An improved method for measuring the peak power output from pulsed-injection laser diodes having risetimes of 10 ns or greater has been developed by the Bendix Kansas City Metrology Laboratory. Based on the combination of an integrating sphere and a silicon photodiode, the system provides the means for collecting all of the widely divergent pulsed output of laser diodes. System accuracy is estimated to be within +-15%. Methods of system calibration are described along with the circuitry used to pulse and measure the diode current.

The on-line control system interface for magnet beam steering and focusing in the Bevalac is described. An Aydin model 5205B display generator was chosen. This display generator will allow the computer to completely rewrite a monitor screen in less than 50 ms and is also capable of controlling a color monitor. (PMA)

The next generation of U.S. fusion experiments, which includes TFTR, MFTF, and Doublet III, will utilize neutral-beam injection for plasma heating. TFTR, for example, desires 20 MW of 120-keV deuterium atoms in pulses of 0.5-sec duration at 5-minute intervals from a total of 12 individual neutral-beam modules. A discussion is given of some of the design details of a 15-A, 120-keV, 0.5-sec ion-source module that has recently been built to test design concepts for TFTR sources, and some of the features of the facility where it is presently under test at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.

A number of technical possibilities for isolating high level radioactive materials have been theoretically investigated at various times and places. Isolating such wastes deep underground to insure long-term removal from the biosphere is one such possibility which has been investigated. The present concept involves as a first step creating the necessary void space at considerable depth, say 2 to 5 km, in a very low permeability silicate medium such as shale. Waste in dry, calcined or vitrified form is then lowered into the void space, and the access hole or shaft sealed. Energy released by the radioactive decay raises the temperature to a point where the surrounding rock begins to melt. The waste is then dissolved in it. The extent of this melt region grows until the heat generated is balanced by conduction away from the molten zone. Resolidification then begins, and ends when the radioactive decay has progressed to the point that the temperature falls below the melting point of the rock-waste solution. Calculations are presented showing the growth and resolidification process. The use of a nuclear explosion presents one alternative way of creating the void space.

Damage rates of 5 MeV /sup 27/Al ions in Al have been measured as a function of the ion path length in Al. The technique developed for this study employed evaporated Al thin film (approximately 0.4 - 0.5 ..mu..m thick), electrical resistivity specimens, as a damage sensor and variation in ion path lengths were obtained by insertion of thin foils of Al immediately in front of the resistivity specimen. Irradiations and electrical resistance measurements were carried out below 10/sup 0/K to ''freeze in'' the displacement damage and to provide suitable conditions for precision electrical measurements. The resistance increase due to irradiation is a measure of the displacement damage resulting from ion-atom collisions in the specimen. The damage rates vary about an order of magnitude over the range of the ions and are in general agreement with calculated damage rates obtained from theory. 9 fig.

The energy future will be affected by decisions made in the next few years. The author speaks on the reality of the future, specifically for electric power generation in the Northwest United States. His four main thoughts are: decisions made today will stand for ten years or more and are irreversible; only coal and nuclear are options available in the Northwest; coal and nuclear must be utilized to alleviate power outages leading to rationing and allocation measures; and conservation of electricity will benefit all. After summing up all issues involved with these thoughts, the author told the teachers at the conference that they were obligated to prepare youth to participate knowledgeably in this decision process. (MCW)

The next generation of U.S. fusion experiments which includes TFTR, MFTF, and Doublet III, will utilize neutral-beam injection for plasma heating. TFTR, for example, desires 20 MW of 120-keV deuterium atoms in pulses of 0.5-sec duration. In order to meet these requirements, a 15-A, 120-keV, 0.5-sec pulse per minute module is presently under test at the neutral-beam test facility at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. A 65-A, 120-keV, 0.5-sec module is under construction and is scheduled for assembly in April of this year. Some of the features of a calorimeter/beam dump that is presently being used in the testing and evaluation of these neutral beam sources are discussed.

