This paper briefly outlines the overall systems approach being developed for the Seismic Safety Margins Research Program. The unique features of the approach being taken to reduce the uncertainty in the seismic input for this program are discussed. These unique features will include extensive use of expert opinion, earthquake rupture simulation studies and the way in which the seismic hazard is incorporated into the overall systems analysis. Some very preliminary results are also given for the Zion site which is the power plant chosen for analysis in Phase I of the program.

Coupons of eight different carbon and chrome-moly alloy steels were exposed to high temperature, high salinity wellhead brine flow at a geothermal well in the Salton Sea Geothermal Field for periods of up to six months. The corrosion rate and corrosion attack morphology of each coupon was determined. Exposure time was a test variable and ranged from one month to six months. Test results indicate that carbon steels generally suffer high corrosion rates and are susceptible to severe localized attack which shows a mesa-canyon pattern. Chrome-moly alloy steels corrode at much lower rates and show an attack pattern of small shallow pits. With time, these pits grow mostly in the lateral direction. These results suggest that chrome-moly alloy steels offer significant improvement over carbon steels and that the disk-shaped pits are not likely to lead to rapid perforation.

Disposal of geopressured-geothermal brine effluents by injection is expected to be costly, even into shallow aquifers. If injection into the production reservoir becomes necessary to maintain productivity and to minimize subsidence, the injection pumping costs can become overwhelming. An option aimed at reducing injection pump operating costs is to maintain a higher than normal pressure at the production wellhead to reduce the injection pumping load. The crucial element, however, is that a significant portion of CH/sub 4/ remains in solution and must be recovered in order for the pressure maintenance option to be cost effective. A laboratory and field test capability has been established, and several methods for extracting dissolved CH/sub 4/ at high temperature and pressure are being evaluated. Solvent extraction and use of hydraulic motors or turbines coupled to CH/sub 4/ recovery systems are the leading candidate methods.

Clustering of mutant pollen grains in a population of normal pollen due to premeiotic mutational events complicates translating mutation frequencies into rates. Embryo ontogeny in barley will be described and used to illustrate the formation of such mutant clusters. The nature of the statistics for mutation frequency will be described from a study of the reversion frequencies of various waxy mutants in barley. Computer analysis by a jackknife method of the reversion frequencies of a waxy mutant treated with the mutagen sodium azide showed a significantly higher reversion frequency than untreated material. Problems of the computer analysis suggest a better experimental design for pollen mutation experiments. Preliminary work on computer modeling for pollen development and mutation will be described.

The question of what to do with radioactive wastes is discussed. The need to resolve this issue promptly is pointed out. Two significant events which have occurred during the Carter administration are discussed. An Interagency Review Group (IRG) on waste management was formed to formulate recommendations leading to the establishment of a National policy for managing radioactive wastes. The technical findings in the IRG report are listed. The author points out some issues not addressed by the report. President Carter issued a national policy statement on Radioactive Waste Management in February 1980. The most significant elements of this statement are summarized. The cancellation of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is currently meeting opposition in Congress. This and other items in the National Policy Statement are discussed.

Solid earth tidal strain and surface loading due to fluctuations in barometric pressure have the effect, although extremely minute, of dilating or contracting the effective pore volume in a porous reservoir. If a well intersects the formation, the change in pore pressure can be measured with sensitive quartz pressure gauges. Mathematical models of the relevant fluid dynamics of the well-reservoir system have been generated and tested against conventional well pumping results or core data at the Salton Sea Geothermal Field (SSGF), California and at the Raft River, Geothermal Field (RRGF), Idaho. Porosity-total compressibility product evaluation based on tidal strain response compares favorably with results based on conventional pumping techniques. Analysis of reservoir response to barometric loading using Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) stochastic modeling appears also to have potential use for the evaluation of reservoir parameters.

Advanced target designs require thicker (approx. 300 ..mu..m) coatings and better surface finishes that can be produced with current coating techniques. An advanced coating technique is proposed to provide maximum control of the coating flux and optimum manipulation of the shell during processing. In this scheme a small beam of ions or particles of known incident energy are collided with a levitated spherical mandrel. Precise control of the incident energy and angle of the deposition flux optimizes the control of the coating morphology while controlled rotation and noncontact support of the shell minimizes the possibility of particulate or damage generated defects. Almost infinite variability of the incident energy and material in this process provides increased flexibility of the target designs which can be physically realized.

