The South endcap calorimeter vessel was moved into Lab A on Sept. 18, 1990. A cooldown of the pressure vessel with liquid nitrogen was performed on Sept. 26 to check the vessel's integrity. With the pressure vessel cold, the insulating vacuum was monitored for leaks. Through out the testing, the insulating vacuum remained good and the vessel passed the test. The cold test was carried out per the procedures of D-Zero engineering note 3740.220-EN-250. The test was very similar to the cold test performed on the Central Calorimeter in October of 1987. The test of the ECS was performed in the same manner using the same equipment as the ECN cold test. Reference D-Zero engineering notes 3740.210-EN-122, 3740.000-EN-I07, and 3740.210-EN-II0 for information about the CC cold test. Reference EN-260 for the results of the ECN cold test. The insulating vacuum space was pumped on while equipment was being connected to the pressure vessel. Two hours after starting to pump with the blower the vacuum space pressure was at about 40 microns. The pumping continued overnight (another 16 hours). In the morning the pressure was 11.5 microns. A rate of rise test was performed. With the pump valved off, the pressure …

Research on the design of a high selectivity alcohol catalyst continued. During the first quarter of this project, our goals have been to overhaul key experimental equipment used in the previous project, plan and design new equipment and to identify a person to carry out the research program. The flow microreactor, previously assembled, has been reactivated and major improvements have been made both to the reactor and its attendant analytical instrumentation. This equipment is described later in this report. In addition to this, a state-of-the-art hydrogen chemisorption instrument has been designed and the components for its construction have been ordered. Additionally, four recent publications by the principal investigators on the subject of this project have appeared. 3 figs.

The search for new particles, such as the top quark, charged Higgs boson, heavy gauge bosons and supersymmetric particles, at the CERN and Fermilab proton-antiproton colliders is reviewed. A preliminary result by the CDF experiment of a reconstructed B meson mass peak from the decays B{sup {plus minus}} {yields} J/{psi}K{sup {plus minus}} and B{sup 0} {yields} J/{psi}K*{sup 0} is also presented. 22 refs., 13 figs.

Letter opinion issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Jim Mattox, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification.

This project is designed to develop methods for pre-combustion coal remediation by implementing recent advances in enzyme biochemistry. The novel approach of this study is incorporation of hydrophilic oxidative enzymes in reverse micelles in an organic solvent. Enzymes from commercial sources or microbial extracts are being investigated for their capacity to remove organic sulfur from coal by oxidation of the sulfur groups, splitting of C-S bonds and loss of sulfur as sulfuric acid Dibenzothiophene (DBT) and ethlyphenylsulfide (EPS) are serving as models of organic sulfur-containing components of coal in initial studies. A goal of this project is to define a reverse micelle system that optimizes the catalytic activity of enzymes toward desulfurization of model compounds and ultimately coal samples. Among the variables which will be examined are the surfactant, the solvent, the water:surfactant ration and the pH and ionic strength of the aqueous phase. Studies were carried out with HRP, Type I RZ=1.2 and Type VI RZ=3.2 and laccase from Polyporus versicolor. Substrates for HRP assays included hydrogen peroxide, DBT, DBT sulfoxide, and DBT sulfone. Buffers included sodium phosphate. For formation of reverse micelle solutions the surfactant AOT, di(2-ethyl-hexyl)sodium sulphosuccinate, was obtained from Sigma Chemical Co. Isooctant was used as …

The indoor swimming pool at Glen Cove YMCA, Glen Cove, New York, installed a dehumidification and water heating system. This report is the specifications of the new system, which includes dehumidifier/air handler, condenser/water heater, and outdoor condenser. (JF)

The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) generates transuranic (TRU) waste in a variety of programs related to national defense. TRU waste is a specific class of radioactive waste requiring permanent isolation. Most defense-related TRU waste will be permanently disposed of in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). WIPP is a deep geologic repository located in southeastern New Mexico and is now in the testing phase of development. All waste received by Wipp must conform with established Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC). The purpose of the proposed action is to retrieve stored TRU waste and prepare the waste for shipment to and disposal WIPP. Stored TRU waste LANL is represented by four waste forms. The facilities necessary for work-off activities are tailored to the treatment and preparation of these four waste forms. Preparation activities for newly generated TRU waste are also covered by this action.

