In work for the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory is developing an assessment procedure to evaluate the effectiveness of a potential nuclear facility licensee's material control (MC) system. The purpose of an MC system is to prevent the theft of special nuclear material such as plutonium and highly enriched uranium. The key in the assessment procedure is the generation and analysis of the adversary event sets by a directed graph and fault-tree methodology.

A selective multiphoton photochemical process has been used to enrich nitrogen-14 isotope in methylamine. A separation factor of two has been achieved for irradiation of CH/sub 3/N/sup 14/H/sub 2//CH/sub 3/N/sup 15/H/sub 2//NO sample with the P(24) line of the 9.6 ..mu.. CO/sub 2/ laser transition. The threshold laser energy fluence for reaction is roughly 30 joules/cm/sup 2/. The vibrational isotope shift of methylamine at 9.6 ..mu.. region was found to be 12.5 cm/sup -1/. The selectivity of the photochemical reaction appears to be limited by the overlap of vibrational-rotational lines of CH/sub 3/N/sup 14/H/sub 2/ and CH/sub 3/N/sup 15/H/sub 2/ molecules due to power broadening under the intense laser field.

The National Resource for Computation in Chemistry was established to make information on existing and developing computational methodologies available to all segments of the chemistry community, to make state-of-the-art computation facilities accessible to the chemistry community, and to foster research and development of new computational methods for application to chemical problems. Attention was directed to algebraic methods because of their continuing importance in chemical applications. This volume contains digests of the contributions to the workshop of August 9--11, 1978. Presentations were given on eigenvalue problems, linear systems of equations, and integral transformations. One of the papers in this volume was abstracted and indexed separately. (RWR)

The Antares laser will require that about 100 high-precision NaCl windows of 18-in. diameter be produced, maintained, and repaired. To aid the industry in achieving the required production rates, a polishing development program was undertaken by LASL's Laser Division in collaboration with the Air Force and International Laser Systems. The design and initial shakedown of the polishing machine is described. Preliminary results indicate the machine's design is sound, its operation is generally simple, and it should be capable of finishing 18-in. NaCl to better than lambda/2 visible and 20-10 surface. Shakedown work with glass has demonstrated 0-0 surface, complete absence of edge roll, and lambda/16 over 12 in., and lambda/6 over 19 in.

Many human vigilance experiments are summarized and principles are extracted which should be useful in designing and evaluating a nuclear material safeguard system. A human is a poor observer and is not a dependable part of any man-machine system when required to function as an observer. There are a few techniques which improve his performance by providing feedback. A conceptual model is presented which is helpful in design and evaluation of systems. There is some slight experimental support for the model. Finally, some techniques of time study and statistical control charting will be useful as a means of detecting nuclear diversion attempts.

An assessment of the effectiveness of the Material Control and Accounting System (MC and A) in a hypothetical nuclear facility, the TEST BED is presented. The key in assessing the TEST BED is the generation of adversary event sets. The adversary event sets are generated and analyzed by a directed graph (digraph) and fault tree procedure. Although the TEST BED is a system hardened against SNM theft, the assessment of the TEST BED finds several major weaknesses, and also indicates possible modifications to correct these weaknesses.

Design and assessment of the material control aspect of nuclear safeguard systems requires consideration of three types of functional elements: (1) material handling or processing, (2) actions of adversaries in their attempt to divert nuclear materials from their normal containment, and (3) components of material control and accounting and physical security systems that detect and respond to stimuli generated by the adversary actions. This paper describes a Material Control System Simulator (MCSS) program that simplifies computer simulation of safeguard systems by providing predefined functional models of these three types of elements. Specification of model systems requires only data pertaining to the performance characterization of these functional elements, so users with no prior computer simulation or programming experience can model and study the dynamic performance of safeguard systems. The paper presents an overview of MCSS and an example diversion attempt simulation that illustrates some of the features of the program.

The current status of the capability of laser fusion diagnostics is reviewed. Optical and infrared streak cameras provide one time resolution measurement capability of less than 10 ps, while x-ray streak cameras provide 15 ps time resolution in the range of about 1--30 keV presently. Time integrated spatial resolutions of 1 ..mu..m are provided with a variety of optical techniques. Ultraviolet holographic interferometry has measured electron densities above 10/sup 21/ cm/sup -3/ with 1 ..mu..m spatial resolution and 15 ps temporal resolution. X-ray microscopes provide 3 ..mu..m time integrated resolution and the x-ray streak pinhole camera has 6 ..mu..m spatial resolution. Development of the framing camera has thus far provided 50 ..mu..m spatial resolution with 125 ps frame duration and the third order reconstruction of zone plate images has provided 3 ..mu..m resolutions for alpha particles. Time integrated measurements of x-rays span the range shown. Finally, the new Shiva neutron spectrometer increases the energy resolution capability of that technique to 25 keV for 14-MeV neutrons. These combined capabilities provide a unique set of diagnostics for the detailed measurement of the interaction of laser light with targets and a subsequent performance of those targets.

The current status of the LLL program for MC and A system assessment is reviewed. Particular emphasis is given to the assessment procedure and results. The integrated approach we have taken includes many of the functions normally assigned to physical security. Deceit and tampering are explicitly considered. The results of such a detailed assessment include a systematic identification of adversary targets; the most vulnerable portions of the safeguards system; the number and type of adversaries required, in collusion, to fail the system; and the conditional probabilities of safeguard system failure for a variety of assumptions. The assessment procedure was demonstrated by analyzing a prototype fuel cycle facility, the Test Bed. We believe our methodology will be useful to the NRC as a means of performing detailed, objective assessments. The nuclear industry also should find it valuable as a design tool.

Results are presented for three high burnup PNL-11 fuel pins irradiated to goal FFTF exposure levels in testing cladding stress and strain on fast reactor fuel pins subjected to simulated power transient conditions. The mixed oxide fuel with Type 316 SS clad were tested at heating rates of 5.5 k/s and 200 k/s with internal gas pressures of 17.2 to 98.6 MPa. Mechanical property data were obtained. Under short-term transient heating, neutron volumetric swelling does not change. Cladding strength does not exhibit a continuous degradation with increased neutron fluence, but does show saturation behavior or slight increase at higher fluences. (FS)

Standard membrane filtration tests were used to evaluate injection at the Salton Sea Geothermal Field, Southern California. Results indicate that direct injection into reservoir zones with primary porosity is not feasible unless 1 ..mu..m or larger particulates formed during or after the energy conversion process are removed. (JGB)

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