This memorandum confirms previous verbal answers to the questions presented by the 234-5 Design group for clarification regarding Specification Letters 234-1, 235-1, 234-2 and 234-3. Testing, plutonium concentration in air, equipment modifications and process control are among items addressed.

A series of experiments on exposure of man and rats to tritium gas (HT) or tritiated water (HTO) are reported. In one human experiment 3 millicuries of HTO was administered in 200 milliliters of water by ingestion. Absorption into the blood stream was linear with time and complete in about 45 minutes. Body water turnover was measured over a period of six days by weighing all food and fluid intake and all excretory output. For four days water turnover was kept near normal (2.7 liters per day). During the last two days water turnover was increased to 12.8 liters per day. Tritium excretion rates was determined on eight other human subjects in which water turnover in which measured less precisely. The biological half-life of HTO in nine human subjects varied from 9 to 14 days on ad libitum and was reduced to 2 1/2 days in one subject on high water intake. The tritium activity in sweat, expired water vapor, septum and urine was found to be essentially the same as that in water from the blood. Rats were continually exposed to various concentrations of tritium in inspired air (0.000001 to 0.03 microcuries per ml) for periods up to 145 …

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This document presents a summary of work and progress at the Hanford Engineer Works for October 1954. The report is divided into sections by department. A plant wide general summary is included at the beginning of the report, after which the departmental summaries begin. The Manufacturing Department reports plant statistics, and summaries for the Metal Preparation, Reactor and Separation sections. The Engineering Department`s section summarizes work for the Technical, Design, and Project Sections. Costs for the various departments are presented in the Financial Department`s summary. The Medical, Radiological Sciences, Utilities and General Services, Employee and Public Relations, and Community Real Estate and Services departments have sections presenting their monthly statistics, work, progress, and summaries.

Four Zircaloy-2 jacketed enriched seven-rod cluster elements, one three-foot three-rod Zircaloy-2 jacketed enriched cluster element with integral end closures, and two eighteen-inch Zircaloy-2 jacketed wire wrapped cluster elements containing UO{sub 2} will be irradiated at jacket surface temperatures up to 270 C in the KER loops to an exposure of 3500 MWD/T on the enriched seven-rod cluster elements.

Abstract: Scouting experiments indicated that calcination of highly active Darex and Sulfex decladding and Purex extraction wastes will not release hazardous amounts of fission products to the atmosphere. Simulated wastes containing up to 90 curies/liter or activity were evaporated and calcined to 750°C and the off-cases passed through a condenser and a series of caustic scrubbers. Less than 0.1% of the fission products was released, of which ruthenium was 10-90%. Fission product release was lower from neutralized than from acidic wastes. Fission products were leached appreciably, 0.05% of the beta and 0.02% of the gamma, from the calcination solid with water in 96 hr.

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The experimental procedure for testing the samples is given. No test results are indicated. (MOW)

The plasma focus is a remarkable natural phenomena that achieves significant space-time compression of both particle and field energy. Depending on the mode of operation, about 20 percent of the bank energy can be concentrated into the kinetic energy of a thin, dense, cylindrically convergent gas shell, or into a small-diameter, high-$nu$/$gamma$ relativistic electron burst and oppositely directed ion burst. The kinetic energy of the fast ions and electrons can exceed the applied voltage by a factor of greater than 100. The different modes of energy concentration by the plasma focus are presented and discussed both in terms of their role in the direct yield of the focus and for the case of a plasma focus supplemented by various fusionable targets. (auth)

Results of work performed from July 1, 1978 through September 30, 1978 on the Advanced Gas Cooled Nuclear Reactor Materials Evaluation and Development Program are presented. Candidate alloys were evaluated for Very High Temperature Reactor Nuclear Process Heat (NPH) and Direct Cycle Helium Turbine (DCHT) applications, in terms of the affect of simulated reactor primary coolant (Helium containing small amounts of various other gases), the high temperatures, and long time exposures, on the mechanical properties and structural and surface stability of selected candidate alloys. The activities associated with the characterization of the materials for the screening test program are reported, i.e., test specimen preparation, information from the materials characterization tests performed by General Electric, and the status of the simulated reactor helium supply system, testing equipment, and gas chemistry analysis instrumentation and equipment. The status of the data management system is presented.

The proposed Goose River Project is a commercial power development consisting of 4 power dams and one storage dam. All available energy is to be wholesaled to the Central Maine Power Company, the utility holding the franchise for the area. A description of the economic feasibility of the proposed project is presented.

A commercial 7.5-kW electron-beam welder has been optically upgraded. The viewing system has been replaced by high-resolution optics (36 line pairs per millimeter (36l/mm) with video option. A high-intensity arc lamp provides illumination of the weld region. The upgraded optical system provides the capability for making accurate and repeatable welds with computer-automated seam tracking.

It has been assumed that acid rain is predominantly a problem of long-range transport of pollutants from large fossil fuel combustion sources, namely coal-fired utilities. However, close examination of fuel use information and source emission characteristics in the Adirondacks, Florida, and California suggests that local oil burning and automotive sources may be major contributors to the occurrence of acid rain in these areas. This report describes the possible role of local combustion sources in the production of acid rain, discusses the implications of the findings, and their relevance to alternative control strategies for acid rain. Oil-fired boilers, especially the smaller commercial, industrial, and residential units, produce at least 3 to 10 times as much primary sulfate per unit of sulfur content as coal-fired units. Moreover, oil-fired units emit comparatively large quantities of catalytic compounds capable of rapidly converting still more sulfur oxide to sulfate in the atmosphere. Thus, in areas where large quantities of oil are burned, the direct impact from locally generated sulfates may equal or even exceed that produced by imported sulfates derived from distant coal-burning sources. Fuel consumption data show that large quantities of oil are being consumed in areas experiencing acid rain. Forty percent of the …

The corrosion resistance of six different types of weighted metal coupons was evaluated at 29/sup 0/C (84/sup 0/F) in flowing water containing nitrite-borate-silicate corrosion inhibitors. The question for evaluation was whether it would be more advantageous: (1) to drain the treated cooling water from the centrifuge machine and to expose them to moisture-laden air over an assumed shop downtime and repair perid of 1 month; or (2) to let the treated cooling water remain stagnant in the machines during this downtime. The moisture-laden-air exposure was more detrimental.

Instabilities with frequencies in the neighborhood of the electron cyclotron frequency are of interest in determining stable operating regimes of hot-electron plasmas in EBT devices and in tandem mirrors. Previous work used model distributions significantly different than those suggested by recent Fokker-Planck studies. We use much more realistic model distributions in a computer code that solves the full electromagnetic dispersion relation governing longitudinal and transverse waves in a uniform plasma. We allow for an arbitrary direction of wave propagation. Results for the whistler and upper-hybrid loss-cone instabilities are presented.

A safety assessment was performed to determine if potential accidents at the 836 Complex at Site 300 could present undue hazards to the general public, personnel at Site 300, or have an adverse effect on the environment. The credible accidents that might have an effect on these facilities or have off-site consequences were considered. These were earthquake, extreme wind (including missiles), lightning, flood, criticality, high explosive (H) detonation that disperses uranium and beryllium, spontaneous oxidation of plutonium, explosions due to finely divided particles, and a fire.

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Hadron masses are calculated on an 8/sup 3/ /times/ 16 lattice using four flavors of staggered fermion to generate the gauge configurations, but using Wilson fermions to calculate the hadron propagators. The identification of a value of the Wilson hopping parameter with the value of the bare quark mass used in the simulations is discussed.