The recent production by Thompson, Ghiorso, and Seaborg of a radioactive isotope of berkelium (atomic number 97) makes it possible to investigate the chemical properties of this transuranium element by means of the tracer technique. This isotope has been prepared through the bombardment of Am{sup 241} with about 35 Mev helium ions in the 60-inch cyclotron of the Crocker Laboratory and is believed to have the mass number 243, or possibly 244. This Bk{sup 243} has a half-life of 4.6 hours and decays by electron capture with about 0.1% branching decay by alpha-particle emission. In the present tracer chemical experiments, the radiations accompanying the electron capture process were used as a means of detection and were counted in two ways. Where the sample deposits on the platinum plates were essentially weightless, as was the case following the evaporation and ignition of the elutriant solutions in the column adsorption experiments, a high efficiency was obtained by using a windowloess proportional counter to count the Auger electrons. The thicker samples from the precipitation experiments in which carrier materials were used were counted close to the thin window (3 mg/cm{sup 2} mica) of a bell type Geiger counter filled with 10 cm. xenon …

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The purpose of this document is to present the bases and calculations which resulted in the conclusion given in the letter of October 17. Also, the original calculations were made on the basis that the webbing face thickness is equal to 1/2 inch, which is no longer the case. The new thickness is 3/4 inch. This alters the condition of heat generation. Consideration is given to the heat generation in the legs.

In the light of Redox Plant performance since the start-up on 2-3-55, coupled with a review of the technological factors involved in the current flowsheet, a departure from the process program outlined in HW-34882 is herewith presented as an addendum to that document which will also serve to detail the corresponding items in the latest Redox Test Program, HW-35069. The purposes of this document are to: (1) Discuss the need for modifications of the program given in HW-34882, and (2) Present the details of the proposed revisions.

The pilot charging of I & E fuel elements has been implemented at C-Reactor under Production Test IP-19-A. It was necessary to provide adequate tube protection against flow interruption by establishing proper trip setting on the Panellit pressure gauges. the administration of these Panellit trip settings is done by trip-before- boiling tube outlet temperature limits, which are similar in principle to the current instability limits. Trip-before-boiling limits for C-Reactor I & E fuel elements loadings are presented in this document.

The purpose of this memorandum is to present and analyze, in terms of the current status of knowledge of radiation damage to graphite, the data available at the present time on the expansion status of the graphite in the piles, and suggest, in terms of this analysis, several possibly feasible curative and preventive measures. The portion of the data to be covered in this memorandum consists of that obtained during the last four years from pile motion measurements and from tube bowing measurements, and particularly that from graphite mining operations during the last six months. The objective to be attained is twofold: (1) the information developed here should permit a better understanding of the need for and development of future corrective measures to be applied to the present piles, and (2) this summary will serve as a basis for further experimental work necessary to place the conclusions on a more firm foundation. This memorandum is being issued at this time, although present ideas and conclusions are in a somewhat uncertain state, in the hope that the currently most feasible preventive measure might be applied to the DR Pile before startup.

The lack of control rod capacity in the reactors with nine rods is causing significant production losses. The present control system, which functioned satisfactorily at a 300 MW equilibrium power level, is unable to counteract the larger startup reactivity transient effects at the current high power levels. This lack of strength causes the power level to be restricted during startup. The control system is also not flexible enough to prevent outages for the discharge of temporary poison. (1) A method of obtaining the required supplementary control strength and flexibility has been conceived. (2) and equipment developed for this purpose. The purpose of this test. (3) was to demonstrate the operational feasibility of the special front and rear face equipment which was designed to permit the routine charging and discharging of poison slugs at selected process tubes during periods of reactor operation. This report presents the data, results and conclusions obtained from the trial use of this equipment.

