Under a previous contract with Morgantown Energy Technology Center (METC), Department of Energy (DOE) Contract No. AC21-84MC21108, UCC Research Corporation (UCCRC) built and tested a 1500 lb/day Mild Gasification Process Development Unit (MGU). The MGU, as tested under the previous contract, is shown in Figure 1. Testing completed under the previous contract showed that good quality hydrocarbon liquids and good quality char can be produced in the MGU. However, the MGU is not optimized. The primary objectives of the current project are to optimize the MGU and determine the suitability of char for several commercial applications. The program consists of four tasks; Task 1 -- Test Plan; Task 2 -- Optimization of Mild Gasification Process; Task 3 -- Evaluation of Char and Char/Coal Blends as a Boiler/Blast Furnace Fuel; and Task 4 -- Analysis of Data and Preparation of Final Report. Task 1 has been completed while work continued on Task 2.

For colliding beams of several species of ions we compare thermal to perturbative quantum chromodynamic contributions for inclusive large mass muon pair production by using a hydrodynamic model to estimate the temperatures of the quark-gluon plasma produced by each species. The production of high energy dimuons with M {approx equal}-4 GeV, will be favored energetically by the quark-gluon plasma. 10 refs., 4 figs., 2 tabs.

This report contains the results of that analysis, and a review of critical management issues for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been added to the basic questions about the adequacy of Federal standards and programs. During the course of the study, it became clear that a full report for Congress would have to consider how policy is determined and implemented, and thus the operation of FAA and the role of the Department of Transportation.

The topic of this fourth paper in OTA’S series of AIDS-related issues is the impact of the AIDS epidemic on the Kaiser Permanence Medical Care Program’s (KPMCP) northern California region and was originally commissioned for OTA’s assessment of Medical Testing and Health Insurance. Key OTA staff involved in the oversight of the project were Jill Eden, Larry Miike, and Laurie Mount.

This report focuses on the formal policies and guidelines’ through which health care institutions articulate decision making procedures and identify permissible options regarding the use of life-sustaining treatments for adult patients in their care.

Adequate, reliable space transportation is the key to this Nation’s future in space. Over the next several years, Congress must make critical decisions regarding the direction and funding of U.S. space transportation systems. These decisions include improving existing launch systems, designing and procuring new launch systems, and developing advanced technologies. America’s constrained budgetary environment and the lack of a national consensus about the future of the U.S. space program make Congress’s role in this process more difficult and important than ever.

This special report is the fourth in a series of OTA studies being carried out under an assessment of “New Developments in Biotechnology, ” requested by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. This fourth report in the series describes the levels and types of investment currently being made by the Federal, State, and private sectors. Ten major issues that affect investment were identified.

The objective of the Geomembrane Special Study was to asses the suitability of geomembranes in Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project pile designs. Geomembranes, also called flexible membrane liners, are made of polymer resins and are thermoplastic materials. Part of the special study was to evaluate regulatory compliance and acceptability issues. This study was proposed because of the extensive use of geomembranes in hazardous waste site remedial actions and their accepted use in Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) cells as both covers and liners to limit infiltration, or as part of leachate collection systems. This study has reviewed the recent geomembrane literature focusing on: (1) longevity; (2) performance; (3) constructibility; and (4) quality control/quality assurance considerations. In addition to these technical considerations, regulatory compliance and acceptability concerns were also evaluated. This report describes the results of the literature review, including correspondence with manufacturers, resin producers, experts in the field, and long-term major users. 12 refs., 2 tabs.

Analysis of stochastic cooling systems is usually done under the assumption that the system performance is not limited by the available electronic gain. In practical systems, it may prove to be the case that cost-induced limitations on the maximum available output power restrict the maximum attainable gain, thereby restricting it to be less than its optimal value. Such is the case in the anti-proton sources at both CERN and Fermilab. The criteria that one would employ in, for example, upgrading such a power-limited system prove to be rather different from those for a system for which one can optimize the gain. In the following sections we first develop the formulas relevant to the behavior of power-limited cooling systems; we limit our treatment throughout to the case of systems which cool the transverse phase space of the beam. We then discuss the implications of our results for the upgrade of such cooling systems, contrasting this case with that for systems in which the electronic gain can be optimized. Finally, we apply our results to the specific case of the Fermilab debuncher ring. 3 refs., 1 fig., 2 tabs.

