Each of three main sections - coal, gas and oil, fission and fusion, and oil shale - was abstracted individually for EDB/ERA. The section on fission and fusion was also designated for INIS announcement. Additional sections include information on publications, presentations, and distribution, an author index and organizational charts. (JGB)

Preliminary cost estimates prepared for the Colorado Department of Highways regarding deicing of highways and bridge structures are presented.

The State of Idaho has converted its public Health and Agriculture Laboratory Building to geothermal space heating to take advantage of the opportunity for lower assessment and the resulting economic benefit. Preliminary considerations regarding geothermal effluent disposal are presented here. It was concluded that disposal of the effluent to the Boise River or to an irrigation canal would require a mechanism such as a spray cooling pond to cool the effluent prior to discharge.

A geothermal resource near the Veterans Administration Hospital facilities in Boise, Idaho, has been used since the turn of the century for space heating of homes. A plan for using this resource in some of the Veterans Hospital facilities is discussed. Preliminary cost estimates are presented, economic evaluation criteria are given, and heating system alternatives for the facilities are compared.

A simple ID scaling model for the fast THETA-pinch was developed and written as a code that would be flexible, inexpensive in computer time, and readily available for use with the Los Alamos explosive-driven high-magnetic-field program. The simplified model uses three successive separate stages: (1) a snowplow-like radial implosion, (2) an idealized resistive annihilation of reverse bias field, and (3) an adiabatic compression stage of a BETA = 1 plasma for which ideal pressure balance is assumed to hold. The code uses one adjustable fitting constant whose value was first determined by comparison with results from the Los Alamos Scylla III, Scyllacita, and Scylla IA THETA-pinches.

Heavy-ion projection and CT radiography is being developed into a safe, low-dose, noninvasive radiological procedure that can quantitate and image small density differences in human tissues. The applications to heavy-ion mammography and heavy-ion CT imaging of the brain in clinical patients suggest their potential value in cancer diagnosis.

The estimates of absorbed doses of x rays and excess risk of cancer in bone marrow and heavily irradiated sites are extremely crude and are based on very limited data and on a number of assumptions. Some of these assumptions may later prove to be incorrect, but it is probable that they are correct to within a factor of 2. The excess cancer risk estimates calculated compare well with the most reliable epidemiological surveys thus far studied. This is particularly important for cancers of heavily irradiated sites with long latent periods. The mean followup period for the patients was 16.2 y, and an increase in cancers of heavily irradiated sites may appear in these patients in the 1970s in tissues and organs with long latent periods for the induction of cancer. The accuracy of these estimates is severely limited by the inadequacy of information on doses absorbed by the tissues at risk in the irradiated patients. The information on absorbed dose is essential for an accurate assessment of dose-cancer incidence analysis. Furthermore, in this valuable series of irradiated patients, the information on radiation dosimetry on the radiotherapy charts is central to any reliable determination of somatic risks of radiation with …

Decision-making by decision-makers during the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island all had to do in some way, and impacted on the public health and safety, the health and safety of the workers, and emergency preparedness and health care. This paper reviews the activities of only one federal agency during the accident, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW), and its effectiveness in its role as the leading institution responsible for protecting the public health during the first accident in a nuclear power plant designed for the commerical generation of electricity in the United States. My comments are limited to only three acts dealing with radiological health and protection: the struggle for power and assertion of leadership in response to possible health consequences of the accident; the decisions to evacuate the area during the radiological emergency; and the use of potassium iodide as a means of protecting the public and the workers from the hazards of exposure to radioactive iodine released to the environment.

A main conclusion drawn from the investigation by the President's Commission was that the most serious health effect of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident was severe mental stress, which was short-lived. The highest levels of psychological distress were found among those living within 5 miles of Three Mile Island, in families with preschool children, and among the Three Mile Island nuclear workers. This report provides some understanding of how these conclusions were drawn, the methods used to obtain information of the experiences of mental stress and the behavioral effects and responses of the general population and the nuclear workers to the accident at Three Mile Island. In order to limit the scope of the discussion, information is taken from the Behavioral Effects Task Group Report (TMI79c) to the President's Commission, and thus from the labors of the many behavioral scientists.

