Significant increases in energy utilization efficiency can be achieved through the recovery of low-temperature rejected heat. This energy conserving possibility provides incentive for the development of heat exchangers which could be employed in applications where conventional units cannot be used. Some unique anticorrosion and nonstick characteristics of plastics make this material very attractive for heat recovery where condensation, especially sulfuric acid, and fouling occur. Some of the unique characteristics of plastics led to the commercial success of DuPont's heat exchangers utilizing polytetrafluoroethylene (trade name Teflon) tubes. Attributes which were exploited in this application were the extreme chemical inertness of the material and its flexibility, which enabled utilization in odd-shaped spaces. The wide variety of polymeric materials available ensures chemical inertness for almost any application. Lower cost, compoundability with fillers to improve thermal/mechanical properties, and versatile fabrication methods are incentives for many uses. Also, since many plastics resist corrosion, they can be employed in lower temperature applications (< 436 K), where condensation can occur and metal units have been unable to function. It is clear that if application and design can be merged to produce a cost-effective alternate to present methods of handling low-temperature rejected heat, then there is significant incentive …

Argonne National Laboratory is decommissioning a facility used to fabricate reactor fuel elements. The equipment is contaminated with alpha emitters. The objective of decontamination is to reduce the TRU concentrations below 10 nCi/g of waste. A portable NDA procedure using Na I (TI ) gamma-spectrometric techniques was selected to measure the residual Pu and 2i 1 Am in the glove boxes. Assays were performed at different stages in the decontamination process to estimate the detection system sensitivity and the effectiveness of the cleaning efforts.

Report of highlights of Argonne program on the development of lithium/metal sulfide batteries. These batteries are being developed for electric-vehicle propulsion and for stationary energy-storage applications.

Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) is engaged in a project to determine the impact of advanced scientific computers on Argonne's computing workload. The CRAY-1 was chosen to begin our investigation because it was the only machine currently available that qualifies as an advanced scientific computer, or Class VI (one capable of executing 20 to 60 million floating point operations per second).

The author proves the mean ergodic theorem for nonlinear non-expansive mappings in Banach spaces, extends it by a different argument, deduces several consequences, and points out open problems.

By perturbing a linear program to a quadratic program, it is possible to solve the latter in its dual variable space by iterative techniques such as successive over-relaxation (SOR) methods. This provides a solution to the original linear program.

Suspected fission-product releases from 18 subassemblies between April 1977 and May 1978 are presented. Post-irradiation examinations pm 15 of the suspect subassemblies confirmed that all contained one or more breached elements. Except for two untagged subassemblies, xenon tagging was the primary method of identification, although other methods were used where appropriate. Methods to monitor and identify fission product sources are discussed. Problems encountered elements on plant availability were minimal during this reporting period. From all evidence, cladding breaching on elements in EBR-II continues to be a benign process.

Annual report of the Argonne National Laboratory Chemical Engineering Division regarding studies of nuclear waste migration in geologic media. This report discusses research regarding nuclide migration and cesium absorption on limestone.

Available information on the corrosion behavior and mechanical properties of structural materials in a high-temperature sodium environment has been reviewed to compile a data base for selection of materials for advanced central-receiver solar-power systems, for which sodium is being considered as a heat-transfer fluid and thermal-storage medium. Candidate materials for this application (e.g., Types 304, 316, and 321 stainless steel, Alloy 800, and Fe-2 1/4 Cr-1Mo and Fe-9Cr-1Mo ferritic steels) have been used in the construction of various components for liquid-metal fast-breeder reactors in this country and abroad with considerable success. Requirements for additional information on material properties in a sodium environment are identified. The additional data coupled with more quantitative deformation models, failure criteria, and component design rules will further reduce uncertainties in the assessment of performance limits and component reliability in large sodium heat-transport systems.