A report which covers progress on the testing of the General Engineering and Consulting Laboratory Turbine Pump No. 1 from June 16, 1948, to July 31, 1948.

Abstract: "Small amounts of acetic acid, equivalent to 400 ul. of 0.3 to 0.13 g/L. can be titrated coulonatrically in the presence of a 10 to 25-fold excess of HN03 in 70%, isopropanol. An accuracy of +/- 0.1% and a precision of +/- 8.5% (99% limite) are obtained.

The following report describes the process to determine the method for determination of americium in the presence of plutonium and uranium.

The following report investigates tests on diffusion length and contamination performed on graphite laid up in 105-DR and 105-H piles.

The following report provides complete data and test procedure from hot water corrosion tests of type 502 stainless steel.

This report presents data recorded during a program made to improve uranium slug quality in January, 1952, to determine what improvements could be made in the welding process.

Summary: "Six different types of solutions of various concentrations were used to deoxidize uranium chips on a laboratory scale. None of the solutions tested appears to be more desirable than 50% nitric acid for deoxidizing uranium chip on a production scale."

From introduction:"It was the aim of this investigation to determine the resistance of several materials of construction to current and anticipated and anticipated Hanford separation process waste streams under specific conditions. The corrosion rates of mild steel and austenitic stainless steel and the resistance of several commercial protective coatings were established."

The referenced memo asked several questions on the operation of the Purex Plant which are of interest to the Eurochemic personnel. These questions are answered below. 1. A qualitative description of the nitric acid recovery systems is desired -- flow of materials, number of pieces of equipment, etc.

Aid in redesign of the calibration facility in order to: 1. Reduce the rate of exposure for calibration personnel below 1 mr/hr; 2. Reduce the rate of exposure outside of the 3745 Building; 3. Reduce the risk of breaking radium sources; 4. Improve the efficiency of calibration procedures by: a. Allowing calibration to be done faster; b. Providing several calibration ranges which can operate simultaneously in the present space allowed; c. Allowing instrument survey work to proceed while calibration work is done. A well-type calibration installation is proposed and a brief description of the required shielding is included.

A multi-purpose program for processing exponential data has been prepared for the 709 computer. The main purposes of the program is to compute the material buckling from raw data (given counts, time, and counter information) or from previously calculated Athermal's. It is also possible to compute only CeCh (end and harmonic corrections) for a given B11 or series if B11's no counting data being entered. In every case, pile measurements must be submitted as input for corrections.

Wells drilled to date on the Hanford project represent and initial investment of over one million dollars. These nearly six hundred wells have been used and will continue to be used for observation and monitoring purposes of direct interest to ground disposal of radioactive wastes. Through measurement of depth to the water table the changing gradients as a result of large volume waste disposal are determined and direction of ground water flow established. The extent of contamination in ground water is measured in samples dawn from these wells. Aquifer permeability is measured and ground water velocity predicted from pumping tests carried out out in these structure

A program has been prepared for the 709 computer which will determine extrapolation length from horizontal traverses measurements taken in an exponential pile. The flux across the pile is assured to fit a cosine function of the form y = A cos B (X-C)

The small amount of irradiation tenting experience on the plutonium-aluminum type elements planned for the Plutonium Recycle Test Reactor (PRTR) has made such testing of great importance. The high temperature pressurized recirculating water 1706 KER facility is one possible place for conducting investigations of the irradiation behavior of this type fuel element. To obtain the maximum information from the in-reactor testing and to detect possible problems, out-of-reactor test both at room and anticipated operating temperatures must be made. Room temperature pressure drop measurements and high temperatures performance of two prototypical fuel element designs proposed for KER testing are reported in this document.

At the request of Design Development Operation, various heat transfer and fluid flow problems were examined which are peculiar to the CO2 Gas-Cooled Loop in the PRTR. The results of these calculations are desired primarily to aid in demonstrating the adequacy of the design proposal. In addition, the operational limits of the loop and the consequences of the gas loop installation on the PRT reactor are of interest.

