A technique is described for the noncontact testing of materials using laser deposition to generate a stress pulse and interferometry to record the transient surface displacement. The dilatational wave speed can be measured and, in the particular case of rod or plate specimens, sufficient information can be obtained to evaluate the two elastic constants of an isotropic material. Several applications illustrating the advantages of the approach are summarized.

This bibliography contains 471 references pertaining to the evaluation of U.S. territorial ocean waters as a potential uranium resource and to the selection of a site for a plant designed for the large scale extraction of uranium from seawater. This bibliography was prepared using machine literature retrieval, bibliographic, and work processing systems at Oregon State University. The literature cited is listed by author with indices to the author's countries, geographic areas of study, and to a set of keywords to the subject matter.

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Economic viability requires that photovoltaic arrays should have a service life of 20 years or longer. Qualification and performance tests indicate that presently available photovoltaic modules provide acceptable performance at the time of installation. This study is being conducted as part of a program to develop and validate an accelerated test plan that can be used to predict the useful service life of present and future solar arrays. Previously a methodology was developed for designing an accelerated test program incorporating trade-offs between the cost of each test and its value in reducing the variance in the life prediction for that array. The objective of the present study is to apply this methodology to develop an accelerated test plan to predict the service life of the 25-kW photovoltaic array installed near Mead, Nebraska. Potential long-term degradation modes for the two types of modules in the Mead array have been determined and judgments have been made as to those environmental stresses and combinations of stresses which accelerate the degradation of the power output. Hierarchical trees representing the severity of effects of stresses (test conditions) on eleven individual degradation modes have been constructed and have been pruned of tests judged to be nonessential. …

Laboratory equipment is being assembled for the investigation of unusual particulate and gaseous radioactive material in the incinerator offgas when commercial wastes are incinerated. This equipment will constitute a bench-scale incinerator system with monitoring equipment to effect the investigation. A literature search was made to determine the current technology used in removing the expected effluents from gas streams. A series of controlled-feed incinerator runs was performed to determine the mass balance of chloride in the Cyclone incinerator system. Approximately 74% of the chloride present in the feed material was found to be in the scrubber solution, 8% in the flue gas, and the remaining chloride was distributed in the ash and retained in the system. A conceptual design was prepared and modifications were begun on a glove box which is to be used for the demonstration phase of incinerator ash immobilization. Concrete and cold-pressed pellets are being studied and compared for ash immobilization.

A brief history of Decontamination and Decommissioning (D and D) experience at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory is presented as an introduction to the status of current projects. Details are then presented as an introduction to the status of current projects. Details are then presented on a project to remove sodium from some major components of the Hallam reactor and on the Organic Moderated Reactor Experiment (OMRE) decommissioning project. Cost, schedule, waste volume, and other technical data from these projects are presented. In addition, a brief summary of the future INEL D and D program is presented.

The setting up, calibration operation, characteristics, and problems of the precision long counter for neutron intensity measurements are discussed. (WHK)

A system for characterizing either a seismic source or geologic media from observational data was developed. This resulted from an examination of the forward and inverse problems of seismology. The system integrates many seismic monitoring research efforts into a single computational capability. Its main advantage is that it unifies computational and research efforts in seismic monitoring. 173 references, 9 figures, 3 tables.

Studies of atmospheric aerosols have demonstrated that much of the /sup 55/Fe associated with the aerosol input to the oceans is present as either an amorphous or hydrous iron oxide or as very small particulate species attached to the surfaces of the large aerosol particles. By comparison, nearly all of the stable iron is bound in the mineral phase of aerosol particles. This difference in the chemical and physical forms of the radioactive and stable iron isotopes results in the /sup 55/Fe being more biologically available than is the stable iron. This difference in availability is responsible for the transfer of a much higher specific activity /sup 55/Fe to certain ocean organisms and man relative to the specific activity of the total aerosol or of sea water. This differential biological uptake of the radioactive element and its stable element counterpart points out that natural levels of stable elements in the marine environment may not effectively dilute radioelements or other stable elements of anthropogenic sources. The effectiveness of dilution by natural sources depends on the chemical and physical forms of the materials in both the source terms and the receiving environments. The large difference in specific activities of /sup 55/Fe in …