Specifications, operation, characteristics, cost, and experience with the NAL 15-ft bubble chamber are described. Beam availability and some experimental proposals are discussed. (WHK)

The expansion of ballistic gun range facilities at LLL has introduced state-of-the-art diagnostic techniques to glovebox-enclosed ballistic guns systems. These enclosed ballistic ranges are designed for the study of one- dimensional shock phenomena in extremely toxic material such as plutonium. The extension of state-of-the-art phtographic and interferometric diagnostic systems to glovebox-enclosed gun systems introduces new design boundaries and performance criteria on optical and mechanical components. A technique for experimentally evaluating design proposals is illustrated, and several specific examples (such as, target alignment, collateral shrapnel damage, and soft recovery) are discussed. (auth)

This report is the thorough description of the 242-S Evaporator-Crystallizer Information Manual.

Separate abstracts were prepared for 12 sections of this report. Six items have been announced in Nuclear Science Abstracts and all twelve items have been announced in ERDA Research Abstracts. (CH)

The purpose of this report is to develop a new dry cooling tower surface.

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Research progress is reported. A BaO collector was subjected to Auger and scanning electron microprobe analyses. Experiments measuring the work function of promising collector materials at high cesium impingement rates were continued. Evaluation of the tungsten oxide converter, barium oxide converter, and guarded converter continued. Results are given and discussed. (WHK)

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Analyses of the present titanium-tritide RTNS targets are presented. These results include the hydrogen-isotope content of new and used targets, metallography, scanning electron microscopy, and hydrogen-isotope-diffusion calculations using a heat-flow finite-difference computer code. These latter calculations indicate that a combination of long target life and high neutron output is optimized when the rate of hydrogen isotope evolution from the target balances the deposition rate from the beam. Auger spectra show that carbon and oxygen species are present in the bulk and on the surface. (auth)

It is shown that there are several substantive errors in a previous work on a cosmic ray event which is consistent with the hypothesis that it was caused by a magnetic monopole. It is shown that the data points fit to the hypothesis that the responsible particle is a platinum nucleus fragmenting to osmium and then to tantalum. (JFP)

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Considerable success has been achieved this year in research aimed at extending the asymptotic threshold nonlinear theory to plasmas governed by the Vlasov equation and in a group of linear studies concerned with drift instabilities in sheared magnetic fields. The nonlinear results are general and have been applied to the bump-on-tail instability and to the collisionless drift and the dissipative trapped electron instability in unsheared fields. The linear studies have dealt with the effects of resonant electrons, finite collisionality, finite-beta, neoclassical modifications and ion gyro-motion on trapped electron instabilities in sheared magnetic fields. (auth)

A semiconductor detector x-ray spectrometer has been constructed for the analysis of elements in air particulate specimens. The excitation radiation is provided, either directly or indirectly, using a low power (40 watts) Ag anode x- ray tube. Less than 100 ng for most of the elements in the range Mg $Yields$ Zr, Pb are easily detected within two 1-minute counting intervals. A calibration technique for light element analysis and an experimental method which compensates for particle size effects are discussed. (auth)

A new semi-classical method, the so-called uniform semiclassical approximation, is described briefly and then applied to two nuclear physics problems. The basic features of this method are that the dynamics of the problem is treated completely classically (that is, one solves classical equations of motion), but the quantum mechanical superposition principle is retained by evaluating a phase along the classical trajectory and adding probability amplitudes for indistinguishable processes rather than probabilities themselves. The first problem considered is the backscattering from a deformed nucleus and the excitation of rotational states in the target at energies up to the Coulomb barrier. The multiple Coulomb excitation calculations are in quantitative agreement with a very different method (the de Boer-Winther code). A nuclear optical potential is also considered and the nuclear-Coulomb interference for heavy ions is studied. The second problem considered is the tunneling through a two-dimensional barrier. This problem (which is supposed to simulate the penetration through a two-dimensional fission barrier) is investigated by a fully quantum-mechanical coupled-channel calculation and by the uniform semiclassical approximation. A quantitative agreement is found. (auth)

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A computational method to determine cross-section requirements quantitatively is described and applied to the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR). In order to provide a rational basis for the priorities assigned to new cross- section measurements or evaluations, this method includes quantitative estimates of the uncertainty of currently available data, the sensitivity of important nuclear design parameters to selected cross sections, and the accuracy desired in predicting nuclear design parameters. Perturbation theory is used to combine estimated cross-section uncertainties with calculated sensitivities to determine the variance of any nuclear design parameter of interest. (auth)

