The credibility of the applicant in a licensing proceeding is severely impacted by the quality of the license application, particularly the Safety Analysis Report. To ensure the highest possible credibility, the building block approach was devised to support the development of a quality Safety Analysis Report. The approach incorporates a comprehensive planning scheme that logically ties together all levels of the investigation and provides the direction necessary to prepare a superior Safety Analysis Report.

The US Department of Energy`s Yucca Mountain Project is implementing a quality assurance program that fulfills the requirements of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Additional guidance for this program was provided in NUREG 1318, ``Technical Position on Items and Activities in the High-Level Waste Geologic Repository Program Subject to Quality Assurance Requirements`` for identification of items and activities important to public radiological safety and waste isolation. The process and organization for implementing this guidance is discussed. 3 refs., 2 figs.

Drift chambers are one of the position sensing technologies used in cosmic ray balloon and satellite experiments with potential application to the next generation of detectors for space flight. A low mass TPC type drift chamber, employing 8 distinct drift regions within a single gas volume has been built, tested and used at the LBL Bevalac. From the drift time X-coordinate, spatial resolutions below 100 {mu}m are obtained for a variety of heavy ions with selected trigger modes. The Y-coordinate is determined by pickup pads located behind the anode wire, thereby providing both X and Y coordinates from the same avalanche. Results from different timing schemes, {delta}-ray effects and the pickup pad resolution are presented. 6 refs., 5 figs.

The Low-Level Radioactive Waste Forum is an association of representatives of states and compacts established to facilitate state and compact commission implementation of the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act of 1980 and the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1985 and to promote the objectives of low-level radioactive waste regional compacts. The Forum provides an opportunity for states and compacts to share information with one another and to exchange views with officials of federal agencies. The Forum participants include representatives from regional compacts, designated host states, unaffiliated states, and states with currently-operating low-level radioactive waste facilities. This report contains information synthesizing the accomplishments of the Forum, as well as any new advances that have been made in the management of low-level radioactive wastes.

A single-chip implementation of the general-purpose FASTBUS Slave Interface (FSI) has been developed in ECL gate-array technology. The FSI will occupy only 1.6% of the available circuit board space while providing a complete 32-bit interface to the FASTBUS. All mandatory slave-interface requirements of IEEE 960 are supported, in addition to several non-mandatory requirements and the optional, extended MS code features. Geographic, logical, and broadcast addressing are implemented using on-chip registers. An optional multiple-module addressing technique is included that allows participating modules residing on a common crate or cable segment to respond as if individually addressed in sequence. The user interface provided by the FSI allows control of slave status-response and connection timing for both address and data cycles. The BIT1 ECL array technology used for the FSI allows direct connections to the FASTBUS, eliminating the need for external driver/receiver buffers.

The Low-Level Radioactive waste Forum is an association of representatives of states and compacts established to facilitate state and compact commission implementation of the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act of 1980 and the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1985 and to promote the objectives of low-level radioactive waste regional compacts. The Forum provides an opportunity for states and compacts to share information with one another and to exchange views with officials of federal agencies. LLW Forum participants include representatives from regional compacts, designated host states, unaffiliated states, and states with currently-operating low-level radioactive waste facilities. This quarterly meeting was held January 24-26, 1990.

This paper provides highlights from the October 1990 meeting of the Low Level Radioactive Waste Forum. Topics of discussion included: a special session on liability and financial assurance needs; proposal to dispose of mixed waste at federal facilities; state plans for interim storage; and hazardous materials legislation.

The Low-Level Radioactive Waste Forum is an association of representatives of states and compacts established to facilitate state and compact commission implementation of the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act of 1980 and the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1985 and to promote the objectives of low-level radioactive waste regional compacts. The Forum provides an opportunity for states and compacts to share information with one another and to exchange views with officials of federal agencies. The Forum participants include representatives from regional compacts, designated host states, unaffiliated states, and states with currently-operating low-level radioactive waste facilities. This report contains information synthesizing the accomplishments of the Forum, as well as any new advances that have been made in the management of low-level radioactive wastes.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is announcing the refocusing of its marine research program to emphasize the study of ocean margins and their role in modulating, controlling, and driving Global Change phenomena. This is a proposal to conduct a workshop that will establish priorities and an implementation plan for a new research initiative by the Department of Energy on the ocean margins. The workshop will be attended by about 70 scientists who specialize in ocean margin research. The workshop will be held in the Norfolk, Virginia area in late June 1990.

