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This report discusses the operation of the Hanford Reservation`s 300 Area for December 11 through December 17, 1945. They discuss: extrusion, canning, slug testing, a magnesium chloride flux, and the composition changes of a aluminium-silicon dip bath.

By the time regular crude biscuit production was interrupted at Ames on November 9, 1944, we had made well over 100 special experimental castings by pouring the liquid metal directly from the bomb. The workmen on the regular crude production line were alternating these special castings with the regular runs without the assistance of the research group. The process had reached a state of development 'wherein the castings were made by pouring batches of about 135 pounds of liquid metal directly from the bomb into a water-cooled steel mold in the presence of air at atmospheric pressure. The pouring operation was effected through a mechanically operated valve in the bottom of the bomb. The workability of such a process has been well established, and the quality of the metal has been proved through candling and chemical tests. The first sixty billets produced by this method have been extruded successfully. A number of changes, designed to improve the quality and yield of the product and to simplify the process, have been made since producing the metal for these tests. The first set-up to test the possibility of pouring the metal directly from the bomb was made on a small scale here …

The usual method of producing uranium slugs for the reaction pile is to cast the metal into billets which are extruded into rod about 1.45 inches in diameter. Slugs are then machined from this to the final size of 1.359 inches in diameter by 8 inches long. Extrusion is done in the gamma range at a temperature of about 1000 C, where the metal is soft enough to be extruded at relatively low pressures. This operation is difficult and expensive and the product is not entirely satisfactory. The billets must be protected from oxidation during heating and extruding and the extruded rod must likewise be protected during cooling. Loss of metal due to oxidation is appreciable and a relatively large amount of scrap is produced. The production of dies suitable for use at the high temperatures involved is troublesome. The extruded rod must be straightened before machining and frequently contains stringers of oxide and voids or other internal defects.

The total power output of a unit may be represented by the power output of the most productive tube or tubes multiplied by a quantity designated as the ``number of effective tubes.`` The number of effective tubes observed at 105-D under two different arrangements of poisoned columns has been compared with values of this quantity calculated from theory. It was found that in each case the observed number of effective tubes was about 5% less than the ideal number obtainable by an optimum arrangement of the poison. In the case in which two poisoned columns in the pile took up 110 ih it was found that the loss consisted of 2% due to the necessary presence of a control rod in the pile and 3% due to the fact that the actual arrangement of the poison was not the optimum one. In the case in which a single, off center, poison column took up 60 ih, it was found that very little of the loss was due to the presence of the control rod and almost all of it was due to the eccentric position of the P-column. As a further result of this study, it was found that, apart …

A maximum batch size of 400 g Pu-239 is favored. The upper safe limit of product batch size is over 1 kg.

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Data acquired from the temperature survey of the Columbia River, April 2, 1945, is presented.

On the basis of polonium assays by the customer, an improved equation for the prediction of the polonium content of a bismuth tube has been developed.

It is recognized that the S-50 plant operations are far from standardized and therefore any manual will require continual revision to keep it up to date. Even during the period of writing this first edition, many changes occurred and were incorporated in the manual. Such revisions could delay indefinitely the issuance of the manual and it was felt that in its present form it could be useful in the training of new plant personnel. The specific purpose of the process employed by the Ferclave Corporation in the plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is one of secret information and cannot be released here. It can be stated, however, that the plant operation involves the processing of a chemical substance. This substance is not identified in the plant or in the process but is referred to only as 'material'. Its code designation is C-616. The process in general involves the separation of the raw material into constituents with more desirable properties. It is not necessary to know the name of the material nor the exact nature of the process in order to carry out the operations so this information will not be given in this Manual. The problem involved is to transport …

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.

After it had been decided that aluminum was to be used as a corrosion-resistant material with good heat transfer properties, it was desired to determine the operating conditions to be used in the water-cooled Handford plant in order to avoid danger of corrosion penetration of thin aluminum parts. The studies here reported were undertaken with the object of determining these conditions by investigating the effects of all the known variables which might influence the corrosion behavior of aluminum in a water-coolded plant at HEW. The addition of hydrogen peroxide to the testing solutions was the only effort made to simulate special conditions at the plant.

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The O. Hommel Company, of Carnegie, Penna., supplied Mallinckrodt Chemical Works with three types of Mg chips or powder (Type 84, 85B, and 87B) formed by machining Mg ingots. This material was tested and compared with standard New England Lime Mg in a series of reduction runs. A new type of powder (Type 93) developed by the O. Hommel Company during the course of the first experiment was also sert to Mallinckrodt Chemical Works foi preliminary testing. As this was superior to the other tynes tested, a large batch was made up and sent to both Electro Metallurgical Company and Mallinckrodt Chemical Works in order to confirm the preliminary results obtained by Mallinckrodt Chemical Works alone. (auth)

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