This report is a summary of the neutron attenuation data which have been obtained at the Brookhaven shielding facility on a mock-up of the fuel-rod-unloading plug used in the KAPL Reactor. Before this program was initiated, a number of small scale tests had been made in the ORNL lid tank on carbon steel mock-ups of components of the rotating plug. The results of the tests indicated considerable neutron streaming through the vertical steel and air members of the plug. However, the lid tank source strength and dimensions did not permit the tests to be extended to the full plug height. In view of the concern aroused by the ORNL tests and the absence of fundamental information on the transmission of neutrons through steel and the addition height (12') available here resulted in a request for BNL to construct and test a mock-up of a sector of the SIR top plug in accordance with KAPL specifications.

The synthesis of several rare earth dodecaborides, isomorphous with UB12 and ZrB12, and crystallographic data for these phases were reported recently. The unit cells are face centered cubic with four formula weights of MeB12 per unit cell; the structures may be visualized in terms of boron atoms linked in a rigid three-dimensional network, with the metal atoms in large cubo-octahedral holes.

The rapid advances in many technologically important areas have not only served to accentuate the increased demands for high temperature metals and ceramics but have necessitated a more through knowledge of their physical properties when exposed to high temperature service. Toward this latter end, the use of X-ray diffraction has proved an invaluable tool in providing data of regions of thermal stability, expansion coefficients, solid solubility limits, and phase transformations by direct examination at temperature. Since this Laboratory has for some time now been engaged in the study of refractory nuclear materials, it was thought desirable to employ and possibly extend this technique to temperatures ranging up to 3000°C. This communication will describe the equipment developed for this purpose, with experimental results to be described in subsequent publications.

Cell proliferation on the actively growing periosteal surface of the femur of rabbits aged two weeks, has been investigated using autoradiographic techniques. Injections of tritiated glycine and tritiated thymidine were given simultaneously and the animals sacrificed at intervals from one hour to 5 days after injection. The glycine labelled the position of the bone surface at the time of injection and the thymidine labelled the cells which were synthesizing DNA . The rate of increase in the cell population was determined by counting the number of cells beyond the glycine label at different times after injection. The cell kinetics of the fibroblast--pre-osteoblast--osteoblast--osteocyte system has been studied. The fibroblasts are relatively unimportant from the point of view of increase in the cell population. The main site of cell proliferation is the layer of preosteoblasts on the periosteal surface. The rate of movement of cells from the pre-osteoblast to the osteoblast and osteocyte compartments has been measured. The incorporation of osteoblasts into the bone is not a random process, but it appears that the osteoblast must spend a certain time on the periosteal surface before becoming either an osteocyte or a relatively inactive osteoblast lining a haversian canal. During its most active …

Methods of calculating the "Snell Experiment" (the exponential experiment in natural uranium) are examined. It is found that integral transport theory is required for accurate predictions. The effect of spatial transients upon measured quantities is studied and it is found that experiments have not been done in a large enough mass of uranium to achieve an asymptotic neutron distribution. However deviations from the asymptotic values of integral quantities are not large and corrections are calculated and applied to recent experiments. It is shown that the use of recent cross section data improves the agreement between theory and experiment. The relaxation length and all spectral indices are in fairly good agreement except for Np237 to U238 average fission cross section ratio.

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.

In order to perform the various experiments with a bubble chamber, a high intensity flash tube is used. This report briefly describes the power supplies designed and constructed to power these lamps.

The power supplies designed and constructed to power high intensity flash tubes used in bubble chamber experiments are briefly described and are accompanied by a schematic diagram of the layout. (D.C.W.)

Report describes a few experiments designed to test the analysis of some systems where chemical energy can be converted to electric energy. From Abstract: "If a chemocouple is defined as an isothermal closed circuit, composed of two or more homogeneous ionic aqueous phases separated by two or more barriers of different sets of ionic transport numbers, we find that a spontaneous electric current flows in the closed circuit."

