This report, prepared for the Chicago Operations Office and the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) of the US Department of Energy (DOE), identifies and analyzes legal, political, administrative, and operational issues that could affect an OCRWM decision to develop an overweight truck cask fleet for the commercial nuclear waste repository program. It also provides information required by DOE on vehicle size-and-weight administration and regulation, pertinent to nuclear waste shipments. Current legal-weight truck casks have a payload of one pressurized-water reactor spent fuel element or two boiling-water reactor spent fuel elements (1 PWR/2 BWR). For the requirements of the 1960s and 1970s, casks were designed with massive shielding to accommodate 6-month-old spent fuel; the gross vehicle weight was limited to 73,280 pounds. Spent fuel to be moved in the 1990s will have aged five years or more. Gross vehicle weight limitation for the Interstate highway system has been increased to 80,000 pounds. These changes allow the design of 25-ton legal-weight truck casks with payloads of 2 PWR/5 BWR. These changes may also allow the development of a 40-ton overweight truck cask with a payload of 4 PWR/10 BWR. Such overweight casks will result in significantly fewer highway shipments compared …

This document reports all available dissolved gas concentration data for groundwaters from the Hanford Site as of June 1985. Details of the computational procedures required to reduce data obtained from the field measurements made by the Basalt Waste Isolation Project are provided in the appendix. Most measured values for methane concentration from reference repository boreholes are in the range of from 350 to 700 mg/L for the Cohassett flow top. Because of the uncertainties associated with these measurements, it is currently recommended that a conservative methane concentration of 1200 mg/L (methane saturated) in groundwater be considered the most reasonable upper-bounding value. 16 refs., 2 figs., 2 tabs.

An evaluation is given of DOE's recommendation of the Elk River complex in North Carolina for siting the second repository. Twelve recommendations are made including a strong suggestion that the Cherokee Tribe appeal both through political and legal avenues for inclusion as an affected area primarily due to projected impacts upon economy and public health as a consequence of the potential for reduced tourism.

Report on research and development of the lead-acid battery for electric vehicle propulsion, focusing on continuing development on the forced electrolyte flow-through concept with some work on the composite, plastic/lead grid.

Report on the environmental impact of Argonne National Laboratory.

The conditions are given for which the more flexible of two cantilevered, telescoping tubes conveying fluid can be self-excited by flow leaking from an un-constricted slip joint. Also, a physical explanation of the excitation mechanism is discussed, and a design rule to avoid the mechanism is presented. In addition, the results for the un-constricted slip joint are shown to be similar to those for slip joints having annulus constrictions at very short engagement lengths.

"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 postirradiation 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"--NTIS abstract.

We show that under very general conditions any inhomogeneous cosmological model with a positive cosmological constant, that can be described in a synchronous reference system will tend asymptotically in time towards the de Sitter solution. This is shown to be relevant in the context of inflationary models as it makes inflation very weakly dependent on initial conditions. 8 refs.

Muon fluence (muons cm/sup -2/) was measured downstream of the experimental area beamlines, just beyond the Fermilab site boundary at Route 38. The purpose of these measurements was to obtain an estimate of the yearly off-site radiation exposure to the general population due to accelerator-produced muons during the 1985 800 GeV run.

Ten 1-m long dipole magnets of the SSC design ''D'' cross section have been constructed and tested. In each model a collar type structure was used to contain and support the coil assembly at assembly and during operation at 4K. The collar structure must provide enough coil compression to minimize training and guarantee the coil cross section dimensions. Three types of collar designs were used. The behavior, measured and predicted, of two types of 15 mm stainless steel collars used on eight of the ten models is examined. The mechanical measurement of the 15 mm stainless steel collars used on eight 1-m dipole models are given. Observed behavior and preliminary design criteria are discussed. In order to better understand observed collar behavior and to evaluate new designs, finite element analysis of the collar designs was undertaken, and results are correlated with measured behavior. The behavior of alternate collar designs is predicted. 3 refs., 19 figs. (LEW)

The electrical characteristics of large lead-acid cells from nuclear power plants were studied. The overall goal was to develop nondestructive tests to predict cell failure using this easily obtained information. Cell capacitance, internal resistance, reaction resistance for hydrogen evolution and cell capacity were measured on a lead-calcium cell in good condition. A high float voltage and low internal resistance were found to correlate with good cell capacity in cells selected from a set of six lead-antimony cells in poor condition.

In measurements of fully-damped yields for the /sup 16/O + /sup 40,44Ca and /sup 32/S + /sup 24/Mg reactions, evidence for a fusion-fission reaction mechanism were found. The experiments were performed at the Argonne tandem-linac booster facility. Reaction products with masses 22 < A < 36 for the /sup 16/O + /sup 40,44Ca reactions and 10 < A < 28 for the /sup 32/S + /sup 24/Mg reaction were detected and identified using the time-of-flight technique. The /sup 16/O + /sup 40,44Ca reactions were measured at several center-of-mass energies from 49.5 to 62.5 MeV, while the /sup 32/S + /sup 24/Mg data were obtained at a single energy of E/sub cm/ = 60 MeV. The resulting total kinetic energies (calculated assuming two-body kinematics), angular distributions, and mass distributions of the fragments are found to be consistent with a fusion-fission reaction mechanism. An alternative explanation of the yields in terms of a deep-inelastic scattering mechanism is ruled out by the asymmetric nature of the mass distributions: the maximum cross section for the /sup 32/S + /sup 224/Mg reaction is detected in the mass 12 channel whereas the maximum cross sections for deep-inelastic scattering would be expected to occur near the target-projectile …

This device is a combined pressure relief valve and check valve providing overpressure protection and preventing back flow into an inert atmosphere enclosure. The pressure relief is embodied by a submerged vent line in a mercury reservior, the releif pressure being a function of the submerged depth. The pressure relief can be vented into an exhaust system and the relieving pressure is only slightly influenced by the varying pressure in the exhaust system. The check valve is embodied by a ball which floats on the mercury column and contacts a seat whenever vacuum exists within the glovebox enclosure. Alternatively, the check valve is embodied by a vertical column of mercury, the maximum back pressure being a function of the height of the column of mercury.

