A summary ls presented of the off-slte radiological safety actlvities of the U. S. Public Health Service during the Project Gnome operation. Topics dlscussed include: operational procedures; collection of data by aerial monltoring, mobile monitoring, potash mlne surveys, air sampling, milk sampllng, water sampling, soil and vegetation sampllng, and a film badge program; laboratory control, emergency measures; medlcal services; and veterinary activltles. It was concluded that no persons ln the vlclnlty of the Gnome test site recelved harmful amounts of radlation either lnternally or externally. (M.C.G.)

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New Hot Laboratory Facilities which support three major research programs directed by the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory of the University of California are described. For the Nuclear Rocket Propulsion Program, a hot cell addition to the Radio Chemistry Building at Los Alamos will be completed early in 1963, and construction is expected to start soon on the hot cell addition to the Maintenance, Assembly and Disassembly Building at the Nuclear Rocket Development Station in Nevada. Integral hot laboratories are designed in the facilities for the Ultra High Temperature Reactor Experiment and the Fast Reactor Core Test at Los Alamos. (auth)

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From American Chemical Society 145th National Meeting, New York, Sept. 1963. The pyrolysis of diborane was examined using a chemical shock tube as a reactor. Additional evidence for the existence of hexaborane-12 and heptaborane- 11 and -13 was obtained. The presence of a large net normal isotope effect in the formation of tetraborane and hexaborane and a net inverse isotope effect in the formation of pentaborane-9 are observed. A mechanism, consisting of a series of competitive reactions and eqailibria, in which tetraboraue is the precursor of pentaborane-11 and hexaborane but not of pentaborane-9 is shown to be compatible with the observed isotope effect. Data obtained by examining the pyrolysis of various mixtures of boron hydrides are also consistent with the mechanism. (auth)

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The probability of accidents to tractor semitrailers is developed through analysis of accident frequency data in relation to season; geographical factors; road type, traffic and populatlon density; and type of carrier business. Maximum likelihood rates are developed for the potential carriers of radioactivity. Impact characteristics of accidents are studied through the analysis of mass, speed, and energy relations and the effect of these on vehicle and cargo damages is explored. (auth)

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Explanation of research methods and data collected during a salmon survey at the Project Chariot site near Seattle, Washington.

Nineteen papers presented at the Conference on the Transport of Radionuclides in Fresh Water Systems are given. Separate abstracts were prepared for 18 papers; one was previously abstracted for NSA. (M.C.G.)

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The smallmouth buffalo fish, Ictiobus bubalus (Rafinesque), population of Watts Bar Reservoir, of the Tennessee River down stream from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was investigated in order to describe its age distribution, growth rates, dispersion, and importance as an accumulator of radionuclides. Measurements and scale samples were taken from commercially-caught fish and fish caught in the ORNL tagging operations. Scale impressions were anaiyzed for age and growth phenomena. Dispersion of smallmouth buffalo was investigated by conventional of ging methods and by autoradiographic analyses of scales. Stable and radiochemicsl composition of scales was examined by spectrographic analysis, flame spectrophotometer and radiometric surveys. Calcium was the most abundance element in fish scales with at lease twenty-three other elements present in varying quantities. Fish scaless and bone were found to contain radionuclides of ruthenium, cesium, zirconium, zinc, and cobalt. Radiometric surveys of scales revealed the Watts Bar Reservoir smallmouth buffalo population was a relatively minor accumulator of radionuclides with only 0.08 per cent showing the presence of artificially produced radionuclides. Approximately 6 per cent of the Clinch River fish and 77 per cent of the White Oak Creek fish had accumulations. Limited data on dispersion were determined from conventional tags. Much more dispersion …