Progress in Nuclear Enargl Series V: Metallurgy and Fuels. Volume 2 Edited by H. M. Finnishn, Hamell, and J . P. Howe, Csnoga Park, California. Pergamon Press, New York, 653 xii pp. Many figs. 1959. ix and tables. 16.5 X 23.5 cm. $21.
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A tyro in nuclear science can easily become bewildered by the profusion of puhlications that have been issued by the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission, by the United Nations, and others, seemingly an the same topics. There is the voluminous National Nuclear Energy Series of the USAEC, published for the Commission by McGraw-Hill Book Company, that includes among other sources the declsssiBed documents of the Manhattan Project. Based on the 1955 and 1958 International Conferenceson the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, held in Geneva, Switzerland, the United Nations has puhlished the manyvolumed official Pmceedings, which eontain the individual papers that were presented, together with the discussions. None of these gives a broad survey of the many topics covered. Following the 1955 Geneva Conference, an eight-volume series entitled "Progress in Nuclear Energy" or the international review series in atomic energy, was published by Pergamon Press in London and by MoGraw-Hill in the United States. The papers in these volumes have been selected, edited, and coordinated by experts in each field, resulting in much more comprehensive reviews than the individual pspers in the previously mentioned collections. Series V is entitled "Metallurgy and Fuels," and Volume 1 in this series (1956) was largely based upon the papers given a t the 1955 Geneva Conference. Volume 2, the s u b ject of the present review, attempts to consolidate, in 41 articles, work in the field of metallurgy and fuels up to the end of 1957, and is based more on recent technical nublications and renorts than on the 1966 (GI IIWH ( ' ~ n f w e n w pilpws. V o l u n ~ 3, wl~ivhwill he p h l i s h d won, will consid oi etlited p p c r s pwti~wnt1.1,Srntaa 1' that were accepted for the second Geneva Conference. Volume 2 encompasses the same general fields as Volume 1. The numbers that are printed in parentheses in the following list show the count of separate reviews in Volumes 1 and 2 respectively, on each of these topics: uranium metallurgy (7,4), thorium and its metsllurgy (2,4), magnesium (0,1), metallurgy of plutonium 2 zirconium (1,4), beryllium (2,3), rare earth metals (1,0), reactor control materials (0,1), ceramics (2,2), fuel elements and their fabrication (5,7), effects of radiations on materials (5,5), and solid state physics (6,s). The reviews in Volume 2 show the improvements in technology accomplished in the three-year period between the Geneva conferences. I n Volume 1, for example, there are two papere on the electrodeposition of uranium metal from fused salts; in Volume 2, there is still a third review of thissame topic that reveals important reductions in contamination in the deposited metal, achieved by techniques that are improvements over those reported in Volume 1. The second volume, thus, supplements the first, rrtther than supplanting it. Zone melting, as a
method of purifying uranium, is discussed in detail in Volume 2, hut does not appear to he mentioned in Volume 1, and so i t goes. The historical and earlier techniques were recorded in Volume 1 and the more recent improvements in Volume 2. Volume 3 will bring these topics still further along, but again will not make the earlier volumes obsolete. This series of edited progress reports obviously belongs in every technical library. Should the individual chemist invest in them? Probably not. He might want to have a desk copy of one or more volumes of immediate interest, but would generally not wish to possess the whole oolleetion. Access to individual articles is accomplished through Chemical Abstmcla, which in 1957 cited each title and author in each volume in the then exi8ting eight series. Presumably CA d l continue to list author and title of each contribution in the new volumes in the present twelve series. The normal literature search will soon uncover these very competent review papers on the manifold topics that now constitute the field of nuclear science.
chlorine in water, such glasses are probably satisfnctory for most situations. Because spectrophotometers are now so e e n e r d v available. 80 easilv ~, and ~ d a p r ~ l , l 1r1, scmm likely rhnr mow and more tlwy will he fnvowd ovcr romlrrrizon methods, a t least in this country.
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M. G. MELLON Puvdue Univmsity Lajayette, Indiana
Polymers and Resins &age Golding, Director of Research, Lilly Varnish Company. D. Van Nostrand Co.. Ino.. Princeton. New Jersev. 1959. vifi 744pp. Figs. 16 X 2
