From summary: "The hazards due to possible chemical explosion and detonation of the dissociation gases in homogeneous-reactor systems have been considered."

A study was conducted on the elution behavior of curium (III), americium (III), plutonium (III), actinium (III), plutonium (IV), neptunium (IV), uranium (IV), thorium (IV), neptunium (V), plutonium (VI), uranium (VI), lanthanum (III), cerium (III), europium (III), ytterbium (III), ytterium (III), strontium (II), barium (II), radium (II), cesium (I) with 3.2 M, 6.2 M, and 12.2 M HCI solutions from Dower-50 cation exchange resin columns. These elutions show that in high concentrations of hydrochloric acid the actinides form complex ions with chloride ion to a much greater extent than the lanthanides. In order to explain these results, a partial covalent character may be ascribed to the bonding in the transuranium complex ions. It is shown that a reasonable structure for such covalent bonding involves hybridization of the 5g-ortibals in the actinide elements.

This quarterly progress report describes the ongoing research at the Metallurgy Division at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In particular, this report discusses the thorium research program, the slug problem, the preferred orientation and anisotropy in metals, fundamental studies of alloying, and the ANP program.