This report describes progress in the major research and development programs carried out in FY 1986 by the Isotope and Nuclear Chemistry Division. The report includes articles on radiochemical diagnostics and weapons tests; weapons radiochemical diagnostics research and development; other unclassified weapons research; stable and radioactive isotope production and separation; chemical biology and nuclear medicine; element and isotope transport and fixation; actinide and transition metal chemistry; structural chemistry, spectroscopy, and applications; nuclear structure and reactions; irradiation facilities; advanced concepts and technology; and atmospheric chemistry.

Paleozoic and Precambrian rocks intersected deep in Continental Scientific Drilling Program corehole VC-1, adjacent to the late Cenozoic Valles caldera complex, have been disrupted to form a spectacular breccia sequence. The breccias are of both tectonic and hydrothermal origin, and probably formed in the Jemez fault zone, a major regional structure with only normal displacement since mid-Miocene. Tectonic breccias are contorted, crushed, sheared, and granulated; slickensides are commmon. Hydrothermal breccias, by contrast, lack these frictional textures, but arej commonly characterized by fluidized matrix foliation and prominent clast rounding. Fluid inclusions in the hydrothermal breccias are dominantly two-phase, liquid-rich at room temperature, principally secondary, and form two distinctly different compositional groups. Older inclusions, unrelated to brecciation, are highly saline and homogenize to the liquid phase in the temperature range 189 to 246/sup 0/C. Younger inclusions, in part of interbreccia origin, are low-salinity and homogenize (also to liquid) in the range 230 to 283/sup 0/C. Vapor-rich inclusions locally trapped along with these dilute liquid-rich inclusions document periodic boiling. These fluid-inclusion data, together with alteration assemblages and textures as well as the local geologic history, have been combined to model hydrothermal brecciation at the VC-1 site.

Report on the ground water resources in an area of north-central Texas, including water production, water level changes, areas for development, and analysis of water use possibilities.

A general description of methods, techniques, and apparatus used for the sampling, chemical analysis, and data reporting of geothermal gases and fluids is given. Step-by-step descriptions of the procedures are included in the appendixes.

Annual report of the Texas Railroad Commission's Oil and Gas Division providing background on the industry and the agency's activities, information related to the production of oil and gas, and data regarding production by field.

Molten salt electrolysis, a very energy-intensive process, is used in the extraction of light metals. Aluminum production by the Hall process and magnesium production in the Dow and I.G. Farbenindustrie cells constitute the major commercial applications of metal electrowinning from molten-salt media at present. The energy input into the electrolysis cell is in the form of direct current, and the energy efficiencies in the magnesium or aluminum processes are only in the 30 to 40% range. Major energy reductions are achieved by reducing the cell voltage or by increasing the current efficiency. Goal of the research is to identify the sources of the current losses occurring in molten salt electrolysis. This research worked on the systems of I.G. Farben magnesium chloride and Alcoa smelting aluminum chloride processes. Raman spectra were measured and analyzed for each component or their mixtures of the electrolyte for magnesium and aluminum reduction in chloride melts. Raman measurements were also conducted on the melts of industrial composition for aluminum and magnesium electrolysis. In laboratory-scale cells which imitated industrial practice, Raman spectra were measured in situ during electrolysis in attempts to identify the streamers, coloration of electrolyte, and any subvalent species. They were known to occur only …