Experiments conducted during this past quarter demonstrated the decided difference both in amount and composition of the gas produced from the fermentation of ozonated versus unozonated yeast-plant SSL. Gas from ozonated SSL averaged over 80% methane content while unozonated effluent was mostly carbon dioxide. Gas production rates and retention time studies indicated that the fermentation was substrate-limited. Preliminary tests using supplemental carbon sources have verified this. The success of the ozonation process in producing fermentable substrates was clearly shown by the appreciable yeast growth in the ozonated SSL. Of particular significance was the maximum yield obtained at the short ozonation time of 10 minutes as compared to the 2-hour treatment. It is possible that shortening the ozonation time could also increase the amount of substrate available for methane production. This would be very important in transferring this process to a commercial basis and reducing the operating costs.

The inducer pump, designed and fabricated as a test article to evaluate the inducer/impeller pump concept for providing improved suction performance of large sodium pumps, met or exceeded all performance goals. The inducer stage in front of the centrifugal impeller dramatically reduces the size of pumps. It was demonstrated that the inducer can operate at suction specific speeds in excess of 35,000, whereas conventional centrifugal pumps have demonstrated capability to only 12,000. The inducer pump employs several components of the 2000 and 4000 gpm NaK pumps from the Connecticut Aircraft Nuclear Engine Laboratory (CANEL) Programs. Use of the volute, thermal barrier and shaft oil seal from the CANEL pumps allowed acceleration and cost reduction of the Inducer Pump Program.

A new, wide-range equation of state (EOS) has been constructed for Be. The composite theoretical model incorporates ionization equilibrium and condensed-matter and multiphase physics. It also satisfies all thermodynamic equilibrium constraints. The theoretical EOS has been compared with all available high-pressure and high-temperature Be data, and satisfactory agreement is generally achieved. The most interesting feature is the theoretical prediction of melting at just below 220 GPa (2 Mb), indicating an extremely wide pressure range for solid Be. A striking feature is the appearance of shell-structure effects in physical-process paths: 2 large loops appear on the principal Hugoniot and the behavior of release isentropes from rho = rho/sub 0/ is significantly affected.

Significant progress in plasma confinement and temperature has been achieved in the 2XIIB facility at Livermore. These encouraging results, and their theoretical corroboration, have provided a firm basis for the design of a new generation of magnetic mirror experiments, adding support to the mirror concept of a fusion reactor. Two new mirror experiments have been proposed to succeed the currently operating 2XIIB facility. The first of these called TMX (Tandem Mirror Experiment) has been approved and is currently under construction. TMX is designed to utilize the intrinsic positive plasma potential of two strong, and relatively small, minimum B mirror cells to enhance the confinement of a much larger, magnetically weaker, centrally-located mirror cell. The second facility, MFTF (Mirror Fusion Test Facility), is currently in preliminary design with line item approval anticipated for FY 78. MFTF is designed primarily to exploit the experimental and theoretical results derived from 2XIIB. Beyond that, MFTF will develop the technology for the transition from the present small mirror experiments to large steady-state devices such as the mirror FERF/FTR. The sheer magnitude of the plasma volume, magnetic field, neutral beam power, and vacuum pumping capacity, particularly in the case of MFTF, has placed new and exciting …

This report documents the 1) radial compliance and 2) low friction coating tests conducted on the CRBRP Rotating Plug Inflatable Seals per test plan N707TR810014. Test results show that narrowing the seal blade from 0.25 to 0.12 in. will effectively reduce dynamic drag from 30 to 20 lb/ft under nominal conditions and will increase seal radial compliance from 0.12 to 0.30 in. without an unacceptable rise in dynamic drag. Tests also demonstrated that application of a teflon coating to the seal wear surface reduced breakaway drag by 25% based on results of comparison dwells.

The effect of shock wave risetime on material ejection in aluminum has been studied for loading stresses of 21 GPa. Uniform loading was accomplished with plate impact techniques by mounting specimens on a ramp wave generator. Projectile impact on one side of the wave generator produced a wave which dispersed with propagation distance. This wave was then made incident to an aluminum specimen, so that the specimen experienced non-shock loading. It was found that mass ejection from aluminum surfaces can be reduced by over two orders of magnitude relative to shock loading conditions by accelerating the surface with a wave risetime greater than about 35 ns. These results suggest an explanation for the apparent discrepancies which are sometimes observed in mass ejection measurements utilizing either plate impact or electron beam deposition to generate stress waves.

The Laboratory for Nuclear Science (LNS) has continued its study of resource sharing via general-purpose computer networks. This report describes experiments performed with the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and the Argonne National Laboratory in using the network for off-loading calculations and obtaining access to unique hardware and software. It also gives performance statistics of the network and cost comparisons. Continued investigation of message and teleconferencing systems is described. Plans for improved usage of the ARPANET, for expansion of computer-aided communications facilities, and for investigation of networks other than the ARPANET are proposed. To date the study has demonstrated that resource sharing via networks will provide LNS with access to computer facilities not available on site, and thus improve the quality of energy research done in the laboratory. However, certain barriers, both technical and nontechnical, exist that must be overcome. In the technical area continued investigation is planned into improving the user interface to the network with cooperative projects at other sites, such as the development of a standard command language, expanded network oriented documentation, and consulting facilities. Methods of managing network services and allocating costs will be studied in an effort to eliminate some of the nontechnical barriers.

During this quarter the portion of this project concerned with catalysis has concentrated on the development of increased understanding of the cobalt(II) porphyrin catalyst. Of potential importance is the observation that the activity of partially deactivated catalysts can be partially restored by treatment with titanium(III) solutions thereby suggesting that a major cause of the losses of activity of catalysts upon repeated recycling arises from oxidation of cobalt(II) to cobalt(III). The previously discovered molybdenum catalyst ((CF/sub 3/)/sub 2/C/sub 2/S/sub 2/)/sub 3/Mo and the closely related nickel catalyst ((CF/sub 3/)/sub 2/C/sub 2/S/sub 2/)/sub 2/Ni were also studied in detail.

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It was previously found that the triphenylcyclopropenyl-nickel compound ((C/sub 6/H/sub 5/)/sub 3/C/sub 3/Ni(CO)Br)/sub 2/ (I, X = Br) was an active catalyst for the conversion of quadricyclene to norbornadiene. This result was of considerable interest in connection with the development of the solar energy storage system since it indicated a new type of complex of a relatively abundant metal with potentially useful catalytic properties. For this reason, during this quarter a variety of triphenylcyclopropenyl-nickel derivatives were synthesized in order to determine their structure-activity relationships with respect to catalysis of the conversion of quadricyclene to norbornadiene. Also, a new approach to the development of a polymer-bound catalyst for the conversion of quadricyclene to norbornadiene based on an ion-exchange resin was also explored. Procedures and results are reported. (WHK)

A device has been developed that will control the filament temperature in a thermal ionization mass spectrometer. The arrangement is superior to past methods to control this critical parameter. The operating principle lies in the feature of filament power control as contrasted with the formerly used voltage or current controls. Reproducibility and stability of ion beams showed great improvement. The mass spectrometer was developed to analyze for parts-per-billion concentrations of uranium in water samples.