The objective of the study which is being carried out under contract AT(30-1)-2477 is the exploration of all aspects of research in water resources and supply to determine the potential for using radioisotope technology in this research. Problem areas in the application of tracers in this research are being investigated through the evaluation of past experimentation with radioisotopic techniques and through discussions with those who are active in this work. A series of suggestions relating to these techniques will de drawn up to indicate which techniques should be developed further in order that more extensive applications may be found for them.

The theory and preliminary laboratory investigations presented in this technical report were intended to examine the general feasibility of injection disposal of radioactive wastes and to establish an understanding of the phenomena governing the travel of trace chemicals through natural porous media. Detailed studies of fluid velocity variations resulting from density differences between the injected and displaced liquids have been made. the ion exchange studies have been limited to strontium and calcium. Strontium 90 is considered to be the most hazardous of the fission products and should represent the radioisotope upon which to judge the merits of injection disposal. Consideration should also be given to cesium in evaluation the health hazards of injection disposal.

The Alco Products Criticality Facility, site location, and operating procedures are described in detail, including the handling of fissionable material and the operating procedures for the safe performance of critical experiments.

The water plant for a high temperature reactor must be capable of providing several purities of water to the various components of the installation. The actual treatment methods will depend on the location and size of the reactor, the size and sources of the water and the ease of disposal of radioactive wastes. This document examines the needs for the various water purities. It also defines the area of future work to provide the information necessary for the design of water plants for high temperature reactors or for the conversion of existing reactors to recirculation cooling.

The objective of the study which is being carried out under contract AT(30-1)-2477 is the exploration of all aspects of research in water resources and supply to determine the potential for using radioisotope technology in this research. Problem areas in the application of tracers in this research are being investigated through the evaluation of past experimentation with radioisotopic techniques and through discussions with those who are active in this work. A series of suggestions relating to these techniques will de drawn up to indicate which techniques should be developed further in order that more extensive applications may be found for them.

The biological effects of various doses of radiation in plants are reviewed. Data are reported from a study of the effects of gamma radiation on a terrestrial ecosystem in which oak and pine are the principal tree species. Exposure rates around a 9500-C Cs¹³⁷ source varied from several thousand r/day within a few meters to about 2 r/day at 130 m delivered during a 20-hr day. Measurements were made of changes in the populations of species which formed the ecosystem, the rates of fixation, paths of energy movement through the system, differences in radiosensitivity among the plant species, and radiation effects on host-parasite relations. Results are discussed from the standpoint of the results of contamination of the environment with radioactive debris.

Four naturally occurring materials, namely, vermiculite, variscite, Tennessee rock phosphate, and Florida pebble phosphate, were studied to determine the feasibility of their use in columns for the sorption of strontium from high pH, intermediate-level wastes produced at ORNL. Excepting vermiculite, all materials were found to be effective in strontium removal.

The study which has been carried out under Contract AT(30-1)2477 has as its objective the review of all work which has been done on the application of radionuclear techniques to research in water resources and supply, the evaluation of this work, and the suggestions of specific experiments which must be performed if these applications are to be extended.

Abstract" This is a review, with annotated bibliography, of the mode of occurrence of the element indium. It is not a list of specific ore deposits, but a summary of the types of minerals and rocks in which indium has been reported to occur. In addition, the unpublished spectrographic studies of the Geological Survey on mill and smelter products are summarized, best sources of indium are indicated, and suggestions are made for further investigations. Indium has been found to occur most abundantly in sphalerites. The amount ranges from traces to maximum of 1.0 percent. Dark sphalerites are reported richer in indium than light-colored sphalerites. Up to 0.1 percent indium has been reported in chalcopyrite and bornite, but these minerals generally contain very little indium. There is an unverified report of a pegmatite in Utah containing 1.0 to 2.8 percent indium. Some residues in zinc smelting contain more than 1.0 percent indium and are the present source on indium. No better source can be suggested but steps should be taken to ascertain that this source is being fully exploited. Tin sulfide smelter products should be checked. An effort should be made to check the Utah pegmatite occurrence.

Technical report outlining the element calcium as well as its occurrences, physical properties, chemical properties, methods of manufacture, economic aspects, and uses.

A 19-rod Zircaloy-clad half-length PRTR spike element successfully irradiated to high plutonium burnout at full power in the ETR shoved partial bonding of the core and cladding. Unsatisfactory autoclave films on the Zircaloy cladding of the PRTR Al-Pu fuel elements are delaying final assembly of the first 30 clusters. Further conditioning of the autoclaves and the availability of permanent etching facilities are expected to correct the present difficulties.

