Coatings examined were selected industrial finishes reported to have good resistance to corrosion and included epoxy resins reinforced with fiberglass. For screening purposes,this preliminary work was done on commercial sheet Mg to which had been applied a dichromate finish. The coatings were tested for impact resistance, corrosion resistance, abrasion resistance, and thermal shock resistance. Conclusions for further work are outlined.

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This report presents details of the operations of the Savannah River Plant manufacturing division during the month of June 1956.

In the P234-5 Building operation, Task I consists of converting plutonium nitrate solution received from the primary separations plants to a plutonium oxalate slurry. The slurry is filtered and the filter cake is transferred to Task II while the filtrate is treated and returned for further processing in either Recuplex, Redox, or Purex. The basic Task II process consists of calcining the plutonium oxalate cake to form plutonium dioxide. The plutonium dioxide is then fluorinated to form plutonium tetrafluoride which is transferred to Task III for further processing. Various alternate schemes for increasing production have been studied by the Technical and Design Sections during the past several months. The results of these studies are available in references (10) and (11). It is the purpose of this document to describe in detail the new equipment required for replacing Task I and II and to serve as a basis for detailed design of the proposed project.

The special study group was activated by a charter letter from Sub-Section Managers of Pile Technology on June 20, 1956. The principal objectives were: to collect the information which is presently available for new reactor design and to determine what information should be developed; to make a guess at pile variables; and to point out development programs which must be pursued to achieve a detailed design start in two years. The study was restricted to graphite moderated reactors with H{sub 2}0, D{sub 2}0, and organic coolants. The program was to determine technical feasibility only and detailed economic considerations were not to be included. This report presents the conclusions of the group and some of the reasoning behind these conclusions.

Samples of PuO/sub 2/ were examined by x-ray diffraction for crystallite size and perfection. The PuO/sub 2/ was formed by thermal decomposition of the oxalate. Measurement of the integral widths of diffraction lines gave values of broadening which were used to calculate the effective crystallite thickness. (J.R.D.)

The KPL No. 6, first-cycle Purex lA flow sheet is presented as an examaple of waste volume reduction through optimum solvent-extraction flow sheet design. Calculated on the basis of previous flow sheets, a 54 to 69% reduction of first-cycle waste storage volume is achieved by taming advantage of the extractability and reflux of nitric acid in TBP systems to provide adequate salting while minimizing the amount of acid going to waste. Although this report is concerned only with the first Purex cycle, the calculations are equally valid for the second U cycle, and the principles presented are applicable to similar nitnic acid-salted TBP systems. (auth)

Development studies are described for: reactor materials; aluminum-clad fuel elements; plant assistance to MCW; processing of feed materials; alloy and ceramic fuel elements; uranium and zirconium corrosion mechanisms; Zr-U alloys; physical metallurgy; Zircaloy-water reactions; sir-flow in PWR pressure vessel; modified fuelelement cores; liquid-metal neutron absorbers for control of gas- cooled power reactors; snd evaluations of reflectorcontrolled heterogeneous boiling reactors. (B.O.G.)

Attempts were made to prepare a diphenoquinone having substituents in 2,2'-positions in order to prevent the planarity of the molecule and get a diradical of oxygen. The 2,2'-dimethyl-5,5'-di-t-butyldiphenoquinone was prepared and was shown to be in equilibrium with a small amount of diradical. This compound slowly polymerizes.

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Using primarily a 75-cm radius of curvature 60 deg symmetrical electromagnetic analyzer, a study of the complexity of the following alpha spectra was made: Es/sup 253/, Cf/sup 246/, Cm/sup 244/, Am/sup 243/, Pu/sup 236,242/, Pa/sup 231/ , Th/sup 227,230/, Ac/sup 225/, At/sup 209/ and Po/sup 206/. An investigation of the gamma rays associated with the following isotopes was also madei /sup 236/, and Pa/sup 231/. Decay schemes have been suggested for most of the isotopes included in this study. Those for the even-even isotopes were found to conform well with the previously existing systematics for that group of nuclides. Many of the decay features of the odd-mass isotopes seemed to conform well with presently expanding theories. (auth)

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A key punch is discussed which would be useful in any automatic coding system requiring the initial input to be made via cards with 12 rows such as the standard IBM card. The proposed key punch consists of a keyboard connected to a punch and a electric typewriter so that if a character is struck, it is both punched in a single card column and typed on a sheet of paper. Each character key contains three characters which may be used in superscript, subscript, or main line position. (M.H.R.)

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