Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John L. Hill, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether it is a violation of law for a landowner’s cattle to be on a county road which bisects the individual’s land in a county which has adopted a county-wide stock law.

The one-dimensional computer calculations described in this report were performed to simulate stress-wave propagation and kinetic energy transfer associated with subsurface cratering detonations in soils. A hypothetical 20-ton-yield nuclear explosive was assumed as the energy source, surrounded by a single soil material. Various soil descriptions were selected in order to systematically study the range of soil response to the nuclear detonation. The soils were representative of the layered mixtures of sand and clay found at the ESSEX high-explosive cratering sites near Ft. Polk, Louisiana. Soil properties analyzed in this study include water saturation, bulk density, failure envelope, and low-pressure bulk modulus.

Results of a study undertaken to define the requirements for a reference vacuum test facility, as well as some operating procedures for the Phase I Brayton Isotope Power System (BIPS) Ground Demonstration System (GDS) are reported. The vacuum system is required to simulate the space environment in which the BIPS flight system will function. The BIPS GDS will require a high vacuum environment during performance and endurance testing to enable the multi-foil insulation to be effective and to protect GDS refractory alloys from contaminant attack. Assuming that proper techniques of manufacturing, storage, application and final argon back-flushing and bake-out are used on the multi-foil insulation, adequate containment protection will be assured. The available test data indicate that the maximum pressure at which the multi-foil insulation is effective is on the order of 1 x 10/sup -4/ torr. Protection of the refractory materials requires that the partial pressures of oxidizing and reducing elements be limited to the number of exposures and time-dependent levels (yet to be defined) when the refractory materials are above 450/sup 0/F.

The configuration control document (CCD) defines the BIPS-GDS configuration. The GDS configuration is similar to a conceptual flight system design, referred to as the BIPS-FS, which is discussed in App. I. The BIPS is being developed by ERDA as a 500 to 2000 W(e), 7-y life, space power system utilizing a closed Brayton cycle gas turbine engine to convert thermal energy (from an isotope heat source) to electrical energy at a net efficiency exceeding 25 percent. The CCD relates to Phase I of an ERDA Program to qualify a dynamic system for launch in the early 1980's. Phase I is a 35-month effort to provide an FS conceptual design and GDS design, fabrication, and test. The baseline is a 7-year life, 450-pound, 4800 W(t), 1300 W(e) system which will use two multihundred watt (MHW) isotope heat sources being developed.

The elements of a Nd: Glass laser chain as it is constructed for fusion experiments are described. A brief overview of the ARGUS and SHIVA systems employing Nd lasers is given. (MOW)

An energy conservation and management plan for the Livermore site of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory is presented. The plan defines the energy-conservation goals for the next 10 years and proposes the ways and means of attaining them. The main features contained in this plan are as follows: development of the criteria and underlying assumptions required for long range planning, including energy growth rates and the case for using the concept of the technical-fix energy growth rate, LLL energy outlook and fuel cost projections, and life-cycle-cost criteria; targets of the long-range plan include between 1975 and 1985, an annual energy usage growth equal to 5.8 percent of the 1975 energy consumption, 1985 and thereafter, zero energy growth, a change from the current dependence on natural gas to the use of other fuels for heating, and a doubling of the 30-day strategic oil storage capacity; and cost schedule for the next 10 years.

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X-ray powder diffraction analyses of bulk uranium tritides, as a function of time, have been accomplished. The analyses were run during an overall time span of two years. This study was undertaken to determine whether any observable effects of the /sup 3/He buildup could be detected by means of lattice parameter measurements. Four tritiated uranium samples were investigated. The data obtained from three of these samples show expansion of their lattices to be as anticipated. The fourth sample yielded an unexpected growth rate for 10 months, after which the scatter of data points becomes anomalous. Review of the tabulated and plotted data shows that line broadening occurs in each sample at about 10 months. The line broadening, as detected by x-ray diffraction, is indicative of the sample's crystallites becoming smaller in size, viz., less than one micron. The measurement of this line broadening might prove beneficial by revealing the actual crystallite size of the material during storage. The x-ray study of the samples has shown that diffraction analyses, including lattice parameter measurements, do not directly reveal the mechanisms of /sup 3/He release. (auth)

The Atomics International Molten Salt Combustion Process reduces the weight and volume of combustible transuranic waste by utilizing a molten salt medium to combust organic materials, to trap particulates and fissile material, and to react chemically with any acidic gases produced during combustion. The ''ash'' is retained by the molten salt. To control the amount of noncombustible substances in the melt, a portion of the molten salt is periodically drained from the combustor. There are two options following the combustion step: the salt-ash mixture can be cast into a metal canister for direct storage, which is preferred, or the salt-ash mixture can be processed to separate ash for disposal, to recover the salt for recycle and to recover fissile materials. Either option results in the rapid, complete, and nonpolluting destruction of the combustible waste. Bench-scale (0.2 kg/hr) combustion tests with plutonium-contaminated waste showed that >99.9 percent of the plutonium is retained in the melt during combustion. A similar test with uranium indicated that uranium and plutonium behave identically during combustion. Bench-scale plutonium recovery tests have shown that approx. 98 percent of the plutonium can be recovered from the ash-melt mixture with a single acid leach. Pilot plant combustion tests were …

Ratio of the subgrain boundary dislocations to those contributing to creep deformation was found to be independent of applied stress and creep strain after the steady-state creep stage is reached. The observed cell or subgrain sizes are correlated with flow stress in Type 304 ss, and the deformation rate-stress relation obeys the equation epsilon =..beta.. lambda/sup 3/ (sigma/sub T//E)/sub n/ exp (-Q/sub c//RT), where lambda = subgrain size, sigma/sub T/ = effective true stress, E = Young modulus, and Q/sub c/ = 85 kcal/mole. Well-developed subgrains were observed in TEM on 304 ss tested in creep at 704/sup 0/C. Role of twin boundary-grain boundary intersections in microcracking behavior of 304 ss deformed in slow tension and creep at 650/sup 0/C was investigated. Grain shape analysis show that intragranular deformation becomes more predominant in the grains with the larger intercept distances, and that grain boundary sliding becomes important as the strain rate decreases. RT mechanical properties of austenitic ss are enhanced by subgrains formed during high-temperature deformation. The substructural development during high-temperature low-cycle fatigue of 304 ss was studied using TEM. Fatigue properties of Incoloy 800 tested in bend and push-pull modes are being compared. Effects of hold time on fatigue …

The thin/fast growth system (JPL No. 2) is modified and operational. An orientation study was run on this system prior to the changeover and thermal geometry experiments have been run since. (110) (211) seed orientation appears to be the optimum. Solar cells have been fabricated from the ribbon material and tested. The wide ribbon system (JPL No. 1) is being designed. Some parts are ordered. The theoretical analysis of heat flow in EFG silicon growth is expanded.