H Division Progress Report (April 20 - May 20, 1959) (Redacted)

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ice dlya on ir. Botb phantms have special eaupumenttr Of drugs OT iSOtop.8 vhich vi11 pawit the 5/15 McCROSSM, Proston S. 3-1 General Kot nc or iq

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the eh st sy ~ t rc8umd UI increase In the pried back- of the tam site. ' I h i m beman H. of short -ti= .ad bid oat craatitute a health pmblm. di*ca#mectd exbulst prafp in the valve house. 2. A hi& Ln the Yater Boiler renctar roan =a traced t o a This incidest also produced a ermxl the t w n site. 3. A leak l o an acid hFn line i n the basement of Uine 5 , m. Juilding, The m a was decwtaainated and no personnel exposures b. The radioectfve vaste deteation + a s in X n q 5 boscment of CM 3uilding wrrfl0;r.d OD the night of vay 6. scccssuy to decontddnate the Scsnent area. c q ~ a a 8 protopira io11 had rrrpftad. A roa in RIlt Buwiag 4 th. cua &in(; the bspection were contamimtcd. ?he personnel coohainstion vas awducd t o pcrmlssible h?vels and the man ha6 been scheduled for urlne essays. The ram has been cleaned act I s back in operation. 5 . Plutonim solution MI spilled in Rom 2U.2, Jiug 2 of CX 3uFlding. 5. Dutirrg the inspection of n e u t z z dasiseters it vans found tb.t the

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Jan. 1 to May Thue vere tvo vehlcle accidents during April. One v-; a becking acci&at aod the other occurred when a vehicle hit a deer. ROW PedLmd returned frax the Nevada Test Site on April 2k. Roy hider was at the St& Test Slte fKllr April 26 until " ? r E 30. ii due to on Ywj 12. AtCmic her= Authurity of the United Kingdon, VM previewed on Aprll 2b and is to be purch.sed for use Ln the Laborstory. "Reacut Breathing", a trriniag f i b on the orsl method of &.-tifici& respiration is ~ c l vin the possession of H-3. 5.A set of ruls fer visitors and apcrstars at the Lmk farm uea 6t 7. The Safety Off icc vorkcd vtth CXB-6 i n setting up rdes &ne pmccdcres 10. Rc:. Reidcr departed Pay 10 f o r inglnnd vhere he viU consul: with the UnZtcd 2(ipeda'Atanic Energy Author: cy's Jirclear Labomtory on nuclear criticality U. Two meetings of the r;E.rX-X~risionFiring Site Safety Cwmittee were held t o re-emlute clearance procedcrei i n xmnectioo withf ' irizg site :hot xt iv it y. 12. Srvcml Govcnn;lcnt vehicles vefe examined for cxpLudive a d other cbe ical

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for vc n tila tia of the did operations a t if Site were the old building released t o the AEC. taken in this building and vhei these samples ?=e 215 sxi ~ y = e C-. --,art on * a s kid it ional air and mige samples have been "he entire Sectloo p l u s o x member of '.he laboratory Sectionduring thb period. are engegcd in m?.time work at the Test Site. ~n rm d imdex rile for pi*~ttmttmr t sul trm 1% to the pnamt is I mu tieiag set up. Fa members of the Croup arc king tnained t o preparc such cudr since It I s aotlcipsted that the f i l e VU contain about :5,000 entries. The beryllium-coatsrainatcd building mentioned in the last monthly report war prepared for da olt tion aacl has been rrmovcd by the Zis Company und burned. damolltion moving md burnine. A carglete s w a y of anerGescy breathing equipment 'res -a& dwing the zonth aad all tquLpent jrai c h e c k d snd pn; in --.~drr.esa for oocrstioc. of dtfects were found vhich h v e been corrected. A - 4 200 structures that wers to be pr\t up for sale or to Se ~emolished were checked for ncmmdioactive bnalth hsts;rds. An uber of dsng~emuc condft%ons to the Eaglaeeadng Deputment. of uslntenmce work on air smplers. of Grwup E-1 are aov bafw scnrlced by Croup *f-5.

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Scrubber Installation f a thc Rom w sl ef Fission Pects fxum Air." h e %asbe? O? the Gp?op visited the Health and Safety kbaratory d the AEC in A w York C l t V strontium and thorium. ?OUT mcrbers of the Craup are sctlvely Servinc OD tec b nid One member of the Craup presented tvo h lk sata confmnca ,Tba Group yu visited by Mr. 3 . M.8- of Saclay, tho French Ataofc Earrly 1. Air samples collected or field tests lpde far:

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a. Considerable time :s mirg given by 2. Sepis fa preparing the Becruse the X-ray flux fran our Lrry whine v u faund to be sbowd tbat the kilavalt.gc changed about 5$ irlth the curmnt. For this -.OD hi@ priority MI arslgrcd to the fabrication of the hi& v o l h g a rc8lstmc8 bivider to measure the ki low lh gc directly. turncd over t o the Shapr Degartaent for fabrication. to be ?sea in Joining the striae 3f xsizt3z-s heve c e m fabrfcateC and a z z ?u.- The two tMka have been deslgned rrd

