SPECIAL NUCLEAR MATERIALS Table 2— Production Reactor ees Product and site January — March 1958 April—June 1958 Plutonium Hanford Savannah River Tritium PELLETED. Savannah River Total June. The resulting loss-in-pile operating time doubled in the April-June quarter over the preceding quarter, 6.5 percent compared with 3.1 percent. At Savannah River, only three failures occurred in the April-June quarter, and they had no significant effect on production. There were no failures in the preceding quarter. Plutonium The Hanford Purex plant was shut down in May for equipment modifications to convert the plant process from three cycles to two cycles. The change is expected to reduce substantially the waste losses, the consumption of chemicals, and the need for additional waste storage tanks, The reduction in separations costs will be accompanied by a small increase in production capacity. Tritium The quantity of tritium separated during the April-June quarter was 4 percent less than in the preceding quarter because the material processed included a backlog of elements of low tritium concentration. New Production Reactor Study A report on preliminary design of a new large-scale production reactor was submitted to the Joint Committee on April 1. The report was based on a study by the General Electric Company in which several alternative cases were considered, ranging from a plutonium-only reactor to a dual-purpose unit capable of producing a large amountof electric power as well as substantial amounts of plutonium. The estimated costs of the reactors considered, together with required auxiliaries, ranged from $126 million for a plutonium-only reactor to $256 million for a large reactor producing plutonium plus 700,000 kilowatts of electric power... _ The reactor type on which the study was based was a pressurized-water, graphitemoderated unit fueled with slightly enriched uranium and designed to operate at high temperature. The report concluded that a reactor of this concept is feasible, but that a number of difficult development problems would require solution in order to achieve the predicted performance. DOE ARCHIVES ' > a Lecrci~--: Cha . feo2l on, vane = r ez : ee - w o ror e277 * SS ee are eo . 5 ” 7 ee ae et De Ty a ° i a ee ee are -— “on mee = . i -- as =2 ad tere = 7 =e “we. se se ee UF weegeterte reow oewe ee F785 — we TT ee eeet