ML12214A276

University of Utah - Annual Operating Report for Period July 1, 2011 Through June 30, 2012

ML12214A276
Person / Time
Site:	University of Utah
Issue date:	07/26/2012
From:	Jevremovic T Univ of Utah
To:	Document Control Desk, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
References
Download: ML12214A276 (14)

Text

26 July, 2012 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Document Control Desk Washington, D.C. 20555 To whom it may concern:

Enclosed please find the Annual Operating Report for the University of Utah TRIGA Nuclear Reactor, License No. R-126, Docket number 50-407, for the period of 1 July 2011 through 30 June 2012. This report fulfills the requirements of the TRIGA Technical Specifications 6.7.1.

If there are any further questions or concerns regarding this report, please contact me at (801) 587-9696.

Respectfully, Jevremovic, Ph.D.

I4o5"-

UUTR AnnuaJ Report 1 July 2011 - 30 Jun 2012 The University of Utah TRIGA Reactor (UUTR)

Annual Operating Report for the period 1 July 2011 through 30 June 2012 Dr. Dong-OK Choe, UUTR Supervisor Dr. Tatjana Jevremovic, UNEP & UUTR Director Utah Nuclear Engineering Program (UNEP) 1

UUTR Annual Report 1 July 2011 - 30 Jun 2012 CONTENTS A. Narrative 3 A.1. OperatingExperience 3 A.2. Upgradeand Changesin the Facility 3 A.3. Surveillance Tests 4 A.3.a Control Rod Worth 4 A.3.b Control Rod Inspection 5 A.3.c Reactor Power Level Instrumentation 5 A.3.d Fuel Inspection 6 A.3.e Fuel Temperature Calibration 6 A.3.f Reactor Safety Committee (RSC) Audits 6 A.3.g Environmental Surveys 6 B. ENERGY OUTPUT 7 C. EMERGENCY SHUTDOWNS AND INADVERTENT SCRAMS 7 D. MAJOR MAINTENANCE 8 E. CHANGES, TESTS AND EXPERIMENTS PURSUANT TO 10 CFR 50.59 8 F. REACTOR SAFETY COMMITTEE 8 G. RADIOACTIVE EFFLUENTS 9 G.1. Liquid Waste 9 G.2. Gaseous Waste 9 G.3. Solid Waste 10 H. PERSONNEL RADIATION EXPOSURES 10 11.1. UNEP Personnel 10 H.2. MeasuredDoses 10 H.3. Dose EquivalentLimit 10 H.4. Visitors 10 I. LABORATORY SURVEYS 12 J. ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 12 Utah Nuclear Engineering Program (UNEP) 2

UUTR Annual Report 1 July 2011 - 30 Jun 2012 A. NARRATIVE A.1. OperatingExperience The University of Utah TRIGA Reactor (UUTR), License No. R-126, Docket No. 50-407, was critical for 85.301 hours0.00348 days <br />0.0836 hours <br />4.976852e-4 weeks <br />1.145305e-4 months <br /> and generated 4,928.939 kilowatt-hours of thermal energy during this reporting year. The reactor was used for educational demonstrations and training, class laboratory experiments, reactor systems tests, reactor power measurements and neutron activation analysis and various samples irradiations.

A.2. Upgradeand Changes in the Facility The grating on the top of the reactor tank was installed in December 2011, as shown in Figure 1. The facility and associated laboratories were upgraded with new counting instrumentations. The upgrade included the security system of the facility and cleaning of the space.

Figures 2 shows newly established counting stations, radio-chemistry laboratory, microscopy lab, and laboratory preparation area.

Figure 1. New gratingof the UUTR installedin December of201l Utah Nuclear Engineering Program (UNEP) 3

UUTR Annual Report 1 July 2011 - 30 Jun 2012 Figure 2. UNEF Counting stations,radio-chemistrylaboratory,microscopy laboratoryand laboratorypreparationarea A.3. Surveillance Tests Documentation of all surveillance activities is retained and stored within the facility.

A.3.a Control Rod Worth Control rod worth measurements were performed semiannually and after the biennial fuel inspection. The results are summarized in Table

1. The control rod worth varies within less than 1.5 % of the measurements for the safety and shim control rod, and less than 6 %

for the regulating control rod. Shut down margin (SDM) and excess reactivity (ER) were calculated based on the three-control rod worth values. Both SDM and ER vary within 12 %.

