Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (LLL) has undertaken an ambitious plan to automate its x-ray analytical equipment. This project ultimately will automate 15 x-ray diffraction and 3 x-ray spectrometric systems. All automation is being done by retrofitting existing equipment and combining it with minicomputers to produce smart instruments. Two types of smart instruments have been developed: one that controls an experiment and acquires data and another that analyzes data and communicates with LLL's large computer center. Three of the former type have been built and are operating; seven more will soon be put into service. Only two of the later type are needed, and both are currently in service. We describe the details of our overall plan, the smart instruments, the retrofitting, our current status, and our software.

Coupons of eight different carbon and chrome-moly alloy steels were exposed to high temperature, high salinity wellhead brine flow at a geothermal well in the Salton Sea Geothermal Field for periods of up to six months. The corrosion rate and corrosion attack morphology of each coupon was determined. Exposure time was a test variable and ranged from one month to six months. Test results indicate that carbon steels generally suffer high corrosion rates and are susceptible to severe localized attack which shows a mesa-canyon pattern. Chrome-moly alloy steels corrode at much lower rates and show an attack pattern of small shallow pits. With time, these pits grow mostly in the lateral direction. These results suggest that chrome-moly alloy steels offer significant improvement over carbon steels and that the disk-shaped pits are not likely to lead to rapid perforation.

Disposal of geopressured-geothermal brine effluents by injection is expected to be costly, even into shallow aquifers. If injection into the production reservoir becomes necessary to maintain productivity and to minimize subsidence, the injection pumping costs can become overwhelming. An option aimed at reducing injection pump operating costs is to maintain a higher than normal pressure at the production wellhead to reduce the injection pumping load. The crucial element, however, is that a significant portion of CH/sub 4/ remains in solution and must be recovered in order for the pressure maintenance option to be cost effective. A laboratory and field test capability has been established, and several methods for extracting dissolved CH/sub 4/ at high temperature and pressure are being evaluated. Solvent extraction and use of hydraulic motors or turbines coupled to CH/sub 4/ recovery systems are the leading candidate methods.

Clustering of mutant pollen grains in a population of normal pollen due to premeiotic mutational events complicates translating mutation frequencies into rates. Embryo ontogeny in barley will be described and used to illustrate the formation of such mutant clusters. The nature of the statistics for mutation frequency will be described from a study of the reversion frequencies of various waxy mutants in barley. Computer analysis by a jackknife method of the reversion frequencies of a waxy mutant treated with the mutagen sodium azide showed a significantly higher reversion frequency than untreated material. Problems of the computer analysis suggest a better experimental design for pollen mutation experiments. Preliminary work on computer modeling for pollen development and mutation will be described.

The question of what to do with radioactive wastes is discussed. The need to resolve this issue promptly is pointed out. Two significant events which have occurred during the Carter administration are discussed. An Interagency Review Group (IRG) on waste management was formed to formulate recommendations leading to the establishment of a National policy for managing radioactive wastes. The technical findings in the IRG report are listed. The author points out some issues not addressed by the report. President Carter issued a national policy statement on Radioactive Waste Management in February 1980. The most significant elements of this statement are summarized. The cancellation of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is currently meeting opposition in Congress. This and other items in the National Policy Statement are discussed.

Solid earth tidal strain and surface loading due to fluctuations in barometric pressure have the effect, although extremely minute, of dilating or contracting the effective pore volume in a porous reservoir. If a well intersects the formation, the change in pore pressure can be measured with sensitive quartz pressure gauges. Mathematical models of the relevant fluid dynamics of the well-reservoir system have been generated and tested against conventional well pumping results or core data at the Salton Sea Geothermal Field (SSGF), California and at the Raft River, Geothermal Field (RRGF), Idaho. Porosity-total compressibility product evaluation based on tidal strain response compares favorably with results based on conventional pumping techniques. Analysis of reservoir response to barometric loading using Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) stochastic modeling appears also to have potential use for the evaluation of reservoir parameters.

Weekly report of the Texas Crop and Livestock Reporting Service on turkey poult numbers in Texas and compared with other states. It includes compiled statistics across six consecutive weeks during two years for turkey eggs set and poults hatched.