That body proteins may be altered by irradiation to such as extent as to react as foreign elements and perhaps antagonists in their own physiological environment is postulated. The plausibility of this concept was examined. The serological activity of hemocyanin isolated from the sera of the American lobster, as measured by the quantitative, turbidimetric precipitin reaction, was found to be altered by in vitro x irradiation. Beta particles from internally deposited P32 produced chronic changes in the specificity of some proteins of rat serum, and quantitative changes were observed in the serum albumin and globulin of x-irradiated animals. Increased concentrations of these components in the sera of normal animals produced reactions similar to serological reactions.

The following report summarizes the work of many investigators in widely varied fields of interest in engineering geology. Detailed documents are referred to in the Plowshare bibliography.

From abstract: "This report gives a detailed account of the corrosion test work carried out by the Engineering Research Laboratory on the behavior of materials of construction in the hydrogen sulfide-water system. Results developed during the period from October 1950 through November 1954 are included."

From Abstract : "A Southern Rhodesian cesium ore containing essentially pollucite was chlorinated by a gaseous mixture of sulfur chloride and chlorine at temperatures between 550 and 770°C. The optimum conditions with the fixed bed reactor used in this study were chlorination at 650°C for 4 1/2 hr with an more particle size that passes a 150 mesh sieve."

Disposal on a specific retention basic of certain radioactive liquid waste solutions emanating from separations from separations plants has been practiced at Hanford since 1944. As used at Hanford, the term "specific retention" is defined as that volume of waste liquids that may be disposed to the soil* and be held against the force of gravity by the molecular attraction between sand grains and the surface tension of the water, when expressed as percent of packed soil volume. In practice it represents the volume of liquid that may be discharged to a disposal pit of known dimensions without leakage to the ground, water, expressed as percent of the total volume of a column of soil with the same cross section as the pit, and extending from the bottom of the pit to the water table. It is recognized that some degree of lateral spreading will occur which has the effect of enlarging the volume of soil contacted by the liquid.

The new and as yet unsolved problems introduced by the production of large quantities of fission products and radioactive isotopes from fission or neutron capture present mankind a most complex technical, economic, and political problem. On one hand, the possibility of using the fission process to produce energy from an unexploited and abundant natural source is emerging from large programs of research and development. We are also beginning to see the promise of use of particulate and electromagnetic radiation for the good of man. On the other hand, we are presented with the problem of controlling the dangerous products of fission for periods of time measured in terms of many hundreds of years, periods longer than the effective tenure of any political state in history. We must not only devise ways of protecting ourselves in the present and for our lifetime but, in addition, we must establish the basic technical, social, and administrative control of vast quantities of artificial radioactivity that must remain effective for at least ten to twenty lifetimes.

Technical report summarizing the waste problems of the Brookhaven National Laboratory site and the integration of projects constituting the need for intensive and extended research into the development of processes, equipment, and systems to dispose of this nuclear waste. This report also outlines the first session for the March 27-28, 1950 meeting of the Committee at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

This technical report represents a brief survey of work by this project on the effects of ultraviolet radiation (UV) on certain of the photochemical and metabolic properties of rhubarb chard and sugar beet (Beta vulgaris). These plants were selected for this work because for some years they have been used as sources of chloroplasts for Hill reaction studies in this laboratory. Some of this work has appeared as a brief paper.

This report provides a detailed discussion of the analytical chemistry of cobalt, including an introduction, the properties of cobalt, the sampling of cobalt-bearing materials, the separation and isolation of cobalt, the detection and identification of cobalt, the determination of cobalt, and the specific methods for determining cobalt.

Technical report presenting preliminary results obtained in the static corrosion test program to screen promising construction materials for a proposed liquid fuel power breeder reactor.

This report provides a broad and in depth discussion of bismuth, discussing the properties of bismuth--including physical, electrochemical, and chemical properties. It then discusses the processes by which bismuth is detected and how bismuth can be separated and isolated, with discussions of dissolution, precipitation, and extraction.

Thesis discussing the study of deuterons produced at wide angles to a beam of 300 Mev neutrons and a beam of 300 Mev protons. It was observed that the deuterons are formed by "a two step process in which the incident nucleon, or its collision partner, is scattered and then picks up in the same nucleus." Some tritons are also observed, and it is thought that they are formed by the same process as the deuterons. From these findings, the author concludes that "for heavy nuclei, there is a nuclear skin rich in neutrons."

Basic Studies. It has been reported previously that a reduction of PuO2 to a suboxide does not occur when a powder sample is heated for one hour at 1450 C. To investigate this anomaly, the present hooded facilities were converted from full air flow to an argon atmosphere to prevent oxidation of a possible suboxide. Five grams of PuO2 powder were heated in dry hydrogen to 1500 C for times of one and eight hours. Immediately after discharge, they were mounted and transferred to a helium atmosphere diffractometer hood. The resulting x-ray diffraction pattern consisted only of the single FCC PuO2 phase.