Task A: Modification and Preparation of Experimental Facility. With the exception of the insulation of modified components, the experimental facility is complete. Insulation will be completed by the end of September. the system has been charged with Refrigerant-22 and preliminary loop performance tests have been completed without the test sections.. Task B: Design and Construction of Test Sections. The stainless steel test section has been prepared complete with end flanges and pressure tap locations. Wall thickness tolerances have been ultrasonically checked. Test section inlet and discharge assemblies are being completed and the whole assembly will be ready for installation by the end of September. Glass sections from the same drawn length which will make up the final test sections have been received for pressure tests. The final coated sections and the associated inlet and discharge fittings will be ready for assembly by the end of September. The above sections were ordered after complete preliminary tests defined the properties required of these test sections. Task C: Design and Construction of Test Stand: The mechanical design and drafting of the structural components and drive system is complete. The electrical control system for the platform orientation has been constructed and two modes of …

Summary: Two UO2-filled stainless steel clad fuel rods in which fission gas pressure was measured during irradiation have been subjected to post irradiation examination. Results of free gas analysis and metallographic examination are in general agreement with observed pressures reported previously. Calculated fuel surface temperatures based on extent of fuel recrystallization indicate that in a one-half inch diameter fuel rod with 0.014 inch diametral clearance operated at a maximum heat flux of 531,000 Btu/hr-ft, gap conductance increased with increasing heat flux. An analysis of void configuration indicates that pressure is more sensitive to as-fabricated void volume and changes in this volume resulting from fuel expansion than to fuel central temperature. The decreases in effective void volume with increasing fuel temperatures becomes more significant as initial void volume decreases, and excessive fission gas pressures may be developed in fuel rods operated at high fuel temperatures unless adequate expansion volume is provided in fabrication.

Summary: The High Power Density Project includes a comprehensive fuel development program which has the objective of developing and demonstrating the performance of a nuclear reactor core having a high power density, long fuel life, and low fabrication cost. The fuel program is made up of two principal tasks. Task 1A consists of irradiation tests in the VBWR of Type 304 stainless steel clad, UO2 pellet type fuel rods fabricated by current commercial processes. Task 1B consists of the investigation of lower cost fabrication processes and the irradiation testing of fuel elements fabricated by these processes. Both tasks include the investigation of the feasibility and use of thin-wall stainless steel cladding as a means of improving the neutron economy and fuel cycle costs of stainless steel clad fuel. Irradiation of the Task 1A fuel assemblies in the VBWR was initiated in September, 1960. Subsequently, Task 1B fuel assemblies were inserted in the VBWR as various fabrication processes and design concepts were investigated. Fuel cladding failures have occurred in fuel rods in both Task 1A and 1B. As of this date, cladding failures have occurred in twenty-two rods of approximately 700 fuel rods which have been irradiated. Twenty of the failures …

Quarterly progress report on Accurate Nuclear Fuel Burnup Analysis project.

Quarterly report describing progress on the EVESR Nuclear Superheat Fuel Development Project.

Technical report describing the four-rod heat flux experiments that are a part of a continuing program of study of the critical heat flux, or burnout phenomenon in order that water cooled reactors can be designed with a maximum of safety and efficiency. During heat transfer with boiling, there is a particular heat flux, for a given set of flow conditions and geometry, above which the nucleate boiling process begins to break down. This breakdown of the nucleate boiling process is known as burnout, critical heat flux, departure from nucleate boiling (DNB), and boiling crisis. The present method at General Electric of avoiding the critical heat flux conditions in the reactor is to limit the heat flux, for a given set of flow conditions, to a fraction of the critical heat flux at the same conditions in the single-rod test section of Janssen and Kervinen. Because the critical heat flux of a heater rod facing an unheated wall is lower than that of a heater rod facing another heater rod, the critical heat flux conditions of the single-rod test section, will be a conservative estimate of the critical heat flux conditions in a multirod reactor. The main purpose of these experiments …

Technical report describing that the pressure drops along 3/4-inch, 1-inch, and 1-1/4 inch straight pipes and across three contraction-expansion inserts in a 1-inch pipe have been measured under both single- and two-phase flow conditions. Pressure was varied from 600 to 1400 psia, flow from 0.25 x 10(6) to 1.66 x 10(6) lb/hr ft, and quality from zero to 90 percent. The single-phase pipe friction factor agrees with the Moody value for smooth pipe. The two-phase friction for horizontal flow shows no size effect in the range of pipe sizes from 3/4 inch to 1-1/4 inch. The values lie below the Martinelli curve at the lower qualities (x<0.6), but at high qualities tend to be above the Martinelli curve. The single-phase loss coefficient for the three contraction-expansion inserts show very little Reynolds number effect in the range of channel Reynolds numbers from 3 x 10(4) to 5 x 10(5). The two-phase data for insert number 1 has not yet been reduced. The two-phase loss for insert numbers 2 and 3 lies generally below the loss prediction based on a homogeneous flow model. The two-phase loss for insert number 2 shows excellent agreement with the corresponding loss for the S-1 insert in …

This is the second quarterly report on the work done under Contract AT(04-3)-189, Project Agreement No. 27. The results reported here have to do primarily with the loss in a rectangular (1/2" x 1-3/4") channel in the horizontal orientation, without contraction-expansion inserts.

Tests in a one-fifth scale clear plastic model were conducted to investigate the flow characteristics of the asymmetrical riser configuration in the Consumers Big Rock power plant.

From introduction: "this is the fifth of a series of quarterly reports which will cover the progress and results from the conceptual design, economic evaluations and research and development work performed by the General Electric Company as part of the Nuclear Superheat Project."

From introduction: "This is the seventh of a series of quarterly reports which will cover the progress and results from the conceptual design, economic evaluations and research and development work performed by the General Electric Company as part of the Nuclear Superheat Project."

From introduction: "This report sets forth the results of a technical and economic analysis of automatic propulsion system control as a possible design improvement in the direct cycle boiling water reactor propulsion system in a T7 tanker."

From introduction: "This is the second of a series of quarterly reports which will cover the progress and results from the conceptual design, economic evaluations and research and development work performed by the General Electric Company as part of the Nuclear Superheat Project."