A new package type facility for corrosion decontamination studies has been designed and fabricated. This report gives a description, drawings, and comments on its operation. It has been in operation since December, 1958.

A means for decontaminating the primary system of recirculating type reactor is necessary to insure operation and maintenance. This recirculation system can be contaminated by fuel element rupture products and induced corrosion product activities.

The transfer or circulation of raw dissolver solutions containing gross particulate matter presents many problems not easily overcome by standard pumping equipment. In April of 1956 the HAPO concept of a modified Archimedes screw pump was developed. Two basic models, externally powered and driven through extended shafts, were constructed and tested. Operation of these preliminary models was so satisfactory that a third unit, integrally formed into drive motor, was built and placed in extended life test. This report describes construction and testing of the third and final model.

Plutonium Fuels Development Basic studies. Experiments to determine the effect of plutonium dioxide additions on the sinterability of UO2 have continued. PuO2 has been added to ball milled PWR grade UO2 as a physical mixture, and in the form of the mixed crystal oxide.

A test program conducted to develop high integrity piping and seal components for Plutonium Recycle Test Reactor installation. Methods of preventing leakage of costly D2O coolant and maintaining operational safety were investigated.

The purpose of the Analytical Laboratory Manual is to assemble the basic procedures to be used for the analyses of materials employed within the Fuels Preparation Department. The methods appear in detailed steps suitable for laboratory use. This document replaces the "Essential Material Analytical Manual, " HW-25375 and "Metal Preparation Analytical Manual," HW-30862.

It is being considered that the in-reactor portion of the test section of the PRTR Gas-Cooled Loop Facility consist, in part, of two concentric Inconel-X tubes. The outer tube is the main stress member, with 3.5 O.D. and a wall thickness of 0.065. The inner tube is 3.0 O.D. and has a wall thickness of 0.030. The inner tube provides an annular gas space to serve as thermal insulation.

Zirflex cladding waste is to be neutralized to pH 10 before transfer to waste storage tanks. This treatment causes the precipitation of zirconium oxide or hydroxide, which may lead to flow difficulties during transfer. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the physical properties and flow characteristics of the neutralized slurry to assist in the selectin of satisfactory transfer equipment and storage conditions.

The instability of the steel tank bottom of 113SX waste storage tank was postulated to have been caused by a pressure underneath the steel liner which was in excess of the hydrostatic liquid load of the waste resting on the steel bottom.

Decontamination of stainless steel and carbon steel used in high temperature recirculation systems is currently being studied to obtain an effective and economical decontamination process for use in these systems. This report presents the preliminary investigation process which has demonstrated very effective decontamination and is low in cost.

In formulating this general diffusion theory expression which represents the neutron balance in a nuclear chain reactor the following assumptions were made : (1) the medium through which the neutrons are diffusing has a low neutron capture cross section, (2) the region in which the flux distribute is being described is two or three mean free paths from strong sources and sinks or from a boundary. Certainly, is going to the lattice cell of a receptor, both of the above conditions are violated; fuel elements have a large absorption cross section and most lattice cells are only two or three mean free paths to is over-all sites

In HW-56161(1), the preliminary background, bases, and advantages which could be visualized in the study and establishment of reactor concepts utilizing boiling mercury- 204 were presented. The attractive chemical and metallurgical properties of mercury which make it particularly suitable for use in special non-rigid fuel systems as well as its potential for heat transfer applications were considered to be of significant interest to the Plutonium Recycle Program also, since the issuance of the original document, continued study of the potentials for an economical isotope separations process for mercury has shown attractive possibilities for a method based on photochemical activation (HW-59329). (2) The prospectas(3) for this process appear so favorable that earlier opinions and expectations seem to have been conservative. Although the desired level of initial effort in related studies has not yet been realized, particularly in the area of chemical engineering, reactor engineering, and economics, it appears advisable to revise the earlier document to recognize the impact of the favorable outlook for economical mercury isotope production, to present other related information which has been developed, and to recommend the beginning of a research and development program.

This is a report of what may be an invention in the preparation of uranium dioxide of a quality particularly useful for the fabrications of fuel elements for nutronic reactors.

The methods for the separation of the elements from thorium to americium having wide use are those employing solvent extraction techniques (1) (2). During recent years the behavior of these elements on anion exchangers has been studied, resulting in the wide application of these resins to the separation of the actinides (3) (4) (5) (6) (7).

This note describes an analysis of the primary creep rates in thin-walled pressure tubing. The analysis accounts for the increase in tube radius and decrease of tube wall thickness. Both of these effects increase the stress; hence, they can affect the creep rate and cause unstable creep conditions.

Designing a dissolver safe for up to 5 per cent U.235 enriched NPF's and having a one a ton per day capacity is a fundamental problem of Hanford NPF Program. Two basic design concepts have so far evolved, both of which employ a recirculating system in which the fuel elements are placed in the critically safe geometry separated from the bulk of the solution in another vessel. In one concept the fuel elements are charged to a set of geometrically safe cylinders or tubes and solution is circulated through them/ In the other concept the fuel elements are placed on a flat tray while solution is sprayed over them. In the latter system, nuclear safety is obtained by avoiding submerged dissolution and the resulting neutron moderation by the solution.

Following is a description of what may be an invention in the art of compacting uranium dioxide (UO2) and other ceramic or cermet nuclear fuel materials for ultimate use as reactor fuel elements. Vibration of ceramic fuel materials at the resonant frequency of the metal encasing material, using high rates of acceleration, produces uniformly compacted high-density fuel elements.

The processing of spent fuels from nuclear power and propulsion reactors is planned by Hanford Atomic Products Operation as part of the Atomic Energy Commission's interim processing scheme. The spent nuclear fuels have cores of UO2, U, or alloys of U-Mb, U-Al, or U-Zr clad in either stainless steel, aluminum, or Zircaloy. This report discusses only the Zircaloy-clad fuels and the applications of the Zirflex Process for dissolution. Zirflex chemical flow sheets are presented as developed by pilot plant operations.