The following report concerns the application of a relaxation mesh method for the determination of the average flux within the moderator of a light water moderated, 1.027 per cent U-235, hexagonal lattice with a volume ratio (V_H2O + V_Al)/V_Uranium of 4:1. It was hoped that the calculation would enable one to determine any differences in flux which might result from the fact that the unit cell is a hexagon instead of a cylinder. Because we were primarily interested in the effect due to geometry we applied the same theory, diffusion theory, to the hexagon by means of the mesh method and to the equivalent cylinder.

A study of the cell kinetics on the actively growing periosteal surface of the femur of rabbits ages two weeks has been continues. A single injection of tritiated thymidine was given and the rabbits killed from one hour to four days after injection. The grain count spectra of the different cell types, pre-osteoblast, osteoblast and osteocyte, have been compared at different times after injection. The results showed evidence for the uptake of thymidine in nuclei which is not associated with cell division. A small percentage of osteoblasts was initially labelled at one hour and there was evidence that the majority of these had not divided by 3 or 4 days after injection. Some thymidine labelled cells had also become osteocytes without division. Furthermore, it appeared that a considerable fraction of the initially labelled pre-osteoblasts did not divide. The S-period for the pre-osteoblasts and osteoblasts was measured using a double-labelled thymidine technique.

In recent years a good deal of understanding about the structure of the α-acid glycoprotein of human plasma (orosomucoid) has been obtained. Since the isolation of the protein in an apparently pure state, it has been shown to have a molecular weight of approximately 45000 and to be made up of about 40% carbohydrate and 60% polypeptide. The latter apparently is in the form of a single polypeptide chain. The carbohydrate, on the other hand, has been shown to have at least 16 non-reducing chain ends terminating in sialic acid, and may also have 1-3 further chains with fucose on the non-reducing end. At least in those chains terminating in sialic acid, galactose is in the next position followed by N-acetyl glucosamine. The recent report of the isolation, from a partial acid hydrolysate of the α-glycoprotein, of an octasaccharide containing 2 residues each of galactose and mannose, and 4 residues of N-acetylglucosamine, indicates that at least part of the carbohydrate in the protein is the form of units no smaller than this. However, the number and nature of the firm covalent linkages between carbohydrate and protein remain uncertain, and it was for this reason that the present study was undertaken.

Technical report describing the downtime of the Brookhaven National Laboratory nuclear reactor and changes made to the reactor facility in March 1952.

The evaluation of iron absorption using a single crystal whole-body counter is complicated by the inherent difficulty of determining a correct "100% value". Shortly after ingestion, tracer radioiron can be found in the stomach, upper small intestine, portal circulation and liver. Fourteen to twenty days later, the time at which absorption is measured most effectively, the radioiron will be distributed between the red cell mass, liver, spleen, bone marrow and other storage areas. With this mixed distribution there will always be an error because of geometric factors, and hence in counting efficiency, in using the relationship of [formula not transcribed] to calculate iron absorption. In a previous iron absorption study reported from this group, the radioiron retention measured 4 to 10 hours postingestion was used as the "100% value". The present experiments were designed to evaluate the clinical usefulness of the 4 hour postingestion count as the "100% value" as compared to the immediate postingestion body count, and to compare these values with an intravenous Fe59 calibrated absorption. These studies were performed with the realization that there is no absolute solution to the problem.

The model used to evaluate the single interstitial migration energy from property changes due to interstitials is extended to account for vacancy contributions. The annealing function obtained can be used to determine the relative contributions of the defects and is sufficiently sensitive to distinguish vacancy effects that are an order of magnitude less than interstitial effects. Application of the model to stored energy and thermal resistivity data yields the same values of the activation energy and temperature independent term obtained from c-axis and macroscopic length expansion rates. The results indicate that the stored energy associated with the di-interstitial is at least ten times greater than the stored energy associated with the vacancy. The minor role of vacancies in phonon scattering is discussed. Analysis of the annealing function obtained from electrical resistivity changes in irradiated graphite indicates that the ratios of charge-carriers to scattering centers varies with irradiation temperature below 55°C. Above this temperature the changes are attributed to equal contributions from vacancies and interstitials.

