This technical report provides a general description of the Brookhaven National Laboratory, describing the nuclear characteristics of the Brookhaven reactor and more detailed descriptions of the features and instrumentation of the reactor.

Abstract. Spectrographic procedures for determining small amounts of the common contaminants in beryllium and its compounds are described. Suggestions relative to the preparation of synthetic standards are also given.

The following report examines a rapid method used to eliminate the possibility of explosive perchlorate-organic mixtures in a control laboratory in order to determine radiocesium. These methods include the usage of chloroplatinic acid as a precipitate of radocesium.

Samples containing 5 to 10 mg of uranium were extracted with hexone (methyl isobutyl ketone) and titrated coulometrically in sulphate media. Relative standard deviations of 0.45% for samples containing 5 mg and 0.56% for 10 mg were determined by precision studies.

The initial and long-term nuclear characteristics of two internally cooled heterogeneous, graphite-moderated, two-region, molten-salt reactors have been studied. These reactors have doubling times of 22.5 years and 27.5 years. Methods of decreasing the doubling times by removing the Pa233 from the core and be increasing the specific power of the reactor are described.

From introduction: This is the first in a series of reports describing an investigation of the chemistry of uranium(VI) orthophosphate solutions which is at present underway in this laboratory. Spectrophotometric, potentiometric and solubility studies have been carried out, and it is the first of these which is reported here.

The following report covers the results of a general program that was conducted at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to investigate the effects on plastic materials of exposure to radiation in the pile. In the investigation, several plastics were irradiated, and on removal from the pile, their rates of decay were determined by measurement of gamma activity in an ionization chamber.

At present, emphasis is being given the application of nondestructive testing to the inspection of nuclear fuel in conjunction with complete product specifications. The objective is to quantitatively specify fuel quality parameters, and to measure the entire fuel production against these specifications nondestructively. Under this concept the acceptability of a given fuel element becomes a well-defined factor readily determined by appropriate nondestructive tests.