A process for hot-press canning of unplated thorium cores in aluminum jackets was developed using wafers of thorium and aluminum for diffusion and bonding studies.

A metallurgical examination of several resistance thermometers for 105-KW were examined before startup (1). This examination revealed that the silver brazes joining the type 305 stainless steel blades to the type 416 stainless steel nuts were defective. The braze metal did not penetrate into the joint; the brazes were porous and appeared to be inadequately bonded to the type 416 nuts. After startup of KW, many of the thermometers became inoperative, and several were visually examined to determine the integrity of the units. The presence of corrosion products at the junction of the braze and the nut led to further metallurgical examination of the brazed joints. Twenty units from 105-KW, 12 prototype units from 105-H, and two "new model" units were included in this examination. The examination was conducted to determine the cause and nature of the failures observed on units under service conditions.

Eight zirconium and eight Zircaloy-2 process tube samples were irradiated in the "H" test loop, Tube 0961-H, so that the corrosion tendencies of the material might be evaluated when exposed to radiation. The samples were delivered to the Radio-metallurgy Building in January, 1955, and examined as requested by C. D. Wilson of the Pile Development Unit, Pile Technology Section.

The Reactor Design and Development Unit has just completed a design concept for an intermediate capacity dual purpose reactor plant utilizing carbon steel for the primary loop portion outside the reactor. This design concept is reported in HW-33157 AD (2). The economic and engineering gains are of sufficient magnitude to justify an accelerated and extensive test program to completely evaluate the remaining unknowns in utilizing carbon steel as a stainless steel substitute. It is the purpose of this document to up-date and elaborate the information contained in the two previous documents (1). . It is the further purpose to define the program required to implement the design concept developed by the Reactor Design and Development Unit (2) utilizing carbon steel as the primary loop structural material.

Attached hereto are copies 1 through 4 of a classified secret report titled "Purex - A Hanford Separations Plant." We are also sending under separate cover a classified confidential report No. HW-36496 titled "Photographs of Purex - A Hanford Separations Plant," which is a counterpart of the above report. These documents are submitted for publication and should be incorporated as a single article.

This report is a manual describing the methods developed by Stokes (1) and Warren and Averbach (2) (3) for the determination of the effects of cold work by x-ray diffraction methods. Only the method of mathematical analysis is presented while the method of obtaining the necessary x-ray diffraction patterns is not mentioned. This manual will be used for an experimental study of irradiation damage to uranium.

An Alpha Scintillation Probe for use with the HAPO Cart Poppies has been designed to replace the air proportional probes presently used. The new probe has an average geometry of about 15 or 16 percent over an effective probe area of 23.4 in². Stability of operation under normal conditions of vibrations, humidity and temperature are inherent qualities and the average background count is stable at about two counts per minute. The high voltage used is in the order of 1,200 to 1,250 volts with a current requirement of 100 microamperes.

This report describes the results of evaluation tests made on several glass-coated bayonet heaters supplied to Separations Equipment Development by the Pfaudler Company. The glass-coated heaters were found to be resistant to thermal shock, mild mechanical shock, and chemical attack by boiling 60% nitric acid.

This is a report of what may be an invention in a process or processes for preparing roughly spherical uranium metal particles suitable for use in matrix type nuclear reactor fuel elements.

A new model High Range Beta-Gamma Survey Instrument, refer to blueprint numbers H-4-2760 and H-4-2761, was designed which utilizes a circuit similar to that of the older model but incorporates three ranges of 0-5 R/hr, 0-50 R/hr, and 0-500 R/hr.

The purposes of this study are to review the available information affecting the disposal of Purex cooling water, powerhouse waste water, and B plant cooling water, to consider the feasibility of various disposal schemes, and to prepare recommendations to the Manufacturing Department for the most desirable courses of action.

Document HW-33176, "A Proposed Scope of the 100-K Sulfuric Acid Addition Facilities", presented the justification and bases for a sulfuric acid addition facility at the 183-K headhouses and included a system for adding the acid to the raw water. Since the issue of this document several factors to consider in such a system have been brought to light by experience gained both at K and at other areas. The alternate system presented here eliminates several of the troublesome points in the previously proposed system.

A method of performing a series of solvent extractions using a minimum of pulse generators is briefly outlined.

The design notes contained herein may assist in preliminary studies concerning feasibility of any proposed gamma monitor system. The minimum and maximum solution concentrations for each type of system are listed. The data is based on 32 ml liquid sample.

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

It was suggested to the writer by K.A. Eschbach that liquid magnesium might offer certain advantages as a reactor coolant. As a result of this suggestion, a preliminary investigation of the possibilities of this material was made. Definite advantages for a restricted class of applications were found, but a detailed evaluation would seem to require further basic experimental research on the heat transfer, corrosion and flux-mechanical properties of the substance.

The water plant for a high temperature reactor must be capable of providing several purities of water to the various components of the installation. The actual treatment methods will depend on the location and size of the reactor, the size and sources of the water and the ease of disposal of radioactive wastes. This document examines the needs for the various water purities. It also defines the area of future work to provide the information necessary for the design of water plants for high temperature reactors or for the conversion of existing reactors to recirculation cooling.

Nuclear safety specifications for storage, banding, or transfer of enriched uranium slugs depend upon slug arrangement and geometry, the presence of a moderator such as water or wood, and the presence of other fissionable materials and reflectors. Specifications are given for enriched I and E uranium slugs, solid uranium slugs of two types, and aluminum-uranium alloy slugs.

A new type of flexible hose connector consisting of a Teflon tube enclosed in a stainless steel wire braid sheath was proposed for use on 105-C rear face in late 1954. A test was initiated to determine the suitability of Teflon, and specifically Fluoroflex Teflon compound for rear face application. Probable useful life limit is estimated at 10⁶ R, which would be attained in about three years in contact with fresh effluent.

The surfaces of cold rolled, half hard, nitric acid treated, autoclave etched, 2S aluminum coupons were studied by optical and electronoscopic methods, before and after exposure to hot water alone and hot water and neutron bombardment. The non-exposed aluminum surfaces have a characteristic pattern which is absent in the exposed coupons. All of the exposed coupons were corroded. In general the coupons exposed to the higher flux intensities of irradiation were more severely corroded than those exposed to the lower flux intensities of irradiation or to the hot water alone. Representative photo-and electron micrographs illustrate the various types of surface structure observed on the control and experimental coupons.

This report contains the results of tests which demonstrated the feasibility of using graphite labyrinth type seals, i.e., a bushing machined with alternate grooves and lands on the inside diameter to create a sufficient pressure drop to provide a satisfactory seal.

Thus we see that the derivation of elementary age theory is based on replacing the probability of collision governed by the Milne kernel by a Gaussian probability having the same zeroth and second moments. It is apparent that the age theory distribution will fail close to the source and at many free paths from the source.

In this document, simple modes are used to demonstrate the importance of different material effects on predicted material behavior. This document should help one understand the basic assumptions made in stress analysis.

A study of the fabrication failures for zirconium and zircaloy-2 process tubes was made. In the tube reducing operation, a non-uniform reduction in area for the cross section was found to be a major cause of failure. In annealing studies, a cycle of 2 hours at 820 deg C in vacuum followed by furnace cooling produced the greatest ductility of extruded zircaloy-2 for the annealing treatments studied. The ductility of cold worked and annealed zircaloy-2 was found to be superior to that of extruded and annealed material. The strain rate of a cold working process was found to affect the ductility of zircaloy-2.