This conference covers various aspects of fossil-fuel power plants based on coal or coal-conversion products, as well as the process control equipment involved in the conversion or combustion processes.

A total of nine clad plates, containing uranium -5 w/o zirconium 1.5 w/o niobium alloy cores and clad with Zircaloy-II, were rolled in plain carbon steel jackets, heat treated, physically evaluated, and corrosion tested. All these plates were found to be within predetermined dimensional tolerance in width, thickness, length, cladding thickness, and core distribution. Improved control of wielding variables and of the length of the seal pin projecting above the end plugs resulted in the elimination of frequently observed segmented inclusions at the seal pin interfaces.

The EBWR loading requires a total of 888 plates. It is anticipated that approximately 1000 plates will have to be produced to obtain the number of acceptable plates required for the loading. To the end of this quarter, 568 cladding billet cores acceptable with respect to chemical composition and physical soundness had been cast; this number represents 78% of the total number of cores cast. Approximately 75% of the Zircaloy-II stock required has been rolled, and about 55% of the cladding components required have been finished. The anticipated number of 495 cladding billets required for the thin (0.210") natural and enriched plates have been assembled, welded, sealed, and jacketed in steel. A total of 310 cladding billets have been rolled to fuel plates; of this number, 142 have been completely finished, and the remaining 168 are in the finish processing stages. The stability of the equipment for measuring the clad thickness of EBWR fuel plates has been improved by placing the phototube and the anthracene scintillator crystals in an insulated box with a temperature regulation of the order of 0.1°F.

Report containing hazard and safety information regarding the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II in Idaho.

Development work was continued on the fused fluoride process for the recovery of enriched uranium from zirconium-matrix fuel alloys. The alloy is dissolved by immersing it in molten sodium fluoride-zirconium fluoride at 600°C and passing hydrogen fluoride vapor through the system.The dissolved uranium tetrafluoride in the melt is then volatilized as uranium hexafluoride by sparging with fluorine. The uranium hexafluoride product is purified and decontaminated by fractional distillation. Additional corrosion tests were made on a variety of metals in an effort to find a material of construction suitable for the fluorination step. All the metals tested, with the exception of Hastelloy B, were attacked rapidly in the fluorinated melt. The attack was particularly severe at the melt-gas interface when tests were made with partially submerged specimens of the metals.

Report of activities of Argonne Chemical Engineering Division, including advanced battery project, electro-chemical project management, advanced fuel cell development, utilization of coal, magnetohydrodynamics heat and seed recovery technology, solar energy, fast reactor chemistry research, nuclear fuel cycle studies, magnetic fusion energy research, and basic energy science.