Our work on this contract was divided into two major categories; two thirds of the total effort was in support of the Laboratory Microfusion Facility (LMF), and one third of the effort was in support of Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) commercial reactors. This final report includes copies of the formal reports, memoranda, and viewgraph presentations that were completed under this contract.

Newsletter of the Texas Air Control Board including information about the Board as well as news, events, and other relevant information related to air quality in Texas.

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;Use of Higher Education Assistance Fund established by article VII, section 17, of the Texas Constitution to renovate facilities at the University of North Texas (RQ-1475)

We have carried out a number of 2D numerical simulations on an ALE code for shock-tube experiments in which a shock crosses one or more contact discontinuities and, after traveling through a homogeneous medium, reflects off a rigid wall at the end of the shock-tube and re-crosses the contact discontinuity. We have considered two-fluid and three-fluid experiments: the first fluid, which carries the original shock, is air; the other fluids are helium, freon, SF/sub 6/, or air again. Helium is lighter than air, while freon and SF/sub 6/ are heavier than air. The interface(s) between the fluids serve as contact discontinuities and are subjected to the original shock, the re-shock, and subsequent rarefactions/compressions. 9 refs., 6 figs.

Our discrete and finite version of relativistic quantum mechanics provides an elementary particle physics consistent with the standard model of quarks and leptons. Our recent relativistic calculation of the bound state spectrum of hydrogen has allowed us to make a combinatorial correction to the first order estimate of 1/..cap alpha.. = /Dirac h/c/e/sup 2/ = 137 derived from the combinatorial hierarchy and achieve agreement with experiment up to terms of order ..cap alpha../sup 3/. The same theory requires that to first order /Dirac h/c/Gm/sub p//sup 2/ = 2/sup 127/ + 136 approx. = 1.7 /times/ 10/sup 38/. Using the emission and absorption of spin 1 photons and spin 2 gravitons in this framework, we try to show that we can meet the three additional tests of general relativity---solar red shift, solar bending of light, and precession of the perihelion of Mercury. We predict that a macroscopic electromagnetic orbit would have four times the Sommerfeld precession for basically the same reason that Mercury has six times the Sommerfeld precession. 20 refs.

None

The International Tokamak Engineering Reactor (ITER) is a program presently underway to design a next-generation tokamak reactor. The cryogenic system for this reactor must meet unusual and new requirements. Unusually high heat loads (100 kW at 4.5 K) must be handled because neutron shielding has been limited to save space in the reactor core. Also, large variations in the cryogenics loads occur over short periods of time because of the pulsed nature of some of the operating scenarios. This paper describes a workable cryogenic system design for a compact tokamak reactor such as ITER. A design analysis is presented dealing with a system that handles transient loads, coil quenches, reactor cool-down and the effect of variations in helium-supply temperatures on the cryogenic stability of the coils. 5 refs., 4 figs., 1 tab.

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; Competitive bidding with the counties with a county purchasing agent(RQ-1484).

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.

Nuclear safeguards applied by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are one element of the non-proliferation regime'', the collection of measures whose aim is to forestall the spread of nuclear weapons to countries that do not already possess them. Safeguards verifications provide evidence that nuclear materials in peaceful use for nuclear-power production are properly accounted for. Though carried out in cooperation with nuclear facility operators, the verifications can provide assurance because they are designed with the capability to detect diversion, should it occur. Traditional safeguards verification measures conducted by inspectors of the IAEA include book auditing; counting and identifying containers of nuclear material; measuring nuclear material; photographic and video surveillance; and sealing. Novel approaches to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness in safeguards verifications are under investigation as the number and complexity of nuclear facilities grow. These include the zone approach, which entails carrying out verifications for groups of facilities collectively, and randomization approach, which entails carrying out entire inspection visits some fraction of the time on a random basis. Both approaches show promise in particular situations, but, like traditional measures, must be tested to ensure their practical utility. These approaches are covered on this report. 15 refs., 16 figs., 3 …

A screening study was performed on a laboratory scale downfired combustor to determine the effect of various variables on the effectiveness of the reburning process as a technique for NO{sub x} abatement. The objective was to define optimum conditions under which reburning can be used and to be able to compare the reburning performance of our combustor to that reported by others. For this purpose, a statistically designed parametric investigation was conducted to determine how a set of controlled variables (primary and secondary stoichiometric ratios, location of the reburn zone and primary fuel load) would affect the reduction in NO emissions in a classical reburning configuration. Also, the effects of other variables (NO in the primary zone, temperatures in the primary, reburn and burnout zones and the residence time in the reburn zone) were also investigated. No optimum configuration was identified in this study. Nevertheless, this study provides insight into the parameters associated with reburning.

