This document details activities of the Hanford Laboratories Operation during the month of March 1959. (FI)

An analysis was made of the fission-gas-release incident during the pressure pumpdown of the AE-6 Reactor resulting in the contamination of the reactor room and members of the operating staff. Descriptions are given of the normal core pumping procedures, procedural alterations during the incident, the discovery of the contamination and its possible causes, and the remedial actions taken. Steps taken to minimize the chance of the occurrence of the contamination in the future are listed. (B.O.G.)

A brief survey of decarboxylation reactions and carboxylation reactions that are known or presumed in biological systems will be presented. While a considerable number of amino acid decarboxylations are known, their mechanisms will not be included in the present discussion but will be reserved for a later paper in the symposium. The remaining decarboxylation reactions may be subdivided into oxidative and nonoxidative decarboxylations. In most cases, these reactions are practically irreversible except when coupled with suitable energy-yielding systems. The carboxylation reactions which are useful in the formation of carbon-carbon bonds in biological systems seem to fall into two or three groups: those which exhibit an apparent ATP requirement, and those which exhibit a reduced pyridine nucleotide requirement, and those which exhibit no apparent ATP requirement. Of the first group at least four cases, and possibly six or seven, are known, and one interpretation of them involves the preliminary formation of 'active' carbon dioxide, generally in the form of a carbonic acid-phosphoric acid anhydride. Those exhibiting no apparent ATP requirement seem to be susceptible to classifications as enol carboxylations in which the energy level of the substrate compound is high, rather than that of the carbon dioxide. There appear to be …

This report is the final in a series of preliminary reports that follow the studies of scavenging systems related to radioactive fallout. The project consisted of two phases: preliminary experiments to relate the sizes of particles in air to specific radioisotopes, and preliminary laboratory studies of scavenging of particles by liquid drops, including studies of sticking probability and effects of Brownian motion and water vapor diffusion.

Abstract: "The niobium-oxygen equilibrium has been determined by metallographic examination of arc-cast alloys made of electron-gun-refined niobium metal and special purity niobium pentoxide. Two intermediate oxides, NbO and NbO2, melt without decomposition at 1945 C and 1915 C, respectively. Eutectic reactions exist between niobium and NbO and 1915 C and between NbO and NbO2 at 1810 C. Experimental supports a peritectic reaction between NbO2 and Nb2O5 1510 C. The maximum solid solubility of oxygen in niobium metal is 0.72 weight per cent."

This is the final report on the progress, "A Wide-Range Neutron Detector and Monitoring Instrument," ARF 1118-6. This report covers activities from May 8, 1958 to May 8, 1959. This report describes the basic design principles of a proportional counter that has been constructed whose cathode diameter increases towards one end.

From introduction: Salt occurs at depths less than 500 feet in six salt domes in Texas and Louisiana. Underground mining operations are being carried out in each of these domes. The following notes have been prepared in an effort to furnish data regarding chemical composition and structure of the rock salt in the shallow deposits.

Power rate of rise measuring instrumentation is being procured for all of the Hanford piles, and a prototype installation is now in service at D reactor. This instrumentation is expected to provide valuable assistance to the pile operator during the start-up rise to operating power; in order to best utilize the instrument, procedures and limits must be determined on the basis of the relationship between the flux rate of change and the instrument response. As with any measuring instrument, there is an inherent delay in the power rate meter circuitry; in addition there are greater delays associated with the beat capacity of the metal and water and the transit time of the cooling water. Furthermore, reactivity changes from rod withdrawal and metal coefficient draping are not instantaneous, and the flux is not a simple function of the reactivity changes. Because of the time lags involved the rate meter response cannot be identical to the actual flux rate of change; however, an exact solution for this response in terms of all of the variables would be inordinately complex. The purpose of this study is to show approximately the changes in power level or rate which might occur in practice relative to …

This test will determine approximately the relationship between the power rate of rise indicated by the power rate meter and the actual pile power, rising period, and power rate. The actual pile power and power rate cannot be measured accurately during rapidly changing conditions; it is the intent of this test primarily to demonstrate that rate of rise protection offered by the power rate meter an be calculated to the same order of accuracy as the measurements of actual conditions.

