This study, sponsored by the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration, addresses the environmental implications of extraction of coal in North Dakota. These implications are supported by details of the geologic and historical background of the area of focus, the lignite resources in the Fort Union coalfield portion. The particular concentration is on the four-county area of Mercer, Dunn, McLean, and Oliver where substantial coal reserves exist and a potential gasification plant site has been identified. The purposes of this extensive study are to identify the land use and environmental problems and issues associated with extraction; to provide a base of information for assessing the impacts of various levels of extraction; to examine the economics and feasibility of reclamation; and to identify research that needs to be undertaken to evaluate and to improve reclamation practices. The study also includes a description of the physical and chemical soil characteristics and hydrological and climatic factors entailed in extraction, revegetation, and reclamation procedures.

In order to provide background for introduction of a Geothermal Element into the General Plan of the County of Imperial, California, studies were conducted on resource evaluation, engineering development, environmental impact, economics, regulation, and so forth. This document is a collection of reviews of engineering matters pertinent to the County's plan. Briefly, the contents include discussions of drilling practice, costs, and land requirements. Brief notes on reinjection and on fluid transmission follow. The section on power plants attempts to give scaling relationships for land area, costs, and performance, according to size and reservoir temperature. The problem of cooling power plants is important, particularly in an arid agricultural area. Cooling requirements, water availability, and water suitability are discussed in turn. The question of the interactions of the hydrologic cycle, withdrawals for cooling, and the Salton Sea is covered in a separate EQL document. Finally, there are sections devoted to nonelectrical uses for the geothermal resources, including production of fresh water and chemicals. The direct uses for geothermal heat are not included.

The selection and design criteria for a cold-crucible melting system for fuel hull consolidation are defined. Appraisals of the cold-crucible processes that are available are presented. (LK)

This is the first in a series of reports evaluating environmental control technologies applicable to the coal-to-electricity process. The technologies are described and evaluated from an engineering and cost perspective based upon the best available information obtained from utility experience and development work in progress. Environmental control regulations and the health effects of pollutants are also reviewed. Emphasis is placed primarily upon technologies that are now in use. For SO/sub 2/ control, these include the use of low sulfur coal, cleaned coal, or flue-gas desulfurization systems. Electrostatic precipitators and fabric filters used for the control of particulate matter are analyzed, and combustion modifications for NO/sub x/ control are described. In each area, advanced technologies still in the development stage are described briefly and evaluated on the basis of current knowledge. Fluidized bed-combustion (FBC) is a near-term technology that is discussed extensively in the report. The potential for control of SO/sub 2/ and NO/sub x/ emissions by use of FBC is analyzed, as are the resulting solid waste disposal problems, cost estimates, and its potential applicability to electric utility systems.

The development of a general technique of analyzing well tests with variable flow rates is reported. The variable flow is approximated by a series of sequential straight line segments of arbitrary length and slope. (MHR)

This is the first in a series of reports evaluating environmental control technologies applicable to the coal-to-electricity process. The technologies are described and evaluated from an engineering and cost perspective based upon the best available information obtained from utility experience and development work in progress. Environmental control regulations and the health effects of pollutants are also reviewed. Emphasis is placed primarily upon technologies that are now in use. For SO/sub 2/ control, these include the use of low sulfur coal, cleaned coal, or flue-gas desulfurization systems. Electrostatic precipitators and fabric filters used for the control of particulate matter are analyzed, and combustion modifications for NO/sub x/ control are described. In each area, advanced technologies still in the development stage are described briefly and evaluated on the basis of current knowledge. Fluidized-bed combustion (FBC) is a near-term technology that is discussed extensively in the report. The potential for control of SO/sub 2/ and NO/sub x/ emissions by use of FBC is analyzed, as are the resulting solid waste disposal problems, cost estimates, and its potential applicability to electric utility systems. Volume II presents the detailed technology analyses complete with reference citations. This same material is given in condensed form in Volume …

The objective of this project has been the production of a data library suitable for calculating the buildup of fission product nuclides during the operation of a thermal power reactor. This has been accomplished by reducing the fission product data from the fourth version of the national reference nuclear data base--ENDF/B into a series of linearized decay chains and calculating the effective yields and cross sections of the relevant nuclides. Two versions of the fission product library have been prepared: an 84 chain master library and a reduced 12 chain library, both of which can be used as input for the computer program CINDER. A users manual for an upgraded version of the burnup program CINDER (renamed EPRI-CINDER) is presented.

