Quarterly progress report describing work related to a study of radiation physics problems involved in the design of high-level cesium-137 gamma sources. It outlines work completed and ongoing goals for the project.

Report on the principle of measuring the time-of-flight of neutrons, magnetic-core storage of detector pulses, how pulses are stored, current generator, storage cycle generator, and cathode ray oscillograph.

Side-to-side flux distributions calculated for ``rods out`` operation are compared to the normal equilibrium distributions. The results are highly sensitive to enrichment and flattening unbalance. Near side tube power limits are reached at total pile powers as low as 39%, and as high as 85% of the normal equilibrium. power. Calculations indicate that, with the current loading patterns, B, D, DR, F, H, and KW, theoretically could make rods out scram recoveries without exceeding tube power limits, whereas C and KE could not. Longitudinal flux profiles corresponding to possible control rod and mixing piece configurations are compared to the ideal cosine distribution. Peak fluxes for a given column power vary from 86 to 111 % of a cosine maximum. The position of the maximum flux varies from 115 cm (5.1 slugs) downstream to 131 cm (5.8 slugs) upstream of the center line of the slug column. The effects of non-uniform (front-to-rear) enrichment and flattening charges are not considered.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Will Wilson, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Constitutionality of H.B. 142, of the 56th Legislature, authorizing the State Parks Board to acquire public sites in proximity to the shores of public lakes, bays and gulfs for recreation purposes.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Will Wilson, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Authority of the Comptroller to approve a voucher for payment to a court reporter for taking oral deposition of a witness of a pending case, under Article 2423a, Vernon's Civil Statutes and related Articles.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Will Wilson, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether Nueces County is entitled to a refund of the amount paid the State for sand, shell and gravel used in the construction of a toll road.

Abstract: "This paper describes an electrical readout, decade counter employing the magnetron beam switching tube with transistor drive. Double pulse resolution is one microsecond. The unit will accept a variety of transistor types and will tolerate supply voltage variations of +/- 20% at ambient temperatures up to 60 C. A "Pixie" neon indicator is driven without the use of additional transistors. A readout circuit for printer on punched paper tape is presented."

This monthly document details activities of the Hanford Operations Office during the month of November 1959. (FI)

This report gives results of a study of the effect of changes in axial power distribution on rupture potential. Possible interrelationships between this effect and the effects of other reactor variables were investigated.

The following report discusses technical problems with ion cyclotron waves, and to suggest a possible application to ion magnetron work.

Abstract: This report presents the results of a study performed by the Ford Instrument Company, Division of Sperry Rand Corporation, and its subcontractor, Maryland Shipbuilding & Drydock Company, for the Maritime Administration, U. S. Department of Commerce, under terms of Study Contract No. MA-1893, dated March 11, 1959. The purpose of this study is to evaluate various techniques for pretesting and installing nuclear prototype power plants in merchant ships and develop that technique offering the widest general application using time, cost and safety as essential criteria. Acknowledgement is made for the valuable counsel received from personnel of the American Bureau of Shipping, Isbrandtsen Company, Inc., Maritime Administration, Atomic Energy Commission, and the United States Coast Guard.

The SNAP Experimental Reactor (SER) is a small power reactor that is to be built and operated in the original SNAP-II critical facility. The reactor is described, and the hazards previously evaluated for the SNAP II critical faciity are reviewed.

The technique of high-frequency titrimetry was applied to the determination of thorium, uranium, sulfate, and free acid. In Part I, the reproducibility of the method for the titration of standard solutions that contained 50 rag of thorium in the absence of interferences is established. Under these conditions, the coefficient of variation of the method was <1%. In Part II, the effect of uranium on the highfrequency titration of thorium, as well as the application of the method to actual samples, is discussed. Uranium in a ratio of 5 to 1 to thorium can be tolerated. When the method is applied to the analysis of representative samples, the coefficient of variation is 1%. Attempts to determine uranium by high-frequency titration with 8-quinolinol were unsuccessful. Tests on this titration and possible reasons for its failure are discussed in Part III. The application of the high-frequency titration method to the determination of sulfate in solutions of uranyl sulfate is described in Part IV. The coefficient of variation, on titrating 40 to 70 mg of sulfate with barium chloride after the uranium is masked with citrate or fluoride, is 2%. In Part V, the high-frequency titration of free acid in solutions of uranyl sulfate …

A gamma scintillation spectrometer was used to measure diffusivity of uranyl nitrate in water during preliminary capillary experiments. During Fluorox run FBR-22, 90.4% of the theoretical amount of UF/sub 6/ formed was collected in cold traps and chemical traps. Toroid tests of flame calcined mixed Th-U oxide showed low corrosion rates, small changes in particle size and a low solubilization of uranium, while denitration of uranyl nitrate in a fluidized bed resulted in particle growth with uniform layers of uranium oxide. A half-time of 30 min for uranium anion exchange was measured in differential bed studies of uranium sorption on Dowex 21K. The Darex Reference flowsheet operation resulted in chloride removal to less than 50 ppm in solvent extraction feed from APPR head- end treatment. Unirradiated prototype Consolidated Edison pins were dejacketed with 6 M H/sub 2/SO/sub 4/ with uranium losses to the dejacketing solution of approximately 0.2%. An optimum procedure was developed for clarifying large batches of solvent extraction feed by sand bed filtration. Sheared sections of stainless steel clad UO/sub 2/ were completely leached in onehalf the time required for equal lengths of stainless tubes containing uncrushed pellets. Abrasive disc wheel to metal removal ratios were measured at …

