Methods used to control the radiological impact of the nuclear fuel cycle are described. This control is exercised through the application of a series of federal laws and regulations that are used as the basis for licensing nuclear facilities. The control is exercised more directly by the use of radwaste treatment equipment at the nuclear facilities to limit the release of radioactive materials. Federal laws and regulations are summarized and their applications in licensing actions are discussed. Radiological doses from materials released from licensed facilities are compared with doses from natural background. A series of cost/benefit engineering surveys are being made to determine the cost and effectiveness of radwaste systems for decreasing the release of radioactive materials from model fuel cycle facilities and to determine the benefits in terms of reduction in dose commitment to individuals and populations in surrounding areas.

A two-phase turbine, using a low-quality steam-water mixture as a working fluid, was designed, built, and tested in the laboratory. Two-phase fluids are found naturally in most geothermal fields throughout the world and can also be used in the conversion of waste heat from industrial sources. The thermodynamic and fluid-dynamic properties of such fluid mixtures are reviewed, with specific reference to the selection and design of an appropriate expander. Various types of practically realizable expanders are considered, and the choice of a single-stage, axial-flow, impulse turbine is explained. Also the basic design parameters, including sizing and blade and nozzle geometry, are described.

Crack initiation and growth in the Charpy V-notch test are investigated for controlled deflections of the specimen applied both by slow bending and by impact. Charpy test specimens were deformed to various deflections, heat-tinted to mark the crack extensions, and broken apart at low temperature to allow measurement of the crack extensions. These measurements provide estimates of crack initiation as defined by various criteria. The loading point at which crack initiation occurs depends on the particular definition being used for ''initiation,'' but in all cases it is well before the maximum load is reached. When initiation is defined as the first observable micro-initiation away from the ductile blunting of the notch root, the experimental results are in good agreement with computer modeling predictions.

Inertial confinement fusion requires production of power plant grade targets at high rates and process yield. A review of present project specifications and techniques to produce targets is discussed with special emphasis on automating the processes and combining them with an electrostatic transport and suspension system through the power plant target factory.

The RAPIER B Amplifier electron beam system has been completed and produces 36kJ of 450 keV electrons in a 150 ns pulse to be used for pumping a KrF laser amplifier. The operating characteristics of the system have been studied. The efficiency of conversion of energy stored in the Marx generator to electron beam output is 72 +- 3% including an 89% designed transfer efficiency. The system is triggered electrically with a 150 ns delay from the command trigger to machine output. The rms jitter for the six individual modules range from 1.6 to 3.9 ns and the average timing difference between the earliest and latest module output is 12 ns. Film dosimetry indicates no observable interaction between the magnetically isolated beams in the module diodes and fluorescence measurements do not indicate strong interaction in the gas filled laser cell. Current probe measurements show no significant change in beam size during the output pulse. Energy deposition profiles agree reasonably with Monte Carlo calculations up to pressures of 1.5 atm.

The determination of the response of copper stabilizers to neutron irradiation in fusion-reactor superconducting magnets requires information in four areas: (1) neutron flux and spectrum determination, (2) resistivity changes at zero field, (3) resistivity changes at field, and (4) the cyclic irradiation and annealing. Applications of our current understanding of the limits of copper stabilizers in fusion-reactor designs are explored in two examples. Recommendations for future additions to the data base are discussed.

Research needs include, but are not limited to: measurement of basic thermodynamic data at elevated temperatures for species identified by modelers as potentially important; evaluation of substances which control or limit precipitation and/or nucleation kinetics; sorption studies specifically designed to provide data needed for modeling. This includes the rate of sorption, desorption, and the characterization of the solid and aqueous phases; site-mixing models and thermodynamic data for secondary minerals that form solid solutions; the development of standard techniques for measuring rate laws for precipitation and dissolution kinetics; and measurement of rate laws describing redox kinetics, dissolution, and precipitation involving aqueous species and solid phases of interest to geochemical modelers.

