The build-up of tritium in a liquid lithium breeding blanket for an ICF chamber has been examined. The break-even time is found to decrease both the increasing tritium breeding ratio and increasing values of ..cap alpha.., the fraction of unburned tritium absorbed in lithium. The break-even inventory also decreased with increasing breeding ratio but increases with increasing values ..cap alpha... For a molten-salt extraction process, the steady-state tritium inventory in lithium is inversely proportional to lithium flow rate through the extraction system. The lithium flow rate through the tritium extraction system required to maintain a given tritium concentration increases with increasing values of ..cap alpha...

A time dependent, bounce-averaged Fokker-Planck code, with quasi-linear diffusion at fundamental and second harmonic frequencies, has been used to study cold plasma trapping and heating of hot electrons in mirror geometry. Both electron-electron and electron-ion Coulomb collisions are included. The code can model either cavity heating (electric field throughout cavity as in EBT) or beam controlled heating (electric field spatially restricted as in the TMX-Upgrade tandem mirror). The heating method has implications for the equilibrium energy and anisotropy of the hot electrons. In TMX-Upgrade, off-midplane heating at the second harmonic in the thermal barrier is planned as a means to control anisotropy (T/sub parallel//T/sub perpendicular/. By spatially limiting (limit in B) the microwave beam and with strong single-pass absorption, the mean hot electron energy may also be controlled since the heating rate decreases at high energy due to the relativistic mass shift of the resonance to higher magnetic field.

Because of the undefined risk in the development and use of geothermal energy as a thermal energy source, the Department of Energy Division of Geothermal Energy solicited competitive proposals for field experiments in the direct use of geothermal energy. Twenty-two proposals were selected for cost-shared funding with one additional project co-funded by the State of New Mexico. As expected, the critical parameter was developing a viable resource. So far, of the twenty resources drilled, fourteen have proved to be useful resources. These are: Boise, Idaho; Elko heating Company in Nevada; Pagosa Springs, Colorado; Philip School, Philip, South Dakota; St. Mary's Hospital, Pierre, South Dakota; Utah Roses near Salt Lake City; Utah State Prison, Utah; Warm Springs State Hospital, Montana; T-H-S Hospital, Marlin, Texas; Aquafarms International in the Cochella Valley, California; Klamath County YMCA and Klamath Falls in Oregon; Susanville, California and Monroe, utah. Monroe's 164 F and 600 gpm peak flow was inadequate for the planned project, but is expected to be used in a private development. Three wells encountered a resource insufficient for an economical project. These were Madison County at Rexburg, Idaho; Ore-Ida Foods at Ontario, Oregon and Holly Sugar at Brawley, California. Three projects have yet to …

Large samples (up to 15cm diameter) of SYNROC D containing simulated Savannah River (SRL) waste sludge have been prepared and performance tested. Waste loadings of 60 to 65 wt% for the SRL composite sludge have been achieved; this corresponds to a waste concentration (volumetric) loading of approximately 2.3 to 2.5 g/cm/sup 3/. A typical SYNROC D sample has a density of about 4.0 g/cm/sup 3/ with less than 0.2% porosity. The compressive and flexural strengths of SYNROC D are 51,200 and 9400 psi, respectively and Young's Modulus is 20.1 x 10/sup 6/ psi by ultrasonic measurement. The quantity of respirable fines (less than 10 ..mu..m) generated during a constant energy density impact (10J/cm/sup 3/) was less than 0.16 wt%. Values for the thermal conductivity (22/sup 0/C) and the thermal expansion coefficient (22 to 950/sup 0/C) were measured to be 1.7 W/m.K and 11 x 10/sup -6/ K/sup -1/, respectively.

This work is part of a study conducted by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to improve the performance of brine injection wells at Gulf Coast Strategic Petroleum Reserve Sites. Our involvement established that granular media filtration, when used with proper chemical pretreatments, provides an effective and economical method for removing particulates from hypersaline brines. This treatment allows for the injection of 200,000 B/D with significantly increased well half-lives of 30 years.

A gamma ray burst detector of x-ray photons 2 to 10 keV is designed to maximize area, 100 m/sup 2/, and sensitivity, 10/sup -10/ ergs cm/sup -2/ s/sup 1/2/ modest directionality, 2 x 10/sup -4/ sr, and minimize thickness, 3 mg cm/sup -2/, as a plastic space balloon ion chamber. If the log N - log S curve for gamma bursts extends as the -3/2 power, the sensitivity is limited by gamma-burst peak overlap in time so that the question of the size spectrum and isotropy is maximally tested. Supernova type I prompt x-ray bursts of congruent to 3-ms duration should be detected at a rate of several per day from supernova at a distance greater than 100 Mpc.

A computer simulation code at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to predict the performance of a railgun electromagnetic accelerator has been developed and validated. The code, called MAGRAC (MAGnetic Railgun ACcelerator), models the performance of a railgun driven by a magnetic flux compression current generator (MFCG). The MAGRAC code employs a time-step solution of the nonlinear time-varying element railgun circuit to determine rail currents. From the rail currents, the projectile acceleration, velocity, and position are found. The MAGRAC code was validated through a series of eight railgun tests conducted jointly with the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The formulation of the MAGRAC railgun model is described and the predicted current waveforms compared with those obtained from full-scale experiments.

A four-channel microwave interferometer operating at 140 GHz has been designed for installation on the upgrade to the Tandem Mirror Experiment (TMX Upgrade). The instrument can be used to measure plasma density simultaneously at four locations: by reconnecting the waveguide runs, density can be measured at other locations of interest. The design is an outgrowth of a system used on TMX, but includes some newly developed hardware. An over-mode circular waveguide system is used to transport the signals over long distances with only moderate losses. Several precautions have been taken to limit the effect of possible interference from the electron cyclotron resonant heating (ECRH) system used to heat the plasma. A high-resolution linear phase comparator has been designed that will operate over the wide range of signals expected. A CAMAC-based data-acquisition system provides for automatic data sampling and archival after each shot.