An accurate Mark I /sup 1///sub 5/-scale, boiling water reactor (BWR), pressure suppression facility was designed and constructed at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (LLL) in 11 months. Twenty-seven air tests using the facility are described. Cost was minimized by utilizing equipment borrowed from other LLL programs. The total value of borrowed equipment exceeded the program's budget of $2,020,000. Substantial flexibility in the facility was used to permit independent variation in the drywell pressure-time history, initial pressure in the drywell and toroidal wetwells, initial toroidal wetwell water level and downcomer length, vent line flow resistance, and vent line flow asymmetry. The two- and three-dimensional sectors of the toroidal wetwell provided significant data.

This status report to the Nuclear Data Committee from LLL summarizes work in the areas of standards, nuclear data applications, nuclear data for safeguards, and nuclear data compilation. A few of these papers, though brief, do contain data. 9 figures, 2 tables. (RWR)

Basis, definition, and determination of the LOFT primary system minor primary pressurization cycle are presented. Example pressure-time plots are given which illustrate recognition of the minor primary pressurization cycle during typical plant operations.

The special kinds of demands placed on ERDA weapons and reactors require them to have very reliable welds. Process control is critical in achieving this reliability. ERDA has a number of advanced process control projects underway with much of the emphasis being on electron beam welding. These include projects on voltage measurement, beam-current control, beam focusing, beam spot tracking, spike suppression, and computer control. A general discussion of process control in welding is followed by specific examples of some of the advanced joining process control projects in ERDA.

A linear-induction-motor drive system to position machine tool slides has been developed on a test bed that utilizes an air-bearing slide, laser interferometer feedback, and a microprocessor-based servo system. Static and dynamic positioning accuracies of +-16 nm (+-0.6 ..mu..in) have been demonstrated.

Recent studies have shown straightforward systematic behavior as a function of constant proton and neutron number for neutron-induced fission cross sections of the actinide elements in the incident-neutron energy range 3 to 5 MeV. In this report, the second in a series, fission cross-section values are studied over the MeV incident-neutron energy range, and at 0.0253 eV. Fission-barrier heights and neutron-binding energies are correlated by constant proton and neutron number; however, these systematic behaviors alone do not explain the trends observed in the fission cross-section values.

A preliminary feasibility study was initiated to determine if porous beryllium structures could be fabricated by consolidating beryllium-coated microballoons into a rigid structure. The target specifications were to coat nominally 1-mm diameter microspheres with 0.5-mil beryllium coatings and then bond into a structure. Because of the very short time period, it was agreeable to use existing or quickly-available materials. The general approach was to apply coatings to carbon or quartz microspheres. Physical vapor deposition and ''snow-balling'' of fine beryllium powder were the two methods investigated. Once the particles were coated, HIP (pressure bonding) and pressureless sintering were to be investigated as methods for consolidating the microballoons. A low level of effort was to be spent to look at means of fabricating an all-carbon structure.

A valve for damping out flow surges in a vacuum system is described. The surge-damping mechanism consists of a slotted, spring-loaded disk adjacent to the valve's vacuum port (the flow passage to the vacuum roughing pump). Under flow surge conditions, the differential pressure forces the disk into a sealing engagement with the vacuum port, thereby restricting the gas flow path to narrow slots in the disk's periphery. The increased flow damps out the flow surge. When pressure is equalized on both sides of the valve, the spring load moves the disk away from the port to restore full flow conductance through the valve.

The accurate measurement of transuranic elements deposited in the lung is a complex task. One of the problems is measuring uranium-L x-rays associated with plutonium passing through the chest of an accidentally exposed subject. Because the normal human chest-wall thickness varies from about 1 to 4.5 cm, it is important that an accurate determination be made for every person counted for plutonium or for other heavy elements with similar emissions. An ultrasonic B-scanning system (brightness modulated time-base) was developed for defining the structure within the body. Computer programs were written to determine the distance between the lung and chest-wall interface and the outer surface of the chest wall at several points on each scan. These points are exponentially averaged to obtain an average chest-wall thickness that is used, with other information, to derive a calibration factor for plutonium in the subject. It is also combined with the counting data to obtain the plutonium lung burden. Since photon transmission characteristics differ in fat and soft tissue, assessing the fat content is important and can provide a correction factor for counter sensitivity when viewing various organs. The main advantage of the B-scanning and three-dimensional systems are discussed.