The conference consisted of ten technical sessions, with three sessions running simultaneously each day. Session topics included: regulatory updates; performance assessment;understanding remedial action efforts; low-level waste strategy and planning (Nuclear Energy); low-level waste strategy and planning (Defense); compliance monitoring; decontamination and decommissioning; waste characterization; waste reduction and minimization; and prototype licensing application workshop. Summaries are presented for each of these sessions.

The boundary perturbation method, suggested by Zhang and (independently) by Chatard-Moulin, Cooper, and their colleagues, is employed to the wakefield calculations for geometrical discontinuities in accelerators. Results are compared with that obtained from the mesh calculations using TBCI. When the perturbation is small and the geometry is suitable for TBCI, agreement is good. Discrepancies observed in other cases are also discussed.

Results of image simulations on partially amorphous microlite (Ca{sub 2}Ta{sub 2}O{sub 7}, pyrochlore structure) are presented. Results indicate that HRTEM images are not sensitive to position of amorphous layers within a crystalline matrix. It is also observed that the limit of detection of amorphous material within a crystalline matrix is dependent on total thickness. In thin crystals (<150{Angstrom}), up to 75 vol% crystalline material can give rise to aperiodic images, yet addition of a small amount of crystalline material (80 vol% crystalline) produces a periodic image. Images calculated for isolated spheres of amorphous material distributed within crystalline microlite suggest that isolated domains of amorphization are observable at sample thicknesses less than 3x the diameter of the feature. Image contrast of amorphized domains is enhanced by imaging at defocus settings significantly different than Scherzer focus. This indicate that interpretation of HRTEM images of partially amorphized crystalline materials should be undertaken with caution, and estimates of the volume of damage considered only qualitative.

In-situ TEM with ion irradiation was used to study the radiation- induced amorphization (metamictization) of naturally occurring silicates: neptunite [Na2KLi(Fe,Mn)2Ti2(SiO3)8], titanite (CaTiSiO5), gadolinite (REE2FeBe2Si2O10), zircon (ZrSiO4), and olivine [(Mg, Fe)2SiO4]. They were irradiated with 1.5 MeV Kr{sup +} ions the Argonne HVEM-Tandem Facility at room temperature with electron diffraction pattern monitored in situ. Critical doses required for amorphization of the electron transparent thickness of neptunite, titanite, gadolinite, zircon, and olivine are 1.7, 2.0, 2.3, 4.8, and 6.0x10{sup 14} ions/cm{sup 2}, respectively. Results show a correlation between amorphization dose and the chemical/structural complexity of these 5 minerals. The most complex, neptunite, becomes amorphous at the lowest critical dose. The critical amorphization dose also increases with the melting point.

Four powdered samples of natural UO{sub 2+x} (uraninite) were annealed in a reducing atmosphere up to 1200 C. Initial unit cell parameters ranged from a{sub o}=0.5463 to 0.5385 nm. Small amounts of UO{sub 2.25} occur in all samples after annealing. Annealing curves show effects of recovery of point defects in the oxygen sublattice, ordering of U{sup 4+} and U{sup 6+}, vacancy migration in the cation sublattice, and second order phase transformations. Difference in annealing behavior of UO{sub 2+x} with x<0.15 as compared to x=0.25 between 400 and 700 C is due to ordering of U{sup 4+} and U{sup 6+}. Density increased after annealing except for one sample in which a large number of cavities (1-2{mu}m) formed. Oxidation and chemical composition have a more dramatic effect on the structural state of natural UO{sub 2+x} than self-irradiation caused by {alpha}-decay damage.

The Compact Torus (Spheromak-type) is a near ideal plasma confinement configuration for acceleration. The fields are mostly generated by internal plasma currents, plasma confinement is toroidal, and the compact torus exhibits resiliency and stability in virtue of the ``rugged`` helicity invariant. Based on these considerations we are developing a coaxial rail-gun type Compact Torus Accelerator (CTA). In the CTA, the CT ring is formed between coaxial electrodes using a magnetized Marshall gun, it is quasistatically ``precompressed`` in a conical electrode section for inductive energy storage, it is accelerated in a straight-coaxial electrode section as in a conventional rail-gun, and it is focused to small size and high energy and power density in a final ``focus`` cone section. The dynamics of slow precompression and acceleration have been demonstrated experimentally in the RACE device with results in good agreement with 2-D MHD code calculations. CT plasma rings with 100 {micro}gms mass have been accelerated to 40 Kj kinetic energy at 20% efficiency with final velocity = 1 X 10{sup 8} cm/s (= 5 KeV/H{sup +}). Preliminary focus tests exhibi dynamics of radius compression, deceleration, and bouncing. Compression ratios of 2-3 have been achieved. A scaled-up 10-100 MJ CTA is predicted to achieve …