After two batches ( approximately 340 kg) of fluoride salt from the ARE were reprocessed, a pilot plant operations were terminated because of a leak through which an estimated 780 g of uranium (as UF/sub 6/ escaped. Of the 21 kg of highly enriched uranium in the feed, 93.12% was collected as UF/sub 6/ product, 0.13% represented measured losses, and 3.72% was unaccounted for (leak). An additional 3.03% was reclaimed from NaF beds and equipment washes. The produce met both chemical purity and activity specifications for product level UF/ sub 6/. Decontamination from fission products was essentially complete. A gross gamma decontamination factor was apparently limited by the low activity of the feed salt. (auth)

Temperatures are given at which two liquid phases form in a synthetic homogeneous reactor fuel solution and its concentrates. The data show a two- liquid-phase boundary temperature of 332 deg C for the particular HRT fuel composition and a flat minimum temperature of 305 deg C for the initial solution concentrated between 6 and 16 times. Experiments on solid-liquid equilibria between 300 and 329 deg C are presented to indicatc sclution stability in this temperature region. Some related comments on current HRT operation are given. (auth)

A fuel-element assembly from the first loading of the OMRE was examined in detail after experiencing an average uranium burnup of between 1 and 2 at.%. The rate of decay heat generation was evaluated by temperature monitoring of the shipping-cask coolant. Temperatures of the fuel-element-box assembly and the fuel plates were measured with thermocouples and tempilstiks. Structurally, the fuel-element assembly was affected very little by either radiation or the organic coolant-moderator. Although there was some distortion in the side and end plates of the assembly, the coolant channels between the fuel plates were free from major fouling and obstructions. The channel cross sections were reduced at specific points less than 5 per cent. The plates studied were subjected to complete gamma scanning. Specimens removed from selected areas of the scanned plates were radiochemically analyzed for burnup and the results correlated with the gamma-scan data. Burnup profiles were constructed for each of the scanned plates. The gamma-scan data were also utilized to determine the average plate burnup. (auth)

A class of exact solutions to the Vlasov equations which shows electromagnetic radiation is constructed, and a typical example discussed in some detail. Since velocities larger than c appear to be possibly of importance in these solutions, an exact radiating solution to the relativistic Vlasov equations is constructed, which, though much more specialized than the nonrelativistic solutions, shows that unphysically large velocities in the nonrelativistic solutions are not essential for the radiation there obtained. (auth)

>A 10-year program of development and construction of large-scale, sodium-cooled reactors is summarized. The current state of development of the SGR and its associated components is sufficiently advanced to permit construction of economic plants within the 10-year period. Two advanced Sodium Reactor concepts are presented. A construction program involving two reactor experiments and two full-scale plants with a capacity of 550 Mwe, together with associated development, is estimated to cost 6 million. Of this amount approximately 06 million would be borne by the AEC and the remainder by power utility companies. Escalation and construction loan interest charges are included in these figures. The cost of power from the larger power plant would be approximately 6 mills/kw-hr, based on 1959 dollars. (auth)

Several experiments have been performed at ORNL with light water solutions of uranyl nitrate (highly enriched in either U/sup 233/ or U/sup 235/) in an essentially bare sphere 27 inches in diameter. Results are presented of several calculations with elementary bare reactor theory and a discussion of the observed discrepancies between the calculated and experimental results. If the observed critical concentration is used in the calculations, the calculated effective multiplication constant is less than unity; thus a higher critical concentration would be predicted than is actually observed. ( auth)

Order-disorder structures of Fe--Al alloys were studied and data on the Muller indices for the diffracting planes of the lattices in the random distribution of FeAl, and Fe/sub 2/Al structures are given. X-ray data for mechanical properties correlation with order-disorder transformation in alloys are tabulated listing the reflecting planes for the various super lattice structures, interplanar spacings, and Bragg angles. Also included are data on x- ray-crystal analyses as function of various heat treatments, and tabulated data on tensile testing. (J.R.D.)

Performance characteristics of two activated charcoal columns at room temperature in separating fission-product xenon from an air stream were investigated by installing each column in the exhaust from an enclosure in which irradiated slugs were dissolved. Breakthrough curves are presented and the variation in xenon concentration within the columns is examined. Theoretical treatments of adsorption columns in the literature are found to agree well with the experimental data. Performance of the colunms is evaluated in terms of concentration factor'' and number of effective theoretical plates. (auth)

Using a high intensity light source to produce chorioretinal lesions in the eyes of rabbits, cats, and guinea pigs, the authors determined, at different levels of retinal irradiance, the exposure time which produced an ophthalmoscopically visible lesion. It was found that, at irradiance levels greater than 2 cal/cm/sup 2/sec, a radiant exposure of 1.0 cal/cm/sup 2/ produced a threshold lesion. At irradiance levels less than 0.7 cal/cm/sup 2//sec, lesions could not be produced at any exposure time through ten seconds. Histological data on the nature of the legions and course of healing are presented and discussed. (auth)

Studies were made to determine the feasibility of utilizing ultrasonic wave energy to assist in removal of fouling film from organic reactor fuel element heat transfer surfaces. Investigations were also made to determine whether in-core installation of ultrasomc transducer would prevent film formation. (W.L.H.)