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Machine-read from the scan, so expect some errors. Lines that couldn’t be read are left out.
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I This docume X ’ -t. consists of 7 pages. CORPS OF ENGINEERS THE AREA ENGINEER EIDM A-4 MANHATTAN DISTRICT ADDRESS REPLY TO:^ 2416 Office Of The Area Engineer CORPS OF ENGINEERS WI FOR NIA AREA Area Kame Berkeley Project Designation Univ.of Calif. Period Ending 31 October 1.916 1 s t Lt. Harlan A. Bentzinger departed f o r Separation Center a t Cmp Beale, California, on 1 November 1046, turn to this office in a civilian capacity upon discharge, Contractor: The Tiegents of the University of California Description: Xe sear ch Date of Contract: 1 Yay 1943 t o 30 June 1947
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Approximate Expense f o r October 1946: $379# 400 Approximate Expense f o r October 19L6 broken down by Approximate expense t o 31 October 1946: $17,868,1-!61 Estimated Cost t o 30 June 1947: $22,433,800 1. Laboratory Work - Project 48 Careful inspection of the damage broke out beneath thsa"cyclotron. I t was rapidly brousht under control and only minor damage resulted. indicated that about 28 man-days of work would be required to repair and sult in any overall delay since this reppcir was done concurrently with the installation of oscillator and other allied equipment. This work required about eight or nine days and will notre - The 1@+" in s trl ment may now be considered t o be a completed unit. Preliminary testing has begun, have been overco;ile. The necessary adjus-tnents to obtain the desired f re - quency range of the oscillator and in s tail ation of shields to avoid discharge have been completed. The production of a beam inthe tank has not yet been attempted. Tnis will p-obably be tried within tine next few days after final adjustments of the oscillator allows the attainment of operat ional voltages on the dee. Various minor operational difficulties Some commutator trouble has been experienced with one of the two gerierators which power t h e magnet. laboratory personnel is that a general servicing is required, new armature may be required. feet thick to surround the in str nne nt with a ceiling two feet thick. Prepa rations are being Imde for measuring radiation levels and the efficiency of various shielding materials. The opinion o f Eestinghouse and Research work is continuing on shielding r e - Present plans call for awall of moveable concrete blocks five A seven foot concrete cube igloo with an
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eighteen inch central cavity has been constructed for t?ie testing of and containing an ionization charnber will be used t o cleterinin.e the effect of the radiation upon personnel, chambers will be used for recoil proton energy determination. Pairs of coincidence pulse Development i s proceeding on k e - t & a neutron density measuring instrument and on apair of' differential chambers t o distinguish between neutron flux density and gam produced ionization. b. Linear Accelerator - Shop time devo-ted t o completion of the first forty foot section 0: the linear accelerator has been i n - creased by a factor of' three or four durinz the month. components have novf been assembled and tLe Van d e r Graaf generator i s beginning to take shape. Assembly of the electrical equipment i s on schedule and essentially complete. section azd the Van der Graaf generator will be in operation by late December or early January. ready for assembly. Cold bezch tests are scheduled for November and power tests for December. It is antic lp a ted that both the 401 The five megawatt riagnetron tube i s almost A n extensive series of ca lori metric tests have been carried out t o measure the voltage developed i n resonant cavities both with and without drift tubes. These meas-menents have been correlated with conmeasurements of electron e ner sies,the latter "sing the 36" vacuum chxnber with drift tubes. Tnese measurements lead to the expectation ti at the energy output of the LO1 sectioiz will be 32 ilev plus the energy materials the synchrotron build in5is presently only 85? complete alt&ough its original completion date had been setat 15 Yovenber. sent estimates place the completior? date at1 December 1946. crane has arrived and its install z tion is now proceeding. 203 of the wedges for the vacuum chamber have been fabricated. tests of the plastic sidewalls and pump manifolds will probably be hegunin Xovember. The last shipmen-: of nagnet slabs is now scheduled for about 20 December. The electronic switch i s also scheduled for delivery
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d. Nuclear Chemist y - A two milligram sample of A1241 which has been bombarded a t Hanf'ord for several months was found t o conyet been discovered in this sample. sample was' of sufficient purity to perrriit measurement of its absorption an important observation since this is exactly what one would predict on the basis of the actinide theory. No new Am o r Cm isotopes have a s The Cmvrhich w a s taken from this ]lo appreciable absorption was found in the visible, Thorium was bombarded with alpha particles and a new B i activity found which is either of mass 204 o r 205. found ina sample of B i Its half life is about had had a long bombardment a t Hanford. -6.J parium and Cesium have been bombarded with alpha particles and two new positron emitters and new Ba and Ce ac%iv i ties.discovered. 3;. An analysis has been made ofa sanple o f Beryllimn nitride another 27% was present a s one-carbon oxides, on methods of processing irradiated beryllium nitride must await analyses of other samples, 2. The synthesis of 173 milligrams of Tyrosine has been ccompleted. The material contained 2 x 10 counts per minute per + 3. The reduction of Co;! t o C H 3 I by way of CH30H has been done with an overall 9Oeyi-eld. 4. 'YTork has begun on the synthesis of chl oro acetic wi d labeled both i n t'ne carbonyl and methylene carbon atoms, 5. A small amount of radio-glucose has been synthesized by the photosynthetic method and shown by yeast fermentation t o have the active carbon evenly distributed, The synthesis of large amounts of sucrose i s planned by growing a sugar beet in an a t - 6 , An apparently successful method of rna kin ~ .labelle dbenzene through trirnesic acid is being studied. 7. The primary product of carbon fixation in green plants has been found t o be a carboxylic acid having a pK o f about 2.5.
