Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Will Wilson, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether Certificates of Number of motorboats issued by the Texas Highway Department pursuant to House Bill 11, Acts of the 56th Legislature, Regular Session, 1959, Chapter 179, Page 369, are valid for a two year or three year period.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Will Wilson, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Authority of the Comptroller to set aside in a separate account, $5,000 of moneys appropriated by H.B. No. 1, Acts 56th Legislature, Regular Session, 1959.

Preliminary experiments have been conducted to evaluate the use of the nuclear reactions Li6 (n,α)H3 and O16(H13,n)F18 to determine the thickness of oxide films on metals. Sheets of thin paper and of aluminum, imbedded in powdered LiF, were irradiated with pile neutrons at a flux of 6 x 10^11 n/cm^2/sec and counted with an end-window proportional counter. A saturation activity of 1.87 hr F18 of 150 dis/min per microgram of oxygen was observed in the paper, but radioactivity due to impurities masked F18 in the aluminum. It is concluded that a 1 A (0.01 μgm/cm^2) oxide film thickness may be measured by a neutron irradiation at a flux of 10^14 n/cm^2/sec but chemical separation of induced radioactivity from the bulk metal is essential.

Basic Studies. Sinterability experiments in the system UO2-PuO2 have continued, and data are available at one hour hold times across the UO2-PuO2 composition limits. Sintered densities appear to be markedly dependent on pressed densities with densification occurring very rapidly at higher pressing pressures. The following table illustrates the effect of one hour at temperature on final density for pure plutonium dioxide pressed to both 40 and 60 percent of theoretical density.

Experimental test loops have been used to study the problem of hydraulic stability. The oscillatory behavior of a single-phase and two-phase natural circulation loop has been examined at atmospheric pressures and oscillating modes of operation were studied in terms of heat input.

Three edge loaded thoria-urania nuclear fuel samples were assembled into a capsule, irradiated and examined. This irradiation was the first of a series to develop thoria-urania fuel for high heat flux, specific power and burn-up operation in a sodium graphite reactor.