This workshop on potential effcts of geothermal energy conversion on the ecology of Imperial Valley brought together personnel of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and many collaborators under the sponsorship of the ERDA Imperial Valley Environmental Project (IVEP). The LLL Integrated Assessment Team identified the electric power potential and its associated effluents, discharges, subsidence, water requirements, land use, and noise. The Working Groups addressed the ecological problems. Water resource management problems include forces on water use, irrigation methods and water use for crops, water production, and water allocation. Agricultural problems are the contamination of edible crops and the reclamation of soil. A strategy is discussed for predevelopment baseline data and for identification of source term tracers. Wildlife resources might be threatened by habitat destruction, powerline impacts, noise and disturbance effects, gas emissions, and secondary impacts such as population pressure. Aquatic ecosystems in both the Salton Sea and fresh waters have potential hazards of salinity and trace metal effects, as well as existing stresses; baseline and bioassay studies are discussed. Problems from air pollution resulting from geothermal resource development might occur, particularly to vegetation and pollinator insects. Conversion of injury data to predicted economic damage isneeded. Finally, Imperial Valley desert ecosystems might be …

The Thermal Storage Subsystem Research Experiment is designed to give maximum information for evaluating the design, performance, and operating parameters of the Barstow Solar Pilot Plant. The experiment is summarized, and the experiment components detail design and integration are described. The experiment test and operation is described which is designed to collect engineering data to allow the design, performance, and operational characteristics to be specified for the Pilot Plant. Appended are: design documentation; pressure drop calculations; materials studies for thermal energy storage; flow charts for data acquisition and control; condenser detail design; instrumentation error analysis; logic diagrams for the control system; literature survey to evaluate the two-phase forced convection heat transfer; and the vaporizer performance model. (LEW)

The performance of ion extractors is analyzed with crude approximations that show improved performance to be possible with the certain modifications. However, additional studies are required to evaluate the beam optics in the presence of the deformed grids.

A new method for producing lithium was investigated. In a continuous process, lithium amalgam would first be formed by reduction of aqueous LiOH/sup -/ or Li/sub 2/CO/sub 3/. Lithium would then be electrochemically separated from the amalgam to form the pure liquid metal. Laboratory determination of the coulombic efficiency for the reaction Li + OH/sup -/ = LiOH(aq) + e/sup -/ continued. The coulombic efficiency was found to approach 1.0 as the anodic diffusion-limited current density was approached. 2 figures. (RWR)

The Bauschinger effect (different elastic-plastic behavior upon unloading) was measured in uranium and a model of the effect developed for use in one-dimensional hydrodynamic codes. Results from plate-impact tests show that rarefaction waves in uranium can be calculated more accurately with this model. We conclude that the Bauschinger effect can be an important aspect of rarefaction waves in uranium and other materials. 8 figures. (auth)

The purpose of this investigation is to develop web-dendritic process methods that will: (1) minimize the cost of processing silicon into ribbons of solar cell quality with a terrestrial energy conversion efficiency greater than 10 percent, and (2) be suitable for large quantity production. The report for this second quarter describes the work of the program during this period and presents the plan for the program for the full length of the contract. Work is described on: (1) the procedures used to calibrate and operate the web-dendritic growth furnace; (2) use of the furnace to grow web-dendritic ribbon; (3) considerations applied for the thermal analysis and modeling of the web-dendritic growth system; and (4) procedures, facilities, and initial results for the structural and electrical characterization of web material. (WDM)

Air pollution monitoring activities at Kawasaki City, Japan during 1969 through 1974 are discussed. Data are presented on sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, CO, and suspended particulates in relation to weather conditions.

Small-scale production and mechanical properties of TATB/Kel-F 800 (92.5/7.5), a useful plastic bonded explosive, are described. TATB particles are slurried in water while adding a solvent solution of Kel-F. As the solvent is removed from the slurry at 75 to 80/sup 0/C under vacuum, the fine particles of TATB become coated with Kel-F and clump together to form granules. After drying at 80/sup 0/C the granules are pressed at 120/sup 0/C and 138 MPa (20,000 psi) to form needed shapes.

