Report issued by the Bureau of Mines over investigations of coking-coal reserves of Marshall County, West Virginia. Methods used, and measurements of coal reserves are listed. This report includes tables, and maps.

Abstract: This document is a survey analysis of soil samples from Los Alamos, Pueblo, Bayo, and Mortandad canyons to determine the presence and activities of radioactive contaminants. Also included are the results of analyses of a few samples of grass and of surface water. This survey covers the period from spring 1953 to spring 1955.

From introduction: A tectonic map of most of the Cordilleran Foreland (fig. 2) is being compiled as an aid to study the geologic setting of uranium deposits within the region, and to determine what relationships may exist between the distribution of uranium deposits and the regional tectonic pattern (Osterwald, 1955). The map will show the distribution of faults, uranium deposits, areas of volcanic activity, and crestlines and troughs of folds.

From introduction: The compilation of the tectonic map of Wyoming east of the overthrust belt (area 6, fig. 2) was done by the U. S. Geological Survey on behalf of the Division of Raw Materials of the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission. Structures shown on the map have been obtained from published geologic maps and from unpublished data supplied by Government agencies, private companies, and independent geologists. The tectonic map of Wyoming east of the overthrust belt is only a progress report; any suggestions for corrections or additions will be appreciated.

From abstract: Geologic settings are recognized in central and eastern Montana and in a few places in southwestern Montana that elsewhere are similar to the settings for the occurrence of uranium deposits. Several specific areas in Montana seem favorable for the occurrence of uranium.

From introduction: The compilation of the tectonic map of northern Colorado and northeastern Utah (area h, fig. 2) was done by the U. S. Geological Survey on behalf of the Division of Raw Materials of the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission. Structures shown on the map have been obtained from published geologic maps, and from unpublished data supplied by government agencies, private companies, and independent geologists. The various structures of the Foreland can be divided into three large classes to show the relation of uranium deposits to the structural pattern.

Abstract: "The corrosion rate in 680 F water of the uranium-50 w/o zirconium binary alloy was found to be -0.20 mg/(cm2)(hr), and that of the uranium-40 w/o zirconium binary alloy was -0.34 mg/(cm2)(hr). Both alloys correlated uniformly, with no evidence of discontinuous failure. Normal variations in interstitial content in either alloy had no significant effect on corrosion behavior. Tantalum additions, in the range of 0.2 to 5 w/o, improved the corrosion rate of the uranium-50 w/o zirconium base, with a minimum rate of -0.06 mg/(cm2)(hr) for the 5 w/o tantalum alloy. The 5 w/o tantalum addition to the uranium-40 w/o zirconium alloy. The 5 w/o tantalum addition to the uranium-40 w/o zirconium alloy decreased the corrosion rate of the base to -0.11 mg/(cm2)(hr) in the [...] condition only. In either conditions, the 5 w/o tantalum alloy failed discontinuously. All other additions to both bases either had no effect or decreased corrosion resistance. These included aluminum, chromium, iron, molybdenum, nickel, platinum, tin, titanium, tungsten, and vanadium additions."

Provides detailed information on potato farming in 13 different southern states including cultivation and soil conservation practices, and identifying and controlling diseases and insects.

The following report describes the charged secondary particles from all presently known decay modes of positive K mesons that have been identified, and the masses of the primaries measured by the momentum-range method.

From page 2: "This article first describes the Bevatron [particle accelerator] and its operation, and then discusses a portion of the research program. The principles of the machine and its early history were given in "The Bevatron," by Lloyd Smith, Scientific American, February 1951."

From abstract: Absolute cross sections for the production of charged secondary particles is the bombardments of aluminum, nickel, silver, and gold by 332-Mev protons, 187-deuterons, and 380-Mev alpha particles have been determined.

From abstract: " This report describes the construction of a plasma source that projects deuterium and titanium ions and eletrons at speeds up to 2 x 10^7 cm/sec."

