Today, in keeping with Sandia Laboratories` designation by the Department of Energy as the lead laboratory for the pulsed power approach to fusion, its efforts include major research activities and the construction of new facilities at its Albuquerque site. Additionally, in its capacity as lead laboratory, Sandia coordinates DOE-supported pulsed power fusion work at other government operated laboratories, with industrial contractors, and universities. The beginning of Sandia`s involvement in developing fusion power was an outgrowth of its contributions to the nation`s nuclear weapon program. The Laboratories` work in the early 1960`s emphasized the use of pulsed radiation environments to test the resistance of US nuclear weapons to enemy nuclear bursts. A careful study of options for fusion power indicated that Sandia`s expertise in the pulsed power field could provide a powerful match to ignite fusion fuel. Although creating test environments is an achieved goal of Sandia`s overall program, this work and other military tasks protected by appropriate security regulations will continue, making full use of the same pulsed power technology and accelerators as the fusion-for-energy program. Major goals of Sandia`s fusion program including the following: (1) complete a particle accelerator to deliver sufficient beam energy for igniting fusion targets; (2) …

The purpose of this report is to provide a clearer perspective of the impact of radionuclides in soil and groundwater, particularly for those not well-versed in soil science, hydrology, and geology. Through nuclear waste disposal or accidents, radionuclides come in contact with soil and groundwater. Man is exposed to radiation as a result of movement (or transport) of the radionuclides into his environment. Water is the principal carrier that induces transport, but chemical characteristics of soil inhibit the transport.

Theoretical predictions using both potential flow analyses and solutions to Navier-Stokes equations are made for the operating characteristics of a two-dimensional virtual impactor. Experiments were performed with 2.5 ..mu..m, uranine tagged, di-octylphthalate (DOP) oil droplets for a wide range of prototype geometries to measure the magnitude of internal losses and to fully characterize the instrument response. The influence of geometry including the throat angle (38/sup 0/ less than or equal to ..beta../sub 0/ less than or equal to 58.2/sup 0/) and normalized void width (0.7 less than or equal to h/w less than or equal to 1.5) on the particle cutoff diameter, efficiency curve steepness and properties of the internal particle loss factor are presented for fixed instrument Reynolds numbers Re = 1540 and bleed flow f = 0.1. The theory, supported by trends in the empirical data, predicts that internal particle losses reduce to zero as the normalized void width increases to h/w = 1.4 +- .1 while the data show a minimum at h/w = 1.6 +- .1. Increasing the void width, however, is shown to substantially reduce the steepness of the particle efficiency curves. Visual observations of the onset of fluid separation for two-dimensional jets impinging upon …

The City of Ephrata, Washington has an existing well that has the capability of pumping 2200 gallons per minute of 86/sup 0/F water into the City drinking water system. To determine the economic practicality of using the City water to heat the schools, one school (Middle School) was selected for evaluation. Two cases were considered. Case 1 uses a two stage water-to-water heat pump to produce a 190/sup 0/F circulating hot water steam. This would be compatible with the existing system and essentially no retrofit costs for the room convective heating system would be incurred. Case 2 uses a single stage water-to-water heat pump to produce a 140/sup 0/F circulating hot water stream. Retrofit costs would incur for additional room convection equipment. In both cases the heat pump is sized to furnish the total heating and hot water requirements of the school. However, one of the existing boilers is left in place to serve as standby. The Middle School evaluation shows the single stage heat pump to be most cost effective, having a return on invested capital of about 19%. Projecting the single stage evaluation to include all the schools, the total conversion cost would be about $800,000. This includes …

Maywood Industries is presently utilizing 118/sup 0/F water pumped from a geothermal well about 1500 feet deep. The Klamath County Road complex presently heats about 13,000 square feet of space using electric and natural gas heaters. It is planned to increase the total heated area to nearly 24,000 square feet. This study is based on eliminating the existing electrical and natural gas heaters and heating the entire 24,000 square feet geothermally. It was found to be practical and economically feasible to heat the road department shop complex geothermally. Capital cost is estimated to be $170,000. Annual energy savings for the enlarged facility would be 56,720 KWH of electricity and 36,924 therms of natural gas, with a first year value of $18,175. This savings, less operating costs, when applied with escalation considerations over a period of twenty years, result in a present worth of $382,385 when discounted at 8%. Thus, with 8% bonds financing of this project is economically attractive. (MHR)