An overview is given of research programs at a two-stage light-gas gun facility. Representative gas-gun experiments are described, and the impact of this research on other LLNL programs and on high-pressure physics work in general are discussed. Particular applications reported include: measurement of equations of state for various materials, synthesis and study of novel materials, and studies of high explosives. Specialized diagnostic techniques for gas-gun experiments are reviewed. (LEW)

This report documents the seismic analyses performed by SMA for the MFTF-B Axicell vacuum vessel. In the course of this study we performed response spectrum analyses, CLASSI fixed-base analyses, and SSI analyses that included interaction effects between the vessel and vault. The response spectrum analysis served to benchmark certain modeling differences between the LLNL and SMA versions of the vessel model. The fixed-base analysis benchmarked the differences between analysis techniques. The SSI analyses provided our best estimate of vessel response to the postulated seismic excitation for the MFTF-B facility, and included consideration of uncertainties in soil properties by calculating response for a range of soil shear moduli. Our results are presented in this report as tables of comparisons of specific member forces from our analyses and the analyses performed by LLNL. Also presented are tables of maximum accelerations and relative displacements and plots of response spectra at various selected locations.

Three laboratory-scale devices were utilized to investigate the mechanisms of the initiation, growth and sintering process involved in the formation of boiler deposits. Sticking apparatus investigations were conducted to study deposit initiation by comparing the adhesion behavior of the ash drops on four types of steel-based heat exchanger materials under the conditions found in a utility boiler and an entrained slagging gasifier. In addition, the adhesion behavior of the ash drops on a reduced steel surface were investigated. All the ash drops studied in this investigation were produced from bituminous coals.

Tests were conducted by Pacific Northwest Laboratory in FY 1984 to examine the influence of heat and radiation on the chemical environment of a high-level nuclear waste package in a repository in salt and to determine the solubility of key radionuclides in site-specific brines. These tests are part of an ongoing effort by the Waste Package Program, whose objective is to help develop a data base on package components and system interactions necessary to qualify a nuclear waste package for geologic disposal. Specifically, tests performed in FY 1984 involved alpha and gamma radiolysis of brines, americium solubility in brines, the influence of heat and radiation on rock salt, and the influence of temperature on brine chemistry.

Dipoles and quadrupoles for any new, large proton ring must be stronger, smaller and have better field shape (systematic error) than those used in the Doubler. The present two-shell designs are rigid in that the coils are too thin but cannot be relatively fatter without destroying the field quality. An examination of the coil shapes for dipoles and quadrupoles which produce perfect fields from a uniform current density shows clearly that our persistent use of a circular form for the inner surface of the coils is a poor approximation. When this is corrected by ''offsets'' there is a striking improvement both in the strength of fields and in the field quality. The same analysis makes clear that the efficient use of superconductor and the overall magnet size is determined by the perfect coil shapes. Any reasonable magnet will not differ significantly from the ideal for these parameters. This will be particularly helpful in setting design goals for very large quadrupoles. The offset two-shell dipole design preserves the mechanical features of the highly successful, resilient doubler magnets while greatly extending the performance.

The work of Steve Jones and others in muon-catalyzed cold fusion of deuterium and hydrogen suggests the possibility of such fusion catalyzed by ions, or combinations of atoms, or more-or-less free electrons in solid and liquid materials. A hint that this might occur naturally comes from the heat generated in volcanic action in subduction zones on the earth. It is questionable whether the potential energy of material raised to the height of a midocean ridge and falling to the depth of an ocean trench can produce the geothermal effects seen in the volcanoes of subduction zones. If the ridge, the trench, the plates, and the asthenosphere are merely visible effects of deeper density-gradient driven circulations, it is still uncertain that observed energy-concentration effects fit the models.

This report includes statements by the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the board, TAAC Chairman, and the director of the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA). The report discusses the year in review regarding the work in progress, organization and operations of OTA.

A background paper by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) that "outlines how data can be used in maintaining biological diversity: describes primarily the Federal institutions that collect biological data; provides an overview of existing Federal biological databases; discusses technical aspects of collecting, storing, and retrieving biological data; and suggests ways to improve biological databases so that they can be better used to help maintain diversity of this Nation's plant and animal life" (Preface).

This background paper describes the current state of research and development in microelectronics by examining the range of R&D efforts and the sources of Federal and private support for R&D. It also presents potential policy concerns that stem from existing arrangements for direct Federal support and from changes underway in microelectronics R&D.

This report addresses the longer run issues that technology and certain other factors will have on American agriculture during the remainder of this century. It focuses on the relationship of technology to: agricultural production, structural change, rural communities, environment and natural resource base, finance and credit, research and extension, and public policy. This report is a first step toward understanding these interrelated problems and identifying policies to ameliorate them.

A report on hazardous materials that are transported. This special report, Transportation of Hazardous Materials: State and Local Activities, is the first of the two. It summarizes Federal programs and identifies three major areas of State and local government concern: prevention and enforcement activities, emergency response and training, and planning and data gathering. The report outlines related issues, describes methods by which jurisdictions are responding to them, and documents the concerns that the Federal Government could address.