Report containing zero power (<1 kw) Dry Critical Experiments that were "to be conducted in the EBR-II Reactor prior to filling the Primary System with sodium coolant" (p. 7.) The two primary objectives of these experiments were to determine how well the system performed without sodium coolant and to "determine and/or verify certain operational data to permit modification or improvement of the system (neutron shield, instrumentation, etc.) prior to the introduction of sodium into the system" (p. 7.)

Report discussing state of the art design and operation of heat transfer and hydraulics equipment and technology in boiling water reactor power plants.

From introduction: "The report is preliminary. At the time of writing, the status of the BORAX V project is that design of the reactor buildings and plant, done in collaboration with the architect-engineer with the architect-engineer has been completed and construction has just started; however, the mechanical design of the fuel and cores is still tentative."

Report describing "an AC-operated portable scintillation spectrometer consisting of a preamplifier, a linear pulse amplifier, a single-channel pulse-height analyzer, a linear count-rate meter, a scaler, and a high-voltage power supply. The operation and performance of the circuits are discussed" (p. 3).

From Abstract: "Investigations were made of alternate methods of bonding fuel shapes and the use of alternate core alloys in flat plates. Alternations and additions were made to development facilities needed to fabricate roll-clad plates for the EBWR core. Pilot production of EWBR-type plates proved that the plate cladding process could be adapted to production facilities."

From Introduction: "With the acquisition by the Laboratory of a Control Data 3600 computer in the fall of 1963, a joint reprogramming project was undertaken by the Laboratory's Applied Mathematics Division and the Control Data Corporation to develop one - and two-dimensional diffusion-theory and Sn transport-theory programs for the CDC-3600. The XLIBIT code described in this report was developed as a part of this project. XLIBIT is a CDC-3600 program designed to: 1) Prepare a cross-section library tape. 2) Modify an existing cross-section library tape. 3) Duplicate an existing cross-section library tape. 4) Print all or a portion of the cross-section data on the library tape. Punch cross-section decks for all or a portion of the data on the library tape. The decks produced are identical to those used in pertaining the tape."

Report issued by the Argonne National Laboratory discussing the heat generation of irradiated uranium. Methods of heat production in uranium are presented. This report includes tables, and illustrations.

Report issued by the Argonne National Laboratory discussing a summary report of work completed between April and October, 1958. Summaries of the studies conducted and work completed are presented. This report includes tables, and illustrations.

Results of two failure experiments using LMFBR-type fuel during simulated unprotected transient overpower accidents are reported and analyzed. In both experiments, a single fresh fuel pin in a Mark0IIA loop was subjected to a temperature-limited, step-reactivity irradiation in the TREAT reactor. Total energy was 490 MJ in Test H2 and in Test E4.

An analytical investigation of certain problems in the area of subassembly-to-subassembly failure propagation in LMFBR's is described. Existing analyses of the response of the adjacent subassembly duct to mechanical loads are reviewed and summarized, and major uncertainties are identified. Additional analyses of the response of the adjacent subassembly to certain thermal loads are presented in two parts. In the first part, the effect of an external heat flux on duct melting and thermal stresses is considered. The external heat fluxes required to produce duct melting or excessive thermal stresses are compared with the heat fluxes that might be expected from the molten fuel deposited on the duct wall. In the second part, a thermal-hydraulic study is performed to investigate the effect of the external heat flux on the coolant temperature distribution in the adjacent subassembly. Both normal subassembly geometry and distorted subassembly geometry are considered. A detailed model of the coolant region formed by the heated duct wall and the displaced fuel pins is also analyzed to determine whether there are severe temperature gradients.

Report on studies of advanced batteries, aqueous batteries, advanced fuel cells, coal utilization, methodologies for recovery of energy from municipal waste, solid and liquid desiccants, nuclear technology related to waste management, and physical chemistry of selected materials in environments simulating those of fission, fusion, and other energy systems.

This paper describes an alternative library of elementary functions prepared for use with the standard Fortran compiler under 4.2 BSD UNIX on a VAX 11/780. The library, written in C and based on the book ''Software Manual for the Elementary Functions'' by Cody and Waite, offers improved accuracy over the standard system library, as well as additional capabilities. Listings and output from the ELEFUNT suite of test programs are included in the appendix.

Heat transfer in evacuated-tube solar collectors with heat-pipe absorbers is compared with that for similar collectors with flow-through absorbers. In systems that produce hot water or other heated fluids, the heat-pipe absorber suffers a heat transfer penalty compared with the flow-through absorber, but in many cases the penalty can be minimized by proper design at the heat-pipe condenser and system manifold. The heat transfer penalty decreases with decreasing collector heat loss coefficient, suggesting that evacuated tubes with optical concentration are more appropriate for use with heat pipes than evacuated or non-evacuated flat-plate collectors. When the solar collector is used to drive an absorption chiller, the heat-pipe absorber has better heat transfer characteristics than the flow-through absorbers.

This report documents the design considerations and test results of two heat extraction systems for the ANL Research Salt Gradient Solar Pond (RSGSP). Since operation began in November 1980, the RSGSP has been used to study a wide variety of solar pond phenomena, and the behavior of the RSGSP without heat extraction has been well characterized. Heat extraction equipment was installed in the spring of 1984, with heat extraction experiments conducted the following summer and fall and in the fall of 1985. The experiments simulated the use of the solar pond for grain drying. The effects of both heat extraction methods on the stability of the salt gradient are investigated.

