A large number of handbooks have been written on the subject of designing solar heating and cooling systems for buildings. One of these is summarized here. Design Approaches for Solar Industrial Process Heat Systems, published in September 1982, addresses the complete spectrum of problems associated with the design of a solar IPH system. A highly general method, derived from computer simulations, is presented for determining actual energy delivered to the process load. Also covered are siting and selection of subsystem components, cost estimation, safety and environmental considerations, and installation concerns. An overview of the design methodology developed is given and some specific examples of technical issues addressed are provided.

The optimal development and management of a geothermal resource requires a knowledge of the hydrological characteristics of the reservoir. Reservoir engineering analysis techniques for permeable aquifers have been undergoing development for several decades but little attention has been paid to fracture-dominated systems. A program to test the ability of Huff-Puff tests to help characterize a fracture-dominated reservoir is presented. Several series of these injection (Huff)-backflow (Puff) tests were conducted at the Raft River KGRA in Southern Idaho. These test series are described and preliminary results and interpretations are discussed.

A general discussion of the calculations and phenomenological consequences of power-law suppressed QCD processes is given with emphasis on tests in massive lepton pair production. Absolutely normalized predictions are given for the leading twist (transverse current) and higher twist (longitudinal current) contributions to the meson structure function in the region of large x.

Abstract: Near-death studies published in major scientific journals during 1981-82 are grouped by subject matter and briefly reviewed.

Partial Abstract: "This paper examines tunnel experiences, which have been discussed by Raymond Moody, Kenneth Ring, and Kevin Drab in the context of near-death experiences. It is argued that tunnel experiences, even when possibly triggered by psi cognition, are not always associated with near-death experiences or out-of-body experiences. A proposed definition of pseudo-hallucinations is adapted to possible psi-induced tunnel experiences." Six categories of tunnel experiences are outlined, a "transactional view of visual perception is accepted", and the hypothesis that the tunnel is a "subconsciously devised artifact for overcoming a spatial and/or temporal gap at the perceptual level" is proved true. This view is then compared with approaches from different writers on this topic. Additionally, a new solution for why tunnels are missing in cases of "clairvoyant travel" is given.

Abstract: This study reports the results of a multivariate analysis of data from 33 subjects who had near-death experiences. The analysis examined the relationship between the phenomenology of the experience and preexisting conditions. Five clusters were derived: Low Stress, Emotional Stress, Intoxicant, Cardiac Arrest, and Anesthetic. The heuristic value of these clusters is discussed. The statistical technique used is also discussed in some detail since it is particularly suitable for category data of this type where small numbers of subjects and large numbers of variables are involved in the analysis.

The author details a near-death experience which has caused him to find a new reality "replete with symbolic meanings that altered his view of life, death, and their intermediate cultural patterns." After his near-death experience (NDE), he faced NDE visions while unconscious and partially paralyzed for weeks, encountering "radiant knowledge and total love" and feeling no need to eat, drink or sleep. His visions have caused him to "abandon many typical cultural patterns." He replaces these patterns with "the recognition of the eternity granted by adherence to the present moment and of the remarkable worth and interest of everyone he encounters."

This article refutes Carl Sagan's theory that near-death experiences (NDEs) are recollections of birth experiences based on three major reasons including the inability of newborn babies to perceive experiences and that there are differences between births and NDEs.

We report preliminary results from Fermilab Experiment E-497 on the x and P/sub t/ dependence of charged hyperon and anti-hyperon production by 400 GeV/c protons on a Cu target.

The Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations, which is evaluating potential locations for a high-level waste repository at the Nevada Test Site and environs, is currently focusing its investigations on tuff, principally in Yucca Mountain, as a host rock. This paper discusses some of the geochemical investigations. Particular emphasis is placed on definition of some basic elements and necessary technical approaches for the geochemistry data acquisition and modeling program. Some site-specific tuff geochemical information that is important for site selection and repository performance will be identified and the current status of knowledge will then be discussed.

At Yucca Mountain, a potential site for a high-level nuclear waste repository on the Nevada Test Site in southern Nevada, evaluation of the geologic setting and rock physical properties, along with previous regional hydrologic studies, has provided background that can be used for construction of a preliminary conceptual hydrologic model of the unsaturated zone. The 500-m-thick unsaturated portion of Yucca Mountain consists of alternating layers of two contrasting types of tuff. One type consists of highly fractured, densely welded, relatively nonporous but highly transmissive ash-flow tuffs. The other type consists of relatively unfractured, nonwelded, highly porous but relatively nontransmissive, argillic and zeolitic bedded tuffs and ash-flow tuffs. The contrast between these two sets of distinctive physical properties results in a stratified sequence best described as "physical-property stratigraphy" as opposed to traditional petrologic stratigraphy of volcanic rocks. The vast majority of recharge through the unsaturated zone is assumed to be vertical; the dominant migration may occur in fractures of densely welded tuffs and in the matrix of nonwelded tuff, but the mode of fluid flow in these unsaturated systems is undetermined. Limited lateral flow of recharge may occur at horizons where local perched water tables may exist above relatively nontransmissive zeolitized …

This paper has brought out the unique properties of tuffs and related them to needs associated with their use as a host rock for a high level nuclear waste repository. Major issues of temperature, pore water, joints, and depositional patterns have been identified and related responses and impacts outlined in Table 1. Planned experiments have been outlined and their relationships to the rock mechanics issues summarized in Table 2. The conclusions from this paper are: (1) tuff is a complex rock and basic phenomenological understanding is incomplete; and (2) available field test facilities will be used for a series of experiments designed to improve phenomenological understanding and support repository design efforts.

A carbon steel storage canister has been designed for the dry encapsulation of spent nuclear fuel assemblies or of logs of vitrified high level radioactive waste. The canister design is in conformance with the requirements of the ASME Code, Section III, Division 1 for a Class 3 vessel. The canisters will be loaded and sealed as part of a completely remote process sequence to be performed in the hot bay of an experimental encapsulation facility at the Nevada Test Site. The final closure to be made is a full penetration butt weld between the canister body, a 12.75-in O.D. x 0.25-in wall pipe, and a mating semiellipsoidal closure lid. Due to a combination of design, application and facility constraints, the closure weld must be made in the 2G position (canister vertical). The plasma arc welding system is described, and the final welding procedure is described and discussed in detail. Several aspects and results of the procedure development activity, which are of both specific and general interest, are highlighted; these include: The critical welding torch features which must be exactly controlled to permit reproducible energy input to, and gas stream interaction with, the weld puddle. A comparison of results using automatic …