The Full-Scale Mark II CRT (Containment Response Test) Program is in progress at the Tokai-Mura Establishment of the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI). The primary objective of the on-going CRT Program is to provide a data base for evaluation of the pressure suppression pool (wetwell) hydrodynamic loads associated with a postulated loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) in the BWR Mark II containment system. The test facility is 1/18 of full scale in volume and has a wetwell which is a full-scale geometric replica of one 20/sup 0/-sector of a reference 1100MWe Mark II.

Some proposed inertial confinement fusion targets require high-Z, high density metal coatings on glass microspheres. Platinum, which satisfies the high-Z and density requirements, can be coated onto microspheres with a batch magnetron sputtering process incorporating oxygen as a dopant gas to prevent the microspheres from sticking. This paper outlines recent progress in three areas: First, the coating process has been improved; second, the oxygen content and resistivity of the oxygen doped platinum films are analyzed; and third, the roles oxygen may play in reducing microsphere sticking during sputtering are discussed in regard to cold welding, Van der Waals bonding, electrostatic sticking, and sintering.

The classical two-dimensional close-packed triangular lattice, with nearest-neighbor spring forces, is a convenient standard material for the investigation of dislocation motion and plastic flow. Two kinds of calculations, based on this standard material, are described here: (1) Molecular Dynamics simulations, incorporating adiabatic strains described with the help of Doll's Tensor, and (2) Continuum Dynamics simulations, incorporating periodic boundaries and dislocation interaction through stress-field superposition.

Three basic comparisons can be made between weapon system development and energy system development in the US--driving factors, system lifetime, and development time. Weapon system development and response is determined by a perceived threat to national security. Because the threat can change radically in this high technology atmosphere, weapon systems are usually designed for a 5 to 20 year lifetime. Development time from idea to capability is about 20 years on the average. In contrast, energy system development has been influenced by economics--demand, supply, return on investment--until the recent threat created by our dependence on oil. Energy systems are expected to operate 20 to 50 years and even longer. Development time is correspondingly long, i.e., 40 years from idea to large-scale use. The US needs to adopt a ''defense-oriented'' approach to protect its threatened energy security. Geothermal energy from hot dry rock is a new concept. The Hot Dry Rock Program is designed to minimize development time and may become a prime example of how a recognized threat to energy security can be answered by combined government/industry effort.

The generalized conjugate gradient scheme based on the k-line block Jacobi splitting A = M-N was studied for solving model two-dimensional parabolic and elliptic difference equations AU = F tilde. A represents the matrix ch/sup ..cap alpha../-h/sup 2/..delta../sub h/. Eigenvalues of M/sup -1/N cluster, and the cluster radii decrease as ch/sup ..cap alpha../ or k increases. Computations with k = 4, 8, 16, 32, and ch/sup ..cap alpha../ = 0, h, 2 are discussed.

Plasma confinement in the Tandem Mirror Experiment (TMX) is described. Axially confining potentials are shown to exist throughout the central 20-cm core of TMX. Axial electron-confinement time is up to 100 times that of single-cell mirror machines. Radial transport of ions is smaller than axial transport near the axis. It has two parts at large radii: nonambipolar, in rough agreement with predictions from resonant-neoclassical transport theory, and ambipolar, observed near the plasma edge under certain conditions, accompanied by a low-frequency, m = 1 instability or strong turbulence.

Magnetic switching offers an alternative to overcoming the rep-rate and life limitations of the spark gaps in the ETA/ATA induction accelerators. The principle has been applied for many years to radar modulators but at much lower power levels and longer pulse lengths. Comparatively recent developments in magnetic materials together with some optimal circuits have made it possible to go well beyond the state of the art. A magnetic modulator has been built which steps up and compresses a 25 kV, 5 ..mu..s pulse into a 250 kV, 50 ns pulse. A second magnetic modulator has been built and installed to replace four Blumleins and spark gaps in order to provide triggers for the complete ETA injector and accelerator. The paper outlines some practical and theoretical considerations affecting the design of the magnetic pulse generator.

