This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government.

The environmental levels of radioactivity and other pollutants found in the vicinity of Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) during 1977 are summarized in this report. As an aid in the interpretation of the data, the amounts of radioactivity and other pollutants released in airborne and liquid effluents from Laboratory facilities to the environment are also indicated. The environmental data includes external radiation levels; radioactive air particulates; tritium and iodine concentrations; the amounts and concentrations of radioactivity in and the quality of the stream into which liquid effluents are released; the concentrations of radioactivity in sediments and biota from the stream; the concentrations of radioactivity in and the quality of ground waters underlying the Laboratory; and concentrations of radioactivity in milk samples obtained in the vicinity of the Laboratory.

The fast neutron fission cross section of /sup 233/U was measured absolutely between 0.13 and 8.0 MeV. The absolute cross section values were obtained by low geometry alpha counting and isotopic dilution analysis of various /sup 233/U samples, 2..pi..-detection of the fission fragments with an ionization chamber, and the measurement of the neutron flux with several black neutron detectors. Absolute cross sections were obtained with a 2 to 3% uncertainty over the most important energy range.

LASNEX calculations for focused laser beams on spherical targets have been performed for laser wavelengths of 0.25, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 microns. One-dimensional calculations, including the ponderomotive force, show a profile steepening that determines the fractional absorption by anomalous mechanism. However, increased absorption occurs at the shorter wavelengths because of more efficient inverse bremsstrahlung absorption at the higher critical densities. In general, the absorption efficiency increases with shorter laser wavelength and decreases with increasing f-number of the illuminating optics for sufficiently long plasma scale lengths. The effect of the absorption and laser wavelength on the thermal and superthermal electron physics will be discussed along with the combined effects on the implosion performance. Certain aspects of two-dimensional LASNEX calculations are presented.

To meet the goals of the LSSA program, solar cell encapsulants must provide protection for 20 years. Consequently, the objective of the present program is to develop methodology for making confident predictions of encapsulant performance at any exposure site in the U.S.A. During the first year of the program, inherent weatherability was studied. Inherent weatherability is controlled by the three weather factors common to all exposure sites: insolation, temperature, and humidity. Emphasis was focused on the transparent encapsulant portion of miniature solar cell arrays by eliminating weathering effects on the substrate and circuitry (which are also parts of the encapsulant system). The most extensive data were for yellowing, which was measured conviently and precisely. Considerable data also were obtained on tensile strength. Changes in these two properties after outdoor exposure were predicted very well from accelerated exposure data. Although more outdoor exposure data will be received, mathematical modeling studies are continuing. This first part of the program can be said to be successfully concluded. In continuation of the inherent weatherability study, the power output of solar cells was monitored under accelerated test conditions and is being followed for outdoor exposures. For this purpose, Universal Test Specimens (UTS's) with nine different …

In order to improve the security of handling special nuclear materials at the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant, a sensitive acoustic emission detector has been developed that will detect forcible entry through block or tile walls, concrete floors, or concrete/steel vault walls. A small, low-powered processor was designed to convert the output from a sensitive, crystal-type acoustic transducer to an alarm relay signal for use with a supervised alarm loop. The unit may be used to detect forcible entry through concrete, steel, block, tile, and/or glass.

This is the ninth in a series of quarterly progress reports on Fuel Cycle Technologies/Thorium Fuel Cycle Technologies/International Spent Fuel Receipt and Storage (AFCT/TFCT/ISFS) program. This program provides information needed by industry to close the back end of the power reactor fuel cycle. Included in the program are activities supporting specific design studies, as well as activities for general fuel cycle technology. Studies were conducted in the following tasks: thorium resource price analyses; investigation of air cleaning processes for removing TBP from off-gas streams; study of iodine chemistry in process solutions; high-level waste treatment; electropolishing to decontaminate metallic waste from alternate and thorium converter fuel cycles; U.S. scale transport, dispersion and removal model comparison; safety criticality experiments; and criticality research in support of thorium fuel cycle technology program. (21 figs., 7 tables) (DLC)

Estimations have been made for the design of air-core kicker magnets with the given specification, under the condition of having and without having an enclosure. It is found that the kicker magnet contained in a cylindrical enclosure of a radius equal to the spacing of the fields winding will require an amount double the electrical power and 40% more in excitation current. However, these quantities decrease rapidly with the increase of the cylinder's radius. It is recommended that a radius of 1.5 times, or more, of the winding's spacing should be used. Two curves are given to show the tendency of the power and current as a function of the enclosure's-radius-to-spacing ratio. The values obtained from the theoretical calculations are found to be in good agreement to those from computer calculations on a similar model. 5 figs., 6 tabs.

