Regulatory Guide 2.3

Quality Verification for Plant-Type Uranium-Aluminum Fuel Elements for Use in Research Reactors

ML13350A249
Person / Time
Issue date:	09/30/1975
From:	Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research
To:
References
RG-2.003
Download: ML13350A249 (2)

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

September 1975 REGULATORY GUIDE

OFFICE OF STANDARDS DEVELOPMENT

REGULATORY GUIDE 2.3 QUALITY VERIFICATION FOR PLATE-TYPE URANIUM-ALUMINUM

FUEL ELEMENTS FOR USE IN RESEARCH REACTORS

A. INTRODUCTION

Paragraph (aX7) of Section 50.34, "Contents of Applications; Technical Information," of 10 CFR Part 50, "Licensing of Production and Utilization Facilities,"

requires that each applicant for a construction permit to build a production or utilization facility include in its preliminary safety analysis report a description of the quality assurance program to be applied to the design, fabrication, construction, and testing of the structures, systems, and components of the facility. This guide describes a method acceptable to the NRC staff for

C. REGULATORY POSITION

The guidance contained in ANSI N398-1974. "Quality Verification for Plate-Type Uranium-Aluminum Fuel Elements."' is generally acceptable to Up NRC staff and provides an adequate basis fo rnplying with

§50.34(a)(7) of 10 CFR Part ',-50 "

h respect to establishing and executing a qiality ass ice program for verifying the quaUt- Iof SSNate-type uranium- aluminum fuel elements ffu6'!,Vi irescarch reactors, subject to the fullo1*0:.

establishing and executing a quality assurance program Instead of,-t. deAr"ptitOiven in Section i.4.9 of for verifying the quality of plate-type uraniuni- the standard , '*-4,arck*' actor should be defined as a aluminum fuel elements used in research reactors, nuclear tor a

used for scientific, engineering, or

. DISCUSSIONi nd is designed to operate at a thermal a.DISCUS Np eve megawatt or less or a level of 10

Work Group ANS-I 5.2 of Subcommittee ANS-1.5 c

.. or less if it does not contain a circulating loop

.Research Reactors, of the American Nuclear Society

. r core in which fuel experiments are conduc- Standards Committee has revised the American Na liquid fuel loading, or an experimental facility in Standards Institute (ANSI)

Standard NS.

96 core in excess of 16 square inches in cross section.

"Quality Control for Plate-Type Uranium-Al

,num

D. IMPLEMENTATION

Fuel Elements." The revised standard pro ui for the- establishment and execution f a gram The purpose of this section is to provide information designed to verify the quality of plat e

nium- to applicants and licensees regarding the NRC staff's aluminum fuel elements for use in researcih rs. The plans for utilizing this regulatory guide.

revised standard was approved by the American National Standards Committee N

search Reactors, Reactor Except in those -cases in which the applicant Physics and Radiation el* and its Secretariat. It proposes an acceptable alternative method for

• was subsequently a )p designated ANSI

complying, with the specified portions of the N398-1974 by;

oI

ber 19, 1974.

Commission's regulations, the method described herein will be used by the NRC staff in the It sl'ou e

ogni that ANSI N398-1974 covers, evaluation of submittals for construction permit or only on i

f quality assurance. ANSI N402, operating license applications for research reactors dock-

"Quality rance Program. Guidelines for Research oted after May 15, 1976.

Reactors,"

ch is currently being developed under Subcommitte ANS-15, is expected to provide overall guidance for establishing quality assurance programs for

1 ('opies may be obtaineid rroni the American Nuclear research reactors.

Society. 244 Fast O+/-Cidcn Avenue. Ilindale. Illinois 60521.

USNRC REGULATORY GUIDES

Comments should be sent to the Secretary o t the Commission. U.S. Nuclear Regutatory Guides are issued to describe and mnake available to the public Regulatory Commission. Washington. D.C. 20566. Attention. Docketing and methods acceptable to the NRC staff of Implementing specific parts Service Section.

Conmnmlssion's regulations. to delineate techniques used by the stalt in evslu The guides are issued in the following ten broad divisions

"tOng specific problems or postulated accidents, or to provide guidance to appli cents. Regulatory Guides are not substitutes fot regulation

1. Power Reactors

6 Products with them Is not required Methods and solutions difletent from those set out In

2. Research end Teot Reactors

7. Transportation the guides will be acceptable if they provide a basis for the findings requisite to

3. Fuels and Materials Factlities B. Occupational Health the issuance Or conttnuanc.e of a permit or license by the Commission.

