The Sodium Reactor Experiment (SRE) located at the Rockwell International Field Laboratories northwest of Los Angeles was developed to demonstrate a sodium-cooled, graphite-moderated reactor for civilian use. The reactor reached full power in May 1958 and provided 37 GWh to the Southern California Edison Company grid before it was shut down in 1967. Decommissioning of the SRE began in 1974 with the objective of removing all significant radioactivity from the site and releasing the facility for unrestricted use. Planning documentation was prepared to describe in detail the equipment and techniques development and the decommissioning work scope. A plasma-arc manipulator was developed for remotely dissecting the highly radioactive reactor vessels. Other important developments included techniques for using explosives to cut reactor vessel internal piping, clamps, and brackets; decontaminating porous concrete surfaces; and disposing of massive equipment and structures. The documentation defined the decommissioning in an SRE dismantling plan, in activity requirements for elements of the decommissioning work scope, and in detailed procedures for each major task.

Selected physical and mechanical properties of copper-clad molybdenum sheet have been determined. Among those properties determined were: room-temperature density, coefficient of thermal expansion in the temperature range {minus}43 to 800 C, specific heat between {minus}40 and +150 C, thermal conductivity from {minus}50 to +150 C, electrical resistivity in the same temperature range, magnetic susceptibility and modulus of elasticity both at room temperature. Materials with several different copper/molybdenum thickness ratios and composite thicknesses were evaluated.

Selected physical and mechanical properties of copper-clad molybdenum sheet have been determined. Among those properties determined were: room-temperature density, coefficient of thermal expansion in the temperature range {minus}43 to 800 C, specific heat between {minus}40 and +150 C, thermal conductivity from {minus}50 to +150 C, electrical resistivity in the same temperature range, magnetic susceptibility and modulus of elasticity both at room temperature. Materials with several different copper/molybdenum thickness ratios and composite thicknesses were evaluated.

The adsorption of hydrogen sulfide on retorted oil shale was studied at 10, 25, and 60/sup 0/C using a packed bed method. Equilibrium isotherms were calculated from the adsorption data and were modeled by the Langmuir, Freundlich, and Polanyi equations. The isosteric heat of adsorption was calculated at three adsorbent loadings and was found to increase with increased loading. A calculated heat of adsorption less than the heat of condensation indicated that the adsorption was primarily due to Van der Waals' forces. Adsorption capacities were also found as a function of oil shale retorting temperature with the maximum uptake occurring on shale that was retorted at 750/sup 0/C.

This report discusses materials for use in ultrahigh vacuum systems of 1 {times} 10{sup {minus}9} Torr or lower. The author briefly discusses alloys, solders, insulators and joining methods for vacuum systems. (JDL)

This technical memo is a brief owner's manual describing the operation and design of the ziptrack integrator. This electronic circuit is part of a magnetic field mapping devices in use on the Tevatron I at Fermilab. 7 figs., 15 tabs. (DWL)

Boling observed that his total-internal-reflection laser-damage sites in glass closely resembled the scattering cross section for small (ka << 1), perfectly conducting sphere and suggested that a very small plasma formed and grew to a larger size, still with ka << 1 satisfied. Even with ka = 1, for which the cross section is different from that observed, the scattered field still is too small to explain the damage in terms of constructive interference between the incident- and scattered fields. Furthermore, the characteristic shape of the scattering cross section that matches the damage patterns is for circular polarization or unpolarized light, in contrast to the experimental plane polarizations. Extending the ideas to include effects of the scattered field outside the glass, such as plasma formation, and to include the correct field (with interesting polarization, including longitudinal circuler polarization at certain distances from the surface) incident on the sphere may explain the experiments. Additional experiments and analysis would be useful to determine if the extended model is valid and to investigate related materials improvement, nondestructive testing, and the relation between laser damage, plasma initiation, and failure under stress, all initiated at small isolated spots.

This report is the first part of a comprehensive summary of the literature on hydrogen isotope permeability through materials that do not readily form hydrides. While we mainly focus on pure metals with low permeabilities because of their importance to tritium containment, we also give data on higher-permeability materials such as iron, nickel, steels, and glasses.

The main research accomplishments during the past three years are summarized. The principle areas of investigation are: 1. embryotoxicity, teratogenicity, and mutagenicity of nickel carbonyl; 2. metabolism, detoxification, and excretion of nickel compounds; 3. studies of nickel carcinogenesis; 4. nickel analysis in body fluids and tissues to monitor occupational exposures; 5. nephrotoxicity of nickel compounds; and 6. hematological effects of nickel compounds. (ACR)

The toxicology and metabolism of nickel compounds (e.g., NiCl/sub 2/, ..cap alpha..Ni/sub 3/S/sub 2/, and Ni(CO)/sub 4/) were investigated in rats and hamsters.

