ML25090A304
| ML25090A304 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | U.S. Geological Survey |
| Issue date: | 03/31/2025 |
| From: | Wallick J US Dept of Interior, Geological Survey (USGS) |
| To: | Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, Document Control Desk |
| References | |
| Download: ML25090A304 (1) | |
Text
U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Rocky Mountain Region Box 25046 M.S. 974 Denver Federal Center Denver, Colorado 80225 USGS - Facility License R-113 - Docket Number 50-274 Page 1 of 1 Document Date: 2025-03-31 DATE:
Monday, March 31, 2025 TO:
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Document Control Desk FROM:
Jonathan Wallick, Reactor Director/Supervisor
SUBJECT:
U.S. Geological Survey TRIGA Reactor, Docket Number 50-274, License Number R-113, Annual Report Submittal in Accordance with Technical Specification 6.7.1 Rev. 00 PURPOSE By way of this letter, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is submitting the annual operating report as required by Technical Specification 6.7.1 of license number R-113, covering the period of January 1st, 2024, through December 31st, 2024.
CONTACT If you have any questions regarding this matter, please contact me at (303) 236-4726.
Sincerely, Jonathan Wallick, Reactor Director Copied to:
Shannon Mahan, Reactor Administrator, USGS Brooke Gallagher, Project Manager, US NRC Juan Arellano, Inspector, US NRC Attachments:
(1) U. S. Geological Survey TRIGA Reactor Facility Annual Report 2024 EUSGS science for a changing world JONATHAN WALLICK 2025.03.31 14:50:37 -06'00' U. S. Geological Survey TRIGA Reactor Facility Annual Report 2024
JONATHAN WALLICK l Reactor Director U. S. Geological Survey TRIGA Reactor Facility Annual Report 2024 FACILITY LICENSE R-113 - DOCKET NUMBER 50-274
U.S.G.S. TRIGA Reactor Annual Report USGS - Facility License R-113 - Docket Number 50-274 Page 1 of 14 Document Date: 2025-03-31 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents.......................................................................................................................................................1 Section 1: Operations Summary.................................................................................................................................2 Section 2: Inadvertent Scrams, Unplanned Shutdowns, Events at Power.................................................................3 Section 3: Maintenance, Surveillance, and Other Incidents......................................................................................4 Section 4: Facility Changes and Special Experiments Approved................................................................................5 Section 5: Radioactive Effluent Release.....................................................................................................................6 (a) Gases.................................................................................................................................................................6 (b) Liquids and Solids..............................................................................................................................................7 Solid, Dry Waste:................................................................................................................................................7 Liquid Waste:.....................................................................................................................................................8 Section 6: Environmental Surveillance.......................................................................................................................9 Section 7: Radiation Exposure to Personnel........................................................................................................... 12 Section 8: Fuel Inspections...................................................................................................................................... 13 Section 9: Closing Remarks...................................................................................................................................... 14
U.S.G.S. TRIGA Reactor Annual Report USGS - Facility License R-113 - Docket Number 50-274 Page 2 of 14 Document Date: 2025-03-31 SECTION 1: OPERATIONS
SUMMARY
During CY2024, the U.S. Geological Survey TRIGA Reactor Facility (GSTR) was administratively shut down for the entire year. Owing to discoveries made during the quinquennial fuel inspection and the subsequent recovery actions, the reactor was maintained in an administrative shutdown per the order of the Reactor Director starting from August 7th, 2023, at 1233. The year consisted of recovery actions and forced attention shifts to other critical components of the facility program. Efforts are still underway to resolve the findings and resume operations.
Typically, operation of this facility supports research and development by the U.S. Geological Survey, Colorado School of Mines (CSM), and a collection of other academic, commercial, and industrial collaborators. Research is usually conducted using geochronology techniques, such as argon/argon comparison and fission track analysis, but also includes student research projects and radiotracer production. Operator training and education is also a component of the GSTR mission, primarily as a class conducted by CSM and supported by the reactor staff, providing hands on experience in reactor operations, engineering, and neutron activation techniques.
