An atomic fission counting apparatus used for neutron detection is provided with spirally curved electrode plates uniformly spaced apart in a circular array and coated with fissile material.

Nuclear fuel is made by contacting an aqueous solution containing an actinide salt with an aqueous solution containing ammonium hydroxide, ammonium oxalate, or oxalic acid in an amount that will react with a fraction of the actinide salt to form a precipitate consisting of the hydroxide or oxalate of the actinide. A slurry consisting of the precipitate and solution containing the unreacted actinide salt is formed into drops which are gelled, calcined, and pressed to form pellets.

A separator assembly for use in a spent-nuclear-fuel shipping cask has a honeycomb-type wall structure defining parallel cavities for holding nuclear fuel assemblies. Tubes formed of an effective neutron-absorbing material are embedded in the wall structure around each of the cavities and provide neutron flux traps when filled with water.

The friction, wear, and corrosion performance of several metallurgical coatings in 200 to 650/sup 0/C sodium are reviewed. Emphasis is placed on those coatings which have successfully passed the qualification tests necessary for acceptance in breeder reactor environments. Tests include friction, wear, corrosion, thermal cycling, self-welding, and irradiation exposure under as-prototypic-as-possible service conditions. Materials tested were coatings of various refractory metal carbides in metallic binders, nickel-base and cobalt-base alloys and intermetallic compounds such as the aluminides and borides. Coating processes evaluated included plasma spray, detonation gun, sputtering, spark-deposition, and solid-state diffusion.

Initial tandem mirror hybrid studies predict the ability to produce large amounts of fissile fuel (2 to 7 tons U233 per year from a 4000 MW plant) at a cost that adds less than 25% to the cost of power from a LWR.

Lasers for fusion experiments use thin-film dielectric coatings for reflecting, antireflecting and polarizing surface elements. Coatings are most important to the Nd:glass laser application. The most important requirements of these coatings are accuracy of the average value of reflectance and transmission, uniformity of amplitude and phase front of the reflected or transmitted light, and laser damage threshold. Damage resistance strongly affects the laser's design and performance. The success of advanced lasers for future experiments and for reactor applications requires significant developments in damage resistant coatings for ultraviolet laser radiation.

Method and apparatus for minimizing energy required to inject reactant such as coal-oil slurry into a reaction vessel, using high pressure effluent from the latter to displace the reactant from a containment vessel into the reaction vessel with assistance of low pressure pump. Effluent is degassed in the containment vessel, and a heel of the degassed effluent is maintained between incoming effluent and reactant in the containment vessel.

Coal hydrogenation vessel has hydrogen heating passages extending vertically through its wall and opening into its interior.

An improved method of preparing composite multifilament superconducting wire of Nb/sub 3/Sn in a copper matrix which eliminates the necessity of coating the drawn wire with tin is described. A generalized cylindrical billet of an alloy of copper containing at least 15 weight percent niobium, present in the copper as discrete, randomly distributed and oriented dendritic-shaped particles, is provided with at least one longitudinal opening which is filled with tin to form a composite drawing rod. The drawing rod is then drawn to form a ductile composite multifilament wire containing a filament of tin. The ductile wire containing the tin can then be wound into magnet coils or other devices before heating to diffuse the tin through the wire to react with the niobium forming Nb/sub 3/Sn. Also described is an improved method for making large billets of the copper-niobium alloy by consumable-arc casting.

Results are presented from tests of the first full length prototype SSC dipole magnet. The cryogenic behavior of the magnet during a slow cooldown to 4.5K and a slow warmup to room temperature has been measured. Magnetic field quality was measured at currents up to 2000 A. Averaged over the body field all harmonics with the exception of b/sub 2/ and b/sub 8/ are at or within the tolerances specified by the SSC Central Design Group. (The values of b/sub 2/ and b/sub 8/ result from known design and construction defects which will be be corrected in later magnets.) Using an NMR probe the average body field strength is measured to be 10.283 G/A with point to point variations on the order of one part in 1000. Data are presented on quench behavior of the magnet up to 3500 A (approximately 55% of full field) including longitudinal and transverse velocities for the first 250 msec of the quench.

