Report on the environmental impact of Argonne National Laboratory.

Report on the ongoing environmental monitoring program at Argonne National Laboratory.

The accuracy of two integration algorithms is studied for the common engineering condition of a von Mises, isotropic hardening model under plane stress. Errors in stress predictions for given total strain increments are expressed with contour plots of two parameters: an angle in the pi plane and the difference between the exact and computed yield-surface radii.

Quarterly report discussing fuel cell research and development work at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). This report describes work aimed at understanding and improving the performance of fuel cells having molten alkali-carbonate mixtures as electrolytes; the fuel cells operate at temperatures near 925 K.

This report applies some methods from the theory of group representation to the questions of program specification and knowledge about programs. The theory is that of a program as a transformation on a state space, and operators commuting with that transformation being symmetries of the program, means of specifying properties, and generators of program invariants. Because a program can simulate a system in the real world, there is a corresponding model of engineered artifacts, that is, manmade objects having a theory for their design.

Report containing experiments regarding the slopes and deflections of different grid support structures for a nuclear reactor.

A combination of backscattered electron imaging and analytical electron microscopy (AEM) with electron diffraction have been used to determine the physical and chemical properties of uranium contamination in soils from the Fernald Environmental Management Project in Ohio. The information gained from these studies has been used in the development and testing of remediation technologies.

A program has been established for DOE Environmental Restoration and Waste Management (EM) to evaluate factors that are likely to affect waste glass reaction during repository disposal, with emphasis on an unsaturated environment typical of what may be expected for the proposed Yucca Mountain repository site.

Highlights of the Chemical Technology (CMT) Division's activities during 1989 are presented. In this period, CMT conducted research and development in the following areas: (1) electrochemical technology, including high-performance batteries (mainly lithium/iron sulfide and sodium/metal chloride), aqueous batteries (lead-acid and nickel/iron), and advanced fuel cells with molten carbonate and solid oxide electrolytes; (2) coal utilization, including the heat and seed recovery technology for coal-fired magnetohydrodynamics plants and the technology for fluidized-bed combustion; (3) method, for recovery of energy from municipal waste and techniques for treatment of hazardous organic waste; (4) nuclear technology related to a process for separating and recovering transuranic elements from nuclear waste and for producing 99Mo from low-enriched uranium targets, the recovery processes for discharged fuel and the uranium blanket in a sodium-cooled fast reactor (the Integral Fast Reactor), and waste management; and (5) physical chemistry of selected materials in environments simulating those of fission and fusion energy systems.

Report discussing the "problem of obtaining a curve of the heat flux vs. temperature difference for boiling liquid metals" (p. 3). Contains discussions of a variety of heating techniques, though it focuses on electron-bombardment heating.

A laboratory test program is described to evaluate the corrosion behavior of several metallic alloys, coatings, claddings, and weldments in support of the atmospheric fluidized-bed air heater experiment. Results are presented from the first 1000-h test (Test A) conducted at metal and gas temperatures of 871 C and 899 C, respectively. Detailed information is also presented on the corrosion scale morphologies, scale compositions and thicknesses, intergranular penetration of the substrate material, and metal recession.

BlockSolve is a software library for solving large, sparse systems of linear equations on massively parallel computers. The matrices must be symmetric, but may have an arbitrary sparsity structure. BlockSolve is a portable package that is compatible with several different message-passing pardigms. This report gives detailed instructions on the use of BlockSolve in applications programs.

A Ca-Al-Si/FeS2 cell has been developed and has exhibited reasonably stable capacity through 3200 h of operation. This system is expected to be capable of meeting the ultimate performance goals (i.e., 160 W.h/kg) of this development program. Further tests of this cell system in the coming year will better define its ultimate performance capabilities.

The cup assembly of the Experimental Breeder Reactor (EBR) consists of blanket bricks, inner rings, and safety plug, all of natural uranium. The design of the finish machined brick is shown in Figure 1. These pie shaped bricks when stacked together, 12 bricks arranged in circular form and stacked seven rings high, comprise the cylindrical portion of the outer blanket, 17.875" I.D. x 30.875" O.D. after machining and canning. The inner ring, which is shown in Figure 2, fits inside the bottom layer of bricks. The circular opening in the center of the inner ring is closed by the safety plug shown in Figure 3.

A final series of runs was made in a four-inch continuous-flow mixing chamber to study the transfer of isobutanol into water and nitrobenzene into ethylene glycol. Satisfactory techniques were developed to provide for the rapid analysis of these systems. In addition, a light-scattering correlation was prepared to provide a measure of the interfacial area of the yellow-colored nitrobenzene-ethylene glycol mixtures.