A screening study was performed on a laboratory scale downfired combustor to determine the effect of various variables on the effectiveness of the reburning process as a technique for NO{sub x} abatement. The objective was to define optimum conditions under which reburning can be used and to be able to compare the reburning performance of our combustor to that reported by others. For this purpose, a statistically designed parametric investigation was conducted to determine how a set of controlled variables (primary and secondary stoichiometric ratios, location of the reburn zone and primary fuel load) would affect the reduction in NO emissions in a classical reburning configuration. Also, the effects of other variables (NO in the primary zone, temperatures in the primary, reburn and burnout zones and the residence time in the reburn zone) were also investigated. No optimum configuration was identified in this study. Nevertheless, this study provides insight into the parameters associated with reburning.

The NK Muon Beam will be a modified version of the existing NT beam line. The decision to employ a modified version of the NT beam line was made based on considerations of cost and availability of the beam line. Preliminary studies considered use of other beam lines, e.g., the NW beam line, and even of moving the bubble chamber with its superconducting coils but were rejected for reasons such as cost, personnel limitations, and potential conflicts with other users.

A 1985-1986 Review of the US inertial confinement fusion program by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that five more years might be required to obtain enough data to determine the future course of the program. Since then, data from the Nova laser and from the Halite/Centurion program have resolved most of the outstanding problems identified by the NAS review. In particular, we now believe that we can produce a sufficiently uniform target; that we can keep the energy content in hot electrons and high-energy photons low enough (/approximately/1--10% of drive energy, depending on target design) and achieve enough pulse-shaping accuracy (/approximately/10%, with a dynamic range of 100:1) to keep the fuel on a near-Fermi-degenerate adiabat; that we can produce an /approximately/100-Mbar pressure pulse of sufficient uniformity (/approximately/1%), and can we control hydrodynamic instabilities so that the mix of the pusher into the hot spot is low enough to permit marginal ignition. These results are sufficiently encouraging that the US Department of Energy is planning to complete a 10-MJ laboratory microfusion facility to demonstrate high-gain ICF in the laboratory within a decade. 22 refs., 1 fig.

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;Jurisdiction of the State Antiquities Committee over property held by an independent school district (RC-1404).

Letter opinion 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.

Weekly newsletter discussing natural resources, parks, hunting and fishing, and other information related to the outdoors in Texas.

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; Dual membership on Board of Trustees of Houston Independent School District and Houston Community College District (RQ-1421)

Particle transport calculations in highly dimensional and physically complex geometries, such as detector calibration, radiation shielding, space reactors, and oil-well logging, generally require Monte Carlo transport techniques. Monte Carlo particle transport can be performed on a variety of computers ranging from APOLLOs to VAXs. Some of the hardware and software developments, which now permit Monte Carlo methods to be routinely used, are reviewed in this paper. The development of inexpensive, large, fast computer memory, coupled with fast central processing units, permits Monte Carlo calculations to be performed on workstations, minicomputers, and supercomputers. The Monte Carlo renaissance is further aided by innovations in computer architecture and software development. Advances in vectorization and parallelization architecture have resulted in the development of new algorithms which have greatly reduced processing times. Finally, the renewed interest in Monte Carlo has spawned new variance reduction techniques which are being implemented in large computer codes. 45 refs.

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; Power and duties of a county attorney bro tem under article 2.07 of the code of Criminal Procedure(RQ-1355).

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.

The Morgantown Energy Technology Center (METC) of the US Department of Energy (DOE) is interested in the potential of using a two-step process for regenerating the zinc ferrite desulfurization sorbent. In the first regeneration step, a gas mixture consisting of 12 percent SO{sub 2}, 2 percent O{sub 2}, and 86 percent N{sub 2} is used to convert zinc and iron sulfides to their sulfate forms using a sorbent bed inlet temperature of about 850{degrees}F (454{degrees}C). For the second step, the temperature is raised to about 1400{degrees}F (760{degrees}C), and the sulfates are decomposed to oxides with the concurrent release of sulfur dioxide. The same gas composition used for first step is also used for the second step. The proposed technique would require no steam and also has the advantage of producing a regeneration gas rich in sulfur dioxide. In a commercial operation, recirculating regeneration gas would be supplemented with air as required to supply the necessary oxygen. A bleed stream from regeneration (concentrated SO{sub 2} gas in nitrogen) would constitute feed to sulfur recovery.

The Morgantown Energy Technology Center (METC) of the US Department of Energy (DOE) is interested in the potential of using a two-step process for regenerating the zinc ferrite desulfurization sorbent. In the first regeneration step, a gas mixture consisting of 12 percent SO{sub 2}, 2 percent O{sub 2}, and 86 percent N{sub 2} is used to convert zinc and iron sulfides to their sulfate forms using a sorbent bed inlet temperature of about 850{degrees}F (454{degrees}C). For the second step, the temperature is raised to about 1400{degrees}F (760{degrees}C), and the sulfates are decomposed to oxides with the concurrent release of sulfur dioxide. The same gas composition used for first step is also used for the second step. The proposed technique would require no steam and also has the advantage of producing a regeneration gas rich in sulfur dioxide. In a commercial operation, recirculating regeneration gas would be supplemented with air as required to supply the necessary oxygen. A bleed stream from regeneration (concentrated SO{sub 2} gas in nitrogen) would constitute feed to sulfur recovery.

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.