This report covers studies in the following areas: boiling consideration studies; water flow and power levels at increased header pressures; testing and time delay relay -- production test 105-502-E; slug temperature calculations; discontinuity in slug bonding; measurement of slug bond coefficients; pressure drop film studies; resistant heating of slugs; thermocouple slug; correlation of graphite temperature measurement; comparison of temperatures measured in burnout tubes at F pile; temperature readings from process tube block channel thermocouples at F pile; reliability of temperature measured by G-thermocouples; process tube thermocouples for monitoring graphite temperatures; pile operation during critical electrical power outage; studies of high density concrete shields; distortion and stress in biological and thermal shields of B, D, and F piles; and pile process specifications.

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This memorandum provides a discussion of material lost upon rupture of a fuel element.

Indenter gages, Wiancko gages, and interferometer gages were used to measure air overpressure vs time at essentially ground level stations for both the surface (S) and undprground (U) atomic explosions. For the S Burst several instruments were placed on a line extending from an overpressure region of 13 psi to a region of less than one psi. The air measurements for the U Burst ranged from 32 to 2 psi. (D. L.G.)

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There were twenty slug jacket failures during the month of January 1952. Of these, fourteen were end cap failures, five were split slugs and one has not been removed. A total of 311.4 hours of outage time was required for removal of these ruptured slugs from the reactors. The detection, removal and radiation aspects, along with the slug data, are shown on the attached sheets.

The General Engineering Laboratory has submitted a cost estimate and a proposal covering the design, fabrication, construction, and testing of a uranium slug canning machine. This machine will cover requirements for mechanization of only the operations occurring within the aluminum-silicon canning bath. These operations are: Can and cap preheating, Can and cap wetting, Canning assembly, and Quenching. Stated briefly, the machine is required to insert a prepared uranium slug into an aluminum can and close the can opening with an aluminum cap. All assembly operations will be carried out beneath a molten bath of standard Hanford aluminum-silicon bonding alloy. The uranium slug is preheated and prewetted before being manually transferred to the slug assembly and quench machine. The process performed by the machine will be integrated with the manual slug preheating and wetting equipment so that proper preheating and wetting is attained before the slug is inserted into the machine. After assembly the completed canned slug will be transferred to the water quenching station, where the components are held firmly together until the molten aluminum-silicon has frozen, forming a homogeneously bonded assembly. This report provides a detailed description of the machine.

The effect of strain rate on the tensile properties of thorium is being investigated. It was found that the yield strength increases slightly with increasing strain rate, and that tensile strength increases but to a lesser extent. The shear modulus was determined to be 4.26 x 10/sup 6/ psi. A preprocess thorium was made, giving a value of 5.0871 plus or minus 0.0002 A. Studies on the fabrication of thorium by extrusion and drawing were continued, as were studies on the extrusion cladding of thorium and uranium with zirconium. In order to determine whether or not the type of preferred orientation developed in alpha -extruded uranium rod was dependent on the actual extrusion temperature, x- raydiffraction studies were made of completely recrystallized and unrecrystallized extruded uranium. The results show that the texture developed upon deformation is not always retained upon recrystallization. The corrosion testing of various metals and alloys in liquid sodium, lead, and lithium and in molten fluorides and hydroxides was continued. The interaction of sodium with 316 stainless steel appears negligible during static testing. The testing of the molten media in thermal convection loops continues to be plagged by failures other than corrosion. The investigation of means of …

This report consists of a graph which plots the minimum requirements for the pressure at the top of riser after an electrical power failure verses time after the electrical power failure. Pressure is expressed in pounds per square inch. Points for shutdown of maximum operation and normal operation are given.

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This document provides the monthly reports for January 1952 through December 1952. These reports detail activities in the 100 areas during this time period. (FI)

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This is a progress report of the production reactors on the Hanford Reservation for the month of January 1952. This report takes each division (e.g., manufacturing, medical, accounting, occupational safety, security, reactor operations, etc.) of the site and summarizes its accomplishments and employee relations for that month.

The basis for the safety control system for RDA-DC-3 is set forth in HDC-2462 with revisions as noted here. These conditions are satisfied by an array of safety control components comprising 37 vertical safety rods and 51 ball hoppers (51 total vertical graphite slots) as shown on drawing H-1-21403.

A review of the present design information and studies relating to nuclear power plants indicates that the weight of the power plant components, exclusive of crew shield and nacelles, may at a particular design point be represented by an equation of the form, W{subpp} = W{subo} + K{subt}T. By use of this, a power plant parameter psi is defined as the ratio of the part of the power plant plus nacelle weight that varies with thrust to the net thrust of the power plant less nacelle drag. The funamentall part that this parameter plays in determining the gross weight of a nuclaer powered aircraft is shown. This parameter depends on the design point Mach number and altitude, and the weight and drag increments attributable to the nacelle installation.

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