62. 



"No violent bubbling, surging or 'burping' were observed and 

 as the rriass shrank it did not adhere to the container walls during 

 the first 2/3 of its consolidation. Only small amounts of the cake 

 adhered after that. The mass appeared to be fairly uniformly heated. 

 Although the temperature finally attained was insufficient for good sin- 

 tering, the mass was hard with relatively small bubbles trapped within. 1 



The plans are to continue the experiments using a pit perhaps 

 6 feet in diameter and 6 feet deep, and possibly progressing to a pit 

 approximately 20 feet in diameter, 20 feet deep. The final stage, 

 presumably, would be to build another pit of this approximate size 

 and add to our clay flux mixture hot reactor wastes to see if self-fusion 

 can be obtained. 



DR. HUBBERT: How large is the first pit going to be? 



MR. STRUXNESS: The first will be 6 feet deep and 6 feet in 

 diameter. The second will be 20 feet deep and 20 feet in diameter 

 with an internally installed heater. The third step is the same size 

 pit, approximately, adding our mixture to the hot waste. 



DR. L. R. ZUMWALT: I take it that this aluminum nitrate 

 waste that you used in this experiment did not have the fission prod- 

 ucts in it. It was merely the chemical equivalent of the bulk. 



MR. STRUXNESS: Right. 



DR. ZUMWALT: In other words, there has been no opportunity 

 to take the solid mass and subject it to leaching tests. 



MR. STRUXNESS: Right. Furthermore, we have learned in 

 some of the experiments that the ruthenium comes off in the gases. 

 Not all of it, but quantities enough to worry us, and we are building 

 equipment to collect it. 



DR. THEIS: Where are the heaters located? Are they actually 

 in the radioactive liquid? 



MR. STRUXNESS: It is simulated waste . 



DR. THEIS: They are in the reactors, and actually to have 

 overheating the mixture must entirely overlie the heater surface. 



