ML15084A006

Rhode Island Nuclear Science Center - Submission of 2014 Annual Report, Per Technical Specifications Section 6.8.4

ML15084A006
Person / Time
Site:	Rhode Island Atomic Energy Commission
Issue date:	08/28/2014
From:	Hathaway C State of RI, Atomic Energy Comm, Nuclear Science Ctr
To:	Boyle P G Document Control Desk, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
References
Download: ML15084A006 (7)

Text

STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS Rhode Island Atomic Energy Commission 16 Reactor Road Narragansett, RI 02882-1165 Telephone

1. 401-874w2600 August 28, 2014 Docket No. 50-193 Mr. Patrick Boyle, Project Manager Research and Test Reactor Licensing Branch Division of Policy and Rulemaking.

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.

Washington, DC 20555

Dear Mr. Boyle:

.This letteir and the enclosures constitute the annual report required by the RINSC Technical Specifications (Section-6.8-4ý).:Enclosure.1 provides reactor operating statistics.

Enclosure 2 provides information ef.rtfiiinig to inadvertent -reactor shutdowns or scrams. Enclosure 3 discusses maintenance operations performed during th6erelirtiig'period.

Enclosure 4 describes changes to the facility carried out under the conditionsof Section'50.59 of Chapter 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

Lastly, Enclosure 5 iuminaiizes thie radiological controls information.

If there are any questions regarding this information, please call me at.401-874-2600.

Sincerely, Constance Hathaway Health Physicist Enclosures (5)Copy to: Mr. Craig Bassett, USNRC Dr. John J. Breen,' Chairman, NRSC Dr. Clinton Chichester, Chairman, RIAEC .Dr..Nancy Breen, RIAEC Mr. Howard Chun, RIAEC.Dr. Bahram' Nassersharif, RIAEC Dr. Yana K. Reshetnyak, RIAEC 7 At~o A~L ENCLOSURE 1 Technical Specifications Section 6.8.4.a Month Year Operating Hours Energy (MWH) Energy.(MWD)

July 2013 8.03 .__ 7.17 0.30 August 2013 15.48 1 1.83 0.49 September 2013 .7.50 7.97 0.33 October 2013 _9.50 820 0.34 November 2013 24.73 34.20 1.43 December 2013 21.58 30.23 1.26 January 2014 50.87 55.09 2.30 February 2014 14.42 ..19.03 0.79 March 2014 37.70 50.27 2.09 April 20-14 46.68 66.30 .. ...... 2.76 May 2014 -34,95 ..49.63 2.06 June 2014 34.55 49.30 2.05 TOTAL FY2014 305.99 389.22 16.02 Total Energy Output since Initial Criticality:

64,708.32 MWhrs or 2696.18 MWdays.

ENCLOSURE 2 EMERGENCY SHUTDOWNSAND SCRAMS The following is a list of the unscheduled shutdowns and inadvertent scrams that occurred during the 2013-2014 reporting period. This information is required by Technical Specification 6.8.4.b Date Run No. Logbook Page Cause Description 9/05/13 8809 59 149 Instrumentation Period scram due to bad ground on Neutron Flux Monitor 12/12/13 8826 60 12 Operator Power mode switch on O. 1MW vs.2MW 01/07/14 8829 60 15 Operator Overpower scram due to lowering range, inadvertently

....__shifted 2 ranges 01/24/14 8835 21 21 Operator Overpower due.to.lowering range too__ quickly 04/08/14 8858 60 45 Operator Overpower due to lowering range, inadvertently shifted 2 ranges 04/30/14 8867 60 55 Instrumentation Overpower scram on flux monitor signal noise ENCLOSURE 3 Technical Specification 6.8.4.c requires a listing of the major maintenance operations performed in the 2013-2014 reporting period including their impact upon the safe operation of the reactor and the reasons for the corrective maintenance.

In September of 2013, the primary cooling water pipe gaskets in the high power end of the reactor pool were replaced with like material..

The old gaskets had deteriorated due to normal wear and tear, A major upgrade to the facility's security system began in April of 2014. This project is being sponsored by the Global Threat Reduction Initiative, GTRI, and will completely replace the existing security system.The new system will continue to have the alarms for pool level, loss of power and fire systems trouble and will include a large increase in the capability of the system and the scope of the protected envelope.Noted improvements in the protection of reactor related equipment will be a steel tool box mounted on the wall for fuel handling tool storage equipped with tamper detection and high security locks, and a similar box for the overhead crane pendant with high security locks on both the pendant box and the crane electrical power breaker handle. An independent remote monitoring system with cameras and radiation detection at the reactor pool level will also be installed.

