Under the Phase II, Alternative Energy Resources Development (AERD) project of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Government of India (GOI), five collaborative coal projects have been initiated in the areas of: (1) NO{sub x}/SO{sub x} control from coal-fired power plants, (2) slagging combustor development for high-ash Indian coals, (3) characterization of Indian coals for combustion and gasification. (4) diagnostic studies for prediction of power plant life expectancy, and (5) environmental and natural resource analysis of coal cycle. The Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center (PETC) has the implementation responsibility for these projects. The Indian collaborative institutions identified for these projects are the Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL), Trichy, (projects 1--4), and the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) for project 5. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is providing cross-cut technical coordination and support for these five projects.

The field of Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy grew out of work done in the Photophysics Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. As one of the original developers of this field the traveler has continued to attend this meeting on a regular basis. The traveler was originally asked to present an invited talk and to present part of a short course offered to graduate students attending the conference. Subsequently, the traveler was also asked to chair a session and to be a judge of the students papers entered in a contest for a $1000 first prize.

This report surveys the preliminary work of P. J. Ebert, a proponent of the Magnetic Bubble'' Effect, as well as conclusions reached by L. F. Wouters and others. The idea behind the Magnetic Bubble Effect is that an exploding fireball from a surface or subsurface nuclear explosion releases electrons which circulate around the earth's magnetic field lines and create an expanding magnetic dipole which persists underground for {approx equal}0.01 sec. This dipole radiates a low-frequency electromagnetic field through the earth in a diffusive manner because the earth's conduction current overwhelms the displacement current at VLF and ELF frequencies. By using this concept of diffusive fields it might be possible to estimate the yield of an underground nuclear test from transient low-frequency field measurements on or near the ground in the range 1--5km from ground zero. We closely examine the diffusive-field description of the transient fields by L. W. Miller. Miller's work enables us to derive rather easily the Green-function'' fields in space and time of a spatially and temporally impulsive vertical magnetic dipole, m{sub z}, and horizontal dipole, m{sub x}, in a homogeneous earth of scalar electrical conductivity {sigma}, magnetic permeability {mu}{sub 0}, and relative dielectric constant, {var epsilon}{sub r}, …

The traveler attended the 10th International Conference on Conduction and Breakdown in dielectric Liquids held in Grenoble, France, September 10--14, 1990. He chaired the opening session of the conference, presented one paper, co-authored a second paper presented at the meeting, participated in the discussions during the formal sessions, and had informal discussions with many of the participants.

This report presents estimates of proved reserves of crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids as of December 31, 1989, and production volumes for the year 1989 for the total United States and for selected states and state sub-divisions. Estimates are presented for the following four categories of natural gas: total gas (wet after lease separation), its two major components (nonassociated and associated-dissolved gas), and total dry gas (wet gas adjusted for the removal of liquids at natural gas processing plants). In addition, two components of natural gas liquids, lease condensate and natural gas plant liquids, have their reserves and production reported separately. Also included is information on indicated additional crude oil reserves and crude oil, natural gas, and lease condensate reserves in nonproducing reservoirs. 28 refs., 9 figs., 15 tabs.

The traveler took the opportunity to participate in a mini-sabbatical at the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (ITE) in Edinburgh, Scotland, as a part of planned travel to Glasgow, Scotland, to attend the International Conference on Acidic Precipitation. The purpose of the sabbatical was to provide quality time for study and interchange of ideas with scientists at ITE working on physiological effects of acidic deposition and to allocate significant time for writing and synthesizing of results of physiological studies from the National Forest Response Program's Spruce/Fir Research Cooperative. The study focused on the very significant cytological and physiological effects of calcium deficiency in trees, a response that appears to be amplified in spruce by acidic deposition.

Research continued on catalysts of coal liquefaction. Estimates of liquid circulation rates were obtained from an analysis of the cold model data and a plot of these values versus stirrer speed appears to be unique for the 60{degree} axial impeller. The recycle ration is typically of the order of 1000/1 or greater, and for all practical purposes the reactor may be treated as a perfectly mixed reactor. The work up of hydrotreating Run PDJ03 is complete. The run was terminated prematurely due to a rupture disk failure, but eight of the ten planned balance periods were completed. Carbon material balances were slightly high, ranging from 100.7% to 106.7%. Reaction rates for hydrogen uptake, hydrodesulfurization and hydrodenitrogenation were calculated. The catalyst did not deactivate significantly for the duration of the run and no evidence of catalyst attrition was observed after 215 hours of service. 8 refs., 4 figs., 2 tabs.