Gamma spectroscopy is used to determine 235U density and enrichment in U-Al fuel tubes containing recycled fuel. A collimated HPGe Y-detector views the tube surface, such that U-Al disk volumes of 6.35 mm diameter and approximately 1.0 mm thickness are examined. The Y-activities from 232U and 235U, along with the tube design parameters, are used to deduce the attenuation-corrected results. Respective density and enrichment variations of less than 1 percent and less than 0.6e percent were measurable with 2000 sec counting time per tube location. Such measurements are useful for certifying tube quality and characterizing problems associated with blending the U-Al alloy.

The AM Her systems are widely believed to be cataclysmic variable systems in which the white dwarf has a magnetic field strong enough to lock the white dwarf to the companion star. The magnetic field channels the accretion flow to the magnetic polar caps of the white dwarf where the gas passes through a strong shock and the accretion energy is released. The continuum spectra of the AM Her systems have three major components: the ir/optical component, the EUV/soft x-ray component, and the hard x-ray component. Models of the AM Her systems generally agree that the hard x-rays are free-free radiation emitted by the hot postshock gas and that the optical component is electron cyclotron emission from the postshock gas. The soft x-ray component is less well understood, primarily because it is very soft (temperature less than 100 eV) and thus is very difficult to measure accurately with current instruments. Models agree that some soft x-ray emission will arise from hard x-rays and cyclotron radiation that is absorbed at the stellar surface and re-radiated, but other sources of soft x-rays have also been suggested. Thus it is important to develop models for the soft x-ray spectrum. This paper presents some …

A scenario for the central engine of AGN has been developed consisting of a massive black hole (MBH) onto which gas accretes through an accretion disk. The accretion disk radiates the observed optical and ultraviolet continua. Surrounding the MBH is a nonthermal source which produces the infrared and soft x-ray continua by synchrotron emission, and the x-ray spectrum by inverse Compton scattering of the optical-ultraviolet photons from the accretion disk. Previously we modeled the accretion disk (M.A.M.) and nonthermal source (D.L.B.) separately, and here we combine the two models to form a unified description of the AGN engine. This combined model can be inverted to determine source parameters from observed spectra. A group of AGN for which multiband observations exist can then be modeled to: demonstrate the validity of the combined model for a large number of objects; establish the range of parameter values that describe the source; and search for any correlations between source description and type.

In a nine month run with a 150 GeV proton beam and a conventional double horn neutrino beam aimed at the Soudan 2 detector, a search could be made for neutrino oscillations in the mode /nu//sub /mu// /yields/ /nu//sub /tau//. If evidence for oscillations is not found, new limits could be set extending the /Delta/m/sup 2/ excluded region from .3 eV/sup 2/ to .004 eV/sup 2/ at 90% confidence level. 7 refs., 4 figs.

Soudan 2 is an 1100-ton tracking calorimeter which is being constructed to search for nucleon decay. The detector consists of finely segmented iron instrumented with drift tubes, and records three spatial coordinates and dE/dx for every gas crossing. Excellent event-reconstruction capability, particle identification, and muon sign and direction determination give superior rejection of the neutrino background to nucleon decay in many modes. The first 275 tons of Soudan 2 is operating and a charged-particle test beam calibration is under way. Construction is scheduled for completion in 1992. 4 refs., 6 figs., 2 tabs.

