Regulatory Guide 2.3

Quality Verification for Plant-Type Uranium-Aluminum Fuel Elements for Use in Research Reactors

ML13350A249
Person / Time
Issue date:	09/30/1975
From:	Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research
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References
RG-2.003
Download: ML13350A249 (2)

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSIONSeptember 1975REGULATORY GUIDEOFFICE OF STANDARDS DEVELOPMENTREGULATORY GUIDE 2.3QUALITY VERIFICATION FOR PLATE-TYPE URANIUM-ALUMINUMFUEL ELEMENTS FOR USE IN RESEARCH REACTORSA. INTRODUCTIONParagraph (aX7) of Section 50.34, "Contents ofApplications; Technical Information," of 10 CFR Part50, "Licensing of Production and Utilization Facilities,"requires that each applicant for a construction permit tobuild a production or utilization facility include in itspreliminary safety analysis report a description of thequality assurance program to be applied to the design,fabrication, construction, and testing of the structures,systems, and components of the facility. This guidedescribes a method acceptable to the NRC staff forC. REGULATORY POSITIONThe guidance contained in ANSI N398-1974. "QualityVerification for Plate-Type Uranium-Aluminum FuelElements."' is generally acceptable to Up NRC staff andprovides an adequate basis fo rnplying with§50.34(a)(7) of 10 CFR Part ',-50 " h respect toestablishing and executing a qiality ass ice programfor verifying the quaUt- Iof SSNate-type uranium-aluminum fuel elements ffu6'!,Vi irescarch reactors,subject to the fullo1*0:.establishing and executing a quality assurance program Instead of,-t. deAr"ptitOiven in Section i.4.9 offor verifying the quality of plate-type uraniuni- the standard , actor should be defined as aaluminum fuel elements used in research reactors, nuclear tor a used for scientific, engineering, or.DISCUSSIONi nd is designed to operate at a thermala.DISCUS Np eve megawatt or less or a level of 10Work Group ANS-I 5.2 of Subcommittee ANS-1.5 c .. or less if it does not contain a circulating loop.Research Reactors, of the American Nuclear Society .r core in which fuel experiments are conduc-Standards Committee has revised the American Na liquid fuel loading, or an experimental facility inStandards Institute (ANSI) Standard NS. 96 core in excess of 16 square inches in cross section."Quality Control for Plate-Type Uranium-Al ,num D. IMPLEMENTATIONFuel Elements." The revised standard pro uifor the- establishment and execution f a gram The purpose of this section is to provide informationdesigned to verify the quality of plat e nium- to applicants and licensees regarding the NRC staff'saluminum fuel elements for use in researcih rs. The plans for utilizing this regulatory guide.revised standard was approved by the American NationalStandards Committee N search Reactors, Reactor Except in those -cases in which the applicantPhysics and Radiation and its Secretariat. It proposes an acceptable alternative method for*was subsequently a )p designated ANSI complying, with the specified portions of theN398-1974 by; oI ber 19, 1974. Commission's regulations, the method describedherein will be used by the NRC staff in theIt sl'ou e ogni that ANSI N398-1974 covers, evaluation of submittals for construction permit oronly on i f quality assurance. ANSI N402, operating license applications for research reactors dock-"Quality rance Program. Guidelines for Research oted after May 15, 1976.Reactors," ch is currently being developed underSubcommitte ANS-15, is expected to provide overallguidance for establishing quality assurance programs for 1('opies may be obtaineid rroni the American Nuclearresearch reactors. Society. 244 Fast O+/-Cidcn Avenue. Ilindale. Illinois 60521.USNRC REGULATORY GUIDES Comments should be sent to the Secretary ot the Commission. U.S. NuclearRegutatory Guides are issued to describe and mnake available to the public Regulatory Commission. Washington. D.C. 20566. Attention. Docketing andmethods acceptable to the NRC staff of Implementing specific parts Service Section.Conmnmlssion's regulations. to delineate techniques used by the stalt in evslu The guides are issued in the following ten broad divisions"tOng specific problems or postulated accidents, or to provide guidance to applicents. Regulatory Guides are not substitutes fot regulations. and compliance 1. Power Reactors 6 Productswith them Is not required Methods and solutions difletent from those set out In 2. Research end Teot Reactors 7. Transportationthe guides will be acceptable if they provide a basis for the findings requisite to 3. Fuels and Materials Factlities B. Occupational Healththe issuance Or conttnuanc.e of a permit or license by the Commission. 