This report is a bibliography of studies on the toxicology of polonium with focus on issues addressed by the Atomic Energy Commission, but also includes published literature. Some of the citations contain abstracts and the reports are annotated as to contemporary classification status of reports.

Since the presence of neptunium-239 in disassembly basin water had been suggested, analysis of the water was undertaken. The occurrence of Np-239 was thought to be due to its diffusion through the slugs. Samples of water from the D and E Canals in K and R-Areas were analyzed to determine the presence of Np-239. Samples from and K and R Areas both showed Np-239 to be present in quantities greater than 50% of the initial total activity.

After almost four months elapsed time since product introduction into the RMA Line, it was pertinent to evaluate both process and equipment performance and arrive at a program for future improvement. The suggestions and recommendations provided are those of the Technical Section. In those passages made to acknowledge the views of the appropriate groups.

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Progress is reported on work on carbon reduction of uranium oxide; uranium slug and slug canning development; preparation and handling of fine non-pyrophoric uranium powder; separation of alloys; reduction of thorium oxide; and preparation of beryllium. Work to investigate and develop methods, by means of which flat plate fuel elements approximately 14 feet long can be manufactured economically by powder metallurgical processes and to investigate methods for producing tubular fuel elementsis reported. Progress is reported on work on hydrostatic pressing of metal powders and slip casting of metal powders. Further development work is reported on dimensionally stable uranium alloys, wire fuel elements, and perforated wafer fuel elements, as well as investigation of the mechanism of dimensional instability of U under irradiation and the fundamentals of sintering and of diffusional bonding.

Thorium nitrate, removed from irradiated Th metal processed in the Thorex pilot plant, was converted to the oxide and then to the fluoride in one pilot-plant-scale and two laboratory-scale runs. Activity distributions, decontamination factors, and safety of the process are treated. (D.L.C.)

Brillouin polyhedra for the intermetallic compounds of lithium and lead were determined using the zone theory. From these determinations, predictions and explanations of some electromagmetic and structural properties of the intermetallic compounds were made. (For Part IV see UCRL-4973.) (C.J.G.)

High-absorbancy spectrophotometry was applied to the precise determination of about 0.15% cobalt in aluminum by the 1-(2-pyridylazo)-2- naphthol method. The absorbancies of sample aliquots were measured versus a standard containing 50 mu g of cobalt. The relative concentration error for a single measurement, assuming a 1% transmittancy error, is 0.93% and the coefficient of variation of 5 cobalt determinations is 0.5%. (auth)

Uranium--niobium alloys were prepared by direct reduction with calcium of urardum tetrafluoride and niobium pentoxide. The reduction of potassium oxyfluoniobate did not give satisfactory results. Alloys containing up to 20% niobium have been successfully achieved. Ternary alloys containing chromium and vanadium have been prepared by simultaneous reduction of chromium anhydride and vanadium pentoxide. The preparation of the alloys is described and the results are discussed. (auth)

A proposal is given of an approach to a fission-product trapping system which appears feasible on the basis of thermodynamic and other data available. Reactor and trapping conditions are outlined. The half-lives, fission yields, and volatility of the fission products of interest are described. To provide the most effective retention at elevated temperatures, two types of reagents are required: a highly electropositive metal that will not melt or appreciably vaporize and which will form stable non-volatile compounds with non-metallic or near non-metallic fission products; and a reagent to provide a highly electronegative element to form stable, non-volatile compounds with metallic fission products. Thermodynamic properties are included for compounds formed by reactions between the fission products and the trapping reagents. (B.O.G.)

In reduction reactions of CeO/sub 2/, with calcium and a CaCl/sub 2/ flux, the use of vibrational energy was shown to have a marked effect on the yield of coalesced metal. Buttons of 40 to 50% theoretical yield were obtained from the vibrated reductions. As the flux concentration is decreased, the slag becomes more viscous containing undissolved CaO. The undissolved CaO present prevents the metal from completely coalescing, but the metal can be recovered from the slag and coalesced under CaCl/sub 2/ containing a small amount of calcium to reduce any oxide skin present. Cerium pellet yields of 50 to 60% metal were obtained by the procedure and were not difficult to handle in air. Cerium was used as a stand-in material for plutonium. (B.O.G.)

