Rural Cooperative Power Association's Elk River Reactor Twenty-Fourth Monthly Operating Report (October, 1964)

Technical Report · Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 1964

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/4671611· OSTI ID:4671611

The reactor operated 9.1% of the month. On October 3 the nuclear plant was shut down for a scheduled outage and the turbine transferred to #3 boiler. The plant was down for the remainder of the month except for cold critical tests on October 28. The scheduled outage was at the request of the contractor and AEC to complete remaining contract obligations. A large portion of the down time was used to accomplish final painting. During the outage, the control rod inspection procedures were finalized and approved. Cold critical tests were completed to provide a reference for comparison with additional cold criticals which will be done after the fuel, control rods and control rod drives are reassembled into the reactor. The critical rod position for the 13-rod bank was 8.998 inches, indicating a decrease in reactivity of 22 cents since the startup on August 4, 1964. Shutdown margin determinations were made with a 12-rod bank and each of the rods fully withdrawn. During the last days of the month, the pressure vessel head, the shroud extension, spray ring, and all thirteen control rod drives were removed from the reactor in order to inspect the control rods. Bonnets were installed to replace the control rod drives. The shutdown spray ring was installed in place of the normal operating ring and tested. The PuBe source and BF₃ detector were installed in the fuel element storage well to monitor the core removal. Two fuel elements were transferred into the storage well from the reactor at the end of the month. The entire month of November is scheduled for reactor shutdown in order to complete the inspection, reload fuel and reassemble all reactor internals and appurtenances.

• Research Organization: Rural Cooperative Power Assn., Elk River, MN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP); US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)
• DOE Contract Number: AT(11-1)-651
• NSA Number: NSA-19-008630
• OSTI ID: 4671611
• Report Number(s): COO-651-5
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Orig. Receipt Date: 31-DEC-65
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
42 ENGINEERING
CONTROL ELEMENTS
COOLANT LOOPS
CRITICALITY
ERR
FISSION PRODUCTS
FUEL ELEMENTS
GASES
GENERATORS
INSPECTION
MAINTENANCE
OPERATION
PERFORMANCE
POWER
POWER PLANTS
PRESSURE VESSELS
PRODUCTION
REACTOR CORE
REACTORS
RODS
SHUTDOWN
STARTUP
STORAGE
SUPERHEATING
TESTING
TURBINES
VESSELS
WASTE DISPOSAL
WATER
WATER COOLANT
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
Criticality
Fission
Elk River Reactor
Fuel Elements
Generators
Inspection
Monthly Report
Progress Report
Testing
Operations
Radiological Physics
Waste Disposal
Radiochemistry