The complete Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) facility will be a complex set of accelerators and beam transfer equipment connecting them. A significant portion of the total facility either exists or is under construction. Two existing Tandem Van de Graaff accelerators will serve for the initial ion acceleration. Ions with a charge of -1 would be accelerated from ground to +15 MV potential, pass through a stripping foil, and accelerate back to ground potential, where they would pass through a second stripping foil. From there the ions will traverse a long transfer line to the AGS tunnel and be injected into the Booster accelerator. The Booster accelerates the ion bunch, and then the ions pass through one more stripper and then enter the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS), where they are accelerated to the top AGS energy and transferred to the collider. Bending and focusing of ion beams is to be achieved by superconducting magnets. The physics goals behind the RHIC are enumerated, particularly as regards the study of quark matter and the characteristics of high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. The design of the collider and all its components is described, including the injector, the lattice, magnet system, cryogenic and vacuum systems, …

The modification of surfaces during exposure to plasma bombardment is a critical issue in the development of limiter and wall materials for fusion confinement experiments. Controlled studies of the erosion and redeposition of materials during high flux and fluence plasma exposure are now possible in the PISCES facility. PISCES is a continuously operating plasma device which has achieved hydrogen plasma densities of over 10/sup 13/ cm/sup -3/ and electron temperatures of 5 to 24 eV over large areas. Ion fluxes of 10/sup 17/ to 10/sup 19/ cm/sup -2/ sec/sup -1/ and fluences of up to 10/sup 23/ cm/sup -2/ have been used to bombard biased samples inserted into the plasma. The plasma parameters can be selected to produce simple sputtering, or redeposition by the ionization and recycling of the sputtered target materials. Collaborative studies on the performance of Cu and Cu-Li alloys (with ANL), stainless steel (with SNLL), and graphite (with IPP at Garching, and SNLL) have been undertaken. Surface topography modification is always observed after a sufficient fluence is achieved. The net erosion rate is significantly lower during redeposition than one would expect from classical sputtering yields. The transport and deposition of different materials by the plasma to the …

The 234-5Z Analytical Laboratory, located in the 200 West Area of the Hanford Site, has been requested to provide waste package measurement capability for both the Plutonium/Uranium Extraction (PUREX) Plant and Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) in support of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC). The requested WIPP values are sensitive to changes in isotopic distribution. Unfortunately, the determination of the isotopic distribution of an individual waste item or drum is difficult. The problems and uncertainties encountered in providing the values are discussed. Also, examples of calculations for the WIPP-WAC are shown.

Two nonintrusive acoustic flow sensing techniques are reported. One technique, passive in nature, simply measures the bandpassed acoustic noise level produced by particle/particle and particle/wall collisions. The noise levels, given in true RMS voltages or in autocorrelations, show a linear relationship to particle velocity but increase with solid concentration. Therefore, the passive technique requires calibration and a separate measure of solid concentration before it can be used to monitor the particle velocity. The second technique is based on the active cross-correlation principle. It measures particle velocity directly by correlating flow-related signatures at two sensing stations. The velocity data obtained by this technique are compared with measurements by a radioactive-particle time-of-flight (TOF) method. A multiplier of 1.53 is required to bring the acoustic data into agreement with the radioactive TOF result. The difference may originate from the difference in flow fields where particles are detected. The radioactive method senses particles mainly in the turbulent region and essentially measures average particle velocity across the pipe, while the acoustic technique detects particles near the pipe wall, and so measures the particle velocity in the viscous sublayer. Both techniques were tested in flows of limestone and air and 1-mm glass beads and air at …

Absorption chillers have great difficulty competing with the electric-driven compression alternative, due in part to modest operating efficiencies and largely to high first costs. This project is an assessment of the possibility of lowering the costs of absorption chillers dramatically by the use of low material intensity in the design of a new generation of these machines. Breakeven costs for absorption chillers, their heat exchangers and heat exchanger materials were established which will allow commercial success. Polymeric and metallic materials appropriate to particular components and which meet the cost goals were identified. A subset of these materials were tested and ordered by success in tolerating conditions and materials found in absorption chiller applications. Conceptual designs which indicate the practicality of the low material intensity approach were developed. The work reported here indicates that there is a high probability that this apporach will be successful.

