~ TCIR - 562 . ~- A SURVEY ON RW CLOTHING DECONTAMINATION. John A. Pierce, Jr., 18 May 1950. SECRET Radiological centers at Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, San Francisco, Hanford, and Mound Laboratory utilize prelaundering segregations and laundering techniques appropriate to the clothing decontamination problems peculiar to each installation. Because the type of contamination varies among these installations, none of their laundering formulas or cycles is recommended as optimum. This report summarizes the techniques employed at these laboratories, and describes 9 formilas employed by Quartermaster Corps laundries for nonradioactive washing. Three specific recommendations are made: (1) If radioactivity persists after 3 decontamination cycles, the garment should either be stored to permit natural decay to reduce contamination, or it should be buried. (2) Quartermaster Corps should use impregnated clothing for its 1950 field test at ORNL. (3) Six QM washing formulas have merit and should be considered for use by field-decontamination stations. Specifically not recommended is a study of the decontamination of various fabric types, both because of the difficulty of standard procurement and because the possible additional salvage value of contaminated clothing would not warrant the- expense. TCIR - 572 - APPARENT THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY OF GRANULAR RADIOLOGICAL AGENTS. G. L. Priest, H. F. Priest, and R. Alvarez, 12 July 1950. SECRET-RESTRICTED DATA This report describes a satisfactory method for measuring the apparent thermal conductivity of granular tantalum and other granular, candidate, radioactive materials. Results, estimated as accurate to within td 5%, indicate that the thermal conductivity of a granular material is approxi- ; mately 1% of that of the corresponding solid. nant. : : . . The apparatus consists of a steam- jacketed, cylindrical, brass shell having a length at least four times its diameter and a wall thickness of 0.015 in. le A carefully constructed, butt-jointed thermocouple is exactly centered under tension in the tube. Measurement is made of the flow of heat through the granular mass by periodic galvanometer readings until the indicated temperature at the middle of the cylinder equals that of the steam. These readings are plotted against time, and values are obtained from the 7 resulting time-temperature relationship which permit the calculation of thermal diffusivity by the use of Waddam's equation. Thermal conductivity is then determined from the average value of thermal diffusivity by appropriate calculation. RES ATO A Y ACT - 1954 wa