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.

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.

This report describes a coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian code, ICECO-CEL, for analyzing the response of the primary system during hypothetical core disruptive accidents. The implicit Eulerian method is used to calculate the fluid motion so that large fluid distortion, two-dimensional sliding interface, flow around corners, flow through coolant passageways, and out-flow boundary conditions can be treated. The explicit Lagrangian formulation is employed to compute the response of the containment vessel and other elastic-plastic solids inside the reactor containment. Large displacements, as well as geometrical and material nonlinearities are considered in the analysis. Marker particles are utilized to define the free surface or the material interface and to visualize the fluid motion. The basic equations and numerical techniques used in the Eulerian hydrodynamics and Lagrangian structural dynamics are described. Treatment of the above-core hydrodynamics, sodium spillage, fluid cavitation, free-surface boundary conditions and heat transfer are also presented. Examples are given to illustrate the capabilities of the computer code. Comparisons of the code predictions with available experimental data are also made.

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. …

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 TCLUST1 computer program was developed to study the transient thermal behavior of a subassembly of a liquid-metal fast breeder reactor (LMFBR) that is thermally coupled to its six neighboring subassemblies. Each of the seven subassemblies may be either a reflector subassembly, which contains a single solid hexagonal rod, or a pin-bundle subassembly. The TCLUST1 analytical model was developed based on conservation of energy, and the temperature distribution in the subassembly was obtained using the successive over-relaxation (SOR) technique. Measured temperatures obtained from a natural-convection flow test performed in EBR-II compare well with those predicted by TCLUST1. Appendixes describe the code input and go through a sample program.

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.

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 …

A comprehensive methodology for characterizing the results of impact fracture of brittle waste forms is presented, and its use illustrated by application to available particle-size data obtained in impact tests of various materials. The respirable-size fraction and the total surface area of the fracture particulates are the major criteria for characterization. Particle-size distributions were all found to be characterized approximately by the two parameters of the lognormal probability function (the geometric mean diameter D/sub g/ and the geometric standard deviation sigma/sub g/). These results are explained in terms of the brittle-fracture process as it is described in the technical literature. The methodology appears promising both for standardized evaluation of the impact strength of various solid-waste compositions, either vitreous or crystalline, and for studying the deformation of canistered waste forms in scale-model tests.

This project was conducted to evaluate the practicality of using laboratory groundwater stream experiments to model a hydraulic breach of a nuclear waste repository located deep in a bedded salt environment. A test plan is included in this report that gives details of the apparatus, rocks, solutions, and analyses to be used in a groundwater stream experiment. Preliminary experiments revealed the essential impermeability of halite; only a small concentration of water (about 75 ppm) moved in halite by diffusion, with a coefficient of 2.0 x 10⁻⁷/ cm sq./s. From work completed in this program, groundwater stream experiments appear to be a practical method of establishing the chemical interactions that would occur in a breached repository in bedded salt.

The successful operation of D-T fusion reactors will depend on the development of safe and reliable tritium-containment and fuel-recycle systems. The tritium handling requirements for D-T reactors were analyzed. The reactor facility was then designed from the viewpoint of tritium management. Recovery scenarios after a tritium release were generated to show the relative importance of various scenarios. A fusion-reactor tritium facility was designed which would be appropriate for all types of plants from the Engineering Test Facility (ETF), the International Tokamak Reactor (INTOR), and the Fusion Engineering Device (FED) to the full-scale power plant epitomized by the STARFIRE design.

Response-surface techniques have been developed for obtaining probability distributions of the consequences of postulated nuclear reactor accidents. In these techniques, probability distributions are assigned to the system and model parameters of the accident analysis. A limited number of parameter values (called knot points) are selected and input to a deterministic accident-analysis code. The results of the deterministic analyses are used to generate analytical functions (called response surfaces) that approximate the accident consequences in terms of selected system and model parameters. The response-surface methodology of this report includes both systematical and random knot-point selection schemes, second- and third-degree response surfaces, functional transformations of both input parameters and consequence variables, smooth synthesis of region-wise response surfaces and the treatment of random conditions for conditional distributions. The computer code PROSA-2 developed for implementing these techniques is independent of the deterministic accident-analysis codes.

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.

This paper describes a computational method for improving the accuracy of a given eigenvalue and its associated eigenvector. The method is analogous to iterative improvement for the solution of linear systems. An iterative algorithm using working precision arithmetic is applied to increase the accuracy of the eigenpair. The only extended precision computation is the residual calculation. The method is related to inverse iteration and to Newton's method applied to the eigenvalue problem.

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.

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.

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.

This report describes the development of the computer code POLYFAIL for identification of fuel failures in fast reactors or light-water reactors that use gas tagging. POLYFAIL implements a sophisticated numerical algorithm known as the method of barycentric coordinates. The code can treat problems involving up to four simultaneous tag releases in a tagging system characterized by three independent tag ratios. The sensitivity of the multiple-failure-resolution technique has been optimized by incorporation of a newly developed ratio weighting scheme. Several example problems are provided to demonstrate operation of the code under single-leaker and various postulated multiple-leaker situations.

This report covers the processing and analysis of the fuel-bearing section (M-5138) of an irradiated experimental Light Water Breeder Reactor fuel rod, GRIP-II rod No. 79-453; this section has been designated the Validation Rod. Process steps included precision shearing of the rod into eight comminuted segments, dissolution of the segments, and chemical and radiometric analyses of the resulting solutions. The shearing and dissolution were carried out fully remotely in an existing pilot-scale facility installed in a shielded cell. Data are provided on physical parameters of the rod section and segments, uranium assays and isotopic abundances, and selected fission products. An error analysis of the individual measurements and analyses is included.

"In recent years, the increasing sophistication of transmission electron microscope (TEM) studies of materials has necessitated more exacting methods of specimen preparation. The present report describes improved equipment and techniques for electropolishing and chemically polishing a wide variety of specimens. Many of the specimens used in developing or improving the techniques to be described were irradiated with heavy ions such as nickel or vanadium to study radiation damage. The high cost of these specimens increased the need for reproducible methods of initial preparation, postirradiaton processing, and final thinning for TEM examination. A technique was also developed to salvage specimens that had previously been thinned but were unusable for various reasons. Jet polishing is, in general, the method of choice for surface polishing, sectioning, and thinning. The older beaker electropolishing method is included in this report because it is inexpensive and simple, and gives some insight into how the more recent methods were developed. 29 figures, 8 tables. (ERA citation 07:004650)."--NTIS abstract.

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.

Although the Dirac theory of the hydrogen atom was proposed more than half a century ago, extension of the theory and its practical applications to complex atomic spectra took decades to mature. Development of quantum electrodynamics (QED) in its modern form, advances in high precision experimental techniques, and invention of high-speed computers have made atomic spectroscopy one of the most accurate branches of physics today, both in theory and experiment. In addition to a long-standing need to identify line-spectra coming from far and near parts of the universe, necessities such as to test QED further and to provide reliable data for ions in tokamak plasmas require an understanding of the theory of relativistic atomic structure beyond the framework of the original Dirac theory. Twenty articles from the proceedings of the workshop are presented. Contributed papers are grouped into theoretical and experimental subjects and presented after the papers for the second (atomic structure calculations) and third (experiment) sessions of the Workshop. Alphabetical listing of the authors is presented in Appendix 1, program of the Workshop in Appendix 2, and the list of the participants in Appendix 3.

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.

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.