7.1 Operating Manual
An operating manual furnished by the experimenter for use by TREAT is required for each experiment. It shall contain all information required for the assembly, installation, operation, and removal of the experimental apparatus. The experiment schedule must include adequate time for training TREAT personnel to operate experiment equipment, both out of the Reactor and in the Reactor. All safety-related operations shall be performed by TREAT personnel.
Detailed operating and maintenance instructions are not required by TREAT staff for equipment or instruments installed outside the Reactor if they are to be handled by the experimenter and do not affect the operation or safety of the equipment inside the Reactor. These activities are the responsibility of the experimenter and are to be handled in accord with the Experimenter's QA Plan.
The experimenter is responsible for the experiment outfitting and checkout activities at TREAT that are performed outside the reactor unless a prior approval has been granted for TREAT staff to manage the activities. Extraordinary needs and services shall be identified and agreed upon in advance.
All experiment activities that are performed with the experiment in the reactor are the responsibility of TREAT staff and, as such, shall be covered by the Operating Manual and performed only by TREAT or TREAT-supervised personnel. Such personnel shall be trained and qualified by the experimenter and TREAT management to perform the activities.
TREAT staff will provide the most current approved Operating Manual template to the experimenter for completion.
7.2 Receipt and Inspection
Upon receipt, experimental components shall be inspected as necessary to verify the quality and conformance of items to specified requirements. The receiving inspection shall be performed and documented by qualified INL personnel in accordance with INL established procedures and inspection instructions. The inspection includes such items as physical condition, cleanliness, total weight, certifications, labeling, etc. An inspection list of all items to be inspected will be developed based upon the complexity of the experiment.
Inspection results will be shared with the experimenter. Items that do not conform to the specified requirements will be controlled to prevent inadvertent installation or use and a resolution will be determined with the experimenter.
7.3 Assembly of Experiments
Whenever practicable, experiments should arrive at TREAT completely assembled. However, arrangements can be made for assembly work at the TREAT or near-by hot cell facilities. There are no provisions for assembly of plutonium-contaminated experiments or glovebox type operations, but gas blanketing systems have been improvised for transfer of fuel assemblies into loops or capsules filled with sodium. If the proper fittings are provided, the experiments can be evacuated and filled with helium after assembly for leak checking and then filled with another inert gas if required. Movement of experiments containing liquid sodium is not allowed.
Loop-type Experiments: Unirradiated fuel pins may be loaded in the pin holder and the holder then inserted in the experimental loop at the TREAT Reactor Building. When the fuel pins are preirradiated, they must be loaded in the pin holder in a shielded area at some other facility. It is possible to load a pin holder containing preirradiated fuel into the experimental loop at the TREAT Reactor Building if handling fixtures are properly designed for use with the shielded casks.
Capsule Experiments: Capsule experiments may contain gas, water, or liquid metals, and experimenters normally find it advantageous to completely assemble and fill the capsules at some facility other than TREAT. However, special arrangements can usually be made for capsule assembly and filling operations at TREAT if the experimenter will provide the special equipment required, appropriate provisions are made to limit personnel exposure to direct radiation and the assembly operation will not unduly delay reactor operations.
Transparent Capsule Experiments: Transparent capsule experiments are designed for the photographing of events inside a capsule during a reactor transient, and fuel meltdowns in gas and water have been successfully photographed. Unirradiated fuel can be loaded into transparent capsules of the type described in Appendix I, but no provisions have been made for loading preirradiated fuels into transparent capsules at TREAT. Also, there are no provisions for unloading failed fuel samples at TREAT.
Other Experiments: Other experiments of unique designs should be discussed with the plant manager prior to design finalization.
Minor Repair: Minor repairs can be made to experiments and/or components damaged in shipment. Typical repairs are remating connectors, soldering broken lead wires, and replacing broken connectors and gaskets. Radiation levels associated with preirradiated fuel samples can limit the amount of repair work that can be done.
7.4 Disassembly of Experiments
In general, fuel holders that can be loaded into loops or capsules at TREAT can be unloaded at TREAT if the fuel remains in the holder, plutonium contamination is not present, and sufficient time is allowed for radiation levels to decay. Limited cut-up is available of UO2-fueled experiments, which have been irradiated only in TREAT. Since proper analysis of an experiment often requires certain information to be obtained during capsule disassembly, and the complexity of disassembly operations is often dictated by analysis considerations, the feasibility of partial or total disassembly at TREAT must be determined for each experiment.
Experiment assembly, disassembly, and examination capabilities at other facilities are being continually improved, and there are no current plans to provide expanded assembly or disassembly capabilities at TREAT.
7.5 Personnel
The experimenter is expected to assign competent engineers or scientists to assist in installing, operating, and maintaining the experimental equipment when its complexity requires such assistance. The experimenter is encouraged to have a representative at the facility to witness tests. When representatives are assigned, they are responsible for collecting and transmitting to the experimenter all pre-transient test data. As discussed in Section 2, all visitors to the INL are required to complete visitor notification paperwork and gain approval, which will be coordinated with TREAT.
7.6 Experiment Shipping
The experimenter must request and be given approval to ship experiment items to TREAT prior to shipping. In general, approval from TREAT is not given until after the Experiment Plan Package containing the test specifications and safety analysis has been received and has had preliminary review. TREAT staff will provide the experimenter with a list of required information that must be submitted with the request.
All experiments and equipment must be shipped to and from TREAT by truck or large forklift and meet applicable Federal and State regulations. 16-ft high doors in the TREAT Reactor Building allow trucks to back into the north high bay of the building. The south high bay has two truck doors to allow trucks to drive through and/or park in the south high bay of the building. Open trucks can then be loaded or unloaded using the building cranes. If the shipments are too heavy for the building crane, or if closed trucks are used for the shipments, forklift trucks may be available for handling the shipments. Loads up to 25 tons can be handled by the forklift trucks.
Handling of experiments containing fuel that has not been pre-irradiated requires no unusual handling precautions because of the low level of radiation. Experiments which have a high-radiation level and require a shielded shipping cask, such as experiments with pre-irradiated fuel, will require special handling with shielded casks within the TREAT Reactor Building. The experimenter must give special consideration to the handling procedures for high-radiation-level experiments to protect the personnel from excessive radiation and to be certain that the correct size of equipment is on hand for handling of the experiments.
The experimenter is responsible to make all arrangements for return shipping of items following completion of the experiment. TREAT staff will assist with shipping per instructions provided from the experimenter.
