This is the first of a series of monthly reports covering details of the work of the Engineering Group of the Pile Technology Section of the Technical Department. The monthly Slug Inspection Report is being discontinued as a separate document and is being incorporated in this group report. Included is work on corrosion and blistering; graphite expansion; and irradiation studies.

This is a progress report of the production reactors on the Hanford Reservation for the month of April 1951. This report takes each division (e.g., manufacturing, medical, accounting, occupational safety, security, reactor operations, etc.) of the site and summarizes its accomplishments and employee relations for that month.

A meeting was held on May 17 to review possible alternate designs of horizontal rods for 105-C. The system used on ``C`` must operate satisfactorily at an anticipated graphite temperature of 380 C (760 F) with the possibility expressed by the Technical Division that this temperature limitations may be raised if satisfactory new pile atmospheres can be developed. The design will be based on a maximum graphite growth of 3 inches at a distance of 3 feet from the edge of the graphite block. This value ignores the anticipated favorable results from graphite coring, and is greater than the growth expected in ``C`` based on experience with present reactors. A satisfactory rod end seal configuration is required for these conditions. It was decided that a round control rod with external seal would be recommended to meet these conditions.

This volume presents the quarterly results of that portion of the research and development which is directed towards establishing new techniques and instruments and towards improving present methods for determining levels of radioactivity accurately and safely. The locally developed amplifier of high gain and of wide dynamic range has been shown to provide plateaus suitable for the simultaneous counting of alpha and beta particles. Commercially available amplifiers have failed to exhibit suitable plateaus when used under the same conditions. This locally developed amplifier in conjunction with the Nuclear Instruments PC1 chamber has made it possible to estimate beta energies down to 0.02 million electron volt, which is to be compared to a former lower limit of 0.1 million electron volt. A fast neutron survey meter must be simple, lightweight, portable and efficient and must provide discrimination against gamma rays. The first step, which is the design of a suitable detecting device has been successfully completed as good efficiency and good discrimination against gamma rays have been achieved. The necessary electronic circuits must now be engineered to provide the requisite simplicity lightweight and portability.

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This is a progress report of the production reactors on the Hanford Reservation for the month of April 1954. This report takes each division (e.g., manufacturing, medical, accounting, occupational safety, security, reactor operations, etc.) of the site and summarizes its accomplishments and employee relations for that month.

This document presents a summary of work and progress at the Hanford Engineer Works for April 1956. The report is divided into sections by department. A plant wide general summary is included at the beginning of the report, after which the departmental summaries begin. The Manufacturing Department reports plant statistics, and summaries for the Metal Preparation, Reactor and Separation sections. The Engineering Department`s section summaries work for the technical, design and project sections. Costs for the various departments are presented in the financial department`s summary. The Medical, Radiological Sciences, Utilities and General Services, Employee and Public Relations, and Community Real Estate and Service departments have sections presenting their monthly statistics, work, progress, and summaries.

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This document details activities of the irradiation processing department during the month of April 1957. A general summary is included at the start of the report, after which the report is divided into the following sections: research and engineering operations; production and reactor operations; facilities engineering operation; employee relations operation; and financial operation.

The separations plants operated on schedule, and Pu production exceeded commitment. UO{sub 3} production and shipments were also ahead of schedule. Purex operation under pseudo two-cycle conditions (elimination of HS and 1A columns, co-decontamination cycle concentrator HCP) was successful. Final U stream was 3{times} lower in Pu than ever before; {gamma} activity in recovered HNO{sub 3} was also low. Four of 6 special E metal batches were processed through Redox and analyzed. Boric acid is removed from solvent extraction process via aq waste. The filter in Task II hydrofluorinator was changed from carbon to Poroloy. Various modifications to equipment were made.

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The reactivities of several U--Nb-- Zr alloys in the Sodium Reactcr Experiment are compared with that of 2.8% enriched U fuel. The alloys considered have the following compositions: 15% Nb--70% U--15% Zr; 12% Nb--82% U--6% Zr; and 6% Nb--82% U-- 12% Zr. Each alloy is studied at U enrichments of 3, 7, and 11%, and the alloy enrichments necessary to give the same reactivity as the 2.8% enriched U fuel are found by interpolation. (T.F.H.)