This document details activities of the Fuels Preparation Department during the month of March 1959. (FI)

"This is a selected bibliography of books, journal articles and reports published on creep and relaxation in metals and ceramics from 1950 to March 1959. Particular attention has been paid to studies on or applicable to the consideration of creep and relaxation in beryllium oxide. Emphasis has alro been placed on studies of phenomenological materials behavior and high temperature studies."

This Hanford-General Electric Report to the Working Committee details activities in fuel element fabrication, canning, and testing during this reporting period.

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This test is designed to accomplish two primary objectives: (1) to attempt to verify ex-reactor corrosion data which indicated improved corrosion resistance of cast blank X-8001 alloy material compared with wrought blank, and (2) to attempt to verify the resistance to groove pitting type of corrosion attack previously observed on M-388 components. Ex-reactor tests of cast blank M-388 alloy in autoclaves using water as the corrosive media up to 360 C, and in flow loops up to 120 C have indicated that the corrosion resistance of the cast blank material is equivalent to, and probably superior to the corrosion resistance of wrought blank material. Metallographic examination of this material indicated a more uniform nickel dispersion in the aluminum as a probable explanation of this performance. The sporadic occurrence of severe groove pitting has seriously challenged the use of X-8001 nickel aluminum alloy as a fuel element cladding material. Although the actual cause of the groove pitting has not been determined, non-uniform dispersion of the nickel in the alloy is suspected. The cause of the non-uniform nickel dispersion or segregation has been located and virtually eliminated by removal of additional aluminum (scalping) from the ingots prior to fabrication of the components.

Production of Pu, UO{sub 3}, and Pu metal exceeded forecasts. The 2nd attempt at Purex to recover Zr-Nb resulted in about 1/3 recovery, contaminated with about 1% of the Ce. Palm losses to Purex U product were eliminated, and the Pu content was reduced 5 to 10{times}. Routing the dissolver rinses into 3WB concentrator resulted into improved rinsing efficiency. Unclarified feed was processed through Purex HA column. In a test for using B in Redox, the B was routed completely to the waste; it was not detectable in product streams beyond the first cycle. Almost 1000 g Palm was purified and converted to oxide. Ferrous ion catalyzed the reduction of Palm VI by hydrazine or semicarbazide. Coordination of E-metal and NPR reprocessing at Redox in multipurpose dissolver was studied. An interim fission product recovery program at Purex will be directed toward low-efficiency collection of Pm {sup 147}. Locations for critical incident alarms were selected. (DLC)

This is the monthly report for the Hanford Laboratories Operation, April, 1959. Metallurgy, reactor fuels, chemistry, dosimetry, separation process, reactor technology, financial activities, visits, biology operation, physics and instrumentation research, and employee relations are discussed.

The hot press process has been altered so as to eliminate the slight wrinkling near the ID base. This was done by incorporating a three minute time delay in the pressing cycle. The pressing time was decreased to five minutes to restrict formation of the brittle intermetallic compound, Ni{sub 2}Al{sub 3}.

Abstract: Tests were made on 24 simply supported, post-tensioned, end-anchored, prestressed concrete beams with and without web reinforcement.

In this report, the equation (HW-55219-RD) expressing tube-wise rupture rate as a function of exposure, power, and temperature has been adjusted to include 1958 data.

This production test was designed to evaluate the suitability of low hydrogen dingot uranium as routine process material. Nine tubes of I and E fuel elements (6 dingot, 3 ingot) with 32 fuel elements in each tube, have recently been discharged at the C Reactor and this document contains the results of analyses made on the dimensional stability properties of this material.

This annual report (1958) from the Hanford Atomic Products Operation. Various programs are briefly described including irradiation processing, fuels preparation, chemical processing, research and development, and supporting operations.

The purpose of this report is to present the results of laboratory experiments in which coolant water flowed backwards through a ``C`` reactor process tube with operational charge-discharge front fittings under conditions of typical reactor rear header pressures and post-scram rear header water temperature and tube powers. This information is of value in planning and interpreting transient experiments investigating the consequences of the rupture of reactor front face piping to a single tube.

This monthly document details activities of the Hanford Operations Office during the month of March 1959. (FI)

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