The General Electric Company is designing and building a 180,000 kilowatt nuclear power plant for the Commonwealth Edison Company at a site near the confluence of the Kankakee and Des Plaines Rivers in Grundy County, Illinois, about 47 miles southwest of Chicago. The plant will be known as the Dresden Nuclear Power Station, and will employ a nuclear reactor of the dual-cycle boiling water type.

The following report concerns the application of a relaxation mesh method for the determination of the average flux within the moderator of a light water moderated, 1.027 per cent U-235, hexagonal lattice with a volume ratio (V_H2O + V_Al)/V_Uranium of 4:1. It was hoped that the calculation would enable one to determine any differences in flux which might result from the fact that the unit cell is a hexagon instead of a cylinder. Because we were primarily interested in the effect due to geometry we applied the same theory, diffusion theory, to the hexagon by means of the mesh method and to the equivalent cylinder.

Geologic map of the Crooks Map District, Freemont District, Wyoming showing core drill holes prepared for a report by U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Grand Junction Office.

The proton beam in the Cosmotron is accelerated to an energy of 2.3 billion electron volts by a radio frequency voltage which is impressed across an insulated gap in the ferrite loaded accelerating cavity of the vacuum chamber. To maintain a constant orbit radius as the beam is accelerated, the frequency of the accelerating voltage must increase from the initial value of 370 kc/sec to 4200 kc/sec during the one second magnet pulse. Over the entire 11:1 frequency range, a minimum gap voltage of 2000 volts rms must be maintained. At every instant throughout the magnet pulse, the frequency of this voltage must be a predetermined function of the magnet field to a high degree of accuracy. Frequency errors greater than about .2 percent result in loss of beam due to excessive radius changes. Smaller errors than this however, can excite fatal phase oscillations in the beam if they occur rapidly. As little as .005 percent frequency modulation can result in total beam loss if it occurs at a rate of several kc/sec, where the beam is most sensitive to such disturbances.

Part A. The major effort during the past year has been the construction of a suitable vacuum furnace for studying the effects of temperature and pressure on the wettability of metals by glass. A systems was completed that was capable of subjecting test combinations up to temperatures of 1400 degree C at a working pressure of 1 x 10(-5) mm. of Hg. Part B. A compound, identified by X-ray analysis as sodium meta tantalate (na2Ta2O6), was found at the interface between a sodium silicate glass and tantalum metal which had been heated in vacuum to 1000 degree C. thermodynamic calculations, followed by further experimental evidence, were used to determine the chemical reaction between tantalum and sodium silicate which resulted in the formation of Na2Ta3O6. the compound was synthesized by other methods, and its structure investigated.

Report outlining the relation of the ASTM flash point of oil, a rough measure of the safety of storage and use when oil sparks, to other directly determinable physical properties. Summarizes the data on vapor pressures, boiling curves, and flash points of various hydrocarbon diluents.

A short review of the field of internal conversions. Isomeric transitions teach us many details of nuclear structure. In these studies electromagnetic theory is considered as a "tool". It is a quite quantitative tool in the case of "internal conversion" - a phenomenon which has been widely studied for many years. Internal conversion takes place in competition with γ-ray emission: a fraction of the nuclei in excited states decay by γ-ray emission, the remaining fraction by transferring the energy to K, or L, etc. electrons in the atomic shell. Thus the lifetime of an excited nuclear state depends on the internal conversion coefficient. As internal conversion must be expected to depend on the details of the electronic environment, the lifetime of an isomeric state depends on the state of chemical combination of the isomer - as was recently shown explicitly in one case, that of Te-99m(6hr.).

One of the few analytical methods for low levels of uranium which can be adapted for continuous and automatic in-line analysis of Purex process solutions is the polarographic method. Polarographic monitors for uranium in aqueous wastes have been tested in plant and pilot plant operations during the past three years. From time to time the current-voltage waves obtained deviated so much from the classical "S" shaped curves as to render them virtually useless. Furthermore, the correlation of these periods of malfunction with process variables has met with little success. This report is concerned with the study of the effect of certain interferences and artifacts upon the appearance of the current-voltage wave and with the possible corrective measures to be considered in future designs. In some cases the phenomena involved are not understood, but an imperical solution can be offered. In other cases, even though the nature of the failure is known, little can be offered except the recognition of the type and probable duration of this failure.

A generalization of the Lindemann law is used in connection with the Murnaghan equation of state for a solid to derive theoretically the empirical Simon equation for the fusion curve. For the alkali metals it is shown that experimental values of the temperature exponent in the Simon equation are quantitatively compatible with the theoretical evaluation given, and, furthermore, that the theory can predict approximate values of the experiment, in practice.

As an aid in forecasting possible blast damage in areas distant from a bomb burst point, a special-purpose electronic analog computer has been developed. Sound ray paths (orthogonal trajectories to sound wave front) are computed as a function of meteorological conditions.

"One of the limitations of the Zircex Process is the large percentage loss of U which is carried off with the volatile ZrCl/sub 4/. Since the ratio of U to Zr in the fuel element is quite small (< 1%), a large percentage of U loss can be caused by small amounts of U in the ZrCl/sub 4/ sublimate. The U loss must be kept below 1% if the Zircex Process is to be adapted to industrial scale processing."

An estimate has been made of the gamma radiation levels at access holes in the HRT Shielding when the plugs have been removed to service or maintain the reactor. In every case the radiation level at the holes was greater than the maximum permissible exposure rate of 0.3 roentgens per week. The radiation through the holes can be attenuated to some extent by flooding the reactor cell up to the flange to be disconnected. However, shielding would still be required and it is more practical to provide a small additional shield thickness to compensate for the moderate attenuation that could be gained from flooding.

The criteria for selection of an HRT secondary refrigerant system refrigerant to replace Freon-11 are given. The properties of Amsco which make it desirable are tabulated and it is compared with triethyl phosphate (the second choice) and Freon-11.

A method has been developed for the determination of total sulfur in fluoride salts using the methylene blue procedure. Reduction of sulfate to hydrogen sulfide is achieved through the use of a new reducing mixture consisting of stannous chloride dissolved in concentrated phosphoric acid. The new mixture is effective on microgram amounts of sulfate and offers a major advantage over the red phosphorous reducing mixtures in that larger samples may be taken for analysis. The procedure has been applied to fluoride salts containing from 1 to 500 ppm of sulfur. The coefficient of variation the method is 10 percent.