Augmented Fish Health Monitoring Contract AI79-87BP35585 was implemented on July 20, 1987. Second year activities focused on full implementation of disease surveillance activities and histopathological support services to participating state agencies. Persistent and sometimes severe disease losses were caused by infectious hematopoietic necrosis (IHN) in summer steelhead trout in Idaho and in spring chinook salmon at hatcheries on the lower Columbia River. Diagnostic capability was enhanced by the installation, for field use, of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technology at the Dworshak Fish Health Center for the detection and assay of bacterial kidney disease and by a dot-blot'' training session for virus identification at the Lower Columbia Fish Health Center. Complete diagnostic and inspection services were provided to 13 Columbia River basin National Fish hatcheries. Case history data was fully documented in a computerized data base for storage and analysis. This report briefly describes work being done to meet contract requirements for fish disease surveillance at Service facilities in the Columbia River basin. It also summarizes the health status of fish reared at those hatcheries and provides a summary of case history data for calendar year 1988. 2 refs., 4 tabs.

This report provides guideline estimates for Pu-239 mass loadings in selected burial ground culverts. The relatively high recorded Pu-239 contents of these culverts have been appraised as suspect relative to criticality concerns, because they were assayed only with the solid waste monitor (SWM) per gamma-ray counting. After 1985, subsequent waste was also assayed with the neutron coincidence counter (NCC), and a comparison of the assay methods showed that the NCC generally yielded higher assays than the SWM. These higher NCC readings signaled a need to conduct non-destructive/non-intrusive nuclear interrogations of these culverts, and a technical team conducted scoping measurements to illustrate potential assay methods based on neutron and/or gamma counting. A fast/slow neutron method has been developed to estimate the Pu-239 in the culverts. In addition, loading records include the SWM assays of all Pu-239 cuts of some of the culvert drums and these data are useful in estimating the corresponding NCC drum assays from NCC vs SWM data. Together, these methods yield predictions based on direct measurements and statistical inference.

An SSC Cost Estimating Task Force was appointed by the SSC Director in May, 1985. The charge to the task force was to perform a detailed review of costs for all superconducting magnet design styles that are under consideration for the SSC. Cost information on five magnet styles was reviewed in detail by the task force members. The basic cost information was developed by participating laboratories and by industry. Details of the procedure and analysis are presented in Chapter III. The purpose of this report is to provide a comparison of all SSC construction project cost information that is dependent on the various magnet styles. It is emphasized that the costs displayed in the tables of this report are not the total costs for an SSC construction project. Only those systems for which costs vary with magnet style are included. In Appendix E, current results are compared with the relevant parts of the 1984 SSC Reference Designs Study (RDS) cost estimate. Following the method used in the RDS, the costs that are developed here are non-site specific. The labor rates utilized are based on a national average for the various labor categories. The Conventional Systems costs for underground structures are …

Stress distributions have been calculated for a creep law predicting a higher rate of plastic deformation than modeled in earlier studies. The expected reduction in stresses is obtained, although quantitative results are not yet available because of difficulties in obtaining convergent solutions. Improved schemes for calculating growth system temperature distributions are being evaluated in a new subtask started at MIT. Other work in temperature field modeling has examined the possibility of using horizontal temperature gradients to influence stress distributions in ribbon. The defect structure of 10 cm wide ribbon grown in the cartridge system has been examined. A new feature is identified from an examination of cross-sectional micrographs. It consists of high density dislocation bands extending through the ribbon thickness. A four-point bending apparatus has been constructed for high temperature (greater than or equal to 1000/sup 0/C) study of the creep response of silicon, and will be used to generate defects for comparison with as-grown defects in ribbon. Another subtask has been started in collaboration with the University of Illinois which will examine the feasibility of laser interferometric techniques for sheet residual stress distribution measurement. The mathematical formalism for calculating residual stress from changes in surface topology caused by an …

Electrical characterization of defects induced in FZ and CZ silicon stress in four-point bending above 1200/sup 0/C has been started. Techniques to study electrical activity that will permit correlation of defect activity with diffusion length and with room and low temperature EBIC are being developed. Preliminary characterization of defects in ribbon grown at very low speeds of less than 1 cm/min shows that the dislocation density is very low over significant regions of cross section, while regions of high dislocation density (approx. 5 x 10/sup 6//cm/sup 2/) occur in bands in a number of places. Additional measurements of stress distributions in EFG material have been obtained at the University of Illinois using shadow-Moire interferometry.