Additionally, tours and visits by various members of the public routinely take place, even in the shutdown status.
One NRC inspection took place this calendar year in early November. Multiple violations are still being considered from the fuel situation, depending on the results of the facility conducted fuel inspection. Those violations will be reduced in severity per the enforcement policy of the NRC, granting credit for the facilitys self-identification and reporting.
No personnel were given an examination by the NRC to obtain operator licenses this calendar year, owing primarily to the shutdown state of the facility. One person is in training actively, a recent hire to the operations staff. As of December 31st, 2024, four senior operators and one reactor operator were licensed, though none are proficient at the current time and one license is pending a termination action.
TABLE I - General Information Experiment Authorizations Active 25 Experiments Performed 2
Samples Packages Irradiated 3
Total Samples Irradiated 3
Energy Generated this Period (Megawatt-hours) 0 Total Energy Generated since Initial Criticality (Megawatt-hours) 41,232.950 Pulse Operations this Period 0
Total Pulses since Initial Criticality 304 Hours Critical this Period 0.42 Total Hours since Initial Criticality 45,232.53 Inadvertent Scrams 0
Total Scrams since Initial Criticality 1166
U.S.G.S. TRIGA Reactor Annual Report USGS - Facility License R-113 - Docket Number 50-274 Page 3 of 14 Document Date: 2025-03-31 SECTION 2: INADVERTENT SCRAMS, UNPLANNED SHUTDOWNS, EVENTS AT POWER No inadvertent scrams, unplanned shutdowns, or events at power occurred this period.
TABLE II - Scrams, Unplanned Shutdowns, Events at Power Date Time Power Type and Cause N/A N/A N/A N/A
U.S.G.S. TRIGA Reactor Annual Report USGS - Facility License R-113 - Docket Number 50-274 Page 4 of 14 Document Date: 2025-03-31 SECTION 3: MAINTENANCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND OTHER INCIDENTS The following non-routine maintenance/surveillance activities were carried out during this period. Any reactor operation related items discussed above are not repeated here.
TABLE III - Maintenance, Surveillance, and Other Incidents Date Time Title and Description 2023-08-07 to Present All Days Fuel Inspection Issues: This item is continued from the previous year and details can be found in the 2023 annual report. Additionally, it is expanded upon in a 53-page internal report, as well as three supplementary reports on analyzing and correcting these items. At current time, corrective actions are still underway, and the reactor remains shutdown.
2024-09-13 to Present All Days During a facility cleanup effort of the cooling tower area, it was discovered that the I-beam supports under the cooling tower were substantially corroded. Upon further investigation, the tower underside was observed to be in significant disrepair and leaking water when operated. It was determined that the tower should be completely replaced, as it was originally installed with the facility construction in 1968 and last rehabilitated in 2002. The cooling tower and associated motors were tagged out of service immediately and personnel have been restricted from any activities on or under the unit.
2024-09-16 to Present All Days As a result of the continued findings regarding the material condition of the reactor facility, a full facility assessment was begun, encompassing all systems, major and minor, inside and out, to identify and fully characterize all issues.
2024-11-05 to Present All Days During the full facility assessment, it was discovered that a ventilation enclosures weather proofing had failed, allowing water intrusion into the filter compartment.
Two of the filters, constructed of wooden particle board housings, had rotted away, and two other filters, of simple paper construction, had deformed out of place. The filters had last been replaced in 2020, and only a differential pressure check was conducted to determine their conditions, owing to poor work practices and lacking maintenance program. This condition was immediately reported to the NRC inspector, who was on site at the time for a regularly scheduled inspection.
This inspection item remains open currently until the facility performs release calculations, as the ventilation duct the filters were installed in was used for radioactive fume hood work, independent of the reactor room.