An allocation of naphtha feedstock up to 2,186,000 barrels per year to Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BG and E) to operate its synthetic natural gas (SNG) facility is being considered. The allocation would enable BG and E to produce 10,800,000 mcf of SNG during a 180 day period. Operation of the plant at design capacity is expected to result in annual pollution emissions as follows: 626.4 tons of sulfur oxides, 168.5 tons of nitrogen oxides and 21.6 tons of particulate matter. Incremental emissions due to plant operations relative to existing emissions in Baltimore County are less than 1%. All Federal and State air quality standards should be met. Treated effluent is to be discharged into the Patapasco River where the environmental impacts are not expected to be significant. The SNG facility has been designed to be in compliance with all applicable Federal, State and local effluent standards. Water consumption requirements of 335,000 gallons per day are not expected to significantly tax the area's water resources. Sound generated by the SNG facility will be inaudible or imperceptible. All other operational impacts on land use, population, visual quality, roadways, community facilities and services and ecological systems were judged to be minimal. …

A series of drift-surface and magnetic-field calculations has been carried out to try to estimate the accuracy with which the elements of the TMX magnet set must be magnetically aligned. The results of these calculations, for 500 G at the solenoidal center, are summarized.

The objective of this program is to evaluate the mechanical properties of liquefaction process plant ''dissolver'' vessel materials in a ''dissolver'' vessel environment including coal slurry and pressurized hydrogen gas at temperatures up to 900/sup 0/F. Specifically, the degradation of notched-bar and smooth bar tensile samples of 2/sup 1///sub 4/ Cr--1 Mo will be monitored as a function of exposure time and stress in the ''dissolver'' vessel environment. This quarter was spent entirely on installing and debugging the newly acquired pressure vessels and their controlling circuitry. The vessels were installed in the Ames Lab explosion-safe, hydrogen-containment building, specially designed for this program. Leak checks of 24 to 72 hours were performed on the vessels at pressures ranging from 1000 to 5000 psig at temperatures of 72/sup 0/F and 800/sup 0/F. Automatic pressure and temperature monitoring controls were tested and calibrated. Pressure vessel furnaces were installed and are being tested. Containment building safety systems including hydrogen detectors, vessel over-pressure alarms, vessel over-temperature alarms, hydrogen check valves, surge valves, power failure emergency backup systems and fire alarms were tested and found satisfactory. Individual pressure vessel containment cell blow out panels and cell ventilation systems were found to be satisfactory.

The objective of the research program is to develop and analyze new concepts for absorption cycles to improve the performance or reduce the cost (or both) of a 3-ton absorption chiller that can be used with solar-collected heat. New refrigerant-absorbent pairs, additives to currently used refrigerant-absorbent pairs, and modifications to the cycle are being investigated. For the initial analyses the use of a fluid at 160 to 230/sup 0/F from a solar collector as a heating source is assumed. In the initial analyses the chiller is to provide chilled water at 45/sup 0/F at full load; alternatively, if a new refrigerant-absorbent pair appears to be amenable for direct cooling of the occupied space, the temperature of the evaporator is to be 45/sup 0/F. Both water cooling and air cooling of the absorber and the condenser are being studied. The use of ambient air at 95/sup 0/F dry bulb and 75/sup 0/F wet bulb temperatures is assumed. With the water-cooled cycles, the initial and operating costs of a properly sized cooling tower will be included. The research consists of five principal tasks: (a) acquisition of information for analysis, (b) definition of criteria for selection of promising refrigerant-absorbent pairs, additives for currently …

The Boolean difference is a mathematical concept which has found significant application in the study of single and multiple ''stuck at'' faults in combinational logic circuits. The concept of vector Boolean difference is extended to the analysis of multiple stuck-at faults in synchronous sequential circuits. A vector Boolean difference technique is utilized to determine the set of input/state pairs that will produce a difference in either output or next-state between the fault-free and faulty circuits. Assuming that the fault-free and faulty circuits start in the same initial state, they must be driven by applying a sequence of input vectors to a state in which either a difference in output or next-state is evidenced. If a difference in output cannot be achieved immediately, a second sequence of input vectors must be applied in order to propagate the state difference to the output. Methods for combining the Boolean difference analysis with techniques for deriving the required input vector sequence are discussed.

