Report issued by the APDA over simulator studies conducted on their Developmental Fast Breeder Reactor. The simulator studies were "designed to predict both the normal and abnormal operating characteristics of the APDA Developmental Fast Breeder Reactor" (p. 1). This report includes tables, and illustrations.

The purpose of this proposal is to present a suggested program for the development of an Aqueous Homogeneous Reactor Power Plant for the production of power in the 5000 to 10,000 kilowatt range under the terms of the Atomic Energy Commission's invitation of September 21, 1955. It envisions a research and development program prior to finalizing fabricating commitments of full scale components for the purpose of proving mechanical and hydraulic operating and chemical processing feasibility with the expectation that such preliminary effort will assure the contruction of the reactor at the lowest cost and successful operation at the earliest date. It proposes the construction of a reactor for an eventual net electrical output of ten megawatts but initially in conjunction with a five megawatt turbo-generating unit. This unit would be constructed at the site of the existing Hersey diesel generating plant of the Wolverine Electric Cooperative approximately ten miles north of Big Rapids, Michigan.

It is the purpose of the Fuel Element Technical Manual to Provide a single document describing the fabrication processes used in the manufacture of the fuel element as well as the technical bases for these processes. The manual will be instrumental in the indoctrination of personnel new to the field and will provide a single data reference for all personnel involved in the design or manufacture of the fuel element. The material contained in this manual was assembled by members of the Engineering Department and the Manufacturing Department at the Hanford Atomic Products Operation between the dates October, 1955 and June, 1956. Arrangement of the manual. The manual is divided into six parts: Part I--introduction; Part II--technical bases; Part III--process; Part IV--plant and equipment; Part V--process control and improvement; and VI--safety.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Ben Shepperd, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the State Department of Public Safety may have title to, operate and dispose of vessels, vehicles and aircraft forfeited to it under Article 725d, V.P.C., there being no bona fide lien holders or other persons claiming any right, title or interest therein.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Ben Shepperd, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Authority of a County Tax Assessor-Collector under Article 6675a-15, V.C.S., to retake motor vehicle license plates obtained by giving a check to be redeemed subsequently with cash.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Ben Shepperd, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Proper treatment in a franchise tax return of an amount shown as "reserve for vacation pay" for vacations earned during the taxable year but to be taken during the succeeding year.

The Savannah River reactors were operated initially for the production of plutonium, and used slug-type natural uranium fuel elements. Recently one reactor was converted to the production of tritium, and other reactors will be converted soon. slug-type elements (of enriched uranium-aluminum) were charged into this reactor in order to reduce to a minimum the development effort required before the shift to tritium was made. It was recognized, however, that the slug elements would be deficient in that they would give a low yield of tritium per atom of uranium-235 destroyed because of the large parasitic capture of neutrons by aluminum. Also the production rate of tritium would be low because of the small amount of surface available for the transfer of the fission heat. Both of these shortcomings will be reduced materially by the substitution of tubular elements for the slugs now employed. The development of this type of element has progressed so that a full reactor loading of tubular fuel elements is contemplated for early 1957. The special hazards related to the production of tritium using tubular fuel elements are described in this memorandum which has been written as a supplement to a report entitled ``Reactor Safety Determination -- …

The operating conditions to which the special Mark VIII quatrefoils will be exposed during the proposed piloting program have been compared with the conditions required to cause burnout, using an established method of calculating these conditions. The results of this comparison permit the following conclusions to be drawn: (1) With normal flow of coolant through the special elements the heat flux to be encountered in the R-8 cycle (1400 MW) will be 70% or that required to cause burnout (30% margin from burnout). (2) With a reduction of coolant flow to 82% of normal through one tube of a special element, burnout of that fuel column is possible in the R-8 cycle. (3) In the R-6 cycle (1280 MW), the margin from burnout in the special Mark VIII quatrefoils is 42% with full flow and 20% with the above reduced coolant flow. A similar comparison of operating conditions predicted for the L-3 cycle (full Mark VIII charge) shows that, even at the highest power level (1250 MW), the margin from burnout is greater than 55% with normal flow and 40% with reduced flow.

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This report discusses production testing of dingot material. Advantages and disadvantages of uranium produced by the dingot process are noted.

``Safe-failure`` is an important criterion for power reactor fuel elements designed to contain core materials which react rapidly with high-temperature coolant. Out-of-pile experiments indicate that, without a ``safe-failure`` fuel element, expensive and possibly catastrophic reactor shutdowns may occur if the fuel element jacket fails during irradiation in high temperature water. That jacket failures occasionally will occur, regardless of the material or fabrication process involved, seems to be generally agreed. Fuel elements involving cluster arrangements, oxide cores, and wafer assemblies with ``bulkheads`` for compartmentalization have been proposed as being relatively safe in event of jacket failure. A fourth possibility is a type of long cartridge fuel element.

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A tester was developed to detect nonbonded areas between the cladding and the core of hollow slugs. These slugs are one inch in diameter and eight inches long, and have a 3/8 inch axial hole. The tester employs an ultrasonic detector previously developed at the Savannah River Laboratory. A transducer 5/ 16 inch in diameter was developed to pass down the inside of the slug and a mechanical feeder was constructed to provide an automatic inspection cycle. (auth)

This report contains a description of the reactor plant portion of the Enrico Fermi Atomic Power Plant, with emphasis on the reactor system. Since this plant contains a developmental reactor, emphasis has been placed on reactor safety and on achieving reliable operation. The design is conservative and is flexible enough to permit incorporation of the results of developmental programs, which include nonnuclear, full-scale component test facility operations, and nuclear experiments, such as critical experiments.

The two cases of fully developed turbulent flow passing a flat plate at zero incidence and through a tube are considered. The laminar sublayer whose thickness is usually considered as constant at a given Reynolds number is postulated, in effect, to vary with the heat flow. The effect of natural convection is taken into account, despite its minor importance in predicting the heat transfer by forced convection in the turbulent regime. A general formula of Nusselt number is obtained as a function of Prandtl, Reynolds, and Grashof number. The heat transfer by natural convection alone becomes only a particular case and the Nusselt number is readily found by dropping out the term containing the Reynolds number. Calculated results agree excellently with experiments as conducted by previous investigators. (auth)

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When acid leach liquors obtained from U ores containing Mo are contacted with anion exchange resin, both U and Mo are adsorbed. The adsorbed Mo is not removed in the norraal U elution process, and when the U-barren resin is recycled, the resin sites already occupied by Mo are unavailable for U adsorption. In succeeding cycles, more and more sites become occupied by Mo, and the resin capacity for U is seriously lowered. This rapid accunmulation of an adsorbed species is known as resin poisoning.'' The many disadvantages of such a situation are self-evident. (auth)

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The decay heat removal system of the PWR is described. (T.R.H.)

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