The conceptual design of a nuclear ram jet-rocket missile is preserved. This missile is a modified, scaled-up AC-210 nuclear ram jet carrying ammonia in the space enclosed by the spike and inlet diffuser. The payload may be a 10,000 pound thermonuclear weapon or equivalent weight of reconnaissance equipment plus local shielding as in the AC-210 missile. The payload for a missile of body size equivalent to the AC-210 will be reduced by the weight of ammonia.

This report provides details of Hanford Atomic Products Operation (HAPO) activities during 1956.

The effect of solvents and temperature on the optical absorption spectrum of a number of substituted aromatic disulfides is reported. The problems offered by the disulfide link and the exchange reactions between disulfides, and between disulfides and thiols, are receiving increasing attention. Recently the base-catalyzed exchange between various alkyl disulfides and the corresponding thiols was studied by means of a radioactive-tracer technique. Our initial purpose was to extend these investigations to a large number of compounds in a variety of experimental conditions using a spectrophotometric technique that, if applicable, would have been incomparably faster.

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This report covers the unclassified research progress of the Laboratory.

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An investigntion was made of the performance of a gas-cooled reactor, designed to provide a source of high temperature heat to a stream of helium. This reactor, in turn, is used as a source of heat for the air stream in a gas- turbine power plant. The reactor design was predicted primarily on the requirement for transferring a large amount of heat to the helium stream with a pressure drop low enough that it will not represent a major loss of power in the power plant. The mass of uranium e uired far criticality under various circumstances was investigated by multigroup calculations, both on desk calculators and on an IBM-704 machine. The gasturbine power plant perfarmance was studied based on a Studebaker-Packard-designed gas-turbine power plant for the propulsion of destroyer-escort vessels. A small experimental program was carried out to study some effects of helium on graphite and on structural steels. (auth)

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The absorption spectra for Pu(III), (IV), (VI), and the red Pu(IV)- peroxy complex were determined in HNO/sub 3/ solution. Extinction coefficients for the above species of Pu were measured. Temperature has little effect on the spectra, but variation of acidity causes shifting of absorption peaks and some changes in the extinction coefficients. The absorption spectra and extinction coefficients in the region 390 to 1200 m mu were measured for chromic, nickelous, manganous, calcium, lanthanum, aluminum, ferrous. ferric, and permanganate ions in HNO/sub 3/ solutions. In addition, the effects of nitrite, oxalic acid, sulfamic acid, hydrogen peroxide, and various HNO/sub 3/ concentrations on the extinction coefficients of some of these ions were determined. The chromic, nickelous, ferrous, and permanganate ions, and ferric ion with oxalic acid, have sufficiently high extinction coefficients to cause inaccuracies in valence determinations of Pu in solutions containing high concentrations of these ions, unless corrections are made. (auth)

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