The level of participation of small businesses in photovoltaic technology was ascertained and recommendations were made relative to improving the level of participation. Hypothetical examples were developed of small businesses in the various stages of entry into or participating in photovoltaic activities and an analysis was made of the methods which could be used by the Division of Solar Technology (DSI) to encourage and strengthen the participation by small business in the photovoltaic activities of DST. (MHR)

The code SORS was written by General Atomic to calculate the release of fission products from the fuel into the primary coolant during a hypothetical uncontrolled transient temperature excursion. The code assumes that the graphite core remains structurally intact. The release from the fuel particles is calculated using a coarse time step for several sections of the core. For the non-volatile elements, the code calculates a diffusion rate and an evaporation rate in each section of the core. The expression used for the evaporation rate is found to be incompatible with the rest of the assumptions used in the calculation.

The report describes analyses conducted to predict the response of a truck tractor-trailer system with a spent-nuclear-fuel shipping cask in very severe (98 to 135 kilometers per hour) head-on crashes into a rigid concrete structure. The analyses include both mathematical and physical scale modeling of the system. The results of the analyses are compared to the results of instrumented full-scale tests conducted as the last step in the research program described in the report.

This report describes work performed by the author in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Pure Science at Columbia University.

Aspects of the problem of neutron slowing down and transport in an infinite medium consisting of a single nuclide that scatters elastically and isotropically and has energy-independent cross sections were investigated. The method of singular eigenfunctions was applied to the Boltzmann Equation governing the Laplace transform (with respect to the lethargy variable) of the neutron flux. A new sufficient condition for the convergence of the coefficients of the expansion of the scattering kernel in Legendre polynomials was rigorously derived for this energy-dependent problem. Formulas were obtained for the lethargy-dependent spatial moments of the scalar flux that are valid for medium to large lethargies. Use was made of the well-known connection between the spatial moments of the Laplace-transformed scalar flux and the moments of the flux in the "eigenvalue space." The calculations were aided by the construction of a closed general expression for these "eigenvalue space" moments. Extensive use was also made of the methods of combinatorial analysis and of computer evaluation of complicated sequences of manipulations. For the case of no absorption it was possible to obtain for materials of any atomic weight explicit corrections to the age-theory formulas for the spatial moments M/sub 2n/(u) of the scalar flux that …

The local environment surrounding Mound Facility was monitored for tritium and plutonium-238. The results are reported for calendar year 1977. The environmental parameters analyzed included air, water, foodstuffs, soil and silt. The average concentrations of plutonium-238 and tritium were within the applicable stringent standards for radioactive species adopted by the U.S. DOE. Mound Facility drinking water has been brought into compliance with the new EPA standard for tritium in community drinking water systems, and Mound has undertaken a program to achieve compliance for nine private wells adjacent to the Facility site. The program has partially achieved its objective by bringing Mound wells and some of the nine affected private wells in the vicinity of Mound Facility into compliance with the U.S. EPA standard and significantly reducing tritium concentration in the remaining wells. Data concerning nonradioactive species in air and water are also presented and compared to federal, state, and local standards, where applicable.

