From summary: This report contains a description of the work accomplished during the first project quarter of the PM Research and Development Program, divided into six areas: core design development, plant design development, fuel element and core component development, critical experiments and zero power testing, reactor flow rates, and heat transfer tests.

From abstract: The principal efforts are the furthering of the final design and preparation of specifications for some long-lead components. The entire power plant has been divided, for final design purposes, into 37 subsystems. The status of work on each subsystem at the close of the period is reported.

The objectives of the SNAP-7D program were to design, manufacture, test and deliver a thirty-watt electric generating system for a modified U.S. Navy NOMAD-class weather buoy to be stationed in the Gulf of Mexico. The sixty-watt Strontium-90 thermoelectric generator, the relay panel, the batteries, and the installation of the system in a boat-type buoy are described. In addition to delivering the power supply, many tests were required for the SNAP-7D system to demonstrate its conformance to the contract statement of work.

From summary: The primary purpose of this project is to determine the feasibility of converting reactor waste Strontium-90 into a safe and useful source of electrical energy. Secondary purpose is physical and environmental testing of the power conversion device or thermoelectric couples. This required actual fabrication of a 100-thermal-watt strontium titanate fuel element