TECHNICIAN MONITORING THE OMEGA WEST REACTOR.

THE OMEGA WEST REACTOR (OWR) IS A HETEROGENEOUS REACTOR. ITS FUEL ELEMENTS, WHICH CONTAIN ALUMINUM AND ENRICHED URANIUM, ARE ARRANGED IN A MATRIX NEAR THE BOTTOM OF A STAINLESS STEEL TANK ABOUT 24 FEET TALL. IN NORMAL OPERATION THIS TANK IS COMPLETELY FILLED WITH COOLING WATER, WHICH LIMITS THE UPWARD ESCAPE OF RADIATION AND AT THE SAME TIME PERMITS BOTH VISUAL OBSERVATION OF THE CORE AND PHYSICAL ACCESS TO IT FOR INSERTION AND REMOVAL OF SAMPLES. THE OWR HAS EXPERIMENTAL FACILITIES FOR SAMPLE IRRADIATION, EXTERNAL NEUTRON BEAM EXPERIMENTS, RADIATION DAMAGE STUDIES,IN-CORE RADIATION OF INSTRUMENTAL CAPSULES, FISSIONABLE MATERIALS FOR ASSAY WEAPON DIAGNOSTICS AND NEUTRON RADIOGRAPHY. OWR IS USED IN A MAJOR BASIC RESEARCH PROGRAM AT LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY TO STUDY THE ENERGY-LEVEL STRUCTURE OF THE ATOMIC NUCLEI, USING HIGH-RESOLUTION MEASUREMENTS OF GAMMA RAYS EMITTED FOLLOWING NEUTRON CAPTURE OF BETA-RAY EMISSION.