Report on technical progress in the various research and assessment activities of Argonne National Laboratory.

This report presents the results of wind-tunnel tests supported through the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) by the Office of Solar Thermal Technology of the US Department of Energy as part of the SERI research effort on innovative concentrators. As gravity loads on drive mechanisms are reduced through stretched-membrane technology, the wind-load contribution of the required drive capacity increases in percentage. Reduction of wind loads can provide economy in support structure and heliostat drive. Wind-tunnel tests have been directed at finding methods to reduce wind loads on heliostats. The tests investigated primarily the mean forces, moments, and the possibility of measuring fluctuating forces in anticipation of reducing those forces. A significant increase in ability to predict heliostat wind loads and their reduction within a heliostat field was achieved.

Platanares is located 16 km west of Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras, along the Quebrada del Agua Caliente. The thermal manifestations are along faults in tuffs, tuffaceous sedimentary rocks, and lavas of the Padre Miguel Group. These tuffs are silicified near the faults, are fractured, and may provide the fracture permeability necessary for the hydrothermal system. Tuffs are overlain by a wedge of terrace gravels up to 60 m thick. Quaternary conglomerates of the Quebrada del Agua Caliente are cemented by silica sinter. The Platanares area contains numerous faults, all of which appear to be extensional. There are four groups of faults (N80/sup 0/E to N70/sup 0/W, N30/sup 0/ to 60/sup 0/W, N40/sup 0/ to 65/sup 0/E, and N00/sup 0/ to 05/sup 0/W). All hot springs at this site are located along faults that trend mostly northwest and north. Twenty-eight spring groups were described over an area of 0.2 km/sup 2/; half were boiling. Based on surface temperatures and flow rates, between 0.7 and 1.0 MW thermal energy is estimated for the area. The increased temperature of the stream flowing through the thermal area indicates that several megawatts of thermal energy are being added to the stream. We recommend that …

Eight alternative treatments (and four subalternatives) are considered for both existing commercial transuranic wastes and future wastes from spent fuel consolidation. Waste treatment is assumed to occur at a hypothetical central treatment facility (a Monitored Retrieval Storage facility was used as a reference). Disposal in a geologic repository is also assumed. The cost, process characteristics, and waste form characteristics are evaluated for each waste treatment alternative. The evaluation indicates that selection of a high-volume-reduction alternative can save almost $1 billion in life-cycle costs for the management of transuranic and high-activity wastes from 70,000 MTU of spent fuel compared to the reference MRS process. The supercompaction, arc pyrolysis and melting, and maximum volume reduction alternatives are recommended for further consideration; the latter two are recommended for further testing and demonstration.

Research performed at LAMPF during 1985 is reported in the areas of: nuclear and particle physics; atomic and molecular physics; materials science; radiation-effects studies; biomedical research and instrumentation; nuclear chemistry; radioisotope production; and physics theory. Also reported are the status of LAMPF-II, facility development work, and accelerator operations. (LEW)

A thermal treatment process is currently under study to provide possible enhancement of in-place stabilization of transuranic and chemically contaminated soil sites. The process is known as in situ vitrification (ISV). In situ vitrification is a remedial action process that destroys solid and liquid organic contaminants and incorporates radionuclides into a glass-like material that renders contaminants substantially less mobile and less likely to impact the environment. A large-scale operational acceptance test (LSOAT) was recently completed in which more than 180 t of vitrified soil were produced in each of three adjacent settings. The LSOAT demonstrated that the process conforms to the functional design criteria necessary for the large-scale radioactive test (LSRT) to be conducted following verification of the performance capabilities of the process. The energy requirements and vitrified block size, shape, and mass are sufficiently equivalent to those predicted by the ISV mathematical model to confirm its usefulness as a predictive tool. The LSOAT demonstrated an electrode replacement technique, which can be used if an electrode fails, and techniques have been identified to minimize air oxidation, thereby extending electrode life. A statistical analysis was employed during the LSOAT to identify graphite collars and an insulative surface as successful cold cap …

This quarterly report covers studies related to the use of /sup 238/PuO/sub 2/ in radioisotope power systems carried out for the Office of Special Nuclear Projects of the US Department of Energy by Los Alamos National Laboratory. Most of the studies discussed are ongoing; the results and conclusions described may change as the work progresses.

