The Savannah River reactors were operated initially for the production of plutonium, and used slug-type natural uranium fuel elements. Recently one reactor was converted to the production of tritium, and other reactors will be converted soon. slug-type elements (of enriched uranium-aluminum) were charged into this reactor in order to reduce to a minimum the development effort required before the shift to tritium was made. It was recognized, however, that the slug elements would be deficient in that they would give a low yield of tritium per atom of uranium-235 destroyed because of the large parasitic capture of neutrons by aluminum. Also the production rate of tritium would be low because of the small amount of surface available for the transfer of the fission heat. Both of these shortcomings will be reduced materially by the substitution of tubular elements for the slugs now employed. The development of this type of element has progressed so that a full reactor loading of tubular fuel elements is contemplated for early 1957. The special hazards related to the production of tritium using tubular fuel elements are described in this memorandum which has been written as a supplement to a report entitled ``Reactor Safety Determination -- …

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Oak Ridge National Lab., Tenn. A survey of chemical radiolysis methods of measuring interfacial area by means of short range particle irradiation of a liquid interface indicated the most promising system was an aqueous solution of polonium210 in contact with a benzene solution of tetrachloroethylene. Experimentally, the rate of chloride liberation was quite low, and when measured by activation analysis, the specific rate of chloride production was subject to a very large relative error. (auth)

Formulas and curves are presented for design and strength evaluation of perforated plates. (auth)

Work on a study program on high-speed computers is reported. Computer programming is discussed. ILLIAC use and operation are summarized. (For preceding period see AECU-3373.) (W.D.M.)

A shield design method employing the IBM type 650 computer is developed. All the necessary equations and procedures are presented. Special attention was given to computation methods and the forms and parameters of the equations to attain minimum storage space and calculating time on the computer. The resulting equations apply only to gamma radiation due to the activation of pressurized water in primary coolant systems (6 Mev decay gamma source). The same analysis may be used however for other sources of radiation. (auth)

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A satisfactory welding schedule for zirconium can assemblies was demonstrated. (T.R.H.)

Presented at Meeting of the American Meteorological Society Albuquerque, N. Mex. Sept. 1956. Project Rawijet, conducted by Sandia Corporation and the Air Weather Service, provided detailed observations of time and space variability of rawinsonde runs. Sequences of these balloon runs have been examined to determine the uncertainty of predicting the ground trajectory of airborne parcels or particles. A separation of the two contributing variables, time of flight and the length of time over which persistence is forecast, has been attempted. The relation of the results to existing turbulence theory is discussed. (auth)

A preliminary survey is presented of the tri-n-alkylphosphine oxides in the analytical separation of metal ions by solvent extraction. (W.L.H.)

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