This paper presents values of the constant B², commonly called the buckling, when 0 vanishes on the surface of a right elliptic cylinder.

Apparent excessive concentrations of atmospheric contamination which were reported to be associated with an inert-gas-shielded consumable electrode arc wielding operation were studied to evaluate the potential health hazards. A study was made of the concentrations of metal fume and gaseous products of the operation as well as the spectrum of ultraviolet radiation. Recommendations for necessary controls were made.

A preliminary report has shown the potential importance of organic reactor coolants to Hanford technology. The salient points are complete avoidance of corrosion problems and accomplishment of DPR performance with low pressure technique. The recommendation of the report that loop tests be made at Hanford is to be acted upon by Recirculation Technology Unit as soon as organic coolant material is received. To insure starting this experimental work fully abreast of the information available, a trip to sites working with organic coolants was made. Specifically, data were sought on practical details of design for handling organic coolants, heat transfer and fouling characteristics, corrosion of materials, and hazards of handling organics.

Contemplated higher tube power for future reactor operation will probably require a fuel element jacketing material more corrosion resistant than presently available aluminum alloys. Zirconium and its alloys are generally regarded as the most promising jacketing candidates for high temperature operation, particularly for exposures of long duration. In order to obtain assembly, welding, and corrosion data, twenty Al-Si bonded and twenty unbonded Zircaloy fuel elements were prepared for KER loop testing. This report describes the technique developed to weld Zircaloy jacketed fuel elements and presents the results of end closure corrosion testing and metallographic examination.

The dependence of the resonance integral for thorium upon geometry and thorium temperature has been determined through reactivity coefficient measurements performed in the Hanford Test Pile. The geometry dependence was investigated using thorium cylinders of various diameters in the form of solid elements and shells. The temperature dependence (Doppler broadening) was studied by heating thorium elements and permitting them to cool while observing the change in pile reactivity.

Description of Invention: Chloride-induced corrosion is a serious problem in the Purex acid recovery operation and in the evaporative concentration of process streams and waste solutions. In the case of Purex acid recovery, it has been shown that trace chloride will volatilize with the nitric acid and reflux in the acid fractionator, thus causing especially severe corrosion at that point. These traces of chloride may enter the process form several sources, i.e., as an impurity in the technical grade chemicals used in making up the various aqueous process streams, by hydrolysis or radiation decomposition of carbon tetrachloride (a promising diluent for tributyl phosphate), or by incomplete removal of the hydrochloric acid employed in some flowsheets for effecting the dissolution of certain difficulty soluble nuclear reactor fuel elements.

Neutron attenuation in the old pile shields is dependent more and more on the slowing down characteristics of the iron as the hydrogen is baked out of the masonite. For neutrons above 1 or 2 Mev, iron does a good job by inelastic scattering. However, below this energy attenuation can be done only by the gradual moderation by elastic scattering to thermal energies with subsequent capture in the iron. Since iron is heavy and thus a poor moderator, there is a good possibility that many neutrons of intermediate energy will leak out of a burned out shield. Also, iron has a large dip in its cross section at 25 Kev which might allow a large burst of neutrons at this energy to leak out. Measurements using a lucite moderator with gold foil detectors indicate a large leakage of neutrons of intermediate energy, but interpretation of these measurements is difficult. These considerations prompted an attempt to get a rough idea of the energy distribution of the leakage neutrons through pure iron using a simple qualitative theory.

In connection with studies of the chemical reactivity of PuO_2 to hydrofluorination, samples were examined by X-ray diffraction for crystallite size and perfection. The PuO_2 was formed by thermal decomposition of the oralate. The reactivity of this oxide, as well as that of other solid oxides is affected by the conditions of preparation. Besides the obvious influence of surface, including lattice strain and other structural irregularities in the particles. Each particle is composed of a number of crystallites. The extent of crystallites size and perfection will be indicated by the width of a diffracted X-ray beam. Since separation of these two caus4es would require a detailed analysis, the observed broadening was interpreted on the assumption of crystallite size effects alone. However, the variable factor in preparation method was temperature, and it is to be expected that crystallite growth with annealing will occur in part at the expense of energy stored in nonequilibrium states of the crystal, i.e., imperfections. The objectives of this study were to establish a convenient method for determination of PuO_2 crystallite size and to obtain estimates of the crystallite sizes of seven given samples.

This development work was undertaken to investigate and standardize scintillation detector and transistorized circuitry techniques in instruments used for detecting and measuring alpha and beta particles, gamma photons, and both slow and fast neutrons. At the present time, the standard radiation detection instrumentation used at Hanford employ vacuum-tube circuitry with typical detectors being ion chambers, G-M tubes, HF3 tubes, etc. The vacuum tubes require excessive battery power, and some of the circuits are adversely affected by humidity and temperature conditions.

This report summarizes the research and development work carried out during March, April and May, 1959, for Budget Activity 2790 - Separations Development for Non-Production Reactors, The effort on Activity 2790 will enable Hanford to begin reprocessing in January, 1962, the fuel elements from power reactors which employ depleted or slightly enriched uranium fuels.

The Single Tube Prototype Mockup (STPM) was constructed to be used as a tool to evaluate the mechanical problems involved in operating and maintaining many components of the Plutonium Recycle Test Reactor (PRTR). This report has been written to acquaint interested HAPO components with the capability of the STPM and for use as an aid in scheduling tests and/or to properly evaluate testing results obtained from the mockup.

