The study of meteorite Murray has been reported in previous Quarterly Reports. This report gives further results with Murray, and information on another meteorite, Orgueil. A sample of Orgueil was sent from the Museum National d Histoire Naturelle, Paris. It fell in several pieces over an area of 2 square miles near Orgueil, France, in 1864. The elemental analysis of this meteorite is shown in Table 1. They extracted a 10.07-g sample of this meteorite with water, using the same procedure as that for Murray. The water extracted 1.32 g, which is at least twice as much material as was water-extracted from Murray. The elemental analysis of the water extract is given in Table II and its uv spectrum is shown in Figure 1. From an x-ray diffraction pattern it was determined that the water extract contained mostly MgSO{sub 4} {center_dot} 6H{sub 2}O with some calcium sulfate. Their spectrum (Figure 2) shows a strong SO{sub 4} band at 1100 cm{sup -1}, = strong H{sub 2}O bands at 1650 cm{sup -1} and 3200-3600 cm{sup -1}, and some unidentified peaks at 2300, 1400, and 980 cm{sup -1}. The approximately 8 g of Orgueil left after the water extraction was then extracted with …

Activities in a program to obtain UC pellets of maximum density for irradiation testing are described. A study was made of the effects of the UC powder thermal history, sintering time, sintering temperature, and additives on the UC sinterability. Preliminary results indicate that the UC powder synthesized under the most severe conditions of temperature and time (1740 deg C, 107 min) was less sinterable than powders prepared at lower temperatures, or at the same temperature for shorter time. It was also concluded that although both temperature and time of sintering pellets affect density, temperature is more important. Additions of Fe (0.1 to 1.0%) improve sinterability and promote grain growth. The final density obtained on sintering in a vacuum was about the same as that resulting from sintering in He at atmospheric pressure. (J.R.D.)