A condition of compression loading could possibly occur to a subassembly as a result of large length changes to irradiation-induced swelling and thermal expansion. The effects of axial compression loading on EBR-II experimental and driver-fuel subassemblies were evaluated. Compression tests that were performed on the slotted top fixture of a subassembly showed that a force of 2100 lb at 900 degrees F would close the slot enough so that the core-gripper blade would not fit into the slot. Such a slot closure would prevent the subassembly from being removed from the reactor with the core gripper.

Analytical and experimental methods are presented for evaluating the vibration characteristics of cylindrical shells such as the thermal liner of the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) reactor vessel. The NASTRAN computer program is used to calculate the natural frequencies, mode shapes, and response to a harmonic loading of a thin, circular cylindrical shell situated inside a fluid-filled rigid circular cylinder. Solutions in a vacuum are verified with an exact solution method and the SAP IV computer code. Comparisons between analysis and experiment are made, and the accuracy and utility of the fluid-solid interaction package of NASTRAN is assessed.

The reliability of stainless steel type 304L canisters for the containment of solidified high-level radioactive wastes in the glass and calcine forms was studied. A reference system, drawn largely from information furnished by Battelle Northwest Laboratories and Atlantic Richfield Hanford Company is described. Operations include filling the canister with the appropriate waste form, interim storage at a reprocessing plant, shipment in water to a Retrievable Surface Storage Facility (RSSF), interim storage at the RSSF, and shipment to a final disposal facility.

A system has been designed to use CPC collectors to collect solar energy and to generate steam for industrial process heat purposes. The system is divided into two loops with the collectors in the collector loop to operate a pre-heater and the collectors in the boiler loop to heat water to elevated pressures and temperatures. A flash boiler is used to throttle the heated water to steam. Two types of CPC collectors are chosen. In the collector loop the CPC collectors are fitted with concentric tube receivers. In the boiler loop the collectors employ heat pipes to transmit heat. This design is able to alleviate the scaling and plumbing problems. A fragile receiver tube can also be employed without rupture difficulties. The thermal processes in the collectors were analyzed using a computer modeling. The results were also used to develop a thermodynamic analysis of the total system. Calculations show that the design is technically feasible. The CPC collector is shown to have an efficiency that is very weakly dependent on its operating temperatures, which makes the collector particularly attractive in high temperature applications.

This report deals with the REXCO-code predictions of the SRI SM-2 test. Two calculations were performed with the REXCO-HEP code: one used the pressure history of the core detonation products as input and the other the pressure-volume relations of the detonation products as input. The other inputs of the computer analysis are the vessel and the core-barrel dimensions and boundary conditions, the constitutive equations of the vessel and the core barrel materials, and the equation of state for the coolant. The REXCO-predicted well deformations, pressure loadings, and dynamic strain histories at various gauge positions are compared with the experimental data. Results of the comparisons are discussed.

This report describes ALICE, which uses an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian method to analyze the response of the contaminant vessel and other solid media inside a reactor contaminant.

During an unprotected undercooling accident in a liquid-metal fast breeder reactor, the motion and relocation of the molten cladding can he important because of its potentially significant effect on reactivity, blockage formation, and subsequent fuel motion. The present study analyzes the clad relocation problem1 based on a multichanneI film-flow model. The important aspects considered in the analysis are the nonuniform transverse ci1ad-melting pattern and diversions of sodium vapor flow within a subassembly. It has been shown that the motion of molten clad and subsequent blockage formations can be significantly influenced by this interconnected channel effect. Several sample cmi cu lat ions have been made in order to demonstrate these points.

A flow-sheet for the recovery of actinides from TBP-Na2CO3scrub-waste solutions has been developed, based on batch extraction data, and tested, using laboratory-scale countercurrent extraction techniques. The process, called the ARALEX process, uses 2-ethyl-1-hexanol (2-EHOH) to extract the TBP degradation products (HDBP and H/sub 2/MBP) from acidified Na2CO3scrub waste leaving the actinides in the aqueous phase. Dibutyl and monobutyl phosphoric acids are attached to the 2-EHOH molecules through hydrogen bonds, which also diminish the ability of the HDBP and H2/MBP to complex actinides. Thus all actinides remain in the aqueous raffinate. Dilute sodium hydroxide solutions can be used to back-extract the dibutyl and monobutyl phosphoric acid esters as their sodium salts. The 2-EHOH can then be recycled. After extraction of the acidified carbonate waste with 2-EHOH, the actinides may be readily extracted from the raffinate with DHDECMP or, in the case of tetra- and hexavalent actinides, with TBP. The ARALEX process can also be applied to other actinide waste streams which contain appreciable concentrations of polar organic compounds (e.g., detergents) that interfere with conventional actinide ion exchange and liquid-liquid extraction procedures.