The latest HAPO Five Year Program review, HW-59633, forecasts substantial increases in Pu production from the eight existing Hanford reactors over the next several years. These production increases would be attained by a combination of several methods which include increased reactor power levels resulting from higher process water flow rates and coolant bulk outlet temperatures, improved time operated efficiency, higher conversion ratios, and reduced transient reactivity losses. In order to provide a realistic basis for budgeting to meet these or other increased production goals, it is necessary that a study program be undertaken to determine in general terms the plant changes required to support these forecasted levels, to evaluate the economic and technical feasibility of achieving the process conditions, and to present an integrated program for achieving these objectives. This study program will necessarily consider the interrelated effects of a number of various facets of reactor and water plant process conditions, operational requirements, and proposed development programs. The purpose of this document is to present a plan for the execution of the proposed study. Included in this outline are a review of the basic study considerations, problem assignments and schedules, and manpower and cost estimates for the performance of the …

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This is a progress report of the production reactors on the Hanford Reservation for the month of August 1951. This report takes each division (e.g., manufacturing, medical, accounting, occupational safety, security, reactor operations, etc.) of the site and summarizes its accomplishments and employee relations for that month.

Four Zircaloy-2 jacketed enriched seven-rod cluster elements, one three-foot three-rod Zircaloy-2 jacketed enriched cluster element with integral end closures, and two eighteen-inch Zircaloy-2 jacketed wire wrapped cluster elements containing UO{sub 2} will be irradiated at jacket surface temperatures up to 270 C in the KER loops to an exposure of 3500 MWD/T on the enriched seven-rod cluster elements.

This is a progress report of the production reactors on the Hanford Reservation for the month of July 1951. This report takes each division (e.g., manufacturing, medical, accounting, occupational safety, security, reactor operations, etc.) of the site and summarizes its accomplishments and employee relations for that month.

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This document provides a bibliography of reports concerning Hanford type fuel rod central temperatures. The documents are listed chronologically, the most recent first.

This document presents a summary of work and progress at the Hanford Engineer Works for October 1954. The report is divided into sections by department. A plant wide general summary is included at the beginning of the report, after which the departmental summaries begin. The Manufacturing Department reports plant statistics, and summaries for the Metal Preparation, Reactor and Separation sections. The Engineering Department`s section summarizes work for the Technical, Design, and Project Sections. Costs for the various departments are presented in the Financial Department`s summary. The Medical, Radiological Sciences, Utilities and General Services, Employee and Public Relations, and Community Real Estate and Services departments have sections presenting their monthly statistics, work, progress, and summaries.

This report provides a summary of the Hot Semiworks Unit Run PX-13. During Run PX-12 acceptable HA Column decontamination was demonstrated; however, generally under unstable column operating conditions. The principal objectives of PX-13 were: To duplicate the high PX-12 decontamination factors under stable HA Column operating conditions; to study the effects of fresh solvent, IO Column CP carbonate washed solvent, and IO Column Technical grade carbonate washed solvent on A Column decontamination factors; to study the effect of increasing the HA, HC, and IA uranium processing rates to 14 tons per day (plant equivalent); to study the effect of an intermediate 2A Column scrub on UX{sub 1} decontamination; and to study the effect of sulfamic acid addition to the HAF, HAS, IAF, and IAS and NaNO{sub 2} omission from the HAF and IAF.

On occasion a rear pigtail of a reactor fails and is blown free from its connectors. The coolant water then discharges into the rear face area. This in itself is not a particularly hazardous condition and need not necessarily require a reactor shutdown. It would be desirable, then, to continue operating the reactor in this condition until a shutdown is convenient. A question which does arise, however, is whether the Panellit protection procedures are adequate to guard against the hazards of an accidental flow reduction to a tube operating in this manner. The result of a loss of a rear pigtail is an increase in coolant flow rate and, consequently, a reduced Panellit pressure. Furthermore, with the rear pigtail missing, the coolant flow no longer discharges through the Parker fitting on the rear header. Critical flow through this Parker fitting strongly influences the course of events following an accidental flow reduction to a normal ``O`` geometry tube. While it was strongly believed that the concepts developed and the Panellit procedures devised for a normal ``O`` geometry tube would apply to the case of a tube with a missing rear pigtail, evidence could only be obtained by transient experimentation. This document …