U.S.G.S. TRIGA Reactor Annual Report USGS - Facility License R-113 - Docket Number 50-274 Page 5 of 14 Document Date: 2025-03-31 SECTION 4: FACILITY CHANGES AND SPECIAL EXPERIMENTS APPROVED Regarding 50.59 changes at the facility, work continued on multiple major changes, including the fuel issues resolution and security upgrades.
Continued: 2023-06-A - Security Upgrades: Security upgrades at the facility have been in the planning phase for multiple years and physical installations have begun as of June 2023. While security related items are addressed under the 10 CFR 50.54p, the screening process of 50.59 was utilized to ensure coverage of the proposed changes as part of the change management program. These upgrades will not be detailed in this report.
Continued: 2023-06-B - Radiation Panel Upgrade: The central radiation indicating and alarm panel for the reactor facility and the entirety of the building is in process of being replaced. The panel appears to be an original installation or dating back 30+ years at the very least, with several undocumented modifications and obsolete parts. Several failures of channels through recent years have necessitated switching to functioning channels, and some failures have had cascading damage occur to connected detection units. For these reasons, replacement with modern, in-production components is being pursued. This change is currently in process.
Continued: 2023-08-A - Fuel Visual Inspection Tool: A visual inspection apparatus is being designed and fabricated at the facility for the purpose of accurately and precisely characterizing the surface condition of fuel elements. This work has been in process since before the issues were discovered during the fuel inspection in August 2023. This change has become a joint effort between the reactor facility and the Colorado School of Mines. Design is set to include a high-quality camera which will be used to slowly scan and map the surface of fuel element cladding. It is the intention of this system to provide images that can be compared inspection to inspection to characterize any degradation or damage that has occurred to the fuel between inspections. This change is currently in process.
Continued: 2023-08-B - Fuel Inspection Issues Corrective Actions: As summarized in table III, the fuel issues identified during the August 2023 inspection will require several efforts and actions to fully rectify. A 50.59 screening/evaluation is being conducted to ensure that all actions as a result of this situation will be allowable without a license amendment or changes to the technical specifications. This change is currently in process.
U.S.G.S. TRIGA Reactor Annual Report USGS - Facility License R-113 - Docket Number 50-274 Page 6 of 14 Document Date: 2025-03-31 SECTION 5: RADIOACTIVE EFFLUENT RELEASE (A) GASES The major direct release to the environment is Argon-41 produced during normal operations. Very small amounts of other gases may be released from irradiated materials in experiments.
Releases of Argon-41 are measured directly from the effluent of the reactor bay utilizing a shielded sodium iodide detector equipped with both single channel analyzer and multichannel analyzer capabilities, and are presented below by month:
TABLE IV - Argon-41 Effluent Releases Period Average Concentration (uCi/mL)
Allowable Monthly Release (uCi/mL)
% of Monthly Allowable Release January 0.00E+00 4.8E-06 0.00%
February 0.00E+00 4.8E-06 0.00%
March 0.00E+00 4.8E-06 0.00%
April 0.00E+00 4.8E-06 0.00%
May 0.00E+00 4.8E-06 0.00%
June 0.00E+00 4.8E-06 0.00%
July 0.00E+00 4.8E-06 0.00%
August 0.00E+00 4.8E-06 0.00%
September 0.00E+00 4.8E-06 0.00%
October 0.00E+00 4.8E-06 0.00%
November 0.00E+00 4.8E-06 0.00%
December 0.00E+00 4.8E-06 0.00%
Annual Averages:
0.00E+00 4.8E-06 0.00%
Releases of Tritium are calculated using 1) the volume of water that is calculated to have evaporated from the tank in a given month, and 2) the primary water tritium concentration that was measured by an internal measurement method each quarter throughout the year.
