9 : : 7 : 7 9 : 5 5 ? 5 9 G -- 8 ; 8 ; = -activity levels of the melt-refining process for EBR-II core fuel was completed. An experiment was also completed on the evolution of fission- product krypton and xenon from an irradiated fuel pim as it was heat to a temperature above the melting point. In tests of alternate materials for use in a meltrefining furnace, a fibrous potassium titanate grain retainer was found to be a very effective heat insulator, but to have less strength than nigid Fibenfrax retainers. The skull remaining in the zirconia crucible after a meltrefining operation must be processed to recover, as partially purified metal, the fissionable material for return to the fuel cycle. Several essentially quantitative reductions of uranium dioxide and skull oxides were achieved in times of less than 8 hr at 800 deg C in dilute magnesium-zinc solutions and in magnesium containing a small percentage (0.5 to 2) of sodium as a wetting agent. Data and equations for solubilities of other elements in liquid cadmium are included. The partition coefficients of a numbsr of representative fissile and fission product elements between the two immiscible liquids, …

The use and operation of the Van de Graaff generator are summarized for the period from January 1 to June 30, 1960. Molecular beam study final results are given for Mn/sup 56/, and progress on the new atomic-beam machine is reported to date. A preliminary investigation was made of the neutron total cross section of cobalt. Results are presented. The decomposition of trichlorobromomethane by the isomeric transition of 4.4-hr Br/sup 80m/ and to 1000 deg F. /sup -/, decay of 35.9-hr Br/sup 82/ was studied. The fragmnentation patterns initiated by the two nuclear transitions differ markedly, the one caused by the isomeric transition was dominated by spectra of multiply-charged atomic species, whereas the pattern due to Br/sup 82/ was entirely made up of singlycharged products. An investigition of nondiagonal matrix elements arising in a shell-model treatment of a deformed nucleus showed that their neglect in determining the degree of deformation does not lead to serious error. A previous statement, in a study of collective effects and the shell model, about K = 0 bands in odd-odd nuclei is corrected. The effect of residual interactions is calculated, and the result is applied to Ho/sup 166/. (For preceding period see ANL-6190.) (W.D.M.)

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This report presents the results of research and development work performed in two ANL divisions which are chemical engineering and material science.