We concluded that DOE had effective management control procedures to monitor project costs and the design, construction and demonstration activities. Lessons learned from previous DOE geothermal projects were applied and technical information generated from the Heber plant will be transferred to the public and private sectors by the project participants. We also identified the following issues that concerned us: Revenue Sharing: under existing revenue sharing provisions in the Cooperative Agreement, we estimate that reimbursable revenues to DOE will range between $30.5 million and $51.6 million. DOE and the public should be reimbursed for the total contribution of $61 million because the plant, if commercialized, will primarily benefit ratepayers and stockholders of San Diego Gas and Electric Company (SDG and E); Project Office Support Contracts: Our analyses of a number of project office support contracts suggest that some of this work should be cost shared with SDG and E; in other cases, the value of the work is questionable and appears to be an unnecessary expenditure of DOE funds; and Questionable Contractor Procurement: the noncompetitive procurement of a private firm to develop an economic study of a second Heber plant appears to be unjustified and duplicates work already planned by project …

During a span of 640 days, a periodicity of 1.5158 +- 0.0008 days was discovered in successive heater equilibria on Calorimeter No. 127. Measurements were taken at 12-h intervals, with occasional changes of exactly 3 or 6 h in the schedule of measurements. This schedule eliminated all other possible periods except a period of 0.150156 days. Periods of 1.519125 and 1.511283 days were discovered in data on the excess length of day as obtained by the US Naval Observatory over a period of 24 y. These two periods could equally well represent periods of 0.150189 and 0.150112 days, since measurements were obtained only once every 24 h. It is suggested that periods observed in sensitive calorimeters and in length of day data may be related. 1 reference, 6 figures, 5 tables.

The design, fabrication and installation of a geothermal pump test facility (EMPFT) at the DOE geothermal site at East Mesa, California which is capable of testing 70 to 750 horsepower downwell pumps in a controlled geothermal environment were completed. The facility consists of a skid-mounted brine control module, a 160 foot below test well section, a hydraulic turbine for power recovery, a gantry-mounted hoist for pump handling and a 3-phase, 480 VAC, 1200 amp power supply to handle pump electric requirements. Geothermal brine is supplied to the EMPTF from one of the facility wells at East Mesa. The EMPTF is designed with a great amount of flexibility. The 20-inch diameter test well can accommodate a wide variety of pumps. The controls are interactive and can be adjusted to obtain a full complement of pump operation data, or set to maintain constant conditions to allow long-term testing with a minimum of operator support. The hydraulic turbine allows the EMPTF user to recover approximately 46% of the input pump power to help defray the operating cost of the unit. The hoist is provided for material handling and pump servicing and reduces the equipment that the user must supply for pump installation, inspection …

Barber-Nichols has completed the design, fabrication and installation of a geothermal pump test facility at the DOE geothermal site at East Mesa, California which is capable of testing 70 to 750 horsepower downwell pumps in a controlled geothermal environment. The facility consists of a skid-mounted brine control module, a 160 foot below ground test well section, a hydraulic turbine for power recovery, a gantry-mounted hoist for pump handling and a 3-phase, 480 VAC, 1200 amp power supply to handle pump electric requirements. Geothermal brine is supplied to the EMPTF from one of the facility wells at East Mesa. The EMPTF is designed with a great amount of flexibility to attract the largest number of potential users. The 20-inch diameter test well can accommodate a wide variety of pumps. The controls are interactive and can be adjusted to obtain a full complement of pump operation data, or set to maintain constant conditions to allow long-term testing with a minimum of operator support. The hydraulic turbine allows the EMPTF user to recover approximately 46% of the input pump power to help defray the operating cost of the unit. The hoist is provided for material handling and pump servicing and reduces the equipment …

With VAX software and the data libraries of Henke and Biggs-Lighthill, we have created a library of atomic scattering factors f/sub 1/ and f/sub 2/ in the energy range 0.1 keV to 10.0 keV. Scattering factor values for the elements Z = 1 to Z = 94 and in the above energy range are stored in a keyed access library (key = element symbol). This library allows one to calculate reflectivity rapidly and fold it with other components in an x-ray detector channel. Additional software allows the library data to be easily extended to higher energies. Applications have so far included KB x-ray microscopes and low energy spectrometers with mirror channels.

Acquisition of low level signals from sensors mounted on the superconducting magnets in the Tandem Mirror Fusion Test Facility (MFTF-B) impose very strict requirements on the magnet signal conditioning and data acquisition system. Of the various types of sensors required, thermocouples and strain gages produce very low level outputs. These low level outputs must be accurately measured in the harsh environment of slowly varying magnetic fields, cryogenic temperatures, high vacuum, 80 kV pulse power, 60 Hz, 17 MHz and 28, 35, and 56 GHz electrical noise and possible neutron radiation. Successful measurements require careful attention to grounding, shielding, signal handling and processing in the data acquisition system. The magnet instrumentation system provides a means of effectively measuring both low level signals and high level signals from all types of sensors. Various methods involved in the design and implementation of the system for signal conditioning and data gathering will be presented.

Initial plasma potential control experiments used plates in the end fan, insulated from the end walls of TMX-U, which mapped along field lines to the plasma core (r/sub c/ less than or equal to 12.9 cm). Measurements in which these plates are shorted to ground during plugging demonstrate that floating the plates increases the buildup rate of the central cell plasma, steepens the core density profile, and affects the plasma throughout the entire cross section. Floating the plates decreases the ion radial transport rate in the core by a factor of at least 1.5. Because of these encouraging results, in the next series of experiments more plates will be added, extending to a larger radius (r/sub c/ less than or equal to 19.4 cm).

This standard covers the material, design, analysis, application, fabrication, testing, examination, quality assurance, certification, delivery, installation and inservice inspection of safety-related hydraulic and mechanical shock suppressors (snubbers) for nuclear reactors. These devices permit thermal expansion motion of components during normal plant service, but provide restraint to dynamic loads.

The possibility of using /sup 163/Dy as a low threshold solar neutrino detector is discussed. Solar neutrino absorption cross sections are calculated, and expected capture rates presented.

Fluorescence from trivalent Nd in solids is unfortunately quenched by interactions between Nd ions. Thus, laser materials with high Nd concentrations have reduced efficiencies because of this self-quenching, also known as concentration quenching. Nd self-quenching in different crystals and glasses varies considerably. We are therefore investigating this effect in a large number of materials in an effort to: (1) find those materials with long Nd fluorescent lifetimes at high Nd concentrations; and (2) elucidate the basic mechanisms of quenching and how the material structure controls its magnitude. We have concentrated on Nd-doped glasses because they provide a rich variety of structures, albeit complicated by Nd site inhomogeneities, and are easily and quickly made.

Tandem mirrors control the axial variation of the plasma potential to create electrostatic plugs that improve the axial confinement of central cell ions and, in a thermal barrier tandem mirror, control the electron axial heat flow. Measurements of the spatial and temporal variations of the plasma potential are, therefore, important to the understanding of confinement in a tandem mirror. In this paper we discuss potential formation in a thermal barrier tandem mirror and examine the diagnostics and data obtained on the TMX-U device, including measurements of the thermal barrier potential profile using a diagnostic neutral beam and charged particle energy-spectroscopy. We then describe the heavy ion beam probe and other new plasma potential diagnostics that are under development for TMX-U and MFTF-B and examine problem areas where additional diagnostic development is desirable.

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