The Appalachian region has many rural areas of limited accessibility. To improve the accessibility of the rural carless (poor, elderly, young, infirm) public transportation has often been suggested. The objective of the research is to develop a low-cost methodology for determining latent demand for public transportation in rural areas, i.e., to develop a data base of key socio-economic, highway network, and geographic variables which can be used to estimate latent demand along possible rural-transit routes. Data were collected on existing rural-transit operations in Planning Region VI of West Virginia (Monongalia, Taylor, Marion, Harrison, Doddridge, and Preston counties) by means of an on-off survey and an on-board questionnaire survey. Using these as indicators of demand, this information will be related to census data for the affected region to determine if a simplified modeling approach to estimate rural public transportation demand is feasible.

The test facilities (the geothermal drilling vessel and the geothermal drill-bit seal tester) were completed and de-bugged, and the first tests were run on full-scale research drill bits and drill-bit seals. In addition, more materials information was gathered, and a number of additional seals of high-temperature elastomer materials were obtained for testing. Maurer Engineering has also been active in the design and procurement of candidate high-temperature drill-bit seals for testing, and has done a literature and patent search on the problem of drill-bit insert retention. Reed Tool Co. has cooperated in the fabrication of drill bits for testing, and has offered consultation on certain seal designs.

A theoretical model of the hydrolysis of microcline by a hydrothermal solution has been determined for a closed system at constant temperature. Hypothetical solution compositions and temperatures were chosen to match the known geothermal system at Roosevelt Hot Springs, Utah. The calculated reaction paths indicate that the overall reaction process is an exchange of potassium from the reactant mineral, microcline, for hydrogen from the solution. Aluminum is nearly conserved among solid phases. The amount of microcline reacted per kilogram of solution before overall equilibrium is reached is a function of temperature and inituial solution pH. Since the system is closed and at constant temperature natural conditions are not reproduced well enough to apply the model as a geothermometer. The reaction paths suggest qualitative models of alteration mineral zoning patterns that are similar to zoning at Roosevelt Hot Springs, Utah; Steamboat Springs, Nevada, and Butte, Montana. The models presented view alteration zoning as a function of temperature and pH gradients within homogeneous host rocks where microcline and quartz are abundant.

This study analyzes the potential economic impact of policies which would contain or halt the introduction of additional nuclear electricity plants as well as the operation of currently existing nuclear plants. First a Base Case set of energy and economic projections for 1985 is estimated under the assumption that by 1985 174.2 gigawatts of nuclear electric capacity will be available to the economy. Then the impacts of four potential nuclear policies on these Base Case economic and energy projections are estimated. Two of the four nuclear policies would decrease the expected 1975 to 1985 growth rate of nuclear capacity expansion, one would keep nuclear capacity in 1985 at the present 36.1 gigawatt amount, and one would phase out all nuclear capacity by 1985.

The test facilities (the geothermal drilling vessel and the geothermal drill-bit seal tester) were completed and de-bugged, and the first tests were run on full-scale research drill bits and drill-bit seals. In addition, more materials information was gathered, and a number of additional seals of high-temperature elastomer materials were obtained for testing. Maurer Engineering, on a subcontract basis, has also been active in the design and procurement of candidate high-temperature drill-bit seals for testing, and has done a literature and patent search on the problem of drill-bit insert retention. Reed Tool Co. has cooperated in the fabrication of drill bits for testing, and has offered consultation on certain seal designs.

A detailed investigation is reported of cuttings recovered from three wells in the Salton Sea geothermal field located at the southeast end of the Salton Sea, California. The wells, Magmamax No. 2, Magmamax No. 3, and Woolsey No. 1 penetrate 1340 m, 1200 m, and 730 m, respectively, of altered sandstones, siltstones, and shales of the Colorado River delta. The wells are located at the crest of a thermal anomaly, reach a maximum of 320/sup 0/C at 1070 m, and produce a brine containing approximately 250,000 mg/1 of dissolved solids.

