The Site B Foundry is equipped for the melting and casting of tuballoy and its alloys. Castings weighing up to 750 pounds and as long as 40 inches can be made. Melting can be carried out in the vacuum, in inert gases or under fluxes. Heating is by high frequency induction. A description of the generally foundry layout, the furnace construction and operation, and of the auxiliary equipment is given in this report. The casting technique used in the Site B Foundry is designed to minimize piping and cold shuts in the billets. The top of the mold is kept hot and freezing of the billet takes place from the bottom. This hot topping minimizes piping. Controlled pouring into warm molds minimized cold shuts.

Four routine shutdowns were experienced during the month. A measurable amount of the excess reactivity held in the control rods at the first of the month has been lost in the decrease in the average accumulated exposure of all the metal in the pile. The vertical safety rod guides have been measured for vertical alignment by the Maintenance Dept. A definite pattern has been found in the misalignment of the guides. The horizontal rod thimbles were borrowed on January 2, 1947 to see if any leaks were present. No leaks were observed but No. 2 Rod and No. 8 Rod had heavy gouge marks along the longitudinal axes. Several thimbles contained white corrosion. During the month two new bismuth tubes were established, 2871-D and 2877-D. This now gives the desired pattern of ten bismuth tubes.

It is the purpose of this document to record the significant steps in the removal of a ruptured slug from tube {number_sign}2562-H.

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Critical experiments are described, and the hazards attpendant to these experiments are evaluated for a reflector-controllped boiling-peterogeneous- reactor design. The proposed reactor design is water moderated and reflected. However, to provide maximum flexibility and safety, the critical asspembly is a thermal reactor moderated and reflected with plastic having appropriate voids to simulate water. A spection of the plastic reflector is movable to represent changes in the waterrelector level. The data obtained using this reflectorcontrolled assembly is then suppliped to an electronic reactor simulator which is connected to a full-scale mock-up of the proposed hydraulic control system. In this manner, thpe characteristics of thpe complete system are determined. The fuel-element assemblies are composed of strips of aluminum and Teflon-coated uranium sandwiched with plastic and pecased in aluminum boxes. One- half of the core is on a movable table, while the other half is on a fixed table. Primary control and safety of the asspembly is achieved by inserting or withdrawing sandwiched stainlpess steel-cadmium rpegulating and safety plates and by increasing or decreasing the distance between the two core halves. For safety, the maximum normal rate of reactivity addition has been limited to an pestimated 0.04 per cent per sec for control-rod …

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Thermnl transients with total pulse times of 3 to 28 milliseconds were simulated by direct-current electrical heating in studies of the explosions of Ag, Al, Cu, Sn, U, Zn, and Zr specimens under water and under oil at an ambient temperature of 75 d F and at atmospheric pressure. Motion pictures were taken of many of the explosions at film speeds of 7,500 to 14,500 frames/sec. A 600-foot composite reel was prepared which shows 7 representative explosions and views of the equipment. Data for 34 runs, photographs, and photomicrographs are presented and discussed with respect to burnout, heat transfer, and metal-- water reaction. (auth)

As a part of the Productivity Increase Program, consideration should be given to further gains in 100 Area production levels which can be achieved by further increases in both light and heavy water flow rates. This memorandum presents a summary of the power level gains which should be achieved from the flow increases under consideration, a discussion of the costs and production losses which might apply, and a brief listing of some other considerations which might influence any decision to increase flow rates further.

A high pressure boiler has been installed at ORNL. This Besler boiler is capabie of producing from 150 to 2000 psi saturated steam at steaming rates up to 5000 lbs/hr. The boiler is part of a water-steam circuit whteh also includes two spray water pumps, a steam pressure control valve, a high pressure trapping station, and a low pressure deaerated feedwater system. The new boiler system is piped and instrumented to serve as a thermal cycling facility. Shakedown test thermal cycles to requirements set forth in HRT Specification 1113a have been conducted using the existing Dump Test Autoclave as a test piece. Fourty-four cycles have been run through mid February, 1958. The boiler has been operated a total of 142 hours. Cycles are run completely automatically. Better than three- fourths of the cycles as run fall within the specification prescribed limits. (auth)

A summary is presented of available information on the nature of H embrittlement in Ti, its control, and effects on other Ti properties. Most data also apply to Zr. Types of embrittlement are discussed, along with H sources and effects on mechanical properties. Also, the effects of H on forming heat treatment, and joining are discussed as well as Ti production and processing and methods of H removal. Finally, H in-service pickup is considered, and methods for establishing the extent of this reaction are discussed. (J.R.D.)

This report summarizes the design and development work completed since May, 1957; the current status of fuel element matching problems, and the plans for future modifications to improve machining techniques.

The average energy release per fission event in a reactor is dependent on the composition and arrangement of the lattice materials. In a study of heat generation in the NPR, Nilson developed expressions for calculating the average energy released in each material per fission event. These relationships have been used in the present calculations to obtain the energy release per fission in existing Hanford reactors.

