The Mirror Fusion Test Facility is a major magnetic fusion energy project at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. An important component of this facility is the vacuum vessel, which forms the vacuum chamber. The vessel is supported on twenty-two pairs of legs that rest on reinforced concrete piers. In performing static and dynamic analyses on the vacuum vessel, we separately investigated the load distribution under gravity loads, pressure loads, electromagnetic loads, and thermal loads. We also performed sophisticated dynamic analyses to predict the structural behavior under a postulated earthquake. The modeling assumptions and analytic procedures are highlighted in this paper.

Most analytical and experimental approaches to the evaluation of fluid-structure interaction (FSI) effects in the General Electric Mark I BWR pressure suppression system treat the torus shell as rigid when the shell in real systems is flexible. This report describes linear three-dimensional finite-element analyses of one torus bay that investigated the qualitative effect of torus wall flexibility on hydrodynamic loads induced by a nominal safety relief valve (SRV) discharge. The results of these analyses support the general conclusion drawn from earlier two-dimensional analyses. The report also discusses finite-element analyses of a 3-D representation of the earlier 2-D plane-strain model of the torus shell.

This report describes a series of extended analyses requested by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to provide qualified understanding of possible fluid/structure interaction (FSI) effects for SRV teequencher test results. Three input pulses with total impulses varying by up to a factor of five are applied to two-dimensional finite-element models of the Mark I torus with shell diameter-to-thickness ratios of 0, 300, and 600. The results of these analyses support earlier conclusions that increased wall flexibility enhances attenuation of hydrodynamic loads and furthermore indicate that the magnitude of the attenuation is only weakly affected by the total impulse of the bubble pressure time-history.

The direct current plasma source of a Beckman Spectraspan IIIB emission spectrometer was enclosed in a glovebox at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in December 1982. Since that time, the system has been used for the routine determination of alloy and impurity metals in plutonium. This paper presents the systematic steps involved in developing the glovebox and gives information regarding performance of the plasma in the glovebox and the effectiveness of containment of plutonium. 8 refs., 9 figs., 3 tabs.

Fragility functions are cumulative distribution functions (cdfs) of strengths at failure. They are needed for reliability analyses of systems such as power generation and transmission systems. Subjective opinions supplement sparse test data for estimating fragility functions. Often the opinions are opinions on the percentiles of the fragility function. Subjective percentiles are likely to be less biased than opinions on parameters of cdfs. Solutions to several problems in the estimation of fragility functions are found for subjective percentiles and test data. How subjective percentiles should be used to estimate subjective fragility functions, how subjective percentiles should be combined with test data, how fragility functions for several failure modes should be combined into a composite fragility function, and how inherent randomness and uncertainty due to lack of knowledge should be represented are considered. Subjective percentiles are treated as independent estimates of percentiles. The following are derived: least-squares parameter estimators for normal and lognormal cdfs, based on subjective percentiles (the method is applicable to any invertible cdf); a composite fragility function for combining several failure modes; estimators of variation within and between groups of experts for nonidentically distributed subjective percentiles; weighted least-squares estimators when subjective percentiles have higher variation at higher percents; and …

Satellite component hardening requirements in the early 1970's led to the development of the enhanced energy sharing concept (EESC) for optical mirror coatings. The idea was to increase the survivability of aluminum coated fused silica mirrors to prompt energy deposition by interposing a thick layer of beryllium between the aluminum and the substrate. Separating the materials of higher Z by the low Z beryllium redistributes the deposited heat load over a larger volume and reduces the maximum temperature in the aluminum film. Theoretical analyses of heat transfer during and after an energy input pulse supported this concept and subsequent above-ground and underground tests confirmed the greater survivability of this mirror design. In the sections that follow we give an insight into the physical mechanisms responsible for nuclear radiation deposition and temperature rise. This is followed by a review of calculations of melt fluence for several mirror constructions taking into account only the dominant deposition mechanisms and heat flow.

The hydration of an outer layer on nuclear waste glasses is known to occur during leaching, but the actual speciation of hydrogen (as water or hydroxyl groups) in these layers has not been determined. As part of the Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations Project, we have used infrared spectroscopy to determine hydrogen speciations in three nuclear waste glass compositions (SRL-131 & 165, and PNL 76-68), which were leached at 90{sup 0}C (all glasses) or hydrated in a vapor-saturated atmosphere at 202{sup 0}C (SRL-131 only). Hydroxyl groups were found in the surface layers of all the glasses. Molecular water was found in the surface of SRL-131 and PNL 76-68 glasses that had been leached for several months in deionized water, and in the vapor-hydrated sample. The water/hydroxyl ratio increases with increasing reaction time; molecular water makes up most of the hydrogen in the thick reaction layers on vapor-phase hydrated glass while only hydroxyl occurs in the least reacted samples. Using the known molar absorptivities of water and hydroxyl in silica-rich glass the vapor-phase layer contained 4.8 moles/liter of molecular water, and 0.6 moles water in the form hydroxyl. A 15 {mu}m layer on SRL-131 glass formed by leaching at 90{sup 0}C …