Workshop proceedings included the following: (1) During the Overview Session some papers, among others, discussed 'Geothermal Reservoir Engineering Research' and 'Geothermal Reservoir Engineering in Industry'; (2) Session I, Reservoir Physics, included papers on 'Steam Zone Temperature Gradients at the Geysers' and 'Water Influx in a Steam Producing Well'; (3) Session II, Well Testing, included papers on 'Borehole Geophysics in Geothermal Wells--Problems and Progress' and 'Herber-Pressure Interference Study'; (4) Session III, Field Development, included papers on 'A Reservoir Engineering Study of the East Mesa KGRA' and 'Determining the Optimal Rate of Geothermal Energy Extraction'; (5) Session IV, Well Stimulation, included papers on 'Fluid Flow Through a Large Vertical Crack in the Earth's Crust' and 'Explosive Stimulation of Geothermal Wells'; and (6) Session V, Modeling, included papers on 'Steam Transport in Porous Media' and 'Large-Scale Geothermal Field Parameters and Convection Theory.'

Noise levels from the cooling towers of clustered and dispersed arrays of cooling towers for large power plants are presented, and a procedure is presented for the prediction of noise levels at some distance from the rim of a single isolated tower. Two types of cooling systems, namely mechanical-draft wet and natural-draft wet cooling towers, are considered, which are assumed to act as the sole source of noise generation in power plants. The procedure for the prediction of noise levels from single isolated towers is then extended to determine noise levels at some point on the site boundary of energy centers being proposed for the future. It is concluded that if one wishes to minimize the area impacted by objectionable noise levels, then for concentrated power centers either mechanical-draft or natural-draft towers may be chosen, while for more widely dispersed centers natural-draft systems must be recommended. Special emphasis has been placed upon the A-weighted sound levels, which correlate well with human sound perception. One dimensional free wave spreading and atmospheric absorption are the attenuation factors taken into account.

The acquisition, generation and analysis of a teleseismic data base for the Imperial Valley are reported. Travel-time data were generated for 176 earthquakes at widely different azimuths and epicentral distances with respect to the 16 seismic stations in the Imperial Valley array (IVA). Several programs for preprocessing this data base, including error analysis routines, were written and applied to the teleseismic travel-time data.

A complete system designed to measure, with high precision, changes in heat transfer rates due to fouling and corrosion of simulated heat exchanger tubes, at sea and under OTEC conditions is described. All aspects of the system are described in detail, including theory, mechanical design, electronics design, assembly procedures, test and calibration, operating procedures, laboratory results, field results, and data analysis programs.

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A measurement of the elastic cross section dsigma/d..cap omega.. was made for the reaction ..pi../sup +/ + /sup 12/C ..-->.. ..pi../sup +/ + /sup 12/C with 142 MeV pions at ten angles ranging from 35 to 85/sup 0/ in the laboratory. This experiment was done at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility. A double focusing magnetic spectrometer observed a cylindrical styrofoam target. The resulting momentum spectra were recorded by an array of nineteen totally depleted surface barrier detectors located at the spectrometer's focal plane. The spectra from the styrofoam were composed of peaks representing proton elastic, carbon elastic, carbon inelastic, and carbon quasi-elastic channels. A function made of Gaussians representing the two body channels and a distribution representing the quasi-elastic channel was fit to the data using a nonlinear least squares algorithm. The ratio of the carbon elastic to proton elastic cross sections was calculated from the areas of the corresponding Gaussians and then multiplied by the proton elastic cross section of Bugg et al eliminating several sources of systematic errors such as beam normalization. The differential cross sections were found to have the usual diffraction structure with a forward peak and a minimum near 55/sup 0/. Finally, the carbon …

