The progress report covers the work carried out during the first year 1958-59 in the department of metallurgy at M.I.T. under the supervision of Professors John T. Norton and Robert E. Ogilvie. A brief summary of the work that has been completed and in some cases still continuing is given. The work has been listed under the following general headings: (1) Diffusion studies in the uranium-niobium system, (2) X-ray detection of cladding defects, (3) Precision X-ray stress analysis of uranium and zirconium, (4) Magnetic studies of Fe3O3 single crystals, (5) Crystal structure studies of yttrium compounds, (6) Structural relationships in ZrFe2-ZrCr2 system.