Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John L. Hill, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Authority of a telephone company to lay buried telephone lines within county road right-of-way without the approval of the commissioners court.

The microwave ammonia monitor is a self contained (the vacuum pump is external) microwave rotational spectrometer that selectively detects and monitors ammonia vapor in air. A solid-state oscillator is used as the microwave source and a microwave cavity made from waveguide provides a chamber for the sample analysis. The air sample is continuously flowed through the waveguide cavity so that changes in the trace concentration of ammonia in air can be determined. The principle of operation of the microwave ammonia monitor is based on the absorption of microwave radiation by a vibration-rotation quantum transition of the ammonia molecule. Ammonia absorbs microwave radiation in a very narrow frequency range with its peak at 23,870.18 MHz. The microwave source is electronically controlled to oscillate only at this frequency and to provide a very stable output power. Thus, even a very small amount of microwave power that is absorbed by the ammonia gas is detectable and no other gas in the air sample is known to absorb any microwave radiation within the frequency output band of the oscillator. The specifications, operation, and maintenance procedures are described. Also a parts list and engineering drawings are included. (WHK)

Highlights of technical progress during May 1977 are presented for thirteen separate program activities which comprise the ORNL research program for the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research's Division of Reactor Safety Research.

Single-particle inclusive cross sections of precisely identified fragments are studied together with associated multiplicities of fast charged particles. Neon and argon projectiles are made to bombard uranium, calcium, and aluminium. It is found that all the observed fragment spectra are structureless and more or less exponentially decaying throughout the range of studied fragment masses. A catalogue of experimentally found qualitative features is given and the applicability of simple statistical thermodynamic models is examined by tracing down in the spectra kinematical effects in the framework of a source of a temperature and a velocity, leading to a nuclear fireball model. The production of complex particles is also discussed. A simple mass dependence in the cross section of the fragments is observed. The possibilities of a struck projectile and the explosion of a compound nucleus are considered. 7 references. (JFP)