Abstract: Test distillations were made with Kinney and diffusion pump oils under vacuum in order to determine accurately the temperature range over which satisfactory distillate may be collected. Also recommendations are made as to the most advisable type of heating equipment necessary to produce the required heat and maintain the desired temperature. In addition, several important refinements in the distillation equipment were checked for operational characteristics and for their efficiency in aiding the production of uranium-free distillates.

The following report describes methods used to determine tributylphosphate in a deodorized shell base. An infrared absorption method is developed to emphasize toward determination of TBP in RCW streams, the organic waste streams.

Abstract: A tungsten tipped electrode has been used in the continuous casting arc furnace for a 25 minute period during which a 12 inch length of ingot was made. Thermocouple junctions within the mold wall have been improved to give mold zone temperature. A total of 10 iodide dissociation runs have been conducted using feed rates of .62-22.7 lbs ZrI₄ per hour with attendant conversion efficiencies of 97.7-16.4% and zirconium yields of 255-41.2 grams per hour. A curve expressing these data for an arbitrarily selected set of conditions is presented.

The attenuation curve of the deuterons stripped from He3 has been measured with a Faraday cup. The corresponding curve at 190 Mev was fit by assuming that the deuterons were monoenergetic, with three processes taking place.

In a third run with the fluorine torch, the settling chamber wells were kept hotter than before (≥ 625°C); the flame was cooled by diluting the fluorine with helium. In the analysis of the products, 99% of the thorium fluoride fed in was accounted for, but only 64% of the protactinium activity. Part of this was carried in the exhaust gases past the cold trap and into the soda line disposal column, where it was detected by survey meters. The stripping of protactinium from the solid was somewhat more efficient than before; 77% of the feed which was recovered from the settling chamber had lost 72% of its original specific activity. About 15% of the input activity was trapped on the cold fingers with very little thorium fluoride.

The conservative design criteria applied to process tubing may seriously hinder the advancement of high temperature reactor development. Factors of safety of 3 to 4 applied to an arbitrarily defined yield strength are used to calculate allowable internal working pressures. The effect of biaxial stressing on the tubes has been shown (2) to cause yielding at a lower internal pressure. However, tests conducted on biaxially stressed short lengths of tubing indicated that the ultimate tensile strength of the material was not affected.

Abstract: The primary coolant of the SM-1 (APPR-1) was analyzed for short-lived and fission product activities. Manganese-56 was found to be the predominant non-fission product nuclide contributing to the short lived activity. Fission products were found in the coolant. It is concluded these fission products originate from a defects in the cladding and from surface contamination of the fuel elements.

Powder metallurgy is rapidly gaining importance as a means of fabricating nuclear fuel elements and other reactor components. It provides a convenient method for forming metals, unusual combinations of metals, and metal-ceramic combinations. The unique features of this technique which make it desirable for nuclear engineering purposes are the following:

Writing the VARI-II Program was motivated by the need for a method of analyzing the results for the Absorber Burn-Up Experiment in progress at the Vallecitos Atomic Laboratory.