Newsletter of the Texas Bureau of Disease Control and Epidemiology discussing the news, activities, and events of the organization and other information related to health in Texas.

The various Monte Carlo methods for calculating ground state energies are briefly reviewed. Then a summary of the charged systems that have been studied with Monte Carlo is given. These include the electron gas, small molecules, a metal slab and many-body hydrogen.

The Department of Energy has requested SRL assistance in developing offsite Emergency Planning Zones (EPZs) for the Savannah River Plant, based on projected dose consequences of atmospheric releases of radioactivity from potential credible accidents in the SRP operating areas. This memorandum presents the assessment of the offsite doses via the plume exposure pathway from the 300-Area potential accidents. 8 refs., 3 tabs.

The long term survivability and usefulness of the melter surface viewing borescopes would be greatly increased if a method of remote lense cleaning was available. The two units to be installed on the DWPF melter will incorporate air cooling and lense purging into their design. At present a single air supply line would serve both needs. Separating the two air services will allow the introduction of water or steam into the purge service. Tests on the prototype borescope at ETF have shown this to be an extremely effective way of cleaning the lense of occasional deposits or splatter. It is recommended that this change be incorporated into the DWPF design.

We develop a simple model of a beam transported in a hard wall channel (an idealized very-high-order magnetic-multipole channel). The extremely anharmonic nature of the potential leads to damping of coherent transverse displacements of the beam via phase mixing. For the case of small uniform displacements of the beam we can write down by inspection the analytical form of the motion of the beam centroid. The same technique allows us to evaluate the effects of focussing and scattering elements in the transport channel upon the damping of the transverse motion of the beam.

Three different uranium oxide samples have been characterized with respect to the different preparation techniques. Results show that the water reaction with uranium metal occurs cyclically forming laminar layers of oxide which spall off due to the strain at the oxide/metal interface. Single laminae are released if liquid water is present due to the prizing penetration at the reaction zone. The rate of reaction of water with uranium is directly proportional to the amount of adsorbed water on the oxide product. Rapid transport is effected through the open hydrous oxide product. Dehydration of the hydrous oxide irreversibly forms a more inert oxide which cannot be rehydrated to the degree that prevails in the original hydrous product of uranium oxidation with water. 27 figures.

The thermal barrier concept and the use of ECRH to generate the several electron populations required to establish confinement are discussed. Important physics issues related to the microwave heating are discussed. Fokker-Planck calculations which model the heating processes are presented, followed by recent experimental data on hot electron heating.

The new flash x-ray facility constructed at Site 300 of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has a nominal operating electron energy of 20 MeV. The bremsstrahlung photons from this accelerator will be used for a variety of radiographic investigations of both thick and thin objects under explosively driven conditions. In order to properly design and interpret experiments, it is very useful to have a Monte-Carlo code to simulate the coupled electron-photon processes that occur both in the creation of the bremsstrahlung as well as in the collimation, the materials being radiographed and the detection system. One such code suitable for this purpose in many experimental situations is the SANDYL code, which has been used at this laboratory since 1974. This brief report is written to point out that if one uses the code's default values for some of the parameters involving the electron substep size, the code-predicted bremsstrahlung is higher than experimental data by about 60. This report also shows that as this parameter is made finer, the code prediction approaches the experimental results to within about 10. This report compares the published data of O'Dell et al for bremsstrahlung at 20.9 MeV with our SANDYL calculations. O'Dell et al …

Some flow-cytometric and image analysis procedures under development for quantitative analysis of sperm morphology are reviewed. The results of flow-cytometric DNA-content measurements on sperm from radiation exposed mice are also summarized, the results related to the available cytological information, and their potential dosimetric sensitivity discussed. (ACR)

We review the theoretical arguments leading to the thermal synchrotron model of cosmic gamma-ray bursts. We propose a magnetic flare-resonant absorption mechanism for the production of the hot electrons that can account for most of the unusual properties of the emission layer.

Measurements of the normalized emittance of the beam produced by the Advanced Test Accelerator (ATA) injector yielded values near 0.4 Radian-Centimeters at currents up to 10 kAmps. The instrument was also used to obtain beam-current-density profiles in two dimensions at the entrance mask of the instrument.

We present results from a numerical model of a high-gain (electron-beam power > input laser beam power) FEL amplifier.