The specific topics discussed are grouped into the subject areas of: (1) Storage System Integrity and Engineered Improvements, (2) Waste Retrieval, (3) Waste Immobilization and Storage, and (4) Contaminated Equipment Volume Reduction. (auth)

The automated spectrophotometer described is the first in a planned series of automated instruments for determining plutonium and uranium in nuclear fuel cycle materials. It has a throughput rate of 5 min per sample and uses a highly specific method of analysis for these elements. The range of plutonium and uranium measured is 0.5 to 14 mg and 1 to 14 mg, respectively, in 0.5 ml or less of solution with an option to pre-evaporate larger volumes. The precision of the measurements is about 0.02 mg standard deviation over the range corresponding to about 2 rel percent at the 1-mg level and 0.2 rel percent at the 10-mg level. The method of analysis involves the extraction of tetrapropylammonium plutonyl and uranyl trinitrate complexes into 2-nitropropane and the measurement of the optical absorbances in the organic phase at unique peak wavelengths. Various aspects of the chemistry associated with the method are presented. The automated spectrophotometer features a turntable that rotates as many as 24 samples in tubes to a series of stations for the sequential chemical operations of reagent addition and phase mixing to effect extraction, and then to a station for the absorbance measurement. With this system, the complications of …

Data have gradually been accumulated on the physical properties of nuclear test sites at the U. S. Energy Research and Development Administration (USERDA) Nevada Test Site (NTS) since underground testing began there in 1957. These data have been stored in the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (LLL) K-Division Test Effects Data Bank. This report briefly describes the principal test areas Yucca Flat, Pahute Mesa, and Rainier Mesa) and media (alluvium, tuff, Climax Stock (granite) and Paleozoic rocks) at NTS. Background information is given on the data base and the various methods used to measure geophysical parameters at NTS are described. The mean, standard deviation, and range of values for each test area and medium are given. However, specific properties for individual sites are not contained in this report. Properties for which averages are given include overburden and working-point density; seismic velocity both near the working point and from the working point to the surface; and water content, porosity, and water saturation of the rocks in the working point vicinity. (auth)

The work done with element 106 is reviewed, and a new experiment which bears on the properties of the isotope of mass 260 with atomic number 104 is discussed. It is noted that in the case of element 106 a link is demonstrated to the granddaughter as well as the daughter. (JFP)

The Brayton Isotope Power System (BIPS) Ground Demonstration System (GDS) configuration is defined. The GDS is configured to be similar to a conceptual flight system design referred to herein as the BIPS Flight System (FS). The Brayton Isotope Power System is being developed by the ERDA as a 500 to 2000 W/sub e/, 7 year life 3.5 W/sub e/ per pound space power system. The system was a closed Brayton dynamic system to convert energy from an isotope heat source at a net efficiency exceeding 25%. This CCD is for the first phase of the ERDA program to have a qualified system ready for launch by June 30, 1981. Phase I is a 36 month effort to provide a conceptual design of the flight system and design, fabricate and test a ground demonstration system. The baseline system is predicated on using two of the multihundred-watt isotope heat sources being developed for the ERDA by GE. The Ground Demonstration System will simulate, as closely as possible, the Brayton Isotope Power Flight System and will utilize components and technology being developed by NASA for the Mini-Brayton rotating unit (AIRPHX), recuperator (AIRLA) and heat source assembly (GE). The Ground Demonstration System includes a …

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Past liquid waste disposal practices at the U. S. Energy Research and Development Administration's Hanford Reservation have included the discharges of solutions containing trace quantities of actinides directly into the ground via structures collectively termed ''trenches''. Characterization of samples from two of these trenches, the 216-Z-9 and the 216-Z-1A(a), has been initiated to determine the present form and migration potential of plutonium stored in sediments which received high salt, acidic waste liquids. Analysis of samples acquired by drilling has revealed that the greatest measured concentration of Pu, approximately 10$sup 6$ $mu$Ci $sup 239$Pu/liter of sediment, occurs in both facilities just below the points of release of the waste liquids. This concentration decreases to approximately 10$sup 3$ $mu$Ci $sup 239$Pu/liter of sediment within the first 2 meters of the underlying sediment columns and to approximately 10 $mu$Ci $sup 239$Pu/liter of sediment at the maximum depth sampled (9 meters). Examination of relatively undisturbed sediment cores illustrated two types of Pu occurrence responsible for this distribution. One of these types is composed of Pu particles (greater than 70 wt percent PuO$sub 2$) added to the disposal site in the same form. This ''particulate'' type was ''filtered out'' within the upper 1 meter of …