The Tritium releases are presented below, by month:
U.S.G.S. TRIGA Reactor Annual Report USGS - Facility License R-113 - Docket Number 50-274 Page 7 of 14 Document Date: 2025-03-31 TABLE V - Hydrogen-3 (Tritium) Effluent Releases Period Average Concentration (uCi/mL)
Allowable Monthly Release (uCi/mL)
% of Monthly Allowable Release January 2.41E-11 1E-07 0.02%
February 1.40E-11 1E-07 0.01%
March 1.91E-11 1E-07 0.02%
April 3.51E-11 1E-07 0.04%
May 4.29E-11 1E-07 0.04%
June 4.61E-12 1E-07 0.00%
July 4.61E-12 1E-07 0.00%
August 5.94E-12 1E-07 0.01%
September 1.83E-11 1E-07 0.02%
October 1.79E-11 1E-07 0.02%
November 2.15E-11 1E-07 0.02%
December 2.29E-11 1E-07 0.02%
Annual Averages:
1.93E-11 1E-07 0.02%
(B) LIQUIDS AND SOLIDS Liquid and solid wastes from utilization of by-product materials are disposed through a vendor contract.
Disposals to this custody are given below. It is important to note that activity values are estimated at the time of transfer. Since few shipments are being made from the federal center, decay to negligible levels occurs for all short and medium-lived radionuclides. One waste shipment was made in CY 2024.
SOLID, DRY WASTE:
Five (5) drums of solid, low-level radioactive waste were shipped for disposal on 2024-12-17. This disposal was done through USGS Requisition Number 0040649426, with Plexus Scientific Company as the servicing contractor. This waste was exported from the Rocky Mountain Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact under export permit number PSC-24-1. The specific information is presented below:
U.S.G.S. TRIGA Reactor Annual Report USGS - Facility License R-113 - Docket Number 50-274 Page 8 of 14 Document Date: 2025-03-31 TABLE VI - Solid, Dry Waste Isotopes and Activities Isotope TOTAL mCi Co-60 8.79E-01 Cs-137 1.36E-02 Eu-152 2.75E-01 Co-58 7.02E-05 Cr-51 2.19E-08 Cs-134 3.96E-03 Fe-59 9.26E-07 Mn-54 2.81E-02 Sb-124 1.11E-05 Sc-46 1.03E-04 Te-182 6.33E-06 LIQUID WASTE:
No liquid waste transfers took place this reporting period.
U.S.G.S. TRIGA Reactor Annual Report USGS - Facility License R-113 - Docket Number 50-274 Page 9 of 14 Document Date: 2025-03-31 SECTION 6: ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEILLANCE Calcium Sulfate/Dysprosium thermoluminescent dosimeters are in place at 12 locations around the GSTR for environmental monitoring purposes. These were provided by Radiation Detection Company, which is an NVLAP-accredited dosimetry vendor and processor. The environmental dosimeters are located outside within sealed weatherproof boxes or inside the facility mounted to different walls and surfaces. The table below lists the locations.
Routine contamination surveys consisting of wipe tests and G-M surveys have shown mostly a clean facility with significant, removable contamination only in areas coming into direct contact with samples removed from the reactor, and on sample handling tools. Trash is surveyed before disposal and not disposed of unless found to be free of removable and fixed contamination.
Table VII - Locations for Environmental Dosimeters
- 1. Reactor Bay Exhaust
- 2. Vehicle Gate
- 3. Room 151 Door Gate
- 4. Cooling Tower Fence
- 5. Southwest Light Pole
- 6. West Light Pole
- 7. Reactor Fence
- 8. Basement Tunnel
- 9. Northwest Light Pole
- 10. Northeast Light Pole
- 11. East Light Pole
U.S.G.S. TRIGA Reactor Annual Report USGS - Facility License R-113 - Docket Number 50-274 Page 10 of 14 Document Date: 2025-03-31 Table VIII - Environmental Dosimetry Data Average Total Deep Dose Exposures in mrem (Including Control Background)
Location Quarter Annual Prior Year Difference 2024 Q1 2024 Q2 2024 Q3 2024 Q4
- 1. Reactor Bay Exhaust 0
0 0
0 0
15
-15
- 2. Vehicle Gate 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
- 3. Room 151 Door Gate 51 37 39 38 165 186
-21
- 4. Cooling Tower Fence 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
- 5. Southwest Light Pole 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
- 6. West Light Pole 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
- 7. Reactor Fence 12 13 17 21 63 68
-5
- 8. Basement Tunnel 91 68 55 71 285 274
+11
- 9. Northwest Light Pole 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
- 10. Northeast Light Pole 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
- 11. East Light Pole 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
- 12. Room 158 Office 14 64 34 112
+112 Notes:
- 1. Above totals have the background subtracted. TLDs were supplied and analyzed by Radiation Detection Company, NVLAP accredited dosimetry vendor.