Utah Nuclear Engineering Program (UNEP) 4

UUTR Annual Report 1 July 2011 - 30 Jun 2012 Table 1. Summary of control rod worth, shut down margin,and excess reactivity Core Configuration #24-B #24-B #24-B Date 08/02/11 12/29/11 02/28/12 Worth ($) Worth ($) Worth ($)

Safety Rod 2.220 2.200 2.247 Shim Rod 1.490 1.493 1.507 Regulating Rod 0.280 0.270 0.263 Excess Reactivity 0.860 0.755 0.809 Shutdown Margin 0.910 1.008 0.961 A.3.b Control Rod Inspection The biennial control rod inspection was performed during December of 2011 when the control rods were sequentially removed from the reactor core for visual inspection. Each control rod was found to be in a good condition with no noticeable deterioration or corrosion.

Rod drop times were measured on 08/02/11, 12/29/11, and 02/28/12. All rod drop times were less than 1.0 second.

A.3.c Reactor Power Level Instrumentation Calorimetric power calibrations were performed on 8/20/10, and 2/25/11 with the results shown in Table 2. The errors for the measured and calculated reactor power of each power calibration was less than 5%, providing calibration of the reactor power channels is not required.

Table 2. Summary of calorimetricpower calibration Date Measured % Calculated Power Level Power 08/05/11 92.50 88.41 12/29/11 92.90 93.92 02/24/12 90.60 86.88 Utah Nuclear Engineering Program (UNEP) 5

UUTR Annual Report 1 July 2011 - 30 Jun 2012 A.3.d Fuel Inspection The biennial fuel inspection was performed during December of 2011 when each fuel element was visually inspected while keeping it submerged in reactor tank water in assuring the required shielding.

No deterioration or excessive corrosion of in-core fuel elements was observed. Pool water is sampled and analyzed periodically for evidence of fission product activity indicative of defective or deteriorating fuel. Analyses of pool water following full-power reactor operations lasting several hours have not shown any indication of the presence of fission products.

A.3.e Fuel Temperature Calibration Fuel temperature circuits were calibrated on 08/30/11 and 02/24/12. The circuits were calibrated to less than a 2 'C error over the range from 20 'C to 400 'C.

A.3.f Reactor Safety Committee (RSC) Audits Four RSC audits were completed during this reporting period. The data are shown in Table 3. No significant deviations from normal operating practices were identified by these audits.

Table 3. Reactor Safety Committee auditsummary Audit Period Auditor Operation and 01/01/12 to 06/30/12 James R. Parry/INL Maintenance Radiation Safety 01/01/12 to 06/30/12 James R. Parry/INL and ALARA Operation and 07/01/11 to 12/31/11 James R. Parry/INL Maintenance Radiation Safety 07/01/11 to 12/31/11 James R. Parry/INL and ALARA A.3.g Environmental Surveys Six environmental monitors are located in the areas surrounding the UUTR. James R. Parry of Idaho National Laboratory (INL) reported to the RSC a maximum exposure of 50 mrem per quarter on the Utah Nuclear Engineering Program (UNEP) 6

UUTR Annual Report 1 July 2011 - 30 Jun 2012 environmental dosimeter located in building #80. Table 4 shows the average dose recorded in last five years.

Table 4. Summary of environmentalmonitoring around the UUTR Year Average quarterly readings for 9 environmental monitors (mrem) 2011 35.13 2010 36.00 2009 34.56 2008 39.26 2007 37.94 B. ENERGY OUTPUT The UUTR reactor was critical for 85.301 hours0.00348 days <br />0.0836 hours <br />4.976852e-4 weeks <br />1.145305e-4 months <br /> and produced 0.205 megawatt-days (4,928.939 kilowatt.hours) of energy during this reporting period. Since initial criticality, the reactor has been operated for a total of 3,649.643 hours0.00744 days <br />0.179 hours <br />0.00106 weeks <br />2.446615e-4 months <br /> with an accumulated total energy output of 9.033 megawatt-days (216,795.716 kilowatt.hours).