The Battelle Northwest Liquid Level Probe was evaluated for possible use in the LOFT Blowdown Suppression Tank. The results from the test indicate that the probe will measure the liquid level to +-/sup 1///sub 4/ inch, over a range of 50 inches. The next step is to test the functionability of the probe under simulated LOFT-Blowdown Suppression Tank operating conditions.

A combination of dipole magnets and a superconducting solenoid is utilized to transform the spin direction of transversely polarized protons from the Argonne ZGS for use in proton-proton scattering experiments.

The electrode behavior of the system, Ca/aq.-NaOH, NaCl, was investigated at ambient temperatures. Limiting currents were noted for intermediate concentrations of NaOH and NaCl, while rapid passivation at high ratios of NaOH to NaCl occurred. Low ratios of NaOH/NaCl yielded uncontrollable hydrogen evolution and rapid calcium dissolution. A model of the aqueous cell of the proposed system for the production of lithium was completed. The apparatus allows simultaneous determination of current efficiency and electrode polarization for the Li(Hg)/aq.-LiOH electrode upon cathodic polarization. Cooling curves indicate the existence of a LiI--KI--LiCl eutectic with a melting point of approximately 230/sup 0/C; possible errors are being considered arising from artifacts of the system and possible impurities in the salts. 2 figures.

Review of the LOFT steam generator stress and fatigue life analysis report is presented. Deficiencies were found which will require evaluation and in some areas reanalysis. The effects of these deficiencies upon the steam generator will include: to further reduce the allowable ..delta..P across the tubesheet for the abnormal design case of pressure on primary; and to reduce the allowable number of LOCE transients at some locations of the steam generator from the numbers listed in the stress report and to increase them at other locations.

Three types of thermonuclear fusion devices currently under development are reviewed for an electric utilities management audience. Overall design features of laser fusion, tokamak, and magnetic mirror type reactors are described and illustrated. Thrusts and trends in current research on these devices that promise to improve performance are briefly reviewed. Twenty photographs and drawings are included. (RME)

Silicon ribbons were grown in the presence of some air back-streaming and were consistently polycrystalline with little evidence of oriented growth from the seed. The problem of back-diffusion of air from the exit port has been eliminated, and clean growth conditions, as determined by silicon wafer film test, have been obtained in the redesigned seeded growth furnace. This furnace developed a water leak in the cooling nozzle, so it has not as yet been used to grow silicon. A new, vertical seeded growth furnace, which permits the seeding and initial crystal growth to take place below the alloy surface, has been designed and is being built.

A review of the LOFT Primary Coolant Pump Inlet Nozzle Thermal Analysis was conducted to satisfy the ASME code requirement that all analyses of Class I components be independently reviewed.

Two numerical models used for studying collisional multispecies plasmas are described. The mathematical model is the Boltzmann kinetic equation with Fokker-Planck collision terms. A one-dimensional code and a two-dimensional code, used for the solution of the time-dependent Fokker-Planck equations for ion and electron distribution functions in velocity space, are described. The required equations and boundary conditions are derived and numerical techniques for their solution are given.

In a recent report (UCID 17346, ''Relativistic Particle Beam in a Semi-Infinite Axially Symmetric conducting channel extending from a perfectly conducting plane,'' Dec. 13, 1976) Cooper and Neil demonstrate that the net charge transported by a beam pulse injected into a channel of finite conductivity equals the charge of the beam itself. The channel is taken to be infinite in the positive z direction, has finite radius and is terminated by a conducting ground plane at z =0. This result is not an obvious one, and it is restricted in its applicability by the special model assumed for the channel. It is the purpose to explain the result of Cooper and Neil in more qualitative terms and to make similar calculations using several other channel models. It must be emphasized that these calculations are not concerned with the fate of the transported charge after the pulse has stopped, but rather with how much charge leaves the ground plane assuming the pulse does not stop.