One of the research studies of the Chemical Effluents Technology Operation is the improvement of the method for predicting the capacity of a crib for the retention of wastes. In addition to laboratory work the research was extended a field experiment using a simulated crib fed with a solution containing a radioactive tracer. The purpose is twofold: (1) to check the validity of laboratory findings and (2) to observe several features of the behavior of solutions put to ground in the field.

In the decladding of stainless steel clad fuel elements with sulfuric acid (the Sulfex process), the loss of core material to the decladding solution is determined by the rate of reaction of the core material with the solution and the time of exposure if the core to the solution. Since very little was known about the effects of irradiation history on the rates at which core materials dissolve in sulfuric acid, the present study was undertaken in an effort to determine the magnitude of such effects. This report summarizes the results obtained to date. Further work is planned when materials of higher burn-up are available.

Facilities shall be provided in the 221-U Building for removing fuel elements from the casks as placed in the railroad tunnel from the transfer facility and moving the elements to modified existing 10' X 16' X 14' storage tanks in ten existing cells where they will be stored, until scheduled for processing.

A number of Pu-Al and UO2-PuO2 Zircaloy clad capsules have been fabricated for irradiation in the MTR. In addition, a four rod cluster containing Al 8 w/o Pu and Al 12 w/o Si 8 w/o Pu cores has been successfully irradiated and discharged from Loop 3 of the KER. A second four rod cluster is awaiting irradiation and design and fabrication of a seven rod cluster test element is underway.

Disposal on a specific retention basic of certain radioactive liquid waste solutions emanating from separations from separations plants has been practiced at Hanford since 1944. As used at Hanford, the term "specific retention" is defined as that volume of waste liquids that may be disposed to the soil* and be held against the force of gravity by the molecular attraction between sand grains and the surface tension of the water, when expressed as percent of packed soil volume. In practice it represents the volume of liquid that may be discharged to a disposal pit of known dimensions without leakage to the ground, water, expressed as percent of the total volume of a column of soil with the same cross section as the pit, and extending from the bottom of the pit to the water table. It is recognized that some degree of lateral spreading will occur which has the effect of enlarging the volume of soil contacted by the liquid.

The relative neutron capture gamma production in several prospective iron thermal shielding materials for the New Production Reactor was measured to determine the merit of adding boron to the metal. It was found that for the beam geometry the used addition of 1 1/2 percent boron to the iron before casting reduced the soft gamma production by a factor of 6.5 and the hard gamma production by a factor of 10. No attempt was made to measure gamma or neutron transmissions.

Since the start of E-metal processing in December, 1958, critical mass control in the Redox dissolvers has been provided by a combination of administrative controls, revised dissolver charging procedures, and new dissolving processes and operation control procedures. These were all based on a maximum allowable charge of E-Metal to the dissolvers which was equivalent to 45 percent of the minimum critical mass.

A series of experiments has been conducted during the past eighteen months with the objective of degerming the accuracy with which precision parts can be duplicated using a castable tooling plastic as a test shape to be reproduced. A precision ground ground 1/4 inch-thick, 90° steel sector of 4'' radius was chosen. The plastics used in the experiments were the die surfacer mixes of the Devon Cooperation and Ren Plastics, Inc. These were selected for use in the test because of their dimensional stability and wear resistance. Ordinary paste type floor wax was used as a mold release. The first series of tests were primarily intended to gain facility in handling this material. After achieving some familiarity with the use of these castable plastics a technique was devised which seemed to hold promise of precision duplication.

In the field of nondestructive testing the ultrasonic test method is used extensively. In this method ultrasonic energy generated by a transducer is caused to enter the test specimen. The effect on the transducer is cause to enter the test specimen. The effect on the transmission or reflection of the ultrasonic energy by differing test specimen structure is used as an indirect measure of test specimen characteristics.