The Northwest Power Planning Council convened a symposium in Olympia, Washington, on the subject of global climate change ( the greenhouse effect'') and its potential for affecting the Pacific Northwest. The symposium was organized in response to a need by the Power Council to understand global climate change and its potential impacts on resource planning and fish and wildlife planning for the region, as well as a need to understand national policy developing toward climate change and the Pacific Northwest's role in it. 40 figs., 15 tabs.

The effects of 0.10 M Cu/sup 2 +/, Hg/sup 2 +/, Zn/sup 2 +/, La/sup 3 +/, Ce/sup 3 +/, Al/sup 3 +/, Th/sup 4 +/,Zr/sup 4 +/, Cr/sup 3 +/, and Fe/sup 3 +/ on PuO/sub 2/ dissolution in 8.0M HNO/sub 3/--0.1M HF were investigated. Except for Cr/sup 3 +/ and Fe/sup 3 +/, the amount of Pu dissolved in 1 hour can be predicted by either log C(Pu) = -0.32 log K/sub F/ - 1.53 (K/sub F/ = first stability constant for the impurity metal fluoride complex) or log C(Pu) = -0.5 Z/sup 2//d-1.11 (Z = ionic charge of impurity cation, d = sum of impurity cation and fluoride ionic radii in angstroms) (DLC)

When an electrostatic tandem accelerator is used primarily for heavy ion acceleration, numerous communication channels with the high voltage terminal are desirable. The ANL FN tandem operates at a tank pressure of 100 psi SF/sub 6/ at terminal voltages up to 9.5 MeV. A low powered He-Ne laser with 15 percent modulation has been successfully tested in the terminal under normal operating conditions. Such a system allows the transmission of information without the use of light guides. Multistranded light guides did not withstand voltage gradients as low as 0.4 MV/m. Single core light guides with a diameter of 0.5 mm have been successfully operated at voltage gradients in excess of 1.7 MV/m. In addition to the laser a microprocessor has also been tested in the tandem terminal. With suitable protection, an 8080 microprocessor and a programmable ROM operated successfully for several weeks under normal operating conditions.

Conservation of water at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL) has been accomplished by recirculating evaporative cooling waters. Because of high silica concentration (80 mg/l) in Los Alamos groundwater, the concentration of recirculating water must be carefully controlled to prevent scaling. The most troublesome scale at Los Alamos has been identified as colloidal silica bound in a crystalline matrix of calcium carbonate. Several approaches to controlling this scale are: (1) chemical treatment using a chelate, sequestrant, or threshold approach, (2) softening, or (3) pH control. Silica alone will form deposits when supersaturated. In LASL systems, where silica concentrations are 200 to 240 mg/l, no problems have been observed. However, there is evidence that deposits are forming at slightly higher concentrations. These amorphous silica deposits are not as hard and tenacious as the calcium carbonate--silica scale. Complete external treatment, which combines silica removal and water softening, may be an economically competitive process for scale control. The advantages of slightly reducing the quantity of makeup water and drastically reducing the amount of blowdown water have environmental and conservation implications that may encourage the selection of complete treatment.

The DIII-D tokamak employs eight neutral beam systems for plasma heating and current drive experiments. These positive ion source neutral beam systems have gone through several improvements in operational technique and in system hardware since the start of conditioning of the first long pulse ion source in December 1986. These improvements have led to the routine operation in deuterium at beam power levels of 20 MW. The improvements in operational technique include filament power supply operating mode, accelerator grid voltage holding capability, mid changes in grid potential gradients. The hardware improvements include installation of arc notching, arc discharge density regulation, and control of neutralizer gas puffing. Each of these improvements are discussed in this paper. Successful testing and operation of the ion source at 93 kV deuterium beam energy, well above the design value of 80 kV, also led to the possibility of enhancing system capability to 28 MW power level, nearly twice the original design value. Upgrading of the beam system to 60 second pulse duration at the currently achieved power level is under consideration. Studies have shown that this pulse length extension can be achieved with improvements in beamline heat handling components and auxiliary systems, especially the power …

In 1984 Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) began an aggressive program of research and development based on the concept of a closed system for fast-reactor power generation and on-site fuel reprocessing, exclusively designed around the use of metallic fuel. This is the Integral Fast Reactor (IFR). Although the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) has used metallic fuel since its creation 25 yeas ago, in 1985 ANL began a study of the characteristics and behavior of an advanced-design metallic fuel based on uranium-zirconium (U-Zr) and uranium-plutonium-zirconium (U-Pu-Zr) alloys. During the past five years several areas were addressed concerning the performance of this fuel system. In all instances of testing the metallic fuel has demonstrated its ability to perform reliably to high burnups under varying design conditions. This paper will present one area of testing which concerns the fuel system's performance under breach conditions. It is the purpose of this paper to document the observed post-breach behavior of this advanced-design metallic fuel. 2 figs., 1 tab.

