A loading technique to study the dynamic response of tuff was explored. Loading is provided by electrically exploding etched copper mesh patterns with current from a capacitor discharge. Pressure pulses with peak pressures up to 1.25 kbar and 0.10 to 0.20 ms durations were measured with a pressure bar. The upper value of peak pressure was limited by the strength of the experimental apparatus, and higher pressure generation is possible with a redesign of test hardware. 6 figures, 2 tables.

Generator and diode problems have reduced electron beam parameters for the proof-of-principle autoresonant collective ion acceleration experiment from 3 MeV, 30 kA, and 200 ns to 2.25 MeV, 15 kA, and 100 ns. This reduction limits acceleration of hydrogen ions to about 4 MeV, if present experimental plans are followed. The output ion energy can be increased to a more acceptable level by reducing the electron beam radius at the diode and by accelerating ions in a weaker guide magnetic field. Analysis further suggests that preacceleration of ions is necessary for efficient trapping in the slow cyclotron waves. The maximum ion current is of order 15 A.

The core safety analyses and reactivity control analyses that have been done to support safe operation of the LOFT reactor in the LOCE pre-blowdown (or pre-LOCE) operating mode (Operating Mode 8) for the L2-3 nuclear loss of coolant experiment are presented. Safety analyses done to support LOFT operation in other operating modes (Modes 5, 6, and 7) with changes in operating conditions or assumptions due to requirements for safe operation of the L2-3 test (changes from conditions or assumptions for previous safety analyses for those operating modes) are also presented. The analyses discussed herein do not include analyses for potential loss of coolant accidents, or for accidents during the LOCE blowdown mode (Mode 9), or for potential radiation releases during LOCE operation.

This report describes work performed by Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's program to determine safety and costs related to decommissioning nuclear fuel cycle facilities. Individual dose factors for the inhalation of radon and its daughter products are calculated for use in environmental dose assessments. The calculated committed dose equivalent factors for /sup 222/Rn and its daughters are tabulated for lungs, bronchi tract and other organs. An activity median aerodynamic diameter of 0.1 ..mu..m was used. The dose to an individual is calculated by multiplying the estimated intake from inhalation for a particular radionuclide by the corresponding dose factor. A working level month-to-dose conversion factor is calculated to be 1 rad/WLM to the epithelial tissue of the T-B region, assuming 100% daughter equilibrium and 10% free /sup 218/Po ions. This value is in reasonable agreement with recently reported values.

A survey is made of commercially available methods currently in use as well as those which might be used to prevent scaling and corrosion in geothermal brines. More emphasis is placed on scaling. Treatments are classified as inhibitors, alterants and coagulants; they are applied to control scaling and corrosion in fresh and waste geothermal brines. Recommendations for research in brine treatment are described.

Studies of technical issues relating to nuclear waste management are described. It supplements previous TASC reports on this topic. Volume 1 addresses events occurring before emplacement of the waste in a repository. The subjects addressed are thermal analysis of interim storage accidents and doses to the worst-situated individual in all types of pre-emplacement accidents. Volume 2 deals with the possible release of waste from a geologic repository. Aspects of long-term repository performance which are discussed include water flow around shafts and boreholes and use of water from contaminated wells. New methods and results pertaining to the analysis of uncertainties in long-term risk predictions are also presented.

An automated uncertainty analysis option has been added to the FRAPCON Computer Code. The option allows the user to obtain estimates of the uncertainty in computer output variables of the code as a function of known uncertainties in input variables. The method of uncertainty analysis used is the Response Surface Method (RSM). Results of the uncertainty analysis option include estimates of the mean and variance of the output variables plus fractional contributions to that variance due to each of the input variables. An example application of the method to FRAPCON standard problem number one is presented.

The purpose of this study was to assess the market potential for a portable geothermal wellhead power conversion device (1-10 MW generating capacity). Major study objectives included identifying the most promising applications for such a system, the potential impediments confronting their industrialization, and the various government actions needed to overcome these impediments. The heart of the study was a series of structured interviews with key decision-making individuals in the various disciplines of the geothermal community. In addition, some technical and economic analyses of a candidate system were performed to support the feasibility of the basic concept.

