Technical report investigating the distribution of rare earth elements between a liquid bismuth-uranium solution and fused KCI-LiCi mixtures. Report warrants further research on the liquid bismuth-uranium-fused salt system due to the benefit of continuous fission removal processes.

The rapid development of the field of atomic energy during the past few years now permits the exploration of applications to medicine involving new concepts in the treatment of cancer. One such has been the study of neutron capture therapy which is being developed at the Brookhaven National Laboratory.

One might expect that the Cosmotron would offer certain advantages over cosmic rays for the study of heavy unstable particles; provided, of course, that it can produce them. In the first place, the conditions under which they are produced could be controlled to a considerably greater extent. In the second place, it might be possible to arrange conditions under which they would be observed more abundantly, an actual beam of heavy mesons being the ideal situation.

The study of the interaction of the electromagnetic field with nuclei has proved very fruitful for the elucidation of many details of nuclear structure. The γ-ray transitions observed in either absorption or emission can be divided into three classes, depending on whether the matrix elements of the transition are (1) much larger, (2) approximately equal or (3) much smaller than those expected for single proton transitions which are usually taken as a norm. In class (1) we find (a) the broad transitions leading to the "giant resonances" in the nuclear photo-electric effect, and (b) the "fast" transitions between low lying states, especially for even-even nuclei far removed from magic numbers. The large matrix elements and the regular dependence of their magnitude on the atomic weight speak for cooperative phenomena in which many nucleons or the nuclei as a whole are involved. In class (2) we find the much studied M4 transitions which give strong support for the single particle model; they have rather uniform matrix elements. Some finer points remain to be understood, especially why some odd nuclei do not show the expected ratio for |M|^2 of ~ 2:1. The transitions belonging to class (3) require further selection rules and …

A number of questions have arisen in regard to the interpretation of personnel monitoring results reported to users of the Brookhaven neutron monitoring service. The original announcement was rather brief and did not contain most of the technical characteristics upon which an evaluation of results must be based. The following paragraphs have been composed with the hope that they will clarify the meaning of the exposure reports.

The so-called Fluoride Volatility Processes refer to several proposed non-aqueous methods of processing irradiated fuel elements. In each of these methods, the uranium is fluorinated to UF6 and then decontaminated by distillation. One of those methods, involving the direct fluorination of the uranium by bromine trifluoride (BTF), has been under investigation at BNL since 1950. In 1952, it was demonstrated at BNL that uranium, as UF6, could be satisfactorily decontaminated by distillation in small-scale pilot plant equipment; end in 1953, BNL undertook the job of determining the technical feasibility of a continuous dissolver on a pilot-plant scale. The reason for the project was that the economic superiority of the process seemed to depend upon its amenability to continuous operation.

The so-called Fluoride Volatility Processes refer to several proposed non-aqueous methods of processing irradiated fuel elements. In each of these methods, the uranium is fluorinated to uranium hexafluoride and then decontaminated by distillation. One of the methods, involving direct fluorination of the uranium by bromine trifluoride, has been under investigation at BNL since 1950; subsequently a pilot plant was built to study this step of the process. The objectives of the program were to investigate the technical feasibility of continuous dissolution, and to determine the effect of process variables on the capacity of the equipment; namely the effect of temperature, solution composition, flow rate, and uranium history on dissolving time as related to fuel elements of the types used at BNL, ORNL, and Hanford. The nominal capacity of the dissolver was five pounds of uranium per hour and all process equipment was fabricated of Monel. Special equipment components and numerous safety features were utilized. The major equipment development was a canned-rotor pump used for circulation of the dissolver stream through the heat exchanger. A system for continually charging slugs to the pressurized dissolver was also developed. Operation consisted of batch runs which were made with unirradiated BNL slugs in order …

Report issued by the Brookhaven National Laboratory discussing methods of processing reactor fuels such as uranium. As stated in the objective, "the primary objective of the project was to determine the effect of temperature, solution composition, and flow rate on the dissolving time for natural uranium slugs of varying history" (p. 2). This report includes tables, illustrations, and photographs.

Report issued by the Brookhaven National Laboratory discussing fuel reactor test loops. The "design, construction, operation, and experimental results" (p. 1) are presented. This report includes tables, illustrations, and photographs.

A series of measurements of ε in slightly enriched uranium, light water lattices is presently under way at Brookhaven. Figure 1 shows ε as a function of water-to-metal ratio for .600" diameter rods, of 1.3% enrichment. Because of interaction between neighboring groups of rods, ε increases rapidly as the water-to-metal ratio decreases.