A waste management strategy for future nuclear fusion power systems is developed using existing regulatory methodology. The first step is the development of a reference fuel cycle. Next, the waste streams from such a facility are identified. Then a waste management system is defined to safely handle and dispose of these wastes. The future regulator must identify the decisions necessary to establish waste management performance criteria. The data base and methodologies necessary to make these decisions must then be developed. Safe management of nuclear fusion wastes is not only a technological challenge, but encompasses significant social, political, and ethical questions as well.

Argus is a twin beam, 20 cm output aperture, Nd:glass laser system that has delivered 4TW to a laser fusion target. This performance is based on the concepts that multiple spatial filtering can prevent beam fill factors. Damage to optics due to self focusing and filamentation does not occur on Argus. The only form of damage is induced by broadband radiation from xenon flashlamps interacting with contaminants on or in the Nd:glass. The severity of damage is measured by the fraction of the beam obscured by the damage sites. This averages 0.1% per surface or 0.75% per arm. The amount of damage does not appear to be strongly related to the number of amplifier firings and generally occurs during the first few firings.

Advanced imaging methods have been evaluated for the purpose of constructing images of objects from ultrasonic data. Feasibility of imaging surfaces which are off-normal to the sound beam has been established. Laboratory results are presented which show a complete image of a typical core component. Using the previous system developed for under sodium viewing (USV), only normal surfaces of this object could be imaged. Using advanced methods, surfaces up to 60 degrees off-normal have been imaged. Details of equipment and procedures used for this image construction are described. Additional work on high temperature transducers, electronics, and signal analysis is required in order to adapt the off-normal viewing process described here to an eventual USV application.

Simulated transient tests were conducted on 234 cladding specimens from EBR-II irradiated mixed oxide fuel pins; approximately 75% of the specimens were from the fuel column region, with the remainder from the plenum and below the fuel column. The cladding specimens were taken from the N-E, N-F,, PNL-9, PNL-10, PNL-11, P-23A, P-23B, P-23C, and WSA-3 fuel pins irradiated at 15.2 to 37 KW/cm to burnup levels from 11 to 110 MWd/Kg. All the fuel pins used 20% cold worked Type 316 stainless steel cladding. Irradiation temperatures ranged from 370 to 725/sup 0/C with a peak fluence of 10/sup 23/ n/cm/sup 2/ (E > 0.1 MeV).

The PLT or ISX-B ion source has been operated at 40-keV, 60-A, and 0.3-sec pulses with H(D) neutral injected power of 750 kW (approximately 1000 kW) on the PLT device. This report gives a brief description of this system and some future plans. (MOW)

Volume II of the report comprises copies of the slides from the talks presented at the second session of the National Waste Terminal Storage Program information meeting. This session was devoted to geologic studies. (LK)