The reactor equipment cell is expected to be completed by February 15. While filled with water, the tank was inspected for leaks, and the few leaks found will have been repaired by February 15. All orders for construction materials placed prior to this quarter have been received. New requisitions issued during the quarter total $16,000. Work orders were issued, and fabrication of all low-pressure-system components was begun in the ORNL shops. The thermal shield around the reactor vessel was specified as a 2-ft-thick cylindrical concrete wall. With this shield, the fast-neutron flux in the equipment area will be reduced to 7 x 109 neutrons/cm2/sec, the slow flux to 4 x 107 neutrons/cm2/sec, and the gamma intensity to less than 105 r/hr. The possible blast effects from a rupture of the pressure vessel were studied and are judged to be sufficient to justify the inclusion of a 1.5. to 2-in.-thick blast shield around the pressure vessel. The blast shield eliminates the danger of damaging the leak tight equipment-cell liner. Pressures in the reactor equipment cell, as a result of vessel failure, were calculated in order to arrive at a safe design pressure for the reactor equipment cell. For the case of …

Report describing the progress made in the Clinch River Study for the period May to October 1961. This report is based off of multiple reports of water sampling conducted across six stations in order to evaluate the safety and radioactive content of the Clinch River.

The development of ionic methods for the determination of corrosion products in the highly radioactive Homogeneous Reactor (HR) fuels has been of major interest in the work of the Ionic Analyses Laboratory. Methods for the spectrophotometric determination of aluminum and for the polarographic determination of iron in HR fuels have been developed. The polarographic determination of molybdenum in uranyl sulfate solutions was studied. A polarographic method for the determination of zinc was developed. A fluorometric method for the determination of microgram amounts of fluoride was studied. Three organic reagents were investigated as precipitants for microgram quantities of zirconium in HR fuel. The automatic photometric titration technique was applied to the determination of thorium and of sulfate. A method was developed for the ionexchange separation and potentiometric titration of cobalt. The ultraviolet absorption spectra of technetium and rhenium were studied.