An experiment was designed utilizing a charge-exchange reaction to study the decay and interactions of the neutral K mesons produced. The experiment produced no events that could be interpreted as either the decay or interaction of neutral K mesons. The nature of the experiment and the possible explanations of this unexpected result are presented in this paper.

The recovery of plutonium has been demonstrated in a laboratory countercurrent horizontal extractor using the TTA process. Using three extractive stages and two washing stages in each step, a recovery of 91 percent has been obtained in the chelation step and a recovery of 99.9+ percent in the de-chelation step. With five extractive stages, recoveries of 94-98 percent have been found for the chelation step.

This report describes the results of evaluation tests made on several glass-coated bayonet heaters supplied to Separations Equipment Development by the Pfaudler Company. The glass-coated heaters were found to be resistant to thermal shock, mild mechanical shock, and chemical attack by boiling 60% nitric acid.

In another paper there was reported an attempt to observe the charge-exchange process in a counter-triggered multiplate cloud chamber at the Bevatron but the interpretation was ambiguous. Shortly after the close of that experiment the 30-in. propane bubble chamber at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory was completed and able to be used for a combined engineering test and experiment. The existence of Reaction (1) has been confirmed in this experiment, and an approximate cross-section value for carbon is calculated.

The following quarterly report covers the period between April, May and June of 1954. The reports presented in this document discusses subjects of medical health and physics such as: biological studies of radiation effects, the metabolic properties of various tracer materials, radiation chemistry, health chemistry, and health physics.

Facilities are to be designed for installation at Hanford for the reprocessing of irradiated, low enrichment fuels from non-production reactors, see Reference 1 and 2. The initial design of the processing facilities is to be based on processing the fuels discharged from the Dresden, Yankee, Piqua, Pathfinder and Shippingport (blanket elements only) reactors. Properties of the fuels and cladding make it impossible to completely process them in existing equipment, although the separation and decontamination can be performed in existing facilities once the fueks have been placed in solution form.

Technical report. Quite pure anhydrous ThCl4 in small quantity (8-10 g charge) has been prepared by the action of a mixture of Cl2 and CCl4 vapor on ThO2 at 675 degrees to 725 degrees C.

A theoretical analysis of the thickness vibrations in long thin rods of barium titanate is presented. The theoretical results are checked experimentally and their meaning discussed.

In the preliminary stages of getting up a time-of-flight system for measuring neutron spectra from proton reactions, a study of the time dependence of the beam in the 86Inch Cyclotron was made. This study revealed the expected bunching of the protons to produce a short burst of beam on each cycle of the 13.4 Mc/s accelerating voltage. In addition to the 13.4 Mc/s structure, however, there was a 360 c/sec modulation of the beam pulses and a complicated pattern built upon that.