Report documenting the progress of the Army Gas-Cooled Reactor Systems Program to develop a mobile nuclear power plant for military field operation.

From abstract: Preliminary cost estimates for fuel cycles using both aqueous and CARBOX reprocessing are presented.

From introduction: "This is the eighteenth in a series of quarterly reports which cover the progress and results from the conceptual designs, economic evaluations and research and development work performed by the General Electric Company as part of Contract AT(01-3)-189, Project Agreement No. 13."

Report documenting the progress of the Army Gas-Cooled Reactor Systems Program to develop a mobile nuclear power plant for military field operation.

Abstract: The means to prevent the recurrence of tetralin leakage into the SRE sodium systems are discussed. Included is a description of the redesign of system components to utilize alternate coolants such as nitrogen, air, and NaK.

Introduction: This is a final report on the evaluation of Kanigen electroless nickel plating for surfaces in contact with water and steam i a sodium heated AISI Type 316 stainless steel steam generator. The purpose of the coasting was to afford protection from stress corrosion cracking originating on the water-steam side of the unit. It has been concluded that the kanigen coating does not afford adequate protection for the services condition intended. This work was performed as part of the research and development program for the United States Atomic Energy Commission sodium Components Design Project.

"This is the third quarterly report on Task II dealing with Methods Development for Radio-Tracing of Coal Product Hydrocarbons With Tritium. The problem of accurate low-level tritium assay for tagged hydrocarbons has been resolved and attention is now primarily directed at the questions of tritium mobility and radio-chemical purity in tagged tracers."

Report documenting the progress of the Army Gas-Cooled Reactor Systems Program to develop a mobile nuclear power plant for military field operation.

Chain reacting conditions for plutonium nitrate in water solution have been examined experimentally for a variety of sizes of spheres and cylinders.

A stainless steel autoclave for superheated water corrosion test was installed and "conditioned". Tests were begun to investigate the feasibility of densifying slip cast stainless steel by means of liquid phase sintering. Attempts to prepare tubular fuel elements by vacuum forming were resumed. Although thick-walled vacuum formed casting have been sintered on the aluminum mandrels without cracking, this has not yet been accomplished with the think sections of interest.

Thorium Procedure: As was mentioned in the last report, ammonium nitrate was substituted for ferric nitrate as a salting agent. Also, the acidity of the nitrate solution was reduced from 3.0 molar to 0.5 molar. the revised thorium procedure is described in the report. Radium Procedure: Work has ben initiated on the procedure of Petrow, Nietzel and DeSesa (Winchester Procedure) to determine if the procedure is suitable for very low level concentrations of radium.

Abstract: The caustic permanganate-rinse decontamination treatment was investigated. Loop and metallurgical studies were performed to determine optimum operating conditions as well as the metallurgical effects of the treatment. A treatment with 10 percent sodium hydroxide and 5 percent potassium permanganate solution followed by a rinse with a 5 percent ammonium citrate, 2 percent citric acid and 1/2 percent Versene solution was chosen for the decontamination of a stainless steel steam generator. Decontamination factors of greater than 50 were obtained in loop tests using the above treatment. Corrosion and metallurgical results indicated a total penetration of less than 0.01 mil on annealed Type 304 stainless steel with no evidence of any deleterious effects.

Report documenting the ongoing research and developments of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Homogeneous Reactor Project.

Report containing a series of reports from members of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Neutron Physics Division.

Abstract: A study has been made of the radiochemical composition and the specific activity of insoluble corrosion products (crud) removed from the primary system of the APPR-1. This report presents the results of analysis of twelve crud samples collected during the interval from September 3, 1957 to December 1, 1957. The samples were radiochemically analyzed for long-lived gamma emitting nuclides only. Data are presented on the measured values of the specific activity of crud, the ratios of the nuclide specific activities, and the concentration of crud (crud level) in the circulating primary water. Also included in data, based on the analysis of a single sample, comparing the specific activity of the deposited and circulating corrosion products.

This is the seventeenth quarterly report on our echelle project, as numbered above. Our work this quarter has to some extent been directed towards the Spectroscopy Symposium held at Argonne National Laboratory on February 15, 16, and 17. This report consists principally of brief abstracts of the two papers given at this meeting. Progress since the last quarterly report included completion of the echelle comparator calibration, and the successful production and photographing of the desired spectra of praseodymium and erbium in strong magnetic fields. Considerable interest was aroused by these papers, not only because rare earth spectra are being analyzed, but because of the general applicability of our experimental techniques in producing the spectra.

Abstract: Processes are described for preparing small samples of 42 wt. % U-Al alloy (uranium enriched with U235) for pile irradiation studies. In the course of this work it was found that the size of the massive Al-U grains remains substantially unaltered during hot rolling.

Report discussing the practice of using methyl methacrylate as a coating for platinium dishes in fluorescence method of uranium analysis. The experimental procedure described in this report to evaluate this practice indicates that the sample would be sufficiently protected from contamination and would not need to be stored in a desiccator.

This report details an experiment undergone to determine the amount of radioactive strontium, barium-lanthanum, fission mixture, and sodium accumulated by and distributed within non-feeding goldfish. The report includes tables detailing the findings.