This report summarizes the design and construction of the Bevatron (6-Bev proton synchrotron) with emphasis on the engineering problems. It includes specifications, outline drawings, and a bibliography of other reports concerning the subject. Operating results and changes made after the initial start-up in February 1954 are mentioned only briefly.

Activation of indium foils by thermal neutrons has been applied to measurement of fast-neutron fluxes. Foils are encased in paraffin spheres placed in cadmium boxes. The high-energy neutrons that penetrate the cadmium become thermal neutrons; the thermal-neutron flux is proportional to the incident fast-neutron flux over a range of about 20 kev to 20 Mev. The foils are removed from the boxes and counted on a methane-flow proportional counter. High instantaneous neutron fluxes are easily detected and counted by use of these foils. Many simultaneous measurements have been made easily by this method.

The operational characteristics of the Cosmotron were reviewed in brief. Since a rather complete account of this machine is now available in the September 1953 issue of Rev. Sci. Inst., this summary will include only the more recent utilization of the machine as a research instrument.

The question of the conditions under which living matter originated on the surface of the earth is still a subject limited largely to speculation. The speculation has a greater chance of approaching the truth insofar as it includes and is based upon the ever wider variety of established scientific fact. One of the purposes of the herein reported observation was to add another fact to the ever increasing information which might have any bearing upon this most interesting question. It is not our purpose in the present communication to discuss the various proposals or the arguments which have been adduced for and against them. One of the most popular current conceptions is that life originated in an organic milieu on the surface of the earth, (1,2,3,4,5). The problem to which we are addressed is the origin of that organic milieu in the absence of any life. It appeared to us that one source, if not the only source, of reduced carbon compounds in complex arrangements might be the interaction of various high energy radiations with aqueous solutions of inorganic materials, particularly carbon dioxide, and nitrogenous compounds such as ammonia and nitrogen, since it appears that these compounds were the commoner …

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While the concept of a biological system as a balanced network of chemical transformations is not a new one, experimental definition of specific systems has been lacking. This paper defines theoretically and experimentally a number of such networks and their behavior and response to some limited environmental changes.

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The occurrence of a fault April 7 caused a short in the stator winding of one of the main generators. Repairs will require at least one month and the total time the generator will be down can be determined only after a further inspection of the damage. In a week or two, after a thorough inspection of the generator and the ignitron system, Bevatron operation will be continued on one generator. Since the targets of use in a Bevatron experiment will depend greatly on the nature of the experiment and the techniques to be employed the ideas presented here relate primarily to the area of research which involves the detection with counters of heavy mesons emitted in the backward direction in the laboratory system. These mesons and their decay products have low kinetic energy over the entire range of Bevatron energies above threshold for production. For this reason discrimination by means of momentum resolution, collimating slits, ionization density and range will be possible.

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Small particles of zirconinm formed during mechancal operations have caused serious industrial explosions. Particles of this type will not be encountered during aqueous chemical reprocessing. However, small panticles of metallic phases rich in zirconium or niobium, produced by selective leaching of a more reactive uranium-rich phase, can enter into violently explosive reactions. The conditions under which explosions with zirconium-bearing alloys may be expected during chemical reprocessing have been defined in the literatare. The uranium-zirconiaum alloys containing less than 30 wt.% zirconium are hazardous when they contact nitric acid. Laboratory work has shown that potentially explosive zirconium alloys may be safely dissolved in nitric acid if enough fluoride ion is added to maintain a mole ratio of fluoride to dissolved zirconium of four. Niobium-bearing fuel alloys can also explode after contacting nitric acid, but the conditions which produce explosions have not yet been studied thoroughly. Dissolution studies with the EBWR alloy (93.5% U, 5% Zr, 1.5% Nb) indicate that hazardous niobium alloys can also be processed safely in nitric acid by addition of enough fluoride to prevent formation of surface deposits. The ternary phase diagram for zirconium -uranium -oxygen shows that the epsilon phase is unstable at the interface between a …

A tabulation (too large to be included in the memorandum) of the hypergeometric probability distribution for lot sizes up to and including 50 is described. Uses of the tabulation in sampling inspection and reliability are described. The tabulation provides a simple way of testing the equality of two proportions when the total number of observations on the proportions does not exceed 50. (auth)

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