Quarterly design and development progress report on the activities of the Army Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) Program.

A report regarding an airborne radiometric survey of upper Michigan and Parts of Wisconsin

The variational method is applied to the monoenergetic time dependent transport equation to obtain a simple relation for the asymptotic decay constant in small pulsed assemblies. The results indicate that flat trial functions may be a reasonable representation of the flux distributions in the thin slab limit. This approach is superior to many of the usual transport approximations.

During the past year, three papers covering results of a major series of experiments on intergenotype of blood-forming tissue have appeared, demonstrating successful implantation of isologues normal cells in anemic hosts, permanently correcting their genetic defect in hematopoiesis, both with and without irradiation of the host. Heavy host irradiation was shown ineffective as preparations for implantation of homologous cells of widely different antigenic types.

The following document analyzes the Automatic Isotope Mass Spectrometer that consists of a Laboratory Isotope Mass Spectrometer, covered by Union Carbide Nuclear Company Job Specification "JS-747", which has been modified to meet Union Carbide Nuclear Company Job Specification "JS-741", as well as the instrument's samples collected and analyzed.

Introduction: The experimental work at Mound Laboratory on bismuth casting and the sealing of aluminum irradiation containers is an outgrowth of the bismuth recovery project. Since the recovered bismuth contains residual activity it is necessary that the bismuth be processed to the point that no contamination will result from shipment or any subsequent operations required to prepare the bismuth for irradiation. In order to satisfy these requirements the work here has consisted of investigating methods of preparing the bismuth slugs in the shapes required and of mechanically sealing the aluminum container.

Abstract: In the event of a massive nuclear attack, the combined fallout from quantities of surface-burst nuclear weapons must be considered as a serious hazard over an extended area. This report presents one method for rapidly estimating the fallout from such an attack.

This report covers the progress made on an intensive program to develop and evaluate UO2 as a possible fuel element for the PWR.

Abstract. In the first section of this technical report a new method of extracting uranium from thorium nitrate solution is discussed. This method consists of extracting an aqueous solution of thorium nitrate, nitric acid, sodium sulphate, and potassium thiocyanate with hexone. By this procedure, using an equal volume of hexone it is possible to extract 83 percent of the uranium while only 0.3 percent of the thorium is extracted. other experiments show that even greater separations are possible. In the second section of this report the use of antipyrine in solvent extraction procedures is discussed. Experiments are described in which 90 percent of the uranium is extracted while the thorium is extracted to the order of 3 to 5 percent.

"The correction to photon-photon scattering processes due to the existence of the particles other than electrons is reported. The correction is of the same order in the electric charge as the lowest order term in the perturbation expansion in quantum electrodynamics, although the relevant corrections to the electron-photon and electron-electron scattering are all of higher order."

Partial abstract: "The investigation of the high temperature and pressure dissociation of water under irradiation was undertaken by the Power Pile Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory in an effort to determine the degree of importance of the phenomenon with respect to the design of a high temperature water-cooled power reactor. Theory and past experimentation indicate that net steady-state dissociation is determined by the rates of the dissociation and recombination reactions under the imposed conditions, the dissociation rate being essentially a function of flux and the recombination rate essentially a function of temperature" (p. 3).

Report regarding a waste calcination unit that "will convert the fission product-containing aluminum nitrate solutions" "to granular alumina and fission product oxides" (p. 5).

An analytical method for Cu-64 in reactor effluent has been studied based upon electrodeposition of the active copper with inert copper carrier. A two hour plating time was employed at a current density of 10 ma/sq cm and four volts across the cell. A stainless steel cathode plate was used. Carrier yields of greater than 80% were obtained with a standard deviation of the yield-corrected counting rate as low as 0.24%. Very little, if any contamination by other radioactive elements present was shown by decay curve studies. Self-absorption and self-scatter factors to correct the counting rate were obtained.

