Studies of refractory metal alloys concentrated on two families of such alloys: ternary tungsten alloys and binary T/sub 5/-T/sub 9/ alloys. The former were selected because of the possibility of finding desirable glasses consisting of low-cost components; the latter were chosen because they could be quenched into metallic glasses with high thermal stability and good toughness. Alloys selected for study were prepared by arc-melting and were subsequently rapidly quenched in an arc furnace quenching unit. Considerable difficulties were encountered in preparing metal--metalloid alloys, such as W--B, as well as alloys combining high melting and low melting transition metals, such as W and Ni. Brittleness of ductility as revealed by a bend test was noted. Measurements were made up to 1000 K and resistivity measurements up to 1300 K. The probe for electrical resistivity measurements at high temperatures has been constructed and tested. To determine the elastic (Young's) moduli of new metallic glasses prepared in this program, equipment utilizing the pulse--echo method was set up.

A stress analysis was performed on the LOFT Pressurizer Pressure Relief System to determine if it met the requirements of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, Section III, 1974 Edition, for Class 1 and Class 2 components. Deadweight, thermal expansion, seismic, design LOCE, and LOCA loads were considered. The results of this analysis indicate that the LOFT pressurizer pressure relief system will comply with Code specifications provided modifications are made to the hanger support configuration and one small section of pipe. The recommended changes are listed below. Note that some of these hangers were previously required based upon an analysis which subjected this same piping system to a reduced LOCE (20 millisecond valve opening). (1) Addition of Snubbers as per letter HIK-12-75, LOFT Pipe Hanger Requirements on Main Feed Main Steam Pressurizer and ECC Systems. (2) The 1/2'' Line 1/2''-PCS-10 between the tee and CVP-136-19 must be increased in diameter to 1.050 inches (OD of nominal 3/4'' pipe). (3) Modification of Unibals and flat bars as per letter Muff-2-76, required change of flat bar hangers and unibals on pressure relief and pressurizing piping. 9 refs., 6 figs., 1 tab.

Seasonal onshore-offshore sections were run in March, May and September 1977 and January 1978 off Savannah and Brunswick, Georgia. In each instance upwelling was observed at the shelf break with significant nutrient fluxes into the surface and/or shelf waters. There are indications that eddies may have been responsible for some of these observations.

An outline is presented for a proposed scope of work to evaluate the mechanical performance of candidate first wall coatings for a Tokamak-type fusion reactor. The goal of the overall program is to provide an adequate coating material and recoating process which can be manufactured by currently available vendors.

Refractories for slag containment, nondestructive evaluation methods, corrosion, erosion, and component failures were studied. Analysis of coal slags reveal ferritic contents of 18 to 61%, suggesting a partial pressure of 0/sub 2/ in the slagging zone of approx. 10/sup -2/ to 10/sup -4/ Pa. A second field test of the high-temperature ultrasonic erosion-monitoring system was completed. Ultrasonic inspecton of the HYGAS cyclone separator shows a reduced erosive-wear rate at 5000 h in the stellite region. The acoustic leak-detection system for valves was field tested using a 150-mm-dia. valve with a range of pressures from 0.34 to 4.05 MPa. Results suggest a linear relation between detected rms levels and leak rates. Studies on acoustic emissions from refractory concrete continued with further development of a real-time data acquisition system. Corrosion studies were conducted on Incoloy 800, Type 310 stainless steel, Inconel 671 and U.S. Steel Alloy 18-18-2 (as-received, thermally aged, and preexposed for 3.6 Ms to multicomponent gas mixtures). Results suggest a decrease in ultimate tensile strength and flow stress after preexposure. Examination of commercial iron- and nickel-base alloys after 100-h exposures in atmospheric-pressure fluidized-bed combustors suggests that the addition of 0.3 mole % CaCl/sub 2/ to the fluidized bed has no …