The authors are studying aboveground oil shale retorting and have developed the LLNL Hot-Recycled-Solid (HRS) process as a generic, second-generation, rapid pyrolysis retorting system in which recycled shale is the solid heat carrier. In 1984-87, they operated a 1 ton-per-day HRS pilot plant to study retorting chemistry in an actual recirculation loop, Cena (1986). In 1989 they upgraded their laboratory pilot plant to process 4 ton-per-day of commercially sized shale, which will allow them, for the first time, to study pyrolysis and combustion chemistry using the full particle size, to produce enough oil for detailed characterization studies, to study environmental consequences, and to begin answering the many bulk solid handling questions concerning scale-up of the HRS process. In this paper the authors report on the status of their pilot plant operations. They have operated the facility circulating raw shale at ambient temperature and dolomite at elevated temperature. They plan the first hot shale run in November 1990. 5 refs., 16 figs., 4 tabs.

The traveler performed a neutron scattering experiment to study the high-energy spin dynamics of the itinerant antiferromagnet. This experiment was conducted at a unique instrument located at the hot-neutron source at the ILL. The traveler also held various scientific discussions with ILL research staff members and visiting scientists.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

This analysis report presents the projected requirements for uranium concentrate and uranium enrichment services to fuel the nuclear power plants expected to be operating under three nuclear supply scenarios. Two of these scenarios, the Lower Reference and Upper Reference cases, apply to the United States, Canada, Europe, the Far East, and other countries with free market economies (FME countries). A No New Orders scenario is presented only for the United States. These nuclear supply scenarios are described in Commercial Nuclear Power 1990: Prospects for the United States and the World (DOE/EIA-0438(90)). This report contains an analysis of the sensitivities of the nuclear fuel cycle projections to different levels and types of projected nuclear capacity, different enrichment tails assays, higher and lower capacity factors, changes in nuclear fuel burnup levels, and other exogenous assumptions. The projections for the United States generally extend through the year 2020, and the FME projections, which include the United States, are provided through 2010. The report also presents annual projections of spent nuclear fuel discharges and inventories of spent fuel. Appendix D includes domestic spent fuel projections through the year 2030 for the Lower and Upper Reference cases and through 2040, the last year in which …

Motivated by the recent developments in the cyclotron resonance upscattering of soft photons or CUSP model of Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) continuum spectra, we revisit a select database of GRBs with credible cyclotron absorption features. We measure the break energy of the continuum, the slope below the break and deduce the soft photon energy or the electron beam Lorentz factor cutoff. We study the correlation (or lack of) between various parameters in the context of the CUSP model. One surprise result is that there appears to be marginal correlation between the break energy and the spectral index below the break. 20 refs., 8 figs., 2 tabs.

An effort to assess the criticality risks of {sup 239}Pu in TRU Burial Ground Culverts has been underway for several years. The concern arose from discrepancies in two types of monitors that have been used to assay the {sup 239}Pu waste prior to storage in 55-gallon drums that are placed in the culverts. One type is the solid waste monitor (SWM), which is based on gamma-ray measurements; the other is the neutron coincidence monitor, which is based on neutron measurements. The NCC was put into routine service after 1985 and has generally yielded higher 239 Pu assays than the SWM. Culverts with pre-1986 waste only had SWM assays of {sup 239}Pu; thus, it was questioned whether their actual {sup 239}Pu loadings could be high enough to pose criticality concerns. Studies to characterize the culvert criticality potential have included appraisal of NCC vs SWM, neutron measurements atop the culverts, gamma-ray measurements atop the culverts, and probabilistic risk analyses. Overall, these studies have implied that the culverts are critically safe; however, their results have not been examined collectively. The present report uses the collective information of the preceding studies to arrive at a more complete assessment of the culvert criticality aspects. A …

We have developed instrumentation capable of measuring optical absorption spectra over a wavelength range of 200--1200 nm and a temperature range of 20--100{degree}C. This fiber-optic based spectrometer generates data which allow the computation of metal-ligand equilibrium constants. Studies at five temperatures have been completed using praseodymium-diglycolate as a model system. Fundamental thermodynamic values (free energies, enthalpies, entropies) were obtained from the experimentally-determined stability constants. Thermodynamic data pertinent to the interactions of actinides and long-lived fission products with groundwater, waste package components, and geologic media are critical input to modeling programs. 9 refs., 1 fig., 2 tabs.

