Technical report. Areas covered are properties of uranium halides, properties of uranium nitrides, and hydride formation at high pressure.

The behavior of insoluble corrosion products in the HRT is generally understood and studies of the removal of these solids by hydroclones can logically be terminated after the effect of higher processing rates by the multiple hydroclone has been determined. Chemical descaling may be required to supplement solids removal by hydroclones. Laboratory studies to find suitable reagents will be continued in conjunction with decontamination work presently in progress.

This summary of the research progress meeting on June 17, 1948 discusses the following topics: (1) Potassium 43 (R. Overstreet); (2) Recoils (A. Ghiorso); (3) M.I.T. accelerator conference (W. Panofsky); and (4) Cosmic rays (Prof. Louis Le prince - Ringuet, France)

Abstract: Exposure of Sprague Dawley white rats to single doses of 900 kvp X radiation demonstrated a medium lethal dose of 600 r which was not markedly dependent upon sex, weight, or, in the case of females, stage of the estrous cycle at the time of irradiation. Deaths within 30 days were most frequent between the fourth and eighth, and between the tenth and fifteenth post- irradiation days, indicating the existence of at least two processes leading to death in the "acute" period.

Abstract. The rate constants for the reaction of the hydrated electron eaq with a number of solutes and with radicals formed in water radiolysis are reported. Hydrated electrons were formed in the electron pulse irradiated solutions at concentrations in the range from 1 to 10 pM. Their reaction was followed by the decay of the optical absorption of eaq at 5780 A. Generally a 04 psec pulse of 15 MeV electrons was used. In the absence of eaq scavengers, second-order kinetics prevailed owing to the dominance of the reactions,eaq+eaq, eaq+H, and eaq+H202 when OH radical scavengers were present in alkaline solution. An analysis of the decay curves leads to values for keaq+eaq and keaq+H of 0.9~ 1010 and 3 x 1010 M-1 sec-1, respectively. With scavenger present in excess over [eaq], pseudo first-order kinetics were found and rate constants for a number of inorganic and organic compounds are reported. The agreement of these and other rate constants with diffusion-controlled reaction theory is discussed.

In formulating this general diffusion theory expression which represents the neutron balance in a nuclear chain reactor the following assumptions were made : (1) the medium through which the neutrons are diffusing has a low neutron capture cross section, (2) the region in which the flux distribute is being described is two or three mean free paths from strong sources and sinks or from a boundary. Certainly, is going to the lattice cell of a receptor, both of the above conditions are violated; fuel elements have a large absorption cross section and most lattice cells are only two or three mean free paths to is over-all sites

Technical report describing the investigation undertaken to determine the necessary requirements for obtaining sound bonded joints on tantalum. Corrosion and Mass Transfer Loops LTTN 237A and 427 called for fabrication of 430 stainless steel clad tantalum tubing. Since there was little or no experience at welding this material at CANEL, specimens were welded using vacuum chambers and plastic chambers as normally used for loop fabrication. Resistance welding was performed without the use of a special atmosphere producing sound bonds.

It is the purpose of this report to explain the bands and uses of a digital computer program for the calculation of steady state steam-water pressure drop and critical flow in pipes. The program has been coded for the IBM 709 computer. While so attempt has been made to obtain improved models of two-phase flow, it is believed that the numerical integration technique used in the code will permit more accurate calculation where pressure drops are large compared to the upstream pressure. The technique should lend itself readily to any improved correlations which appear in the future.

In a reactor system the principal components affect by slurry properties are the blanket vessel, pressurizer, heat exchanger, and dump tant. The particular properties that affect the operation of these components are: caking, degree of flocculation, foaming, and slime formation. these properties are related to the characteristics of compounds in a reactor system through experience gained in the operation of slurry loops. It is pointed out that the optimum slurry for one component may not necessarily be the optimum for another.

The HRT mockup was shut down February 16, 1957 after operating for 576 hours on high concentration uranyl sulfate. At this time, all corrosion samples in the system were removed and replaced, and the wire extending thought the letdown hear exchanger was removed of examination.