Technical report containing the general arrangement of the Low Intensity Training Reactor and outcomes of experiments that have been performed in the reactor to measure the rate of fission product heat dissipation from the fuel pieces after loss of water. [From Summary, Introduction]

The following report covers a test with the objective to demonstrate that the plutonium and uranium losses associated with the aluminum jacket dissolution could be reduced by substituting a water wash for the 5 per cent nitric acid wash following the coating removal and that this change would not adversely effect the product yield of decontamination in subsequent process steps.

Report presenting background and instructions on completing spectrophotometric determination of silicon in zirconium, which relies on the solubility of silicon tetrachloride in a small amount of nitric acid solution and the complexing of fluorides with boric acid.

The following report follows a correction on a previous report (CP-1381) on the value of the magnitude of the gamma effect.

An R.F. joint tester was designed to determine the relative heating and tendency toward arching at high RF current density (100 amps/linear inch) of a 12 inch diameter circular copper butt joint in vacuum with several types of inserts and at various amounts of axial loading, ranging from a very small contact pressure to one of 1400 pounds per linear inch of joint.

Strubl's polarographic method for the determination of uranium in the presence of iron can be used for the determination of uranium in plutonium solutions. A hydroxylamine hydrochloride solution (2M) is used as the supporting electrolyte. This reduces the plutonium to the plus three oxidation state without reducing the uranium. The uranium may then be determined polarographically by measuring the height of the uranyl reduction wave (UVI to UV) at -0.35 volts (vs. S.C.E.) applied potential. Solutions with a U/Pu weight ratio as low as 3.5 x 10(-3) were analyzed with an error of less than 2%. This error increased to 6% for solutions of 1 x 10(-3) U/Pu ration and is considerably larger for smaller U/Pu ratios.

An active program is a present underway to develop equipment to handle liquid metals. Among the metals being studied are sodium and sodium--potassium alloy (the latter commonly referred to as NaK). In many of the systems being studied this liquid metal is pressurized by inert gas in the lines. At times it is necessary to bleed off some of this gas from the system. Although the gas is allowed to escape at a temperature at which the vapor pressure of sodium is extremely small, it has been found that excessive amounts of sodium are present in this gas stream. Either this sodium collects in the lead-off pipes from the system as a solid, threatening to block the passage in which it is found, or it passes out into the atmosphere. In order to explain the presence of such a dangerous concentration of sodium in the exit gas stream, it has been proposed that the sodium vapor present in the the system at high temperatures condenses into a mist or aerosol on cooling. This aerosol is stable and will not readily de-entrain or condense onto the surfaces over which it passes. Another possibility is that the oxygen present with the inert …