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This report itemizes the irradiations performed by Testing for Battelle-Northwest Laboratories. It lists the material being irradiated, awaiting disposition and material shipped during the report period.

This document reports on direct AEC sponsored programs (Columbia River studies); assistance to Douglas United Nuclear (N-Reactor); assistance to Atlantic Richfield Hanford Company (Purex Process, B-Plant, Z-Plant); and technical assistance to the Hanford Plant (environment, dosimetry).

Process Physics Unit has investigated in our sphere of responsibility the changes in reactor operating methods which would result in lower personnel radiation exposure. Reduced spline usage is the only innovation I can suggest for reducing personnel radiation accumulation.

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A study has been made of various types of artificial lightning test facilities required to produce an output current waveform of 1 x 50 microseconds with a 200,000 ampere crest current, representing a very severe natural lightning discharge.

The Building Electrical Power System, transmits, distributes and controls the electrical power utilized by the equipment of all of the FFTF system. Included are system functions and design requirements, the physical description of the system, safety considerations, principles of operations, and maintenance principles.

This document provides daily operations reports for the period of July 1, 1968 through August 31, 1968. (FI)

The Lewis Research Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration initiated a project at Battelle Memorial Institute for the purpose of fabricating clad fuel pellet containment vessel assemblies. These assemblies house clad fuel pellets containing enriched fuel. Irradiation studies of these assemblies in the NASA Plum Brook Reactor will provide data required for the desigi of thermionic converter reactors being considered by NASA. Three major objectives were defined at the initiation of this project at Battelle. These were (1) to provide containment vessel assemblies for irradiation studies, (2) to identify the best fuel dispersion/cladding combination for the fueled pellets, and (3) to identify and optimize the most promising fabrication technique to the extent necessary to provide reproducible specimens. In addition to these major objectives, other goals were defined in relation to supporting studies required for the successful conclusion of this program. The approach for accomplishing these objectives involved the cooperation of various research and research support groups at Battelle. These groups contributed to the overall program by involvement in the following areas: (1) Preparation or procurement of various types of UO{sub 2} fuel particles; (2) Application of tungsten coating to the fuel particles; (3) Development of various powder-consolidation techniques …

On September 18, 1967, KE Reactor experienced,a failure in a K5E fuel element in tube 2863, exposure 634 Mwd/t. On September 24, 1967, two additional failures occurred. All of these elements, clad with X8001 alloy were from the same canning lot. All fuel elements from this canning lot were termed rupture-prone and were discharged. The elements from five columns including column 2863, but neither columns 2865 nor 3256, were sent to 105-C Basin Fuel Examination Facility for further examination. An incipient failure was found and sent to Radiometallurgy in an effort to determine the cause of failure. During the course of examination, the spire was found to contain beehive-shaped growths approximately 1/8-inch high and 1/8-inch 9 in diameter at the base. The incipient failure contained four of these growths protruding from the spire wall. Closer examination showed that the spire contained numerous other ``beehives`` in less advanced stages of growth. The ruptured element from 2863 also contained a ``beehive``. The second section of this report covers examination of several ``beehives`` and presents information concerning the possible cause or causes of growth.

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Drosophila melanogaster adults are irradiated and then mated to flies containing genetic markers and/or crossover suppressors in all chromosomes. Appropriate genetic schemes are followed to obtain balanced stocks of entire treated genomes. Each chromosome of each genome is observed for visibles, lethals, detrimentals and sterility factors. Tests are made for translocations involving any combination of chromosomes. All chromosomes of each genome are examined cytologically for possible deficiencies, inversions, transpositions, etc. and to determine the break points of the translocations. It is believed that a study such as this will give us a far better idea of the overall magnitude of radiation-induced genetic damage and a better insight into the nature of this damage, expecially the inter­-relationships between the different kinds of genetic alterations, than has heretofore been possible with studies of selected types of damage in selected chromosomes or loci.

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