This document presents a summary of work and progress at the Hanford Engineer works for October, 1955. The report is divided into sections by department. A plant wide general summary is included at the beginning of the report, after which the departmental summaries begin. The Manufacturing Department reports plant statistics, and summaries for the Metal Preparation, Reactor and Separation sections. The Engineering Department`s section summarizes work for the Technical, Design, and Project Sections. Costs for the various departments are presented in the Financial Department`s summary. The Medical, Radiological Sciences, Utilities and General Services, Employee and Public Relations, and community Real Estate and Services departments have sections presenting their monthly statistics, work, progress, and summaries.

Since the development of Dirac's theory of the electron and the brilliant confirmation of one of its most startling predictions by the discovery of the positron by Anderson, it has been assumed most likely that the proton would also have its charge conjugate, the antiproton. The properties that define the antiproton are: (a) charge equal to the electron charge (also in sign); (b) mass equal to the proton mass; (c) stability against spontaneous decay; (d) ability to annihilate by interaction with a proton or neutron, probably generating pions and releasing in some manner the energy 2 mc{sup 2}; (e) generation in pairs with ordinary nucleons; (f) magnetic moment equal but opposite to that of the proton; (g) fermion of spin 1/2. Not all these properties are independent, but all might ultimately be subjected to experiment.

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The purpose of these investigations is to determine, grossly and simply, if a shock hazard exists from an explosive failure of the pressurizer vessel within the vapor container. Because of the geographical location of the reactor, an explosive failure which ruptured the vapor container might release radioactive contamination from the reactor to nearby inhabited communities. The study is considered more as a generic problem than of a specific design and is concerned with the shock hydrodynamics of an exploding steam vessel. (auth)

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The topics discussed at this meeting included: the approval for six technical studies, safety concerns, fuel elements for tritium production, and the Mark III fuel assembly. Appendices attached to this report describe the financial status [unreadable], the theoretical physics program, experimental physics program, pile engineering program, and the Technical Division study status.

A large fraction of the effort on high-energy physics this quarter was devoted to the study of K particles. Ten of the fourteen external laboratory groups, as well as seven of the internal laboratory groups, used the K{sup {+-}}-beam facilities. These experiments included measurements of lifetimes, modes of decay; and excitation functions. Counters and cloud-chamber techniques were used in addition to nuclear emulsions. Measurements of total and differential cross-sections for {pi}{sup -} mesons continued. Work on proton-proton scattering was extended to 4.8 Bev. Radiochemical investigations of spallation products in light and heavy elements were extended. A new target plunger, a 4-inch quadrupole magnet, and two new steel collimators were added to the experimental facilities. Accelerator development this quarter included experiments on increasing the acceptance time of the Bevatron, self-tracking of the radiofrequency equipment, and the substitution of an analogue computer for the 3D-point curve corrector.

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The Isolation Process, contained in the 231 Building, has an operational cost of approximately $35,000 per month. The location of this process in the 224-T Building would result in lower manpower requirements and effect an estimated savings of $5,000 per month. This report details study made to determine the feasibility and approximate cost for installing this process in 224-T.

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This is the weekly progress report for the 200 area for the week of November 10, 1955. Areas discussed pertaining to the solvent extraction plants include operation status, 232-F Building, 221-F - NFE dissolver, 200-F - solvent purification, 221-F - increased throughput, 241-F additional waste storage tanks, 221-F canyon pumps.

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The primary purpose of this report is to present cost data associated with the recent construction of biological shields at Hanford. These data are useful for analyzing shields which have been built during the past four years and for ascertaining ways to improve future designs. Specifically, the objectives of this study are to: compile and analyze cost data associated with the construction of the high density concrete shields at 105-K and the steel-masonite shields at 105-C; and determine unit costs for erecting steel forms at Hanford and for filling them with high density concrete.

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This report discusses a system which has been conceived whereby additional flexible reactivity control in the production reactors can be achieved by introducing neutron absorbers contained in thin flexible metal strips between the slugs and the process tube wall. These splines are potentially attractive in that it is possible they could be used to provide additional flexible control during operation as well as temporary control during outages.

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