The present invention relates generally to metal foils and methods of making the same. More particularly, this invention pertains to the fabrication of very thin, unbacked metal foils.

Ground samples of three nuclear melt glasses from underground nuclear explosions at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) were leached at 25/sup 0/C with natural ground water from NTS. Using our dynamic single-pass flow-through leaching system we monitored the release of radionuclides from the glasses during 420 days of leaching. We continually flowed the ground water over the melt glass at flow rates of 185 ml/day for half of the samples and 34 ml/day for the rest. Leachate solutions were collected continuously, and composite samples, collected on days 1, 2, 3, 6, 11, 32, 38, 70, 120, 230 and 420, were analyzed using low-background Ge(Li) gamma spectrometers. For most of the radionuclides the leach rate decreased smoothly throughout the experiment. Except for /sup 95/Zr, /sup 144/Ce, and /sup 155/Eu, there was no difference between the fast (185 ml/day) and slow (34 ml/day) flow-rate leach rates. The measurable leach rates ranged from a high of 1 x 10/sup -2/ g-glass/m/sup 2/ day for /sup 22/Na (slow flow-rate, day 1 in glass No. 2) to a low of 1 x 6/sup -6/ g-glass/m/sup 2/ day for /sup 54/Mn (slow flow-rate, day 420 in glass No. 2). Most of the leach-rate values were about …

The parameter B/sub e//nr/sub p/ (here, B/sub e/ is applied magnetic field strength, nr/sub p/ is the plasma density-radius product) is proposed as a key parameter for spheromak heating studies. If B/sub e//nr/sub p/ is too large, increased magnetic fluctuations limit heating; low B/sub e//nr/sub p/ value results in excessive radiation losses. An optimum range appears to be B/sub e//nr/sub p/ approx. 1 to 5 x 10/sup -20/ Wb.

A method is reported here for the analysis of I-129 in decontaminated defense waste salt solution at concentrations as low as 0.14 pCi/ml. Repeated analyses have been unable to confirm the presence of I-129 in decontaminated samples of Tank 24 supernate.

The definition of a time-dependent spectrum registered by an idealized spectrometer responding to a time-varying electromagnetic field as proposed by Eberly and Wodkiewicz and subsequently applied to the spectrum of laser-induced fluorescence by Eberly, Kunasz, and Wodkiewicz is here extended to allow a stochastically fluctuating (interruption model) environment: we provide an algorithm for numerical determination of the time-dependent fluorescence spectrum of an atom subject to excitation by an intense noisy laser and interruptive relaxation.