This document describes passive decay-heat removal system for a water-cooled nuclear reactor which employs a closed heat transfer loop having heat-exchanging coils inside an open-topped, insulated evaporator located inside the reactor vessel, below its normal water level, in communication with a condenser located outside of containment and exposed to the atmosphere. The heat transfer loop is located such that the evaporator is in a position where, when the water level drops in the reactor, it will become exposed to steam. Vapor produced in the evaporator passes upward to the condenser above the normal water level. In operation, condensation in the condenser removes heat from the system, and the condensed liquid is returned to the evaporator. The system is disposed such that during normal reactor operations where the water level is at its usual position, very little heat will be removed from the system, but during emergency, low water level conditions, substantial amounts of decay heat will be removed.

A process and apparatus for extruding a superconducting metal oxide composition YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 7-x} provides a wire (tube or ribbon) having a cohesive mass and a degree of flexibility together with enhanced electrical properties. Wire diameters in the range of 6--85 mils have been produced with smaller wires on the order of 10 mils in diameter exhibiting enhanced flexibility for forming braided, or multistrand, configurations for greater current carrying capacity. The composition for extrusion contains a polymeric binder to provide a cohesive mass to bind the particles together during the extrusion process with the binder subsequently removed at lower temperatures during sintering. The composition for extrusion further includes a deflocculent, an organic plasticizer and a solvent which also are subsequently removed during sintering. Electrically conductive tubing with an inner diameter of 52 mil and an outer diameter of 87--335 mil has also been produced. Flat ribbons have been produced in the range of 10--125 mil thick by 100--500 mil wide. The superconducting wire, tube or ribbon may include an outer ceramic insulating sheath co-extruded with the wire, tubing or ribbon.

This invention relates to a thermal storage apparatus and more particularly to an apparatus for use in conjunction with solar dynamic energy storage systems. The invention is comprised of a thermal energy storage system comprising a germanium phase change material and a graphite container.

An brushless DC permanent magnet motor is provided for driving an autonomous underwater vehicle. In one embodiment, the motor comprises four substantially flat stators disposed in stacked relationship, with pairs of the stators being axially spaced and each of the stators comprising a tape-wound stator coil; and a first and second substantially flat rotors disposed between the spaced pairs of stators. Each of the rotors includes an annular array of permanent magnets embedded therein. A first shaft is connected to the first rotor and a second, concentric shaft is connected to the second rotor, and drive unit causes rotation of the two shafts in opposite directions. The second shaft comprises a hollow tube having a central bore therein in which the first shaft is disposed. Two different sets of bearings support the first and second shAfts. In another embodiment, the motor comprises two ironless stators and pairs and rotors mounted no opposite sides of the stators and driven by counterrotating shafts.

The Stripline Fast Faraday Cup is a device which is used to quantitatively and qualitatively measure gigahertz time structure characteristics of ion beams with energies up to at least 30 Mev per nucleon. A stripline geometry is employed in conjunction with an electrostatic screen and a Faraday cup to provide for analysis of the structural characteristics of an ion beam. The stripline geometry allows for a large reduction in the size of the instrument while the electrostatic screen permits measurements of the properties associated with low speed ion beams.

A method and apparatus for conducting continuous separation of substances by electrophoresis are disclosed. The process involves electrophoretic separation combined with couette flow in a thin volume defined by opposing surfaces. By alternating the polarity of the applied potential and producing reciprocating short rotations of at least on of the surfaces relative to the other, small increments of separation accumulate to cause substantial, useful segregation of electrophoretically separable components in a continuous flow system.

A triaxial thermopile array geothermal heat flow sensor is designed to measure heat flow in three dimensions in a reconstituted or unperturbed subsurface regime. Heat flow can be measured in conductive or permeable convective media. The sensor may be encased in protective pvc tubing and includes a plurality of thermistors and an array of heat flow transducers produce voltage proportional to heat flux along the subsurface regime and permit direct measurement of heat flow in the subsurface regime. The presence of the thermistor array permits a comparison to be made between the heat flow estimates obtained from the transducers and heat flow calculated using temperature differences and Fourier's Law. The device is extremely sensitive with an accuracy of less than 0.1 Heat Flow Units (HFU) and may be used for long term readings. 6 figs.

An acyclonucleoside of nitroimidazole having the ability to specifically bind to tumor cells and useful for therapy, chemotherapy, imaging and radiosensitizing the tumor cells.

This invention is comprised of a wedge assembly that is easily inserted between two surface to be supported thereby, and thereafter expanded to produce a selected spacing between those surfaces. This wedge assembly has two outer members that are substantially identical except that they are mirror images of each other. Oppositely directed faces of these of these outer members are substantially parallel for the purpose of contacting the surfaces to be separated. The other faces of these outer members that are directed toward each other are tapered so as to contact a center member having complementary tapers on both faces. A washer member is provided to contact a common end of the outer members, and a bolt member penetrates this washer and is threadably received in a receptor of the center member. As the bolt member is threaded into the center member, the center member is drawn further into the gap between the outer members and thereby separates these outer members to contact the surfaces to be separated. In the preferred embodiment, the contacting surfaces of the outer member and the center member are provided with guide elements. The wedge assembly is described for use in separating the secondary windings …

An accessory for use with a solid-state NMR spectrometer includes a special imaging probe with linear, high-field strength gradient fields and high-power broadband RF coils using a back projection method for data acquisition and image reconstruction, and a real-time pulse programmer adaptable for use by a conventional computer for complex high speed pulse sequences.

This document describes a method for converting starch into lactic acid of sufficient purity for use as a substrate for biodegradable plastics. The process is designed to work on industrial food waste streams such as potato wastes or cheese whey permeate. For potato waste, {alpha}-amylase and calcium chloride are added to the starch containing waste and incubated at a pH of 4--7, a temperature of 90--130{degree}C, and a pressure above 15 psi for not less than 15 minutes. At this point, glucoamylase is added and the mixture is incubated at a temperature of 50--70{degree}C and a pH below 6.5 for 4 hours. This results in the conversion of more than 90% of the starch into glucose, which is substantially free of microbial contamination. The hydrolysate is filtered, and introduced with additional nutrients to a fermentor containing a lactose producing microorganism to form a fermentation broth. This results in the fermentation of glucose to lactose, which is filtered and subjected to electrodialysis for purification. Conversion of glucose to lactic acid or lactate occurs with an efficiency of over 95%. 1 fig. (MHB)