A comparative economic analysis was made of four solidification processes for liquid high-level radioactive waste. Two processes produced borosilicate glass monoliths and two others produced metal matrix composites of lead and borosilicate glass beads and lead and super-calcine pellets. Within the uncertainties of the cost (1979 dollars) estimates, the cost of the four processes was about the same, with the major cost component being the cost of the primary building structure. Equipment costs and operating and maintenance costs formed only a small portion of the building structure costs for all processes.

Response-surface techniques have been developed for obtaining probability distributions of the consequences of postulated nuclear reactor accidents. In these techniques, probability distributions are assigned to the system and model parameters of the accident analysis. A limited number of parameter values (called knot points) are selected and input to a deterministic accident-analysis code. The results of the deterministic analyses are used to generate analytical functions (called response surfaces) that approximate the accident consequences in terms of selected system and model parameters. The response-surface methodology of this report includes both systematical and random knot-point selection schemes, second- and third-degree response surfaces, functional transformations of both input parameters and consequence variables, smooth synthesis of region-wise response surfaces and the treatment of random conditions for conditional distributions. The computer code PROSA-2 developed for implementing these techniques is independent of the deterministic accident-analysis codes.

Annual report of the Argonne National Laboratory Radiological and Environmental Research Division regarding activities related to the Center for Human Radiobiology. This report discusses an inquiry into the mechanisms and dosimetry for induction of malignancies by radium, and studies of individuals exposed to radium and thorium, as well as to other radionuclides,.