The design of the Argonaut (Argonne Nuclear Assembly for University Training) was initiated by the Reactor Engineering Division of Argonne National Laboratory to satisfy needs for a low-power reactor facility within the Laboratory, and for training uses within the international School of Nuclear Science and Engineering (ISNSE). It was intended primarily for instruction and research in reactor physics. It was also considered as a possibility that it would fulfill the requirements of universities engaged in a program of nuclear science. The cost of the facility was to be kept to a minimum consistent with the high degree of inherent safety and a great amount of flexibility in the system. The basic design stemmed from the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory Thermal Test Reactor* (TTR), now called Nuclear Test Reactor (NTR). Modification during the course of the work justified the new name "Argonaut".

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.

Report issued by the Argonne National Laboratory discussing meteorological data collected between 1952 and 1953. Wind, temperature, pressure, and precipitation studies are presented. This report includes tables, illustrations, and a map.

This seventh Annual Report is a summary of some of the progress in scientific and engineering research and development carried on at Argonne National Laboratory during 1961. As is customary in this series, only those portions of the total program that have reached such a stage that they may be of general interest are recorded. Thus, a comparison with the Annual Reports for 1959 (ANL-6125) and for 1960 (ANL-6275) will reveal the description of a generally different set of scientific activities. A more detailed presentation of any work covered in this report or of the many ANL projects not mentioned may be obtained by perusing the various progress and topical reports issued by the Laboratory during 1961. A list of the publications in the scientific journals during 1961 by Argonne personnel has been given as an Appendix.

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.

Report issued by the Argonne National Laboratory covering a summary report of the work conducted by the Idaho Division. Experimental work and progress made on reactors are presented. This report includes tables, illustrations, and photographs.

Report issued by the Argonne National Laboratory discussing a summary of projects conducted with the Idaho Division. Descriptions of each project are presented. This report includes tables, and illustrations.

Annual report of the Argonne National Laboratory Land Reclamation Program outlining the activities and research conducted during the year, various assessments and discussion, and related documentation.

Report issued by the Argonne National Laboratory discussing the Conference on the Toxicity of Carbon 14. At the outset of the meeting it was emphasized that the group was brought together to discuss work which had a bearing on the toxicity of C14 compounds used either clinically or industrially, and the hope was expressed that the group might be able to reach some conclusions on these matters. This report includes tables.

A helix constructed of plutonium was made to test the Doppler temperature effect in ZPR-III. The helix, 1 inch in diameter and 6-1/4 inches long, contained 240 grams of delta-phase plutonium alloy encapsulated in titanium tubing. Four plutonium rods were extruded, joined together, and pushed into a titanium tube. This tube was swaged tightly over the plutonium rod, and the assembly was wound into a coil. Electrical leads to the coil were made by swaging copper tubing over the ends of the coil. The helix was tested by cycling about 500 times between 50°C and 190°C. The coil was heated with a current of 130 amperes and cooled with a blast of chilled helium. (1) Several helices of uranium(2) were cycled during the same tests. Despite the severity of the thermal cycles, the helices were undamaged.

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.

Methods of producing extremely clean surfaces on rolled Zircaloy-2 strip have been investigated. It has been found that the finer abrasives, 400 mesh or finer, are more effective than coarse types because of their ability to penetrate pits and crevices more readily. Two such cleanings, with an intermediate 35 v/o HNO3-5 v/o HF pickle, resulted in a microscopically clean surface. Ultrasonic inspection of the EBWR fuel plates has been completed during this quarter. Approximately 95% of the plates were found acceptable. All subassemblies manufactured from the EBWR plates met dimensional specifications and passed 9-day corrosion tests at 290°C (550°F). All thoria-urania pellets for the loading of Borax-IV have been pressed, loaded into tube plates, and fabricated into subassemblies. The total number of subassemblies made was 82, of which 72 were fuel plates and 10 were blanket plates, more than sufficient for the loading. The reactor has gone critical using this loading.

From Introduction: "Descriptions of the functional requirements of the facility, together with preliminary concepts of methods for meeting them, are presented in this prospectus."