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I 2. Laboratory Work - Subproject 48-4 a. The metabolic studies of Plutonium and allied nate rials and Operation Crossroads pct iv it y. 1. Very successful radio autoeraphs with Am have been obtained. Both these radio-auto,Zraphic studies and earlier traces experiments indicate that the behavior of -Am inthe rat bears closer resemblance t o Ce than to PU. 2. Work i s continuing on the possible therapeutic value of sul ph hy dr il compounds in the treatment of Pu poisoning. It i s planned t o undertake a survey of the action of the sulphhy dr il compounds upon the deposition of U-raniun-i in the skeleton with particular reference to the hazards which may arise from the exposure of personnel t o $33. 3.A continuation of the arsenic studies indicate that a very high concentration of this ele sent in the carrier free state occurs in the circulating blood and that alrriost all of the activity is held in th eery th re cyte s,the plasma being ahiiost totally inactive. Ltudies ofthe metabolism of radio yttrium(Y) and Ce indicate that they behave the same after incravenous as after intramuscular administration. This opens the possibility of human experimentation by intravenous injection since intramuscular a&clinistration isnot satisfactory due to the large amou-?t of these radio-elenlents rhich remain unabsorbed at the site of tlie inject io ? . 4. Tracer and/or autographic studies are t o be undertaken with thorium, curium and Act in im as soon as s a zp les are ?repared o r inclde available. 5. Tne 6on cyclotron operated quite well during the month of October and the principle boxbard-nent during this period was alpha bombardment of pu and Th f o r Dr. Seaborz. Successful spark and pig ion sources have finally been developed w"nich & r e possible to operate for extepded periods i n tie high masnetic fields of the 60" cyclotron witho:lt electrical breakdown. variations of these two units are nom being made ready for trial inthe cyclotron for the production of stripped hesvy ions.
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During October a new Clinton s l u g which hadhad $0 days irradiation and 240 days cooling was dissolved in a new dissolve r unit constructed entirely of $lass. Tne Pu concentration was about1/25 of comparable Iianf'ord Solvtions and the be te and gamma level was much lower. The sample was processed throuzh three cycles and the overall recovery was 98,934fwtor was 705 x 105 and the gamma D. F. was 1.113 x 105. 6cJ-cle will be run t o see i f an overall qa::m.a F.F. of IC10 can be The beta decontamination During the invest iq ation in which activity coefficients of TTA i n benzene were being measured, certain expcts.indicated the ye sence of a third species o f TTA inthe benzene-water solution. This third species format the expense of' the keto and enol forms. Exper ime n+.s run v.ri thc ornple t e 1;- egui 1i brat, e d benz ene -Fat er. TTA system indicate that extractions level was reduced 15% Inthe future activity coeff determinations usin;; TTF. concentrations a t which its activity coeff is less than unity.y : .ill haire t o be rim with greater ' care to allow for the establishment of a ?;rue e qui libri m. 4- new cell desizned to eliminate concentration chanzes due t o distillation effects has been completed and stable electrode operation has keen achieved, The rate of V3 t o UiL oxidation in oxygen free aqueous solutions has been fou.nd t o be about 10-5 rnols p e r minute. It thus appears feasible to atternpt ca1eumetrj.c experLrnents t o determine the heat Recent experiments on the vapor pressure of graphite confirm earlier rneasurernentsdare indefinite disagreement with spectroscopic values now being used.
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Apparatus i s being set up t o measure hiTh temperature heat transfer coefficients of materials of interest in pile design. Preliminary measurements have been made on the stability of U02 and BIo mixtures and results indicate stability atleast up t o previously been reported. Also the melting point of UQis much hiSher than has An experiment i s now being set up t o measure the rate of diffusion of fission Troducts throuch EO. Three patients who are being treated with total body X-ray have been observed clinically and he m atoll o ~ ic ally.A total of nine patients have been studied hematollogically. leb oratory work was done: 108 comFlete blood counts, 3 sedimentation rate studies,3 Prothrombin time studies,2 Cholesterol studies and 2Stern al marrow studies. Iodine 131 was given to eighteen people. The uptake of the iodine in the thyroid gland and inthe tunor tissue was determined. Study was started to determine whether the radio-iodine when inthe body remained as inorganic iodine or is incorporated into or s anic compounds. mdioautographic studies were made on the thy roi & s of four patients who were operated upon for thyroid dl1 sease. Lt. Col., Corps of Engineers,