- 2. Room 158 Office This is a new badge, placed into service 6/9/2024 for wear period 6/9/2024-6/30/2024.
Since this was a new badge added in the middle of a wear period, the control badge dose was not subtracted for this wear period.
Discussion Raw data is presented here, along with a comparison to the prior year. Locations near or inside the facility are usually the highest; by contrast, remote locations (such as the light pole series) are the lowest. Data for this year reflect several points of interest:
Location 1 tends to have higher doses when high-activity volatile samples are processed in the fume hood, since some of the volatile material will be captured in the nearby HEPA filters for that hood.
Locations 3 and 7 are positioned on the west fence of the facility. Several sources of radiation are present near these badges: 1) a dry storage tank in Room 151, which contains a previously installed rotary specimen rack, possessing a substantial amount of Cobalt-60, 2) high-activity sample transfers in the fume hood in Room 151 can temporarily elevate the dose rate, and 3) reactor operation will marginally elevate the dose rate to about double the background.
U.S.G.S. TRIGA Reactor Annual Report USGS - Facility License R-113 - Docket Number 50-274 Page 11 of 14 Document Date: 2025-03-31 Location 8, in the basement, is opposite a wall for the main radioactive waste storage area. This area has a very low occupancy factor, and the waste was intended to be shipped out for disposal in CY 2023 but was delayed to CY 2024 Q4 due to contract procurement issues. Shipping has been completed as of mid-December.
Location 12, room 158 office, the dosimeter for the Room 158 Office location was placed on a wall shared by the GSTR counting laboratory. There are some small exempt-level sources on the opposite side of the wall. Upon reviewing the dosimetry results for quarter 2, the dose rates in the office were measured at the dosimeter location to be 60 µR/hr. However, the dose rates at normally occupied areas in the office were measured to be 24 µR/hr at the closer desk and 22 µR/hr at the further desk (background in Building 15 is 16 µR/hr). The sources in the counting lab were temporarily removed from the counting lab to assess the contribution to the dose rate. The dose rate at the dosimeter location fell to ~35 µR/hr. The remaining component of the dose rate did not seem to be originating from a GSTR-owned space. The sources in the counting lab were moved and better shielded, maintaining the new dose rate of 35 µR/hr at the dosimeter location. Dose over a typical work year (25% occupancy factor) is calculated to be less than 40 mR/hr at this dose rate. Future work includes investigating the source of the radiation and seeing if it can be reasonably further reduced.
Exposure estimated to a single individual in an uncontrolled area at this facility is minimal. Location 1 is on the facility roof, so a member of the public would not have reason to be up there, and maintenance activities are infrequent and thus result in a very low occupancy factor.
Locations 3 and 7 are physically closest to the facilitys walls and highest source of exposure, which was the logic in choosing those locations. The Denver Federal Center itself has a limited public occupancy, as it is only open to the public from 0600-1800 during the week. So, the possible maximum exposure to any one point that is accessible to the layperson is approximately 36%, not accounting for holidays nor the fact that any person occupying space near the facility would be challenged and asked to leave if they had no just cause.