C. EMERGENCY SHUTDOWNS AND INADVERTENT SCRAMS There were six inadvertent SCRAMs occurred during this period:

10/21/2011, 10/28/2011, 03/29/2012 (3), and 04/05/2012 because of feedback from mechanical errors of the pool water scram switch.

There were no emergency shutdowns. Summary of the inadvertent scrams is given in Table 5.

Table 5. Summary of inadvertentSCRAMs Date Run Type Cause Action Number 10/21/11 1758 Pool Pool water scram Reset pool water switch- Feedback from water the pool water scram scram switch 10/28/11 1759 Pool Pool water scram Reset pool water switch- Feedback from water the pool water scram scram I switch Utah Nuclear Engineering Program (UNEP) 7

UUTR Annual Report 1 July 2011 - 30 Jun 2012 03/29/12 1781 Pool Pool water scram Reset pool (3) water switch- Feedback from water the pool water scram scram switch 04/05/12 1782 Pool Pool water scram Reset pool water switch- Feedback from water the pool water scram scram switch D. MAJOR MAINTENANCE There was no major maintenance in this report period.

E. CHANGES, TESTS AND EXPERIMENTS PURSUANT TO 10 CFR 50.59 The grating on the top of the reactor tank was installed in December of 2011.

F. REACTOR SAFETY COMMITTEE As of the end of this reporting period, the current members of the RSC as designated by the Licensee are as follows:

James M. Byrne, Chair Tatjana Jevremovic, Director UNEP and UUTR Karen Langely, RSO of University of Utah Dongok Choe, Reactor Supervisor Gary M. Sandquist Robert J. Huber James Thompson James R. Parry Paul Tikalsky Alireza Haghighat Rian B. Smith The UNEP staff continues to review and update facility documentation to assure compliance with all applicable regulations.

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UUTR Annual Report 1 July 2011 - 30 Jun 2012 G. RADIOACTIVE EFFLUENTS G.1. Liquid Waste Total activity released: There was no liquid waste release in this report period.

G.2. Gaseous Waste Total estimated activity released: Total 61.365 ýtCi of gaseous waste was released in this report period. The UUTR was operated for 85.301 hours0.00348 days <br />0.0836 hours <br />4.976852e-4 weeks <br />1.145305e-4 months <br /> at power levels of up to approximately 90 kW. At this power level Ar-41 production is substantially below MPC values for unrestricted areas. The minimum detectable concentration of Ar-41 from the CAM system for the stack monitor has been found to be less than two-thirds of 10 CFR 20 Appendix B limits for release to unrestricted areas. The average annual calculated concentration of Ar-41 generated during operation is estimated to be 2.73 1x10-10

[tCi/ml that is approximately 0.008 % of the DAC. The total amount of Ar-41 released was estimated to be 61.365 [tCi. No P-32 was released from the UUTR and associated facilities during this period. The total amount of all gaseous radioactivity released was estimated to be 61.365 liCi. A monthly summary of gaseous releases is given in Table

6. Total activity of gaseous effluent was therefore 61.365 ýCi.

Table 6. Summary of monthly gaseous radioactiveeffluent Month Ar-41 (RCi) Ar-41 (gtCi/ml) Estimated Release  % of DAC P-32 and all others Jul 11 8.296 3.690x10-11 0 0.001 Aug 11 5.364 2.390x10-11 0 0.001 Sep 11 6.769 3.010x10-'1 0 0.001 Oct 11 8.943 3.980x10-11 0 0.001 Nov 11 0.000 0 0 0.000 Dec 11 3.663 1.630x10-' 1 0 0.001 Jan 12 4.450 1.980x10- 1 0 0.001 Feb 12 10.562 4.700x10-1" 0 0.002 Mar 12 9.211 4.100x10-1 1 0 0.001 Apr 12 2.589 1.150x10- 1 0 0.000 May 12 1.165 5.180x10l1 2 0 0.000 Jun 12 0.353 1.570x10- 12 0 0.000 Total 61.365 2.731x10-1 0 0 0.009 Utah Nuclear Engineering Program (UNEP) 9

UUTR Annual Report 1 July 2011 - 30 Jun 2012 G.3. Solid Waste Total activity: There was no solid waste release in this report period. No solid waste material was sent to the Radiological Health Department for disposal during the period of 1 July 2011 through 30 June 2012.

