Technical report covering experiments happening on the Analytical Chemistry Division's sites at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Includes information on ionic analyses, radio-chemical analyses, spectrochemical analyses, service analyses, inorganic preparations, analytical chemical control of homogeneous reactor solution, optical and electron microscopy, and service analyses for the period ending September 10, 1951. Studies and happenings took place on the Analytical Chemistry Division's X-10 and Y-12 sites. [From Table of Contents, Abstract]

The hydrogen evolution method for the determination of uranium trifluoride which was developed by Manning, Miller and Rowan has been used for the determination of trivalent uranium in this laboratory for the past three years. The method has been applied to many different sample types supposedly pure UF3, mixtures of UF3 and UF4 and the large variety of mixtures of fluoride salts that have been investigated as possible nuclear fuels. These mixtures contained alkali metal, beryllium and zirconium fluorides. Several modifications have been made that have substantially improved the performance and ease of operation of the method. These improvements include the use of (1) an inexpensive, long-lasting source of pure carbon dioxide, (2) vacuum to assist in purging the system of gases that are insoluble in potassium hydroxide solution, (3) deaerated acid that has an extremely low quantity of non-absorbable gases, (4) slower flow rates of purging gas, (5) a sampling technique to minimize contamination, and (6) more dilute absorber solution to reduce film error. It is the purpose of this report to show the effect of these modifications and the applicability of the method various sample types that contain uranium trifluoride.

All tissues included in this report were received from Dallas, Texas and were collected, ashed and analyzed according to the methods described in ORNL-CF-57-2-2. The average value of the concentration for each element in a tissue is the average of the concentrations in only those samples of the tissue which contained the element. For example, if, of 25 lives analyzed, only 10 contained lead, the average for lead in liver is the average of those 10 values. For those tissues in which an element does not appear in every sample, the lowest value is reported as less than the limit of sensitivity of the method for that element in that tissue. For the elements, lithium and rubidium, the ash was a composited ash sample for each particular tissue. As an example, in lieu of analyzing 20 individual aortas, only on composited aorta as was analyzed.

Analytical expressions were obtained for the time behavior of fuel concentrations and fuel-feed rates in single-region, spherical, UO3-ThO2-D2O reactors.