In 1973, Argonne National Laboratory began consolidating and upgrading its plutonium-handling operations with the result that the research fuel-fabrication facility located in Building 350 was shut down and declared surplus. Sixteen of the twenty-three gloveboxes which comprised the system were disassembled and relocated for reuse or placed into controlled storage during 1974 but, due to funding constraints, full-scale decommissioning did not start until 1978. Since that time the fourteen remaining contaminated gloveboxes, including all internal and external equipment as well as the associated ventilation systems, have been assayed for radioactive content, dismantled, size reduced to fit acceptable packaging and sent to a US Department of Energy (DOE) transuranic retrievable-storage site or to a DOE low-level nuclear waste burial ground. The project which was completed in 1983, required 5 years to accomplish, 32 man years of effort, produced some 540 cubic meters (19,000 cubic ft) of radioactive waste of which 60% was TRU, and cost 2.4 million dollars.

The influence of gamma irradiation on the reaction of actinide-doped borosilicate glass (SRL 165) in a saturated tuff environment has been studied in a series of tests lasting up to 56 days. The following conclusions were reached. The reaction of, and subsequent actinide release from, the glass depends on the dynamic interaction between radiolysis effects, which cause the solution pH to become more acidic; glass reaction, which drives the pH more basic; and test component interactions that may extract glass components from solution. The use of large gamma irradiation dose rates to accelerate reactions that may occur in an actual repository radiation field may affect this dynamic balance by unduly influencing the mechanism of the glass-water reaction. Comparisons between the present results and data obtained by reacting similar glasses using MCC-1 and NNWSI rock cup procedures indicate that the irradiation conditions used in the present experiments do not dramatically influence the reaction rate of the glass.

The performance of programs executing on vector computers is significantly improved when the number of accesses to memory can be reduced. Unrolling Fortran DO loops, followed by substitutions and eliminations in the unrolled code, can reduce the number of loads and stores. The unrolling transformation and associated transformations of Fortran DO loops are characterized, and a set of software tools to carry out these transformations is described. The tools use the machinery available in Toolpack and have been integrated into that environment. The results of applying these tools to a collection of linear algebra subroutines are included.

Proper charging is essential to achieve maximum performance and life of lead-acid batteries. Excessive overcharging gives rise to increased battery temperature, gassing rates, electrolyte maintenance, and component corrosion, whereas repeated undercharging causes a gradual decrease in battery capacity, which often becomes irreversible. To develop an optimal charge procedure, the relation between battery available capacity, applied overcharge, and the depth-of-discharge (DOD) level prior to charging needed to be established.

The magnetically confined kinetic-energy storage ring (MCKESR) is a new, fundamental type of energy-storage device. Energy is stored as kinetic energy in mass circulated at high velocity around a circular loop. The constraining force necessary to keep the circulating ring from flying apart is provided by radial, inwardly directed forced exerted along the perimeter of the loop by magnetic fields. The magnets and ring are contained in a tunnel, which may be buried in the ground. Levitational support against gravity is also provided by magnetic fields. Energy insertion or extraction is similar to that for a synchronous motor.

The branching fraction in the decay of the fission product ⁸⁵m-krypton⁸⁵m to the ground state ⁸⁵krypton (10.75 y) was measured relative to the total decay to both ⁸⁵krypton and ⁸⁵Rb. Samples of uranium-235 were highly irradiated in a high-flux reactor and dissolved. ⁸⁵Rb was measured by isotope-dilution mass spectrometry, and the ⁸⁵krypton was counted in GM tubes the counting efficiencies of which were calibrated with a standardized ⁸⁵krypton gas of known disintegration rate. The branching fraction measured with both a low-burnup sample and a high-burnup sample was 0.2160 +/- 0.0019, the largest error arising from the uncertainty in the caibration of the standardized gas.

The fraction of delayed neutrons beta in slow-neutron beams from a uranium-238 pulsed spallation neutron source is 0.0053 for 300 MeV protons. This measurement appears to be the first one of this quantity. The result indicates that, for most classes of measurements, the delayed-neutron background in time-of-flight instruments will be unimportant, and places constraints on the physics description of spallation targets. The measurement was performed at the prototype pulsed spallation neutron source, ZING-P', at Argonne National laboratory.

Nuclear material inventory verification techniques for large split-table type fast critical assemblies are being studied under this program. Emphasis has been given to techniques that minimize fuel handling in order to reduce facility down time and radiation exposure to the inventory team. The techniques studied include autoradiography, reactivity, and spectral index measurements.

Quarterly report of the Argonne National Laboratory Chemical Engineering Division regarding activities related to properties and handling of radioactive materials, operation of nuclear reactors, and other relevant research.

Quarterly report discussing fuel cell research and development work at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). This report describes efforts on development of molten carbonate fuel cells directed toward seeking alternative cathode materials to NiO. Based on an investigation of the thermodynamically stable phases formed under cathode conditions with a number of transition metal oxides, synthesis of prospective alternative cathode materials and doping of these materials to promote electronic conductivity is under way.