The somatic effects of concern in human populations exposed to low doses and low dose rates of ionizing radiations are those that may be induced by mutation in individual cells, singly or in small numbers. The most important of these is considered to be cancer induction. Current knowledge of the carcinogenic effect of radiation in man has been reviewed in two recent reports: the 1977 UNSCEAR Report; and the 1980 BEIR-III Report. Both reports emphasize that cancers of the breast, thyroid, hematopoietic tissues, lung, and bone can be induced by radiation. Other cancers, including the stomach, pancreas, pharynx, lymphatic, and perhaps all tissues of the body, may also be induced by radiation. Both reports calculate risk estimates in absolute and relative terms for low-dose, low-LET whole-body exposure, and for leukemia, breast cancer, thyroid cancer, lung cancer, and other cancers. These estimates derive from exposure and cancer incidence data at high doses and at high dose rates. There are no compelling scientific reasons to apply these values of risk to the very low doses and low dose rates of concern in human radiation protection. In the absence of reliable human data for calculating risk estimates, dose-response models have been constructed from …

This paper reviews certain current concepts and methods relating to benefit-risk analysis, in terms of economic costs and raidation risks to health, in relation to the benefits from diagnostic radiology in clinical medicine.

The condition for extracting a maximum negative ion current density is found when the product of the radius of the negative ion conversion electrode, the cross-section for negative and positive ion recombination, and the density of positive ions in the ion source equals one. The optimum output is obtained at the highest positive ion density and the smallest electrode radius.

Calculations of the average neutronic properties of the ensemble of fission products producted by fast-neutron fission of /sup 235/U and /sup 239/Pu, where the properties are determined before the first beta decay of any of the fragments, are described. For each case we approximate the ensemble by a weighted average over 10 selected nuclides, whose properties we calculate using nuclear-model parameters deduced from the systematic properties of other isotopes of the same elements as the fission fragments. The calculations were performed primarily with the COMNUC and GNASH statistical-model codes. The results, available in ENDF/B format, include cross sections, angular distributions of neutrons, and spectra of neutrons and photons, for incident-neutron energies between 10/sup -5/ eV and 20 MeV. Over most of this energy range, we find that the capture cross section of /sup 239/Pu fission fragments is systematically a factor of two to five greater than for /sup 235/U fission fragments.

We consider effects of parton (primarily gluon) bremstrahlung in the initial and final states of high transverse momentum hadron-hadron scattering. Monte Carlo calculations based on conventional QCD parton branching and scattering processes are presented. The calculations are carried only to the parton level in the final state. We apply the model to the Drell-Yan process and to high transverse momentum hadron-hadron scattering triggered with a large aperture calorimeter. We show that the latter triggers are biased in that they select events with unusually large bremstrahlung effects. We suggest that this trigger bias explains the large cross section and non-coplanar events observed in the NA5 experiment at the SPS.

A mining procedure which removes the geologic formations above an oil or tar sand bearing reservoir by strip mining techniques, then floods the upper surface of the reservoir with a pool of water, is examined by computational models and laboratory scale experiments. The results of the studies indicate low production rates are achieved by such a procedure.

Both synthetically and naturally derived organic complexing agents in soil have been found in other studies to accelerate the rate of migration of specific radionuclides. In an effort to aid in the development of comprehensive plans for the disposal of low-level waste, the effect of organic complexing agents on the transport properties of /sup 99/Tc, a long-lived constituent of radioactive waste, was examined. The effect of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA), and sodium citrate on the mobility of reduced Tc species was examined from two aspects: first, by techniques of desorption from soil in which reduced, sorbed Tc was exposed to solutions of organic ligands; and second, by exposure of synthetic Tc-organic complexes to soils. Only a slight desorption of reduced Tc from Hanford soil by EDTA was found to occur in 10-day desorption tests. However, when synthetic EDTA and DTPA complexes of reduced Tc were exposed to soil under similar conditions, only a slight amount of Tc was sorbed by the soil. This comparison clearly shows that at least one type of test did not reach equilibrium in the 10-day time period allowed. Although the effects of these complexants at equilibrium cannot be quantified from these data, it …

The existence of thermally stable sub-ignited equilibria of a tokamak reactor, sustained in operation by a feedback-controlled supplementary heating source, is demonstrated. The establishment of stability depends on a number of radially non-uniform, nonlinear processes whose effect is analyzed. One-dimensional (radial) stability analyses of model transport equations, together with numerical results from a 1-D transport code, are used in studying the heating of DT-plasmas in the thermonuclear regime. Plasma core supplementary heating is found to be a thermally more stable process than bulk heating. In the presence of impurity line radiation, however, core-heated temperature profiles may collapse, contracting inward from the limiter, the result of an instability caused by the increasing nature of the radiative cooling rate, with decreasing temperature. Conditions are established for the realization of a sub-ignited high-Q, toroidal reactor plasma with appreciable output power (approx. = 2000 MW thermal).

