The LLNL Nuclear Chemistry Counting Facility (NCCF) is being converted to a modern production facility. A computer network has been designed and built to implement this conversion. The outermost node of the computer network is a dedicated EPROM-based controller. The controller handles the details of driving the attached nuclear instrumentation, providing a standard interface to the remainder of the network. This paper addresses the design and the implementation of the dedicated instrumentation controller.

This paper addresses the stability aspects of several successful dc superconducting magnets such as large bubble chamber magnets, and magnets for the Mirror Fusion Test Facility and MHD Research Facility. Specifically, it will cover Argonne National Laboratory 12-Foot Bubble Chamber magnets, the 15-foot Bubble Chamber magnets at Fermi National Laboratory, the MFTF-B Magnet System at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the U-25B Bypass MHD Magnet, and the CFFF Superconducting MHD magnet built by Argonne National Laboratory. All of these magnets are cooled in pool-boiling mode. Magnet design is briefly reviewed. Discussed in detail are the adopted stability critera, analyses of stability and disturbance, stability simulation, and the final results of magnet performance and the observed coil disturbances.

Energy-dependent evaluated photon interaction cross sections and related parameters are presented for elements H through Cf(Z = 1 to 98). Data are given over the energy range from 0.1 keV to 100 MeV. The related parameters include form factors and average energy deposits per collision (with and without fluorescence). Fluorescence information is given for all atomic shells that can emit a photon with a kinetic energy of 0.1 keV or more. In addition, the following macroscopic properties are given: total mean free path and energy deposit per centimeter. This information is derived from the Livermore Evaluated-Nuclear-Data Library (ENDL) as of October 1978.

A design study of 12-T yin-yang coils for a conceptual Tandem Mirror Next Step (TMNS) facility has been recently performed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in conjunction with the Convair Division of General Dynamics. The large magnets have major and minor radii of 3.7 and 1.5 m, 0.70 x 3.75 m/sup 2/ cross section, 46.3 MA turns, and an overall current density of 1765 A/cm/sup 2/, obtained by the use of Nb/sub 3/Sn and Nb-Ti superconductors. Each coil is composed of several subcoils separated by internal strengthening substructure to react the enormous electromagnetic forces. The size of the yin-yang coils, and hence the current density, was reduced by utilizing subcooled, superfluid He-II at 1.8 K for the coolant. This paper reviews the design study, with emphasis on He-II heat transport and conductor stability. Methods are also presented which allow the extension of Gorter-Mellink-channel calculations to encompass multiple, interconnecting coolant channels.

The coaxial-gun, compact-torus experiments at LLNL and LASNL are believed to be radiation-dominated, in the sense that most or all of the input energy is lost by impurity radiation. This paper presents a simple analytic model of the radiation-dominated decay of a compact torus, and demonstrates that several striking features of the experiment (finite lifetime, linear current decay, insensitivity of the lifetime to density or stored magnetic energy) may also be explained by the hypothesis that impurity radiation dominates the energy loss. The model incorporates the essential features of the more elaborate 1 1/2-D simulations of Shumaker et al., yet is simple enough to be solved exactly. Based on the analytic results, a simple criterion is given for the maximum tolerable impurity density.