The data obtained for the first round robin sample collected at Mesa 6-2 wellhead, East Mesa Test Site, Imperial Valley are summarized. Test results are listed by method used for cross reference to the analytic methods section. Results obtained for radioactive isotopes present in the brine sample are tabulated. The data obtained for the second round robin sample collected from the Woolsey No. 1 first stage flash unit, San Diego Gas and Electric Niland Test Facility are presented in the same manner. Lists of the participants of the two round robins are given. Data from miscellaneous analyses are included. Summaries of values derived from the round robin raw data are presented. (MHR)

The conceptual design of a tokamak fusion-fission (hybrid) reactor, which produces electric power and fissile material, has been performed in a cooperative effort between Princeton's Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and Battelle's Pacific Northwest Laboratories (PNL). PPPL, who had overall project lead responsibility, designed the fusion driver system. Its core consists of a tokamak plasma maintained in the two-component torus (TCT) mode by both D and T beams and having a single null poloidal divertor. The blanket concept selected by PPPL consists of a neutron multiplying converter region, containing natural Uranium Molybdenum (U-Mo) slugs followed by a fuel burning blanket region of molten salt containing PuF/sub 3/. PNL analyzed this concept to determine its structural, thermal and hydraulic performance characteristics. An adequate first wall cooling method was determined, utilizing low pressure water in a double wall design. A conceptual layout of the converter region tubes was performed, providing adequate helium cooling and the desired movement of U-Mo slugs. A thermal hydraulic analysis of the power-producing blanket regions indicated that either more helium coolant tubes are needed or the salt must be circulated to obtain adequate heat removal capability.

Atlas of surface mines in excess of 10 acres in operation prior to 1976 in the 11 western contiguous states plus North Dakota and South Dakota.

The objective of this project is to design, fabricate, and operate a fermentation facility which will demonstrate on a pilot-scale level (3 oven-dry tons (ODT) per day of feedstock) the economic and technical feasibility of producing anhydrous ethyl alcohol from lignocellulosic biomass residues (wood, corn stover, and wheat straw principally). The resultant process development unit (PDU) will be flexibly designed so as to evaluate current and projected unit operations, materials of construction, chemical and enzymatic systems which offer the potential of significant technological and economic breakthroughs in alcohol production from biomass. The principal focus of the project is to generate fuels from biomass. As such, in addition to alcohol which can be used as a transportation fuel, by-products are to be directed where possible to fuel applications. The project consists of two parts: (1) conceptual design, and (2) detailed engineering design. The first quarter's activities have focused on a critical review of several aspects of the conceptual design of the 3 ODT/day PDU, viz.: (1) biomass cost, availability, and characterization; (2) pretreatment processes for lignocellulosic residues; (3) hydrolytic processes (enzymatic and acidic); (4) fermentation processes; (5) alcohol recovery systems; (6) by-product streams utilization; and (7) process economics.

This two-part report provides an essentially complete listing of radioactive occurrences in Colorado, with a comprehensive bibliography and bibliographic cross-indexes. Part 1 lists approximately 3000 known radioactive occurrences with their locations and brief accounts of the geology, mineralogy, radioactivity, host rock, production data, and source of data for each. The occurrences are classified by host rock and plotted on U.S. Geological Survey 1/sup 0/ x 2/sup 0/ topographic quadrangle maps with a special 1 : 100,000-scale base map for the Uravan mineral belt. Part 2 contains the bibliography of approximately 2500 citations on radioactive mineral occurrences in the state, with cross-indexes by county, host rock, and the special categories of ''Front Range,'' ''Colorado Plateau,'' and ''thorium.'' The term ''occurrence'' as used in this report is defined as any site where the concentration of uranium or thorium is at least 0.01% or where the range of radioactivity is greater than twice the background radioactivity. All citations and occurrence data are stored on computer diskettes for easy retrieval, correction, and updating.

The complexity-stability hypothesis was experimentally tested using intact terrestrial microcosms. Functional complexity was defined as the number and significance of component interactions (i.e., population interactions, physical-chemical reactions, biological turnover rates) influenced by nonlinearities, feedbacks, and time delays. It was postulated that functional complexity could be nondestructively measured through analysis of a signal generated from the system. Power spectral analysis of hourly CO/sub 2/ efflux, from eleven old-field microcosms, was analyzed for the number of low frequency peaks and used to rank the functional complexity of each system. Ranking of ecosystem stability was based on the capacity of the system to retain essential nutrients and was measured by net loss of Ca after the system was stressed. Rank correlation supported the hypothesis that increasing ecosystem functional complexity leads to increasing ecosystem stability. The results indicated that complex functional dynamics can serve to stabilize the system. The results also demonstrated that microcosms are useful tools for system-level investigations.