The catalytic activity of various minerals, metallic wastes, and transition metals was investigated in the liquefaction of various coals. The effects of coal type, process variables, coal cleaning, catalyst addition mode, solvent quality, and solvent modification on coal conversion and oil production were also studied. Coal conversion and oil production improved significantly by the addition of pyrite, reduced pyrite, speculite, red mud, flue dust, zinc sulfide, and various transition metal compounds. Impregnation and molecular dispersion of iron gave higher oil production than particulate incorporation of iron. However, the mode of molybdenum addition was inconsequential. Oil production increased considerably both by adding a stoichiometric mixture of iron oxide and pyrite and by simultaneous impregnation of coal with iron and molybdenum. Hydrogenation activity of disposable catalysts decreased sharply in the presence of nitrogen compounds. The removal of heteroatoms from process solvent improved thermal as well as catalytic coal liquefaction. The improvement in oil production was very dramatic with a catalyst.

A ball mounting fixture for a roundness gage is disclosed. The fixture includes a pair of chuck assemblies oriented substantially transversely with respect to one another and mounted on a common base. Each chuck assembly preferably includes a rotary stage and a wobble plate affixed thereto. A ball chuck affixed to each wobble plate is operable to selectively support a ball to be measured for roundness, with the wobble plate permitting the ball chuck to be tilted to center the ball on the axis of rotation of the rotary stage. In a preferred embodiment, each chuck assembly includes a vacuum chuck operable to selectively support the ball to be measured for roundness. The mounting fixture enables a series of roundness measurements to be taken with a conventional rotating gagehead roundness instrument, which measurements can be utilized to determine the sphericity of the ball.

A wide range of magma types and pluton geometries believed to occur within the upper 10 km of the crust provide suitable sources of thermal energy for conversion of water-biomass mixtures to higher quality gaseous fuel. Gaseous fuel can be generated within a magma body, within the hot subsolidus margins of a magma body, or within surface reaction vessels heated by thermal energy derived from a magma body. The composition, amount, and energy content of the fuel gases generated from water-biomass mixtures are not sensitive to the type, age, depth, or temperature of a magma body thermal source. The amount and energy content of the generated fuel is almost entirely a function of the proportion of biomass in the starting mixture. CH/sub 4/ is the main gas that can be generated in important quantities by magma thermal energy under most circumstances. CO is never an important fuel product, and H/sub 2/ generation is very limited. The rates at which gaseous fuels can be generated are strongly dependent on magma type. Fuel generation rates for basaltic magmas are at least 2 to 3 times those for andesitic magmas and 5 to 6 times those for rhyolitic magmas. The highest fuel generation …

The method of characteristics is used to solve radiation transport problems with induced Compton scattering effects included. The methods used to date have only addressed problems in which either induced Compton scattering is ignored, or problems in which linear scattering is ignored. Also, problems which include both induced Compton scattering and spatial effects have not been considered previously. The introduction of induced scattering into the radiation transport equation results in a quadratic nonlinearity. Methods are developed to solve problems in which both linear and nonlinear Compton scattering are important. Solutions to scattering problems are found for a variety of initial photon energy distributions.

This report describes research in environment, health, and safety conducted during fiscal year 1981. The five parts of the report are oriented to particular segments of the program. Parts 1 to 4 report on research performed for the DOE Office of Health and Environmental Research in the Office of Energy Research. Part 5 reports progress on all research performed for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Environmental Protection, Safety and Emergency Preparedness. The parts are: Part 1: Biomedical Sciences under Program Manager, H. Drucker; Part 2: Ecological Sciences, under Program Manager, B.E. Vaughan; Part 3: Atmospheric Sciences under Program Manager, C.E. Elderkin; Part 4: Physical Sciences under Program Manager, J.M. Nielsen; and Part 5: Environmental and Occupational Protection, Assessment, and Engineering under Program Managers, D.L. Hessel, S. Marks, and W.A. Glass.

Tensile tests and metallographic examinations were done on electron beam welds on six different chemistries of vanadium. The welds were found to maintain base metal strengths even though large grains were present in the fusion zone. Nitrogen and oxygen were found to be the most effective strengtheners. The weld and surrounding area in material containing high nitrogen and oxygen exhibited higher hardness than the base metal.

A system of computer programs and hardware was developed by the Instrumentation Branch of the Morgantown Energy Technology Center (METC) to provide data acquisition and control features for research projects at the site. The Automatic Data Acquisition and Control System (ADACS) has the capability of servicing up to eight individual projects simultaneously, providing data acquisition, data feedback, and process control where needed. Several novel software features - including a data table driven program, extensive feedback in real time, free format English commands, and high reliability - were incorporated to provide these functions.