 ANNUAL OPERATING REPORT Prepared to meet reporting requirements of:
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission License R-74 Docket 50 - 156 Technical Specification 6. 7. 1(1_)
Prepared by:
Robert J. Agasie College of Engineering THE UNIV E RSITY
ef*----
WISCONSIN MADISON
UWNR ANNUAL REPORT -
Fis cal Year 2023 - 2024 Page 1 of 13 TABLE OF CONTENTS A.
SUMMARY
OF OPERAT I ONS..................................... 2 1.
INSTRUCTIONAL USE.................................... 2 2.
OUTREACH AND COMMUNITY SERVICE....................... 3 3.
IRRADIATION SERVICES................................. 4 4.
CHANGES IN PERSONNEL, FACILITY AND PROCEDURES........ 6 5.
RESULTS OF SURVEILLANCE TESTS AND INSPECTIONS........ 6 B.
OPERATING STATISTI CS AND FUEL EXPOSURE.................... 7 C.
EMERGENCY SHUTDOWNS AND INADVERTENT SCRAMS................ 7 D.
MAINTENANCE............................................... 8 E.
CHANGES I N THE FACILITY OR PROCEDURES AND EXPERIMENTS REPORTABLE UNDER 10 CFR 50.59............................. 9 F.
SUMMARY
OF RADIATI ON EXPOSURE OF PERSONNEL................ 9 G.
RESULTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEYS.................. ~...... 10 H.
RADIOACTIVE EFFLUENTS.................................... 10 TABLE 1 TABLE 2 TABLE 3 ANNUAL ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING DOSE DATA........... 11 LIQUID RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISCHARGED TO SEWER........ 12 EFFLUENT FROM STACK................................. 13
UWNR ANNUAL REPORT - Fiscal Year 2023 - 2024 A.
SUMMARY
OF OPERATIONS 1.
INSTRUCTIONAL USE Page 2 of 13 Nuclear Engineering (NE) 231, "Introduction to Nuclear Engineering" was offered in the spri ng semester with an enrollment of 36 student s.
The course incorporates an engineeri ng design challenge utilizing the reactor.
The students designed, manufactured, and tested a light-sensitive detector to measure the Cherenkov radiation emi t ted f rom the reactor.
The students then determined how that data correlated with the actual reactor power level.
Sixteen stud~nts participated in NE 234, "Principles and Practice of Nuclear Reactor Operation" during the fall s emester.
This course us e s t he reactor extensively, over
+00 hours of reactor use specifically for training were required to provide this operating experience.
Three sections of NE 427, "Nuclear Instrument ation Laboratory", were offered during the academic year wi t h a total enrollment of 27 students.
Several NE 427 experiments use material s that are activated in the reactor.
One experiment requires students to make measurements of r adiat i on l evels in the Reactor Laboratory.
Two sections of NE 428, "Nuclear Reactor Laboratory", were offered during the academic year with a total enrollment of 18 students.
Three experiments require exclusive use of t he reactor ("Criti cal Experiment", " Control Element Calibration", and " Puls i ng" ) requiring a total of 18 hours2.083333e-4 days <br />0.005 hours <br />2.97619e-5 weeks <br />6.849e-6 months <br /> of exclusive reactor use.
Other laboratory sessions use materials that have been irradiated in the reactor ("Fast Neut ron Flux Meas urements" and " Resonance Absorption" ).
Individual class sections for NE 305, "Fundamentals of Nuclear Engineering" and NE 565, "Power Plant Technology",
were held at the Reactor Laboratory, with 23 students part icipa t ing.
The Reactor Laboratory continues its commitment to educational outreach programs and community s ervice.
A listing of individual schools and educational programs that received services is provided below in section A. 2 of this report.
UWNR ANNUAL REPORT-Fis cal Year 2023-2024 2.
OUTREACH AND COMMUNITY SERVICE Page 3 of 13 Most outreach activities include a reactor tour with a discussion on applications of nuclear energy and uses of the UW nuclear reactor.
More immersive activities are offered when requested, including hands - on demonstrations of radiation detection and shielding.
Service9 provided to the community typically involve analyzing swipe tests for leak checks of radioactive sources and performed detector calibrations for non-profit educational ins t itutions.
