Radioactive metal waste makes up a significant portion of the waste currently being sent for disposal. Recovery of this metal as a valuable resource is possible through the use of decontamination technologies. Through the development and use of expert systems a comparison can be made of laser decontamination, a technology currently under development at Ames Laboratory, with currently available decontamination technologies for applicability to the types of metal waste being generated and the effectiveness of these versus simply disposing of the waste. These technologies can be technically and economically evaluated by the use of expert systems techniques to provide a waste management decision making tool that generates, given an identified metal waste, waste management recommendations. The user enters waste characteristic information as input and the system then recommends decontamination technologies, determines residual contamination levels and possible waste management strategies, carries out a cost analysis and then ranks, according to cost, the possibilities for management of the waste. The expert system was developed using information from literature and personnel experienced in the use of decontamination technologies and requires validation by human experts and assignment of confidence factors to the knowledge represented within.

CHC (Geo-Heated Center) staff provided assistance to 103 requests from 26 states, and from Canada, Egypt, Mexico, China, Poland and Greece. A breakdown of the requests according to application include: space and district heating (19), geothermal heat pumps (24), greenhouses (10), aquaculture (4), industrial (4), equipment (3), resources (27), electric power (2) and other (20). Progress is reported on: (1) evaluation of lineshaft turbine pump problems, (2) pilot fruit drier and (3) geothermal district heating marketing tools and equipment investigation. Four presentations and two tours were conducted during the quarter, GHC Quarterly Bulletin Vol. 14, No. 4 was prepared, 14 volumes were added to the library and information was disseminated to 45 requests. Progress reports are on: (1) GHP Teleconference 93, (2) California Energy Buys Glass Mountain Prospect from Unocal and Makes Deal for Newberry Caldera, (3) New Power Plant Planned, (4) Vale to Get Power Plant, (5) BPA Approves Geothermal Project, (6) Update: San Bernardino Reservoir Study, (7) Twenty-nine Palms Geothermal Resources, (8) Geo-Ag Heat Center, Lake County, and (9) Update: Geothermal Wells at Alturas.

This report provides a summary of progress for the project {open_quotes}Evaluation of the Geologic Relations and Seismotectonic Stability of the Yucca Mountain Area, Nevada Nuclear Waste Site Investigation (NNWSI).{close_quotes} A similar report was previously provided for the period of 1 October 1991 to 30 September 1992. The report initially covers the activities of the General Task and is followed by sections that describe the progress of the other ongoing Tasks. This report summarizes the geologic and seismotectonic studies conducted at Yucca Mountain during the contract period including Quaternary tectonics, an evaluation of mineral resource potential of the area, caldera geology, and volcano-tectonic activity at and near the site. A report of basinal studies conducted during the contract period is also included. Selected papers are indexed separately for inclusion in the Energy Science and Technology Database.