This paper examines the stability of tearing modes in a sheared slab when the width of the tearing layer is much smaller than the ion Larmor radius. The ion response is nonlocal, and the quasineutrality retains its full integal form. An expansion procedure is introduced to solve the quasineutrality equation in powers of the width of the tearing layer over the ion Larmor radius. The expansion procedure is applied to the collisionless and semi-collisional tearing modes. The first order terms in the expansion we find to be strongly stabilizing. The physics of the mode and of the stabilization is discussed. Tearing modes are observed in experiments even though the slab theory predicts stability. It is proposed that these modes grow from an equilibrium with islands at the rational surfaces. If the equilibrium islands are wider than the ion Larmor radius, the mode is unstable when ..delta..' is positive.

The power deposition and wall material erosion rates due to charge-exchange neutral atoms resulting from a recycling source at limiters in the TEXTOR and TFTR tokamaks are reported. The analysis is carried out using a recently developed finite element, two-dimensional toroidal geometry diffusion theory neutral atom transport theory and the computer code, FENAT. The power deposition and material erosion are highest at the limiter. The first wall suffers very little erosion except for the portion near the limiter.

This document summarizes information concerning radioactive waste and laundry shipments from the Three Mile Island Nuclear Station Unit 2 to radioactive waste disposal sites and to protective clothing decontamination facilities (laundries) since the loss of coolant accident experienced on March 28, 1979. Data were collected from radioactive shipment records, summarized, and placed in a computerized data information retrieval/manipulation system which permits extraction of specific information. This report covers the period of April 9, 1979 to May 5, 1985. Included in this report are: waste disposal site locations, dose rates, curie content, waste description, container type and number, volumes and weights. This information is presented in two major categories: protective clothing (laundry) and radioactive waste. Each of the waste shipment reports is in chronological order.

We discuss the thermodynamics of higher dimensional black holes with particular emphasis on a new class of spinning black holes which, due to the increased number of Casimir invariants, have additional spin degrees of freedom. In suitable limits, analytic solutions in arbitrary dimensions are presented for their temperature, entropy, and specific heat. In 5 + 1 and 9 + 1 dimensions, more general forms for these quantities are given. It is shown that the specific heat for a higher dimensional black hole is negative definite if it has only one non-zero spin parameter, regardless of the value of this parameter. We also consider equilibrium configurations with both massless particles and massive string modes. 16 refs., 3 figs.

E.I. duPont de Nemours and Company is commissioned by the US Department of Energy to operate the Savannah River Plant and Laboratory. The primary purpose of the plant is to produce radioactive materials for national defense. In keeping with current technology, new processes for the production of tritium are being developed. Three main objectives of this new technology are to ease the processing of, ease the storage of, and to reduce the operating costs of the tritium production facility. Research has indicated that the use of metal hydrides offers a viable solution towards satisfying these objectives. The Hydrogen and Fuels Technology Division has the responsibility to conduct research in support of the tritium production process. Metal hydride technology and its use in the storage and transportation of hydrogen will be reviewed.

A series of experiments was conducted to determine the feasibility of using hydrogenated amorphous silicon (..cap alpha..-Si:H) as solid state thin film charged particle detectors. /sup 241/Am alphas were successfully detected with ..cap alpha..-Si:H devices. The measurements and results of these experiments are presented. The problems encountered and changes in the fabrication of the detectors that may improve the performance are discussed.

