We have explored the major technical and conceptual issues relating to the suitability of a diode-pumped solid state laser as a driver for an inertial fusion energy power plant. While solid state lasers have long served as the workhorse of inertial confinement fusion physics studies, the deployment of a driver possessing adequate efficiency, reliability, and repetition rate for inertial fusion energy requires the implementation of several technical innovations discussed in this article.

This is the first quarterly technical progress report for the project. Although the contract was awarded on March 30, 1995 and Pre-Award Approval was given on January 26, 1995, the partners of this project initiated work on October 1, 1994. As such, this progress report summarizes the work performed from project inception. The production and injection data, reservoir engineering data, and digitized and normalized log data were all completed sufficiently by the end of the quarter to start work on the basic reservoir engineering and geologic stochastic models. Basic reservoir engineering analysis began June 1 and will continue to March, 1996. Design work for the 5 observation/core holes, oil finger printing of the cored oil sands, and tracers surveys began in January, 1995. The wells will be drilled from July--August, 1995 and tracer injection work is projected to start in October, 1995. A preliminary deterministic 3-D geologic model was completed in June which is sufficient to start work on the stochastic 3-D geologic model. The four proposed horizontal wells (two injectors and two producers) have been designed, equipment has been ordered, and the wells will be drilled from mid-August through September. Four existing steam injection wells were converted to hot …

The Tasks of this project are to: (1) complete implementation of a Risk Based Data Management System (RBDMS) in the States of Alaska, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska; and (2) conduct Area of Review (AOR) Workshops in the states of California, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. The RBDMS was designed to be a comprehensive database with the ability to expand into multiple areas, including oil and gas production. The database includes comprehensive well information for both producing and injection wells. It includes automated features for performing functions redated to AOR analyses, environmental risk analyses, well evaluation, permit evaluation, compliance monitoring, operator bonding assessments, operational monitoring and tracking, and more. This quarterly report describes the status of the development of the RBDMS project in both stated tasks and proposes further steps in its implementation.

In our application, dichroics in a high average power, near-infrared, laser system have short operating lifetimes. These dichroics were used as the resonator fold mirrors and permitted the transmission of the pumping argon (Ar) ion laser light. Representative samples of two different dichroic optics were taken off-line and the transmission performance monitored in various scenarios. Irradiating these optics under resonator vacuum conditions, ({le}1 mT, 11.7 kW/cm{sup 2}, Ar laser running all wavelengths) resulted in a degradation of transmission with time. Irradiating these optics in a rarefied oxygen atmosphere (1 to 10 T of oxygen, 11.7 kW/cm{sup 2}, Ar laser running all wavelengths) the transmission remained steady over a period of days. The transmission loss observed in the optic tested in vacuum was somewhat reversible if the optic was subsequently irradiated in a rarefied oxygen atmosphere. This reversibility was only possible if the transmission degradation was not too severe. Further tests demonstrated that an atmosphere of 10 T of air also prevented the transmission degradation. In addition, tests were performed to demonstrate that the optic damage was not caused by the ultra-violet component in the Ar ion laser. Mechanisms that may account for this behavior are proposed.

The objective of this project is to develop a comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and quantitative characterization of a fluvial-deltaic reservoir which will allow realistic inter-well and reservoir-scale modeling to be constructed for improved oil-field development in similar reservoirs world-wide. The geological and petrophysical properties of the Cretaceous Ferron Sandstone in east-central Utah will be quantitatively determined. Both new and existing data will be integrated into a three-dimensional representation of spatial variations in porosity, storativity, and tensorial rock permeability at a scale appropriate for inter-well to regional-scale reservoir simulation. Results could improve reservoir management through proper infill and extension drilling strategies, reduction of economic risks, increased recovery from existing oil fields, and more reliable reserve calculations. Technical progress this quarter is divided into regional stratigraphy, case studies, stochastic modeling and fluid-flow simulation, and technology transfer activities. The regional stratigraphy of the Ferron Sandstone outcrop belt from Last Chance Creek to Ferron Creek is being described and interpreted. Photomosaics and a database of existing surface and subsurface data are being used to determine the extent and depositional environment of each parasequence, and the nature of the contacts with adjacent rocks or flow units. For the second field season, detailed geological and petrophysical characterization of …

The TREAT Facility was designed and built in the late 1950s at Argonne National Laboratory to provide a transient reactor for safety experiments on samples of reactor fuels. It first operated in 1959. Throughout its history, experiments conducted in TREAT have been important in establishing the behavior of a wide variety of reactor fuel elements under conditions predicted to occur in reactor accidents ranging from mild off normal transients to hypothetical core disruptive accidents. For much of its history, TREAT was used primarily to test liquid-metal reactor fuel elements, initially for the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II), then for the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF), the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Plant (CRBRP), the British Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR), and finally, for the Integral Fast Reactor (IFR). Both oxide and metal elements were tested in dry capsules and in flowing sodium loops. The data obtained were instrumental in establishing the behavior of the fuel under off-normal and accident conditions, a necessary part of the safety analysis of the various reactors. In addition, TREAT was used to test light-water reactor (LWR) elements in a steam environment to obtain fission-product release data under meltdown conditions. Studies are now under way on applications of TREAT …