Large pools for storing spent, nuclear fuel elements are being proposed to augment present storage capacity. To preserve the ability to isolate portions of these pools, a modularization requirement appears desirable. The purpose of this project was to investigate the effects of modularization on earthquake resistance and to assess the adequacy of current design methods for seismic loads. After determining probable representative pool geometries, three rectangular pool configurations, all 240 x 16 ft and 40 ft deep, were examined. One was unmodularized; two were modularized into 80 x 40 ft cells in one case and 80 x 80 ft cells in the other. Both embedded and above-ground installations for a hard site and embedded installations for an intermediate hard site were studied. It was found that modularization was unfavorable in terms of reducing the total structural load attributable to dynamic effects, principally because one or more cells could be left unfilled. The walls of unfilled cells would be subjected to significantly higher loads than the walls of a filled, unmodularized pool. Generally, embedded installations were preferable to above-ground installations, and the hard site was superior to the intermediate hard site. It was determined that Housner's theory was adequate for calculating …

Short beam usage times were encountered using a 60 keV electron beam welder. These short times were the direct result of a buildup of a reaction product (WO/sub 2/./sub 90/) that occurred on graphite washers which housed the tungsten emitter plate. While it was not possible to prevent the reaction product, its growth rate was sufficiently altered by changing graphite materials and minor design changes of the washers. With these modifications beam usage times increased from an original 40 min to approximately 675 min.

Initial progress is reported in research aimed at developing a microwave vacuum system for drying grain at a facility capable of handling up to 400 bushels/h and storing up to 1000 bushels each of wet and dry grain. Potential suppliers of microwave equipment were identified, preliminary facility designs were considered, and the fabrication of test equipment needed to acquire performance data was begun. (LCL)

Three vaporization experiments were performed on samples of nearly stoichiometric titanium monoxide. Two experiments were constant temperature experiments (1806/sup 0/K) designed to measure the equilibrium vapor pressures of Ti(g) and TiO(g). In one experiment titanium monoxide was vaporized from a tungsten Knudsen effusion cell; the vapor was collected on a water cooled quartz cap surrounding the cell; and the total amount of titanium deposited on the cap was analyzed colorimetrically. In the second constant temperature experiment (1806/sup 0/K) the vapor composition in equilibrium with nearly stoichiometric titanium monoxide was measured mass spectrometrically. The mass spectrometer results were used to apportion the total titanium collected in the first experiment to Ti(g) and TiO(g). In the third experiment the temperature dependence of the ions Ti/sup +/(48) and TiO(64) was measured spectrometrically. The results obtained in this work are compared with published thermodynamic properties of the titanium oxygen system, and indicate the standard free energy of formation of titanium monoxide obtained from the earliest calorimetric measurements yielded a result not negative enough and also oxygen pressures obtained by emf measurements for stoichiometric titanium monoxide at 1806/sup 0/K are high by a factor of 42.6. The present results are in good agreement with the …

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This document is a selected bibliography on consumer safety for the 1976-77 Intercollegiate Debate topic.

A procedure for the determination of plutonium 238 and plutonium 239 in water is described. The procedure consists of a coprecipitation, an anion exchange separation and electrodeposition, followed by alpha pulse height analysis. More specifically, the sample is acidified with nitric acid and plutonium-242 is added as a tracer before any chemical separations are performed. Iron is added to the water as iron (III) and the plutonium is coprecipitated with the iron as ferric hydroxide by adding ammonium hydroxide. After decantation and centrifugation, the ferric hydroxide precipitate containing the coprecipitated plutonium is dissolved and the solution is adjusted to 8M in HNO{sub 3} for anion exchange separation. When the sample fails to dissolve because of the presence of insoluble residue, the residue is treated by a rigorous acid dissolution using concentrated nitric acid and hydrofluoric acids. The sample is poured over an anion exchange column. The iron and most other elements that might be present pass through the column. Thorium is removed from the column with 12 M hydrochloric acid and then the plutonium is eluted by reducing it to plutonium (III) with the iodide ion. The plutonium is electrodeposited onto a stainless steel slide for counting by alpha pulse …