Materials accounting for special nuclear material in future fuel cycle facilities will draw heavily on sophisticated data-analysis techniques. Decision analysis, which combines elements of estimation theory, decision theory, and systems analysis, can be used to reduce errors caused by subjective data evaluation and to condense large collections of data to a smaller set of more descriptive statistics. The methods and requirements of decision analysis are discussed and illustrated by a conceptual design example of an advanced materials accounting system for a plutonium nitrate-to-oxide conversion facility.

In an effort to upgrade outdated instrumentation and to take advantage of current and imminent technologies the Nuclear Chemistry Division at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory is about to undertake a major upgrade of their low level radiation counting and analysis facilities. It is expected that such a project will make a more coordinated data acquisition and data processing system, reduce manual data handling operations and speed up data processing throughput. Before taking on a systems design it is appropriate to establish a definition of the requirements of the facilities. This report examines why such a project is necessary in the context of the current and projected operations, needs, problems, risks and costs. The authors also address a functional specification as a prelude to a system design and the design constraints implicit in the systems implementation. Technical, operational and economic assessments establish necessary boundary conditions for this discussion. This report also establishes the environment in which the requirements definition may be considered valid. The validity of these analyses is contingent on known and projected technical, scientific and political conditions.

The status of decays of the kind V ..-->.. P..gamma.. and P ..-->.. V..gamma..viewed with special emphasis on the work done by the authors in this field. The low experimental value of GAMMA(rho ..-->.. ..pi gamma..) remains the outstanding problem. The lastest preliminary numbers from a Fermi Laboratory experiment go in the right direction but not far enough. 15 references.

The kinetics of the isothermal martensitic transformation in Fe--29.6 Ni and Fe--22.5 Ni--4 Mn alloys were investigated as a function of constant magnetic fields, ranging up to 140 KOe (11 x 10/sup 6/ ampere/m). The principal role of the applied magnetic field is to increase the free-energy difference between the product and parent phases in these iron-based alloys, and so the transformational driving force for a given composition can be varied even at a fixed temperature. In the Fe--Ni alloy, the isothermal transformation rate is increased by raising the magnetic field as well as by lowering the temperature, leading in either case to the entre of burst characteristics. The Fe--Ni--Mn alloy does not transform perceptibly without an applied field, but exhibits isothermal C-curve kinetics in fields above 60 KOe (4.8 x 10/sup 6/ ampere/m). The average volume per martensitic plate ad the average plate orientation are found to be insensitive to the strength and direction of the magnetic field, undoubtedly indicating the dominance of autocatalytic nucleation during the course of the isothermal transformation. However, there is some tendency for the morphology to become less lath-like and more plate-like with increasing field strength at a given transformation temperature, and likewise with …

A window and peak height converter circuit has been designed and built that extracts a single mass peak (or group of peaks) from a set of mass spectra repetitive in time and produces a time profile of that mass. The response time of the circuit is such that one has the capability of real-time operation and of operation on mass spectral data that has been prerecorded on analog tape. The use of analog recording of data allows a great deal of flexibility in recording and playback speeds, and more importantly produces a permanent record of all information contained in the mass spectral data.

The motion of an ion in a coherent lower hybrid wave (characterized by vertical bar/sub parallel/vertical bar much less than vertical bar kappa/sub perpendicular to/vertical bar and ..omega.. much greater than ..cap omega../sub i/) in a tokamak plasma is studied. For ions satisfying ..nu../sub perpendicular to/ > ..omega../kappa/sub perpendicular to/, the Lorentz force law for the ions is reduced to a set of difference equations which give the Larmor radius and phase of an ion on one cyclotron orbit in terms of these quantities a cyclotron period earlier. From these difference equations an earlier result (Phys. Fluids 21, 1584(1978)) that above a certain wave amplitude the ion motion is stochastic, is readily obtained. The stochasticity threshold is given a simple physical interpretation. In addition, the difference equations are used to derive a diffusion equation governing the heating of the ions above the stochasticity threshold. By including the effects of collisions, the heating rate for the bulk ions is obtained.

Progress in various tasks of the LWR Fuel Performance Improvement Program is summarized. These tasks include the testing and demonstration program, out-of-reactor experiments, in-reactor experiments, in-reactor demonstrations, and fuel performance evaluations.

