A short-term study was made to investigate the removal of radioiodine vapor from air-steam mixtures as could occur immediately following a nuclear incident in a pressurized water reactor. Activated charcoal traps, designed to simulate a small section of a commercial charcoal canister, were tested at gas velocities of 23.9 to 74.9 ft/min over the temperature range of 75 to 118°C. The iodine removal efficiency was found to range from 99.80 to 99.4% with an average of 99.9%. One test performed at a temperature of 105°C and with gas velocity of 290 ft/min indicated that the iodine removal efficiency was reduced to 99.54%. Activated charcoal exhibits a high efficiency for iodine vapor removal under these test conditions and appears suitable for application in the decontamination of air-steam mixtures.

A stimulation study of the deign as of June 1960 of the gas-cooled ORR Loop No. 1 was made using the ORNL analog computer. The proposed method of temperature control is evaluated, and the dynamic behavior of the loop for accidents and component failures is presented in graphical form.

On 3/14/60 the Applied Physics Corporation was awarded a subcontract for the design and development of a high-temperature high-pressure spectrophotometer system based on the Cary Model 14pm Spectrophotometer insofar as possible, and consistent with our specifications, No. CTD-2, December 16, 1959.

Equipoise-2, a two-dimensional, two-group neutron-diffusion code in R-Z geometry, has been programmed for the IBM-7090 computer. This code was designed to permit the running of large numbers of cases without requiring excessive machine time. Typical running times are of the order of one to three minutes per case for a 1000-point problems. The maximum number of mesh points that can be used is 1444.

This report is a working document of the UB AEC Nuclear Cross Sections Advisory Group and is issued about twice a year for the purpose of stimulating important cross section measurements. The requests listed in this report have originated from various Atomic Energy Commission contractors, the Advisory Committee on Reactor Physics, and the Nuclear Cross Sections Advisory Group. The distribution is limited to members of the US Nuclear Cross Sections Advisory Group (NCSAG), the US Advisory Committee on Reactor Physics (ACRP), the Tripartite Nuclear Cross Sections Committee (TNCC), the European-American Nuclear Data Committee (EANDC), to US AEC off-site contractors, and to the requestors and measurers of the cross sections listed in this report. The contents of this document are not to be republished in part or in full without special permission of the chairman of the NCSAG, The unpublished data which appear in this report must not be quoted in publications without permission of the experimenter.

An analog simulation is made of the HRP in-pile slurry loop in the LITR. The radiolytic gas pressure in the pressurizer is determined. This pressure is a result of the generation of radiolytic gas in the loop core. A graphical result is obtained showing the effect of catalyst activity and pressurizer flow rate on the pressure rise from radiolytic gas. The thermal behavior of the system is studied, and the response to various controller settings is predicted. Controller settings very near optimum for the actual process were recommended from the analog study,

The development of nuclear reactors and other nuclear particle sources has given the analyst a new analysis method which can be successfully applied to the determination of microgram and submicrogram quantities of many elements. Known as "radioactivation analysis", this method is one in which an "activation" by some type of nuclear reaction is used to produce a radioactive isotope of the element to be determined. Since this radioisotope decays with its own characteristic radiations and half-life, it is possible to make radioactivation analysis a very specific analysis. Chemical separations of the radioisotope are employed whenever necessary and its radioactivity measured by some type of radiation counter.

Simon (1960) has given a general steady state theory of plasma accumulation (without energy losses) in an OGRA device. Such a device is fed by injection of energetic molecular ions which dissociate to produce trapped protons. Initial trapping is achieved by dissociation in the background gas. Such a device is usually characterized by a critical input current of critical plasma density (a function of input current) above which plasma density builds up to a value limited by Coulomb-scattering losses. For a regime of operation of current interest at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (600-kev hydrogen molecular ion injection and dissociation, highly efficient ion-pumping action of the trapped plasma), extremely simple approximate formulas have been derived which describe with a fair degree of accuracy the critical current of density for plasma build-up.

Report documenting ongoing research and developments at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Gas-Cooled Reactor Project.

An experiment was performed at the ORR in order to find a good fission chamber location. Two locations on the pool side of the reactor tank were explored with a one inch diameter fission chamber. The thermal neutron flux attention was found to vary nearly exponentially with distance, and no shadowing effect could be seen during a reactor startup. The fission products high gamma flux could be discriminated without difficulties. Both positions seem to be adequate to locate a reactor control fission channel.

The hazard of Sr^90 arises in part from its fixation by phosphates in the skeletal system. It is natural then to consider compounds and minerals associated with the phosphate anion for applications in waste disposal. Calcium phosphate floc formation is widely used as a method for removing strontium from contaminated water. Also, calcerous soils are said to be effective for removing strontium from low-level wasters containing dissolved phosphates. It is suggested that one the mechanisms involved in strontium removal is the formation of calcium phosphate (apatite), with strontium substituting isomorphously.

The attached paper is a translation of a rough draft of the paper, "Operating Experience of the APS-1", presented by M. Minashin in Russian at the IAEA Conference on Small and Medium Power Reactors, Vienna, Austria, September 5-9, 1960.