This document details 100 Areas technical activities in reactor physics research and operation for the month of February 1947.

It was desired to determine the distribution of boron in the various steps of the processing of domestic ore concentrates containing high percentages of boron. The experiments described in this report were directed toward that end. Summary of this report are: (1) a black oxide containing 0.6 ppm of boron was prepared from material containing 350 ppm; (2) less than 0.02% of the boron in the original material appeared in the black oxide; (3) the iron step did not remove appreciable amounts of boron; (4) the bulk of the extracted boron was removed in the soda salt precipitation; and (5) some of the boron was removed in the acid leach and calcination steps.

The gas thermometer in the F Pile has been overhauled and re-calibrated. The readings are still in agreement with the readings from the graphite thermocouples. A similar overhaul of the gas thermometer in the D Pile will be made during June. The progress of further outward bowing of Tube 2496-D can not be followed satisfactorily even though readings are obtained from both inlet and outlet ends of the tube. Preliminary results obtained from the one-tube mock-up suggest the possibility that the graphite adjacent to the gun barrels in the upper part of the D Pile may fracture after an additional expansion of about 50%, and that this fracturing may distort the tube locally so that 1.44-inch diameter pieces can not be passed through the tube. There is definite indication that continued expansion of the graphite in the D Pile is causing an increase in both the frequency and severity of gun-barrel binding. The committee endorses the proposal that tubes in the top corners of the F Pile which have yet to be discharged for the first time should be left empty rather than re-loaded. This move would be in the direction of reducing the size of the pile in anticipation …

Recent discussions in the group have given rise to the problem of determining whether the beta contamination found in the Columbia River is carried by the algae which are found in the retention basin. The algae accumulate in the basin and apparently remain there longer than the retained water, and thus may be contaminated to a greater extent than the water itself.