4, Envirortmental and Siting

9. Antitrust Review Comments and suggestions tor impa~vements in these guides are encouraged S. Materials and Plant Protection t0. General at ill limes, and guides will tie revised. as appropriate. to accommodate corn mnits and to reflect new information or taperience. However. comments on Copies of published guides may be obtllned by written request indiclting the this guide. it received within about two monthi, after its issuance, will be pap divisions desired to the U.S Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Washington. D.C.

Ilculaily uselul in evaluating the need for dn early evaision.

20r%5. Attention: Director. Office of Standards Development.

I

referred tothe input ror 4 usee peaking tinmcs (the noise:

.lel

.,afies iti'erselV with ..tle peukinig time). The main

. n

i. plil

.htild be. a standard NIM'

n module.

At Loliting ratesgreater thanr" l 0" cp

s. problems

.':.i'

i als degraid* tion o1 t he energy resolution resulting in

.a loss of.counts in the. spectrum peaks begin to occur.

These.effecisare due to.the overlar' of portions of two ormnore pulses in. time and to bas.Žline fhuctuatio*s. The

.

.agiiitude of ihese effects can be minimized by the inclusion of.th1e. folluwing features in the amplifier's des-111-. (:

a baseline restorer. (BLR) circuit at. the

-ampli*iir :outp.iu and _(2) pole-zero. cancelled ý coupling

" networks The. BLR circuit should be adjustable f.r.both I-ow i a d Inlig counting rateconditions.'

.5. Analog to Digital Converter (ADC)

(Systems I. 11. II!) The ADC should be capable of digitizing pulse :,mplitudes from the amplifier in the range of 0 to 10 volts in at least 4096 channels. The fre.quency of the internal clock should be at least 50

" megidahcz to handle high. counting rates with nominal ADC dead time losses. The integral nonlinearity should be tle: than 0. 15% over the top 95% of full scale and the differential nonlinearity should be less than I.Wff over the top 95% of full scale for semi-Gaussian pulses with

" peaking times of I to usec.-These linearity specifications are' n6t 'siringent.

but arec adequate to enable

" identificatiin.of unknown peaks which .may appear in a spectrum..

The short-term zero channel arid gain drifts should be <

.01%/ 0 C and < .02%/0C, respectively (the percentage refers to full scale), in the temperature range from 0°. to 50'C. For long term stability, the peak from

' NIM-Nuclear Instrument Module, see USAEC -Technical Information Document. Standard Nuclear Instrument Modules, Revision 3. TID-20893 (1969).

.' .*'r more details on BLR circuits see V. Radeka, "Effect

.-of 'aseline Retoration' on Signal-to-Noise. Ratio in Pulse Amplitude Mcasuremernts,7 Rev. Sci. lnsir. 38.1 397 (1967).

a stable pulser should. not shift by more. than. one channel over a 24.hou*

periodfor a line voltage of 1!5V

- 10%, 50-65 Hz, and at constant room temperature.

(Note: The .ADC drift and linearity specifications are

.closely ..re!ted to the overall .system% stability and lirearity operating Spec-fications described in Section C.S.)

The .ADC should be capable of being DC coupled to the main amplifier in order that BLR circuits can be used.

A digital = offset capability in the ADC is recommended.. (Note: In some systems the ADC is an integral -part of a multichannel analyzer, a unit which also performs the .functions .of data storage, display, and sometimes rrudimentary analysis.. These latter functions'

are taken up in Part 2 of this series. In multichannel analyzer systems, however, the. ADC function is usually specified separately.and canbe compared with the above recommendations.)

(Sysiemn I) For certain applications where energy resolution is definitely not critical, all the ADC

specifications above arc applicable with the exception that a 1024 channel capacity with a 1024 digital offset may be adequate to provide a sufficiently small energy interval per channel (keV/channel) to cover a limited energy range of interest. It should be emphasized, however, that this choice may restrict the effective use of the system for other applications.

6. Power Supplies (Systems 1,, II, .111) The system power supplies (detector high voltage, preamplifier, and NIM bin)

should be capable of operating the system within the operating specifications listed in Section C.A when supplied with 115 volts (+/- 10%) at. 50 to 65 hertz (at constant room temperature), The detector bias power

• supply should have an adjustable output that is short

.circuait protected with automatic power restoration after removal of the short. The maximum output voltage is determined by detector requirements; 5 kilovolts is sufficient for most. applications.

5 .9-6