The Tritium Plasma Experiment was assembled at Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore to investigate interactions between dense plasmas at low energies and plasma-facing component materials. This apparatus has the unique capability of replicating plasma conditions in a tokamak divertor with particle flux densities of 2 [times] 10[sup 19] ions/cm[sup 2] [center dot] s and a plasma temperature of about 15 eV using a plasma that includes tritium. With the closure of the Tritium Research Laboratory at Livermore, the experiment was moved to the Tritium Systems Test Assembly facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory. An experimental program has been initiated there using the Tritium Plasma Experiment to examine safety issues related to tritium in plasma-facing components, particularly the ITER divertor. Those issues include tritium retention and release characteristics, tritium permeation rates and transient times to coolant streams, surface modification and erosion by the plasma, the effects of thermal loads and cycling, and particulate production. A considerable lack of data exists in these areas for many of the materials, especially beryllium, being considered for use in ITER. Not only will basic material behavior with respect to safety issues in the divertor environment be examined, but innovative techniques for optimizing performance with respect to …

Two different requirements are driving engineering studies and hardware development to improve LAMPF. The first is concerned with component and system improvements to increase beam availability during the LAMPF production cycle. Hardware changes in RF, power supplies, and magnets are being implemented to increase mean time between failure and reduce time to replace or repair failed units. A joint LAMPF-Industry project is on-going to improve reliability of RF components. A component test stand is being refurbished to include significant development capability. The second approach includes several changes that will increase the duty factor of the existing accelerator. Major changes are being evaluated for replacing the front end of the accelerator. Other changes improving high brightness capability could result in a new performance plateau for LAMPF.

A 3.4-meter direct-reading spectrograph is being used with an inductively coupled plasma source for the simultaneous determination of Ag, Bi, Cd, Cu, Nb, Ni, Pb, Sn, and W in water samples. We have attached a small digital computer to the system in order to obtain intensity data on each element once a second. After the intensities during a run on a sample have stabilized, the computer records the intensity data and outputs the average concentration for each element. To approach the published detection limits, a peristaltic pump must be used to force the water sample into the usual cross-flow nebulizer. We have studied several different nebulizer designs with the goal of improving efficiency and hence sensitivity. One design, the fritted-disk nebulizer, has an efficiency over 60 percent, as compared with the 5 percent efficiency of the original nebulizer.

A V-10 wt % Ti alloy was irradiated with 2.7 MeV /sup 51/V/sup +/ at 650/sup 0/C to doses of 2 to 60 dpa. No void swelling was observed at any dose. The irradiation resulted in an enhancement of a precipitation process similar to that observed in unirradiated materials. The precipitates in irradiated specimens were found to have the NaCl-type cubic crystal structure with a lattice parameter of TiO. The orientation relationship between the matrix and the precipitates was the same as that observed under thermal equilibrium conditions in unirradiated materials.

Polarized neutron reflection was used to determine the magnetic structure of two different antiferromagnetically coupled multilayer systems, Fe/Gd and Fe/Cr. In Fe/Gd, the Fe and Gd moments are coupled antiparallel at the interface. At low temperatures a surface induced magnetic phase transition was found. In Fe/Cr, annealing at temperatures of up to 425{degrees}C, resulted in the degrading of antiferromagnetic coupling between Fe layers and in the formation of ferromagnetically coupled regions.

The author have studied by means of numerical simulations the dynamical evolution of a network of cosmic strings, both in the radiation and matter era. Our basic conclusion is that a scaling solution exists, i.e., the string energy density evolves as t/sup -2/. This means that the process by which long strings dump their energy into closed loops (which can gravitationally radiate away) is efficient enough to prevent the string domination over other forms of energy. This conclusion does not depend on the initial string energy density, nor on the various numerical parameters. On the other hand, the generated spectrum of loop sizes does depend on the value of our numerical lower cutoff (i.e., the minimum length of loop we allow to be chopped off the network). Furthermore, the network evolution is very different from what was assumed before), namely the creation of a few horizon sized loops per horizon volume and per hubble time, which subsequently fragment into about 10 smaller daughter loops. Rather, many tiny loops are directly cut from the network of infinite strings, and it appears that the only fundamental scale (the horizon) has been lost. This is probably because a fundamental ingredient had been overlooked, …

During pilot scale operations of the Scale Glass Melter for the US Department of Energy a team of engineers and scientists was formed to assess the need for continued melter design development to support the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF), and prioritize future efforts. Recently this has taken on new importance because of selection of the DWPF Melter design as the reference for the Hanford Waste Vitrification Project (HWVP), and increased interest at the West Valley Demonstration Project on melter life and replacement. Results of the study are summarized, and goals produced by the study are compared to the results of current programs at the Savannah River Laboratory (SRL).

The high-temperature diametral expansion and rupture behavior of Zircaloy-4 fuel-cladding tubes have been investigated in vacuum and steam environments under transient-heating conditions that are of interest in hypothetical loss-of-coolant accident situations in light-water reactors. The effects of internal pressure, heating rate, axial constraint, and localized temperature nonuniformities in the cladding on the maximum circumferential strain have been determined for burst temperatures between approximately 650 and 1350/sup 0/C.

