The Tritium Systems Test Assembly (TSTA) at the Los Alamos National Laboratory has been operating with tritium since June 1984. Presently there are some 50 g of tritium in the main processing loop. This 50 g has been sufficient to do a number of experiments involving the cryogenic distillation isotope separation system and to integrate the fuel cleanup system into the main fuel processing loop. In January 1986 two major experiments were conducted. During these experiments the fuel cleanup system was integrated, through the transfer pumping system, with the isotope separation system, thus permitting testing on the integrated fuel processing loop. This integration of these systems leaves only the main vacuum system to be integrated into the TSTA fuel processing loop. In September 1986 another major tritium experiment was performed in which the integrated loop was operated, the tritium inventory increased to 50 g and additional measurements on the performance of the distillation system were taken. In the period June 1984 through September 1986 the TSTA system has processed well over 10/sup 8/ Ci of tritium. Total tritium emissions to the environment over this period have been less than 15 Ci. Personnel exposures during this period have totaled less than …

The electron-photon transport code SANDYL has been used to calculate the x-ray flux for a simplified Flash X-Ray Machine (FXR) bullnose geometry. Four different thicknesses (24.5, 36.75, 49, and 61.25 mils) were used for the tantalum bremsstrahlung target in order to study the effect of target thickness on the FXR output. The calculations were performed for a parallel 17 MeV electron beam, and the resulting angular distributions were then used to compute the forward flux for the more realistic case of a converging beam. Over the range of thicknesses studied, the x-ray energy content per steradian on axis was essentially independent of target thickness. The main reason for this is that, while the total x-ray flux coming out of the target increases with increasing target thickness, the angular width of that flux also increases. The implications for target wheel design are discussed. 3 refs., 7 figs.

In the last few years the development of tandem-discharge hydrogen-negative-ion-source systems has proceeded along both experimental and theoretical lines. To some extent these developments have proceeded independently, either the available theoretical model was inadequate to account for a specific geometrical configuration, or the experimental data was not sufficient to provide adequate input parameters for calculation. In the tandem system described here the electron temperature, electron density, and other relevant parameters have been obtained for a high-density system whose electron densities range up to 3 - 5 x 10/sup 12/ electrons cm/sup -3/. The model calculation for the atomic processes has been extended to include both electron density and electron temperature spatial variations through the second chamber. These spatial variations are essential for an adequate interpretation of tandem systems where steep density gradients may occur beyond the magnetic filter region. In this paper we shall combine the experimental density data with the new spatially dependent atomic model for the purpose of attempting a correlation of the observed and calculated current densities. 9 refs., 8 figs., 3 tabs.