Quarterly report discussing fuel cell research and development work at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). This report describes efforts directed toward (1) developing alternative concepts for components for molten carbonate fuel cells and (2) improving our understanding of component behavior.

Quarterly report discussing fuel cell research and development work at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). This report describes efforts directed toward (1) investigating alternative concepts for components of molten carbonate fuel cell stacks and (2) improving our understanding of component behavior.

Techniques for isolating and solidifying the nuclear wastes in the storage tanks at the Western New York Nuclear Service Center plant have been examined. One technique involves evaporating the water and forming a molten salt containing the precipitated sludge. The salt is allowed to solidify and is stored in canisters until processing into a final waste form is to be done. Other techniques involve calcining the waste material, then agglomerating the calcine with sodium silicate to reduce its dispersibility. This option can also involve a prior separation and decontamination of the supernatant salt. The sludge and all resins containing fission-product activity are then calcined together. The technique of removing the water and solidifying the salt may be the simplest method for removing the waste from the West Valley Plant.

On October 5, 1979, the Lithium Processing Test Loop (LPTL) developed a lithium leak in the electromagnetic (EM) pump channel, which damaged the pump, its surrounding support structure, and the underlying floor pan. A thorough analysis of the causes and consequences of the pump failure was conducted by personnel from CEN and several other ANL divisions. Metallurgical analyses of the elliptical pump channel and adjacent piping revealed that there was a significant buildup of iron-rich crystallites and other solid material in the region of the current-carrying bus bars (region of high magnetic field), which may have resulted in a flow restriction that contributed to the deterioration of the channel walls. The location of the failure was in a region of high residual stress (due to cold work produced during channel fabrication); this failure is typical of other cold work/stress-related failures encountered in components operated in forced-circulation lithium loops. Another important result was the isolation of crystals of a compound characterized as Li/sub x/CrN/sub y/. Compounds of this type are believed to be responsible for much of the Fe, Cr, and Ni mass transfer encountered in lithium loops constructed of stainless steel. The importance of nitrogen in the mass-transfer mechanism has …

This report describes the work done to further develop the infrared spectroscopic analytical method for the analysis of atmospheric aerosol particles, as well as some exploratory work on a new procedure for determining proton acidity in aerosol samples. Earlier work had led to the successful use of infrared (ir) spectrophotometry for the analysis of nitrate, ammonium, and neutral and acidic sulfates in aerosol samples collected by an impactor on a Mylar-film substrate. In this work, a filter-extraction method was developed to prepare filter-collected aerosol samples for ir analysis. A study was made comparing the ir analytical results on filter-collected samples with impactor-collected samples. Also, the infrared analytical technique was compared in field studies with light-scattering techniques for aerosol analysis. A highly sensitive instrument for aerosol analysis using attenuated total internal reflection (ATR) infrared spectroscopy was designed, built, and tested. This instrument provides a measurement sensitivity much greater (by a factor of 6 for SO4²⁻) than that obtainable using the KBr-pellet method. This instrument collects size- and time-resolved samples and is potentially capable of providing automated, near real-time aerosol analysis. Exploratory work on a novel approach to the determination of proton acidity in filter- or impactor-collected aerosol samples is also described. …

This report reviews the research activities of the Applied Mathematical Sciences Section for the period April 1, 1980, through March 31, 1981. The body of the report discusses various projects carried out in three major areas of research: applied analysis, computational mathematics, and software engineering. Information on section staff, visitors, workshops, and seminars is found in the appendices.

Report of activities of Argonne Chemical Engineering Division, including advanced battery project, electro-chemical project management, advanced fuel cell development, utilization of coal, magnetohydrodynamics heat and seed recovery technology, solar energy, fast reactor chemistry research, nuclear fuel cycle studies, magnetic fusion energy research, and basic energy science.

The deformation of a thin elastic plate which is initially wrinkled when the plate is subjected to a constant compressive end thrust is considered. The singularly perturbed bifurcation theory of Reiss and Matkowsky is used. It is found that the initial deformation (imperfection) of the plate leads to solutions which explain the experimentally observed decrease in the buckling load from that predicted by bifurcation theory and the smooth transition to a buckled solution.

A Ca-Al-Si/FeS2 cell has been developed and has exhibited reasonably stable capacity through 3200 h of operation. This system is expected to be capable of meeting the ultimate performance goals (i.e., 160 W.h/kg) of this development program. Further tests of this cell system in the coming year will better define its ultimate performance capabilities.

The neutron and gamma fluxes at the center of a moderator and their average energies have been estimated for the IPNS-I configuration (5 x 10¹²/ ppp, 500 MeV, 30 Hz with uranium-238 target). The gamma decay factor, the ratio of gamma intensity when proton beam is on to that of just-after-beam-off, has been calculated. The heat deposition rate in the moderator and the temperature rise without heat flow are estimated to be 41.1 mW/cc and 1.13 K/min respectively, for a polyethylene moderator. Estimates for liquid hydrogen moderators give 17.3 mW/cc and 2.1 K/min respectively. Estimates are also made for the heat deposition rates in the boron and cadmium decouplers. Some consideration was given to the thermal characteristics (cooling constant, etc.) of various materials in conjunction with the ZING-P' measurements. The possible temperature difference between moderator and a thermocouple was estimated and found to be very small. Measurements on the ZING-P' beams and the comparison with these estimates are given in a separate report.

