From introduction: "This report presents the apparent viscosities of supernate-sludge slurries prepared synthetically to simulate the conditions known to exist in the waste storage tanks, but with fission products and plutonium absent."

From introduction: "In this report an attempt was made to summarize the results of recent research on the effective height of smoke stacks. In this summary attention is paid only to the case in which the density of the stack effluent is the same as that of the surrounding air."

Disposal on a specific retention basic of certain radioactive liquid waste solutions emanating from separations from separations plants has been practiced at Hanford since 1944. As used at Hanford, the term "specific retention" is defined as that volume of waste liquids that may be disposed to the soil* and be held against the force of gravity by the molecular attraction between sand grains and the surface tension of the water, when expressed as percent of packed soil volume. In practice it represents the volume of liquid that may be discharged to a disposal pit of known dimensions without leakage to the ground, water, expressed as percent of the total volume of a column of soil with the same cross section as the pit, and extending from the bottom of the pit to the water table. It is recognized that some degree of lateral spreading will occur which has the effect of enlarging the volume of soil contacted by the liquid.

Report summarizing data from Purex tests for pulse column specifications. These test results were used to estimate pilot plant specifications.

Summary: A method was found for determining calcium concentrations in TBP process streams in spite of serious interferences bysodium, ferrous, uranyl, sulfate, phosphate, and sulfamate ions as well as by TBP. The precision attainable varied from sample to sample, depending upon its composition. In general, errors of 20% or greater occurred. The smallest determinable amount of calcium was about 10 mg/1.

Objective: "The observations summarized in the present report were made to determine the stability of ferrous and sulfamate ions and sulfamic acid in RA Column scrub solution (RAS) and in aqueous solution comparable to the RA Column feed tee composition (RAFS). Knowledge of the stability of the reducing agent (ferrous iron) is necessary to properly plan the method of preparation and introduction of this component into the RA system and to assure dependable and reproducible performance."

High speed data handling and computing systems are coming into increasing use in the automatic control of complex industrial processes. One of the next significant developments in reactor design is believed to be the application of high speed data handling and control systems to nuclear reactors. This document is a study of such a system intended for use with the Plutonium Recycle Test Reactor.

An improved method of water plant control has been developed at Hanford which employs a sensitive turbidiy measuring microphorometer and a model water filtration plant. The microphotometer operates on a light scattering principle and is accurate in the range of 0.0 to 0.1 parts per million turbidity. The model filter plant used is a five gallon per minute plant which can simulate the conditions normally occurring in the large water plants. It is the purpose of this report to describe the model filter plant and to demonstrate the value of the model and microphotometer for effective water plant control and water plant design scoping.

"The attached report summarizes the work performed in the establishment of an improved spectrographic method for determining iron in plutonium."

Reactivity measurements conducted in the Hanford Test Pile are interpreted to yield resonance integrals for uranium, uranium oxide, thorium and thorium oxide. The experiments were made using cadmium filters and are discussed in terms of the multiplication factor of the Hanford Test Pile.

This report discusses the settling rates and properties of 101-U sludge when slurried with increasing amounts of synthetic supernatant.

Different methods of decontaminating plutonium contaminated skin were studied by contamination localized areas of pig skin and then testing the different decontamination methods. Results indicate that the most effective of the decontamination methods tested involved the application of a plastic adherent material to the skin and its later removal by peeling.

The Interim Power Fuels Reprocessing Program, as established by the Atomic Energy Commission, provides the service of recovering uranium, thorium, plutonium, etc., from irradiated fuels discharged from non-production reactors of both public and private ownership. To provide this service on an interim basis and at minimum capital investment, the Commission has assigned the processing responsibility for the various fuel types to several AEC sites. The sites are to be assigned fuel types most similar to their normal production. As a result, HAPO has been assigned the responsibility for processing the low enrichment uranium and uranium oxide type fuels with isotopic content up to 5% uranium-235. In addition, some plutonium base fuels will be processed at Hanford.

This article presents data on the effects of gamma radiation on the physical properties of a number of different classes of plastics materials of construction which were screened to determine their capabilities and limitations for service in applications where ionizing radiation exists. The irradiations were carried out in air at ambient temperature at normal atmospheric pressure to various gamma radiation doses up to 1*10^9 r depending upon the stability of the materials to radiation exposure. The different classes of materials and materials within a class are compared.

Much attention has been given to the application of zirconium and zirconium alloys to process tubing for reactors. The properties of this material which make it attractive for such use are, as compared to aluminum: lower neutron absorption; higher design strength; and better corrosion resistance in hot water. Installation of process tubes in HAPO reactors requires that gas tight and water tight joints be maintained between the gunbarrel and process tube, and the process tube and nozzle, respectively. With aluminum tubes this is accomplished by forming a Van Stone flange at the ends of the tube and clamping the flanges between the gunbarrel and nozzle with suitable gasketing. No changes would be required in the existing pile components to install zirconium or zirconium alloy tubes if Van Stone flanges could be formed on these tubes. other methods have been tested, however, which eliminate the necessity for a flange. These will be discussed later.

This report follows an investigation of a cargo truck found contaminated by various radioactive material on a routine trip from Arco, Idaho to the Hanford plant on May 8, 1952. The report analyzes the truck's route in an attempt to find the location of the contaminating region.

Values of copper tubing pressure drops as determined by test for low flow rates of air, helium, carbon dioxide and water are contained herein. The work was performed in order to provide original data, useful for design work at Hanford Atomic Products Operation, and not available in any known handbook or other publication.

In the past several years the use of neutron monitors for Pu concentration monitoring has been expanded in the Chemical Processing Department. Most of these monitors have been quite successful, and considerable effort is being made to improve the operation of both existing and future monitoring systems. One of the major improvements has been the development and use of a transistorized pre-amplifier or impedance matching circuits. This unit solves several problems associated with the use of boron trifluoride (BF3) neutron detectors in process monitoring; e.g., vacuum tube pre-amp failure because heat is not being conducted away.

From summary: "The relative absorptions of X-rays by various substances are listed as a guide to the application of the X-ray photometric method in chemical analysis and to the estimation of interference by extraneous substances."

The build up of contaminated film on the internal surfaces of high temperature in-reactor recirculating water loops has created serious radiation exposure problems to operational and maintenance personnel. A considerable amount of work has been applied to develop an effective decontamination process for the decontamination of these loops and their components.

From introduction: The present report describes further refinements of the apparatus and the method to meet a need for a sensitive determination of carbon in plutonium.

This report presents the final results from the investigation of the ratio of Pu-239 fission cross section to U-235 fission cross section. Three sets of plutonium and uranium foils were prepared at KAPL and were investigated to acquire the final results.

A multi-purpose program for processing exponential data has been prepared for the 709 computer. The main purposes of the program is to compute the material buckling from raw data (given counts, time, and counter information) or from previously calculated Athermal's. It is also possible to compute only CeCh (end and harmonic corrections) for a given B11 or series if B11's no counting data being entered. In every case, pile measurements must be submitted as input for corrections.

The evaluation of the inductance of an electrical component is often important in understanding and operating an electrical circuit. Inductance is defined by several equations, the most common being e= -L d1/dt . This equation defines inductance as the constant which relates the back emf produced in an element to the time-rate-of-change of current.