The attached list of publications is submitted as a year to year and final report of progress on work accomplished under Contract AT(11-1)-159 from 1950 to 1959. Work was initiated on this project in the spring of 1950 and is still in progress as of the date of this report.

Technical report outlining experiments on aluminum-lithium alloys. From Abstract: "Aluminum-lithium alloys are subject to precipitation from solid solution, and may be age hardened by the same techniques used for more common aluminum alloys. Spherical particles of precipitate were observed with the electron microscope in 1.5% and 2.8% Al-Li alloys after aging for times comparable to those required to produce maximum hardness. Rod-shaped particles that were oriented parallel to either the (110) or the (111) planes of the aluminum matrix were observed in overaged specimens."

Quantitative recovery of carrier‐free 10−9 M manganese (II) is possible from weakly acidic solutions. The use of lead dioxide as either a non-isotopic carrier or a chemical displacing agent makes possible high recoveries from more acidic solutions.

The program objective has been to investigate the possible similarity between a bond interface and a grain boundary. The criterion for establishing the similarity of a bond interface and a grain boundary was the migration characteristics of the boundary under the influence of controlled orientation, strain level, temperature and time. In addition, the orientation dependency of the "threshold", or minimum deformation, for bonding would have to be determined. The initial bonding studies were to be made by a "cold welding" technique; subsequently, elevated temperatures bonding would have been attempted. Migration of boundaries was to be observed by high temperature metallographic techniques.

References to 193 publications of staff members of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission during 1947 through 1959 are listed in both English and Japanese. Author and subject indexes are included.

From abstract: "A preliminary investigation was made of techniques and materials for canning graphite to protect it for use at high temperatures in a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere"

The need for thermal and fast neutron fluxes in the range of 1 to 5 x l0/ sup 15/ neutrons/cm/sup 2/(sec) for the production of heavy elements such as Cf/ sup 252/ and other special isotopes and for improving the quality of beam experiments, reactor materials testing work, and solid state research has led to plans for the construction of three ultra high flux research reactors. The designs of these and other high flux research reactors are based on the general technology of enriched tank-type reactors; however, they utilize the principle of separate fuel and moderator regions to achieve flux peaking in these regions. Thus, proposed designs take the form of an annular fuel region with internal and external moderating regions or an under moderated core with an external moderator or reflector. In such arrangements, the thermal flux peaks in the moderating regions and the fast flux peaks in the fuel region, which results in maximum fast and thermal fluxes per unit of power. Since most of the moderation of fast neutrons takes place outside of the fuel region, the thermal flux peaking depends on the number of fast neutrons leaking from the reactor core, which in turn depends on …

1. The solubility of acetylacetone has been determined in an acetate buffer solution of ionic strength C.1 in relation to pH and temperature. 2. The distribution coefficients of acetylacetone have been determined between chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, benzene and an acetate buffer solution in relation to acetylacetone concentration and pH. 3. The relationship has been established between the rate at which indium acetylacetonate reaches partition equilibrium and the pH, initial acetylacetone concentration in the organic phase, and the different organic solvents. 4. The extent of the extraction of indiumacetylacetonate has been determined for three organic solvents at two acetylacetone concentrations in relation of pH. The independence of the degree of extraction from indium concentration was established in the region between 10(-4) to 10(-6) M. 5. 5. The indium acetylacetone compound was obtained by extraction from organic solvents. 6. The stability constants were calculated by two different methods for the uncharged complex and intermediate complexes; also the constants for the various steps of the dissociation of indiumacetylacetonate.

The order of magnitude of the non-mesonic to mesonic ratio has been measured for several species of hyper- fragments. With this ratio as well as the branching ratio of the mesonic decays and a determination of the lifetime, it is possible to find the partial decay rates of the various modes. This decay rate should throw light on the influence of nucleons on the strangeness violation in the decay. The effect should be greater for heavy hyperfragments. The difficulty in attempts to measure lifetimes in emulsions is that the mean energy of the hyperfragments products by K mesons and Pions is so low that the moderation time is a very small fraction of the lifetime. Although the stopping power of bubble chambers is considerably less, the spatial resolution of these devices is such that the heavier hyperfragments can not be seen or identified. For these reasons, it seems possible to measure lifetimes of heavy hyperfragments only in emulsions. In an attempt to achieve higher nuclear excitation energies in interactions and correspondingly more energetic hyperfragments, a search has made for hyperfragments produced by heavy primaries from the cosmic rays.

The General Electric Test Reactor (GETR) facility is designed to irradiate the fuel specimens in a helium-cooled environment at 800 degree F and pressures from 315 to 400 psig. Thermal neutron fluxes in the fuel are of the order of 3 x 10(13) mv and the induvial test pieces, of which there are three in each facility tube, generate five kilowatts at heat fluxes slightly over 200,000 Btu per hour per square foot. Five facility tubes are provided in the reactor pool. Separate coolant lines are brought out from each facility tube to the instrumentation. The lines are then joined into one inlet and one outlet header line and are so connected to the compressors and the balance of the equipment. Axial-flow rotary compressors are used to circulate the coolant gas. Each of the facility tubes is provided with a movable cadmium neutron shutter and with suitable instrumentation and equipment to allow individual adjustment of operating conditions.

