Annual report describing progress on unclassified research programs funded by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission during the 1964-65 fiscal year.

The analysis of the thermal and hydraulic characteristics of the heat rejection system of the Tower Shield Facility (TSF) experiment is presented. Among the subjects discussed here in considerable detail are the convective and radiative heat rejection capability of the heat exchanger, NaK circulation around the system loop or driven by a SNAP 2 thermoelectric pump or natural circulation, and temperature distribution throughout the system both in transient and steady-state conditions.

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The purpose of this report is to summarize and document the significant historical events pertinent to the operation of the Chemical Processing facilities at Hanford. The report covers, in chronological order, the major construction activities and historical events from 1944 to September, 1965. Also included are the production records achieved and a history of the department`s unit cost performance.

This monthly research and development report details activities of the Irradiation Processing Department for the month of October 1965.

This monthly report details the Research and Engineering Section Irradiation Processing Department`s activities for the month of October 1965.

This report discusses an allocation of $1,320,000 of 02 Reactor and Metallurgy funds which was previously made to the Pacific Northwest Laboratories. The Process Technology work order support which N-Reactor Department expected to provide during FY 1966 was estimated. The R&D allocation was based on the 189 budget proposals which were prepared early in 1965 and program identifications were provided. The integrated five year research and development program was subsequently formulated with the assistance of Pacific Northwest Laboratories and research and development program missions were defined. Revised 189 proposals have been prepared and the work is being reprogrammed in accord with the mission plan. These program discussions outline research and development needs and BNW allocations in accord with the mission requirements. The level of R&D is maintained at the original level specified in reference 1 ($1,320,000), with the exception that $130,000 for the payment of offsite irradiation unit costs is now held within NRD.

This report provides a review of the KE Downcomer development test, model data from the K-Downcomer tests, and a discussion of cavitation and bubble formation in nearly saturated water flow.

The Purex Processing Measurements Quality Control Program was designed to provide for orderly accumulation of measurements data suitable for statistical evaluation and to identify those elements of a measurement which, if improved, would result in significant reduction in overall measurement variation. This report gives an analysis of the audit data obtained at four transfer stations: L9 plutonium product loadout, K6 uranium product to storage, F15 salt waste to F16 and D5 dissolved feed to process. Estimates of variation caused by analytical, sampling and volume or weight instrumentation were computed and combined to give variation associated with a single batch transfer. Procedures for collection of future data that are more suitable for statistical evaluation are suggested. Methods used to compute random and fixed variation estimates are discussed.

A cost analysis has been made for non-radioactive demonstration tests for the process dissolution of lithium-aluminate (or similar) ceramic in sodium tetraborate molten glass. The tests described in this report demonstrate the more important aspects of tritium production by molten glass dissolution of a high melting temperature lithium-bearing irradiated ceramic.

Confinement studies on the Hanford Production reactors were started in March at the request of the Richland Operations Office. The confinement studies were then undertaken with the following objectives established: (1) review and reestablish if necessary, the maximum credible accident for the production reactors operated by Douglas United Nuclear (DUN); (2) evaluate the present confinement systems under the Code of Federal Regulation Title 10, Part 100, Reactor Site Criteria, for the maximum credible accident and an accident corresponding to the failure of reactor fuel containing 50% of the reactor`s fission product inventory; (3) establish improvements or additions in the confinement system needed to more nearly comply with 10 CFR Part 100 radiation dose criteria for existing boundaries of the exclusion area and the low population zone for the maximum credible accident; and (4) list facility additions and changes required to comply with 10 CFR Part 100 criteria for more serious accidents than the maximum credible accident. This report presents the interim status of the confinement studies in meeting the listed objectives and lists the improvements which might be used to bring the reactors nearer to compliance with 10 CFR Part 100.

On September 29, 1965, at 0150 a purposely defected partially molten fuel rod in the rupture loop test facility of the PRTR reactor failed in an unexpected manner. The rupture which resulted in a loss of about 30% of the UO{sub 2}-PuO{sub 2} fuel from the rod was accompanied by the formation of a hole of approximately 1/2 inch diameter in the surrounding process tube. The subsequent flashing of the highly contaminated superheated water, released a fission product aerosol to the containment vessel atmosphere. This release resulted in about half of the noble gases reaching the containment vessel atmosphere. About 1 percent of the radioiodine and a somewhat smaller fraction of the solid fission products entered the containment vessel atmosphere. A subsequent radiochemical study provided detailed information on the behavior of some 15 fission products and of plutonium in their movement, following the rod failure, through the various liquid and gaseous systems of the reactor and its containment vessel. The ratios of the fission products (other than the noble gases) which were release to the containment vessel atmosphere were not far different from those in the fuel rod showing that relatively little fractionation occurred in the processes of dis- solution …

Several processes for reducing the concentration of radioisotopes in reactor effluent water have been developed and evaluated. Application of the high alum process for the treatment of reactor cooling water has resulted in a reduction in p{sup 32} concentration by a factor of 2.3 from pre-1961 levels. An additional factor of 2 could be obtained by subtituting nitrate salts for the sulfates currently employed in the process. Addition of sodium silicate to the cooling water demonstrated to provide a factor of three reduction in the effluent concentration of p{sup 32}. Passage of reactor effluent water through a bed of aluminum turnings removed half of the p{sup 32} by adsorption on the aluminum corrosion film. The benefits from these treatments are cumulative; thus, by adoption of both sodium silicate addition and substitution of nitrate salts in the water treatment process the p{sup 32} concentration could be reduced to about 10% of the 1960 levels. Prior to 1961, it was shown that two-thirds of the p{sup 32} in-reactor effluent water resulted from activation of inert phosphorus, but that currently, 80% results from n,p reaction on S{sup 32}. Phosphate ions were found to engage in complex reactions with the film on in-reactor surfaces …

Effective November 1, 1965, the Reactor Operations Daily Report, issued from the Production Reports and Statistics Office, will be revised as shown. The same form will be used by each of the Plants for sending report information to Production Reports and Statistics each morning. The instructions shown on the following pages will serve as a guide for those preparing the report and will further explain the limited definition on the daily report form to those receiving the report.

This report, from the Chemical Processing Department at HAPO, discusses the following: production operation; purex and redox operation; finished products operation; maintenance; financial operations; facilities engineering; research; and employee relations.

Considerable technology has developed for production of tritium in metallic target systems. At normal N-Reactor temperatures ({approximately} 300{degrees}C), aluminum-lithium alloys appear to offer a satisfactory system for tritium production. However, reactor safety requirements have generated interest in a target system which will hold the lithium in place at temperatures to 1200{degrees}C. At the same time, gas retention at irradiation temperatures ({approximately}300{degrees}C) must be acceptable, and extraction of the product must be practical. To determine in-reactor gas release characteristics of the silicate and aluminate materials, targets were irradiated in quartz and aluminum capsules. Following irradiation, the gas (condensible and noncondensible fractions) released in-reactor was recovered by drilling the capsules. Subsequently, the targets were recovered and heated in a laboratory vacuum system to investigate characteristics of tritium and helium evolution as a function of temperature. The experimental procedures are discussed briefly, with details in the Appendix. The results of the study are discussed in terms of in-reactor release and later in terms of laboratory extractions.

The following report is a pro and con discussion of some of the international consequences which might result from an American declaration of war against the government of North Vietnam.

This chronology of developments since Rhodesia's unilateral declaration of independence does not attempt to be all-inclusive. Rather the emphasis has been placed on an outline of major event which have played a part in Rhodesia's internal political and economic developments.

This report provides a representative sample of the literature on the political developments in Yemen since 1960.

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