Summary: This report contains a description of the final design of the Piqua Nuclear Power Facility (PNPF); an outline of the test and operating procedures, and the organization and responsibilities; and a summary of the hazards and safeguards analyses that have been conducted to evaluate the safety of the facility operations.

Abstract: This report describes a 300,000-kwe, sodium-cooled, graphite-moderated nuclear power plant based on existing technical information.

Abstract: Uranium monocarbide shows considerable potential for use as a fuel in high temperature, high power density, nuclear power reactors. As Atomics International is proposing its use in sodium graphite type reactors, it was necessary to develop a process for fabricaing sodium bonded uranium carbide fuel elements.

Abstract: An analytical and experimental effort toward a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in nuclear power reactor loss-of-pressure accidents is presented.

Abstract: Perforated BeO plates were thermal shock tested to evaluate the effect of: (1) localized temperature variations adjacent to the perforations, and (2) radial gradients across the entire plate.

Abstract: Two in-pile capsules containing mock-up uranium carbide fuel rods were subjected to a total of five neutron bursts in the TREAT facility with initial reactor periods ranging from 0.26 to 0.10 sec.

Introduction: The purpose of this experiment was to demonstrate that a liquid metal heat transfer system could be built and operated at very high temperatures.

Abstract: A new concept for continuously monitoring neutron flux has been successfully tested.

"Scale-up work on high temperature fuel recovery processes has progressed to the point where the (high temperature) vacuum furnace for several operations to the hot cells has been completed and tested under operating conditions. Small scale experiments on high temperature methods for processing molten irradiated uranium fuel have been made with spent X-10 fuel slug pieces. The results of direct Pu evaporation, treatment with fused fluorides and oxide scavenging were every similar to those found with tracer experiments."

"Engineering pertinent to the development of the sodium-cooled, graphite-moderated type of reactor was continued. This included work on problems related to the zirconium canned moderator, low enrichment uranium fuel, sodium piping, secondary coolant system, shielding, and the control and safety elements. A large fraction of the work was devoted specifically to problems of the proposed Sodium Reactor Experiment (SRE) configuration. In this connection, an integrated effort was initiated to prepare a complete preliminary design of the SRE by an early date. In addition, two alternate sodium-graphite reactor configurations were studied. One was an intermediate size, 145 thermal megawatt, unit optimized for the production of low cost plutonium. The second was a low power 10 thermal megawatt intended for power production, but in which sodium circulation through the core was entirely dependent upon thermal convection."