This memorandum provides an estimate of the life of manufacturing piles.

In August 1946 it was discovered that two effluent lines near the Columbia River at Hanford were damaged. The upstream effluent line has broken off 37 fact from the shoreline and the downstream effluent line had been bent and partly broken seventeen feet from shoreline and has swung downstream to a point about 50 feet from shorelines. This study was made to determine how fast and in what fashion the temperature of the effluent water is dissipated in the Columbia River under the present conditions and to compare this to a previous survey made when the effluent lines were believed to be in their original position.

The favorible attention being given graphite as a fuel rod material calls attention to the need for preventing diffusion of fission products from the fuel rods. The methods of prevention include painting the surface of the rod with an impermeable organic synthetic composition, enclosing the rods in metal cans, electroplating the rods with a suitable metal, or covering the surface with some type of inorganic ceranmic glaze. Each of these methods is evaluated as to feasibility. (M.H.R.)