The mechanical structure of the LLL/GA Mirror Hybrid Reactor vessel is briefly discussed. Functional requirements and over-all design considerations leading to selection of a post-tensioned concrete reactor vessel and a modular blanket approach are indicated. Module design life of four years, module replacement, capability and remote fueling are provided by the chosen structural design. (RME)

Neutral beams, which effectively heat and fuel mirror reactors, provide high-energy particles that readily cross magnetic fields to penetrate, heat, and fuel confined plasmas. The potential reliability, efficiency, and cost of large neutral-beam injectors make them desirable components of an operating mirror reactor. Because neutral beams are a poor source of low-energy particles, some other means of fueling large Tokamaks is needed.

Present techniques for measuring sound velocity in liquid metals have been limited by transducers that cannot survive in extreme temperatures for the long periods these techniques require. We are developing an alternative, noncontacting technique that takes very little time (approximately 1 ..mu..s) and can be used at very high temperatures (above 6000 K). We hope to use this method with our isobaric-expansion apparatus, in which we measure the thermal expansion, enthalpy, and temperature of wire samples electrically heated under high-pressure argon gas. Because we can already determine the specific heat C/sub p/ and the bulk thermal-expansion coefficient ..cap alpha.. for liquid metals, sound-velocity measurement would allow us to determine the Gruneisen parameter ..gamma../sub G/, specific heat C/sub v/, isothermal compressibility K/sub T/, entropy derivative (delta S/delta v)/sub T/, and internal-energy derivative (delta u/delta v)/sub T/. This paper describes this technique and the progress we have made with it to date.

Recent improvements have made the two-stage, light-gas gun at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory into a dependable source of very energetic planar shocks. Also, the inclined-prism technique has proved useful in observing anomalous behavior of materials, especially at low pressure. The availability of these improved techniques presented an opportunity to re-examine the low pressure, shock-compression characteristics for graphite and, in a search for an additional transformation, to extend some of the data to higher pressures.

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)

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.

Several experimental routes can be used to develop a better understanding of the polymeric constitution (polyanionic and/or polyhedral distribution) of borate, germanate, and silicate glasses. Spectral, chemical, physical-chemical, and mechanical property information can be determined directly for the glass compositions of interest. Generally, only physical-chemical information is readily accessible for the corresponding high temperature liquids. It will be shown that information on each state of matter has its own particular merits. Most of the evidence thus far published suggests an excellent agreement between polyhedral distributions in an oxide glass and its corresponding high temperature liquid state. There is no well known oxide glass forming system for which such a state of affairs does not exist. In spite of this, occasional efforts are put forth which ignore some of what is known for oxide liquids, glasses, and crystals. Such attempts therefore invariably imply, if only indirectly, that significant changes occur in the polyhedral distributions close to the glass transition temperature region. Specific examples to be discussed will include efforts that avoid well known coordination change equilibria such as BO/sub 3/ reversible BO/sub 4/ and GeO/sub 4/ reversible GeO/sub 6/.

A calorimeter has been designed for use with the TFTR prototype neutral beam injection system. It consists of three vees each having two 18.8-mm-thick (0.75 in.) copper plates at a 6-deg angle, relative to the beam centerline. The maximum power density on a plate with this arrangement will be 2.0 kW/cm/sup 2/, resulting in a front surface temperature rise of about 420/sup 0/C. A support and retraction system moves the calorimeter in and out of the beam centerline. Various factors used in the selection of the absorber plate material will be discussed and also some experimental test results will be presented.

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.

Mechanical design criteria for high-energy neutral beam injectors capable of prolonged operation are examined. The generalized structural, heat transfer, and hydraulics equations are presented for convectively cooled grids. The effectiveness of helium, liquid sodium, and subcooled water for cooling a 2-mm-diameter, 8-m-long grid tube is shown. Cooling effectiveness is determined as a function of the number of tubes in series vs heat flux, where the number of tubes in series ranges from 1 to 100 and the heat flux ranges from 100 to 10,000 W/cm/sup 2/. The stress analysis of the grid tube walls is presented, enabling data to be added to the heat transfer graphs and giving an upper flux limit for some grid materials. Sputtering is found to be a possible limiting factor for the grid lifetimes. In injectors designed for continuous use, long-term operation without excessive maintenance is required and sputtering must be minimized. To accomplish this, several procedures are proposed.

A brief description is presented of the physical processes, models and numerical methods employed in the LASNEX code for calculating inertial confinement fusion.