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.

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)

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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One equipment control building designed to be blast resistant and two each of three standardized types of metal warehouse or utility buildings were exposed to the effects of a nuclear device detonation. One of the utility buildings was frameless, with deeply corrugated wall and roof sections; a second was very largely frameless, utilizing interlocking channel sections; and in the third the aluininum-panel wall and roof covering was supported by girts and purlins, which in turn were supported by steel frames. Because of atmospheric conditions at the time of an earlier detonation in the test series, one of each of the three types of utility buildings was exposed to approximately 0.7 psi overpressure before the planned test. In the planned test one of each of the three types was exposed to approximately 3.0 psi overpressure and one to 1.3 psi, with the intention of bracketing their overpressure survival range and obtaining data for possible economic redesign for improved blast resistance. The equipment control building utilized continuous-welded steel frames and reinforced-gypsum curtain-wall construction. The control building was exposed to approximately 4.1 psi, in the anticipated fringe zone of major structural damage, to determine its protective capabilities. The blast-resistant equipment control building was …

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A production-scale procedure for purifying and concentrating Pu contained in the stripping solution from a TBP extraction process is described. Conclusions from exploratory tests on variables affecting the efficiency are included. (auth)

S>The Zircex Process for the recovery of zirconiuun from zirconium clad fuel elements is presented. Various types of apparatus were investigated for desublimation and collection of the solid zirconiuun tetrachloride. Of primary importance is the determination of particle size and distribution of the ZrCl/sub 4/ condensed for, in general, the larger and more uniform the particle size, the easier the collection. (W.L.H.)

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