ML20042B794

Berkeley Research Reactor Annual Rept of Operations,Jan- Dec 1981.

ML20042B794
Person / Time
Site:	Berkeley Research Reactor
Issue date:	03/18/1982
From:	Lim T CALIFORNIA, UNIV. OF, BERKELEY, CA
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ML20042B792	List: ML20042B791 ML20042B794
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NUDOCS 8203260158
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NUCLEAR ENGINEERING REACIDR 1ABORAR)RY TRIGA MARK III Facility University of California Berkeley, California BERKELEY RESEARGI REACIUR 6 ANMIAL REPORT OF OPERATIONS January 1, 1981 through December 31, 1981 (BRR Technical Specifications 6.7.2) i i

Dr. Tek II. Lim Reactor Supervisor i e a

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BERKELEY RESEARQi RFACIOR OPERATIONS,1981 Reactor Use The Berkeley Research Reactor (BRR) is a TRIGA Mark III facility capabic of producing i bM steady state and of pulsing to 1300 bM peak power.

The Berkeley Research Reactor is a research and educational tool of the University of California, is located on the Berkeley Campus and is operated by the Department of Nuclear Engineering.

Besides being used by the Department of Nuclear Engineering it is used by other departments and campuses of the University, by the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and is availabic to Universities and Colleges in the area. The Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory is operated by the Univer-sity of California under contract from the Department of Energy.

In addition the Berkeley Research Reactor is used as an irradiation source for service to industry contracts and provides a stimulant to.

touring and interested high school and college students.

Experiments Perfonned Table I lists the experiments which ware perfonned in the Berkeley Research Reactor during the year 1981. A total of 21 different experiments were performed. No new experiments were approved between January 1 and December 31, 1981. The last column in Table I illustrates the number of times each experiment was performed.

Table I. Experiments Performed at the Berkeley Research Reactor in 1981 Experiment Title -

Principal Investi- Dept. or No. of

1. Class Obj ec tive Facility gator, Experimenter Company

• Runs 13 A Staff operation of reactor, cali- any, all Lim brations, demonstrations, etc. hT 7 188 B Determination of fission yield Lazy Susan' Prussin NE 2 196 A A short tem activation analysis Central Thimble Asaro, Michel study on archaeological artifacts DOE 96 199 A Study of the Characteristics of Pool Lim Compensated Ion-Chamber NE 1 221 A Determination of nickel impurity Central Thimble Prussin, Cann NE 3 in Fe2O 3 by activation analysis 273 A Origin. of pottery " Central Thimble Asaro,.$lichel DOE 13 274 A Irradiation of Ethylene Dibromide Lazy Susan Somorjai Chemistry 2

275 B Electronic components test Exposure Room Young, et al 1)fSC i 99 280 A Production of Co-60m Lazy Susan Prussin, Markowitz hT 2 281 A Production of Au-198 Lazy Susan Prussin, Markowitz NE 1 282 A Production of P-32 Lazy Susan Prussin, Markowitz NE 1 283 A Irradiation of household Lazy Susan Pn2ssin, Cann hT i

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l Table I. Experiments Performed at the Berkeley Research Reactor in 1981 Experiment Title -

Principal Investi-

1. Class Dept. or No. of Objective Facility gator, Experimenter Company

• Runs 284 A Reactor power calibration and Pool Lim NE Xenon buildup 4 303 A Magnitude and Shape of Central Central Lim NE Thimble Flux Thimble 2

306 B Graphite Prism and Themal Column Themal Ruby, Lim NE Experiment Column 1

315 A Activation analysis of biological Lazy. Susan Lim, Cann NE materials 1 348 B Short lived fission product ' Beam Port Rengan, Lim NE 49 experiment (jet stream) 349 A Trace Sodium Identification Leny Susan Ruby. NE/ DOE 5 352 A Deuterium-Tritium Microballoons Central Thimble Lane, Lim Irradiation DOE 4 353 A Doping of Germanium by Neutron Central Thimble liansen Activation DOE 4 354 A Irradiation of Environmental Samples Central Thimble lieft, Koszykowski, Lim DOE 12

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Department of Chemistry, University of California Berkeley .