An investigation of the rapid rise time of x-ray emission from targets heated by an ultrashort-pulse high-intensity optical laser was conducted for use as a pump for inner-shell photo-ionized x-ray lasing. Results of x-ray rise times from instantaneously heated Au rod targets show little benefit for using optical pulse widths less than 30 fs. Gain calculations for inner-shell photo-ionized lasing show that large gains can be obtained for pulse widths between 30 and 100 fs. Calculated spectra, using the hydrodynamic/atomic kinetics code LASNEX, from a 1 J, 65 fs FWHM pulse optical laser incident on a structured Au target gave a gain of 1 1.5 cm{sup {minus}1} in C at 45 {angstrom}.

The seismic structure of North Africa is poorly understood due to the relative paucity of stations and seismicity when compared to other continental regions of the world. A better understanding of the velocity structure in this area will allow improved models of travel times and regional phase amplitudes. Such models will improve location and identification capability in this region leading to more effective monitoring of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. Using regional-to-teleseismic Rayleigh and Love waves that traverse the area we can obtain information about the region's seismic structure by examining phase velocity as a function of period. We utilize earthquakes from the tectonically active regions bounding North Africa (Mediterranean, Red Sea, East African Rift, and Mid-Atlantic Ridge) recorded at broadband seismic stations distributed throughout the region. A two-station method is utilized to determine phase velocity information along the interstation segment of the ray path. The two-station method provides particular advantage in this region as it dramatically increases the number of events available to provide pure North African sampling. Bandpass filters are applied to the seismograms so that peaks and troughs may be correlated. The phase is unwrapped and a difference curve computed. The difference curve is then converted to a …

The TREAT facility was designed and built in the 1950s to provide a transient reactor for conducting safety experiments on reactor fuels. Throughout its almost 40-year history, it has proven to be a safe, reliable, and versatile facility, compiling a distinguished record of successful experiments. Several major improvements to the facility have been made, including an expansion of the building and of equipment handling capability, and enlargement of the access hole above the core, rearrangement of the reactor's control rods to provide more-uniform flux profiles, installation of improved reactor computer-control systems, a feedback system that safely allows real-time changes in power transients depending upon events occurring in the experiment, and several upgrades in the fast neutron hodoscope for improved experiment-fuel-motion diagnostics. The original TREAT fuel is still in use, however, since it appears to have no degradation from its many years of service.

The effect of shrapnel on target chamber components and experiments at large lasers such as the National Ignition Facility at LLNL and the Megajoule Laser at CESTA in France is an important issue in fielding targets and exposure samples. Modeling calculations are likely to be an important component of this effort. Some work in this area has been performed by French workers, who are collaborating with the LLNL on many issues relating to target chamber, experiment-component, and diagnostics survival. Experiments have been performed at the PhCbus laser in France to measure shrapnel produced by laser-driven targets; among these shots were experiments that accelerated spheres of a size characteristic of some of the more damaging shrapnel. These spheres were stopped in polyethylene witness plates. The penetration depth is characteristic of the velocity of the shrapnel. Experimental calibration of steel sphere penetration into polyethylene was performed at the CESTA facility. The penetration depth has been reported (ref. 1) and comparisons with modeling calculations have been made (ref. 2). There was interest in a comparison study of the modeling of these experiments to provide independent checks of the calculations. This work has been approved both by DOE headquarters and by the French Atomic …

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The National Ignition Facility (NIF), now under construction at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, will be the largest laser fusion facility ever built. The NIF laser architecture is based on a multi-pass power amplifier to reduce cost and maximize performance. A key component in this laser design is an optical switch that closes to trap the optical pulse in the cavity for four gain passes and then opens to divert the optical pulse out of the amplifier cavity. The switch is comprised of a Pockels cell and a polarizer and is unique because it handles a beam that is 40 cm x 40 cm square and allows close horizontal and vertical beam spacing. Conventional Pockels cells do not scale to such large apertures or the square shape required for close packing. Our switch is based on a Plasma-Electrode Pockels Cell (PEPC). In a PEPC, low-pressure helium discharges (1-2 kA) are formed on both sides of a thin slab of electro-optic material. Typically, we use KH{sub 2}PO{sub 4 } crystals (KDP). The discharges form highly conductive, transparent sheets that allow uniform application of a high-voltage pulse (17 kV) across the crystal. A 37 cm x 37 cm PEPC has been in routine …

This system development specification covers the Poloidal Field (PF) Magnet System, WBS 14 in the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory TPX Program to build a tokamak fusion reactor. This specification establishes the performance, design, development and test requirements of the PF Magnet System.