Blue Mountain Community College campus consists of five major buildings totalling about 193,000 square feet in area. Four of these buildings are heated using hot water circulating systems, and the fifth by a low pressure steam system. The boilers for each of the systems are natural gas fired. A successful agricultural well was drilled adjacent to the campus, which during a twelve hour test produced 780 gallons per minute of 65/sup 0/F water. It was concluded that heating the campus utilizing a heat pump system is possible using readily available and proven equipment. Annual energy saving in natural gas will amount to 98,400 therms. This is an 82% reduction in the annual usage forecast after implementation of recommendations made as a result of the energy audit. The first year value of the natural gas saved is $49,200. This savings, less operating costs, when applied with escalation consideration over a period of twenty years, indicates that a capital investment of $367,500 can be justified. This assumes the project would be financed with 8% tax-free bonds. A system design was developed, new equipment sized, needed modifications identified, and major items estimated.

A housing development to be located at Fernley, Nevada, about thirty miles east of Reno, is in an area of known geothermal water. The practicality of heating these homes with this water, as an alternative to heating with natural gas, has been investigated. A preliminary engineering design of a geothermal system was developed. This design permitted capital and operating cost to be estimated and a financial evaluation to be made. Two cases were investigated. The Base Case provides facilities for heating a tract of 371 houses. The Alternate Case adds another tract of 371 for a total of 742 houses. Geothermal water is to be provided by two wells and the used water reinjected into a third well. The Base Case has a rate of return on capital investment of 13.0 percent before taxes. The Alternate Case has a rate of return of 16.5 percent before taxes. The Alternate Case has a more favorable return due primarily to the assumption that each well has the capacity to produce 800 gpm of geothermal water. This is enough to provide for the additional 371 houses in the Alternate Case without an additional well. (MHR)

Considerable preliminary information has been gathered on the heating requirements of Caliente. It is reported that the City consists of 320 residential buildings, 90 commercial buildings, and two industries, a total of 412. Heating is predominantly by fuel oil or LPG. Only 113 of the residential, 17 of the commercial, and 1 of the industrial buildings are heated electrically. It is also reported that the average electrically heated home consumed 13,600 KWH in the year 1978, and the average all-electric commercial building 53,100 KWH. A geothermal district heating system for the city of Caliente, Nevada is economically feasible. This assumes that a 160/sup 0/F geothermal source capable of delivering a peak load of 850 gallons per minute from a relatively shallow depth can be located within, or near, the City boundaries. Total volume needed from the geothermal reservoir during the 20 year project life is 5400 acre-feet. Based on 8% bond financing of a capital investment for equipment of $2,500,000, a present worth of about $5,400,000 is generated over the project life. Total energy saved during the project life is 63 million KWH of electricity, and 7.5 millions therms of fuel.

The apartment building would consist of about 75 units of about 900 square feet each. Also included would be an outdoor swimming pool and an enclosed activity wing of about 11,000 square feet. Though no deep geothermal wells have been drilled in the immediate area, opinions were obtained that 150/sup 0/F water would be present at 2500 feet and 80/sup 0/F water at about 1000 feet. Based on this information the comparative economics of using geothermal as a heat source versus conventional electrical heating was developed. The purpose of this comparison is to determine if there is economic incentive for the expenditure necessary to define and prove the extent of the geothermal resource. Four systems were compared, each would provide space heating, supply domestic hot water, and heat the swimming pool. A brief description of each of the systems is given. (MHR)

The theoretical propagation of short (150-ps) laser pulses in a one-atmosphere CO/sub 2/ amplifier is investigated using a fully coherent density-matrix computer code. The influence of coherent effects and of the response times of the amplifying medium on the temporal shape of the output pulse is examined. It is found that short pulses, whose width is approximately equal to the T/sub 2/ time of the medium, can be effectively amplified.

The results of the Laser Fusion Breeder Design Study are given. This information primarily relates to the conceptual design of an inertial confinement fusion (ICF) breeder reactor (or fusion-fission hybrid) based upon the HYLIFE liquid metal wall protection concept developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The blanket design for this breeder is optimized to both reduce fissions and maximize the production of fissile fuel for subsequent use in conventional light water reactors (LWRs). When the suppressed fission blanket is compared with its fast fission counterparts, a minimal fission rate in the blanket results in a unique reactor safety advantage for this concept with respect to reduced radioactive inventory and reduced fission product decay afterheat in the event of a loss-of-coolant-accident.

