In this task the historical performance of powerplants in Illinois was examined and the opportunities for improved powerplant productivity in Illinois was determined. The four utilities considered were the major investor-owned electric generating utilities in Illinois, i.e., Central Illinois Light Co., (CILCO), Central Illinois Public Service (CIPS), Commonwealth Edison (CECO), and Illinois Power (IP). The major findings are: (1) for evaluation purposes, the equivalent availability was judged to be the most-appropriate measure; (2) in terms of powerplant productivity, IP is among the best in the nation and, in terms of productivity from large coal units, it ranks in the top five nationally; (3) in general, the performance of coal-fired units of CILCO and CECO have been below national averages and in some cases, significantly below; (4) a review of the trends in production of all Illinois units reveals that Illinois units as a group have been generally below national averages for the respective unit classes; (5) as noted in this and other studies, productivities of the nuclear plants in Illinois have been below the national average for all comparable nuclear plants; and (6) this analysis should be updated when national 1977 and 1978 Edison Electric Institute data become publicly available.

The performance of a 5 MJ plasma focus is calculated using our two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (2-D MHD) code. Two configurations are discussed, a solid and a hollow anode. In the case of the hollow anode, we find an instability in the current sheath which has the characteristics of the short wave length sausage instability. As the current sheath reaches the axis, the numerical solution is seen to break down. Just before this time, plasma parameters take on the characteristic values rho/rho/sub 0/ = 143, kT/sup i/ = 7.4 keV, B/sub theta/ = 4.7 MG, and V/sub z/ = 60 cm/..mu..s for a zone with r = 0.2 mm. When the numerical solution breaks down, the code shows a splitting of the current sheath (from the axis to the anode) and the loss of a large amount of magnetic energy. Current-sheath stagnation is observed in the hollow anode configuration, also.

The mass and kinetic energy distributions of fission fragments from the spontaneous fission of th newly discovered nuclide /sup 259/Md were obtained. /sup 259/Md was identified as the E. C. daughter of /sup 259/No, and was found to decay entirely (> 95%) by spontaneous fission with a 95-min half-life. From the kinetic energies measured for 397 pairs of coincident fragments, a mass distribution was derived that is symmetric with sigma = 13 amu. /sup 259/Md, together with /sup 258/Fm and /sup 259/Fm, form a select group of three nuclides whose mass division in spontaneous fission is highly symmetric. Unlike the total-kinetic-energy (TKE) distributions of /sup 258/Fm and /sup 259/Fm, which peak at approx. = to 240 MeV, this distribution for /sup 259/Md is broad and is 50 MeV lower in energy. Analysis of the mass and energy distributions shows that events near mass symmetry also exhibit a broad TKE distribution, with one-third of the symmetric events having TKEs less than 200 MeV. The associated of low TKEs with symmetric mass division in the fission of very heavy actinides is anomalous and inconsistent with theories based upon the emergence of fragment shells near the scission point. Either three-body fragmentation or peculiar …

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