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b. Lirison vith J-ll an their using JAM uiits os .sq?eri;rental p h c. Vork continuer on the reduction of Los Alarms Jcnther d a t a . 3. Work Can ple ted Xeld support for the Bayo tam operation YES aven on May 15. C.A detailed :eapersture study on the hours tne temperature vas b1w 1959, van made aad fomudad to N. H. Si&au, Engineering and Colutntction B&, LAM). abl g.*. cloud height of about 1900 f t . and urc the units t o nsrk t h e cloud so air saPlplcr CWI be readily collected 00 p h 15 vab =tie snd forwarded TO ii. Ccmpbcll. file in the Section. e. The if- of the JATO unit8 on urpalmenbj. plan 15 van succesrihl J-U is ping to the project oyer rxtcres of the JATO jr oj ect are on trailer just outsick the south door of 'he eost-vest hall of the Aaaistrstion sample8 SO obhincd due to mst in collecting carrsls p n d :a :=.e susjonsion of r a filter and Ion exchange column in the system and see what :aLc ?ounL in a large corrcentmtim of material trapped. sample bas been obtakred on tu0 occasions since its installation. Despite the abow difricuities, a fairkg large

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bairn. No cvldence of ect i vlt y above 1 b. Jack b b y left for PITS Q(I Kay 18. to 1Jdieatr no irrctimtio o. in coocentxstioo per alt nter caught. flw r8te of the vbste, psr tic ~ latl yfnrn the vievpotnt of 3-7. Results to date indicate intprrmacnt in evening out the f h v mtc aver the period of the uork- w. amounts, of the order of 20 vdl. The system has a history of cusarrinatlaa. A J J batcbcs u e n released to K-7. Efforts have Seen nude to coordlart. Mater vcU Los Alupos 116 continuer to glve uraaium inL h of the surface vater SOUTCSI coDhfncd a Flwr to the Tech p a t coutlnuc to be hi& ard considerable wertlm operation has been requfred. Saac effluent grorr alpha counts have been relatively Mgh but effluent plutcmitxn h r bean lw. A coasldexuble slnount of perchloric acid was received i n waste frai W-48. P-r huus used aa a c - w t instead of '*be u r d ferric iron during tho pew the acid n a being race iv d. in t h e rav flow dur%ngVUMarn operations. Wted to &.trey cy mi de dnrlng the period. Effluent quality h.r been generally satlafactury. Sane cyroide platlng waste vas received A hypochlorite feeder MI set up ta A batch of about l25 & l o w of coaceatnted vaste vas ala0 Ccmsiderrble time vaa spent cleaning up the U. S. Amy Engineer Corpr portable vster psificrtlm unit M c h vas badly con-ted during operation.

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effective orthod of nnva.k cantrining americium is nerrly canplcte. le expect to begin modified due to bud- limitations. %wwer, tbe revlscd plans still ?ravi& rar 4 Thc prqtosed n u plant for T e n Site bas been a. Rartinr Labaatozy. .!ark on the destruction of nitric acfd Ln m s hu been crap1rt.d; a -per has been written d is being sulmritted f a caae.rtntiaar of n i t r i c acid as lw es 0.a &a+mying u much u 42$ of the d. It bd been prwdour4 believed that such l w cacentrationr of acid w o u l d not mc tvi th idawe, however, when parsiarnaldeby2e Is refluxed with the acid a rtmetfm does take place. It h 8 a l s o been detad.ncd that less RuO,, is VOlatllftcd In the preaarcr of ~ ion d deh yd ethn when this reas nt is absent, thus ir?blcatiw E furthe? dcrlrrble ckarrrcterlrtic of m - de hy dc for the destmctlon of n it rlc out the process before hot wastes are received. me final patent dtsclosws on the above process have been subnitted b. Pzplect Green Tmrmrb. A shipeat of crsnQllite has been received by D-1 to tbr for m e r processing. strc " m and cesium; the resulting ccrnpound i s stable in soils snd m y act 'YO retain both nucU&s in a fonn Urravnilable to the plant. f r planned to determine the p h t availability of SrW 3nd Cs-- A series o f werunanto* 1 ?7 :n the presence

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will also be us& i n the wentr. amorlclun sptke hw!been parsed through far - inch dLorr.etcr cores of local tuff. in tbe emuent. Thc cores will be leached later to detcnnine vhether the amerlclwn The stinmbting factah present In sterile mt faces it not ex tnc ted caupletcly with e tho or atetme, however, acetone is a better extra c ' a t than ether. The In general t h e Levels of ac:lvfty m e much lover **bm those if sce)a nut raurd i n ~hnrrdmidues or the mt feces artt.ct and bee is prohw aot dncrrl.. mer Osmc extractants u1 baing stu did. castlw at m-6 using a hi& adsorbent clay. These samples were fired at 7 W C . The porosity m e varied fm50 t o 93 pcr cent depending on vdl ' hi chess of cupr. Tvo ra q les mix& Vith mph it e denonstrated 138 per cent p0msi:y. x11 sqlcr were quite fragile and acted 2s SA fLlt?r for water and hi& diim baste. Samples of dumlns waste snikcd with cesium end strontiun a t three tines weight of cups yere dried and fired ta 1 2 W C . waste Lfpu%dwas lost in the drytnr, cycle jY filtering zhmugh the CLTS. porosity of 'UStype of clay is desizablc but pore sizes appear to '.e too -Mi;+ Spfkes of c c s l w were added to these $asses grzor :o f-:r:3:. fired svlplrs yere aad counted for beta actix5:y and are beic; 1Yzched in dr stilled k-zter.