H. PERSONNEL RADIATION EXPOSURES H.1. UNEP Personnel The University of Utah Radiological Health Department has issued to all personnel with duties in the reactor laboratory on either a regular or occasional basis an optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dosimeter. The duty category and monitoring period of personnel are summarized in Table 7. Table 8 represents a summary of personnel who stopped working at UNEP during this report period. A summary of the whole body exposures to the UNEP personnel is presented in Table 9.

H.2. MeasuredDoses In this report period, the average personnel dose was less than 2 mrem; the highest measured dose for UNEP personnel was 2 mrem.

11.3. Dose Equivalent Limit According to 10 CFR 20.1201 (a) (1) (i), maximum permissible occupational dose equivalency is 5,000 mrem/year (1,250 mrem/quarter). All UNEP personnel's occupational doses are within the 10 CFR 20.1201 limits. The radiation doses for personnel and laboratory at UNEP are determined monthly using OSL dosimeters.

Minimum detectable dose of the OSL dosimeter is 10 mrem/month.

H.4. Visitors Five hundred and fifteen (515) individuals visited the reactor facility during the period 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012. None of the visitors received a measurable dose.

Utah Nuclear Engineering Program (UNEP) 10

UUTR Annual Report 1 July 2011 - 30 Jun 2012 Table 7. Summary of monitored personnel during the reportperiod Name Monitoring Period Duty Category Dongok Choe 07/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Douglas Crawford 07/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Jorge Navarro 07/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Zachary Heinz 09/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Gregory Moffitt 01/01/12-6/30/12 Regular Jesse Reeves 07/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Tatjana Jevremovic 07/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Aliaksei Minko 10/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Todd Sherman 07/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Andrew Voyles 07/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Haori Yang 07/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Joseph Levinthal 07/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Ian Schwerdt 07/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Christopher Dances 07/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Hermilo Hernandez 10/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Jason Rapich 07/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Steven Burnham 07/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Daniel Telenko 07/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Philip Babitz 07/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Avdo Cutic 07/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Jennifer Gibson 07/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Brooklyn Noble 12/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Andrey Rybalkin 10/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Christian Adjei 10/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Dallon Boyd 03/01/12-6/30/12 Regular Samuel Brown 04/01/12-6/30/12 Regular Tierra Duffield 10/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Mark Young 02/01/12-6/30/12 Regular Samantha Winkle 09/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Blane Wilkinson 10/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Can Liao 10/01/11-6/30/12 Regular Utah Nuclear Engineering Program (UNEP) 11

UUTR Annual Report 1 July 2011 - 30 Jun 2012 Table 8. Summary of personnel who stopped working at UNEP during the reportperiod Luis Ortiz R. 04/01/11-6/30/12 Regular/Discontinued Thomas Van Hook 10/01/11-6/30/12 Regular/Discontinued Ryan Bartling 09/01/11-6/30/12 Regular/Discontinued Table 9. Summary of whole body exposures to the UNEP personnel Estimated whole body exposure Number of individuals range (rem) in each range No. of Measurable Dose (Less than 0.10) 34 0.10 to 0.25 0 0.25 to 0.50 0 0.50 to 0.75 0 0.75 to 1.00 0 1.00 to 2.00 0 2.00 to 3.00 0 3.00 to 4.00 0 4.00 to 5.00 0 Greater than 5 rem 0 I. LABORATORY SURVEYS Monthly surveys of the facility were conducted by the University of Utah Radiological Health Department during this reporting period.

The surveys have not indicated any unusual radiation levels over previous years. Records of surveys are retained at the facility.

J. ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES Environmental monitoring conducted by the University of Utah Radiological Health Department indicated no unusual dose rates in the areas surrounding the Merrill Engineering Building, which houses the UUTR reactor facility.

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UUTR Annual Report 1 July2011 - 30 Jun 2012 Prepared by: Date: 7/25/2012 l~eactor Supervisor Submitted by: Date: 7/25/2012 a Supervisor Approved by: atianaevre ovic Date: 7/26/2012 Direct r Utah Nuclear Engineering Program (UNEP) 13