DOE: Department of Energy, U.S.A.

LMSC: Lockheed Missiles 4 Space Co.

NE:

Department of Nuclear , Engineering, University of California Berkeley h

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Reactor Maintenance other than routine maintenance, testing and inspection as required by the Tech Specs, no other work was performed at the Berkeley Research Reactor facility during 1981.

10 CFR 50.59 Changes Changes to lines 21, 22 and 23 on page 6-8 and line 1 of page 6-9 of the Safety Analysis Report for the University of California Berkeley Research Reactor were requested and approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on August 10, 1981.

Routine Tests and Calibrations Thermal power calibrations were performed in April and November 1981.

The constant Air Monitor was calibrated during the month of January 1981.

The Reactor Pool Water Radiation Monitor was calibrated in September 1981-and the Area Radiation Monitors were calibrated in July 1981 while the Stack Gas Argon-41 Monitor. was calibrated in Octo .cr 1981.

Operating Schedule The Berkeley Research Reactor normally operates on a single 8 hour9.259259e-5 days <br />0.00222 hours <br />1.322751e-5 weeks <br />3.044e-6 months <br /> shift between 8 AM and 5 Pbt, Monday through Friday. One day every two weeks is set aside for routine monthly checks and maintenance. Extended reactor runs and overtime operation are allowed if required by the experimental program.

Fuel Addition and Fuel Inventory

) There were no fuel additions in 1981. The annual fuel element inventory was performed in June 1981. -

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Energy Production and Fuel Burn-up The Berkeley Research Reactor produced 117,244 kW-hours or 4.89 FM-days of energy during 1981. As there were 184 operating days in 1981 this corresponds to an average daily energy production of 637 kW-hours per operating day. In 1981 the Berkeley Research Reactor was critical approximately 320 hours0.0037 days <br />0.0889 hours <br />5.291005e-4 weeks <br />1.2176e-4 months <br /> and was operated at full power (1hM)' for approximately 92.6 hours6.944444e-5 days <br />0.00167 hours <br />9.920635e-6 weeks <br />2.283e-6 months <br />. The total burn-up in 1981 was 5.2 grams elemental and 6.1 grams of the isotope U-235.

The total cumulative energy production since initial criticality was approximately 258 FM-days.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission' Inspection There were no inspections by the Nuclear

• Regulatory Commission during 1981.

Operating Procedures

• The following new and revised operating and safety procedures were introduced in 1981:

NERL 33 -Feb. 1981 Experiment Classification and Review Appendix #3 Apr., 1981 Rod Drop Time Measurement, A BRR Interim to NERL 27 Procedure Appendix #4 Apr., 1981 BRR Operation: Additional Rules and to NERL 27 Regulations Appendix #5 June, 1981 Control Rod Calibration Procedure to NERL 27 Appendix #6 June, 1981 Operating Instructions for SDK 8085 to NERL 27 Reactor Control Rod Calibrator NERL 27 June, 1981 Reactor Operating Procedure (Revised)

NERL 16 June, 1981 Generalized Procedure for Fuel Loading and Unloading and Control Rod Removal or Replacement (Revised)

NERL 15 July, 1981 BRR Information for Experimenters (Revised)

NERL 26 Nov., 1981 Off-Hours Emergency Alams (Revised)

Emergency Shutdowns and Inadvertent Scrams Date Scram Circuit Reason 8-18-81 Percent power Power line transient Operators Training In April of -1981 one senior- reactor operator and two reactor operators passed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Reactor Operators examination.

Requalification Training Program In accordance with regulations a successful requalification written examination was given to licensed operators and senior operators in October 1981.

Exercise Routine security and cmcrgency evacuation exercises were performed .

during the months of June and December 1981. Both the reactor staff and campus police participated in the drills.

A special security exercise which involved four campus police officers and the BRR staf f was performed on July 10.

In addition a Scott Airpak and the use of fire extinguisher exercises for the reactor staff were performed respectively on August 7 and August 28 of 1981. These exercises were_ supervised by the safety personnel of Environmental .licalth 6 Safety.

