The following report investigates the possible use of thermal emf's to produce the plasma-containing magnetic field in a thermonuclear reactor.

Abstract: A study has been made of the cladding of solid and powdered delta-phase zirconium hydride is both red and flat shapes with stainless steel. The program included investigations of metallurgical bonding, both with and without the sore of metallic barrier materials. Types 304 and 347 stainless steel were used for cladding material. The intermediate barrier-layer materials used were niobium, molybdenum, a combination of copper and molybdenum, and a combination of copper and niobium. The pressure-bonding techniques, involving the use of gas pressure at elevated temperatures, was employed in this study. Variable times and temperatures with a constant pressure of 10,000 poi were utilized by produce bonding. In this study, the best results were archived is cladding delta-phase zirconium hydride directly with Types 304 or 347 stainless steel. Good bonds were obtained by pressure bonding at 1600 F for 3 or 4 hr subsequent to pressure bonding at 1900 F for 1 to 2 hr at a pressure of 10,000 poi. Partial bonding was achieved between niobium and zirconium hydride and molybdeum and girconium hydride.

The following report supplements a previous report by E.R. Saunders and M. C. Carosella and a report by A. J. Gailey and E. O. Brimm based around the same subject. This report describes a number of tests in which leaching temperatures of 115 and 125 C were tried for the extractions of uranium from western ores.

Abstract: "The leakage of neutrons from a heterogenous pile with finite aides is calculated developing the method used in CP-992. The change in the fraction of neutrons absorbed by the moderator is obtained using the results of the calculation of the leakage."

The development of ionic methods for the determination of corrosive products in the highly radioactive Homogeneous Reactor (HR) fuels has been of major interest in the work of the Ionic Analyses Laboratory. Methods for the spectrophotometric determination of aluminum and for the polarographic determination of iron in HR fuels have been developed. The polarographic determination of molybdenum in uranyl sulfate solutions was studied. A polarographic method for the determination of zinc was developed. A fluorometric method for the determination of microgram amounts of fluoride was studied. Three organic reagents were investigated as precipitants for microgram quantities of zirconium in HR fuel. The automatic photometric titration technique was applied to the determination of thorium and of sulfate. A method was developed for the ion-exchange separation and potentiometric titration of cobalt. The ultraviolet absorption spectra of technetium and rhenium were studied.

A study of the variables involved in regeneration was undertaken to determine means of improving the regeneration efficiency and increasing the useful life of a reactor. Information gained from regeneration studies on a 4-inch-diameter by 8-foot-high column indicates that the present regeneration procedure is optimum as to quantity, concentration, and rate of addition of regenerant solution. It appears feasible to restore a plugged reactor by washing off all the silver nitrate from the packing and recoating by a normal regeneration cycle. Such a procedure could be utilized only if there is sufficient dead space in the bottom of the reactor to hold the wash solution.

The use of diffusion theory to attempt to reproduce the chemical data of Hicks and Stevenson for the spatial distribution of neutrons in a solid block of uranium that is bombarded by 190 Mev neutrons is described.

A bibliography on the subject of air sample activity vs flow rate has been prepared. The findings in two documents reviewed have been applied directly to this problem. It is concluded that air sample activity is not dependent on flow rate when sampling particles whose average diameter in 0.06 micron or greater.

Calculated data and graphs describing the effects of batch thermal-neutron irradiation of thorium, the usual method of operation of heterogeneous reactors, are presented. The buildup and decay of U233, Pa233, other heavy isotopes, and fission products are considered on the basis of best available cross-section and fission-yield data. The effects of these irradiation products on the Thorex chemical separation process are indicated briefly.

It is proposed in this report to describe a new two-phase flow mixing length model. It consists of treating the two-phase system as a continuous medium and applying to it the methods and assumptions so widely accepted in single-phase turbulent flow. Because it reduces a two-phase problem to an equivalent one in single-phase flow, the proposed model can be readily used to predict the effects of flow rate, channel geometry, and channel direction in two-phase flow.

Five irradiated and five unirradiated wafers were analyzed. Each wafer was analyzed for samarium by emission spectrography. The unirradiated wafers were analyzed for uranium by coulometric and potentiometric methods and for uranium isotopes by mass spectrometry. The irradiated wafers were analyzed for uranium and plutonium by coulometric methods, for plutonium isotopes by the 256-channel alpha pulse analyzer, and for the isotopes of uranium and of plutonium by mass spectrometry. The methods of preparing wafers for analysis are discussed; the data are tabulated.

The feasibility of improving the mechanical properties at 1700-1800°F of oxidation-resistant Fe-Al-Cr alloys by means of a refractory dispersion has been explored. A literature search was conducted, preliminary experimental determinations of properties of the alloy and its oxides were carried out, and certain mathematical relations between dispersion characteristics and metallurgical variables were derived. The results indicate that the alloys can be strengthened sufficiently by using a dispersion with an interparticle spacing of about 2-3 µ. High-temperature native oxides of the Fe-Al-Cr alloy consist largely of Al2O3 and in theory would serve as a satisfactory second phase.