The ZPPR-13 program provides basic physics information for testing calculations of radially heterogeneous cores of about 700 MWe size. ZPPR-13 is part of the JUPITER cooperative program between Japan and the US. The results are presented of measurements and analysis for the first assembly, ZPPR-13A. These are the first data for heterogeneous cores of this size available in the US and complement results from ZPPR-9, a conventional LMFBR of similar size.

A rocket powered by fusion microexplosions is well suited for quick interplanetary travel. Fusion pellets are sequentially injected into a magnetic thrust chamber. There, focused energy from a fusion Driver is used to implode and ignite them. Upon exploding, the plasma debris expands into the surrounding magnetic field and is redirected by it, producing thrust. This paper discusses the desired features and operation of the fusion pellet, its Driver, and magnetic thrust chamber. A rocket design is presented which uses slightly tritium-enriched deuterium as the fusion fuel, a high temperature KrF laser as the Driver, and a thrust chamber consisting of a single superconducting current loop protected from the pellet by a radiation shield. This rocket can be operated with a power-to-mass ratio of 110 W gm/sup -1/, which permits missions ranging from occasional 9 day VIP service to Mars, to routine 1 year, 1500 ton, Plutonian cargo runs.

The tunnel in this model of construction is 3-1/2 feet wide by 5 feet high. It is assumed that the tunnel contains a rail system and guidance system for: (1) An enclosed car used for transport of 2 people and some tools. (2) A magnet mover. This robot could pick up a magnet and transport it at about 10 miles per hour. (3) An alignment robot. The alignment robot would intercept E.M. waves (microwaves, lasers) to determine its position in the tunnel. Then workers could come along inside the tunnel hoop and nail it together and to the floor. The trench would then be back-filled with a 1 foot berm on top. A rail system would be installed and a support stand for the magnet.

It has been proposed by R.R. Wilson and L. Lederman that it may be advantageous and cheaper to construct a large accelerator (> 10 TeV) with superferric magnets (approx. 2.5 Tesla). We take as a premise that a sufficiently large piece of land is available for the accelerator (see paper on Site and Tunnel), that is, one is not limited by the radius of the tunnel. The word superferric has been interpreted to mean a super conducting magnet where the coils are used principally to drive the field in the steel. We also add the constraint of simplicity and keep the coil shaped in a rectangle with no more than a few turns.

The results of a two-dimensional simulation of a high-gain free electron laser (FEL) amplifier is presented. The simulation solves the inhomogeneous paraxial wave equation. The source term is radially resolved and is obtained by tracking the interaction of the laser field with localized macroparticles.

The SANDYL Monte-Carlo code has been used to calculate the Bremsstrahlung photon production from beams of parallel electrons incident upon three target geometries. These are 20 MeV electrons onto 1 mm of tungsten + 59 mm of Be, which simulates the operating parameters of the FXR electron accelerator at LLNL Bldg. 801, 45 MeV electrons onto 1 mm of tungsten, and finally 45 MeV electrons onto 1 mm of tungsten and 147 mm of Be. The latter two situations simulate possible future modifications to the FXR accelerator. Graphs of the spectral shape of the Bremsstrahlung photons emitted with angles between 0/sup 0/ and 1/sup 0/ to the electron direction, the angular distribution of photon-MeV, and the dose reduction curves for each of the three geometries are given. The latter dose reduction curves allow one to calculate forward-directed photon fluxes in real-life situations where the electron beam has non-zero angular divergence.

Two passive magnetic-shielding-design approaches for static external fields are reviewed. The first approach uses the shielding solutions for spheres and cylinders while the second approach requires solving Maxwell's equations. Experimental data taken at LLNL are compared with the results from these shieldings-design methods, and improvements are recommended for the second method. Design considerations are discussed here along with the importance of material gaps in the shield.

Information is presented concerning transients in research reactors and nuclear power plants.

In this report, we briefly describe the TMX-U Thomson-scattering systems; we compare TMX-U velocity-distribution measurements with computer modeling; and we present and discuss our first simultaneous measurements of end-plug and central-cell electron temperatures.

Soft x-ray streak cameras are used in conjunction with several instruments for the diagnostic of laser irradiated targets. A program was undertaken to develop cameras satisfying the requirements of the laser facility, to improve the reliability and performance of the camera and to reduce the level of effort required to set and operate each diagnostic. The implemented soft x-ray streak cameras can be operated either manually or automatically.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Jim Mattox, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether Pacifica Foundation Radio Station is entitled to ad valorem tax exemption for its personal property

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.