K -
12 Educationa1 Programs Participating Organization Abundant Life Christian High School Badger Summer Pre-College Program BECOME Program Boy Scouts of America No. of Participants 34 23 ProCSI: Promoting.Computational Science Initiative 17 289 45 Post Secondary Educationa1 Programs Participating Organization No. of Participants UW NEEP Department Grad Student Recruitment Program 16 UW-Oshkosh Office of International Education 23 WiscProf : Future Faculty in Engineering Workshop 4
Professiona1 Deve1opment Programs Participating Organization No. of Participants Constellation Energy ; Dresden Generating Station 4
SHINE 9
U. S. Legislature - Wisconsin Delegation UW Chemistry Department UW Computer Aided Engineering Department UW FP&M Safety Symposium UW Foundation UW Libraries UW Mechanical Engineering Department UW NEEP Department Young Presidents Organization 11 14 6
16 11 20 13 9
26
UWNR ANNUAL REPORT-Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Community Outreach Participating Group UW Alumni Tour Community Service Participating Institution Beloit College UW-Whitewater Department of Physics OUTREACH AND COMMUNITY SERVICE USER
SUMMARY
Organizations: 22 Participants : 592
- 3.
IRRADIATION SERVICES Page 4 of 13 No. of Participants 2
There were 246 individual samples irradiated during the year.
Samples accumulated 52. 9 irradiation space hours and 250. 3 sample hours.
Experiments accumulated 3.0 hours0 days <br />0 hours <br />0 weeks <br />0 months <br /> of neutron irradiation.
American Indian & Indigenous Studies, UW-Madison 31 samples, *1 7. 1 sample hours NAA characterizing water samples to support research on water quality for Native American tribes.
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, UW-Madison 7 samples, 28. 0 sample hours Neutron irradiation to create ensembles of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond supporting research to develop ultra-sensitive magnetometry.
Department of Medical Physics, UW-Madison 6 samples, 2. 5 sample hours Irradiation of natural gadolinium for the production and isolation of terbium-161 for preclinical development of a next generation metastatic prostate cancer targeted radionuclide therapy agent.
UWNR ANNUAL REPORT-Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Page 5 of 13 Department of Nuclear Engineering & Engineering Physics,
UW-Madison NE 231 3.0 hours0 days <br />0 hours <br />0 weeks <br />0 months <br /> of neutron irradiation Following a course redesigned to incorporate an engineering design challenge utilizing the reactor, students designed,
manufactured, and tested a light-sensitive detector to measure the Cherenkov radiation emitted from the reactor while operating.
The students correlated the detector data to the actual reactor power level.
Department of Nuclear Engineering & Engineering Physics,
UW-Madison NE 427 88 samples, 102. 4 sample hours Production of foil sources for radiation detector experiments and activation of samples for the neutron activation analysis experiment.
Department of Nuclear Engineering & Engineering Physics,
UW-Madison NE 428 24 samples, 18.0 sample hours Irradiation of foils for resonance absorption measurements and fast neutron flux measurements.
UW Nuclear Reactor Laboratory 5 samples, 1.4 sample hours Production of cal ibration sources for required reactor measurements, flux measurements and development of methods for instrumental neutron activation analysis.
University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus 26 samples, 52. 0 sample hours Irradiation of yttrium patches to produce Y-90 for preclinical development of superficial skin cancer therapies.
Helion Energy 18 samples, 18. 9 sample hours NAA characterizing HDPE samples.
UWNR ANNUAL REPORT - Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Page 6 of 13 ManTech 21 samples, 2.1 sample hours NAA characterizing environmental samples.
Northstar Medical Radioisotopes, LLC 1 sample, 5.0 sample hours Irradiation of radiopharmaceutical samples to refine production techniques.
SHINE Medical Technologies 3 samples, 1. 3 sample hours Irradiation of radiopharmaceutical samples to refine production techniques.
4.
CHANGES IN PERSONNEL, FACILITY AND PROCEDURES Personnel changes during the year were as follows:
The following Reactor Operator Licenses were terminated :
Name Jason J. Rusch Andrea Strzelec License OP-504405 OP-504877 Effective Date March 27, 2024 March 27, 2024 Faci lity changes reportable under 10 CFR 50.59 are detailed in section E of this report.
There were no other changes to the facility duririg the year.
All procedures were reviewed with the proposed revision approved by the Reactor Safety Committee.
No changes to operating procedures related to reactor safety occurred during the year.
5.
RESULTS OF SURVEILLANCE TESTS AND INSPECTIONS The program of inspection and testing of reactor components continues, satisfactorily meeting procedural acceptance criteria.
Inspection of underwater components during the annual maintenance showed no deterioration or abnormal wear.
UWNR ANNUAL REPORT-Fiscal Year 2023 - 2024 Page 7 of 13 The pool leak sur veillance program continues to monitor the pool make - up vo l ume and pool water radioactivity.
The pool leak surveillance program indicated that no water effluent had been released to the environment this year.
B.
