PRESSURIZED WATER REACTOR (PWR) PROJECT, TECHNICAL PROGRESS REPORT FOR THE PERIOD DECEMBER 24, 1961 TO FEBRUARY 23, 1962

Technical Report · Wed Oct 31 00:00:00 EST 1962

OSTI ID:4795791

A revised seed poison plate design was developed. In order to accommodate volume growth due to B/sup 10/ depletion, the seed poison wafers in each plate were segmented into separate compartments. To compensate for the consequent reduction in axial wafer dimension, the width of the poison lump has been increased from 0.225 ib. to 0.240 in. to maintain the same reactivity lifetime effect. Blarket power capability at the end of Seed 1 life was re- evaluated by means of the XITE Code and found to be 154 Mw/sub e/. A study has been made utilizing the TITE Code, the results of which showed that blanket charnel spacing limits can be changed to correspond with manufacturing process capability. A re-evaluation of power limits during cold plant startup conditions was completed. Air flow studies of a 4/10 scale model of PWR-2 were to provide additional information on mixing and components of the pressure losses. PWR-2 refueling and handling equipment designs include a tool for seating shrouds in mechanism ports of the PWR-2 head, locking assemblies for reteation of control rods in fuel assemblies during movement of an assembled core cartridge, modifications to existing racks to allow storage of new PWR-2 fuel assemblies in the fuel storage vault, and modifications to PWR-1 core hoisting equipment to allow handling of PWR-2 core cartridge and thermal shields. Approximately 85% of the core complement of blanket fuel elements were pressure bonded; all attributes continue in control. Over 1500 full length blanket elements were processed at WAFD. The first production subassembly was welded; weld penetration and channel spacing are within drawing requirements, but minor adjustments will be made on succeeding units. The development program to fabricate seed poison elements with clearance volume in the poison tracks was completed. The U/sup 235/ loadings attained on seed fuel wafers manufactured since October 18, 1961, are within the acceptable tolerance band of plus or minus 3% of nominal but show a consistent trend on the negative (low) side of nominal. Effort is being directed to obtain a normal distribution of seed wafer loading values about the nominal to satisfy cluster and core loading requirements. Adapters were designed for the omega seal welding machine to allow use of preplaced metal filler wire in making welds for the omega seals on the PWR-1 vessel head. Comparison of Seed 2 and Seed 3 control rod positions at full power indicates that the Seed 3 reactivity is decreasing slightly faster than did Seed 2. lt was concluded that the Core 2 Plant Modifications of the Shippingport Atomic Power Station can be accomplished without decontamination of the reactor coolant system at the end of Seed 3 operations and that no radiation tolerance problems to personnel will result, based on an exposure limitation of 3R per 13 weeks. X-ray diffraction studies of ZrO/sub 2/ with 9 x 10/sup 20/ fissions/cc show that all compositions have the cubic crystal structure. The lattice parameter values of these ZrO/-UO/ fuels vary in accord with Vegard's Law. The unit cell is not affected by exposures up to about 30 x 10/sup 20/ fissions/cc. Examination of defected rod IDJ 3269 of Bundle 0485 from PWR-1 blanket showed that the oxide film build-up on the inside cladding surface is consistent with that expected for the rod to be defected throughout its inpile life. The defect was identified as a T-Shaped fabrication defect presumably introduced in the tubing drawing ope ration. (auth)

• Research Organization: Westinghouse Electric Corp. Bettis Atomic Power Lab., Pittsburgh
• DOE Contract Number: AT(11-1)-GEN-14
• NSA Number: NSA-16-015924
• OSTI ID: 4795791
• Report Number(s): WAPD-MRP-96
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Orig. Receipt Date: 31-DEC-62
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

REACTOR TECHNOLOGY
AIR
BONDING
BORON 10
BURNUP
CONFIGURATION
CONTROL ELEMENTS
CONVERSION
COOLANT LOOPS
DECONTAMINATION
DEFORMATION
DIFFRACTION
DISTRIBUTION
EQUATIONS
FABRICATION
FAILURES
FILMS
FUEL CANS
FUEL ELEMENTS
GAS FLOW
INSPECTION
IRRADIATION
LATTICES
LIFETIME
LOSSES
MAINTENANCE
MIXING
MOCKUP
OXIDES
PERSONNEL
PLANNING
PLATES
POISONING
POWER
POWER PLANTS
PRESSURE
PRESSURE VESSELS
PROGRAMMING
PWR
RADIATION DOSES
REACTIVITY
REACTOR CORE
REACTORS
REMOTE HANDLING
SHIELDING
SHIPPINGPORT
STANDARDS
STARTUP
STORAGE
TESTING
THERMAL INSULATION
THERMODYNAMICS
TOOLS
TRANSPORT
TUBES
URANIUM DIOXIDE
VARIATIONS
VOLU