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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Existing reactor rear face piping review

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10108373· OSTI ID:10108373
The rear face or discharge area of a reactor contains all the appurtenances necessary to discharge irradiated fuel, to collect hot coolant from each process tube, to monitor tube and effluent temperatures, and to monitor the coolant for ruptured fuel elements. Generally, failure of a rear face piping component would not affect the safety of the reactor since the coolant has fulfilled its purpose, that of cooling the fuel elements. The failure may, however, cause failure of one of the monitoring devices and if undetected could lead to a minor reactor incident. The Purpose of this report is to review all information generated during the past three years concerning the condition of rear face piping and hardware. This review includes the history of rear face piping and hardware problems, study activities taken to ascertain the condition of the components, action taken to correct actual component failures, programs recommended to correct deficiencies which operating experience and engineering judgement indicate are necessary, and programs to accumulate additional information to support design of new piping and hardware components.
Research Organization:
General Electric Co., Richland, WA (United States). Hanford Atomic Products Operation
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC06-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
10108373
Report Number(s):
HW--65269-RD; ON: DE93003945
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English