The purpose of this course is two-fold. It should serve as a review for the metallurgist of the classical metallurgical concepts applied to such metals as uranium, thorium, plutonium, and zirconium. These metals are relatively unfamiliar to the metallurgist, but the concepts are still the same ones applied to familiar metals. The second purpose is to acquaint the non-metallurgist with the reasons for selection, advantages, and disadvantages of the various fuels and structural materials used in a reactor. Thus, there are two purposes: the first is conceptual, and the second is explanatory. A blending of the two must inevitably result in an over-simplification of the metallurgical concepts and an assumption of certain background material which, actually, may not be available to the non-metallurgist. The present lecture is an introduction to the material to be covered. This lecture will have two purposes. The material to be presented in the remaining lectures will be outlined briefly, and the various concepts to be covered in this course will be discussed.

This document presents a summary of work and progress at the Hanford Engineer Works for March 1955. The report is divided into sections by department. A plant wide general summary is included at the beginning of the report, after which the departmental summaries begin. The Manufacturing Department reports plant statistics, and summaries for the Metal Preparation, Reactor and Separation sections. The Engineering Department`s section summarizes work for the Technical, Design, and Project Sections. Costs for the various departments are presented in the Financial Department`s summary. The Medical, Radiological Sciences, Utilities and General Services, Employee and Public Relations, and Community Real Estate and Services departments have sections presenting their monthly statistics, work, progress, and summaries.

This document comprises chapter four of nuclear metallurgy lectures. This chapter provides a discussion of pile components and related reactor kinetics.

This document presents a general analysis of charge-discharge during pile operation. It is not a detailed technical, operational, economic, or political analysis but, rather an attempt to cover the subject with a broader viewpoint than is usually prsented in the many detailed reports which have been written in the past five years. This letter is occasioned at this time because efforts are in progress to implement plans for proceeding with the expenditure of substantial amounts of money in order to demonstrate that the system, as developed, will allow the attainment of certain desirable objectives.

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The effect of pantothenic acid deficiency on the rate of C{sup 14}O{sub 2} excretion and on distribution of radioactivity in liver fractions has been studied in rats given sodium acetate-2-C{sup 14} and sodium heptanoate-7-C{sup 14} The rate of excretion of breath C{sub 14}O has been measured by use of a method in which a sensitive ionization chamber and electrometer directly and continuously record carbon-14 excretion. The labeled fatty acids are more rapidly metabolized to C{sup 14}O{sub 2} in PAD rats than in normal rats. CoA depresses the C{sup 14}O excretion 2 in both normal and PAD rats in experiments with either labeled acid. There are differences in the oxidation of these two fatty acids, and the differences are consistent with postulated metabolic schemes. CoA increases radioactivity deposited in the fat of the liver, but does not appreciably change the radioactivity incorporated in the protein and nonsaponifiable lipid fractions.

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We have produced and chemically identified for the first time a few atoms of the element with atomic number 101. Very intense helium ion bombardments of tiny targets of 99{sup 253} have produced a few spontaneously fissionable atoms which elute in the eka-thulium position on a cation resin column.

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The Ferrotherm Company is undertaking a design study of a test radiator. Since January 21, 1955, preliminary designs of several radiators have been completed prior to the selection of one for the final design study. Ferrotherm has been given prototype design specifications for structural design, typical in-flight prototype performance specifications for core-size estimates, test core specifications for their design study, and a method whereby radiators may be evaluated. From analysis of the prototype specifications a matrix will be selected for the test core design study. Although the analysis has narrowed to both a plate-and-sheet-metal fin and a plate-and-pin-fin core geometry, Ferrotherm is more or less committed to pin-fins.

In April, 1954, Thompson Products Inc. formally began work on a program leading to the fabrication of two test radiators. The work done to date is summarized in report number PWAC-127, First Technical Report by Thompson Products Inc. on Liquid-Metal-to-Air Radiators and in PWAC-128, Second Technical Report by Thompson Products Inc. on Liquid-Metal-to-Air Radiators. The first report describes possible radiator design concepts meeting the required specifications and presents an analytical method which was derived to optimize the designs. Thompson Products has decided that a core with cast NaK passages in combination with the sheet-metal, ribbon fins on the airside offers maximum reliability. The second report formulates the analysis of the final radiator design and presents the fabrication and evaluation studies used to select the design. To evaluate the permeability of cast NaK passages, Thompson Products is planning to build a hot NaK flow rig. A parallel investigation on wrought materials will be carried out as an alternate NaK passage type. The next phase of the program, the final design of the test radiator, has started.

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A transition program, eliminating most of the wet chemical techniques for the preparation of cell feed and replacing these with a high temperature chlorination process, was begun. Crushing tests on a Fitz mill were initiated and tentative conclusions are that this type of equipment as superior to a combination of jaw and roll crushing. Small scale chlorination experiments indicate the feasibility of pelletizing ThOCO/sub 3/ for feed to a eontinuous hightemperature chlorinator. (D.E.B.)

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This memorandum indicates the Purex-Plant pulse-column and pulse- generator revisions which would be required to assure an instantaneous capacity of 25 tons U/day with a 20% capacity safety margin under Purex HW {number_sign}3 Flowsheet conditions. (The use of the Purex HW {number_sign}4 Flowsheet (6) with the revised columns would be expected to increase the capacity to 29 or 30 tons U/day.) The indicated design changes are recorded here for study and for possible reference if need for increased production capacity should arise. No recommendation for adoption at this time is made.

This report discusses the corrosion of fuel element jackets and process tubes. A brief background in electrochemistry is presented, and the corrosion of aluminium, aluminium alloys and zirconium is summarized.