Plasma confinement and neutral beam injection heating were investigated on the Oak Ridge Tokamak (ORMAK) plasma with improved plasma parameters due to higher injection power (to 360 kW), discharge current (to 220 kA) and toroidal field (to 26 kG). With increasing injection power up to 360 kW with otherwise constant operational parameters, the central ion temperature increased roughly linearly from 0.7 keV to 1.8 keV. The scaling of ion temperature with injection power and plasma density reasonably agrees with theoretical predictions based on neoclassical ion heat conduction and classical beam energy transport.

Tritium containment and removal problems in a fuel-reprocessing plant are identified and conceptual process designs for reducing emissions to the environment to below 1 Ci/day are studied. The conceptual design recommended would allow an air atmosphere in the reprocessing-plant hall and would use a continuous-catalytic-oxidizer/molecular-sieve-adsorber cleanup system to maintain a 40-..mu..Ci/m/sup 3/ tritium level (5 ..mu..Ci/m/sup 3/ HTO) against 180 Ci/day leakage from components and process piping.

Tritium-containment systems for the blanket and power systems of a mirror-fusion reactor are described. These systems are designed to reduce emissions to below 1 Ci/d. The overall conceptual design uses air as the reactor-hall atmosphere. A continuous catalytic oxidizer-molecular sieve adsorber cleanup system would be used to control a 180-Ci/d leakage from reactor components, energy recovery systems, and process piping. Such a system would maintain a 40 ..mu..Ci/m/sup 3/ tritium level (5 ..mu..Ci/m/sup 3/ HTO) in the hall. The blanket considered contains submodules with Li/sub 2/Be/sub 2/O/sub 3/-Be for tritium breeding. This canned breeding material is scavenged with a lithium-vapor-doped helium gas stream. The container consists of molybdenum alloy (TZM) tubes and tube sheets with the breeding material packed and sintered in the shell surrounding the tubes. Potassium vapor coolant (also lithium-doped) passes through these tubes to recover the heat at 950/sup 0/C. Leakage following an intermediate TZM exchanger would result in a loss of 0.7 Ci/d into the steam through the Haynes-25 alloy boiler (potassium boiling). A moving getter bed is used to recover the tritium from the LiT and Li/sub 2/T scavengers in both the helium blanket scavenging flow and the potassium vapor coolant.

This report begins with definitions of characterization and testing, then continues with the evaluation of thirteen specific techniques including various spectroscopy, thermal, solutional properties, wet chemistry, chromatography and miscellaneous procedures. Comments and recommendations on the need for an analytical services focal point in GCD, a polymer characterization expert in OMD and the use of contractor facilities as a source of data gathering are made. It is concluded that substantial capabilities for polymer characterization do exist at LLL, but lack of adequate interfacing between OMD and GCD is preventing their effective use. Acquisition of a polymer chemist with experience in characterization techniques appears to be the best solution to this problem. Two tables outlining schemes for a check list for polymer characterization techniques and list of techniques and information needed for aging effects studies are included for reference. (DLC)

The Plutonium Inventory Verification Program at Mound Laboratory provides a nondestructive means of assaying bulk plutonium-bearing material. The assay is performed by combining the calorimetrically determined heat output of the sample and the relative abundances of the heat-producing isotopes. This report describes the method used for the nondestructive determination of plutonium-238, -240, -241 and americium-241 relative to plutonium-239 using gamma-ray spectroscopy for 93 percent plutonium-239 material. Comparison of chemical data on aliquots of samples to the nondestructive data shows accuracies of +-7 percent for /sup 238/Pu//sup 239/Pu, +-15 percent for /sup 240/Pu//sup 239/Pu, +- 3 percent for /sup 241/Pu//sup 239/Pu, and +-7 percent for /sup 241/Am//sup 239/Pu.