This report covers the progress made on an intensive program to develop and evaluate UO2 as a possible fuel element for the PWR.

The results of this investigation indicate that maximum electric power generation can be obtained by selecting the turbine steam temperature within a range of plus/minus 30 degrees C. from an "idealized" steam temperature. This "idealized" steam temperature is shown to depend primarily on the maximum permissible uranium temperature. The minimum available condenser temperature and the temperature rise of the coolant in the pile effect the selection of the turbine steam temperature to lesser extent.

Abstract: Structure drilling under Contract No. AT(05-l)-120 was begun May 13, 1951, and was suspended June 30, 1951, at Red Rock, Arizona with the completion of 12 holes and 2,390.5 feet of drilling. No mineralization was disclosed in the widely spaced holes. The structure and rock composition was found favorable for a potential drilling area.

Technical report. The object of the research is to determine the procedure and equipment for the preparation of U233 on a semi-works scale. The general proposed procedure is that thorium carbonate in aluminum cans will be irradiated with pile neutrons. The Pa233 resulting from neutron absorption the Th232 and the decay of Th233 will be extraction from 99% of the thorium and the natural U in thorium by MnO2 precipitations. The Pa233 will then be allowed to decay to U233 which in turn will be isolated from the remaining Th and partially decayed Pa233 by ether extraction.

Summary: The High Power Density Project includes a comprehensive fuel development program which has the objective of developing and demonstrating the performance of a nuclear reactor core having a high power density, long fuel life, and low fabrication cost. The fuel program is made up of two principal tasks. Task 1A consists of irradiation tests in the VBWR of Type 304 stainless steel clad, UO2 pellet type fuel rods fabricated by current commercial processes. Task 1B consists of the investigation of lower cost fabrication processes and the irradiation testing of fuel elements fabricated by these processes. Both tasks include the investigation of the feasibility and use of thin-wall stainless steel cladding as a means of improving the neutron economy and fuel cycle costs of stainless steel clad fuel. Irradiation of the Task 1A fuel assemblies in the VBWR was initiated in September, 1960. Subsequently, Task 1B fuel assemblies were inserted in the VBWR as various fabrication processes and design concepts were investigated. Fuel cladding failures have occurred in fuel rods in both Task 1A and 1B. As of this date, cladding failures have occurred in twenty-two rods of approximately 700 fuel rods which have been irradiated. Twenty of the failures …

Summary: A set of conditions is described for a ten minute determination of water in TO₃ by ignition and absorption of the evolved water in magnesium perchlorate. Complete conversion to T₃O₃ is obtained under these conditions, so that total loss on ignition and total T (plus non-volatile impurity) content may also be obtained. It has been found unnecessary to employ Cu foil to prevent interference by nitrates, which may be present with a nitrate/water ratio as high as 5, and in an amount that does not exceed 100 mg.

"The problem of explaining the lack of radiative muon decay in an intermediate charged vector meson theory is discussed. A possible way of introducing the charged vector meson to the theory of weak interactions is outlined in which renormalization is retained. However, if this way is used, the anomalous magnetic moment is calculated to be large, which is in contradiction with expectation."

From introduction: "Five appendices, each of which pertains to a separate phase of the Filtration of Radioactive Aerosols by Glass Fibers program."

"The experience at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in decontamination equipment and working areas from radioactivity has been summarized." The methods and reagents that were used for decontamination are discussed.

Technical report presenting the results of a study of the AEC thorium production facilities at Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa. Operating procedures, descriptions of equipment and a production cost analysis have been included in this study.

Abstract. Some diffusion parameters of water are computed with various thermal-neutron scattering laws. It is found that the diffusion cooling coefficient, in particular, is reasonably sensitive to the scattering law, but that the diffusion cooling coefficients predicted by the Radkowsky and Nelkin kernels are in fortuitious agreement. The coefficients computed for the Nelkin kernel, when treated in a manner consistent with the way in which experimental data are treated, are in reasonable agreement with the results of a recent experiment.

Quarterly design and development progress report on the activities of the Army Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) Program.

Abstract: "The analysis of hafnium and zirconium by the copper spark technique is presented for solutions of HCl, HF, and HClO4 acids. The special techniques of electrode protection and vacuum drying of perchloric acid samples are outlined. Also given are the working curves and deviations of both elements."

Report discussing improved methods of isolating and producing curium, as well as its density, the absorption spectrum of Cm⁺³, and the molar magnetic susceptibility of CmF₃.

Report issued by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory discussing a Health Physics Instrument Manual. Descriptions, characteristics, and applications of different instruments are presented. This report includes tables, illustrations, and photographs.

The program KRUDE, which solves the slowing down and adjoint equations for a mixture of resonance and nonresonance isotopes in an infinite homogeneous medium, was used to evaluate some resonance capture approximations (variational and successive) that use linear combinations of narrow and wide resonance fluxes. Results obtained for resonance capture in the 291-ev resonance of Zr/sup 91/ and the 192-ev resonance of U/sup 238/ are compared, and three methods for including Doppler effects in the variational method are considered.

The purpose of the short duration corrosion test was to obtain preliminary data regarding the corrosion resistance of the spring steel wire in Purex process waste solutions and to measure any changes in the tensile properties of the wire resulting from this exposure.

Introduction: The experimental work at Mound Laboratory on bismuth casting and the sealing of aluminum irradiation containers is an outgrowth of the bismuth recovery project. Since the recovered bismuth contains residual activity it is necessary that the bismuth be processed to the point that no contamination will result from shipment or any subsequent operations required to prepare the bismuth for irradiation. In order to satisfy these requirements the work here has consisted of investigating methods of preparing the bismuth slugs in the shapes required and of mechanically sealing the aluminum container.

The tabulations on these pages include all of the known areas in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona having economically important uranium-vanadium deposits of the type which are generally referred to by the terms roscoe-lite and/or carnotite. Though similar deposits are known to exist in other areas they are to be viewed as being little more than mineralogical curiosities.

Abstract: A summary of thermodynamic calculations for zirconium halides is given. Data indicates that the iodide is the most promising of the halides for arc dissociation and that good recoveries of zirconium should be obtainable provided dissociation is carried out at reduced pressure.

Technical report listing the errata for pages 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 for report CC-918.

Partial abstract: "The investigation of the high temperature and pressure dissociation of water under irradiation was undertaken by the Power Pile Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory in an effort to determine the degree of importance of the phenomenon with respect to the design of a high temperature water-cooled power reactor. Theory and past experimentation indicate that net steady-state dissociation is determined by the rates of the dissociation and recombination reactions under the imposed conditions, the dissociation rate being essentially a function of flux and the recombination rate essentially a function of temperature" (p. 3).

"Time of flight spectrometers for the study of neutrons emitted in charged particle reactions have become important in recent years, following the development of suitable photomultiplier tubes and electronic circuits for nanosecond (ns) timing measurements. The principle of operation is simple. The particles exciting the nuclear reactions in which the neutrons are produced fall on the target in bunches of the order of a nanosecond in width. the arrival of product neutrons at a organic scintillation counter (proton recoil) detector placed a few meters from the target gives signals which can be used to determine the flight time of the neutrons from target to detector. A time-reference pule corresponding to the arrival of beam pulses at the target is required."

Quarterly report describing the technical research and development work accomplished by the Yankee Atomic Electric Company Research and Development Program, and documenting progress made on the group's various projects and goals.