%MurNBcontrolrods040653; ]> Memorandum from Raymond L. Murray to Clifford Beck Machine readable transcription Murray, Raymond L. Creation of machine-readable version: Russell S. Koonts Creation of digital images: Russell S. Koonts Conversion to TEI.2-conformant markup: Russell S. Koonts ca. 9 kilobytes NCSU Libraries Raleigh, NC Modern English, MurNBcontrolrods040653

Available from: NC State University Archives

Publicly-accessible

URL: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/archives/etext/engineering/reactor/murray/

 10 November, 2000

Nuclear Reactor Digitization Project

Raymond L. Murray Reactor Project Notebook

 Illustrations have been included from the print version. Scanned by Russell Koonts with Photoshop 5.0 software. Memorandum from Raymond L. Murray to Clifford Beck Raymond L. Murray

2 pp. Manuscript copy consulted UA 105.16

Prepared for the North Carolina State University Science and Technology Electronic Text Center

The lineation of the manuscript has been maintained and all end-of-line hyphens have been preserved.

Keywords in the header are a local Science and Technology Electronic Text Center scheme to aid in establishing analytical groupings.

Library of Congress Subject Headings April 6, 1953 English LCSH manuscript 24-bit color: 400 dpi Memorandum from Raymond L. Murray to Clifford Beck Handwritten 2 pp. April 6, 1953 MurNBcontrolrods040653

NCSC-60 April 6, 1953 to: C K Beck from: R L Murray Subject: Control and Safety Rods copies: file

In answer to your questions: 1. What are exact dimensions of Boron Column in Control and Safety Rod? length 12.0" (three 4.0" cylinders) outside diameter 0.630" inside diameter 0.183" 2. What is Volume of Boron? 18.7 cm3 per cylinder, total 74.8 cm3 3. density of Boron? 1.94 grams/cm3 4. density of Boron containing material 2.50 grams/cm3 5. Total weigh of Boron per rod 145 grams 6. Total weight of boron Containing Material 187 grams 7. What, if anything, is present besides B4C? Comparing theoretical percentage B with actual, discrepancy of 0.6%. No information on what this is, but may be carbon. Does not matter, however.

Rod Values: Critical condition will be achieved with solution at temperature of cooling water, with one rod completely out (safety) and one rod completely in (control). As one rod is removed, δk increases, the power rises, and the temperature rises. The rod value as best we can compare with Los Alamos is 80 grams of U-235 or 0.016 δk. If either this rod is dropped or the safety rod falls, the reaction is suppressed. The average change in reactivity is, for 5"/min removal 0.016/2 minutes = 0.008/min or 0.00013/sec The maximum rate of change of reactivity is approximately twice this value, when the rod is half way out.