This report details 200 Area activities for the month of May 1966.

EWR-ESE-144, Fifty MC-890 type final assemblies were subjected to irradiation at low temperature test in order to determine if irradiation would reduce the frequency of high voltage breakdowns. A control lot of a like number of units was subjected to low temperature test in the same manner except without irradiation.

From Introduction: "One part of this study, which is presented in this Monograph, consists of an analysis of electric energy usage and electric power demand data obtained from a sample group of occupied houses at Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas, equipped with heat pumps, water heaters, cooking ranges, clothes dryers, and miscellaneous appliances all operated by electricity."

The first step in a proposed processing method for recovery of uranium from graphite-uranium fuels consists of oxidation of the fuel by oxygen to volatilize the carbon. Residue ash from the combustion step can be treated in a variety of ways to recover and purify the uranium. The combustion step may be caried out by contacting the solid fuel in a fixed or moving bed with a stream of oxygen-bearing gas in a tubular or annular reactor. Oxidizing gas may be introduced to the reactor at several points up the reactor and there may be continuous or intermittent addition of fresh fuel and removal of residue ash.

Resulte of a laboratory investigation undertaken to adapt the Pu anion exchange process to the direct recovery of the Pu lost to the Task I oxalate filtrate are reported. It was found that the Button Line Task I Filtrate can be recovered by HNO/sub 3/ anion exchange process, thus isolating the Button Line from any solvent extraction process. (J.R.D.)

Oscillations have been observed in a magnetically supported cylindrical rod of plasma. This rod of plasma can be the discharge occurring in the defining aperture of a Mode II, pressure gradient arc. Similar oscillations can also occur in the column of a Mode I arc. These oscillations appear to be the mechanism that drives the Mode II blowup phenomena.

Report documenting the progress of the Army Gas-Cooled Reactor Systems Program to develop a mobile nuclear power plant for military field operation.

Boron-10 has a high thermal neutron capture cross section (3880 barns). Following neutron capture, the subsequent nuclear disintegration produces an alpha particle and a lithium-7 nucleus with the release of an average of 2.34 MeV for the particle irradiation, and in 93% of the reactions there is also the emission of an 0.48 MeV gamma ray: [equation not transcribed]. The kinetic energy is divided between the lithium-7 nucleus and the alpha particle giving the equal and opposite momentums with a range in tissue of about 8-14μ or approximately 1 cell diameter (1). This fact and the reported favorable partition of boron between tumor and the normal brain suggested a possible therapeutic usefulness which has been investigated clinically. The object of our study is to document the biological effects of the B10 (n,α) Li7 reaction on the brain of dogs injected with boron-10 30 minutes prior to irradiation with thermal neutrons. For this, we felt it desirable to estimate a dose for the boron-10 reaction which if exceeded, produces destruction of normal tissue. This dose could then be a reference dose to be utilized as a maximal limit for the irradiation of normal tissue. We have assured that the largest fluence …

Technical report. From Abstract : "Accurate measurements on boiling points and surface tensions of mixtures of benzyl acetate with dioxan, aniline and meta-cresol over the entire range of concentration are reported. The results have been analysed in terms of quasi-crystalline model which is partially successful in representing the composition dependence of heats of mixing, boiling points and surface tension except for composition dependence of boiling points of benzyl acetate and meta-cresol."

The absorption in lead of Bremsstrahlung X radiation from a Sr^90 TiO3 pellet in the proximity of Hastelloy "C" was measured. The tenth value layer of the more energetic components of the X-ray continuum was determined to be 1.60 inches.

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This describes about Cold Compacting of Uo$Sub 2$ + Zrh$Sub 2$ Fuel Pellets for Critical Experiments.

This document reflects our comments on the drawings and design information that we have received. It is therefore contingent upon the drawings and specifications which we have not as yet received from Vitro Engineering Company.

Comparisons between experimental data obtained from single-phase gaseous hydrogen cool-down with those computed from a computer program have shown excellent agreements.

Verify that the multigroup code P1MG and its associated library yield, for a flat flux problem, the same few group constants as the MUFT fast constant code.

ABS>The Gauss-Jordan, Choleski, congruent transformation, and rank annihilation methods for inverting large symmetric positive definite matrices were compared. An attempt was made to consider the effects of both condition and order of the matrix to be inverted on the closeness of the computed inverse to the exact inverse. Each method was programmed in FORTRAN using only single precision arithmetic. Then the error indicators were computed using double precision arithmetic so that the latter calculation was not a limiting factor. It was found that any one of the methods is satisfactory for a well-conditioned least squares matrix of order 10-30. However, when the matrix becomes ill- conditioned then the Gauss-Jordan method appears to be clearly superior (at least for the matrices studied). Algorithms and FORTRAN subroutines for each method are presented. (auth)

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This monthly document provide source and special nuclear material composition of ending inventory reports for the month of April 1966.

This test was conducted to determine the adequancy of the Core Band to withstand the forces imposed upon it during Reactor Operation.

The combination of operating temperatures around 550 deg C with LiF present in the salt baths produces about the same bulk metal losses on Ni and Ni- base alloys as was found by operating at 650 deg C without Li in the salt baths. The presence of U accelerates corrosion of Ni and Ni-base alloys during the Volatility Process fluorination cycle. Prior F conditioning of L Ni decreases corrosion of the material during subsequent fluorination. Prior F conditioning of INCO-61 weld metal increases the attack on INCO 61 during subsequent fluorination. Bulk metal losses on L Ni and the Ni-binary alloys containing Al, Co, Fe, or Mn are about the same during fluorination at 550 deg C with Li present in the fluoride salt baths. The presence of the alloying elements, Al, Fe, or Mn, in Ni drastically reduces or lelements intergranular attack usually found in unalloyed Ni exposed to a fluorination environment. In fluorination environments, the effect of adding Co to Ni on subsequent corrosion by intergranular attack of the binary is unclear. These reported tests showed that serious intergranular attack of a 95% Ni --5% Co specimen occurred. On the other hand, this test series and previous series …

A criticality excursion occurred at the Oak Ridge Critical Experiments Laboratory on November l0, l961 as enriched uranium metal, neutron reflected and moderated by hydrogen, was being assembled. It is estimated that the energy yield was between 10/sup 15/ and 10/sup 16/ fissions. There was no personnel exposure or property damage. Fission product contamination, both airborne and contained in the metal, decayed sufficiently overnight to allow unhindered continuation of the experiment. The excursion was caused by a too rapid approach of the two sections of uranium constituting the experiment. (auth)

Technical report. From Abstract : "The crystal structure of bis(meta-chlorobenzoyl) methane has been determined by three dimensional anisotropic least squares refinement of scintillation counter data. The molecule was found to be nearly planar with a maximum deviation from the least squares molecular plane of 0.068Å and an average deviation of 0.023Å. Fourier transform techniques to locate phenyl rings provided the key to the structure determination. The intramolecular bond distances and thermal parameters of the oxygen atoms support a resonant, enol ring with a symmetric, intramolecular hydrogen bond. The structure confirms conslusions from the structure of bis(meta-bromobenzoyl) methane where the symmetry of the molecule was forced by the crystal symmetry."

Methods for the noncorrosive removal of volatile fission products and UO2 dust from carbon steel and stainless steel have been developed. Procedures for applying these methods to the decontamination of the EGCR charge and service machines are described.

Considerable work has been done on decontamination procedures for both corrosion products and fission products. Testing of promising procedures under typical rupture conditions is an important phase of this work. The Irradiated Rupture Prototype (IRP) has been used since August in this evaluation work. This document is one of a series reporting these data.