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Special Nuclear Materials
SUMMARY
The quantities of special nuclear materials and other principal weapon materials produced during the April-June quarter and during the entire fiscal year 1958 are compared with

the December 1957 forecast in the following table. In each instance actual production equaled
or exceeded the forecast.
Table 1— Production at Annual Rates

~
o-

ries

Product

:

April —June
1958
Actual

Fiscal year
1958

Forecast

Actual

Forecast

Plutonium separated,

DELETED

REACTOR PRODUCTS
Reactor Operations
The quantities of plutonium and tritium produced in reactors during the last two quarters
of fiscal year 1958 are compared in Table 2 in terms of an index, with tritium production expressed in terms of the equivalent amount of plutonium production displaced.
The Savannah River R reactor, the last of the five to be modified, was shut down on
April 27 for installation of larger heavy water pumps. It was expected to resume operation in
July 1958.
Slug failures. At Hanford, the number of failures occurring in normal azd slightly enriched
uranium fuel elements increased from 35 in the January-March period to 47 in the April-June
period. After reaching a peak of 26 failures in April, the number declined to 14 in May and 8 in

DOE ARCHIVES

Denariment ef Energy
Hise rien3 Ciice

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