Quarterly report of the Argonne National Laboratory Chemical Engineering Division regarding activities related to properties and handling of radioactive materials, operation of nuclear reactors, and other relevant research. This report discusses fuel cycle studies including advanced solvent extraction techniques focused on the development of centrifugal contactors for use in Purex processes, dispersion of reagents as a result of explosions, and identification of organic solutions suitable for the separation of actinides from fission products.

Quarterly report of the Argonne National Laboratory Materials Science Division, including studies on ceramic (refractory) and metallic materials for use in coal-conversion processes as well as studies of erosive wear, nondestructive testing, corrosion, refractory degradation, and failure analysis.

Progress report on the activities of the Argonne National Laboratory Materials Science Division regarding studies done on refractory concretes and metallic materials being used or intended for use in coal-conversion processes, erosive wear, nondestructive testing, corrosion, chemical degradation, and failure analysis.

The domain and surface structures of metallic sodium tungsten bronzes, NaxWO₃, 0.4 < x < 1, were studied using optical microscopy, supplemented by chemical methods, photoelectron spectroscopy, electron microscopy, etc. The birefringent, multidomain structure of the bronze is exhibited by a sodium-deficient, epitaxial surface film and hence is not, as reported elsewhere, a bulk property. The film can be synthesized by anodic electrolysis in alkaline solution and can exist only epitaxially with the substrate. It is chemically inert, translucent, and often laminated to a multilayered film. The film domain is hypersensitive to lateral stress and to thermal change, and appears to be modulated by minute structural changes of the substrate. This epitaxial modulation of the film is strikingly large at the phase transitions of the substrate induced by slightly different tiltings of the oxygen octahedra. The domain-wall movement is often slow enough to be visible, and that by thermal effect is occasionally accompanied by an audible, high-pitched, snapping sound.

Annual report of the Argonne National Laboratory Radiological and Environmental Research Division regarding activities related to ecology. This report includes studies on the effects of sulfur dioxide on Midwestern grain crops and the addition of the new research vessel, the Ekos.

This conference covers various aspects of fossil-fuel power plants based on coal or coal-conversion products, as well as the process control equipment involved in the conversion or combustion processes.