The recent Windscale incident has emphasized the need for available light aircraft and proper instrumentation for aerial surveys following a release of large quantities of airborne radioactive materials. Early tests (1951 and 1955) are reviewed, and the program now in effect at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory is presented. (auth)

Production of Pu from separations plants was only 58% of April commitment because of Purex difficulties. UO{sub 3} production, shipments met schedules. Pu shape production and shipments exceeded forecast by 14%. Purex HS column, repaired Oct 1958, developed another leak and was bypassed April 18, resulting in Pu and U that required reprocessing. A Palm recovery run at Purex with all- reducing flowsheet, resulted in 87% recovery and excellent decontamination of product. The prototype dual-pass silver reactor in Purex C-cell plugged with offgases. Processing of unclarified feed through Purex solvent extraction continued. Redox dissolver batch sizes for E-metal processing were increased from 1.75 to 2.0 tons. Testing of first extraction cycle acidic flowsheet at Redox continued, with Np losses to HAW being below detection limit. Ru in 1AFS stream increased 10-fold F.P. activity but was removed in acid deficient U cycles. A sulfamic acid process is being explored for dissolving Pu metal. Scope design of Redox dissolver and RMA line replacement at Z plant was completed. Shielding effectiveness of medium and high density x-ray lead glass was compared.

This document details activities of the irradiation processing department during the month of April, 1959. A general summary is included at the start of the report, after which the report is divided into the following sections: Research and engineering operations; production and reactor operations; facilities engineering operation; employee relations operation; and financial operation.

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We present the results of measurements of the angular distribution of fission fragments produced by irradiation of Au{sup 197} and Bi{sup 209} with various heavy ions. The projectiles, B{sup 11}, C{sup 12}, N{sup 14}, and O{sup 16}, had energies from a few MeV above the Coulomb barrier to 10.4 MeV per nucleon. The gross features of these results can be explained by use of a model and parameters that have been used by others to account for angular distributions of fission fragments from helium-ion bombardments. In detail, however, these results appear to indicate that the models used to predict the average value of the angular momentum of the compound nucleus give values too low near the Coulomb barrier. Furthermore, at high bombarding energies it is necessary to consider the fact that appreciable direct interaction is taking place.

This report, from the Chemical Processing Department at HAPO, for April 1962 discusses the following: Production operation; Purex and Redox operation; finished products operation; maintenance; financial operations; facilities engineering; research; employee relations; special separation processing; and auxiliaries operation.

During the past four years, IBM data processing computers have been utilized to perform countless studies involving the optimization of the HAPO plutonium production complex (RA.PO and off-site supporting plants). During this time, three process optimization models have been constructed and associated Fortran programs have been written. These three are (1) maximum net return, (2) minimum reactor unit cost, and (3) maximum grams. This document will be concerned only with the first program: net return optimization. In January of 1960, a new program was written for the IBM EDPM 709. This new program incorporated the desirable features of the previous programs and provided additional output data. During the two years since January, 1960, the net return optimization program has undergone many changes. These changes have been caused by improvements in the process technology and a major change in the definition of the Pu-240 specification. It is the purpose of this document to describe the current version of the net return optimization program.

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For approximately the past two years, alloyed dingot uranium has been irradiated on a production scale for evaluation of rupture performance relative to ingot uranium. Supplementary data on dimensional behavior and certain pre-irradiation measurements have been accumulated under the Quality Certification Program. This report presents a comparison of ingot and dingot performance based on data obtained to date from this testing program. The discussion consists of three sections: (I) dimensional stability, (II) external bond quality, and (III) reactor rupture performance.

This report, from the Chemical Processing Department at HAPO for April 1963, discusses the following: Production operation; Purex and Redox operation; Finished products operation; maintenance; Financial operations, facilities engineering; research; employee relations; and weapons manufacturing operation.