OPERATING STATISTICS AND FUEL EXPOSURE Operating Period Critical Hours MW-Hours Runs Pulses Fiscal Year 2023 - 2024 Cumulative 193. 72 88. 29 187 31 TRIGA 30/20 LEU 4, 432. 78 2, 878. 68 2, 107 467 Core K21 - R6 was operated throughout the year.
The excess reactivity of thi s core was determined to be 3.892%p.
C.
EMERGENCY SHUTDOWNS AND INADVERTENT SCRAMS There were three automatic SCRAMS during the year.
Each is described below in chronological sequence.
October 27, 2023 ; SCRAM from picoammeter number 2.
while performing a normal reactor startup, a reactor operator trainee inadvertently upranged picoammeter number 2 two ranges and immedi a t ely down ranged in an attempt to correct but accidentally down ranged two ranges.
By this t i me reactor power had reached the trip setpoint on the original range.
As a re sult, a reactor SCRAM from a neutron high flux trip at 125% on the 100 mW range occurred.
December 21, 2023; SCRAM from loss of alternating current.
During routine ope rations at f ull power, the Mechanical Engineering building s uffered a momentary loss of power.
As a resul t, a reactor SCRAM from loss of alternating curr ent occurred.
Apri l 29, 2024 ; SCRAM from picoammeter number 2.
While performing a normal reactor startup, a reactor operator trainee inadvertently selected the transient rod withdrawal.
switch when intending to insert the rod.
When the trainee
UWNR ANNUAL REPORT-Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Page 8 of 13 observed increasing reactor power following the positive reactivity insertion, they intended to insert negative reactivity to terminate the transient.
However, the trainee still believed they were manipulating the insert switch while they remained on the withdraw switch.
The subsequent additional positive reactivity continued to increase reactor power.
As a result, a reactor SCRAM from a neutron high flux trip at 125% on the lkW range occurred.
D.
MAINTENANCE The Preventive* Maintenance Program continues to maintain equipment and systems in good condition.
Routine demineralizer regeneration occurred on December 14, 2023.
Any corrective maintenance that may have been performed as a follow up action necessary for reactor restart following an emergency shutdown or automatic SCRAM would be covered in section C of this report.
Additional corrective maintenance was performed on the following installed systems, structures, and components (SSC ) as described in the Safety Analysis Report (SAR):
On July 7, 2023, the reactor water clean-up system (demineralizer) flow meter display was found to be nonfunctional.
Troubleshooting revealed the display failed.
The display was replaced with an identical spare.
On July 10, 2023, the reactor ventilation exhaust flow meter display was found to be nonfunctional.
Troubleshooting revealed the flow monitoring station
- failed.
The flow monitoring station was replaced with an identical spare.
As a result of spurious trips of the reactor ventilation exhaust fan, EF-7, despite previous follow up corrective maintenance, it was decided to replac~ the fan motor on September 29, 2023, to prevent future trips.
In May 2024, the pneumatic sample transfer system's sample in station sensor was behaving erratically.
Troubleshooting revealed the infrared beam reflector had become misaligned.
The reflector was realigned.
The system was tested and returned to service.
UWNR ANNUAL REPORT-Fiscal Year 2023 - 2024 Page 9 of 13 E.
CHANGES IN THE FACILITY OR PROCEDURES AND EXPERIMENTS REPORTABLE UNDER 10 CFR 50. 59 There was one change to the facility, reportable pursuant to 10 CFR 50. 59, completed during the year.
The safety evaluation for the modification concluded a license amendment pursuant to 10 CFR 50.90 was not required.
The modification is summarized below.
The fuel temperature safety channel, 19Ml, operated with an Omega brand DP81 thermocouple process instrument.
The instrument was no longer sold nor supported by Omega and the membrane styl e keys on its front as we l l as the ribbon cabl e inside were beginning to wear out.
The monitor was repl aced with a functionally identical but newer model Omega brand DP41 - TC thermocouple process instrument.
There were no required changes to the Safety Analysis Report (SAR).
There were no changes to procedures, reportabl e pursuant to 10 CFR 50. 59, comp l eted during the year.
There were no new experiments, reportable pursuant to 10 CFR 50.59, conducted during the year.
F.
SUMMARY
OF RADIATION EXPOSURE OF PERSONNEL (01/01/23 -
12/31/23)
The personnel radiation monitoring program at the Uni versity of Wisconsin for the past calendar year used Landauer Luxel brand monitors for whole body and extremity exposure.
No personnel received any significant radiation exposure for the above period.
The highest annual whole-body doses recorded were 41 mrem deep dose equivalent (DDE) and 57 mrem shal low dose equivalent (SDE).
The highest annual extremity dose was 72 mrem and the highest annual dose to t he lens of the eye was 48 mrem.