Some recent developments in the use of complex basis function techniques to study resonance as well as certain types of non-resonant, scattering phenomena are discussed. Complex scaling techniques and other closely related methods have continued to attract the attention of computational physicists and chemists and have now reached a point of development where meaningful calculations on many-electron atoms and molecules are beginning to appear feasible.

The thermal behavior of a building in response to heat input from an active solar space heating system is analyzed to determine the effect of the variable storage tank temperature on the cycling rate, on-time, and off-time of a heating cycle and on the comfort characteristics of room air temperature swing and of offset of the average air temperature from the setpoint (droop). A simple model of a residential building, a fan coil heat-delivery system, and a bimetal thermostat are used to describe the system. A computer simulation of the system behavior has been developed and verified by comparisons with predictions from previous studies. The system model and simulation are then applied to determine the building response to a typical hydronic solar heating system for different solar storage temperatures, outdoor temperatures, and fan coil sizes. The simulations were run only for those cases where there was sufficient energy from storage to meet the building load requirements.

Resistive magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) is described by a set of eight coupled, nonlinear, three-dimensional, time-dependent, partial differential equations. A computer code, IMP (Implicit MHD Program), has been developed to solve these equations numerically by the method of finite differences on an Eulerian mesh. In this model, the equations are expressed in orthogonal curvilinear coordinates, making the code applicable to a variety of coordinate systems. The Douglas-Gunn algorithm for Alternating-Direction Implicit (ADI) temporal advancement is used to avoid the limitations in timestep size imposed by explicit methods. The equations are solved simultaneously to avoid syncronization errors.

Development of the cement grout for the Bell Canyon Test was accomplished at the US Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station (WES), Vicksburg, Mississippi. Initial development work centered on a saltwater grout with Class H cement, fly ash, and an expansive additive. Testing of the saltwater grout showed suitable properties except for the interface between anhydrite rock and grout in small core samples. Higher than expected permeability occurred at the interface because of space between the grout and the anhydrite; the space was produced as a result of allowing the specimens to dry. A change to freshwater grout and proper care to prevent the specimens from drying alleviated this condition. The BCT-1FF freshwater grout mixture was used in both the plug ONE and ONEX field grouting operations. Testing of the development grout mixtures was also done at Dowell, Pennsylvania State University, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Results of the testing and evaluation by the four laboratories are included in the report. Field batching, mixing, and placement of the grout at the plug locations for both plug ONE and ONEX were satisfactory with adequate quality control. The freshwater grout mixture maintained adequate flow characteristics for pumpability for 3 1/2 h during each …

Characteristics of a Hot Dry Rock (HDR) geothermal reservoir were deduced by matching a geochemistry model which incorporates rock dissolution and displacement of an indigenous pore-fluid to chemical analyses of recirculating geothermal fluid. Two reservoirs were created between a pair of wells by hydraulic fracturing. The first of the reservoirs was evaluated by a 75-day flow test designated as Segment 2. Subsequent operations required the cementing of the injection well to stop a leak behind the casing, and this cementing operation closed the connection to the first reservoir. The second, larger reservoir was evaluated with two flow tests -- the first had a duration of 24 days and is c a l l e d Segment 4 and the second, called Segment 5, will end on December 19, 1980 after 284 days of operation. Present discussion w i l l be mainly concerned with the geochemistry of the second reservoir. Of particular interest in a HDR geothermal reservoir is the relationship between the mixed-mean temperature of the geothermal fluid as measured with a downhole thermistor and the temperatures given by the silica and the Na-K-Ca geochemical thermometers. As will be shown, the temperatures predicted by applying the chemical geothermometers directly …

Test results are given for the operation of a recessed incandescent light fixture intended for residential use. The fixture is labeled for use in direct contact with attic thermal insulation. Temperature control of the powered fixture is provided by convective heat transfer from the ceiling side of the fixture. The fixture was operated at power levels up to two times the rated power of 75 watts and under thermal insulations up to R-40. In all operating configurations tested the fixture surface in contact with attic insulation was found to be less than 175/sup 0/C. The observed surface temperatures are judged to be safe for operation in contact with loose-fill or batt-type insulations. It was observed that the power leads inside one fixture configuration are exposed to temperatures as high as 168/sup 0/C. The electrical insulation could, therefore, have a limited life. The properties of the internal fixture wiring were not, however, studied in detail.