The trade-off between risk and rate-of-return in investment evaluations is crucial in assessing the commercial potential of future energy-conservation technologies. The focus of the Industrial Conservation Program at ERDA is to reduce the perceived risks of a given technology to the extent that the private sector will adopt the technology within the normal course of its business operations. These perceived risks may emanate from technical, institutional, or commercial uncertainties, or in many cases they may result merely from a company's or industry's lack of previous experience with a particular technology. Regardless of the source of the risk surrounding a project, the uncertainty it poses to the private sector will serve to inhibit decisions to invest. This study evaluates the treatment of risk in capital investments in certain energy-intensive industries which are the primary targets of ERDA's Industrial Conservation Program. These risks evaluation considerations were placed within a context that includes capital budgeting practices and procedures, organizational considerations, and basic rate-of-return evaluation procedures in the targeted energy-intensive industries (petroleum, chemicals, paper, textiles, cement, food processing, aluminum, steel, glass, and agriculture).

Investigations in progress include: ionization potentials of H/sub 2/O from molecular orbital and valence bond wavefunctions; early events in pulse-irradiated polar liquids; epithermal trapping of electrons; range of photoionized electrons in high-mobility liquids using field-dependent mobility; scattering of exciton by the impurity; model molecular orbital studies of the chemisorption of atomic hydrogen and oxygen on aluminium surfaces; laser induced fluorescence and the geometry of the excited states of tetra-methyl cyclobutanedione; fluorescence studies of hydrogen adduct and raman studies of radical anion; energy transfer studies between electronically excited atoms and ground state molecules; kinetics and chemically induced electron polarization (CIDP) of transient radicals in solution by modulation ESR spectroscopy, CIDP of t-butyl radicals in solutions; ESR spectra of phosphate, sulfate, and hydroxyl radical adducts to unsaturated carboxylic acids; high-field conduction in thin-film alkali halides; electron reactions in the gas phase; interaction of triplet biradicals with ground state molecular oxygen; reactions of Cl/sub 2//sup -/ radicals with organic compounds; oxidation of Ni(II) macrocyclic complexes by OH radicals; photochemical reactions of Cu(II) complexes with macrocyclic ligands; fast reaction kinetics in fatty acid soap aggregates; the dynamics of probe molecules in a micelle environment; the effect of a micellar phase on the state and …

Working jointly from opposite sides of the nation Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (LLL) and the Savannah River Laboratory (SRL) quickly assessed the consequences of an early-morning tritium release in May 1974 from the Savannah River Plant, in South Carolina. Measurements confirmed the accuracy of the LLL predictions. Due to the small quantity involved and to the release location (well within the plant confines), the release was not dangerous to the public. The emergency provided a dramatic test of procedures and capabilities of the new Atmospheric Release Advisory Capability (ARAC) center at Livermore, which was not yet operational, demonstrating the capacity for quick response, and the feasibility of real-time data acquisition and transmittal across the continent.

In this report capabilities and services are described for the Atmospheric Release Advisory Capability (ARAC). The ARAC site system and its operating procedures and interactions with the ARAC central facility located at LLL is outlined. ARAC is designed to help officials at designated ERDA sites and other locations in estimating the effects of atmospheric releases of radionuclides or other hazardous materials by issuing real-time advisories to guide them in their planning.

Anion exchange is the technique usually employed to separate plutonium and neptunium from actinides and other sample constituents prior to radiochemical determinations of the actinides. For plutonium-neptunium separations, neptunium(IV) is sorbed on an anion exchanger and the plutonium(III) allowed to pass with the effluent and wash streams from a 5M HNO/sub 3/-0.66M Al(NO/sub 3/)/sub 3/-0.2M Fe(SO/sub 3/NH/sub 2/)/sub 2/ feed solution. Plutonium is separated from plutonium-uranium solutions by sorbing plutonium(IV) on the resin from a 7M HNO/sub 3/ feed and permitting the uranium(VI) to follow the effluent and wash streams. In both cases, plutonium and neptunium are eluted from the resins with dilute nitric acid. For the actinide separations, pellicular, macroreticular, and microreticular (gel-type) anion exchange resins were compared. The pellicular and macroreticular (porous gel) resins showed faster elution and washing properties for the nonsorbable ions than the microreticular resins. However, the actinide breakthrough capacities of the pellicular and macroreticular resins were less than the microreticular resins but the breakthrough capacities for the macroreticular resins were dependent on actinide feed concentrations.