From foreword: The results of an engineering study directed toward the evaluation and selection of a nuclear reactor system designed to produce electricity and furnish steam to a water desalination plant in the Florida Keys are given in this report.

Abstract: "The mechanical properties of a large number of zirconium alloys have been investigated. These alloys include zirconium-tin and zirconium-tin-uranium. Tensile tests have been run on these alloys at room temperature, 500 F, and 600 F. Hot-hardness data have been obtained from room temperature to 1600 F, with particular emphasis on the hot-rolling range. Creep tests and fatigue tests have been run on a number of zirconium-tin alloys at 500 F."

Abstract: "The mechanical properties of a large number of zirconium alloys have been investigated. These alloys include zirconium-tin and zirconium-tin-uranium. Tensile tests have been run on these alloys at room temperature, 500 F, and 600 F. Hot-hardness data have been obtained from room temperature to 1600 F, with particular emphasis on the hot-rolling range. Creep tests and fatigue tests have been run on a number of zirconium-tin alloys at 500 F."

Abstract: "The ductility of Type 310 stainless steel T-joints brazed with GE-62 brazing alloy was measured at room temperatures 1200, 1650, and 1800 F. The measure of ductility was taken as the plastic axial strain required to crack braze fillets in T-section tensile specimens. At elevated temperatures, the ductility of as-brazed joints approximated that of the stainless steel, but at room temperature the brazed joints had only one-tenth the ductility of the base metal. Annealing for 16 hr at 1800 F in air was found to triple the room-temperature ductility of the brazed joint."

Report of the capabilities of the state of New York to construct and service atomic propelled vessels and to handle the shipment of packaged radioactive materials, including used nuclear fuels.

From introduction: "This investigation was undertaken with the general objective of determining whether uranium core could be sheathed with aluminum by an extrusion-cladding process. The ultimate objective of this work was to determine the feasibility of extrusion cladding flat plates of uranium."

Abstract: "Aluminum-clad nickel-plated uranium is corrosion resistant in boiling water. Samples with intentional defects in the aluminum-nickel clodding layers, after testing for more than 300 hr. showed no sign of rapid failure. The study of electroplated metals on uranium for aluminum cladding has defined the effects of several processing variables on the corrosion resistance. The quality of the uranium and the quality of the aluminum-nickel bond were important. Heat treatment and vacuum outgassing of the nickel-plated uranium prior to aluminum cladding were beneficial, and minimizing the amount of air present in the hot-press assembly was desirable. Variation in the steps for electroplating on uranium did not affect the corrosion resistance of aluminum-clad uranium."

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

From foreword: This report provides a review of the Soviet and U.S. technical information systems.

In studies of the fabrication of fuel subassemblies for the supercritical-water reactor, the limited ductility of stainless steel-UO₂ fuel sheet made the fabrication of corrugated-flat-plate-type subassemblies impractical. A fabricable MTR-type assembly, 5/8 in. square and 30 in. long, was developed. Methods for edge cladding fuel sheet were developed and a brazing alloy, GE-75, was found to be corrosion resistant in supercritical water.

Abstract: "Thirty-four uranium ingots containing controlled amounts of carbon, nitrogen, and Mgl2 slag were cast, rolled, and examined to investigate the relation between these impurities and the quality of the rolled rod. Carbon in concentrations up to 1400 ppm and nitrogen up to 170 ppm, either singly or in combination, had no significant effect on the number of defects observed in the rolled rod. The quality of the rods, however decreased with increasing amount of slag necessary to cause observable differences in the rod could not be detected on analysis, but was visible in the microstructure."

A report intended to aid in the evaluation of solid-state bonding techniques for cladding natural-uranium fuel-element cores with aluminum, tensile specimens which are 1/4 in. in diameter and 3 in. long.

From introduction: The study is essentially an economic evaluation of the construction and operation of nuclear power plants at several designated military installations where increased power generating capabilities of 5 to 40 mwe may be required by the Government during the period 1963 through 1970.