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Ben Shepperd, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Authorization of travel by employees of the University of Texas and Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College System.

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The immediate objective of the LASL nuclear propulsion (Rover) program is the development of a heat exchanger reactor system utilizing uranium-graphite fuel elements and ammonia propellant. This program is regarded as the first step in the development of nuclear propulsion systems for missiles. The major tasks of the program include the investigation of materials at high temperatures, development of fuel elements, investigation of basic reactor characteristics, investigation of engine control problems, detailed engine design and ground testing. The organization and scheduling of the initial development program have been worked out in some detail. Only rather general ideas exist concerning the projection of this work beyond 1958.

This is the monthly report for the Hanford Laboratories Operation, March, 1956. Metallurgy, reactor fuels, chemistry, dosimetry, separation processes, reactor technology; financial activities, visits, biology operation, physics and instrumentation research, employee relations, pile technology, safety and radiological sciences are discussed.

A sprawling group of buildings on an impressive campus site in the Berkeley hills provides the home of the Radiation Laboratory of the University of California. A succession of large accelerators has been built there, the latest of which is the Bevatron. It is the largest and highest-energy accelerator in operation at the present time. It was built and is operated under contract with the United States Atomic Energy Commission. It is of the type known as a proton synchrotron, of which there are two others in operation, one at the University of Birmingham, England, whose energy is 1 Bev (billion electron volts), and another at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, known as the Cosmotron, which operates at 3 Bev. The Bevatron accelerates protons (stripped nuclei of hydrogen atoms) to an energy of 6.2 Bev. The design was started in 1947 under the direction of Professor E. O. Lawrence, and although it was the product of collaboration of a large group of physicists and engineers, the original conception was due to William Brobeck who also contributed more than any other individual. A working quarter-scale model was built and operated in 1948 and 1949 to verify the correctness of the design concept. …

The author describes some of the changes that are now occurring or are likely to occur quite soon in the fast counting techniques. The author draws heavily on the information and advice of Dr. Clyde Wiegand and Mr. Quentin Kerns of the University of California Radiation Laboratory. The techniques the author mentions should be quite useful in several different types of experiments. The fast conicidence techniques are principally used for reducing background from accidental coincidences, for measuring times of flight of particles from one counter to another, and for measuring the life times of unstable particles.

After the first hydrocarbon bubble chambers were built by Donald Glaser in 1952, work was started at Chicago and Berkeley to find if liquid hydrogen could be used as the working fluid in a bubble chamber. In the fall of 1953, it was found by the Chicago group that superheated liquid hydrogen could be made to boil under the influence of ionizing radiation, but no tracks were observed. The observation of tracks at Berkeley a few months later completed the proof that hydrogen was a usable bubble chamber liquid. (Irradiated liquid nitrogen boils when superheated, but as of spring 1956 no one has seen tracks in liquid nitrogen.) In the past two years, the Chicago group has built several all-glass hydrogen chambers, the most recent of which is approximately 5.5 by 5.5 by 20 cm inside dimensions. Their chambers have been of the so-called clean variety (like Glaser's eariy ones), in which no boiling takes place unless ionizing particles aze present. They have used their latest chamber in an extensive study of the scattering of low-energy pions by protons.

Thioctic acid labeled with sulfur-35 has been prepared and i t s metabolism b y algae has been studied. It i s converted by the algae into a number of forms, all of which upon hydrolysis yield either the disulfide o r i t s sulfoxide. One of these constituted the major portion of the labeled material in the chloroplasts. Aerobic metabolism for some minutes i s required to produce this form. Preliminary studies of the chemical nature of this form suggest i t to be esterified on the carboxyl group with a moiety of very high lipid solubility.

This paper constitutes a review of the experimental events that led our laboratory to focus its attention on thioctic acid, a discussion of some of the purely chemical and physical properties of thioctic acid that this awakened interest prompted us to investigate, and a brief description of some of our recent biological investigations with thioctic acid.

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