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Only two of the fecal specimens collected inflight during the Apollo 15 mission were returned for analysis. Difficulty in obtaining reasonably accurate radiation dose estimates based on the cosmogenic radionuclide content of the specimens was encountered due to the limited sampling. The concentrations of {sup 22}Na, {sup 40}K, {sup 51}Cr, {sup 59}Fe, and {sup 137}Cs are reported. The concentrations of 24 major, minor, and trace elements in these two specimens were determined. Most concentrations are typical of those observed previously. Major exceptions are extremely low values for selenium and extraordinarily high values for rare earth elements. The net {sup 210}Po activities in the Apollo 11 and 12 Solar Wind Composition foils and in the Apollo 8 and 12 spacecraft reflective coatings due to lunar exposure have been determined. Equilibrium concentrations of 0.082 {+-} 0.012 disintegrations cm{sup -2} sec{sup -1} of {sup 222}Rn in the lunar atmosphere and 0.0238 {+-} 0.0035 disintegrations cm{sup -2} sec{sup -1} of {sup 210}Po on the lunar surface have been calculated for Oceanus Procellarum. A summary of a paper entitled, "Radon-222 Activity at Oceanus Procellarum," and the text of a manuscript entitled, "Radon-222 in the Lunar Atmosphere," are included as appendices.

The Laser Fusion Program at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory is presently emerging from a three-year period of intensive development of the tools required for significant DT implosion experiments of continuously increasing scale. These diverse tools include target design codes, sophisticated target fabrication techniques, radically new diagnostics instrumentation, high peak- power-high brightness laser technology, and fully integrated laser-target- diagnostic irradiation facilities. These tools have recently led to the successful production of neutrons from compressed DT-containing targets together with a wealth of correlating plasma physics data. The current status of major program activities at LLL will be reviewed and major future milestones will be projected. (auth)

Methods being studied are as follows: the thermodynamic method based on water potential and thermocouple psychrometers; the tracer method using atmospheric tritium; the annual water balance based on the annual heat balance; the field lysimeter using thermocouple psychrometers; the influence of soil breathing as a result of changes in barometric pressure; and the influence of soil stratification. Progress to date has involved the installation of thermocouple psychrometers from the surface to the water table 310 feet below. These instruments are in the process of equilibration. Isothermal methods of analyzing water potential must be extended to include nonisothermal conditions which are dominant at the Hanford Reservation. Tracer techniques using tritium analyses of soil samples have successfully demonstrated that archaic water exists in virgin soil at the Hanford Reservation from a depth of approximately 7 meters to the water table, indicating that percolation has been limited to lesser depths. The annual heat balance indicates that quantities of water many times greater than the annual average precipitation of 16 centimeters can be evaporated from the soils at the Hanford Reservation during a normal summer. This indicates that the critical precipitation (P/sub c/) value may be greater than 30 to 50 centimeters of water. …

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The purpose of this contract effort is to understand how nonfuel components of coal will affect the electron and alkali seed chemistry in a high temperature coal combustion system like that envisioned for direct fired MHD generators. Three specific problems are being considered during this contract period. The first problem area is to characterize the formation of negative ions due to electron attachment processes in the combustion flow. While some stable negative ions may be formed from hydrocarbon combustion species (OH/sup -/), the bulk of the stable negative ions are expected to be formed from oxidized inorganic coal slag constituents (BO/sup -//sub 2/, PO/sup -//sub 2/, AlO/sup -//sub 2/, etc). Negative ion formation can reduce the conductivity of the MHD plasma, particularly at the low temperature end of the MHD channel, thus decreasing the efficiency of power generation. The second problem area involves the role slag condensation may play in determining the electron density through recombination, also adversely affecting conductivity in the core flow. The competitive balance between thermionic emission from slag droplets and electron/ion recombination on the droplet surfaces may be severely tipped in favor of electron loss processes, depending on the slag properties. The third problem area is …

Efforts at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory toward the production of pure polycrystaline silicon are centered on the concept of silicon particle growth in a fluidized bed reactor (FBR) and a continuous flow pyrolyzer (CFP). The CFP possibly can provide the seed particles which will be grown to larger sizes in the FBR. In both the reactors polycrystalline silicon is obtaned from the pyrolysis of silane. A part of the JPL effort is to develop a model of silicon particle growth for the purpose of predicting particle growth rates and product particle size distributions in the FBR and the CFP. This repot describes the mathematical models of silicon particle growth in the FBR and the CFP.

The impacts described here for 1985 and 1990 are based on a national energy projection which assumes medium energy demand and fuel supply through 1990 but does not incorporate the policies of the National Energy Act (NEA). This scenario, referred to as the Projection Series C or the TRENDLONG MID-MID scenario, is one of six possible energy futures developed by the DOE Energy Information Administration for the Department's 1977 Annual Report to Congress. It was chosen as representative of the official DOE national energy projections when this project was initiated, prior to the passage of the National Energy Act. Since the RIIA program is part of an ongoing review of the regional impact of energy policies, the next phase will examine the National Energy Act (NEA) and initiatives suggested by the President's second National Energy Plan. However, since coal utilization increases under the NEA, in general, impacts identified in the TRENDLONG Series C Scenario should provide a framework for the discussion of impacts by NEA. The environmental impacts discussed in this volume are for Federal Region I (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut). However, there are nine companion volumes, one for each of the other Federal Regions.

Thermochemical equilibrium computations for the preparation of silicon (Si) by the reaction between sodium (Na), either liquid or vapor, with silicon tetrafluoride (SiF/sub 4/) and silicon tetrachloride (SiCl/sub 4/) are presented. Computations indicate that SiF/sub 4/ reacts with either liquid or gaseous Na to produce temperatures sufficiently high to form molten Si. Liquid Na reacts with SiF/sub 4/ to produce substantially higher Si yields than does the free combustion reaction with Na vapor; however, the Na vapor/SiF/sub 4/ reaction, if temperature-constrained at the Si melting point, produces an expected Si yield close to 100%. A stoichiometric mixture of liquid Na and SiCl/sub 4/ vapor reacts to produce liquid Si, gaseous sodium chloride (NaCl), and a small concentration of Si subhalides. Gaseous Na, however, reacts with SiCl/sub 4/ to form entirely gaseous reaction products and a high yield of Si (liquid) but subhalide concentrations are greater than when liquid Na is used. The reactions of a number of impurity elements in Na, during the course of the Na-Si halide reaction, have been described. Of those considered, only calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), phosphorus (P), and strontium (Sr) are expected to co-exist to any extent in Na vapor and none is expected to …

A computer-assisted thermochemical equilibrium analysis was conducted for the silicon transport reaction: Si(s) + SiF/sub 4/(g) = (intermediates) = Si(s) + SiF/sub 4/(g). The calculations indicated that a substantial transport rate should be possible at temperatures of 1700/sup 0/K and one atmosphere pressure. Computations were made to determine whether the elemental impurities present in metallurgical-grade silicon would transfer in this process. It was concluded that aluminum, chromium, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, vanadium, and zirconium would not transfer, but that boron, magnesium, phosphorus, and titanium would transfer.