Annual report of the Argonne National Laboratory Chemical Technology Division (CMT) discussing the group's activities during 1991. These included electrochemical technology; fossil fuel research; hazardous waste research; nuclear waste programs; separation science and technology; integral fast reactor pyrochemical processes; actinite recovery; applied physical chemistry; basic chemistry research; analytical chemistry; research and development; and computer applications.

This is a sequel to the paper ''A comparison of two ODE codes: GEAR and EPISODE,'' and is concerned with the testing of two superficially similar ODE packages, GEAR and EPISODE. Fourteen basic test problems, some with several cases, are the basis for the testing. These problems represent several types-nonlinear systems with real and complex eigenvalues, linear systems with varied diagonal dominance, linear scalar problems, stiff and non-stiff problems, chemical kinetics with and without diurnal effect, and systems arising from the use of the numerical method of lines. Some problems are included in order to examine the options and error returns. The test results are presented in two forms: raw output and a comparative display of operation counts and of timings for the best method in the GEAR package and the best method in the EPISODE package. This approach allows a comparison of the consequences of the fixed-step interpolate strategy (GEAR) for changing step size against the truly variable step size strategy (EPISODE). It is concluded that EPISODE is generally faster than GEAR for problems involving wave fronts or transients on the interior of the interval of integration. For linear or simply decaying problems, these roles are usually reversed.

Six groups of jobs were run on the IBM 370/195 at the Applied Mathematics Division (AMD) of Argonne National Laboratory using the current production versions of OS/MVT 21.7 and ASP 3.1. The same jobs were then run on an AMDAHL 470V/6 at the AMDAHL manufacturing facilities in Sunnyvale, California, using the identical operating systems. Performances of the two machines are compared. Differences in the configurations were minimized. The memory size on each machine was the same, all software which had an impact on run times was the same, and the I/O configurations were as similar as possible. This allowed the comparison to be based on the relative performance of the two CPU's. As part of the studies preliminary to the acquisition of the IBM 195 in 1972, two of the groups of jobs had been run on a CDC 7600 by CDC personnel in Arden Hills, Minnesota, on an IBM 360/195 by IBM personnel in Poughkeepsie, New York, and on the AMD 360/50/75 production system in June, 1971.

Analysis of sodium void and Doppler reactivities in two full scale liquid metal fast breeder reactors.

A procedure is described for the dynamic analysis of a fast-reactor hexagonal subassembly. The internals of the fuel subassembly are treated by an axisymmetric hydrodynamic code REXCO-HT which, among other properties, possesses a model of an MFCI pressure source. The housing of the fuel subassembly is handled by the SADCAT code, which is based on a triangular finite element in three-dimensional space. The code is used to illustrate the discrepancies involved if the hexcan is modeled by a cylinder of the same thickness. A study is also made of the reduction of cylinder thickness such that the same final cylindrical deformation can be predicted. A discussion in arriving at such an equivalence is offered.

Present concepts of disposal of low-level aqueous wastes (LLAW) that contain much of the fission-product tritium from light water reactors involve dispersal to the atmosphere or to surface streams at fuel reprocessing plants. These concepts have been challenged in recent years. Deep-well injection of low-level aqueous wastes, an alternative to biospheric dispersal, is the subject of this presentation. Many factors must be considered in assessing its feasibility, including technology, costs, environmental impact, legal and regulatory constraints, and siting. Examination of these factors indicates that the technology of deep-well injection, extensively developed for other industrial wastes, would require little innovation before application to low-level aqueous wastes. Costs would be low, of the order of magnitude of 10⁻⁴ mill/kWh. The environmental impact of normal deep-well disposal would be small, compared with dispersal to the atmosphere or to surface streams; abnormal operation would not be expected to produce catastrophic results. Geologically suitable sites are abundant in the U.S., but a well would best be co-located with the fuel-reprocessing plant where the LLAW is produced. Legal and regulatory constraints now being developed will be the most important determinants of the feasibility of applying the method.

Report issued by the Argonne National Laboratory discussing the testing of an electron-bombardment heater. As stated in the abstract, "the applications of electron-bombardment heating to liquid-metal heat transfer and reactor safety experiments are discussed. The design of a high-heat-flux, electron-bombardment heater (EBH) is presented" (p. 7). This report includes tables, illustrations, and photographs.

This report presents the results of a survey undertaken to identify and characterize current practices for detecting and locating leaks in district heating systems, particular steam systems. Currently used technology and practices are reviewed. In addition, the survey was used to gather information that may be important for the application of acoustic leak detection. A few examples of attempts to locate leaks in steam and hot water pipes by correlation of acoustic signals generated by the leaks are also discussed.

Report on development of high-performance batteries including design study for stationary energy storage and electric-vehicle propulsion, and materials development studies on electrical feedthroughs and new types of separators.