At the request of the Hanford Operations Office of the Atomic Energy Commission, a criticality instrumentation meeting was held at Hanford on August 17 and 18, 1959. The purposes of the meeting were: (a) to review types of criticality control and/or alarm instrumentation at each site, their problems, shortcomings and potential obsolescence; (b) to discuss instrumentation in the area if approaching criticality; and (c) to consider for material balance purposes, the feasibility of devising instruments to detect the buildup of plutonium and enriched uranium bearing residues in process systems.

A study of the basic problems associated with the use of electrical propulsion systems for space travel has been carried out at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory. The emphasis is on large systems capable of manned flight.

The recovery of plutonium and neptunium by anion exchange has been well demonstrated on a laboratory scale. (1, 2,3,4) The specific adsorbed by the resin is the tetravalent hexanitrate complex of either element. With plutonium (IV) and neptunium(V) in IWW, the plutonium is adsorbed but the neptunium is not. If nitrite is used as the reductant in strong (preferably 8 M or over) nitric acid, both plutonium and neptunium are obtained in the tetravalent state, and both are adsorbed on the resin. With stronger reductants, such as semi carbazide or ferrous sulfamate, plutonium (III) and neptunium (IV) are obtained so that only the neptunium is adsorbed. Optimum recovery of either element is obtained with between seven and eight M nitric acid.

This report presents the reactor description and safeguard evaluation for an open pool research and test reactor being supplied to the State College of Washington, Pullman, Washington, by the General Electric Company.

Zircaloy-2 has a strong tendency to absorb oxygen and nitrogen at elevated temperatures. These gas impurities are extremely harmful, causing brittleness and loss of corrosion resistance. The production of ductile corrosion-resistant welds by present methods required shielding of the weld metal by an inert gas atmosphere or by a vacuum. The alternative to an inert gas atmosphere or a vacuum is reduction of the welding time to a few milliseconds of time to prevent gas absorption.

Monthly letter report on the research on the development of a beta-ray particle size analyzer (BPSA).

A device to extend the operation of a beam extraction system is described for low energies where the radiation loss per turn is ineffective. The device consists of a noisy radiofrequency field which excites the radial betatron oscillation

The purpose of the test was to determine the radiation levels in a Reactor Plant Boiler Compartment with the respective loop shut down and the remainder of the plant operating at power. The highest radiation levels recorded in the IC Boiler Compartment were located in the vicinity of the reactor coolant loop pipe penetrations of the Compartment. Except for the above mentioned areas, personnel could continuously occupy the IC Boiler Compartment without exceeding the maximum dose rate of 300 mr per week. The areas in the vicinity of the reactor coolant pipe penetrations, however, could be occupied only 1 to 2 hours per person per week because of the high radiation levers (200-250 mr/hr) present at these locations.

Thorium bismuthide when crystallized from a solution i bismuth results in large platelets which may be as large a 1 centimeter in diameter. A slurry of these platelets is difficult to pump through pipe lines and filters. The particle size can be reduced by (1) very rapid cooing (approximately 1000 degree C per second) or (2) ultrasonic treatment. The latter, much easier to attain in large scale, gives equiaxed particles of thorium bismuthide.