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~7-Radioactive Effluent Released or Shipped Liquid Waste All liquid waste from the facility was picked up by Campus Environmental IIcalth f i Safety personnel for disposal in accordance with their regula-tions. All waste was in one gallon glass jugs.

Material shipped included:

10-21-81 5 gal. 0.3 grams U-nat + 0.2 mci miscellaneous activation products.

No liquid waste was discharged to the sewer, stonn drain or other location in the environment from this facility in 1981.

Gaseous Waste ,

All gaseous waste discharged was calculated as Ar-41, since studies in the past have shown no other significant radionuclides.

Total curies released was 2.987 Ci as Ar-41.

Average concentration at stack mouth was 3.3 x 10-9 pCi/ml.

This concentration is 0.0011 of allowable maximum concentration for this facility of 3.12 x 10 -6 Ci/ml or maximum permitted release of 2,785 Ci.

Maximum concentration noted was 7.3 x 10 -7 pCi/ml which is 0.23 of the permitted average concentration at the release point.

[ Filter paper air samples showed no particulate radioactivity was released l

via exhaust stream.

No particulate radioactivity concentration above naturally occurring values were detected.

Solid (Dry) Waste All solid (dry) waste was picked up by Campus Environmental IIcalth and Safety personnel for disposal in accordance with their regulations.

Material shipped included:

3 4-17-81 12 ft less than 60 pCi miscellaneous activation products 10-21-81 16 ft less than 80 pCi miscellaneous activation products.

No solid waste was released to the environment.

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9 Personnel Radiation Exposures Recorded radiation exposures to personnel included:

a. Facility personnel (routine users of dosimeters)

Maximum total exposure to an individual - 325 mrem Minimum total exposure to an individual - O mrem Note: Thirty-eight individuals were assigned dosimeters; only one individual incurred any recorded exposure.

b. Visitors (non-routine dosimeter users)

Maximum total exposure to any individual - 48 mrem (50 entries)

Minimum total exposure to any individual - O mrem Average total exposure to any individual - 0.24 mrem Note: Approximately 1035 entrees were made by 707 individuals.

103 positive results were recorded for 13 individuals.

Five individuals incurred total recorded exposures exceeding 10 mrem each, three of these incurred total annual exposures exceeding 25 mrem each.

Maximum exposure for any entry was 7 mrem.

c. There were no exposures in excess of.10 CFR 20 limits.

There were three persons for whom dosimeters were required by provisions of 10 CFR 20 (entry into high radiation area).

Radiation and Contamination Levels

a. Routine monthly meter surveys generated 376 individual radiation readings.

Maximum reading observed was 120 mrem /hr.

Minimum reading observed was 0 mrem /hr.

Average of readings is meaningless due to abnormal influence of one high doserate area out of 26 locations routinely surveyed.

b. Routine monthly and quarterly area film dosimeter readings totalled 144.

Maximma total dose recorded at any location for the period was 3,250 mrem.

Minimum total dose at any location for the period was O mrem.

Average dose is meaningless due to abnormal influence of a few locations.

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c. Routine quarterly area TLD dosimeter readings totalled 16.

hbximum total dose at any location for the , eriod was 17 mrem.

Minimum total dose at.any location for th ; period was 0 mrem.

Average total dose at any location for the period was 5.3 mrem.

Period reported for film and TLD is 2-1-81 through 1-31-82.

d. Routine weekly swipe program generated 1960 swipes, of which 6 showed contamination above normally expected level.

Maximum swipe activities recorded was 393 cts / min from nonna11y contaminated surfaces,165 cts / min from not-normally-contaminated surfaces.

Minimum activities for both categories was zero.

Averages were not determined.

Environmental Surveys Environmental TLD measurements at eleven locations outside the facility generated 44 radiation readings.

Maximum total recorded exposure at any location for the period was

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282 mrem.

Minimum total recorded exposure at any location was 0 mrem.

Average recorded exposure for the eleven 1ccations was 53.1 mrem.

Note that the period reported was 2-1-81 through 1-31-82.

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