The attractiveness of a helium cooled, heavy water moderated, natural uranium central station power plant has been investigated. A fuel element has been devised which allows the D20 to be kept at a low pressure while the exit gas temperature is high. A preliminary cost analysis indicates that, using currently available materials, competitive nuclear power in foreign countries is possible.

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This paper will describe a telemetry system which has a bandwidth of 250 mgacples, the uses to which it has been put and possible future uses.

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It is the purpose of the Fuel Element Technical Manual to Provide a single document describing the fabrication processes used in the manufacture of the fuel element as well as the technical bases for these processes. The manual will be instrumental in the indoctrination of personnel new to the field and will provide a single data reference for all personnel involved in the design or manufacture of the fuel element. The material contained in this manual was assembled by members of the Engineering Department and the Manufacturing Department at the Hanford Atomic Products Operation between the dates October, 1955 and June, 1956. Arrangement of the manual. The manual is divided into six parts: Part I--introduction; Part II--technical bases; Part III--process; Part IV--plant and equipment; Part V--process control and improvement; and VI--safety.

The radioactive liquid wastes from a separations facility are customarily stored in underground waste storage tanks. The wastes from the proposed Purex Separations Plant will have a high concentration of the fission products and will result in a large evolution of heat. The possibility of these wastes boiling due to radio-disintegration of fission products has made a survey of the problem desirable. This report lists the results of this investigation.

The operating conditions to which the special Mark VIII quatrefoils will be exposed during the proposed piloting program have been compared with the conditions required to cause burnout, using an established method of calculating these conditions. The results of this comparison permit the following conclusions to be drawn: (1) With normal flow of coolant through the special elements the heat flux to be encountered in the R-8 cycle (1400 MW) will be 70% or that required to cause burnout (30% margin from burnout). (2) With a reduction of coolant flow to 82% of normal through one tube of a special element, burnout of that fuel column is possible in the R-8 cycle. (3) In the R-6 cycle (1280 MW), the margin from burnout in the special Mark VIII quatrefoils is 42% with full flow and 20% with the above reduced coolant flow. A similar comparison of operating conditions predicted for the L-3 cycle (full Mark VIII charge) shows that, even at the highest power level (1250 MW), the margin from burnout is greater than 55% with normal flow and 40% with reduced flow.

``Safe-failure`` is an important criterion for power reactor fuel elements designed to contain core materials which react rapidly with high-temperature coolant. Out-of-pile experiments indicate that, without a ``safe-failure`` fuel element, expensive and possibly catastrophic reactor shutdowns may occur if the fuel element jacket fails during irradiation in high temperature water. That jacket failures occasionally will occur, regardless of the material or fabrication process involved, seems to be generally agreed. Fuel elements involving cluster arrangements, oxide cores, and wafer assemblies with ``bulkheads`` for compartmentalization have been proposed as being relatively safe in event of jacket failure. A fourth possibility is a type of long cartridge fuel element.

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The phenomenon of the electromagnetic pinch effect is used to accelerate ionized gases for space propulsion. Electrical energy, initially stored in capacitors, is discharged across two nozzle shaped electrodes wherein the radial pinch is converted to axial motion of the effected gases instead of confinement at the axis. The gas dynamics of a pinch using the hydrodynamical model of a msgnetic piston driving a shock wave is combined with the electrodynamics of the circuit to calculate the discharge behavior. Experiments on three different electrode designs are discussed and results compared with calculated values. Results are applied to one particular space propulsion system consisting of a nuclear energy source, a space radiator, a turbine-generator, capacitor, and a pinch tube. The specific mission analyzed is a one-way unmanned flight to a Mars orbit, starting from an Earth orbit. (auth)

Experiments were performed with 2.09% U/sup 235/-enriched uranium metal plates in a light-water-moderated and -reflected assembly. Each plate was 30 in. long, 31/8 in. wide, and 1/4 in. thick and contained 7.09 kg of uranium. In the first assemblies the plates were arranged in rows with edges adjacent, and the spacing between rows was varied from 5/8 to 1 1/8in. The optimum spacing was about 7/8 in. With the spacing between rows maintained at 7/8 in., the spacing between the edges of the plates was varied from 0 to 5/8 in. The optimum spacing between edges was 5/16 in. The minimum critical mass in these assemblies was 6.74 kg of U/sup 235/. (auth)

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The effect of hot-worked thickness on the corrosion behavior of atmosphere-melted Zircaloy-2 is discussed. Hydrogen pickup upon etching Zircaloy- 2 Zircaloy-3, and properties of vacuum-cast Zircaloy-2 and the fabrication of special Zirccaloy shapes are presented. A hardness converison chart for annealed zirconium and zirconium alloys is included. (J.E.D.) The useful properties of the tungsten wires used in the incandescent lamp and ra dio tubes industry are ensured by adding about 1% of various ingredie (e.g., K, Na, Al, Si compounds) to the tungstic acid and producing metal powder and compressed rods. During the sintering of these rods, the additions are evapo rated to such an extact that finally the concentration of foreign atoms remains only 10/sup 5/. According to the investigations, the warm hardness values of these tungsten pieces is determined by the traces of impurities. In order to investigate the influencce of the various kinds of atoms, an apparatus was built for the determination of half-micro warm hardnesses of various kinds of tungsten metals in the temperature interval 20 to 800 deg C The tungsten wires made with additions containing Si had an average hardness H/sub V/ = 250 at 800 deg C, while the wires without such additions …

When acid leach liquors obtained from U ores containing Mo are contacted with anion exchange resin, both U and Mo are adsorbed. The adsorbed Mo is not removed in the norraal U elution process, and when the U-barren resin is recycled, the resin sites already occupied by Mo are unavailable for U adsorption. In succeeding cycles, more and more sites become occupied by Mo, and the resin capacity for U is seriously lowered. This rapid accunmulation of an adsorbed species is known as resin poisoning.'' The many disadvantages of such a situation are self-evident. (auth)

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The effects of beams of protons and alpha particles from the 60-inch cyclotron and beams of accelerated nuclei of heliuan-4, carbon-12, oxygen-16, and neon-20 from the linear accelerator on thin films of dried enzymes were measured. The experimental apparatus is described and results are presented graphically. (C.H.)