The plan is for the new system to go live by the end of August. (Note: At issue of this report, the new system actually went live on July 30'b. A final summary will be included in the next annual report.)

ENCLOSURE 4 FACILITY CHANGES -1OCFR50.59 REVIEW Technical Specification 6.8.4.d requires that we provide a listing and description of any 10 CFR 50.59 evaluations conducted during the 2013-2014 reporting period. There were no facility changes made during this period reqtuiring a 10 CFR 50.59 evaluation.

The RINSC is continuing with efforts to upgrade and modernize thereactor control room. These changes were previously evaluated and approved by the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Committee.

The changes include new displays for reactor power level, core and experiment status, and area radiation levels. Other changes include adding annunciators, alarms, and additional test points.

ENCLOSURE 5 RADIOLOGICAL CONTROLS 1. Environmental Surveys outside the Facility-Technical Specification 6.8.4.e Quarterly TLD' badges are deployed outside the reactor building in three separate locations.

The general public does not frequent these locations and therefore occupancy factors may be used to approximate annual dose. The allowable external dose rates must be below 100 mrem per year.The quarterly doses in units of mrem are shown in the table below.LOCATION 3Y QTR 2012 4 th QTR 2012 1! QTR 2013 2 nd QTR 2013 Northeast Wall 0 0 --- 16 .19 Demineralizer 48 173 120 96 Door I Heat'Exchanger

17. 36 38 18 Door These areas are in locations where access is limited. Consequently, the general public will not frequent these areas, and appropriate occupancy factors can be used to approximate annual dose.Assuming that the maximum time that a member of the general public would be present in one of these locations is 10 minutes per day, an occupancy factor of 0.01 can be used to obtain the annual dose that would be received by a member of the general public, in any of these areas.The annual dose rate at the Northeast Wall, Demineralizer and Heat Exchanger Doors is dependent on the operations schedule of the reactor. Ignoring the fact that the dose rate is not present 24 hours2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br /> per day, and applying the occupancy factor of 0.01, the annual dose that would be receive by an individual in the demineralizer room would be 4.37 mrem. The dose received at the Heat Exchanger Door would be .1.09 mrem. The annual dose received at the Northeast wall would be 0.35 mrem. The variations from quarter to quarter and from previous reports were due in part to movements of items within the reactor building during the fiscal year and varying use of the different irradiation facilities.

2. Annual Exposures Exceeding 500mreo -Technical Specification 6.8.4.f There were no personnel exposures greater than 500 mrem.3. Radioactive Effluents

-Technical Specification 6.8.4.g A. Individual gaseous effluent concentrations for each reactor operation are recorded on the Monthly Information Sheets (Form NSC-78). The concentration of radioactive materials.

in the effluent released from the facility exhaust stacks shall not exceed 1E+05 times concentrations

'Thermoluminescent Dosimeter; Radiation Detection Co. reads the dosimeters at minimum of 10 mrem.

I -specified in I OCFR20, Appendix B, Table II, when averaged over time periods permitted by 1OCFR20.2 Gamma spectroscopy of stack gas samples has shown that the principal gaseous effluent is Argon-4 1. The maximum concentration for this principle contaminant permitted under Technical Specifications is 1E-8 j4Ci/cc xlE5 1E-3 jiCi/ce. Concentrations released during the year were less than 0.2 of that limit.The total Argon-41 release during the reporting period was 54.49 curies, The calculated effective dose equivalent for their release is 1.2 mrem/year (COMPLY Code).B. Liquid effluent concentrations released to the sewer are documented on the Sewer Discharge Radioassay Report (NSC-09).

Each release was approved prior to discharge with its ph being.within the acceptable range and with the sum of the fractions of the respective radioisotopes being below the discharge limit of 1. For the reporting period, the total volume of discharge was 36,626,856 ml. The isotopes and their relative 'activities discharged are given below.Radioisotope Total Activity Discharged (microcuries)

H3 6306.290 C14 6711.861 Pb214 34.453 Na22 0.141 Sb122 8.052 Co60 0.179 Cd109 3.679 2 Technical Specifications, Section 3.7.2.