The long term residual heat removal for the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Plant (CRBRP) is accomplished through the use of three protected air-cooled condensers (PACC's) each rated at 15M/sub t/ following a normal or emergency shutdown of the reactor. Steam is condensed by forcing air over the finned and coiled condenser tubes located above the steam drums. The steam flow is by natural convection. It is drawn to the PACC tube bundle for the steam drum by the lower pressure region in the tube bundle created from the condensing action. The concept of the tube bundle employs a unique patented configuration which has been commercially available through CONSECO Inc. of Medfore, Wisconsin. The concept provides semi-parallel flow that minimizes subcooling and reduces steam/condensate flow instabilities that have been observed on other similar heat transfer equipment such as moisture separator reheaters (MSRS). The improved flow stability will reduce temperature cycling and associated mechanical fatigue. The PACC is being designed to operate during and following the design basis earthquake, depressurization from the design basis tornado and is housed in protective building enclosure which is also designed to withstand the above mentioned events.

A roll compaction and roll granulation system has been designed and fabricated to replace conventional preslugging and crushing operations typically used in the fabrication of mixed oxide nuclear fuel pellets. This equipment will be of maintenance advantage with only the compaction and granulation rolls inside containment. The prototype is being tested and the results will be reported within a year.

Passive pumping of tandem-mirror thermal barriers by a combination of E x B and gradient magnetic field (grad-B) drifts has the advantages of engineering simplicity, low power consumption and selectivity in pumping out trapped thermal ions while retaining high-energy sloshing ions, hot electrons, and central-cell ions. Specifically, installing dc perturbation coils in suitable locations utilizes the differences in the turning points of these populations. In addition, we can dispose of the thermalized alphas and impurities after they diffuse into velocity space accessible to the grad-B pumping. Questions concerning adiabaticity are under investigation through guiding-center drift calculations.

The Supervisory Control and Diagnostic System (SCDS) for the Mirror Fusion Test Facility (MFTF) consists of nine 32-bit minicomputers arranged in a tightly coupled distributed computer system utilizing a share memory as the data exchange medium. Debugging of more than one program in the multi-processor environment is a difficult process. This paper describes what new tools were developed and how the testing of software is performed in the SCDS for the MFTF project.

For inertial confinement fusion plasma diagnostics, x-ray diode (XRD) detectors using conventional cathodes are not sensitive enough to measure x-rays above approx. 1.5 keV. However, for laser driver fusion targets, x-rays in the range of 2 to 5 keV are important because of their mobility in the target. We have successfully used fluor-microchannel plate (MCP) detectors to obtain absolute x-ray measurements in the 2 to 5 keV range. Recent data obtained from experiments on the Shiva laser system are presented. In addition, designs for a variety of channels in the range using fluor-MCP and CsI-XRD's above 1.5 keV will be discussed.

We describe the software structures that control the operation of MFTF Sustaining Neutral Beam Power Supplies (SNBPS). These components of the Supervisory Control and Diagnostics System (SCDS) comprise ten distinct tasks that exist in the SCDS system environment. The codes total about 16,000 lines of commented Pascal code and occupy 240 kbytes of memory. The controls have been running since March 1981, and at this writing are being integrated to the Local Control System and to the power supply Pulse Power Module Controller.

Installation of the major hardware subsystems for MFTF is nearing completion. These subsystems include the Fusion Chamber System, the eighty KV Neutral Beam System, the Superconducting Magnet System, and the Personnel Safety System. The Local Controls group has undertaken a uniform aproach to implementing the control systems for all of these hardware subsystems. This approach has two major aspects: (1) to provide a stand-alone computer control system with a remote, portable terminal so that computer control can be provided at the site of the hardware for initial testing, (2) to provide hardware simulators so that the complicated MFTF computer control system can be tested independent of the hardware. The software and hardware tools which were developed to carry out this plan will be described. Our experiences with bringing up subsystems containing up to 900 separate channels of control and status will also be described.

A significant portion of the cost of fabricating LMFBR fuels is in the non-fuel components such as fuel pin cladding, fuel assembly ducts and end fittings. The contribution of these to fuel fabrication costs, based on FFTF experience and extrapolated to large LMFBR fuel loadings, is discussed. The extrapolation considers the expected effects of LMFBR development programs in progress on non-fuel component costs.

An overview of the National LMFBR Fuel Development Program is presented which includes a brief review of fuel performance concerns and issues and highlights of current fuel testing activities in EBR-II and the FFTF.

The discussion centers on the energies and luminosities required to reach a 1 TeV mass scale. Several bellwether experiments are discussed, involving either momentum transfers or new classes of particles. (GHT)