Measurement of forces present at various locations within the SSC Model Dipole collared coil assembly is of great practical interest to development engineers. Of particular interest are the forces between coils at the parting plane and forces that exist between coils and pole pieces. It is also desired to observe these forces under the various conditions that a magnet will experience such as: during the collaring process, post-collaring, under the influence of cryogens, and during field excitation. A twenty eight thousandths of an inch thick capacitor load cell which utilizes the hydrostatic condition of a stressed plastic dielectric has been designed. These cells are currently being installed on SSC Model Dipoles. The theory, development, and application of these cells will be discussed.

The announcement of the location of the SSC at the site near Waxahachie, Texas was made in January, 1989. Since then a great many important steps have been taken toward the start of the new Laboratory. Some 900 people have been brought to the site as the starting nucleus of the staff that will ultimate number about 2200. A design baseline has been completed that includes a conceptual design for the accelerator, and the detectors. Also, the process has begun to determine the configuration of detectors that will be built for the SSC. This process has several steps, and now the first of these has been taken: The detector collaborations have submitted the Expression of Interest to the Laboratory. These were reviewed by Laboratory management and the Physics Advisory Committee in July, 1990 and recommendations were made to the collaborations. Decisions were deferred for all of the detectors. But perhaps the most significant recommendation was the request to reduce the size and cost of the general purpose detectors. The detector collaborations are now reviewing their initial designs to prepare for the Letters of Intent, the next step in the detector planning process. This is clearly a difficult and crucial step …

This report summarizes a retreat held for the Hatchery Effectiveness Technical Work Group (HETWG). The objectives were to improve the effectiveness of the Technical Work Group (TWG) through developing procedures for its operation, and to develop an action plan for revision of their current research plan.

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In order to mitigate the impact of longer rotations for the red-cockaded woodpecker on timber production, a multi-objective linear programming model was used. Various streams of habitat in relation to timber management were examined. Large areas immediately set aside for habitat may, in fact, lead to long term declines as a result of poor initial stand conditions. Timber production, harvesting and various silvicultural activities will have a short term impact but lead to long-term sustainable habitat condition for this species.

To meet the helium (He) requirements of the superconducting supercollider (SSC), the cryogenic plants must be able to respond to time-varying loads. Thus the design and simulation of the cryogenic plants requires dynamic models of their principal components, and in particular, the core heat exchangers. In this paper, we detail the derivation and computer implementation of a model for core heat exchangers consisting of three partial differential equations (PDES) for each fluid stream (the continuity, energy and momentum balances for the He), and one PDE for each parting sheet (the energy balance for the parting sheet metal); the PDEs have time and axial position along the exchanger as independent variables. The computer code can accommodate any number of fluid streams and parting sheets in an adiabatic group. Features of the code include: rigorous or approximate thermodynamic properties for He, upwind and downwind approximation of the PDE spatial derivatives, and sparse matrix time integration. The outputs from the code include the time-dependent axial profiles of the fluid He mass flux, density, pressure, temperature, internal energy and enthalpy. The code is written in transportable Fortran 77, and can therefore be executed on essentially any computer.

Study of near-death verdicality in the hospital setting. The paper describes problems, both anticipated and unanticipated, that were encountered. Based on the successes and failures of this undertaking, recommendations for future research of this type are presented.

Article reviewing one previously reported and three new pediatric near-death experiences (NDEs), in which the experiencers were interviewed as children, and which suggests that the childhood core NDE as described by Melvin Morse and colleagues may be expanded to include feeling pain-free, seeing a light at the tunnel's end, entering the light, and time alteration.

Abstract: Although cerebral anoxia is not thought to be responsible for triggering near-death experiences (NDEs), the issue is not so clear in the case of hypercapnia. Detection of normal blood gases in Michael Sabom's (1982) case study seems to be the major reply to suggest that hypercapnia may have a causal role in NDEs. We argue, however, that routine arterial measures of blood gases are not a reliable indicator of cerebral levels.