This document includes summary information on the ownership structure of the US electric utility industry, a description of electric utility regulation, and identification of selected factors likely to affect US electricity markets from 1985 through 1995. This Outlook expands upon projections first presented in the Annual Energy Outlook 1985, offering additional discussion of projected US electricity markets and regional detail. It should be recognized that work on the Annual Energy Outlook 1985 had been completed prior to the sharp reductions in world oil prices experienced early in 1986.

Results are presented from tests of the first two full length prototype SSC dipole magnets. Magnetic field measurements have been made at currents up to 2000 A. The two magnets achieved peak currents at 4.5K of 5790 A and 6450 A, respectively, substantially below the short sample limit of 6700 A. These peak values, however, could not be achieved reproducibly. Data are presented from studies performed to try to understand the poor quench performance.

General Purpose Heat Source (GPHS) simulant-fueled capsules were assembled, welded, nondestructively examined, and shipped to Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) for satellite safety tests. Simulant-fueled iridium capsules contain depleted uranium oxide pellets that serve as a stand-in for plutonium-238 oxide pellets. Information on forty seven capsules prepared during 1987 and 1988 is recorded in this memorandum along with a description of the processes used for encapsulation and evaluation. LANL expects to use all capsules for destructive safety tests, which are under way. Test results so far have demonstrated excellent integrity of the Savannah River capsule welds. 10 refs., 5 figs., 3 tabs.

The results of EP-toxicity tests on mercury saturated Duolite{reg_sign} GT-73 cation exchange resin clarify options for the ultimate disposal of spent resin. Samples of GT-73 saturated with mercury passed the EP-toxicity test, indicating that fully spent resin may be classifed as ``solid``-not``hazardous``-waste and stored or disposed-of as such. Samples of GT-73 resin saturated with mercury and then incorporated into Portland Type 1 cement did not pass the EP-toxicity test and fall into the ``hazardous waste`` category. Samples of GT-73 resin less-than-saturated with mercury which were in corporated in Portland Type 1 cement passed the EP-toxicity test and may be classified as ``solid waste.`` Other commercially available materials are being investigated for incorporating fully spent GT-73 resin in a solid waste form.

Federal regulations and Rockwell Hanford Operations (Rockwell) planning documents require that radioactive waste sites disposed in-place be permanently marked. A number of technical studies have addressed the materials to be used for permanent markers as well as the design configurations. Criteria and standards for markers have also been prepared and issued in draft form. The next step in marker development requires laboratory and field testing of prototype markers. This document provides design specifications for the first generation surface and subsurface markers. At the conclusion of testing activities, definitive specifications can be prepared. Included herein are specifications for marker placement, marker materials, marker configuration and dimensions and marker messages. This document presents specifications only and does not provide rationale or justification for the specifications. Such rationale and justification is available in referenced documents.

We consider the propagation of laser light in an initially slightly nonuniform plasma. The classical dispersion relation for the laser filamentation growth rate (see e.g., B. Langdon, in the 1980 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Laser Program Annual Report, pp. 3-56, UCRL-50021-80, 1981) can be generalized to include other acoustical effects. For example, we find that the inclusion of potential imbalances in the heating and cooling rates of the ambient medium due to density and temperature perturbations can cause the laser filamentation mode to bifurcate into a cooling instability mode at long acoustic wavelengths. We also attempt to study semi-analytically the nonlinear evolution of this and related instabilities. These results have wide applications to a variety of chemical gas lasers and phenomena related to laser-target interactions (e.g., jet-like behavior).

We have derived the primary recoil spectra for thermal neutron capture in copper and molybdenum, and have calculated the damage energy cross-sections needed to determine the defect production efficiencies from measured resistivity damage rates. These efficiencies, which are in excellent agreement with fully dynamic computer simulations of collision cascades, are compared to the predictions of displacement functions which are currently in use.

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A human factors engineering preliminary design review of the Shoreham control room was performed at the site on March 30 through April 3, 1981. This design review was carried out by a team from the Human Factors Engineering Branch, Division of Human Factors Safety. This report was prepared on the basis of the HFEB's review of the applicant's Preliminary Design Assessment and the human factors engineering design review/audit performed at the site. The presented sections are numbered to conform to the guidelines of the draft version of NUREG-0700. They summarize the teams's observations of the control room design and layout, and of the control room operators' interface with the control room environment.