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.

To insure a full evaluation of the effects of in-reactor loops with respect to all phases of the Plutonium Recycle Program, a separate study of each loop has been undertaken. An initial study was carried out which analyzed the effects of in-reactor loops using the design criteria for the gas loop as a basis. As soon as the design criteria for the H2O high pressure loop became available, a more detailed evaluation was completed for that loop. Recent completion of the scope description of the PRTR fuel element rupture test loop now permits an individual evaluation of this loop.

In some engineering applications it has become necessary to operate equipment containing small diameter rods or tubes oriented parallel to flow stream. In the case of several nuclear reactors such as the Plutonium Recycle Test Reactor and the S. S. Savannah Maritime Reactor, bundles of small diameter rods are used as the fuel elements. The situation also has application to heat exchangers. A method for accurately predicting the pressure drop characteristics of various bundle configurations would be helpful in the design and selection of equipment. Some progress has been made toward gaining a greater knowledge of the bundle characteristics under low temperature conditions. This report includes the development of relationship for the effect of temperature on pressure drop.

During normal operation the NPR will function as a closed system and the coolant will be maintained at a high degree of purity. Periodically, however, the system will have to be opened for fuel element discharge and/or decontamination. During these periods the reactor will be operated on single pass cooling. The use of deionized and deoxygenated water as the single pass coolant is not economically feasible due to the large quantities of coolant that will be required. At present it appears that filtered water will be used for this purpose. Since filtered water contains substantial amounts of dissolved solids (approximately 100 parts per million), and since it is saturated with air, this type of operation will have to be investigated with regard to corrosion problems. A particularly serious problem will be present after the system has been decontaminated, since the high temperature oxide films will have been removed and the bars metal surfaces will be exposed to the coolant.

The design of NPR shows large quantities of carbon steel pipe and fittings in the front and rear face areas. These are also the area where the most work must be done during an outage, and consequently lower radiation levels are needed here than elsewhere in the piping system. A single pass decontamination of the front and rear piping without going through the entire loop is desirable. Because of the quantities of chemicals and available down time, an effective shorty interval process is needed. This report gives some recent laboratory data on this subject.

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.

One of the problems encountered in the design of the EGCR has been the possibility of bowing in the outer six rods of the seven rod cluster. The power distribution in an outer rod is asymmetrical with respect to the center of the rod. This causes a variation in the cladding temperature, and might result in unven thermal expansion, or bowing.

An ex-reactor test stimulating the charging of a tubular fuel element in a Zircaloy-2 process tube showed a problem of severe process tube scratching and galling may occur if metal sliding contact fuel element supports are used. Both the fuel supports and the process tubes were autoclaved. Although the conditions of this test were severe in that the sharp edges rather than a flat surface of the supports were in contact with the process tube, it pointed out the potential problem of galling by point on small area contact supports on heavy fuel elements. This difficulty had not been observed with the lighter tubular or cluster fuel elements used in KER irradiation. In addition to the loss of metal and thinning of the process tube after a number of charge-discharge operations, these scratches may lead to localized corrosion or act as points of stress concentration.

Considerable work has been done on decontamination procedures for both corrosion products and fission products. Testing of promising procedures under typical rupture conditions is an important phase of this work. The Irradiated Rupture Prototype (IRP) has been used since August in this evaluation work. This document is one of a series reporting these data.

A part of the development activities of the Process Equipment Development Group, Chemical Development, HLO through the year 1959 has consisted of test evaluation of some of the never products of manufacturers, design and refinement of novel units to do certain specialized jobs and development of improved components for existing plant equipment. Modification of present chemical processing methods and investigation of new basic procedures have made it necessary to utilize different and "exotic" materials, titanium, has given rise to another problem-- that of the selection of adequate and compatible bearings where the titanium is used as moving or rotating part.

This document will be concerned with the design, operation and maintenance of an automatic fuel element stamping machine. In order to take advantage of automatic unloading and length checking at the Acme-Gridley lathes in the 313 Building, automatic stamping of fuel elements is desirable. This, along with the need for a permanent canning line identification, resulted in a request for a machine to automatically stamp HAPO fuel elements on a production basis.

Organic compounds with high boiling points and low corrosion qualities have been considered for use as reactor coolants and moderators. Those being considered, however, have a greater tendency to leak than does water. A program to evaluate mechanical closures to be used for a leak-tight system for organic fluids has been established. Report HW-59446 covered descriptions of the facility used in this study and the primary results of tests covering two liquids, fittings, and instrumentation. This report will cover final results and other pertinent information.

The decontamination of the present Hanford reactors involves a once-through cleaning operation. Considerable interest has also been shown in determining the feasibility of this once-through technique for cleanup of certain portions of the NPR system. This report contains information on a series of tests performed in the 242-B single pass flow facility. Information concerning the following are presented: (1) Efficiency of decontaminating KER Loop 1 and 2 contaminated specimens. (2) Efficiency of decontaminating present reactor pigtails by different methods. (3) Areas that need further study.

The Biology Operation, Hanford Laboratories, required plutonium dioxide particles in five different micron and sub-micron size ranges. These were to be supplied as a water suspension in small containers. It was necessary to design equipment, suitable for hood operation, which would give a satisfactory separation of these particles.