The hazards associated with several possible mechanical failures were analyzed for the PRTR. The consequences of these failures were evaluated for inclusion in the Final Hazards Summary Report.

The measurement of a alpha-particle energy has been used by many radiochemical laboratories for the identification and analysis of alpha-active radio nuclides. The use of the total-ionization method for alpha-active radio-nuclides. The use of the total-ionization method for alpha energy in ionization chamber in which the alpha particle loses all its energy in ionization of the chamber gas. Collection of the electrons thus formed generates a voltage pulse across the chamber capacity which is proportional to the alpha particle energy. This pulse is then amplified using a suitable linear amplifier and fed to a pulses as to amplitude; the information is then recorded or stored. Since the pulse amplitude is proportional to the alpha energy lost to the chamber gas, the pulse height analysis can be used to estimate the energy of the alpha particles and in the case of several alpha emitters of different energies, the relative abundance of the alpha emitters can be determined. An alpha energy analyzer system using the ion collection method has been fabricated for use in radiochemical laboratories required to perform a large number of alpha energy determinations. This report describes the operation, maintenance, and application of this alpha energy analyzer system.

Several tests are being performed and others being planned to investigate the role of heat transfer in corrosion processes. These tests are measuring both corrosion rates of metals (Zr-2 and X-8001 aluminum) under heat transfer, and the temperature rise associated with the buildup of the corrosion product. A brief description of these tests is given in this report.

Relatively long time cycles are required for the standard nitric acid dissolution of enriched uranium using safe batch size techniques for criticality control. Upwards of forty eight hours are required for the total dissolution of solid of I and E enriched slugs in nitric acid. The dissolution capacity may be increased by: (1) using a dissolver critically safe by virtue of its geometry or, (2)increasing the rate of uranium dissolution. Dilute agua regia -- a mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acids -- is known to dissolve uranium much more rapidly than nitric acid. This reports present a flowsheet for the rapid dissolution of uranium slugs in dilute agua regia.

In an earlier study on criticality conditions for homogenous mixtures, 2/cm^2 was used as the neutron age for all mixtures of water and uranium. At the higher H/U ratios (low uranium concentration), the calculated critical parameters were in good agreement were in good agreement with experimental data. At the low H/U ratios (high uranium concentrations) the calculated critical parameters were smaller than the experimental ones (more conservative from a nuclear safety point view). These results indicated that using 27 cm^2 as the neutron age gives increasingly conservative results as the H/U ratio decreases.

Basic Studies. Sinterability experiments in the system UO2-PuO2 have continued, and data are available at one hour hold times across the UO2-PuO2 composition limits. Sintered densities appear to be markedly dependent on pressed densities with densification occurring very rapidly at higher pressing pressures. The following table illustrates the effect of one hour at temperature on final density for pure plutonium dioxide pressed to both 40 and 60 percent of theoretical density.

The recovery of plutonium and neptunium by anion exchange has been well demonstrated on a laboratory scale. (1, 2,3,4) The specific adsorbed by the resin is the tetravalent hexanitrate complex of either element. With plutonium (IV) and neptunium(V) in IWW, the plutonium is adsorbed but the neptunium is not. If nitrite is used as the reductant in strong (preferably 8 M or over) nitric acid, both plutonium and neptunium are obtained in the tetravalent state, and both are adsorbed on the resin. With stronger reductants, such as semi carbazide or ferrous sulfamate, plutonium (III) and neptunium (IV) are obtained so that only the neptunium is adsorbed. Optimum recovery of either element is obtained with between seven and eight M nitric acid.

This document presents preliminary chemical flowsheets for cladding and core dissolution of zircaloy-clad uranium dioxide and stainless steel-clad uranium-molybdenum non-production fuels. These preliminary flowsheets together with existing process flowsheets should be adequate for process development in the currently forecast non-production fuels dissolution facility.

A study of metallurgical problems resulting from variation in grain boundaries, bonding layers, and inclusions in metals and alloys has become increasingly important over the past several years. To keep pace with and aid in these studies, several new techniques have been developed in emission and X-ray spectroscopy. In X-ray, areas as smalls as one square micron can be studied by making them targets for a focused electron beam and observing the X-rays emitted (5,2). Such an instrument would be quite helpful at Hanford, but the high original cost is prohibitive.

Extraction systems involving chelating agents are widely used in radiochemical separations on a control basis due to the economy in time and equipment. In the case of waste streams, the element of interest is, by definition, at a very low concentration in the presence of gross fission product activities. The resultant large sample size necessary for a reliable analytical results creates a marked radiation hazard to laboratory personnel.

The Stack Effluent Radioisotope Monitor is an instrument which continuously measures and records the amounts of each of several different radioactive isotopes in the stack effluent of the Redox Facility. An informal report, HW-56151, describing the theory of operation and the circuits was prepared and is available to Hanford personnel from the technical files. The formal report, HW-56151 Rev, containing essentially the same information, is available from the Office of Technical Services, Department of Commerce, Washington 25, D. C.

This report is a summary of work done for system development on the NPR ball safety backup for the horizontal rods. This phase of the system development is limited to discussion of the horizontal rod counting circuitry utilizing a direct current bridge network.

Since the calculation of the PRTR energy distribution was first carried out by J. R. Triplett, the design has become sufficiently fixed to allow a refinement of his values. The present analysis, also, includes a calculation of the fraction of energy which is released in the shroud and process tubers that flows to the primary coolant to the top and bottom shield coolant is taken into consideration. Nuclear data used in the original calculations still appears satisfactory and is, therefore, utilized in the present analysis.