An engineering flowsheet has been prepared for the conversion of an aqueous slurry of cesium-zinc-ferrocyanide into a dry cesium chloride product by the calcination process. Flowsheet No. 1 defines a six-step batch-type calcination operation for processing the slurry into a dry powder for offsite shipment in bulk containers. Some of the advantages to this process are as follows: Product losses are expected to be small, estimated to be less than 0.03 percent; the equipment required to process a given number of curies per batch appears to be relatively small, compact, and simple; the process does not impose severe requirements for materials of construction; and requirements for process control and instrumentation are expected to be simple. There are two disadvantages to this process. First, the cesium-zinc-ferrocyanide precipitate is not considered economically filterable, hence, the separation of solids from liquids is encumbered. Second, the process, as outlined, if potentially hazardous because of the possible nitrate carry-over with the influent slurry. This nitrate may cause a rapid reaction in the calcination step. It is concluded that this flowsheet offers a satisfactory scheme for isolating radiocesium if the process is modified to preclude the possibility of nitrates or other unwanted oxidants from reaching the …

Since the installation of Ball 3X equipment on the older reactors, several inadvertent ball drops have been experienced, many of which have required considerable recovery time. Furthermore, it is very probable that these recovery times be significantly increased subsequent to the proposed installation of air accelerated vertical safety rods. Because of this, interest has been expressed by reactor operations personnel toward provision of a ball recovery system which would substantially reduce these outages.

This document details activities of the irradiation processing department during the month of April 1957. A general summary is included at the start of the report, after which the report is divided into the following sections: research and engineering operations; production and reactor operations; facilities engineering operation; employee relations operation; and financial operation.

The purpose of this report is to summarize all actual and potential power level limits under which the K Reactors may be forced to operate during the next year. In addition, a summary of the methods being followed to eliminate each is to be discussed along with a graphical presentation of the relationship of the various limits. For the purpose of this report, it was assumed that all power levels will be attainable from a physics aspect since these problems are discussed elsewhere. It is not the intent of this report to recommend that these power levels be attained but only to indicate what production levels are possible through operation on any one limit. Seven outlet temperature limits govern operation at the K Reactors. They are: TBI Limit; Crosstie Limit; Rear Header Saturation Limit; Bulk Outlet Temperature Limit; Tube Corrosion Limit; Temperature Monitor Limit; and Rupture Control Point. Operation during the summer months of 1957 will require cuts in power in order to remain within these limits unless modes of circumventing a few are found. The limits are shown graphically in the appendix at the various flow rates probable. From these curves it is evident that the Low Trip TBI …

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This report addresses the summary report of the Chemical Engineering Division.

Current Panellit protection procedures, termed instability limits, come from calculations based on steady state experiments. However, the actual conditions in a process tube following a plugging occurrence sufficient to cause unstable flow are transient rather than steady state, and cannot be determined with great precision except by transient state experimentation. As a result, a program was initiated by the thermal Hydraulics Operation of HLO to perform a series of transient heat transfer experiments which would define the process tube response to (1) rapid plugging in the process tube assembly, (2) slow plugging in the process tube assembly, and (3) power excursions above normal of varying amounts. Transient heat transfer experimentation on a large scale is not common and many difficulties have been encountered. After preliminary runs were made and reported, a further series of runs were planned and run which would include K as well as BDF type data and would define more closely the upper limit of the panellit protection. During the test runs, data from these transient experiments are recorded on high speed recording instruments, each of which has a calibration which is subject to change regardless of the efforts expended by the experimenters. This means that checking …

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Fabrication techniques for producing dispersion fuel elements with cores of 30 volume per cent of UC, U/sub 2/Ti, U/sub 3/Si, or U/sub 6/Ni dispersed in Zircaloy 2 and 30 volume per cent of UC or UN dispersed in Type 18-8 stainless steel have been investigated. Roll-clad plate-type elements of all these compositions may be fabricated by powdermetallurgy methods in such a manner that good core-tocladding bonds and cores with uniform dispersions of discrete uranium- compound particles are obtained. From the standpoint of fabricability, elements containing UC in Zircaloy 2, UC in stainless steel, and UN in stainless steel are the most promising. The UN in stainless steel has the best corrosion resistance in 680 deg F degassed water; however, UC in stainless steel has the best resistance to corrosion in 700 deg F NaK. (auth)

The effects of pile irradiations on the physical properties and corrosion resistance of U-- Mo, U-- Nb; and U--Si alloys are reported. The dimensional stability under irradiation of the gamma phase U-- Mo and U-- Nb alloys is excellent; however, an isotropic volume increase of 4 to 6% per wt.% burnup may limit the ultimate fuel element life. Corrosion resistance of the gamma-phase alloys appesrs to be improved when subjected to s neutron field; this is attributed to an irrsdiation induced stabilization of the gamma phases. The U/ sub 3/Si alloy, on the other hand, suffered severe deterioration, particularly of corrosion resistance. Changes in electrical resistivity, hardness, mechanical properties, and crystal structure are presented and the mechanisms producing the observed changes discussed. (auth)

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The rates of growth of diffusion layers between U and Al and between U and AlSi alloy (eutectic composition) were studied and compared over the temperature range 250 to 55O deg C. Metallographic observation shows that the U-- Al reaction layers form three to five times as fast as the U-- AlSi layers over this temperature range. Sixty per cent of the layer growth takes place in the Al or AlSi alloy and 40% in U. (auth)

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