"A series of high urania-content glasses were fiberized and examined for high-temperature strength properties. One glass, RX360 containing 60% U/sub 3/O/ sub 8/ by weight, had better high-temperature tensile properties than any glass previously reported. It was observed that many of the glasses studied separated into immiscible phases and that the fiberizable glass phase had lower U/sub 3/O/ sub 8/ content than the base compositions. A physical analysis of crystal structures of the devitrification products from the nuclear fuel glasses indicated that most of the crystals consisted of uranium oxide in a reduced state. By adding O/sub 2/ to molten glass, it was possible to eliminate most of this devitrification. By elimination of crystals, the fiberizing of the glass was more uniform and the glasses produced had more consistent physical properties."

"Mixed Fission Products (MFP) for use as a heat source for thermoelectric generators will become increasingly available in the coming years. The Atomic Energy Commission sponsored program on solidification of nuclear wastes is now entering the hot-bench scale test phase. During this phase approximately 5000 thermal watts of two year old MFP could be produced monthly. Two different types of hot calcination pilot plants are planned for installation at the Hanford National Laboratories in the 1964 to 1966 time period. Each of these plants should be able to produce 160,000 thermal watts of two year MFP and 16,000 thermal watts of ten year MFP on a monthly basis. A full scale plant for a 15,000 Mw(e) nuclear economy is estimated to produce four to five times as much MFP as either of the pilot plants. Costs will be dependent upon AEC policy in effect at the time the plant is operating."

In 1947 Bauer, and later independently Huntley (1948), pointed out that the helium content of iron meteorites as measured by Paneth and coworkers could be accounted for by the accumulation through cosmic-ray production rather then the decay of uranium and thorium. Bauer (1947) also predicted that the meteroitic helium should contain a significant proportion of He3. I was realized that by studying the effects of cosmic radiation on meteorites much could be learned about the history of meteorite and cosmic radiation. Chemical and instrumental techniques have been developed for the isolation, purification, and measurement of cosmic-ray-induced C14 in both stone and iron meteorites. The isolation of carbon from the silicate materials is done by fusion in an oxidizing flux in a vacuum system. From the iron meteorites the carbon is recovered by the decomposition of the metal in nitric acid in a closed system.

"The diffusivities of Fe, Co, and Al in otherwise pure Au were determined by a residual activity technique. It was found that the frequency factors and activation energies of the transition elements into Au are normal relative to the values for Au self-diffusion, and suggest that lattice diffusion is operative, in contrast to the corresponding situation for the diffusion of these elements in Al. This difference in behavior is explained in terms of the marked difference in solid solubilities in the two series."

The self-diffusivities of Co60 and Ni63 in cobalt--nickel solid solutions exhibit a greater activation energy below the Curie temperature (T/sub c/) than above. Values of DELTA Q = Q (ferromagnetic) -- Q (paramagnetic) are approximately equal to RT/sub c/. This observation is interpreted to indicate that the increment in activation energy arises from an increase in the formation energy of a vacancy in the ferromagnetic lattice, with the additional binding energy arising from the interaction of a spin with the Weiss field."