Mechanisms that were developed for the Argonne National Laboratory - Northern Illinois University theorem proving system are discussed. By defining special input clauses and demodulators, it is possible to simulate mathematical processes such as canonicalization of polynomials with no special programming. The mechanisms presented resulted from a study of the X³ = X problem in ring theory. The use of the mechanisms allowed this problem to the solved for the first time by the automated theorem proving system.

A comparative economic analysis was made of four solidification processes for liquid high-level radioactive waste. Two processes produced borosilicate glass monoliths and two others produced metal matrix composites of lead and borosilicate glass beads and lead and super-calcine pellets. Within the uncertainties of the cost (1979 dollars) estimates, the cost of the four processes was about the same, with the major cost component being the cost of the primary building structure. Equipment costs and operating and maintenance costs formed only a small portion of the building structure costs for all processes.

An algorithm is proposed for the problem of minimizing a quadratic function subject to an ellipsoidal constraint which is guaranteed to produce a nearly optimal solution in a finite number of iterations. A robust and efficient algorithm for this problem is required to compute the step between iterates in trust region methods for optimization problems. We also consider the use of our algorithm in a trust region Newton's method. In particular, we prove that under reasonable assumptions the sequence (X/sub k/) generated by Newton's method has a limit point X* which satisfies the first and second order necessary conditions for a minimizer of the objective function f. Numerical results for GQTPAR, which is a Fortran implementation of our algorithm, show that GQTPAR is quite successful in a trust region method. In our tests a call to GQTPAR only required 1.6 iterations on the average.

The design consideration of a 1/4 acre research salt-gradient solar pond is described. Experience learned during the construction of the solar pond is presented. Initial operation of the pond indicates that the construction of the pond is sound and no leakage has occurred. The pond began to warm up during March of 1981. The maximum pond temperature reached 63 C at the end of July and it is still rising. All signs indicate that the operation of the well instrumented pond will be a success and the performance of the pond will be as expected, if not better.

Necessary and sufficient conditions are given so that the Sobolev-type partial differential equations generate a contraction semigroup. It is shown that any nonlinear contraction from L/sup 1/(R) to itself that preserves the integral and commutes with translations satisfies maximum and minimum principles. This lemma is applied to the solution operator S/sub t/ to give necessary and sufficient conditions that S/t/ satisfy a maximum principle, despite the dispersive nature. Sufficient conditions are given so that the solutions converge, as nu and beta tend to zero, to the entropy solution of the conservation law. A larger class of monotone finite-difference schemes for the numerical solution of the conservation law motivated by finite-difference discretizations of the Sobolev equations, is introduced, and convergence results are proved for methods in this class. The methods analyzed include some that were previously used to approximate the solution of a linear waterflood problem in petroleum engineering.

The general objective of the study is to perform a diversion analysis and an assessment of the available safeguards methods and systems for verifying inventory and flow of nuclear material in accessible and inaccessible areas of liquid-metal fast breeder reactor, LMFBR, systems. The study focuses primarily on the assembly-handling operations, assembly storage facilities, and reactor operations facilities relating to existing and/or near-term planned experimental, demonstration and prototypal reactor plants. The safeguards systems and methods presented are considered to be feasible for development and for implementation within the resource limitation of the IAEA and are considered to be consistent with the objectives, requirements, and constraints of the IAEA as outlined in the IAEA documents INFCIRC/153 and INFCIRC/66-Rev-2.

The research during 1980 in the Division of Biological and Medical Research, Argonne National Laboratory, is summarized. Research related to nuclear energy includes the delineation, in the6 eagle, of the responses to continuous low level Co gamma radiation and the development of cellular indicators of preclinical phases of leukemia; comparison of lifetime effects in mice of low level neutron and Co gamma radiation.

The effects of curvature on steady states of chemical catalytic reactions are investigated by studying the cases of the catalytic particle being a spherical or cylindrical shell. Existence and stability of solutions are studied. It is shown that the solutions converge to the solutions for the catalytic slab when the curvature goes to 0 in each case.

Annual report of the environmental monitoring program at Argonne National Laboratory, discussing activities and findings of the group.

Given a mapping with a sparse Jacobian matrix, the problem of minimizing the number of function evaluations needed to estimate the Jacobian matrix by differences is investigated. This problem can be attacked as a graph coloring problem and this approach leads to very efficient algorithms. The behavior of these algorithms is studied and, in particular, it is proved that two of the algorithms are optimal for band graphs. Numerical evidence is presented which indicates that these two algorithms are nearly optimal on practical problems.

A variance-to-mean noise technique, modified to eliminate systematic errors from drifting of reactor power, has been used to infer integral values of effective beta for uranium and plutonium fueled fast reactor modk-ups. The measurement technique, including corrections for a finite detector-electrometer time response, is described together with preliminary beta measurement results.

DISPL is a software package for solving systems of nonlinear partial differential equations of initial value type over a two-dimensional spatial domain. This report described an extension of the approximation procedure to include spatial domains described by polar geometry. More generally the extension includes problems for which there is periodicity in one of the spatial directions.

The papers presented at the first annual workshop on ice storage for cooling applications by participants from the U.S. and Canada are summarized. Novel methods of preparing naturally frozen ice and storing it are described. Attention is given to technical and economic problems and related design considerations. Comparison is made with conventional air conditioning methods. Both industrial and residential applications are discussed with regard to cost.

Quarterly report of the Argonne National Laboratory Chemical Engineering Division regarding activities related to properties and handling of radioactive materials, operation of nuclear reactors, and other relevant research.