Laser-ultrasonics refers to a range of technologies involving the use of laser electrooptical systems both to generate and to detect ultrasonic signals in and on materials and structures. Such systems have been developed to permit classical ultrasonic measurements for materials characterization and defect identification and measurement. From the point of view of one concerned with practical applications of ultrasonic inspection and measurement methods, laser-ultrasonic systems offer the flexibility which, in principle, should permit remote ultrasonic measurements to be performed on objects at elevated temperatures or in hostile environments. Laser-ultrasonic systems can be designed and constructed with extremely wide and flat detection bandwidth so that ultrasonic vibrational displacements can be recorded with high fidelity. In addition, there is no mechanical loading of the surface to damp, absorb, or otherwise distort the propagating acoustic energy. This feature has been used to great advantage in performing ultrasonic measurements in thin plates and films. In spite of the great advantages offered by laser-ultrasonics, there are severe limitations which restrict its application. In fact, based upon the performance of current state-of-the-art laser-ultrasonic systems, it is almost always more advantageous to use conventional ultrasonic transduction methods, if possible for a given application, than it is to …

The Monthly Energy Review presents current data on production, consumption, stocks, imports, exports, and prices of the principal energy commodities in the United States. Also included are data on international production of crude oil, consumption of petroleum products, petroleum stocks, and production of electricity from nuclear-powered facilities.

ANORM is a reliable, portable Fortran function program, written in the style of the SPECFUN package for computing the normal probability distribution to full machine precision on most contemporary computers. The main computation evaluates near-minimax approximations that are theoretically accurate to at least 18 significant decimal digitals. Special care has been taken in implementation to minimize error contamination in the crucial computations of the exponential and to provide full accuracy in the computation with large negative arguments. ANORM returns 0.0 for arguments smaller than the machine-dependent constant XLOW and returns 1.0 for arguments greater than the machine-dependent constant XUPPR.

A photoacoustic spectrometer, equipped with an 85 meter optical fiber, was used to perform absorption measurements of lanthanide and actinide samples, located in a glovebox. The spectrometer was tested using aqueous solutions of praseodymium and americium ions; the sensitivity for remote measurements was found to be similar to that achieved in the laboratory without the fiber. 14 refs., 3 figs.

The Advanced Light Source (ALS), now under construction at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, is a third-generation synchrotron radiation facility based on a low-emittance, 1.5-GeV electron storage ring with 10 long straight sections available for insertion devices and, initially, 24 bend-magnet ports. Undulators will provide high-brightness radiation at photon energies from below 10 eV to above 2 keV; wiggler and bend-magnet radiation will extend the spectral coverage with high fluxes to above 10 keV. Scheduled to begin operations as a US Department of Energy national user facility in the spring of 1993, the ALS will support an extensive research program in which soft x-ray and ultraviolet radiation is used to study matter in all its varied gaseous, liquid, and solid forms. Participating research teams to implement the initial scientific program have been selected. 13 refs., 3 figs., 2 tabs.

The most important attribute of a chemical contaminant at a hazardous-wastes site for decision makers to consider with regard to its cleanup is the potential risk associated with human exposure. For this reason we have developed a strategy for establishing a risk-based cleanup criterion for chemicals in soil. We describe this strategy by presenting a cleanup criterion for tetrachloroethylene (PCE) in soil associated with a representative California landscape. We being by discussing the environmental fate and transport model, developed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), that we used to predict the equilibrium concentration of PCE in five environmental media from a steady-state source in soil. Next, we explain the concept and application of pathway-exposure factors (PEFs), the hazard index, and cancer-potency factors (CPFs) for translating the predicted concentrations of PCE into estimated potential hazard or risk for hypothetically exposed individuals. Finally, the relationship between concentration and an allowable level of risk is defined and the societal and financial implications are discussed. 22 refs., 6 tabs.

The traveler presented a paper at the Seventh ASTM-EURATOM Symposium on Reactor Dosimetry and co-chaired an oral session on Computer Codes and Methods. Papers of considerable interest to the NRC Surveillance Dosimetry Program involved statistically based adjustment procedures and uncertainties. The information exchange meetings with Czechoslovakia and Hungary were very enlightening. Lack of large computers have hindered their surveillance program. They depended very highly on information from their measurement programs which were somewhat limited because of the lack of sophisticated electronics. The Nuclear Research Institute at Rez had to rely on expensive mockups of power reactor configurations to test their fluence exposures. Computers, computer codes, and updated nuclear data would advance their technology rapidly, and they were not hesitant to admit this fact. Both eastern-bloc countries said that IBM is providing an IBM 3090 for educational purposes but research and development studies would have very limited access. They were very apologetic that their currencies were not convertible, and any exchange means that they could provide services or pay for US scientists in their respective countries, but funding for their scientists in the United States, or expenses that involved payment in dollars, must come from us.

Letter opinion issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Jim Mattox, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification.

The purpose of this documentation is to provide instructional and reference material to the persons involved in RGF data maintenance and the system analysis and programming for the collection of RGF data.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Jim Mattox, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Application of section 31.04(a) of the Tax Code to tax bills which cannot be mailed because of an unknown address (RQ-1800)