It was suggested to the writer by K.A. Eschbach that liquid magnesium might offer certain advantages as a reactor coolant. As a result of this suggestion, a preliminary investigation of the possibilities of this material was made. Definite advantages for a restricted class of applications were found, but a detailed evaluation would seem to require further basic experimental research on the heat transfer, corrosion and flux-mechanical properties of the substance.

A knowledge of the mechanical and physical properties of uranium is important in understanding and explaining its pile behavior. The effects of irradiation on the properties of uranium will be dealt with in another chapter. However, it is important to know and understand the pre-irradiation properties of uranium prior to investigating the effects of irradiation.

This twenty-second quarterly report of the research and development activities of the Radiological Sciences Department, Hanford Atomic Products Operations, as before, includes some items charged to control but included for general interest. Such are identified as "not charged to research." The previous report of this series was numbered: HW-34408 January 10, 1955

The conservative design criteria applied to process tubing may seriously hinder the advancement of high temperature reactor development. Factors of safety of 3 to 4 applied to an arbitrarily defined yield strength are used to calculate allowable internal working pressures. The effect of biaxial stressing on the tubes has been shown (2) to cause yielding at a lower internal pressure. However, tests conducted on biaxially stressed short lengths of tubing indicated that the ultimate tensile strength of the material was not affected.

A study was performed to determine the economic incentives associated with in-pile boiling, with the explicit assumption that this method of operation was technically feasible. A non-boiling reactor plant was used as a comparison, and the net electric generation was held constant at 400 Mw. The economic effect of variations in specific power from 47 to 32 kw/ft., and steam qualities of 10 to 60% were studied. The results showed that, under the conditions used, the unit power cost during single purpose operation would be in the range 5.9 to 6.1 mils/kw-hr at the generator bus-bar, compared to an estimated 6.6 mils/ kw-hr. for the non-boiling plant. These gains are realized under conditions of relatively high specific powers, greater than 32 kw/ft., relatively modest bulk outlet steam quality (greater than 20%), and high-pressure steam (1000 psia or higher) used directly in the turbines. During the dual market period, the power rate is about the same. An increase of 0.2 mils/kw-hr. is indicated when the specific power is lowered- Capital investment savings of perhaps four to five million dollars may be possible, but savings of this magnitude have little effect on the over-all power cost. The power cost savings stated above …

The automatic polarograph is ideally suited for the analysis of waste streams for uranium in the Metal Recovery Process, and with modification, it is applicable to other processes, pilot plants, and even to laboratory set ups. The instrument is simple, dependable, and relatively trouble free in operation. It provides an immediate record of the uranium in the waste and, through better control of the process, lower processing costs.

Various non-linear calculations for heat conduction in an istropic, homogeneous medium are presented.

Plankton collected from the Columbia River by the net method and by the centrifuge method were compared. The centrifuged plankton (nannoplankton) exceeded the net plankton in weight, in abundance of organisms and in radioactivity. Similar seasonal trends were present in both types of plankton.

In 1949 Barad presented two solutions to the general diffusion equation. Basic in both solutions is the assumption that in very stable atmospheres a point source may be replaced by a vertical area of uniform concentration at a short distance downwind. This vertical area is considered to exist at the distance at which the plume finally "levels-off" and assumes a flat ribbon-like appearance. In addition if the distance over which diffusion takes place is limited to one or two miles and if only the stable atmosphere with its narrow range of eddy sizes is considered, the average diffusion co-efficient (K) has a signficance which it does not have in the case of neutral equilibrium.

Removal of particles from air is discussed in terms of three classes of filtering media--air-sampling, respirator, and air-cleaning. Plots of efficiency versus filtering velocity are presented. The pressure drop characteristics of the filters are discussed in terms of initial pressure drops of the clean filters, variations in pressure drop of the individual filters, and comparison of loading rates.

This report discusses the production of plutonium metal through the reduction of plutonium tetra fluoride with calcium metal and sulfur. It elaborates that iodine, which was originally used instead of calcium metal, presented several practical problems, but reductions completed with calcium were unsatisfactory.

This report discusses the calcination or heating of UO₃. When UO₃ is heated, it loses ionic impurities and can produce uranyl peroxide.

Thermal spikes occurring during the life of a slug in a pile cause a momentary destruction of the original configuration of atoms in the metal. This process occurs at such a rate that in a thermal neutron flux of 10(13) neutrons per square centimeter per second each atom in the metal will be subject to temperatures above the melting point of uranium every 40 minutes.

This report discusses the the surface characteristics of virgin and irradiated artificial graphites and the changes which occur upon irradiation.

From introduction: "The purpose of this report is to summarize some of the observations on the dispersion and rate of disengaging of liquid-liquid systems and suggest some possible lines of future work."

The following report calculates pile reactivity changes that result from different pile loadings where it is desirable to have available values of (flux)2 d(volume) for various flat zone radii. This information was found for a cylindrical pile having circular flat zones and an effective radius of 598 cm., by integrating over a cross sectional volume of one cm. thickness.

The following report records a total of forty-nine graphite core samples that have been bored from process tube blocks in the Hanford piles with the intention to provide results to indicate that core boring is an entirely practical operation over bore scraping in obtaining powder samples.

Feasibility of conversion of uranyl nitrate to uranium trioxide by the continuous addition of concentrated uranyl nitrate solution to hot, agitated UO3 powder.

Objective: The objective of this study is to develop a simple method of either removing the C1- ion from the RAW or converting the ion into a less corrosive valence state.

The following report describes methods used to determine tributylphosphate in a deodorized shell base. An infrared absorption method is developed to emphasize toward determination of TBP in RCW streams, the organic waste streams.

Introduction: "The adoption of aluminum nitrate as salting agent in the Redox process made it imperative that a method be available for determining plutonium in the presence of aluminum. However, large amounts of aluminum have been found to interfere with the determination of plutonium by the lanthanum fluoride procedure. Previous attempts to increase the accuracy of the lanthanum fluoride method, by precipitating LaF3 from 4 M HF (rather than 2 M), have been successful only when the initial plutonium level was high."

The following report describes polarographic methods that determine saturated aliphatic carbonyl compounds.

Abstract: "The sensitivity to fast neutrons of a CP Meter ionization chamber of the type used for health physics beta and gamma survey measurements has been investigated."

The following memorandum outlines the procedures used on the neutralization of HNO3 in redox ICU and IAW streams, and the factors influencing their choice. The procedures involve a) hexone removal by evaporation in the presence of a retardant, b) destruction of the retardant, c) nitric acid elimination by boiling with aluminum and d) concentration of the remaining solution by evaporation.