As there is no accurate measurements of the energy distribution of neutrons emerging from large uranium blocks, it becomes of importance to see how much information of this kind can be derived from the slowing down distribution of the neutrons in a water tank.

The feasibility of rectified absorption for the recovery and purification of HD from H2 streams has been investigated. The absorbent considered was liquid nitrogen at 78 (degrees) K. The process appears to present no major engineering or operation problems. Cost calculations indicate that the process may be economically competitive with other processes. Process design was based on an estimated separation factor of 1.25 between H2 and HD in this system. Experimental work has been undertaken to check the validity of this estimate and to investigate the possibility of using other absorbents such as hydrocarbons and fluorocarbons.

Quarterly summary report of studies conducted through the Radiation Laboratory, University of California. Some results reported in the report may be of a preliminary or incomplete nature.

A controversy exists as to the effect of inositol and other lipotropic agents on serum cholesterol levels and atherosclerosis in humans and animals. There is no general agreement that these agents lower serum cholesterol levels or exert an inhibitory effect on the development of atherosclerosis.,

A systematic set of thermodynamic data for most of the known compounds of plutonium is presented. From earlier data present, it is now possible to extend the tabulation of data for the compounds of plutonium to include PuF(4), PuF(5), and PuF(6).

The design of the present time of light mass spectrograph is similar to that of the isotron devised some time ago for isotope separation. The spectrograph will employ the time of flight principle only for the isotopic analysis of small samples.

A complete investigation was made of the r-f field in the 1/10-scale Materials Testing Accelerator (Mark I) cavity

The last fifteen years have seen the discovery of ten transuranic elements. This paper (presented at the Mendeleev Chemistry Conference in Moscow) deals only with the transplutonium elements, i.e., those elements with atomic number greater than 94. This will be a detailed discussion of the techniques that have been devised for producing and identifying elements 101 and 102 and the possible applications of these methods to elements beyond. There will also be a brief review of the discovery of all the transplutonium elements to show the gradual change in experimental methods from the early days.

It is the purpose of this paper (from a talk given at Mendeleev Chemistry Conference in Moscow) to give a brief progress report on work which is being done on very heavy elements at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley. The subject matter is divided into three broad classifications. The first classification includes production of the isotopes, the second deals with investigations of their chemical properties and the third includes studies of the nuclear properties.

A group at the Berkeley Bevatron constructed a rapid beam ejector to produce the brief pulses of particles required for optimum bubble chamber photographs. Energy stored in a capacitor bank is transferred to an air-core magnet surrounding the proton beam of the Bevatron. The protons are displaced from their normal orbit and strike a suitably located target; particles from this target can then emerge from the Bevatron. A capacitor bank of 120 pf stores 13,500 joules at 15,000 volts. Two ignitrons in parallel connect the capacitor to the magnet. The magnet current rises to 52,000 amperes in 55 microseconds; at peak current a register is connected in parallel to damp the current decay.

Energy determinations have been made using the conversion and photo electron spectra and scintillation crystal pulse height analysis for twelve y-rays associated with the Rb82 decay (6.3 hours, B+, K-capture). The B+ spectrum is found to contain four allowed components of maximum energies 1080, 890, 610 and 300 kev. A tentative decay scheme is suggested.

The attenuation curve of the deuterons stripped from He3 has been measured with a Faraday cup. The corresponding curve at 190 Mev was fit by assuming that the deuterons were monoenergetic, with three processes taking place.

Report on UCRL progress in general physics research and accelerator operation and development.