The Palmolive program is directed toward the recovery of neptunium-237 and production of plutonium-238. The neptunium is recovered during the chemical processing of irradiated uranium and is purified and fabricated into target elements. The target elements are irradiated to produce plutonium-238 by neutron capture of neptunium-237 and are processed to provide plutonium for shipment to the final customer and neptunium for recycle within the system. The following report summarizes a preliminary engineering study of the technical and economic factors involved in installing long-term Palmolive manufacturing facilities at Hanford to meet the reduced production goals. Prime emphasis is placed on the process technology and plant design requirements for fabricating and reprocessing neptunium target elements on a production basis. The relationships of these phases of the target cycle to the recovery and purification of virgin neptunium in the Purex Plant and irradiation of target elements in the Hanford reactors are reviewed in the light of the reduced plutonium-238 demands.

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This document presents a summary of work and progress at the Hanford Engineer Works for August 1952. The report is divided into sections by department. A plant wide general summary is included at the beginning of the report, after which the departmental summaries begin. The Manufacturing Department reports plant statistics, and summaries for the Metal Preparation, Reactor and Separation sections. The Engineering Department` section summaries work for the Technical, Design, and Project Sections. Costs for the various departments are presented in the Financial Department`s summary. The Medical,Radiological Sciences, Utilities and General Services, Employee and Public Relations, and Community Real Estate and Services departments have sections presenting their monthly statistics, work, progress, and summaries.

This document contains the September 1956 management and operations statistics of the Hanford Atomic Products Operation (HAPO) for their ``Relations and Utilities Operations.`` This is a monthly report. (BN)

This document discusses the standards and testing relating to the allowable water shutoff times for reactor tubes and crossheaders are based on theoretical calculations. The resulting limits are believed to be quite conservative and to restrict operations unduly in many instances. They are restrictive because of the conductivity and resistance data on which they are based. It is the purpose of the test to obtain the experimental data necessary to determine new water shut-off curves for the reactors. When reliable information is obtained for elevated temperature lattice conductance then theoretical calculations applying to those values will be far more accurate. The information will be related to water shut-off times, reactor safety considerations such as rod strength and drop time versus uranium fuel melting, etc. It can be roughly estimated that this information will reduce the time delay before tube and/or cross-header water shut-off by as much as 25%. This will save approximately one to two days production per year or about $60,000.

Irradiation of solid and I & E fuel elements in B Reactor ribless process tube facility showed reduced hot spot incidence in the self-supported fuel elements. Since it appears expedient to evaluate the concepts of the larger fuel core size and/or greater coolant flow, on a pilot scale, this report presents the design of a pilot test. Up to 100 ribless zirconium process tubes are to be installed in C Reactor, and reactor equipment modifications will be made to permit routine charging of these tubes with self-supported natural U fuel elements.

Current Panellit protection procedures, termed instability limits, come from calculations based on steady state experiments. However, the actual conditions in a process tube following a plugging occurrence sufficient to cause unstable flow are transient rather than steady state, and cannot be determined with great precision except by transient state experimentation. As a result, a program was initiated by the thermal Hydraulics Operation of HLO to perform a series of transient heat transfer experiments which would define the process tube response to (1) rapid plugging in the process tube assembly, (2) slow plugging in the process tube assembly, and (3) power excursions above normal of varying amounts. Transient heat transfer experimentation on a large scale is not common and many difficulties have been encountered. After preliminary runs were made and reported, a further series of runs were planned and run which would include K as well as BDF type data and would define more closely the upper limit of the panellit protection. During the test runs, data from these transient experiments are recorded on high speed recording instruments, each of which has a calibration which is subject to change regardless of the efforts expended by the experimenters. This means that checking …