This study explores the practical limits of helium cooling in a simple geometry unconstrained by a particular conceptual design. Specifically, the configuration was chosen to be an externally heated straight tube considering both uniform heating and heating of half the external parimeter. Both thermal hydraulic and structural limits to the heat flux have been investigated. Curves are presented to show the heat flux and tube length which simultaneously attain both a well temperature and pressure drop/pumping power limit for a range of diameters from 0.05 to 8.0 inches and pressures from 50 to 5000 psia. Tube wall stress limits on heat flux are also shown for the same range of pressure and diameter. These results should serve as an aid in planning more complex concepts as well as evaluating helium cooling in this specific configuration.

Experiments were carried out to investigate the erosion of concrete under high surface heat flux in connection with the core-melt/concrete interaction studies. The dominate erosion mechanism was found to be melting at the surface accompanied by chemical decomposition of the concrete beneath the melt-solid interface. The erosion process reaches a steady state after an initial transient. The steady state is characterized by an essentially constant erosion rate at the surface and a nonvarying (with respect to the moving melt interface) temperature distribution within the concrete. For the range of incident heat flux 64 W/cm/sup 2/ to 118 W/cm/sup 2/, the corresponding steady state erosion rate varies from approximately 8 cm/hr to 23 cm/hr. A simple ablation/melting model is proposed for the erosion process. The model was found to be able to correlate all temperature responses at various depths from all tests at large times and for temperatures above approximately 250/sup 0/C.

Separate abstracts were prepared for each of the 3 included sections. (MOW)

A new, sinterable yttria (Y/sub 2/O/sub 3/) plaster was developed. The properties of this plaster depend on: (1) starting-power characteristics, (2) type and concentration of the acid used for the liquid phase, and (3) the liquid-to powder (L/P) ratios. Physical and chemical properties of the yttria plaster were investigated. Plasters formed in the yttria/acid/water (dilute-acids) system were determined to consist mostly of needle (or plate)-shaped hydroxysalt binder phases analogous to precipitates in the YX/sub 3//sodium hydroxide/water system (where X represents either Cl/sup -/ or NO/sub 3//sup -/). The binder phases were shown to be of the form Y/sub 2/(OH)/sub 6-m/X/sub m/ x nH/sub 2/O, where m and n generally equal one. The decomposition behavior on heating yttria plasters was studied by thermal analyses. The nitric acid-produced plasters decomposed to yttria below 600/sup 0/C in argon; the hydrochloric acid-produced plasters decomposed to yttria by 1520/sup 0/C in argon or by 1100/sup 0/C in air. Examination of scandium oxide and the rare-earth oxides showed that several exhibited a plaster-forming behavior similar to yttria.

The primary objectives of this program were to demonstrate: (1) that form-stable high density polyethylene (HDPE), which has been shown to have desirable properties as a phase-change type of thermal energy storage material, could be produced by processing in a polyethylene plant for a projected price near 26 cents/lb; and (2) that the raw material, ethylene, will be available in the very long-term from alternate sources (other than petroleum and natural gas). These objectives were accomplished. Production of useful, form-stable HDPE pellets by radiation cross-linking was demonstrated. Such pellets are estimated to be obtainable at 26 cents/lb, using large-volume (> or equal to 10,000,000 lb/yr) in-plant processing. Well-developed technologies exist for obtaining ethylene from coal and plant (or biomass) sources, thus assuring its long-term availability and therefore that of polyethylene. A cost-benefit analysis of the HDPE thermal energy storage system was conducted over its 120 to 140/sup 0/C optimum operating range which is most suited for absorption air conditioning. The HDPE is more cost effective than either rocks, ethylene glycol, or pressurized water and is even competitive with a hypothetical 5 cents/lb salt-hydrate melting in this temperature range. These results applied, as appropriate, to both air and liquid transfer systems.

