A method is presented for preparing a boride layer on a transition metal substrate for use in corrosive environments or as a harden surface in machine applications. This method is particularly useful in treating current collectors for use within a high temperature and corrosive electrochemical cell environment. A melt of a alkali metal boride tetrafluoride salt including such as KF to lower its melting point is prepared including a dissolved boron containing material, for instance NiB, MnB/sub 2/, or CrB/sub 2/. A transition metal to be coated is immersed in the melt at a temperature of no more than 700/sup 0/C and a surface boride layer of that transition metal is formed within a period of about 24 hours on the substrate surface.

The present invention is directed to the extraction of energy values from oil shale containing considerable concentrations of calcium carbonate in an efficient manner. The volatiles are separated from the oil shale in a retorting zone of a fluidized bed where the temperature and the concentration of oxygen are maintained at sufficiently low levels so that the volatiles are extracted from the oil shale with minimal combustion of the volatiles and with minimal calcination of the calcium carbonate. These gaseous volatiles and the calcium carbonate flow from the retorting zone into a freeboard combustion zone where the volatiles are burned in the presence of excess air. In this zone the calcination of the calcium carbonate occurs but at the expense of less Btu's than would be required by the calcination reaction in the event both the retorting and combustion steps took place simultaneously. The heat values in the products of combustion are satisfactorily recovered in a suitable heat exchange system.

Nuclear reactor core safety rod release apparatus comprises a control rod having a detent notch in the form of an annular peripheral recess at its upper end, a control rod support tube for raising and lowering the control rod under normal conditions, latches pivotally mounted on the control support tube with free ends thereof normally disposed in the recess in the control rod, and cam means for pivoting the latches out of the recess in the control rod when a scram condition occurs. One embodiment of the invention comprises an additonal magnetically-operated latch for releasing the control rod under two different conditions, one involving seismic shock.

An improved method and apparatus are given for producing cryogenic inertially driven fusion targets in the fast isothermal freezing (FIF) method. Improved coupling efficiency and greater availability of volume near the target for diagnostic purposes and for fusion driver beam propagation result. Other embodiments include a new electrical switch and a new explosive detonator, all embodiments making use of a purposeful heating by means of optical fibers.

An on-line, nonreferenced apparatus for measuring the concentration of a biomarker species in authentic biological samples in solution comprises conduit means for conducting said sample solution from a source of said solution, stream diversion means disposed within the conduit for diverting a predetermined amount of said sample for analysis, means for introducing and independently regulating the flow of one or more reactants disposed in fluid communication with said diverted stream, incubating means within the diverted stream for reacting said reactants and biomarkers to produce a bioluminescence emission, and means disposed within the diverted stream for monitoring said emission intensity which is correlatable to said biomarker concentration.

An apparatus and method are described for retorting oil shale using solar radiation. Oil shale is introduced into a first retorting chamber having a solar focus zone. There the oil shale is exposed to solar radiation and rapidly brought to a predetermined retorting temperature. Once the shale has reached this temperature, it is removed from the solar focus zone and transferred to a second retorting chamber. In the second chamber, the oil shale is maintained at the retorting temperature, without direct exposure to solar radiation, until the retorting is complete.