ESECT and EMAP are subroutines which provide a computer algorithm for mapping arbitrary meshes onto rectangular meshes in cylindrical (r,z) geometry. Input consists of the lines defining the rectangular mesh and the coordinates of the arbitrary mesh, which are assumed to be joined by straight lines. Output consists of the intersection volumes with designation of common mesh zones. The ESECT and EMAP routines do not comprise a ''free-standing'' code but, instead, are intended for inclusion in existing codes for which one mesh structure (typically Lagrangian) needs to be mapped onto an Eulerian mesh. Such mappings are of interest in coupled hydrodynamic and neutronic calculations. Exact expressions for the volumes of rotation (about z-axis) generated by the planar mesh intersection areas are used. Intersection points of the two meshes are computed and mapped onto corresponding regions on the rectangular mesh. Intersection points with the same regional indices are recorded into multilaterals, and the multilaterals are triangulated to facilitate computation of the intersection volumes. Dimension statements within ESECT/EMAP presently allow for rectangular and arbitrary meshes of 10k and 3.6k grid points. Scaling of all arrays to suit individual applications is easily effected. Computations of intersection volumes generated by overlapping 10k rectangular and …

The research reported here addresses the microstructural modification of ferritic Fe-Mn alloys to improve low temperature properties. The alloys Fe-12Mn-0.2Ti and Fe-8Mn-0.2Ti were specifically studied. In the as-quenched condition the alloys have ductile-brittle transition temperatures near -50/sup 0/C and room temperature respectively. The brittleness of Fe-12Mn is due to the intrusion of an intergranular fracture mode; that of Fe-8Mn is due to quasi-cleavage. The transition temperature of the 12Mn alloy may be suppressed by annealing in the two-phase (..cap alpha.. + ..gamma..) range to introduce a distribution of austenite or by grain refinement through deformation processing. In the latter case an excellent combination of strength and toughness is obtained at liquid nitrogen temperature. The 12Mn alloy may not be thermally processed to fine grain size because of the malevolent influence of the epsilon-martensite phase present in the as-quenched structure. No such phase is present in the 8Mn alloy. This alloy may be thermally processed to ultrafine grain size with a concommitant marked improvement in low temperature mechanical properties.

High-cycle fatigue data for both annealed, and normalized and tempered 2/sup 1///sub 4/ Cr--1 Mo steel were obtained from load-controlled tests at 1000/sup 0/F and compared to strain-controlled low-cycle results from the literature. In the range of cycles where the two sets of data overlap, good correlations were obtained provided that the high-cycle stress values were converted to equivalent strains using appropriate cycle stress-strain curves. The fatigue strengths for both heat treatments were strongly dependent on the carbon level indicating that any carbon losses during fabrication or service are likely to detrimentally affect the fatigue resistance of reactor components. Specimen geometry is also shown to be an important consideration in the production of conservative fatigue data. Fatigue testing at ultrasonic frequencies yields much lower endurance limits when compared to normal high-cycle push-pull tests at 1000/sup 0/F and this is possibly connected with localized deformation within the sample.

The relationships between microstructure, mechanical, and fracture properties were investigated for thick sections (up to 15 cm) following air cooling and tempering in a silicon-modified 4340, 300-M. This steel, which has high pearlite hardenability achieves high strength levels after very slow cooling. Slow cooling also leads to high levels of retained austenite (up to 30 percent). Properties were determined for microstructures equivalent to those developed through air cooling and tempering of 2.5, 5.0, 10.0 and 15 cm thick plates. Simulated slow cooling was performed on small specimens to model the thicker sections. Fracture toughness and Charpy V-notch behavior were used to evaluate fracture properties while both round and flat tensile specimens were used to measure mechanical properties. Emphasis was placed on determining the role of the austenite on these properties. The morphology, amount, and mechanical stability of the austenite were characterized using transmission electron microscopy and magnetic saturation techniques. It was found that the stability of the austenite, which changed with tempering treatment, had a major influence on the fracture properties. Specifically, if the austenite was stable the material had good fracture resistance, while if the austenite was unstable the fracture toughness was poor. Destabilization of the austenite after tempering …

TIMED is a computer program designed to calculate cumulated radioactivity in the various source organs at various times after radionuclide deposition. TIMED embodies a system of differential equations which describes activity transfer in the lungs, gastrointestinal tract, and other organs of the body. This system accounts for delay of transfer of activity between compartments of the body and radioactive daughters.