A process was developed for separating promethium from raixed fisBion product rare earths by continuous multistage conntercurrent extraction with 100% tri-nbutylphosphste from nitric acid of 12 N or higher concentration. Distribution coefficients at 12 N acidity for aecdamium. promethium. and samarium are 0.43. 0.82, and 1.55, respectively. Single-stage separation factors of 1.9 between successive elements can be maintained throughout the system to give separations dependent only on the number of stages. Extracted values can be recovered from the organic solution by stripping with a smaller volume of dilute nitric acid. A flowsheet for purification of promethium includes one cycle for separation of promethium from neodymum and lighter elements and a secondycle for removal of samarium and heavier elements. Each cycle consists of a series of countercurrent partitioning stages. followed by stripping stages and an evaporator. With 20 stages in the first cycle and 34 stages in the second, a 90% yield of promethium with a purity of 83% can be obtained from a typical mixture of fission product rare earths, assuming essentially perfect mechanical efficiency. An increase to 34 stages in the first cycle would permit a 93% yield of 99% promethium. (auth)

The conditions under which hydrogen could be quantitatively recovered from mixtures of gases by oxidation over fixed beds of CuO were investigated. The conversion of H/sub 2/ to H/sub 2/O by reduction of CuO in fixed beds increased with in- creasing bed length, temperature, hydrogen/argon ratio, and decreasing mesh size of CuO. Residence times required for 99% conversion in a 1- in.-diam. bed were 0.6 and 1.2 sec for 30% hydrogen-70% argon and 10% hydrogen90% argon mixtures, respectively, at a total gas flow of 1 l/min. The CuO used was 25-mil-diam. wires with a surface area of 0.019 m/sup 2//g. The residence time required for a given value of conversion decreased about 10% when the total flow rate was increased from 1 to 1.7 liters/min, which indicates that the reduction is mass-transfer controlled to a slight extent under the experimental conditions used. (auth)

The multiple hydroclone system removed l83 grams of corrosion product solids in l814 hours of operation during reactor run 2l. The low removal rate was attributed to plugging of multiclone feed ports that presumably occurred during the latter part of run 20. After modifications to the reactor core and removal of the multiclone unit at the end of run 21, the reactor core was backflushed with the flow direction in the core loop reversed. During this period, the single hydroclone removed 205 grams of solids in 10.5 hours of operation. (auth)

ABS> The removal rates of iron, nickel, and chromium from synthetic stainless steel waste solutions during electrolysis over a mercury cathode were studied. The loading capacity of the mercury for the stainless steel metals was estimated on the basis of laboratory experiments to be about two% by weight. The laboratory data indicated that, at an electrode potential of --1.80 voits vs S.C.E., 85 ampere-hours per liter of waste removed essentially all of the stainless steel ions from a sulfuric acid solution containing 0.13M metal ions at 35 deg C. (auth)

Experimental work consisted of one new run started and completed this quarter, and the completion of one of the three continuing runs. Of the scheduled operating time, the beam was on for 69.4% of the time, 2.3% of the time was used for experimental setup, and equipment outage took 29.3% of the time. There were two scheduled and two impromptu shutdowns. During one of the scheduled shutdowns the external-beam extraction magnets were installed in the east and south tangent tanks. The other scheduled shutdown was to readjust the Bevatron magnet elevation to correct for foundation subsidence. Internal magnets were also installed. In the new linac development program the ion source was run at 480 kv with a beam current of 100 ma. The linac tank was partially deplated to provide a clean copper surface, and welds and holes were plated with copper. The r-f losses were thereby reduced 20%. (auth)

Experiments to obtain detailed thermal flux distribution measurements within a unit fuel cell and measurements of sub-cadmium and epi-cadmium U/sup 238/ absorption in the fuel rods are described. These quantities are required for determination of the thermal utilization and resonance escape probability of the fuel loading. (auth)

The discharge of radioactivity from Hanford production reactors to the Columbia River has been studied for a number of years. The primary purposes of these studied have been to learn of the factors influencing production reactor effluent radioactivity concentrations and to develop methods for lowering the discharge concentrations of these radionuclides. In 1962 the Coolant Systems Development Operation (CSDO) began work on this program to determine the in-reactor film compositions and the inventory of radionuclides held in these films with the long-term objective of learning more about the complex in-reactor retention reactions that influence radionuclide effluent concentrations.

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A 40-day uranium core canning test (10,000 lbs of high nickel AlSi) is proposed in which one canning line has only AlSi of 0.78-1.1 % Ni added as makeup; the other canning lines would be operated as usual. Besides monitoring the Ni content and other impurities in the test and control lines, attributes, variables, and destructive fuel element data would be collected and analyzed. Estimates for annual savings are given for 8, 9, and 10-line shifts per day.

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