Three-dimensional radiography with thermal neutrons is described. The laminagraphic method is shown to provide a spatial resolution better than 1 mm for complex objects as thick as 50 mm.

The Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory is a large, multidisciplined research laboratory, operated by the University of California for the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration. An interactive graphic system was developed to integrate design, drafting, testing, analysis, and manufacturing to achieve efficient and effective laboratory-wide services. To accomplish this, the graphic system is hardware independent, and has an associative data base structured on two- and three-dimensional, bounded geometry. The data base allows for levels of attributes that can be attached or deleted and interrogated. This graphic system is described, with emphasis on the efficiencies of graphics and the effect of the associative data base on the ''design--build--test'' cycle. The capability of attaching attributes is explored as the means of bridging the CAD/CAM gap.

Recently revised estimates of target gain have added additional optimistic inputs to the interface between targets, accelerators and fusion chamber beam transport. But it remains valid that neutralization of the beams in the fusion chamber is useful if ion charge state Z > 1 or if > 1 kA per beamlet is to be propagated. Some engineering and economic considerations favor higher currents.

All the products now obtained from oil can be provided by thermal conversion of the solid fuels biomass and coal. As a feedstock, biomass has many advantages over coal and has the potential to supply up to 20% of US energy by the year 2000 and significant amounts of energy for other countries. However, it is imperative that in producing biomass for energy we practice careful land use. Combustion is the simplest method of producing heat from biomass, using either the traditional fixed-bed combustion on a grate or the fluidized-bed and suspended combustion techniques now being developed. Pyrolysis of biomass is a particularly attractive process if all three products - gas, wood tars, and charcoal - can be used. Gasification of biomass with air is perhaps the most flexible and best-developed process for conversion of biomass to fuel today, yielding a low energy gas that can be burned in existing gas/oil boilers or in engines. Oxygen gasification yields a gas with higher energy content that can be used in pipelines or to fire turbines. In addition, this gas can be used for producing methanol, ammonia, or gasoline by indirect liquefaction. Fast pyrolysis of biomass produces a gas rich in ethylene …

We built a multimedia document system for the SIGGRAPH Interactive Proceedings to demonstrate the potentials and challenges in using technology to capture better the essence of SIGGRAPH conferences. The prototype system uses the NeXT computer system to present textual, mathematical, illustrative, colorful, audio, video and animated material. Special attention was given to including tools for interactive manipulation of images included in typical SIGGRAPH papers. 6 refs., 6 figs.

Research is underway at SLAC to develop accelerator structures for the next generation linear collider. An important feature of the design is a detuning of the dipole modes of the cells to suppress the long-range transverse wakefield by two orders of magnitude. This paper describes a facility, called ASSET, that will be incorporated into the SLAC Linear Collider (SLC) to test the long-range wakefield suppression and also to measure the other components of the wakefields generated in accelerator test structures.

Candidate heat exchanger materials tested in the Low Mass Flow train at the Coal-Fired Flow Facility (CFFF) at Tullahoma, TN. were analyzed to evaluate their corrosion performance. Tube specimens obtained at each foot of the 14-ft-long Unbend tubes were analyzed for corrosion-scale morphologies, scale thicknesses, and internal penetration depths. Results developed on 1500- and 2000- h exposed specimens were correlated with exposure temperature. In addition, deposit materials collected at several locations in the CFFF were analyzed in detail to characterize the chemical and physical properties of the deposits and their influence on corrosion performance of tube materials.

Bubbles are concentrations of electromagnetic energy in the region of the critical density that force out the plasma to form a void. Since the critical density surface is cratered, absorption may be greater than a smooth surface since a larger area will be available for absorption and the reflected light will have a large probability of restriking the critical density. The distance between bubbles is several wavelengths and consequently they may encourage Rayleigh--Taylor instabilities. The threshold, magnetic field generation, and possible experimental evidence for bubbles are discussed. Also, the competition between sidescatter and self focusing in an entirely underdense plasma is studied and it is found that sidescatter dominates for polarization out of the simulation plane.

The design of future Engineering Test Reactor (ETR) to demonstrate ignition is complicated by the uncertainties in the projected database for ignited plasmas. Application of uncertainty analysis to ETR design utilizing a figure-of-merit defined as the probability of ignition is presented. Performance evaluation from the uncertainty analysis in density-temperature space can locate an optimum operating window for ignition. 11 refs., 5 figs., 3 tabs.

Analysis of the sensitivity of previous negative searches for magnetic monopoles shows that they constitute prior evidence against the monopole interpretation of the event reported as ''evidence for detection of a moving magnetic monopole''. The strength of the evidence varies with the unknown mass of the monopole. For M less than or equal to 10/sup 5/ GeV, odds are greater than 10/sup 6/ : 1 against. For larger masses, the limits depend strongly on assumptions about the range of monopoles and the threshold for detection of monopole tracks in obsidian. In no case are the odds, less than 8 : 1 and they may be no less than 8000 : 1 against. Since the reported event may also be due to an electrically charged heavy particle, it is probably not due to a monopole.