This technical report describes experimental nuclear physics, mass spectroscopy, crystallography, experimental reactor physics, theoretical physics (general), reactor theory, electronic digital computers, and applied mathematics and computations (general).

From Introduction: "The interpretation of the fluorescence and absorption spectrum of the uranyl ion, indicated in this introduction, is based on the spectroscopic work of Nichols, Howes and co-workers (1914-1919), Dieke and van Heel (1925), Moerman and Kraak (1939), and Freymann and co-workers (1946-1948); on infrared studies (cf., Section 3 below) and Raman spectra; but most of all, on the work of Dieke, Duncan, and co-workers, carried out in 1943-1944 under the Manhattan District program. In the present chapter we will review briefly the earlier investigations in the field of uranyl salt and spectroscopy and give a somewhat more detailed summary of the results of Nichols and Howes and, particularly, of Dieke and co-workers."

Thermal cycling tests on uranium have shown that the dimensional changes that occur on cycling in the alpha range are directly related to both the texture of the material and its grain size: cold rolled rods generally elongate in the direction of rolling, while the same rods, after a beta-treatment, grow at rates several orders of magnitude lower. This considerable improvement by beta-treatment has been attributed to the texture randomization accompanying the heat-treatment. In the course of this heat-treatment, however, considerable grain growth occurs, which ahs the effect of causing surface roughening on cycling (also referred to as "bumping"); fine grained material generally retains a smooth surface. These observations led to the speculation that the most desirable structure in uranium, from standpoint of dimensional stability, is one that combines both a random texture and a fine grain size. Heat treatment of rolled rod offered no easy method to obtain such a product; powder metallurgical techniques, however, appeared ideally suited for the purpose. To this end, early in 1949, the Sylvania Electric Products Company initiated a program to develop suitable techniques for producing uranium powder compacts having the above-mentioned desired characteristics. Because of the availability of thermal cycling equipment at Argonne, …