Errata sheet listing corrections to three pages of a report that describes a transistorized automatic counting and recording system built for the determination of foil-activation data.

From Abstract: This report provides background and procedural information for the use of a general-purpose Stirling-engine analysis code developed at Argonne National Laboratory and available through the National Energy Software Center. Different engine configurations are easily specified, or the user may make use of provided data for existing engines, both kinematic and free piston. The code models heat transfer and fluid mechanics throughout the engine and accounts for system energy flows and losses. Good agreement is shown between code predictions and experimental measurements. The present analysis method was chosen for fast execution and useful information on energy flows in the system. A description is provided of the code structure that is intended to accept different analysis modules that can provide improved system modeling or optimization capability.

The Internal exponential Exponential Experiment (ZPR-V) will be constructed by loading up to 49 of the fuel cans, containing up to 155 kg of U235, of the present Fast Exponential Experiment in a 22-in. square iron tank, surrounded by an annular thermal region of fully enriched light water lattice 10 to 15 cm thick. This assembly will be placed in a 5-ft diameter tank which will, in turn, be located in the 10-ft diameter ZPR-II tank, the annular space between the outer tanks containing water for shielding. The new experiment will be a well-shielded, strongly coupled fast-thermal system. It will be possible to make measurements that cannot be made on the present Fast Exponential Experiment. One category of such determinations is the study of reactivity effects produced in the fast core, including control scheme studies and danger coefficient and oscillator measurements of such effects as Doppler coefficients and effect of lumping and streaming. The higher flux and excellent shielding will make beam studies of energy spectrum practical. Additional foil activations will be possible. Characteristics of mixed fast-thermal systems, which are of potential importance as power breeders, can be studied.

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

Measurement of radioactive carry-over was made on borax III operating at 300 psig and at power levels ranging from 4 to 14 mv. Decontamination factors of from 1.5 x 104 (at 14 mv) were obtained. These data are in essential agreement with those predicted by previous laboratory experimental work.

A fused fluoride process for dissolution of zirconium-uranium fuel alloys is being developed. The alloy is dissolved in an equimolar sodium fluoride-zirconium fluoride melt at 600°C by sparging the system with hydrogen fluoride. The uranium is volatilized from the melt as the hexafluoride by a sparging operation with fluorine or bromine pentafluoride vapor. This product is then decontaminated and purified by fractional distillation.

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.

Development work continued on a fused salt process for the recovery of uranium from zirconium-matrix fuel alloys. The fuel is dissolved in a sodium fluoride-zirconium fluoride melt at 600°C by hydrogen fluoride sparging. The melt is then sparged with fluorine gas which volatilizes the dissolved uranium as the hexafluoride. The final decontamination and purification of the uranium hexafluoride are accomplished by fractional distillation. The testing of graphite as a container material for the hydrofluorination step was continued. Additional thermal cycling experiments were performed, using a helium sparge in equimolar sodium fluoride-zirconium fluoride melt at 600°C. The extent of penetration of the fused salt into the graphite was determined. No mechanical degradation was present. Dimensional change data were also obtained for graphite vessels in which the fused salt was sparged with hydrogen fluoride.

A final series of runs was made in a four-inch continuous-flow mixing chamber to study the transfer of isobutanol into water and nitrobenzene into ethylene glycol. Satisfactory techniques were developed to provide for the rapid analysis of these systems. In addition, a light-scattering correlation was prepared to provide a measure of the interfacial area of the yellow-colored nitrobenzene-ethylene glycol mixtures.

The gastight steel building (400,000 cu ft) in which all radioactive components are to be housed has been completed by the Graver Tank Company. This structure was tested for strength at 18.75 psig (20% above design pressure) and then tested for leaks. No leaks were found in soap bubble testing of all welded seams. Continuous measurements of temperature and pressure over a ten-day period showed the leakage, if any, to be less than the 500 cu/ ft/day at 15 psig specified. The gastight cylinder was, therefore, accepted. General construction work by the Sumner Sollitt Company on the remainder of the plant has begun.