The amount of data generated by CT scanners is enormous, making the reconstruction operation slow, especially for 3-D and limited-data scans requiring iterative algorithms. The Radon transform and its inverse, commonly used for CT image reconstruction from projections, are computationally burdensome for today's single-processor computer architectures. If the processing times for the forward and inverse Radon transforms were comparatively small, a large set of new CT algorithms would become feasible, especially those for 3-D and iterative tomographic image reconstructions. In addition to image reconstruction, a fast Radon Transform Computer'' could be naturally applied in other areas of multidimensional signal processing including 2-D power spectrum estimation, modeling of human perception, Hough transforms, image representation, synthetic aperture radar processing, and others. A high speed processor for this operation is likely to motivate new algorithms for general multidimensional signal processing using the Radon transform. In the proposed workshop paper, we will first describe interpolation schemes useful in computation of the discrete Radon transform and backprojection and compare their errors and hardware complexities. We then will evaluate through statistical means the fixed-point number system required to accept and generate 12-bit input and output data with acceptable error using the linear interpolation scheme selected. These …

This report presents the closing talk of the workshop on AGS heavy ion program held at BNL March 5--7, 1990. The emphasis is on new questions posed by the new data presented at this meeting with emphasis on the pion-proton puzzle. 10 refs., 1 fig., 1 tab.

Spectral broadening of single-frequency laser pulses by optical cross-phase modulation (XPM) with chaotic laser pulses in birefringent single-mode optical fibers is investigated numerically and results are compared with experiments. By this process we have generated laser pulses of variable bandwidth (1--25 {Angstrom}) at the fundamental wavelength (1053 nm) for amplification in high power solid-state Nd:glass lasers used for inertial confinement fusion research. Simulations indicate that a temporally smooth XPM pulse can be generated with intensity fluctuations of less than 10% and spectral width greater than 50 {Angstrom} using a short length ({approximately}5 m) of special low dispersion and low birefringence fiber, e.g. D = 10 ps/nm-km (normal dispersion) and {Delta}n = 2 {times} 10{sup {minus}5}. Readily available fibers of similar length, with parameters of D = 40 ps/nm-km and {Delta}n = 6 {times} 10{sup {minus}5}, can give spectral widths exceeding 25 {Angstrom}, but the noise will range from 25 to 60%. Broadband laser pulses generated by XPM are now routinely used at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for active smoothing of the laser irradiance on targets by the technique of smoothing-by-spectral dispersion.

A mobile laser remote sensing system is being developed for multispectral UV fluorescence detection of vapor, liquid, and solid effluents. TM system uses laser wavelengths between 250 and 400 nm to excite UV fluorescence spectra that can be used to detect and identify species in multicomponent chemical mixtures. With a scanning mirror assembly, the system is designed to map chemical concentrations with a range resolution of {approximately}5 m. In this paper we describe the optical detection system (scanning mirror assembly, 76 cm diameter collection telescope, relay optics, spectrometers, and detectors) associated data acquisition and control electronics. We also describe unique diagnostic software that is used for instrument setup and control.

Performance assessments are required for low-level radioactive waste disposal facilities to demonstrate compliance with the performance objectives, consider human exposures from water, air, and inadvertent intruder pathways. Among these, the groundwater pathway analysis usually involves complex numerical simulations with results which are often difficult to verify and interpret. This paper presents a technique to identify and simplify the essential parts of the groundwater analysis. The transport process of radionuclides including infiltration of precipitation, leachate generation, and advection and dispersion in the groundwater is divided into several steps. For each step, a simple analytical model is constructed and refined to capture the dominant phenomena represented in the complex analysis included in a site-specific performance assessment. This step-wise approach provides a means for gaining insights into the transport process and obtaining reasonable estimates of relevant quantities for facility design and site evaluation.

Radioactive material packages containing fiberboard insulation have been subjected to Hypothetical Accident Condition (HAC) thermal tests for many years. Historically, the packages` thermal performance has always been difficult to grasp. A package designer needs to understand the effects of temperature and pyrolysis on the rate of heat transfer and performance. This paper describes in detail the one-dimensional HAC thermal tests performed on fiberboard to understand the effects of pyrolysis, its char and its gas products. The tests were conducted by the Packaging and Transportation Group at the Savannah River Site (SRS). Test fixtures were assembled at SRS and thermal testing conducted in the Radiant Heat Facility at the Sandia National Laboratories. Descriptions of the test fixtures are provided, as well as the time dependent temperature profiles. In addition, lessons learned are discussed.

