Technical report. From Abstract: "An anion exchange process was demonstrated for the recovery of plutonium from waste produced in the reduction of plutonium salts to the metal. Plutonium in a highly salted 6M nitric acid solution derived from the dissolution of slag and crucible waste was separated from impurities by absorbing the Pu (IV) nitrate complex on the anion exchange resin and subsequently eluting with nitric acid. A flowsheet for plant operation is presented."

Technical report. From Abstract: "Data are presented for the absorption of thorium and neptunium from synthetic waste concentrate of the "Purex" process by a miniature agitated bed of anion exchange resin. The behavior of neptunium indicated that efficient recovery should be obtained from Purex high activity waste concentrate by this technique. A method was developed for calculating absorption losses from agitation beds of resin. The predicted losses were in excellent agreement with experimental results."

Technical report. From Abstract: "Experiments were performed in the Process Development Pile (PDP) with a critical mockup of the Heavy Water Components Test Reactor (HWCTR) lattice. Reactivity measurements served to determine control rod worths, the temperature coefficient of the reactor at low temperatures, the dependence of keff on concentrations of U235 and poisons in the "driver" region of the reactor, and the changes in keff that occur in certain conceivable accidents in the HWCTR. Flux distribution measurements were made to determine over-all flux shapes, local flux variations around individual components, azimuthal flux variations due to asymmetrical combinations of control rods, and vertical flux variations obtainable through the use of control rods of partial length. Sufficiently detailed flux measurements were made to permit the calculation of neutron economy tables and to determine the neutron leakage from the reactor. Suitable adjustments in the input parameters made it possible to fit the experimental results with a two-group calculation."

Thorium Procedure: As was mentioned in the last report, ammonium nitrate was substituted for ferric nitrate as a salting agent. Also, the acidity of the nitrate solution was reduced from 3.0 molar to 0.5 molar. the revised thorium procedure is described in the report. Radium Procedure: Work has ben initiated on the procedure of Petrow, Nietzel and DeSesa (Winchester Procedure) to determine if the procedure is suitable for very low level concentrations of radium.

During the past year, three papers covering results of a major series of experiments on intergenotype of blood-forming tissue have appeared, demonstrating successful implantation of isologues normal cells in anemic hosts, permanently correcting their genetic defect in hematopoiesis, both with and without irradiation of the host. Heavy host irradiation was shown ineffective as preparations for implantation of homologous cells of widely different antigenic types.

A stainless steel autoclave for superheated water corrosion test was installed and "conditioned". Tests were begun to investigate the feasibility of densifying slip cast stainless steel by means of liquid phase sintering. Attempts to prepare tubular fuel elements by vacuum forming were resumed. Although thick-walled vacuum formed casting have been sintered on the aluminum mandrels without cracking, this has not yet been accomplished with the think sections of interest.