A system model of the mirror hybrid reactor has been developed. The major components of the model include (1) the reactor description, (2) a capital cost analysis, (3) various fuel management schemes, and (4) an economic analysis that includes the hybrid plus its associated fission burner reactors. The results presented describe the optimization of the mirror hybrid reactor, the objective being to minimize the cost of electricity from the hybrid fission-burner reactor complex. We have examined hybrid reactors with two types of blankets, one containing natural uranium, the other thorium. The major difference between the two optimized reactors is that the uranium hybrid is a significant net electrical power producer, whereas the thorium hybrid just about breaks even on electrical power. Our projected costs for fissile fuel production are approximately 50 $/g for /sup 239/Pu and approximately 125 $/g for /sup 233/U.

The laser and fluorescence output of KrCl and ArF were measured and the effect of the gas mixture on the laser output was determined. Possible mechanisms for the effects observed are suggested. (JSR)

Polarized x-radiation is shown to be a superior and practical excitation source for measuring trace elements by energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence. In this study, polarization was obtained by scattering the primary beam at 90/sup 0/ from boron carbide. The losses inherent in the geometric requirements and the polarizer efficiency can be more than compensated for by using a close-coupled system and a standard, high-power x-ray tube. With the system described here, which uses a molybdenum anode x-ray tube, detection limits for the elements from K to Sr in NBS Standard Orchard Leaves are approximately 2 to 4.5 times lower using polarized excitation as compared to direct excitation, and about 1 to 3 times lower as compared to secondary excitation.

Paramagnetic ions in glass reside in a distribution of physically different environments. By using a tunable laser source, selected groups of ions within an inhomogeneously broadened absorption band are excited and line-narrowed fluorescence is observed. The technique of laser-induced fluorescence line narrowing has been applied to several rare-earth ions in glasses to investigate site-to-site variations in energy levels, probabilities for radiative and non-radiative transitions, homogeneous line broadening, and energy transfer between ions. Results and interpretations of these experiments are reviewed, and possible extensions of these techniques are discussed. 25 references, 3 fig.

Not all activities associated with nuclear power contribute equally to proliferation potential, but some fuel-cycle activities (i.e., reprocessing) are considered too dangerous to be permitted in non-weapons countries. This paper assesses the feasibility of keeping Pu out of the nuclear fuel cycle. It is pointed out that there is no technical necessity of using Pu as nuclear fuel so long as /sup 235/U is available. Analysis of the economics of recycling spent fuel products in LWRs in the U.S. shows that the net economic benefit of recycle is uncertain and might even be negative; it will have an insignificant effect on the cost of nuclear power. It is argued that reprocessing of spent fuel be deferred until recycle in LWRs can be shown to yield economic benefits sufficiently large to compensate for the risks, or the viability of the breeder as an important commercial source of power has been demonstrated. According to the low estimate of U requirements, the world would have enough U resources well into the 21st century, although if the high estimate is used, the world would exhaust its reserves by the year 2000. Evidence indicates that nuclear power will grow more slowly than the forecasts of …

The current interest in fast ions has prompted the design of a new time-of-flight ion spectrometer which measures the high energy ions from a laser produced plasma. A magnet was used to separate the ions from the intense background of electrons, x-rays and scattered light. The design of the instrument is wide band so that ions with energies 0.03 to 3000 keV/amu can be measured. Results from target experiments on the LLL ARGUS laser facility will be presented. The fast ion spectrum is dovetailed with the spectrum of the slower ions collected by Faraday cups and thus provides a measurement for the total energy carried by ions. The charge to mass ratio of the ions can be calculated from the spectrometer output.