Portions of the cesium-uranium-oxygen system have been investigated between 873 and 1273°K and a phase diagram has been constructed using our data and the data of other workers in the field. Thermodynamic and kinetic data have been used to examine the reactions that occur in fast-reactor fuel pins between fission-product cesium and the uranium oxide blanket. It was concluded that at the low oxygen potentials existing at the interface between the uranium-plutonium mixed-oxide and the uranium oxide blanket, Cs₂UO₄ is the only Cs-U-O compound expected to be formed in the uranium oxide blanket.

The quantities of krypton-85 that can be released to the environment from nuclear energy production are to be limited after 1983 by Federal regulations. Although procedures for collecting the krypton-85 released in the nuclear fuel cycle have been developed to the point that they are commercially available, procedures for terminal disposal of the collected gas are still being examined for their feasibility. In this work, the possibilities of underground disposal of krypton-85 by several techniques were evaluated. It was concluded that (1) disposal of krypton-85 as a solution in water or other solvents in deep wells would have the major disadvantages of liquid migration and the requirement of extremely large volumes of solvent; (2) disposal as bubbles entrained in cement grout injected underground presents the uncertainty of gaseous migration through permeable solid grout; (3) disposal by injection into abandoned oil fields would be favored by solubility of krypton in residual hydrocarbons, but has the disadvantages that such fields contain numerous shafts offering avenues of escape and also that the fields may be reworked in the future for their hydrocarbon residues; (4) underground retention of krypton-85 injected as a gas may be promising, given the right lithology, through entrapment in interstices …

A possible accident scenario in a Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor (GCFR) is the leakage of secondary steam into the core. Considerable analytical effort has gone into the study of the effects of such an accidental steam entry. The work described in this report represents the first full scale experimental study of the steam-entry phenomenon in GCFRs. The reference GCFR model used for the study was the benchmark GCFR Phase II assembly, and polyethylene foam was used to provide a very homogeneous steam simulation.

The contact of two liquid materials, one of which is at a temperature substantially above the boiling point of the other, can lead to fast energy conversion and a subsequent shock wave. This phenomenon is called a vapor explosion. One method of producing intimate, liquid-liquid contact (which is known to be a necessary condition for vapor explosion) is a shock tube configuration. Such experiments in which water was impacted upon molten aluminum showed that very high pressures, even larger than the thermodynamic critical pressure, could occur. The mechanism by which such sharp pressure pulses are generated is not yet clear. The report describes experiments in which cold liquids (Freon-11, Freon-22, water, or butanol) were impacted upon various hot materials (mineral oil, silicone oil, water, mercury, molten Wood's metal or molten salt mixture).

A fission-product source (FPS) was irradiated in EBR-II to provide data for calibrating the facility's fuel-element rupture detector (FERD), which is a delayed-neutron monitor, and germanium-lithium argon-scanning system (GLASS), a fission-gas-activity monitor. A metal alloy source, Ni-3.2 wt.% uranium, provided quantitative recoil release of the fission-product nuclides. The source alloy, in tubular form, was irradiated as core-region segments of 18 capsules in the FPS subassembly. The irradiation showed that the response of the FERD was linear with increasing reactor power. The magnitude of the FERD signal was dependent on local fission rate for the FPS and the flow path of the sodium carrying the delayed-neutron emitters. The relatively high fission-gas activity released by the FPS allowed accurate calibration of the GLASS under several modes of operation and provided data for verifying a gas-release model for the reactor.

Report on electrochemical energy development, including development of advanced, high-temperature lithium/metal sulfide batteries for vehicle propulsion and stationary energy storage.

