In this third semiannual issue, the reactor and power data from the Hanford Production Reactors are shown for the six-month period July through December, 1966, together with the two preceding six-month periods. Experience during the succeeding six-month period will be added in the next semiannual issue. For comparison purposes, the two years of experience will then continue to be shown by dropping and adding a six-month period with each semiannual issue.

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This report details the borehole examination and inspection results of process tube 2959 following a massive fuel failure and a low flow trip which scrammed the reactor.

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The objective of the detailed in this document is to determine the corrosion effects resulting from a reduction of sodium dichromate inhibitor from 1.0 ppM in pH 6.6 process water.

All production facilities performed satisfactorily during December, although they were shut down for the Christmas holidays. The Purex SEFOR campaign was completed Dec 21. Redox completed solvent extraction processing of Shippingport reactor blanket fuel elements (PWR); during the first pass of PWR material, an Am-Cm fraction was separated and stored. About 720 kCi Pm-147 and 240 kCi Sr-90 were produced in Purex head end. Two STT casks were loaded with 120 kCi Cs-137 for shipment. Semiworks was used to demonstrate D2EHPA solvent extraction flowsheets for waste. Tests are underway on reduction vessel liners to reduce the crucible material for Pu recovery (two containers used inside vessel).

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The objective of this test is to determine the comparative corrosion behavior of standard fuel given special autoclave treatments with fuel given standard autoclave treatment.

Considered herewith are source and special nuclear material composition of ending inventory reports for the month of December, 1966, submitted by the Nuclear Materials Section of the Environmental Health and Engineering Department.

This report presents details of the activities of Douglas United Nuclear at the Hanford site during the month of December 1966.

This report presents the details of the status of special reactor process tube loading during the month of January 1967.

The average grain size of salt-water and induction-oil heat-treated cores received during the period August 1, 1966 through November 31, 1966, was unchanged and was between A-6 and A-7. The combined visual and grain size reject rate of bare cores was 0.23 percent for the period September 1, 1966 through December 15, 1966. Five 03N fuel cores from ingot Z-64295 were rejected by the UT-2 testers as large-grain rejects. When the cores were manually retested, tester signals indicated that areas of small grains were mixed unhomogeneously in a matrix of large grains. This phenomenon is though to be either (1) a segregation of chemistry in the ingot or rod and/or (2) heat transfer from the core when it was quenched. Studies are being conducted to determine the cause of such a phenomenon. Pictures of the core and core cross-sectional area, Figures 1 and 2, show that there are areas of small grains (A-6) surrounded by large grains (A-2).

A solid-state diffusion bond is produced at the end bonding step of the Hot-Die-Size (HDS) process as the aluminum cladding is placed in intimate contact nickel-plated uranium core for a finite period of time at an elevated temperature. The combination of these required parameters of time, temperature, and intimate contact (pressure) may be varied within certain limits and still produce a quality diffusion bond. Through nondestructive and destructive testing, fuels end bonded at the higher pressure proved to be of equal quality to those produced under standard conditions. Bond testers indicated no significant difference between test and control fuels. This was verified with bond strengths that were equivalent to those of control fuels. Metallographic data also confirmed the formation of a thinner, apparently more uniform, bond on the test fuels than on the controls. X-ray data that defined the longitudinal growth showed no significant difference between test and control fuels. The objective of the testing covered in this document was to reduce the end-bonding cycle time on the four-station prototype end bonder.

Vapor densities and/or dissociation pressures of UO/sub 2/, ThO/sub 2/, ZrO/sub 2/, ThO/sub 2/-8 and -20 wt % UO/sub 2/, and ZrO/sub 2/-20 and -50 wt % UO/sub 2/ were obtained in the range from 2000 to 3000/sup 0/K by the transpiration technique. The UO/sub 2/-ZrO/sub 2/ system exhibited marked positive deviation from ideality, indicative of a strong tendency toward immiscibility. The UO/sub 2/-ThO/sub 2/ system was found to behave almost ideally. On the basis of the vapor pressures of UO/sub 2/ and of ThO/sub 2/ and the activity values it would be expected that compositions containing 1 mole % or more of UO/sub 2/ would volatilize by preferentially losing UO/sub 2/. A composition containing slightly less than 1 mole % UO/sub 2/ should prove to be the congruently subliming composition. O/sub 2/-dissociation pressures were determined for stoichiometric UO/sub 2/ and for a composition on either side of the stoichiometric one. At 2360/sup 0/K, UO/sub 2.03 +- 0.01/, UO/sub 2.00 +- 0.01/, and UO/sub 1.97 +- 0.01/ exhibited O/sub 2/-dissociation pressures of 1 x 10/sup -7/, 4.3 x 10/sup -10/, and 3 x 10/sup -12/ atm, respectively. From determinations of vapor density and measurements of O/sub 2/ pressure, pressure-temperature-composition relations …

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Declassified 6 Sep 1973. A description of the 710 Reactor concept and its significant design features is presented. A summary of the history of the 710 Program and a summary of the major technical achievements of the program are included. (13 references) (auth)

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