A flexible electronic product test and evaluation system is proposed. A system study was performed to determine how increasingly complex telemetry systems could be effectively evaluated during development and preproduction and after first production units were built. A primary requirement was that this system remain flexible with respect to configuration and mission and that it be easily maintainable. In addition, the system must be upgraded easily as old product requirements and definitions are replaced by new designs. As a result of this study it is concluded that this project would involve the expenditure of considerable funds and manpower at the beginning of the project and that the cost effectiveness of the system would be dependent upon its utilization and management. This study also demonstrates how the use of computer interface hardware standards (IEEE 583) can minimize requirements for expensive specially designed test equipment for each application.

When projected to PLT-size tokamaks, the preliminary results for ..omega.. approx. 2..omega../sub ci/ fast wave heating obtained in the ST and ATC tokamaks indicate that very efficient heating of the central plasma region as opposed to the surface region should ensue when the rf energy is suitably coupled to the plasma waves. Ion banana orbit losses become negligible and a large number of propagating waves are available so that the radial rf energy disposition pattern can be properly selected at last. It is vital to the potential use of ICRF (Ion Cyclotron Range of Frequencies) heating in reactor scale plasmas that surface heating be controlled and minimized relative to heating the plasma core. A demonstration that this is possible in existing large tokamaks is essential to the development of the ICRF heating schemes for reactor use. Projections to TFTR and larger devices are considered briefly.

FeTi, TiFe/sub 0/./sub 79/Mn/sub 0/./sub 15/, and TiFe/sub 0/./sub 76/Mn/sub 0/./sub 14/ subjected to hydriding-dehydriding cycles showed no deterioration as a function of hydriding-dehydriding cycles. The presence of O/sub 2/ in the hydrogen gas phase has a poisoning effect on the reactivity of FeTi toward hydrogen. Manganese-containing FeTi alloys were used to determine minimum activation temperatures. Future work will be concerned primarily with two separate alloy systems, magnesium and titanium. (LK)

Additional subsurface investigations of the Rio Blanco detonation region and adjacent reservoir have been underway since the last technical meeting at IAEA. The lowermost explosion cavity has been reentered and a production test from it was performed. A dry gas volume of 7.6 x 10/sup 5/ m/sup 3/ (27 Mmscf) was withdrawn. Chemical and radiochemical analyses of this gas show that (1) the yield of the bottom explosive was 31 +- 2 kt; (2) the cavity/chimney volume was 2.4 x 10/sup 4/ m/sup 3/ (8.4 x 10/sup 5/ ft/sup 3/); (3) about 7 percent of the tritium produced is associated with the gas; and (4) a slight (approximately 0.1 percent) gas contribution from the middle explosion region was noted. The reservoir/chimney model implies an unstimulated reservoir flow capacity of 0.15 mdarcy-m (0.50 md-ft) connected to the bottom chimney region. A cavity radius of 21 +- 3 m (70 +- 10 ft) was deduced. Unstimulated reservoir production parameters were investigated in a well offset 190 m (625 ft) from the emplacement hole. Insufficient productivity was obtained in the Mesaverde formation (in which the bottom explosive was detonated) to evaluate reservoir properties. The productive sandstones in the Fort Union formation adjoining the …

This report summarizes the initial effort of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory involvement with the study of BWR Mark I pressure suppression pool dynamics. Analytical activity is described and calculational results are presented for several simplified geometries. Computer code authentication will be provided by a currently active program in benchmark tests. The experiment and some results are presented. A combined analytical and experimental program to evaluate air scaling hypotheses for hydrodynamic forces and pool motion is presented, along with some conclusions regarding model scaling.

Standards for the exchange of machine-readable data are discussed at five levels covering (1) physical characteristics of the medium used in the exchange, (2) overall structure of the data file, (3) format of individual records, (4) types of information contained in a record, (5) authority files for information definition. The standards are used by the National Geothermal Information Resource for compilations of geothermal energy data.

Included are the 14 papers presented by fusion researchers from ANL at the ANS meeting on controlled fusion. Abstracts for each paper are included. (MOW)

The use of investment castings has been shown to provide great flexibility in the design of electronic-component packaging while satisfying functional requirements, reducing fabrication costs, and improving product quality, appearance, and reliability. The basic investment casting process is briefly described, examples of products are shown, and guidelines for the design of investment castings are presented.

