8
Fig. 1.7. Tool for excising fuel pump sampler cage, mounted on mockup of top of pump tank.
sheets up to 2 cm across. On contact, the larger pieces crumbled easily, and heat from the viewing light caused the material to smoke. A sample was scooped up and delivered with the capsule. Analysis of the loose material and the deposits on the mist shield and cage are described in Sect. 8.3. Results of the inspection of the capsule are given in Sect. 13.5. A periscope was used to view the interior of the pump bowl, where throughout the years of operation oil had decomposed, salt mist had floated about,6 and noble metals had concentrated.' Considering all this, surprisingly little material was found deposited on the various surfaces of the pump tank that were visible from the opening (see Fig. 1.8). The top head of the tank was covered with a dull, dark, rather uniform film, seemingly like that on the outside of the mist shield near the top. Here and there thin sheets of this material had peeled and hung down. 6. J. R. Engel, P. N. Haubenreich, and A. Houtzeel, Spray, Mist, Bubbles and Foam in the MSRE, ORNL-TM-3027 (June 1970). 7. MSR Program Semiannu. Progr. Rep. Aug. 31, 1970, ORNL-4622, pp. 2-4.
Some of the sheets could be seen swaying, presumably in the thermal currents from the hot lamp. Quite different were the deposits on the upper surface of the sloping baffles in the upper part of the bowl. These were nonuniform, rather rough or angular, and reflected more light than did the deposit on the top head. This type of deposit is illustrated in Fig. 1.9, which is focused on the edge of the '1,-in.-thick baffle that slopes down from the volute support cylinder. (There is some blurring in the image due to motion during the exposure. The overflow pipe and its junction with the lower head, seen in the background, are also out of focus.) The same kind of deposit is seen in Fig. 1.I 0. This is a closeup of the end of the spray ring and attached baffle. The baffle itself is '/,-in.-thick metal, and the deposit seen here in edge view is less than half as thick. The ripples in the weld on the end of the tube are visible through the deposit. In the patch seen in Fig. 1.10 near the juncture of the baffle and the tube, where the deposit had evidently flaked off, the exposed metal was clean and smooth. Since it seemed that this kind of deposit was also present on the excised mist shield, no effort was made to obtain a sample from surfaces inside the bowl.