The design, installation and performance data of a 20 W pulsed laser system for the 3 meter Shane telescope at the Lick Observatory is presented.

The intermetallic compound, molybdenum disilicide (MoSi{sub 2}) is being considered for high temperature structural applications because of its high melting point and superior oxidation resistance at elevated temperatures. The lack of high temperature strength, creep resistance and low temperature ductility has hindered its progress for structural applications. Plasma spraying of coatings and structural components of MoSi{sub 2}-based composites offers an exciting processing alternative to conventional powder processing methods due to superior flexibility and the ability to tailor properties. Laminate, discontinuous and in situ reinforced composites have been produced with secondary reinforcements of Ta, Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}, SiC, Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} and Mo{sub 5}Si{sub 3}. Laminate composites, in particular, have been shown to improve the damage tolerance of MoSi{sub 2} during high temperature melting operations. A review of research which as been performed at Los Alamos National Laboratory on plasma spraying of MoSi{sub 2}-based composites to improve low temperature fracture toughness, thermal shock resistance, high temperature strength and creep resistance will be discussed.

The authors conducted perforation experiments with 4340 Rc 38 and T-250 maraging steel, long rod projectiles and HY-100 steel target plates at striking velocities between 80 and 370 m/s. Flat-end rod projectiles with lengths of 89 and 282 mm were machined to nominally 30-mm-diameter so they could be launched from a 30-mm-powder gun without sabots. The target plates were rigidly clamped at a 305-mm-diameter and had nominal thicknesses of 5.3 and 10.5 mm. Four sets of experiments were conducted to show the effects of rod length and plate thickness on the measured ballistic limit and residual velocities. In addition to measuring striking and residual projectile velocities, they obtained framing camera data on the back surfaces of several plates that showed clearly the plate deformation and plug ejection process. They also present a beam model that exhibits qualitatively the experimentally observed mechanisms.

We have fabricated 15.4%- and 12.4%-efficient CuIn1-XGaXSe2 (CIGS)-based photovoltaic devices from solution-based electrodeposition (ED) and electroless-deposition (EL) precursors. As-deposited precursors are Cu-rich CIGS. Additional In, Ga, and Se are added to the ED and EL precursor films by physical vapor deposition (PVD) to adjust the final film composition to CuIn1-XGaXSe2. The ED and EL device parameters are compared with those of a recent world record, an 18.8%-efficient PVD device. The tools used for comparison are current voltage, capacitance voltage, and spectral response characteristics.

The conventional approach to treating charged defects in extended systems in first principles calculations is via the supercell approximation using a neutralizing jellium background charge. I explicitly demonstrate shortcomings of this standard approach and discuss the consequences. Errors in the electrostatic potential surface over the volume of a supercell are shown to be comparable to a band gap energy in semiconductor materials, for cell sizes typically used in first principles simulations. I present an alternate method for eliminating the divergence of the Coulomb potential in supercell calculations of charged defects in extended systems that embodies a correct treatment of the electrostatic potential in the local viciniq of the a charged defect, via a mixed boundary condition approach. I present results of first principles calculations of charged vacancies in NaCl that illustrate the importance of polarization effects once an accurate representation of the local potential is obtained. These polarization effects, poorly captured in small supercells, also impact the energetic on the scale of typical band gap energies.

Coulomb driven, magneto-optically induced electron and hole bound states from a series of heavily doped GaAs/Al_0.3Ga_0.7As single heterojunctions (SHJ) are revealed in high magnetic fields. At low magnetic fields ({nu} >2), the photohuninescence spectra display Shubnikov de-Haas type oscillations associated with the empty second subband transition. In the regime of the Landau filling factor {nu} <1 and 1< {nu} <2, we found strong bound states due to Mott type Vocalizations. Since a SHJ has an open valence band structure, these bound states area unique property of the dynamic movement of the valence holes in strong magnetic fields.