Technical report outlining the effects of chromosomal abnormalities in tetraploid Argentine flint maize pollination, and subsequent generations.

Studies of linkage in polyploids have been exceedingly rare. Only three previous studies of linkage in autotetraploid maize have been reported. Murray (1944), in a limited analysis of crossing over among 4 linked markers in chromosome 2, found varying degree of difference in linkage values between 2n and 4n maize in the three interposed segments. Dempsey (1956) found linkage values wx - c region of chromosome 9 to correspond closely between autotetraploid and diploid maize. More recently Welch (1962), in a more extensive analysis of linkage among the same group of chromosome 2 markers studied earlier by Murray, concluded that although individual progenies varied, linkage values in diploid and tetraploid maize, with some exceptions, are similar. Limited data from one segment of the allotetraploid of perennial teosinte x maize (Emerson and Beadle 1932) probably represent the only reported linkage tabulation in this type of polyploid. A further study of linkage of Zea polyploids seemed worthwhile because of the increasing practical importance of polyploids, of the possibility of adding to fundamental knowledge of tetraploid cytology and genetics, and of the bearing such work may have upon the question of the taxonomic affinities of maize.

The generic term "chemonuclear" has been assigned to any chemical process system using nuclear energy as the prime energy source. The type of effect which induces the chemical change, or produces the chemical is of importance in classifying the type of chemonuclear process, or reactor involved. Four types of effects are identified for this classification. These are radiation, thermal, electrical, and photolytic effects. The radiation effects include the interaction with matter of high energy particles, or photons carrying energy in the range of a million electron volts (MEV) or higher, and causing primarily ionization effects. Thermal effects include transfer of thermal energy to matter and usually is directed towards producing a thermodynamic equilibrium in the system. Electrical effects are concerned with interaction with matter of particles carrying energy in the range of electron volts up to thousands of electron volts (EV to KEV). The photolytic effects utilize photon energy in the range of infrared through the visible to the ultraviolet radiation (IR, Visible, and UV). As is evident, this classification is somewhat arbitrary since it is primarily based on a division of the energy spectrum which is in reality continuous. It does, however, separate the more conventional methods of inducing …

Technical report describing how to estimate the energy deposition efficiency of the kinetic energy of recoiling fragments from nuclear fission in a chemically reacting system. Since it is not always possible to directly measure the deposition the report describes how to estimate through the aid of fission fragment range data.

The desired neutron spectrum for the High Flux Beam Reactor under construction at BNL requires use of U-Al fuel elements with more then 30 wt% U235 in the meat. The operating cycle of this reactor requires a minimum burn-up of 20%, and preferably 40% of the uranium in the element.

Reciprocal labelling in double-labelling experiments with H3- and C14- thymidine showed that when H3- thymidine (1μc/ml for 0.5 hr) was given first in the labelling sequence followed by a 4 hr interval before the C14- thymidine treatment, that passage of cells into and out of DNA synthesis was normal. When C14 was first in the sequence, the rate at which cells entered DNA synthesis was decreased. This was attributed to a radiation effect produced by the β-rays from the C14. The rate at which cells entered DNA synthesis was studied after 0.1, 1 and 10 rads of x-rays. A dose of 1 and 10 rads decidedly depressed the rate. Treatment of roots with 2, 20, and 200 μc/ml of tritiated water for 0.5 hr showed that the 2 higher concentrations produced an effect similar to the x-rays. This indicated that somewhere between 1 and 8 disintegrations per cell per 0.5 hr will produce a decrease in the rate at which cells enter DNA synthesis. In both the x-ray and H32O experiments the depression of the rate that cells entered DNA synthesis seemed to reach saturation at the higher doses.