Preliminary environmental data, including current land use, substrate lithology, soils, natural hazards, water resources, biological assemblages, meteorological data, and regulatory considerations have been collected and analyzed for approximately 150 km/sup 2/ of land: (1) near Chocolate Bayou, Brazoria County, Texas, where a geopressured-geothermal test well was drilled in 1978, and (2) near the rural community of Armstrong, Kenedy County, Texas, where future geopressured-geothermal test well development may occur. The study was designed to establish an environmental data base and to determine, within spatial constraints set by subsurface reservoir conditions, environmentally suitable sites for geopressured-geothermal wells.

This report

Literature and patents relevant to solar air-heating collectors were reviewed. The design constraints are listed. The analysis considered the heat transfer and pressure loss characteristics of the various designs. Three absorbers along with the baseline design were mounted in identical collector bodies and subjected to thermal efficiency tests on Solaron's collector test stand. The testing was done simultaneously on the four panels in a side-by-side collector test. Various manufacturing techniques for producing an absorber with extended heat transfer surface were investigated. It was found that fins could be attached to the absorber in a cost-effective manner by an electrical resistance weld. Four finned absorbers were fabricated by resistance welding and installed in a 2 x 2 collector array to verify that these production model prototypes would, in fact, increase performance by a factor of 1.11. (MHR)

From summary: The procedure has been to search for areas in which nonpedogenic calcrete or gypcrete may have developed and where additional study or exploration might be justified.

Calcrete, dolocrete, and gypcrete carnotite are abundant in western Australia and Namib Desert, although only a few are of ore grade. The geology of these deposits are described. A genetic classification of calcretes emphasizing uranium favorability was developed, based on the distinction between pedogenic and nonpedogenic processes. Similarities between western Australia and South West Africa give support for the conclusions that lateral transport of U in groundwater is essential to ore deposition and that bedrock barriers or constrictions which narrow the channel of subsurface flow or force the water close to the land surface, greatly favor the formation of uraniferous calcretes. Criteria for uranium favorability deduced from the Australian and South West African studies were applied in a preliminary way to the southern Basin and Range Province of U.S. The procedure is to search for areas in which nonpedogenic calcrete or gypcrete may have developed. A caliche distribution map was compiled from soil survey and field data. Many areas were visited and some of the more interesting are described briefly, including parts of Clark County, Nevada, with occurrences of carnotite in calcrete. (DLC)

This report is an Analysis and Chronology of Developments of West European Communist Parties in 1977.

This bibliography contains 485 references to literature on the subject of legal and institutional constraints to the development and use of geothermal resources. In addition to government-sponsored reports, journal articles, and books, the bibliography includes specific state and Federal laws and regulations, court cases of interest, and conference proceedings. For each reference, abstract or a listing of subject descriptors is given along with the complete bibliographic citation. Corporate, author, subject, and report number indexes are included. (LS)

Tertiary strata of the Texas Gulf Coast comprise a number of terrigenous depositional wedges, some of which thicken abruptly at their downdip ends as a result of contemporaneous movement of growth faults and underlying salt. The Frio Formation, one of these wedges, has been studied regionally by means of a grid of correlation cross sections aided by micropaleontological control. By means of these sections, the Frio was subdivided into six map units; maps of sandstone distribution within these units delineate principal elongate sandstone trends parallel to the Gulf Coast composed of deltaic, barrier-bar, and strandplain sandstones. These broad regional studies, followed by detailed local investigations, were pursued in order to delineate prospective areas for production of geopressured geothermal energy. A prospective area must meet the following minimum requirements; reservoir volume of 3 cubic miles, minimum permeability of 20 millidarcys (md), and fluid temperatures of 300/sup 0/F. Several geothermal fairways were identified as a result of this Frio study. In summary, detailed geological, geophysical, and engineering studies conducted on the Frio Formation have delineated a geothermal test well site in the Austin Bayou Prospect which extends over an area of 60 square miles. A total of 800 to 900 feet of …