This report follows a preliminary study on uranium migration in pressed and sintered UO2-bearing bodies based on MoSi2 or Al2O3.

From introduction: The study is essentially an economic evaluation of the construction and operation of nuclear power plants at several designated military installations where increased power generating capabilities of 5 to 40 mwe may be required by the Government during the period 1963 through 1970.

Abstract: "Sound, fabricable ingots of thorium were produced by triple are melting of electrolytic thorium. Consumable electrodes were fabricated by tack welding of cold-pressed and vacuum-sintered bars of the granular thorium electrodeposited from a molten-salt bath. The hydrogen content of the electrodeposited material was reduced from 80 to 4 ppm by vacuum sintering at 1250 C at pressures below 1 x 10-(-3) mm of mercury. Both sodium and chlorine content were reduced during melting; sodium from 250 to 25 ppm and chlorine from 1000 to 30 ppm. Oxygen and HCl acid-insoluble contents increased during sintering and melting. Oxygen content increased from 0.35 to 0.50 w/o and HCl acid-insoluble content from 0.8 to 4.0 w/o. A starlike includion revealed by metallographic examination of the as-cast thorium was identified as ThO2."

Abstract: "Refinement of grain size of the base uranium-chromium eutectic alloy (uranium-5 w/o chromium) by ternary additions is discussed. Thirteen additions to the base alloy were investigated, and three additions were found to exhibit worthwhile grain-refinement tendencies. The three alloys, uranium-5 w/o chromium-0.2 w.o molybdenum, uranium-5 w/o chromium-0.2 w/o germanium, and uranium-5 w/o chromium-0.2 w/o niobium, were heat treated to produce final grain-size structures of between 0.015 and 0.033 mm."

The following report focuses on an investigation made to determine if vacuum melting was an absolutely necessary step in the metallurgical process of melting and casting uranium.

Abstract: "Probes were used to measure certain properties of the cloud of positive ions and electrons ejected from a pulsed ion source having two hydrogen-loaded electrodes. Time-of-flight measurements show: the presence of H+ ions with 50 ev directed energy; an increase of this energy with increasing pulse current in the source; a higher peak yield of ions with higher peak currents in the source; and higher yields and higher ion energies up to 110 ev have been recorded with the use of a pulsed magnetic field impressed upon the source. The neutral positive ion-electron beam from the source has been projected against an increasing magnetic field and the reflected and transmitted signals have been recorded and compared as a function of the magnetic field. Probe signals from the plasma as it encounters the magnetic field are oscillatory, suggesting that magnetohydrodynamic phenomena are presented."

The following report investigates the possible use of thermal emf's to produce the plasma-containing magnetic field in a thermonuclear reactor.

Abstract: "The analysis of an immobilized plasma is here extended to the case where the geometry is cylindrical rather than Cartesian. (This report, UCRL-4439 (Rev, 4 constitutes Part II of the report series (UCRL-4466, Parts I, III, and IV) dealing with this general problem.)"

Abstract: "The reflections of microwaves from the walls of a plasma-containing vessel are studied. The probable cause of the reflections is discussed, and several suggestions are made for eliminating the reflections from the waveguide in the vessel and particularly from the pyrex vessel wall and copper tubing surrounding the pyrex. Quarter-wave-thick carbon-filled plastics or glasses having a very low vapor pressure room most promising when placed inside the pyrex cylinder. BaTiO3 appears to be an excellent material when placed outside the vacuum."

The following report proposes various methods in injecting and heating in mirror machines, using high-energy ion beams.

Abstract: "A particularly conventional modified form of Maxwell distribution is chosen. The modified expressions for (a) the energy transfer from the ions to the electrons in a plasma and (b) the brehmestrahlung from the electrons are calculated. Using the expressions some possible steady-state conditions for the ion and electron gases are derived and compared with those for the usual Maxwell distributions."