4, Envirortmental and Siting 9. Antitrust ReviewComments and suggestions tor impa~vements in these guides are encouraged S. Materials and Plant Protection t0. Generalat ill limes, and guides will tie revised. as appropriate. to accommodate cornmnits and to reflect new information or taperience. However. comments on Copies of published guides may be obtllned by written request indiclting thethis guide. it received within about two monthi, after its issuance, will be pap divisions desired to the U.S Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Washington. D.C.Ilculaily uselul in evaluating the need for dn early evaision. 20r%5. Attention: Director. Office of Standards Developmen referred tothe input ror 4 usee peaking tinmcs (the noise:.lel .,afies iti'erselV with ..tle peukinig time). The main.ni. plil .htild be. a standard NIM' n module.At Loliting ratesgreater thanr" l 0" cps. problems.':.i' i als tion o1 t he energy resolution resulting in.a loss of.counts in the. spectrum peaks begin to occur.These.effecisare due to.the overlar' of portions of twoormnore pulses in. time and to bas.line The..agiiitude of ihese effects can be minimized by theinclusion of.th1e. folluwing features in the amplifier'sdes-111-. (: a baseline restorer. (BLR) circuit at. the:outp.iu and _(2) pole-zero. cancelled ý coupling" networks The. BLR circuit should be adjustable f.r.bothI-ow i a d Inlig counting rateconditions.'.5. Analog to Digital Converter (ADC)(Systems I. 11. II!) The ADC should be capable ofdigitizing pulse :,mplitudes from the amplifier in therange of 0 to 10 volts in at least 4096 channels. Thefre.quency of the internal clock should be at least 50" megidahcz to handle high. counting rates with nominalADC dead time losses. The integral nonlinearity shouldbe tle: than 0. 15% over the top 95% of full scale and thedifferential nonlinearity should be less than I.Wff overthe top 95% of full scale for semi-Gaussian pulses with" peaking times of I to usec.-These linearity specificationsare' n6t 'siringent. but arec adequate to enable" identificatiin.of unknown peaks which .may appear in aspectrum..The short-term zero channel arid gain drifts shouldbe < .01%/0C and < .02%/0C, respectively (thepercentage refers to full scale), in the temperature rangefrom 0°. to 50'C. For long term stability, the peak from' NIM-Nuclear Instrument Module, see USAEC -TechnicalInformation Document. Standard Nuclear Instrument Modules,Revision 3. TID-20893 (1969)..' more details on BLR circuits see V. Radeka, "Effect.-of 'aseline Retoration' on Signal-to-Noise. Ratio in PulseAmplitude Mcasuremernts,7 Rev. Sci. lnsir.38.1 397 (1967).a stable pulser should. not shift by more. than. onechannel over a periodfor a line voltage of 1!5V-10%, 50-65 Hz, and at constant room temperature.(Note: The .ADC drift and linearity specifications are.closely ..re!ted to the overall .system% stability andlirearity operating Spec-fications described in SectionC.S.)The .ADC should be capable of being DC coupled tothe main amplifier in order that BLR circuits can beused. A digital = offset capability in the ADC isrecommended.. (Note: In some systems the ADC is anintegral -part of a multichannel analyzer, a unit whichalso performs the .functions .of data storage, display, andsometimes rrudimentary analysis.. These latter functions'are taken up in Part 2 of this series. In multichannelanalyzer systems, however, the. ADC function is usuallyspecified separately.and canbe compared with the aboverecommendations.)(Sysiemn I) For certain applications where energyresolution is definitely not critical, all the ADCspecifications above arc applicable with the exceptionthat a 1024 channel capacity with a 1024 digital offsetmay be adequate to provide a sufficiently small energyinterval per channel (keV/channel) to cover a limitedenergy range of interest. It should be emphasized,however, that this choice may restrict the effective useof the system for other applications.6. Power Supplies(Systems 1,, II, .111) The system power supplies(detector high voltage, preamplifier, and NIM bin)should be capable of operating the system within theoperating specifications listed in Section C.A whensupplied with 115 volts (+/- 10%) at. 50 to 65 hertz (atconstant room temperature), The detector bias power* supply should have an adjustable output that is short.circuait protected with automatic power restoration afterremoval of the short. The maximum output voltage isdetermined by detector requirements; 5 kilovolts issufficient for most. applications.5 .9-6