Quarterly report discussing fuel cell research and development work at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). This report describes efforts directed toward understanding and improving the components of molten-carbonate-electrolyte fuel cells operated at temperatures near 925 K.

A transient, two-dimensional code has been developed to provide a detailed description of fuel-clad conditions during a TOP accident. Emphasis has been directed toward development of a framework within which fuel motion and ejection can be viewed following pin failure. All code modules have been rigorously verified. Illustrative application of the code, with the exercise of its many and varied features, have been included.

This report describes the Fuel Dynamics Test E6 and analyzes the test data. A cluster of six fresh FTR-type fuel pins surrounding a previously irradiated pin was tested to failure in a simulated $3/s FFTF accident.

Type 308 CRE stainless steel weld specimens were subjected to metallographic and fractographic analysis after failure in elevated temperature (593 degrees C) creep-fatigue tests. The failure mode for specimens tested under continuous-cycle fatigue conditions were predominantly transgranular. When the test cycle was modified to include a hold time at the maximum tensile strain, the failure mode became predominantly inter-phase. Sigma phase was observed within the delta-ferrite regions of the weld. However, the presence of sigma phase did not appear to affect the failure mode.

The degenerate parabolic equation has been used to model the flow of gas through a porous medium. Error estimates for continuous and discrete time finite element procedures to approximate the solution of this equation are proved and a new regularity result is described.

Materials used in coal-conversion systems are exposed to high pressure, high temperature, corrosive and erosive gases, and liquids containing particulate matter. These severe environments necessitate an assessment of the integrity of components to prevent premature failures. Gamma radiography was evaluated as a viable technique for testing such components in the laboratory or after operation in situ. Penetrameters (image-quality indicators) were developed for refractory-lined vessels and transfer lines, and exposure times for various combinations of refractory-steel thicknesses were determined. Radiography with /sup 60/Co was performed on gasifier vessels, combustor vessels, and critical transfer lines in existing pilot plants using the experience gained through laboratory experiments. The results show that gamma radiography is a practical and effective method to detect critical conditions in coal-conversion system components.

This report presents results from an investigation on the creep-fatigue and cyclic-deformation of Type 16-8-2 (16% Cr-8% Ni-2% Mo) stainless steel weld metal. Tests were conducted in air at 593 degrees C and a strain rate of 0.004 s⁻¹. Comparisons with data for Type 316 stainless steel base metal indicated that the weld metal has significantly longer fatigue lives for several tension hold-time tests. This is attributed to the fine duplex microstructure of the weld metal that inhibits the growth rate of cracks. Additional studies on the cyclic deformation behavior of the weld metal indicate that the material is strain-history dependent; therefore a unique stress-strain curve does not exist. Monotonic tension tests after cyclic straining result in a different stress-strain curve than obtained from companion fatigue tests at various completely reversed constant strain ranges. A comparison of the fracture morphology and creep-rupture specimens indicates that differences resulting from these tests can be attributed to different failure mechanisms.

This report discusses the effectiveness of the EBR-II fuel-element-rupture-detector (FERD) system which detects delayed-neutron-emitting fission products. It is demonstrated that FERD provides no reactor or public protection for loss-of-flow or transient-overpower fault events that affect the whole core; such protection is provided by other systems.

The effects of cyclic strains at 4.2 K on the electrical resistivity of copper have been investigated as Phase I of a program to determine the overall effects on monolithic superconducting composites. This work is a direct application to the design of large superconducting magnets that are subject to several different modes of cyclic strain during assembly and normal operations.

A lithium-aluminum/iron sulfide battery which uses a molten LiCl-KCl electrolyte is presently under development at Argonne National Laboratory. The performance and lifetime of this electrochemical system depend, in part, on the ability of the electrolyte to wet the materials used as electrodes, separators, and particle retainers. For this reason contact-angle measurements were made on smooth, 100%-dense surfaces of the cell materials. In addition, electrolyte penetrability determinations were made on the porous materials actually used as cell separators and particle retainers. The results of these measurements led to techniques for completely filling porous cell components with electrolyte, suggestions for dealing with the problem of electrolyte creeping, estimates of the likelihood of electrolyte transfer from one porous component to another, and estimation of the maximum allowable vertical cell dimensions.