This report describes and evaluates the Hanford 105 reactor building structures' ability to withstand an internal pressure increase. The means by which their roof and wall surface would contain a pressure buildup 0.3 psi, and prevent contaminant release which might accompany a nuclear incident are discussed. Prototypes of the B, D, DR, F, and H reactor block wall configuration, the corrugated transite roof of the K reactors, and the corrugated transite walls of the K and C reactors are evaluated. Methods of securing certain building components are described, and a comparison of several candidate sealant coatings presented for consideration. These tests were performed at the request of the Design Operation, as part of CG-791, an existing reactor containment program. This series of tests represents only a part of the overall modifications program. A study of the reactor building containment design criteria is available in a Hanford document, HW-59236, by T. O. Brown.

The discharge of cooling water from the Hanford reactors introduce radioactive contaminants to the Columbia River. These materials may subsequently bring about exposure to human populations either through the direct use of the water for sanitary purposes or transfers of the radioisotopes into the food chains. It is therefore desirable to keep to a minimum the amounts of radioisotopes released to the river.

An inventory of the contaminated materials accumulated since the initiation of this project in June 1958, revealed a larger variety and quantity of materials that could be burned, than was specified for the initial scope. Therefore, it is desirable to revise the scope to permit handling the majority of these materials with the initially installed equipment.

The solids in Purex lww were first observed during flowsheet tests for recovery of fission products from plant wastes. Since the nature of this solid was not apparent from the flowsheet composition of lww, some work was performed to characterize this material. Although this work has been conducted over a period of about one year, it has been subordinate to the main one of testing flowsheets for fission product recovery. The solids have been observed in each of about six samples of plant lww that have been studied, and the centrifuged volume of solids has been about four percent in each case.

Two Zircaloy-clad capsules (GKH-14-19,20) containing two compacts each of high density PuO2-UO2 mixed crystal oxides were shipped to the MTR in December 2, 1958. The compacts contain 0.026 a/o PuO2, have densities of 91 percent of the theoretical value, and will generate the same specific power as an Al-1.8w/o Pu alloy rod of the same diameter would produce. Two capsules (GKH-14-21,22) have been prepared and contain three compacts each of low density, about 65 percent of the theoretical value, PuO2-UO2 mixed crystal oxides. It is tentatively planned to ship the last two capsules during January 1959.

A knowledge of the surface tension of metals is a valuable tool in many aspects of physical metallurgy. Surface tension is a prime factor in such phenomena as swelling, nucleation and growth, and corrosion by liquid metals, and is also of importance in brazing. casting, and sintering. This survey was initiated to facilitate the selection of an experimental technique for determining the surface tension of uranium in support of current swelling studies of irradiated uranium. It is believed that swelling in uranium in support of current swelling; studies of small bubbles of fission gases (krypton and xenon), and the forces resisting the expansion of these bubbles are the elastic and plastic flow energies and surface tension of the metal. Experimental techniques for the determination of surface tension of solids are still in the development stage, but three techniques appear to be most feasible. These methods are: (1) the mechanical method, in which a tensile lead is used to counterbalance the contractile force of surface tension; (2) the thermal etching method, involving measurement of the dihedral angle at the root of etched grain boundaries; and (3) the electron diffraction method, which analyzes surface tension by the amount of lattice distortion it …

The chemical processing industry relies heavily on the use of rotary pumps to move massive quantities of liquids. The rotating elements of these pumps, generally of the deep-well turbine type, are submerged in the solution being pumped. This singular factor sometimes imposes a severe limitation on the choice bearings because the liquids are frequently corrosive and have poor lubricity. At the Hanford Atomic Products Operation a further complication arises from the effects of radioactivity in the solutions being transferred. Radiation and temperature can and will cause physical damage to many substances, including certain potential bearing materials such as plastics. These factors, coupled with the economics of remote operation and maintenance, have lead to the need for a test program to screen and evaluate potential bearing and journal materials.

The moderator fluid will be injected into the PRTR calandrin through injectors located between the shroud tubes and at the bottom of the calandrin. It is important that the size and arrangement of the injectors be such that complete mixing of the moderator will occur and prevent hot sports from forming in the moderator. Such hot spots could lead to undesired changes in the moderating characteristics due to boiling within the moderator. Also of importance is the requirement that the injector should not produce excessive turbulence at the moderator surface thereby complicating moderator level control. To determine the extent of moderator mixing within the calandrin, experimental studies were made employing a full scale PRTR calandrin mockup.

This procedure is intended to be used as: 1. An instruction and guide for operation of the KER loops. 2. To aid in familiarization and understanding of the general operation of the loops. 3. To prevent lost time due to errors in loop operation. The procedure is not meant to be completely comprehensive in all details of loop operation.

By radiation dosimetry, we will mean the determination of the energy deposited per unit mass of irradiated material by ionizing radiation. Usually the material of interest in tissue and the results are to be applied to a radiobiological experiment, a radiotherapy treatment, or the protection of personnel from radiation hazards. The same methods, however, are applied to such engineering problems as the production of heat by reactor radiations, the use of radiation in chemical reactions or food processing, etc.