This report is the second in a series of quarterly reports on the discussion and progression of an improved nuclear density gauge, covering techniques measuring detector sensitivity to result in improved stability.

The following report summarizes the work of many investigators in widely varied fields of interest in engineering geology. Detailed documents are referred to in the Plowshare bibliography.

Plutonium metal can be injected into cold metal molds to form castings with thin walls. The operation is performed in a vacuum chamber, using an inert gas as the injecting medium. Sound pieces free of gas cavities can be made using either pure or delta-stabilized plutonium. This report describes the equipment and techniques used to cast a typical thin section piece in the form of a 6 in. diameter, 45' cone.

The importance of maintaining high purity water for in-reactor reactor recirculation facilities is well known. High Purity water reduces corrosion and minimizes radiation to a tolerable level. The Coolant Testing Unit utilizes various resins to maintain the water quality in the in-reactor test facilities. The purposes of this report are: (1) to explain the processes of water conditioning for loop make-up water and special conditioning for loop clean up water; (2) to discuss the utilization and specifications of the resins; (3) to summarize the performance of these resins and the various problems encountered in their uses; (4) to show how some of these problems may be minimized or possibly be eliminated.

The cross sections for electric dipole photodisintegration of H/sup 3/ and He/sup 3/ at low energies are expressed in terms of the effective range parameters of the doublet n-d scattering matrix. Agreement with the experimental results is possible for either set of n-d scattering lengths.

From abstract: "The mass spectrum of stannane, SnH4, has been studied. Ion fragmentation patterns for both the singly and doubly charged fragments were obtained employing 70-volt electrons. From appearance potential data, an estimation of the bond energies of the tin-hydrogen bond in the ion-species SnH+3-H, SnH+2-H, SnH+-H, Sn+-H has been made along with [delta]Hf for SnH4. The studies were first made with tin of normal isotopic abundance, and then the results were corroborated with SnH4 prepared with the separated isotope 120Sn."

Molten salts have been used extensively as solvents for electrochemical processes. The difficulty of removing the last traces of residual moisture from the salts has often necessitated rather arduous drying procedures. If the moisture is not removed, hydrolysis occurs upon fusion. The hydroxide ion thus produced precipitates metal ions, attacks glass, and is reduced more easily than the alkali metals, thus diminishing the usable potential range of the solvent. It was found that if rigorously dried hydrogen chloride is bubbled through the melt for twenty minutes before the argon flush, the hydroxide ion impurity is removed.

The cooling of the graphite was started by increasing the fan load and reducing reactor power. This change was accompanied by a temporary increase in exit air temperature, stack activity and some graphite temperatures. Although unexpected at the time, each change can be explained in terms of the change in air flow rate. There were no other unusual conditions noted during the operation. Temperature traverses through the graphite structure in various channels and at various times during the anneal operation are illustrated in the accompanying charts.

Several different types of experimental facilities have been evaluated to determine the most suitable and economical means of demonstrating the technical feasibility of the Pebble Bed Reactor concept. The criteria for demonstrating technical feasibility are: 1) bulk irradiation of fuel elements in order to obtain statistical data on performance, 2) Maintenance of system activity at specified levels, and 3) Feasible maintenance procedures. An additional criterion, which is required to achieve breeding in the full scale plant is - 4) Demonstrate the mechanics of continuous refueling under load.

The photometric titration technique is used for the determination of weak bases using perchloric acid in acetic acid as titrant and acetic acid or acetonitrile as solvent. Differentiating titration of as many as four components in a single mixture is shown to be possible. Comparison with potentiometric titrations in the same media shows the photometric technique to be preferable in many instances where the bases to be differentiated are very similar in strength. The versatility of the photometric procedure in differentiating bases is greatly increased by the device of changing wavelength during titration of mixtures. (auth)

Classical polarography and voltammetry with other electrodes are discussed . 189 references taken from literature between mid-1957 and mid-to-late 1959 is surveyed.

The current concepts for reprocessing of non-production reactor fuels at Hanford and other AEC sites were reviewed at the AEC Symposium on "Chemical Processing of Irradiated Fuels from Power, Test and Research Reactors" held at Richland on October 20 and 21, 1959. A report on the symposium will be issued early in 1960 in Bulletin TID-7583. Current planning calls for location of the receiving and storage, mechanical treatment, dissolution, clarification and solution storage facilities at the Uranium Recovery Plant. Dissolver solution is to be piped to the Redox Plant for separation and decontamination of the uranyl and plutonium nitrates. The decontaminated uranium product will be shipped as a uranyl nitrate solution to another AEC site for calcination. No further treatment of the plutonium nitrate is planned in the present project.

An electromagnetic quadrupole lane system been developed and constructed which will be used to study the focusing of beta-rays. A current-carrying wire analog has also been developed to make preliminary studies of the accessory lane parameters.

Several experiments have been performed to determine the effective resonance absorption integral for molybdenum as a function of the thickness of molybdenum sheets. The results have been compared to theoretical predictions to appraise the contribution from unresolved resonances. The latter is significant when one is involved with structural components in a reactor that are quite thick such that lower energy resonances are strongly self-shielded whereas the resonances in the kev range and beyond are not. The resonance integrals were determined by placing molybdenum sheets in a critical assembly and finding critical dimensions. A multigroup diffusion code was then employed to determine the cross-sections which gave the correct critical dimensions.