The use of microwave radio frequency (rf) heating in The Next Step (TNS) is considered to be a viable approach to accomplishing reliable preionization while significantly lowering the peak power requirements and cost of the ohmic heating power supply system. Electron cyclotron heating (ECH) is a promising type of rf heating in which high power microwave energy is deposited into the plasma region. The proposed system is based on a configuration of five 200-kW gyroklystrons which will deliver 1 MW at 120 GHz to the plasma area for pulse periods of up to 6.0 sec. Completion of an operational system could be targeted for December 1989 at an estimated cost (in 1978 dollars) of $4 million. A discussion and description of a conceptual system are presented. Estimates of costs, schedules, and research and development (R and D) needs are included.

During FY 77, research for Superconducting Power Transmission Line (SPTL) development included the following four research tasks: preparation of computer codes for the computation of cooldown by either single stream or counterstream methods; experimental verification of cooldown computations with emphasis on counterstream cooling; thermal cycling of a length of lead-sheathed model cable destined for testing in the BNL 5th Avenue facility; and evaluation of heat flow sensors as a means of non-intrusive vacuum indication for power transmission line vacuum envelopes. A series of progress reports on these four tasks are presented, with 6 appendicies on: experimental observations of flow oscillations in a high aspect ratio heated tube with supercritical helium as coolant; the results of a study of friction factors measured in the same apparatus as was used in Appendix 1; results of a numerical study of the response of SPTL current leads to overload currents; the microwave cavity pressure transducer developed at NBS for SPTL application; a correlation of heat transfer data to supercritical helium in forced convection; and a pressure regulator designed and used in controlling the pressure of cryogenic helium at supercritical pressures.

This report was prepared for the DOE Nuclear Data Committee and covers work performed at ORNL since April 1978 in areas of nuclear data of relevance to the U.S. applied nuclear energy program. The report was mostly generated through a review of abstracts of work completed to the point of being subjected to some form of publication in the open literature, formal ORNL reports, ORNL technical memoranda, progress reports, or presentation at technical conferences. As much as possible the complete abstract of the original publication is reproduced with only minor editing. In a few cases progress reports were written specifically for this publication. The editors have selected the materials to be included in this report on basis of perceived interests of DOE Nuclear Data Committee members and cannot claim completeness.

The method presented in this paper was developed for the purpose of analyzing the eddy currents in the TFTR vacuum vessel. The basic principle in this method lies in representing a conducting surface as a network comprised of a number of branches. Each branch has a resistance and a self-inductance as well as mutuals to all other branches. The resulting branch resistance and branch inductance matrices are transformed into mesh matrices by a conventional network procedure. By using these mesh matrices a set of simultaneous differential equations is then established. The eddy currents are then found by using a standard method for solving simultaneous differential equations.

Separate abstracts are included for each of the papers presented concerning training issues; staffing and training; construction and maintenance training; skills training; and simulator use.

The Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (LLL) performed technical evaluations for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Division of Operating Reactors, as part of a continuing program. This report summarizes the work done in FY 78 and provides references to detailed reports. Evaluations were performed on Selected Electrical, Instrumentation, and Control System Issues in existing reactors. The Select Issues investigated include reactor coolant system overpressurization protection, flooding of plant safety-related equipment, anticipated transients without scram, and local power range monitor drift. Short-term technical assistance was also provided on the problem of cable leakage during LOCAs. In support of the Systematic Evaluation Program, LLL also began evaluating the plant protection systems in the 11 oldest operating power reactors in light of selected current criteria.

The anticipated behavior of uranium oxide vapor bubbles produced by the capacitor discharge vaporization (CDV) method in the Fuel Aerosol Simulant Test (FAST) Facility is discussed on the basis of relatively simple physical models. Results of calculations for the rate of bubble rise and for heat and mass transfer rates are presented. Parametric studies indicate that future analysis efforts should emphasize the diffusion condensation process and the loss of heat from the bubble by radiation. Transfer of heat in the surrounding sodium is rapid enough that simplified models should be adequate. No important effects were noted in connection with bubble depth, initial quantity of UO/sub 2/, or initial superheat.

A new x-ray fluorescence analysis system was assembled to perform automatic analysis of element ratios in plated alloys. A level-temperature system was developed to provide integrated control of plating tank temperature, liquid level, and filter pump operation. A second generation electroplating control system was developed which incorporates level temperature control, plating fixture motor control, reference-voltage control, and digital display and recording of plating variables.

Developing the idea of fast particle mixing due to a strong nonlinearity of the beam--beam interaction, the distribution function of the weak bunch in the phase space of vertical motion is found. The features of this distribution are discussed and compared to the Gaussian one.