An improved method of water plant control has been developed at Hanford which employs a sensitive turbidiy measuring microphorometer and a model water filtration plant. The microphotometer operates on a light scattering principle and is accurate in the range of 0.0 to 0.1 parts per million turbidity. The model filter plant used is a five gallon per minute plant which can simulate the conditions normally occurring in the large water plants. It is the purpose of this report to describe the model filter plant and to demonstrate the value of the model and microphotometer for effective water plant control and water plant design scoping.

This paper is a preliminary report of experiments being carried out on the compaction of UO₂ powders by swaging within a restraining tube. Various types of UO₂ have been tried with resulting apparent densities as great as 9.89 grams per cubic centimeter.

Much attention has been given to the application of zirconium and zirconium alloys to process tubing for reactors. The properties of this material which make it attractive for such use are, as compared to aluminum: lower neutron absorption; higher design strength; and better corrosion resistance in hot water. Installation of process tubes in HAPO reactors requires that gas tight and water tight joints be maintained between the gunbarrel and process tube, and the process tube and nozzle, respectively. With aluminum tubes this is accomplished by forming a Van Stone flange at the ends of the tube and clamping the flanges between the gunbarrel and nozzle with suitable gasketing. No changes would be required in the existing pile components to install zirconium or zirconium alloy tubes if Van Stone flanges could be formed on these tubes. other methods have been tested, however, which eliminate the necessity for a flange. These will be discussed later.