Research continued on hydrogen separation from coal gas. Project objectives are to explore silyation reactions with the purpose of reducing the thickness and increasing the permeability of silica membranes; to delinate mechanisms and kinetics of silica deposition; to measure the permeability of silica layers at different extents of deposition; and to mathematically model the relationship of permeability and membrane structure.

This document defines the software quality assurance plan (SQAP) as it shall be applied to the development of the monitor and control system for the Integrated Corrosion Facility (ICF). The purpose of this SQA plan is to provide guidance to the development team in software quality and associated documentation.

Progress is described on the design, performance, and commercialization of a one pass cotton plowdown machine. Photos are included.

Vertical gas motions induced by barometric pressure variations can carry radioactive gases out of the rubblized region produced by an underground nuclear explosion, through overburden rock, into the atmosphere. To better quantify transit time and amount of transport, field experiments were conducted at two sites on Pahute Mesa, Kapelli and Tierra, where radioactive gases had been earlier detected in surface cracks. At each site, two tracer gases were injected into the rubblized chimney 300-400 m beneath the surface and their arrival was monitored by concentration measurements in gas samples extracted from shallow collection holes. The first ``active`` tracer was driven by a large quantity of injected air; the second ``passive`` tracer was introduced with minimal gas drive to observe the natural transport by barometric pumping. Kapelli was injected in the fall of 1990, followed by Tierra in the fall of 1991. Data was collected at both sites through the summer of 1993. At both sites, no surface arrival of tracer was observed during the active phase of the experiment despite the injection of several million cubic feet of air, suggesting that cavity pressurization is likely to induce horizontal transport along high permeability layers rather than vertical transport to the surface. …

The objective of this work to be conducted by Acurex Environmental Corporation is to create a commercially successful venture to market a low emission coal briquette to the residential heating market in Krakow. During Phase I, small quantities of the briquetted product will be manufactured and tested. Five Polish coals and two Polish sources of binder material will be tested to determine their amenability to forming briquettes. Small-scale combustion tests will also be performed during Phase I to determine the effectiveness of the briquettes to reduce emissions. A preliminary engineering review of the plant will also be performed. The primary results from this period include a formulation study using fines prepared from chunk Brzeszcze coal and a study which revisited the question of dry mixing versus wet mixing. In addition to these studies, preparations for combustion testing continued.

Abstract: The hazards assessment for transportation of ,DOE owned hazardous material off the Hanford Site provides the technical basis for categorization of hazardous material events.

This supporting document has been prepared to make the FDNW civil/structural calculations for Project W-320 readily retrievable.

Fused silica windows were artificially contaminated to estimate the resistance of target chamber debris shields against laser damage during NIF operation. Uniform contamination thin films (1 to 5 nm thick) were prepared by sputtering various materials (Au, Al, Cu, and B₄C). The loss of transmission of the samples was first measured. They were then tested at 355 nm in air with an 8-ns Nd:YAG laser. The damage morphologies were characterized by Nomarski optical microscopy and SEM. Both theory and experiments showed that metal contamination for films as thin as 1 nm leads to a substantial loss of transmission. The laser damage resistance dropped very uniformly across the entire surface (e.g. 6 J/cm² for 5 nm of Cu). The damage morphology characterization showed that contrary to clean silica, metal coated samples did not produce pits on the surface. B₄C coated silica, on the other hand, led to a higher density of such damage pits. A model for light absorption in the thin film was coupled with a simple heat deposition and diffusion model to perform preliminary theoretical estimates of damage thresholds. The estimates of the loss due to light absorption and reflection pointed out significant .differences between metals (e.g. Al and …

Progress is reported on solubilization of low-rank coal by enzyme activity derived from Trametes versicolor or P. chrysosporium. Specifically during the reporting period efforts were directed towards the determining the effect of pH on solubilization of leonardite, the role of laccase in low coal solubilization and metabolism, the decolorization of soluble coal macromolecule by P. chrysosprium and T. versicolor in solid agar gel, and the solubilization of low rank coal in slurry cultures and solid phase reactors.

This project addresses the solubilization of low-rank coal (leonardite) by lignin degrading fungi. During this reporting period efforts were focused on determining the effect of pH on coal solubilization by oxalate ion and other biologically important compounds that might function as metal chelators, on the role of laccase in coal solubilization and metabolism, on decolorization of soluble coal macromolecule by Phanerochaete chrysosporium and T. versicolor in solid agar media, and on solubilization of coal in slurry cultures and solid phase reactors.

Cleanliness measurements made on AMPLAB prototype National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser amplifiers during assembly, cassette transfer, and amplifier operation are summarized. These measurements include particle counts from surface cleanliness assessments using filter swipe techniques and from airborne particle monitoring. Results are compared with similar measurements made on the Beamlet and Nova lasers and in flashlamp test fixtures. Observations of Class 100,000 aerosols after flashlamp firings are discussed. Comparisons are made between typical damage densities on laser amplifier optics from Novette, NOVA, Beamlet, and AMPLAB.