"Work has continued on high temperature methods for processing irradiated uranium fuel. Additional results have been obtained with fused halide treatment, solid scavengers and direct Pu distillation. With fussed fluorides about 95 per cent of the Pu was removed from a uranium sample, while treatment of uranium with HC1 gas removed almost all the Pu and many fission products. treatment of molten uranium with uranium oxide removed a substantial fraction of the fission products without removing Pu. Uranium carbide treatment results were similar to the oxide but not as effective. A small scale distillation of Pu from uranium showed that Raoult's law is obeyed."

The rapid development of the field of atomic energy during the past few years now permits the exploration of applications to medicine involving new concepts in the treatment of cancer. One such has been the study of neutron capture therapy which is being developed at the Brookhaven National Laboratory.

At present there are three Laboratories actively engaged in analyzing samples for the "SUNSHINE PROGRAM"; Lamont Geological Observatory, University of Chicago and the New York Health and Safety Laboratory. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Laboratories at Beltsville ae preparing samples for the University of Chicago, and are running normal strontium analyses. In order that the results reported from each of the three laboratories may be used to evaluate Sr90 distribution, a cooperative program has been in operation since August of 1953. This preliminary report lists the results on samples received and distributed by HASL. It is hoped that complete results from all laboratories will be available soon.

An extension of the concepts advanced by Langmuir regarding the nature of the platinum catalyzed oxidation of hydrogen and the application of the resulting theory to the experimental data observed by Ranschoff and Spiewak for an HRE type recombiner indicates that their data are corrected by the dimensionless equation (see report) equally well, with a mean deviation of 3.8 percent. This expression is recommended as a basis for the design of catalytic recombiners. The catalytic combinations is pictured as consisting of two surface chemical mechanisms, one of which is oxygen diffusion controlled, the other hydrogen diffusion regulated, the mechanism "change-over" occurring at that point in the recombiner where the components are arriving at the catalyst surface by diffusion in stoichiometric proportions. The catalyst volume requirements for three two portions of the bed are shown to be (see report). The hydrogen mole fraction at the mechanism "change-over" point is (see report). And the relationship between the two mass transfer coefficients is (see report). Methods for evaluating the necessary transport properties of the ternary system steam-hydrogen-oxygen for carrying out design calculations are summarized, and the new significant parameters are tabulated and plotted to facilitate these calculations. The question of non-uniform velocity profiles …