Inroduction: "A study of the literature, particularly the work done by R. Strubl, I.W. Kolthoff and S.B. Smith, indicated that a polargraphic method for the estimation of T could be devised which would not sacrifice reasonable accuracy for rapidity. Work was begun with the intention of developing such a method."

Monthly letter report on the research on the development of a beta-ray particle size analyzer (BPSA).

Abstract. Some diffusion parameters of water are computed with various thermal-neutron scattering laws. It is found that the diffusion cooling coefficient, in particular, is reasonably sensitive to the scattering law, but that the diffusion cooling coefficients predicted by the Radkowsky and Nelkin kernels are in fortuitious agreement. The coefficients computed for the Nelkin kernel, when treated in a manner consistent with the way in which experimental data are treated, are in reasonable agreement with the results of a recent experiment.

The program KRUDE, which solves the slowing down and adjoint equations for a mixture of resonance and nonresonance isotopes in an infinite homogeneous medium, was used to evaluate some resonance capture approximations (variational and successive) that use linear combinations of narrow and wide resonance fluxes. Results obtained for resonance capture in the 291-ev resonance of Zr/sup 91/ and the 192-ev resonance of U/sup 238/ are compared, and three methods for including Doppler effects in the variational method are considered.

Economic and hazards calculation of pot calcination of Purex and Thorex wastes.

In studies of the fabrication of fuel subassemblies for the supercritical-water reactor, the limited ductility of stainless steel-UO₂ fuel sheet made the fabrication of corrugated-flat-plate-type subassemblies impractical. A fabricable MTR-type assembly, 5/8 in. square and 30 in. long, was developed. Methods for edge cladding fuel sheet were developed and a brazing alloy, GE-75, was found to be corrosion resistant in supercritical water.

"Time of flight spectrometers for the study of neutrons emitted in charged particle reactions have become important in recent years, following the development of suitable photomultiplier tubes and electronic circuits for nanosecond (ns) timing measurements. The principle of operation is simple. The particles exciting the nuclear reactions in which the neutrons are produced fall on the target in bunches of the order of a nanosecond in width. the arrival of product neutrons at a organic scintillation counter (proton recoil) detector placed a few meters from the target gives signals which can be used to determine the flight time of the neutrons from target to detector. A time-reference pule corresponding to the arrival of beam pulses at the target is required."

From introduction: "Five appendices, each of which pertains to a separate phase of the Filtration of Radioactive Aerosols by Glass Fibers program."

Summary: The High Power Density Project includes a comprehensive fuel development program which has the objective of developing and demonstrating the performance of a nuclear reactor core having a high power density, long fuel life, and low fabrication cost. The fuel program is made up of two principal tasks. Task 1A consists of irradiation tests in the VBWR of Type 304 stainless steel clad, UO2 pellet type fuel rods fabricated by current commercial processes. Task 1B consists of the investigation of lower cost fabrication processes and the irradiation testing of fuel elements fabricated by these processes. Both tasks include the investigation of the feasibility and use of thin-wall stainless steel cladding as a means of improving the neutron economy and fuel cycle costs of stainless steel clad fuel. Irradiation of the Task 1A fuel assemblies in the VBWR was initiated in September, 1960. Subsequently, Task 1B fuel assemblies were inserted in the VBWR as various fabrication processes and design concepts were investigated. Fuel cladding failures have occurred in fuel rods in both Task 1A and 1B. As of this date, cladding failures have occurred in twenty-two rods of approximately 700 fuel rods which have been irradiated. Twenty of the failures …

These logs record the subsurface stratigraphy and correlate the geologic formations.

From abstract: Mesa V of the Lukachukai area is capped by Morrison sediments which dip gently eastward from the mountains to the mesa tip, where the strata are tilted sharply to the opposite dip by the Lukachukai monocline. The Salt Wash of Mesa V contains ore outcrops which indicate favorable intensity of mineralization at one horizon along a 2000-foot outcrop interval. Other scatted exposures indicate the existence of ore under much of the mesa surface.