This document details the monthly activities of the Reactor Branch for the period of January 1960 through December 1960.

None

B-Plant is currently being evaluated for use as an integrated fission product plant operating in conjunction with the Purex Plant and a waste calcination system. If the forecasted demands for fission products should increase to rates exceeding present capabilities and if private enterprise continues to remain outside the recovery field, present budget plans are to develop the use of B-Plant in three phases. In Phase 1, the B-Plant canyon would be activated and provisions made for preparing and storing fission product concentrates. In Phase 2, additional equipment would be installed to provide a single-line demonstration system for purifying and packaging fission products. In Phase 3, the plant would be converted to a double-line production system for recovering, segregating and storing, purifying and packaging fission products. The purpose of this document is to present the technical bases for B-Plant project scoping studies, including: Design flowsheets for the preparation and storage of fission product concentrates in the scope design of Phase 1 activities; and conceptual flowsheets for the purification of stored concentrates in the engineering studies of Phase 2 activities.

Selected physical and biological data bearing upon the environmental variations created by nuclear explosions are presented in simplified form. Emphasis is placed upon the ``early`` consequences of exposure to blast, thermal radiation, and ionizing radiation to elucidate the comparative ranges of the major effects as they vary with explosive yield and as they contribute to the total hazard to man. A section containing brief definitions of the terminology employed is followed by a section that utilizes text and tabular material to set forth events that follow nuclear explosions and the varied responses of exposed physical and biological materials. Finally, selected quantitative weapons-effects data in graphic and tabular form are presented over a wide range of explosive yields to show the relative distances from Ground Zero affected by significant levels of blast overpressures, thermal fluxes, and initial and residual penetrating ionizing radiations. However, only the ``early`` rather than the ``late`` effects of the latter are considered.

An investigation was conducted to determine the load at which each of the governor valves open when the primary average temperature is at 500 deg F. Data compilations for the test are presented along with comparisons with past performances. (J.R.D.)

Results are presented of an investigation to determine the maximum permissible partial pressure of carbon dioxide that could be tolerated in the Maritime Gas Cooled Reactor system without oxidizing and embrittling niobium and its alloys, and to screen the heat-resistant nickel- and iron-base alloys for resistance to oxidation and carburization by hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide. The effect of hydrogen additions on carburization of heatresisting alloys and on the decomposition of carbon monoxide was also studied along with the cataltic effects of heat-resisting alloys on disproportionation of carbon monoxide. (J.R.D.)