Results of studies of anomalous electron-muon and electron-hadron events produced in electron-positron annihilation are presented. The data for this work were obtained with a lead-glass counter system, which was added to one octant of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center-Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory magnetic detector at the electron-positron storage ring SPEAR. The lead-glass counter system provides good electron identification for part of the magnetic detector. The events under study have two detected charged particles and any number of detected photons. One detected charged particle is identified as an electron in the lead-glass counter system. The other detected charged particle is identified as a muon or hadron in the magnetic detector. Anomalous events are events which are not subject to conventional explanations; examples of conventional explanations are misidentification of particles or the decay of ordinary or strange hadrons. These data confirm previous observations of anomalous lepton production at SPEAR and DESY. The data corrected for charm background are consistent with heavy lepton production and decay. The branching ratio for the heavy lepton to decay into an electron and two neutrinos was measured to be 0.21 +- 0.05. The branching ratio for the heavy lepton to decay into one charged hadron, one neutrino and …

Gamma-ray spectrometric methods using high-resolution Ge(Li) and high purity Ge detectors have been used to quantify the concentrations and external exposure rates of radionuclides in the soil. These in situ methods have been used to study radionuclide deposition around nuclear power stations, the distribution of radionuclides at the Nevada Test Site, biogeochemical cycling of radionuclides, and the fate and impact of fallout radionuclides. Portable gamma-ray spectrometer systems used for various kinds of in situ field measurements include: large-volume coaxial Ge(Li) detectors for terrestrial gamma-ray surveys at several sites including preoperational nuclear power plants and for real-time measurements of nuclear reactor plume isotopic exposure rates; and planar, high purity Ge detectors for mapping /sup 241/Am and /sup 239/Pu soil concentrations, particularly at the Nevada Test Site. These applications are discussed along with a brief description of the methodology and techniques associated with in situ gamma-ray spectrometry.

The feasibility of nondestructively detecting small cracks or holes in plasma-sprayed ceramic coatings with an electric arc-discharge system was studied. We inspected ZrO/sub 2/ coatings 0.46 mm (0.018 in.) thick on Incoloy alloy 800 substrates. Cracks were artificially induced in controlled areas of the specimens by straining the substrates in tension. We designed and built a system to scan the specimen's surface at approximately 50 ..mu..m (0.002 in.) clearance with a sharp-pointed metal-tipped probe at high dc potential. The system measures the arc currents occurring at flaws, or plots a map of the scanned area showing points where the arc current exceeds a preset threshold. A theoretical model of the probe-specimen circuit shows constant dc potential to be the best choice for arc-discharge inspection of insulating coatings. Experimental observations and analysis of the data disclosed some potential for flaw description.

A one-dimensional model of the welding arc that considers heat generation by the Joule effect and heat losses by radiation and conduction has been used to study the effects of various gases and gas mixtures currently employed for welding applications. Minor additions of low ionization potential impurities to these gases are shown to significantly perturb the electrical properties of the parent gas causing gross changes in the radial temperature distribution of the arc discharge. Such changes are reflected in the current density distribution and ultimately in the input energy distribution to the weldment. The result is observed as a variation in weld penetration. Recently published experiments and analyses of welding arcs are also evaluated and shown to contain erroneous data and results. Contrary to previous beliefs, the inclusion of a radiation loss term in the basic energy balance equation is important and cannot be considered as negligible in an argon arc at temperatures as low as 10,000/sup 0/K. The one-dimensional analysis of the welding arc as well as the evaluation of these earlier published reports helps to explain the effects of various gases used for welding, improves our understanding of the physics of the welding arc, and provides a stepping …

This study sought to determine the impact of cold-induced mortality and impingement of threadfin shad (Dorsoma petenense) on the food consumption and prey selection of sauger (Stizostedion canadense), and to estimate the ability of sauger to digest meals consumed at low temperatures in winter. Prey selection of sauger was monitored from November 1976 through April 1977. Stomach contents of 536 sauger indicated threadfin provided the entire forage base for sauger through January. Food consumption of sauger was reduced and prey selection shifted to other species after January due to the combined effects of predation, impingement, and natural mortality of cold-stressed threadfin. Threadfin shad of a size available to most sauger were virtually eliminated by February. From February through April some sauger utilized alternate prey species. Laboratory digestion rate studies of sauger indicated digestion of force-fed meals of 4 to 7 g fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) could proceed to 90 percent completion in 54 h at 5 C, 47 hr at 10 C, and 25 hr at 15 C. Conclusions of this study are: (1) that threadfin shad were the most abundant and vulnerable prey species available to and utilized by sauger during the late fall and winter months; (2) extensive …