In February 1983, the US Department of Energy (DOE) identified a location in Deaf Smith County, Texas, as one of nine potentially acceptable sites for a mined geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. To determine their suitability, the Deaf Smith County site and the eight other potentially sites have been evaluated in accordance with the DOE's General Guidelines for the Recommendation of Sites for the Nuclear Waste Repositories. The Deaf Smith County site is in the Permian Basin, which is one of five distinct geohydrologic settings considered for the first repository. On the basis of the evaluations reported in this EA, the DOE has found that the Deaf Smith County site is not disqualified under the guidelines. On the basis of these findings, the DOE is nominating the Deaf Smith County site as one of the five sites suitable for characterization. 591 refs., 147 figs., 173 tabs.

A summary of np elastic scattering spin measurements at intermediate energy is given. Preliminary results from a LAMPF experiment to measure free neutron-proton elastic scattering spin-spin correlation parameters are presented. A longitudinally polarized proton target was used. These measurements are part of a program to determine the neutron-proton amplitudes in a model independent fashion at 500, 650, and 800 MeV. Some new proton-proton total cross sections in pure helicity states (..delta..sigma/sub L/(pp)) near 3 GeV/c are also given. 37 refs., 2 figs.

This report documents the travel behavior and transportation fuel use of minority and poor households in the US, using information from numerous national-level sources. The resulting data base reveals distinctive patterns of household vehicle availability and use, travel, and fuel use and enables us to relate observed differences between population groups to differences in their demographic characteristics and in the attributes of their household vehicles. When income and residence location are controlled, black (and to a lesser extent, Hispanic and poor) households have fewer vehicles regularly available than do comparable white or nonpoor households; moreover, these vehicles are older and larger and thus have significantly lower fuel economy. The net result is that average black, Hispanic, and poor households travel fewer miles per year but use more fuel than do average white and nonpoor households. Certain other findings - notably, that of significant racial differences in vehicle availability and use by low-income households - challenge the conventional wisdom that such racial variations arise solely because of differences in income and residence location. Results of the study suggest important differences - primarily in the yearly fluctuation of income - between black and white low-income households even when residence location is controlled. …

The development of coherent radiation in high-gain free electron lasers, either from initial noise or from low-power input radiation, is analyzed in terms of three-dimensional Maxwell-Klimontovich equations. Exponential growth and saturation, transverse radiation profiles, transverse coherence and spectral features are discussed. Two possible systems of high-gain free electron lasers, one based on a storage ring and by-pass, another based on a linac and damping rings, are considered for the generation of 400 A radiation.

Long-range core-drilling operations and initial scientific investigations are described for four sites in the Valles caldera, New Mexico. The plan concentrates on the period 1986 to 1993 and has six primary objectives: (1) study the origin, evolution, physical/chemical dynamics of the vapor-dominated portion of the Valles geothermal system; (2) investigate the characteristics of caldera fill and mechanisms of caldera collapse and resurgence; (3) determine the physical/chemical conditions in the heat transfer zone between crystallizing plutons and the hydrothermal system; (4) study the mechanism of ore deposition in the caldera environment; (5) develop and test high-temperature drilling techniques and logging tools; and (6) evaluate the geothermal resource within a large silicic caldera. Core holes VC-2a (500 m) and VC-2b (2000 m) are planned in the Sulphur Springs area; these core holes will probe the vapor-dominated zone, the underlying hot-water-dominated zone, the boiling interface and probable ore deposition between the two zones, and the deep structure and stratigraphy along the western part of the Valles caldera fracture zone and resurgent dome. Core hole VC-3 will involve reopening existing well Baca number12 and deepening it from 3.2 km (present total depth) to 5.5 km, this core hole will penetrate the deep-crystallized silicic pluton, …

The magnetic fields associated with plasmas frequently exhibit small amplitude MHD fluctuations. It is useful to have equations for the magnetic field averaged over these fluctuations, the so-called mean field equations. Under very general assumptions it is shown that the effect of MHD fluctuations on a force-free plasma can be represented by one parameter in Ohm's law, which is effectively the coefficient of electric current viscosity.