With the start of a research and development effort directed towards the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC), it is essential that US industry become involved as soon as possible. For that reason, I describe what a conventional accelerator complex is like and therefore what the first stages of the SSC would entail.

The steam-driven GKSS pressure suppression test facility, which contains 3 full scale vent pipes, has been used for 5 years to investigate the postulated loss-of-coolant accident in a Mark II and Type 69 boiling water reactor. Using the results from several of these tests, wetwell boundary load data (peak pressures and spectral power) during the chugging stage, have been evaluated for sparse pool response (one and two vents in the three vent pool) and for full pool response (one, two, or three vent operation in pools of constant wetwell pool area per vent). The sparse pool results indicate the pool-system, chug event boundary loads are strongly dependent on wetwell pool area per vent, with the load increasing with decreasing area. The full pool results show a substantial increase in the pool-system, chug event boundary loads upon a change from single cell to double cell operation; only minor change occurs in going from double to triple cell operation.

The Advanced Test Accelerator (ATA) is a linear induction accelerator for electrons with design goals of 50 MeV and 10 kA. The accelerator consists of a 2.5 to 3 MeV injector and 170 accelerating units, each unit capable of an applied voltage up to 350 kV. At a number of positions in the accelerator, the return current in the beam pipe is measured as a function of time as the beam passes that position. The measuring device, a four quadrant addition, is somewhat sensitive to the transverse position of the beam centroid as well as transverse distribution of current in the beam. Therefore a time-dependent signal may indicate time-dependent transverse motion or beam structure as well as an axial modulation of the beam current. These signals sometimes exhibit spikes and notches on the leading and trailing edges of the beam pulse. The presence of these rapidly varying signals during the rise and fall of the current stimulated this work. 2 references, 4 figures.

The goals of the Inertial Fusion Program at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are to study matter under extreme conditions of temperature and pressure and to produce fusion energy from inertially confined fusion fuel. With the conclusion of recent multi-kilojoule 0.53 ..mu..m experiments on Novette, we have demonstrated vastly improved plasma conditions compared to those previously obtained at LLNL with similar energies at 1.06 ..mu..m and elsewhere with 10 ..mu..m radiation. The lower preheat environment obtainable with short wavelength light has led to 3X improvements in the compression of targets on Novette compared to similar targets on Shiva with 1.06 ..mu..m. Subsequent experiments on Nova with short wavelength light will begin in 1985. They are expected to demonstrate the necessary compression conditions required for high gain fusion to occur when irradiated with a multi-megajoule driver. These recent results, together with improved calculations, and innovations in driver and reactor technology, indicate that high gain inertial fusion will occur and is a viable candidate for fusion power production in the future.

The Nuclear Criticality Information System (NCIS), in preparation since 1981, has substantially evolved and now contains a growing number of resources pertinent to nuclear criticality safety. These resources include bibliographic compilations, experimental data, communications media, and the International Directory of Nuclear Criticality Safety Personnel. These resources are part of the LLNL Technology Information System (TIS) which provides the host computer for NCIS. The TIS provides nationwide access to authorized members of the nuclear criticality community via interactive dial-up from computer terminals that utilize communication facilities such as commercial and federal telephone networks, toll-free WATS lines, TYMNET, and the ARPANET/MILNET computer network.