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Bubbles are concentrations of electromagnetic energy in the region of the critical density that force out the plasma to form a void. Since the critical density surface is cratered, absorption may be greater than a smooth surface since a larger area will be available for absorption and the reflected light will have a large probability of restriking the critical density. The distance between bubbles is several wavelengths and consequently they may encourage Rayleigh--Taylor instabilities. The threshold, magnetic field generation, and possible experimental evidence for bubbles are discussed. Also, the competition between sidescatter and self focusing in an entirely underdense plasma is studied and it is found that sidescatter dominates for polarization out of the simulation plane.

The past, present, and future of the liquid metal fast breeder reactor (LMFBR) program, the Nation's highest priority energy program, are studied. ERDA anticipates that the operation of the first large commercial breeder will start in 1987, and that 186 commercial-size breeders will be in operation by the year 2000. The breeder program is made up of six major areas, each dealing with an important element of technology: reactor physics; fuels and materials; fuel recycle; safety; component development; plant experience; and facilities used in the LMFBR program. ERDA is implementing a new system for administering, managing, and controlling the breeder program that will provide increased program visibility and control. Federal funding for breeder development was $168 million in FY 1971, accounting for 40% of the total Federal R and D energy budget; in FY 1976 Federal funding for this program will be $474 million, only 26% of total Federal funding for energy research. Besides Federal funds, over half a billion dollars have been or will be invested by industry over the next 5 to 10 years to develop the breeder and to build a demonstration plant. Five other nations--the United Kingdom, France, Japan, West Germany, and the Soviet Union--have a …

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The proposed Salton Sea Geothermal Power Pilot Plant Program comprises two phases. The objective of Phase 1 is to develop the technology for power generation from high-temperature, high-salinity geothermal brines existing in the Salton Sea known geothermal resources area. Phase 1 work will result in the following: (a) Completion of a preliminary design and cost estimate for a pilot geothermal brine utilization facility. (b) Design and construction of an Area Resource Test Facility (ARTF) in which developmental geothermal utilization concepts can be tested and evaluated. Program efforts will be divided into four sub-programs; Power Generation, Mineral Extraction, Reservoir Production, and the Area Resources Test Facility. The Power Generation Subprogram will include testing of scale and corrosion control methods, and critical power cycle components; power cycle selection based on an optimization of technical, environmental and economic analyses of candidate cycles; preliminary design of a pilot geothermal-electric generating station to be constructed in Phase 2 of this program. The Mineral Extraction Subprogram will involve the following: selection of an optimum mineral recovery process; recommendation of a brine clean-up process for well injection enhancement; engineering, construction and operation of mineral recovery and brine clean-up facilities; analysis of facility operating results from environmental, economical …

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The two-photon or two-step dissociation method of laser induced isotope enrichment is being modeled for the HBrNO photochemical system. In the model, H/sup 79/Br is selectively excited by resonance IR laser radiation and then dissociated by uv radiation. Selectively dissociated Br atoms are scavenged to form isotopically enriched BrNO and Br/sub 2/. This model includes all kinetic and absorption processes found to be significant and the time-varying concentrations of any species involved in a significant process. Among these processes are vibrational energy transfer reactions (including isotopic exchange) involving HBr v = 0 - 3, rotational and translational (velocity) relaxation processes, dissociation of HBr in the v = 0 - 3 levels, and secondary chemical reactions of the dissociation products. The absorption and kinetic processes that are most important to /sup 79/Br enrichment have been identified and the study of the effects on enrichment upon variation of external parameters (such as reactant pressure, ir or uv source intensity, and temperature) is in progress. Some preliminary results are: (1) intensity of the ir source is usually more important than the uv intensity; (2) chemical reactions are the dominant kinetic processes at lower pressures while energy transfer reactions dominate at higher pressures; (3) …

The mirror experiment was designed to develop the technologies necessary to make the transition from the presently small-scale physics experiments (2XIIB and BBII) to large-scale steady-state DT burning systems, such as the Fusion Engineering Research Facility (FERF) and Controlled Thermonuclear Reactors (CTR) based on plasma confinement in open magnetic geometry. The confinement parameters in the design of the present machine include a 20-kG central field with a mirror ratio of 2 to 1 and an overall BL product approximately 5 times greater than that currently available with the 2XIIB compression coils (or a mirror-to-mirror length of 3.4 m). Several types of Yin-Yang minimum parallel B parallel geometries were studied, and a ''displaced'' Yin-Yang was chosen because the center of the machine is easily accessable between the coils and between the magnet lobes. Other important design considerations include the target plasma system, the vacuum system, and the injectors. The target plasma system includes a pellet generating system used to produce a 400-$mu$m deuterium pellet and a two- arm laser system where the laser energy is produced from a 1-kJ, 10-GW CO$sub 2$ laser at 100 ns. (MOW)

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A ''startup'' plasma at the center of the Baseball II-T magnet was studied. This startup plasma will be used as a target for high energy neutral beams to achieve the required build-up. The target plasma will be created by irradiating a solid pellet with a laser beam. Although a deuterium pellet would be superior because of purity, the development of an ammonia pellet was undertaken because it requires a simpler technology. The ammonia target plasma is physically acceptable for the initial experiment. A frozen ammonia pellet, about 100 $mu$m in diameter, will be irradiated with 300-J CO$sub 2$ laser, to produce a density of about 10$sup 13$ cm$sup -3$ and about 1 kV temperature. (auth)

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A Perkin-Elmer 3920 gas chromatograph and associated software has been ordered. The materials necessary to interface it to the CEC 21-110B mass spectrometer and the other auxiliary components of the total GC/MS system are being acquired. Elemental composition data were obtained from 35 coal-liquid samples from the mass spectra of each sample recorded at high resolution on photographic plates. (auth)

Measures the axial flux distribution at several radical locations