Data on the geology of the USERDA Nevada Test Site have been collected for the purpose of evaluating the possibility of release of radioactivity at proposed underground nuclear test sites. These data, including both the rock physical properties and the geologic structure and stratigraphy of a large number of drill-hole sites, are stored in the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory Earth Sciences Division Nuclear Test Effects and Geologic Data Bank. Retrieval programs can quickly provide a geological and geophysical comparison of a particular site with other sites where radioactivity was successfully contained. The data can be automatically sorted, compared, and averaged, and information listed according to site location, drill-hole construction, rock units, depth to key horizons and to the water table, and distance to faults. These programs also make possible ordered listings of geophysical properties (interval bulk density, overburden density, interval velocity, velocity to the surface, grain density, water content, carbonate content, porosity, and saturation of the rocks). The characteristics and capabilities of the data bank are discussed.

This report contains the abstracts of papers presented at a workshop on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) such as those produced by coal conversion technologies. Their often carcinogenic nature imposes the obligation of providing adequate protection and measurement devices for workers and for the general public. The primary questions are as follows: What should be measured. Where and how should it be measured. What are the maximum permissible concentrations. This workshop and future workshops are intended to bring these problems into better focus and to help establish a consensus on what needs to be done in order to provide a dosimetry effort that will ensure the adequate protection of personnel. There were 32 attendees of this one-day meeting. The papers and discussions included current industrial hygiene practices, the development of government agency guidelines for worker protection, and a wide range of analytical techniques for PAH detection, some of which are still in the research stage and are unproven. The workshop was held at ORNL on February 26, 1976.

Drill core samples of basalts of the Columbia River Group from the Hanford Reservation reveal a spotted, diabasic flow of up to 60 meters in thickness. These samples and those from the flow outcropping at Wahatis Peak (Saddle Mountains, Washington) were examined in detail to document intraflow textural, mineralogical, and chemical variations, which are of importance in basalt flow correlations. Analyses were by atomic absorption, instrumental neutron activation, electron microprobe, natural gamma well logging, K-Ar age dating, X-ray fluorescence, field (portable) magnetometer, and petrographic microscope.

In the design of the cryogenic system and superconducting magnets for the poloidal field system in a tokamak, it is important to have an accurate estimate of the heat produced in superconducting magnets as a result of rapidly changing magnetic fields. A computer code, PLASS (Pulsed Losses in Axisymmetric Superconducting Solenoids), was written to estimate the contributions to the heat production from superconductor hysteresis losses, superconductor coupling losses, stabilizing material eddy current losses, and structural material eddy current losses. Recently, it has been shown that thermoelastic dissipation in superconducting composites can contribute as much to heat production as the other loss mechanisms mentioned above. We discuss a modification of PLASS which takes into consideration thermoelastic dissipation in superconducting composites. A comparison between superconductor thermoelastic dissipation and the other superconductor loss mechanisms is presented in terms of the poloidal coil system of the ORNL Experimental Power Reactor design.

The present-day performance of tokamak plasmas is reviewed and compared with reactor requirements. Energy confinement time is found to increase with plasma density and radius, resulting in ntau/sub E/-values between 10/sup 12/-10/sup 13/cm/sup -3/s in present large devices. The ion temperature has been raised to almost 2 keV by intense neutral-beam injection. Effective methods for impurity control, plasma fueling, and exhaust must still be developed for long-pulse operation. The maximization of fusion power density required for an economic tokamak reactor seems attainable by a combination of moderately high magnetic field and one or more beta-enhancement schemes such as the use of a noncircular plasma cross section.

Numerical solutions have been obtained for two-dimensional free convective flow in rectangular and annular cavities using the strongly implicit procedure (SIP) and the cyclic reduction-fast Fourier transform (CR-FFT) technique. Rayleigh numbers range from 10/sup 4/ to 10/sup 6/, Prandtl numbers from 0.713 to 10/sup 3/, radius ratios from 1 to 3 (annular cavities), and aspect ratios (height/width) from 1 to 15. Motion is generated by either uniformly heating the bottom wall or heating a vertical wall (nondimensional temperature of 1) and cooling the opposite wall (nondimensional temperature of 0). Both time-dependent and steady state solutions confirm results previously obtained by others. The computational speed of the SIP and CR-FFT methods is very fast. Because SIP uses a common set of matrix algorithms, the governing equations of motion can be solved simultaneously without major modification to the method for each equation.