The processing of pulses with very fast risetimes for timing purposes involves many problems because of the large equivalent bandwidths involved. For pulses with risetimes in the 150 ps range (and full widths at half maximum (FWHM) of 400 ps) bandwidths in excess of 1GHz are required. Furthermore, these very narrow pulses with current amplitudes as small as 1 mA carry very small charges (<10/sup -12/ coulomb), therefore, requiring very sensitive trigger circuits. The difficulty increases when timing characteristics in the picosecond range are sought especially when a wide input signal amplitude range causes a time-walk problem. The fast timing discriminator described has a time-walk of approximately +-75 ps over the input signal range from 80 mV to 3V. A schematic of the discriminator is included, and operation and performance are discussed.

The objectives of this report are to provide some insight into the basic models, to give some impression of the difficult nature of the equations, to show some of the present understanding of the nonlinear consequences of the equations, and to illustrate the remarks with computational studies. The aim of this plasma theory is to describe equilibria, stability of the equilibria, and the transport of energy and particles out of the plasma. (MOW)

The objectives of the selection are to provide some insight into the basic models, to give some impression of the difficult nature of the equations, to show some of the present understanding of the nonlinear consequences of the equations, and to illustrate the remarks with computational studies. The physical situations envisaged are always closely related to the Tokamaks or Mirror Machines described in the first pair of lectures. The aim of this plasma theory is to describe equilibria, stability of the equilibria, and the transport of energy and particles out of a plasma. These three topics separate naturally according to the time and space scales of the phenomena involved and the plasma models reflect this.

A two-fluid equilibrium plasma model with electron-ion drag terms taken from the Spitzer coefficients is used in the analysis. An equilibrium cold electron background is assumed to exist which balances the electrical charge of the rotating ion ring. The ions can be assumed to have a directed velocity which is on the order of their mean thermal velocity.

Data and methods for quantifying environmental damage from energy activities were evaluated. Specifically, discussions were designed to identify the types and amounts of pollutants emitted by energy technologies that may affect the environment adversely, methods of estimating spatial and temporal changes in air and water quality resulting from these emissions, spatial and temporal distributions of ecosystems at risk, dose-response functions for pollutants and ecosystems at risk, and environmental and economic variables to be used to measure damage. Emphasis was on available data and on several methods for quantitative estimation of effects of energy on the environment. Damage functions that could be used to quantitate effects of ozone and sulfur oxide on agricultural crops and trees, effects of altered stream depth and velocity patterns on river fish species, and sensitivities of lake chemistry and biology to acid rainfall are listed. Also described are methods for estimating effects of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, ozone, and several other atmospheric pollutants on selected terrestrial communities by using computer modeling techniques. With these techniques, quantitative estimates of the effects of energy on the environment could be developed within one to two years. Brief discussions about effects of nutrient and trace metal discharges on terrestrial ecosystems …

An analysis to establish whether or not a leak-before-break concept would apply to the LOFT lower plenum injection nozzle is described. The analysis encompassed the structure from the inlet side of valve V-2170 to the lower plenum nozzle-to-reactor vessel weld on the left side of the emergency core cooling system (ECCS). The defect that was assumed to exist was of such a size that the probability of its being missed by the applicable inspection technique was near zero. The Inconel 600 nozzle forging with an initial assumed defect size of 0.64 cm (0.25 in.) deep would behave as follows: (1) the axially oriented defect would result in leak before rupture (the number of cycles to rupture was 11,000), (2) the circumferentially oriented defect would result in a rupture before leak. The number of cycles to failure would be in excess of 14,000. Based on the conservative assumption that the thermal stresses were membrane stresses as opposed to a bending stress, the following were found. For the Inconel 82 weld metal (thickness of 1.3 cm (0.53 in.)) and AISI 316 SST valve body, with an initial assumed defect of 0.25 cm (0.1 in.), the crack would grow through the thickness in …