The highest dose received by a member of the public visiting the reactor lab was 0. 18 mrem, as measured by Mirian brand, model DMC 3000 electronic personal dosimeters.
UWNR ANNUAL REPORT -
Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Page 10 of 13 Monthly r adiation surveys continue to demonstrate acceptable radi a tion dose rates within the reactor laboratory and no contamination.
G.
RESULTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEYS (01/01/ 23 -
12/31/23)
The environmental monit oring program at the University uses Landauer Luxel brand area monitors located in areas s urrounding the reactor l aboratory.
Table 1 indicates the dose a person would have received if continuously present in the indicated area for the entire 2023 calendar year.
H.
RADIOACTIVE EFFLUENTS 1.
LIQUID EFFLUENTS Liquid waste discharged to the sanitary sewer from the facility during the year is detailed in Table 2.
No l iqui d effl uents were released to the environment during the year.
2.
EXHAUST EFFLUENTS Table 3 presents informat ion on stack discharges during the year.
3.
SOLID WASTE No solid waste was transferred from the faci l ity during the year.
UWNR ANNUAL RE PORT-Fiscal Year 2Q23 - 2024 Page 11 of 13 TABLE 1 ANNUAL ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING DOSE DATA (01/01/23 -
12/31/ 23)
Locat i on Dose Inside React or Laborat~ry Stack Hi ghest Dose in Non-restricted Area Highest Dose in Occupi ed* Non-restricted Area Average Dose in all Non-res t ricted Areas (26 Monitor Points)
Annual Dose (mrem)
<1 13 13 2. 17
- Occupied areas i nclude classrooms, offices, and lobbies/meeting areas where an individual might reasonably spend more than 2 hour2.314815e-5 days <br />5.555556e-4 hours <br />3.306878e-6 weeks <br />7.61e-7 months <br /> s per day
UWNR ANNUAL REPORT-Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Page 12 of 13 TABLE 2 LIQUID RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISCHARGED TO SEWER Release Date:
Gallons Released:
Total µCi :
Sum of Fraction of MPC w/ o dilution:
Sum of Fraction of MPC w/ daily dilution:
(µCi/ml) 2. 00E- 04 3. 00E- 05 3.00E- 04 12/05/2023 884
- 8. 22 4. 919E-02 l. 829E- 03 Released
- 9. 939E- 01,
2. 970E- 07 1.485E- 03 4. 518E+00 1.350E- 06 4.S00E-02 2.711E+00 8.l0OE- 07 2. 700E-03 Annual total volume of water released to the sani t ary sewer (gallons)
Annual total activity released to the sanitary sewer (µCi)
Average daily sewage flow for dilution (gallons)
Annual sum of fraction of MONTHLY release limit with DAILY dilution Annual sum of fraction of MONTHLY release limit with MONTHLY dilution
µCi
µCi/ml Fraction of MPC
µCi
µCi/ml Fraction of MPC
µCi
µCi/ml Fraction of MPC 884 8.22 2.370E+04 l.829E-03 6.008E- 05
UWNR ANNUAL REPORT -
Fis cal Year 2023-2024 Page 13 of 13 TABLE 3 EFFLUENT FROM STACK 1.
Particulate Activi ty There was no di s charge of particulate activity above background levels.
2.
Gaseous Activity -
Al l Argon-41 Activity Maximum Average Month oi*scharged Concentration Concentrati on (Curies)
(µCi/ml)
(µCi/ml)
July 2023 0. 009 3.370E- 07 5. 545E-10 August 0. 055 6. 840E- 07 3. 339E- 09 r
September 0. 058 4. 760E- 07 3. 658E- 09 October 0. 563 4. ll0E- 07 3. 410E- 08 November 0. 043 4. 320E- 07 2. 738E- 09 December 0. 038 3. 570E- 07 2.312E- 09 January 2024 0.035 2. 840E- 07 2. 160E- 09 February 0. 060 3. 840E- 07 3. 961E- 09 March 0. 059 7. 410E- 07 3. 652E-09 April 0. 068 4.350E- 07 4. 380E- 09 May 0. 021 5. 810E- 07 1. 306E- 09 June 0. 01 9 3. 250E- 07 1.201E- 09 Total Maximum Average 1.028 7. 410E- 07 5. 281E- 09 Us ing the Gauss i an Plume model, as de s cribed in sect ion 13.1. 7. 2 of the "Sa fe t y Analysis Report for the University of Wiscons i n Nucl ear Reactor", a concentration of 6E-5
µCi/ml at the stack discharge would result in a maximum air concentration of lE-8 µCi/ml at any point downwind.