The technology for producing an LLNL-developed polymer, L97KVB, has been transferred to a commercial speciality silicones manufacturer, McGhan-NuSil Corporation. Workers there have demonstrated both on a small scale and on a 200 lb. scale that they can produce a polymer which meets our analytical specifications and which will also perform satisfactorily in our load deflection and compression set tests.

This report presents information and data in support of a cost-benefit analysis being performed by Fair child Industries (FI) on the feasibility of retrieving existing US space nuclear systems in earth orbit by the Space Shuttle. This report evaluates, for US space nuclear systems presently in orbit, the radioisotopic inventory and external radiation field as a function of time, the effect of aging on fuel containment materials over the projected lifetime of the system, and the possible radioactive source terms should reentry eventually occur. Although the radioisotopic inventories and radiation fields have been evaluated for all systems, Transit 4A and Transit Triad have been emphasized in the evaluation of the aging effects and reentry consequences because these spacecraft have the shortest projected orbital lifetimes (570 and 150 years, respectively). In addition to existing systems in orbit, the radioisotopic inventory, radiation field, and reentry source terms have been evaluated for a General Purpose Heat Source (GPHS) in a parking orbit due to an aborted Galileo Mission or International Solar Polar Mission (ISPM).

Leach testing experiments were conducted on SYNROC-D material to examine the parameters which affect leaching results and to measure the activation energy for leaching of elements from SYNROC-D. Measured leach rates were found to be controlled by precipitation of insoluble phases for those tests where the sample surface area to volume of leachant (SA/V) multiplied by leaching time (t) exceeded 0.3 cm{sup -1}d for leach tests at 90{sup 0}C. In these cases the apparent activation energy for leaching was approximately 10 kcal/mole based on Na and Si data. For leach tests at 90{sup 0}C with (SA/V)(t) less than 0.2 cm{sup -1}d, the activation energy for Na and Si dissolution was 18.5 kcal/mole for sample S29 and 14.5 kcal/mole for sample LS04. These activation energies are in agreement with values reported by Tole and Lasaga (1981) for nepheline dissolution. The effect of sample geometry was investigated by leaching a series of crushed samples of different grain size. The results support the view that geometric surface area should be used in leach rate calculations rather than gas adsorption BET surface area. Comparison of results on S29 leaching of crushed samples and monoliths show that data from MCC-1 and ISO type leach tests …