RADIOCHEMISTRY DURING START-UP AND EARLY OPERATION OF THE NUCLEAR SHIP SAVANNAH. Final Report

Technical Report · Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1962

OSTI ID:4059925

Battist, L; Winnowski, W S; Dieterly, D K; Koch, R C

It was demonstrated that the radioactivity content of the primary system of the N.S. Savannah reactor plant was small and normal during the period of initial criticality and start-up, and during the sea trials and acceptance tests. The principal radioactive constituents (/sup 56/Mn, /sup 41/Ar, /sup 13/N and / sup 18/F) are either intrinsic to the primary system of the pressurized water reactor or are normally found in the coo1ant in concentrations comparable to those observed in this program. The /sup 56/Mn concentrations observed at the various reactor power levels were slightiy higher, relative to those for the other nuclides, than those observed in similar reactor plants. This slightly increased concentration is attributable to the fact that the coolant of this reactor was generally maintained between pH6 and pH7, whereas the primary coolants of the other plants were maintained at somewhat higher pH values. Data for fission product concentrations in the primary coolant indicate that their only significant source is uranium contamination of the reactor core surfaces. The observed concentrations do not represent any significant hazard or potential difficulty in plant operation. The small value of 5.6 x 10/sup -2/ mu g/cm/sup 2/ for the surface density of uranium indicates that no significant contamination of these surfaces occurred during core fabrication. No significant defect in a fuel element cladding was detected during the period in which these measurements were performed. The efficiency of the demineralizer for removal of anionic and cationic radionuclides from the primary coolant was shown to exceed 90%. Volatile radionuclides were the only radioactive constituents found in the demineralizer effluent. Data obtained for the concentrations of gross radioactivity in the waste tanks were maintained below the maximum permissible concentrations for discharge to the environment. On the basis of these radiochemistry studies, it may be concluded that the N.S. Savannah primary coolant system exhibited a normal content and distribution of radionuclides and that those plant components for which radioactivity indicators or mon-itors were observed exhibited safe and normal operation behavior. (auth)

• Research Organization: Nuclear Science and Engineering Corp., Pittsburgh
• DOE Contract Number: AT(30-1)-3082; 529-2082
• NSA Number: NSA-18-017320
• OSTI ID: 4059925
• Report Number(s): NSEC-72
• Resource Relation: Other Information: For New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, N.J. Orig. Receipt Date: 31-DEC-64
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

REACTOR TECHNOLOGY
ACCIDENTS
ACIDITY
ANIONS
ARGON 41
CATIONS
CONCENTRATION
CONTAMINATION
COOLANT LOOPS
COOLANTS
CRITICALITY
DECONTAMINATION
DEFECTS
DENSITY
DETECTION
EFFICIENCY
ENVIRONMENT
FABRICATION
FAILURES
FISSION PRODUCTS
FLUORINE 18
FUEL CANS
FUEL ELEMENTS
MANGANESE 56
MEASURED VALUES
NITROGEN 13
OPERATION
PERFORMANCE
POWER
POWER PLANTS
PRESSURE
PROPULSION
QUANTITY RATIO
RADIOACTIVITY
RADIOCHEMISTRY
RADIOISOTOPES
REACTOR CORE
REACTORS
REPROCESSING
SAFETY
SAVANNAH
SEA
SHIPS
STARTUP
STORAGE
SURFACES
TESTING
TRANSPORT
URANIUM
VARIATIONS
VESSELS
VOLATILITY
WASTE DISPOSAL
WATER COOLANT