The possible set of hydrologic conditions at the Yucca Mountain repository site includes the case where groundwater recharge fluxes are sufficiently low relative to molecular diffusion in the rock so that, in the region around the waste package, the dominant mode of aqueous transport of radionuclides is by diffusion. Although the rock at the repository level is unsaturated, a sufficient amount of pore water could form a contiguous diffusion path from the waste form to the near-field rock if the waste is postulated to be in contact with the rock or emplacement backfill due to failure of the container. Future simulations will have to include conditions where the effects of convective transport in the rock are important in aqueous transport. We consider in this report simplified simulations of one-dimensional transport of radionuclides in the rock due to liquid molecular diffusion in order to determine the effects of an emplacement backfill. Comparison of estimated release rates with and without an emplacement backfill were given in an article by Chambre and Pigford (1984), and these values were referenced in our previous report. Here, we have extended their calculations to include estimates using the physical parameters expected at the Yucca Mountain repository site. …

There has been a renewal of interest in Direct Nuclear Propulsion (DNP) because of the Air Force Forecast II recommendation for the development of the technology. Several nuclear concepts have been proposed to meet the Direct Nuclear Propulsion challenge. In this paper we will present results of an initial study of the potential of a cermet fueled nuclear system in providing the desired DNP capabilities and featuring a set of unique safety characteristics. The concept of cermet fuel for DNP applications was first developed by ANL and GE working independently more than 20 years ago. The two organizations came to several remarkably consistent conclusions. The present work has consisted of collecting a unified set of design parameters from the set of design results produced in the earlier work. The conclusion of this exercise was that a cermet-fueled DNP design looked extremely promising from performance and safety considerations and that it deserves serious consideration when the decision to develop one or more concepts for DNP is made.

In this document we present the results of our analysis of data from 16 three-component seismometers and 8 dynamite explosions around the Medicine Lake volcano's Glass Mountain in northern California. The Medicine Lake volcano is located just northeast of the southeastward-trending Cascade Range of shield and small composite volcanoes. 2 refs., 6 figs.

Low-enriched uranium silicide-aluminum dispersion plate-type fuels have been extensively researched and developed under the international program, Reduced Enrichment in Research and Test Reactors. The international effort was led by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) in the United States. This evaluation is based primarily on reports issued by ANL that discuss and summarize the developmental tests and experiments, including postirradiation examinations, of both miniature and full-sized plates of prototypical fuel compositions. This evaluation concludes that plate-type fuels suitable and acceptable for use in research and test reactors can be fabricated with U/sub 3/Si/sub 2/-Al dispersion compacts with uranium densities up to 4.8 g/cm/sup 3/. 4 refs., 1 fig.

This document describes the VME/IORFI-II Interface routines (VII). These routines where designed to meet two needs. First, the routines enable programs written in PILS running on a MVME 101 under Valet-Plus to control an IORFI-II interface from VME. Secondly, the routines provide a high level language version of the FASTBUS standard routines for the IORFI-II which can easily be translated into other high level languages (like C). The routines fall into two general types, control and transaction. The control routines work directly with the interface registers. These routines set up and monitor operations between VME and the IORFI-II. The control routines are usually used indirectly by the programmer through the transaction routines. The transaction routines, such as VIIreverse arrowWRITEreverse arrowDAT, use the control routines to carry out complete functions on FASTBUS. Most FASTBUS operations have been implemented except for the compound routines and some low level routines. To facilitate access to the IORFI-II registers from VME, a Super-VIOR DMA board was used as a set of I/O registers tied to the IORFI-II's front panel connectors. The DMA controller on the Super-VIOR was not used and a much simpler board (only containing a set of four registers accessible from VME) could …

The results of an experimental study of gas fracturing technology for geothermal well stimulation demonstrated that multiple fractures could be created to link water-filled boreholes with existing fractures. The resulting fracture network and fracture interconnections were characterized by mineback as well as flow tests. Commercial oil field fracturing tools were used successfully in these experiments. Simple scaling laws for gas fracturing and a brief discussion of the application of this technique to actual geothermal well stimulation are presented. 10 refs., 42 figs., 4 tabs.

Transport simulations of ohmic gas-fuelled and pellet-fuelled experiments have been carried out to test a microinstability-based, profile-consistent model of anomalous transport in tokamaks. Predictions for experiments on the TFTR, ASDEX, and ALCATOR-C tokamaks were found consistent with the observed confinement and temperature measurements. 26 refs., 11 figs., 10 tabs.

This paper discusses several recent advances toward a deeper understanding of the still unknown astrophysical site for rapid (r-process) neutron capture nucleosynthesis. The physical constraints on the r-process from the input nuclear data are highlighted and the particular importance of the recent measurements of beta-decay lifetimes along the r-process path is discussed. Astronomical observations of s- and r-process elemental abundances on metal poor halo stars are also discussed, in the context of models for the galactic chemical evolution of heavy-element abundances, as a constraint on the nature of the r-process. On the basis of these constraints it is suggested that the most likely source for the r-process may be from the ejection of core material from low-mass type II supernovae. 27 refs., 1 fig.