U.S.G.S. TRIGA Reactor Annual Report USGS - Facility License R-113 - Docket Number 50-274 Page 12 of 14 Document Date: 2025-03-31 SECTION 7: RADIATION EXPOSURE TO PERSONNEL The GSTR issues TLD badges to reactor staff and volunteers of the facility only. Finger dosimetry (TLD) rings are also issued to all badged personnel, as there is a strong likelihood of regularly handling radioactive sources. TLDs are processed by Radiation Detection Company. Reporting categories are deep, eye, shallow, and extremity.
Other individuals visiting or intermittently working in the facility were issued electronic dosimeters which are documented in the facilitys Visitor Log and have no appreciable exposures.
TABLE IX Personnel Exposure (mrem) 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 Employee Code Whole Body Ring Deep Eye Shallow Shallow CF0707 0
0 0
41 JJ0722 0
0 0
57 VL0722 0
0 0
21 CM0715 0
0 0
28 JW0420 0
0 0
39 DP0923 0
0 0
13 Total 0
0 0
199
- 1. Above totals have the background subtracted. TLDs were processed by Radiation Detection Company.
- 2. Although neutron dose is monitored, no person experienced any neutron dose during any monitoring period.
Personnel exposures continue to be very low at this facility in keeping with ALARA efforts.
U.S.G.S. TRIGA Reactor Annual Report USGS - Facility License R-113 - Docket Number 50-274 Page 13 of 14 Document Date: 2025-03-31 SECTION 8: FUEL INSPECTIONS One fuel inspection has continued during this period. The fuel inspection was started on 2023-08-02 and currently remains open owing to discovery of the issues summarized earlier in this report. As corrective actions are identified, executed, and closed, the inspection will be able to proceed to closure. As of this time, sixty-two (62) elements will be removed from service, consisting mostly of the aluminum-clad elements obtained from the Veterans Affairs reactor in 2003, and several other stainless elements of various sources and vintages.
Otherwise, the inspection will be finished in CY 2025, pending resolution of operator license proficiencies.
U.S.G.S. TRIGA Reactor Annual Report USGS - Facility License R-113 - Docket Number 50-274 Page 14 of 14 Document Date: 2025-03-31 SECTION 9: CLOSING REMARKS This has been another extremely challenging year for the GSTR, keeping the facility in a shutdown status as we struggle with additional unforeseen, latent issues affecting components and systems that were previously considered functional. Once again, aging management and poor historical configuration management has presented significant maintenance issues and is being given priority attention as a result. Additionally, personnel issues have been identified, further complicating matters and taking valuable time and effort away from restoration activities. Despite this status, we continue to make progress on several initiatives, as has been mentioned previously:
Renovation and establishment of an analytics laboratory, equipped for neutron activation analysis and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy, is moving along, though progress has slowed.
The building management responsible for installing an epoxy floor executed the activity, but with some incomplete sections, requiring final repairs to be affected by the reactor facility personnel.
A new administrative support position was filled in June, and though additional radiochemist/analyst positions were planned, a hiring freeze is expected and will prevent timely filling of those in the coming calendar year.
Despite the obvious, imperative need to complete the fuel element inspection, the security system of the facility became the immediate emergency for the facility, owing to a poorly performing contractor.
Facility personnel were correcting improper installations and failures constantly and took over the project to ensure adequate and correct completion. These efforts and activities have continued into the next calendar year.
While documentation at the facility has been a challenging issue for many years, earnest efforts are underway to establish a well-documented overall management system in the style recommended by the International Atomic Energy Agency. By fully structuring the activities at the GSTR in this manner, the upfront investment of time and resources will ideally result in a robust program that has clear intentions and requirements for execution, reducing the amount of uncertainty and unknown factors in the facility.
The facility presses on, combatting latent issues affecting availability and reliability, as well as personnel issues.
Improving relevance, capability, and capacity remain core efforts, and the team remains dedicated and has redoubled on the push to establish a first-class facility, despite a highly problematic past.