Two core holes have been completed on the flanks of Newberry Volcano, Oregon. Core hole GEO N-1 has a heat flow of 180 mWm-2 reflecting subsurface temperature sufficient for commerical exploitation of geothermally generated electricity. GEO N-3, which has a heat flow of 86 mWm-2, is less encouraging. Considerable emphasis has been placed on the ''rain curtain'' effect with the hope that a detailed discussion of this phenomenon at two distinct localities will lead to a better understanding of the physical processes in operation. Core hole GEO N-1 was cored to a depth of 1387 m at a site located 9.3 km south of the center of the volcano. Core hole GEO N-3 was cored to a depth of 1220 m at a site located 12.6 km north of the center of the volcano. Both core holes penetrated interbedded pyroclastic lava flows and lithic tuffs ranging in composition from basalt to rhyolite with basaltic andesite being the most common rock type. Potassium-argon age dates range up to 2 Ma. Difficult drilling conditions were encountered in both core holes at depths near the regional water table. Additionally, both core holes penetrate three distinct thermal regimes (isothermal (the rain curtain), transition, and …

This manual is produced in response to a growing number of requests for a technical aid to explain methods for simulating cooling pond performance. As such, it is a compilation of reports, charts and graphs developed through the years for use in analyzing situations. Section II contains a report summarizing the factors affecting cooling pond performance and lists statistical parameters used in developing performance simulations. Section III contains the graphs of simulated cooling pond performance on an hourly basis for various combinations of criteria (wind, solar, depth, air temperature and humidity) developed from the report in Section II. Section IV contains correspondence describing how to develop further data from the graphs in Section III, as well as mathematical models for the system of performance calculation. Section V contains the formulas used to simulate cooling pond performances in a cascade arrangement, such as the Fermilab Main Ring ponds. Section VI contains the calculations currently in use to evaluate the Main Ring pond performance based on current flows and Watts loadings. Section VII contains the overall site drawing of the Main Ring cooling ponds with thermal analysis and physical data.

Intermediate-range order in binary and ternary chalcogenide glasses is discussed, with special reference to GeSe/sub 2/ and Ag/sub 4/Ge/sub 3/Se/sub 9/. A signature of this order is provided by the first sharp diffraction peak, which occurs in these glasses at Q /approximately/ 1 /sup /angstrom/A//sup /minus/1/ and shows anomalous behavior in several ways. It is strongly depressed by the addition of Ag to the GeSe/sub 2/ glass. The addition of Ag also leads to a softening of the vibrational spectrum. 11 refs., 4 figs.

Alpha particle parameters in sub-ignited D-T tokamaks like TFTR can be optimized in a high temperature ''alpha storage regime '' in which the alpha particle thermalization time /tau//sub ..cap alpha../ is long (approx.1.0 sec) and in which the alpha particle source rate S/sub ..cap alpha../ is enhanced due to a beam-target and beam-beam reactions (by a factor of approx.2-3). Near reactor-level alpha instability parameters ..beta../sub ..cap alpha../(0) approx. n/sub ..cap alpha../(0)/n/sub e/(O) approx. 1% are predicted by simulation codes when Q approx. 0.5-1, while present TFTR ''supershots'' already have ..beta../sub ..cap alpha../(O) approx. n/sub /alpha/(O)/n/sub e/(O) /approx/ 0.1-0.2%. Plasmas in this regime can be used to test theories of collective alpha instabilities for the first time, and can be used to provide a strong (but transient) alpha heating pulse. An experimental scenario to exploit this regime is described. 28 refs., 5 figs., 5 tabs.,

Highlights of the VIIIth International Workshop on Photon-Photon Collisions are reviewed. New experimental and theoretical results were reported in virtually every area of ..gamma gamma.. physics, particularly in exotic resonance production and tests of quantum chromodynamics where asymptotic freedom and factorization theorems provide predictions for both inclusive and exclusive ..gamma gamma.. reactions at high momentum transfer. 73 refs., 12 figs.

Technical process in the various research activities of Argonne National Laboratory's Environmental Research Division is reported for the period 1986-1987. Textual, graphic, and tabular information is used to briefly summarize (in separate chapters) the work of the Division's Atmospheric Physics, Environmental Effects Research, Fundamental Molecular Physics and Chemistry, and Organic Geochemistry and Environmental Instrumentation Programs. Information on professional qualifications, awards, and outstanding professional activities of staff members, as well as lists of publications, oral presentations, special events organized, and participants in educational programs, are provided in appendices at the end of each chapter. Individual projects under each division are processed separately for the data bases.

The Fermilab Tevatron I proton-antiproton collider project requires that the Fermilab Main Ring produce intense bunches of protons and antiprotons for injection into the Tevatron. The process of coalescing a small number of harmonic number h=1113 bunches into a single bunch by bunch-rotating in a lower harmonic rf system is described.The Main Ring is also required to extract onto the antiproton production target bunches with as narrow a time spread as possible. This operation is also discussed. The operation of the bunch coalescing and bunch rotation are compared with simulations using the computer program ESME. 2 refs., 8 figs.