No abstract available

[en] Corrosion tests of DOE-owned spent nuclear fuel are performed at Argonne National Laboratory to support the license application for the Yucca Mountain Repository. The tests are designed to determine corrosion rates and degradation products formed when fuel is reacted at elevated temperature in different aqueous environments, including vapor, dripping water, submersion, and liquid film contact. Corrosion rates are determined from the quantity of radionuclides released from wetted fuel and from the weight loss of the test fuel specimen as a function of time. Degradation products include secondary mineral phases and dissolved, adsorbed, and colloidal species. Solid phase examinations determine fuel/mineral interface relationships, characterize radionuclide incorporation into secondary phases, and determine corrosion mechanisms at grain interfaces within the fuel. Leachate solution analyses quantify released radionuclides and determine the size and charge distribution of colloids. This paper presents selected results from corrosion tests on metallic fuels

[en] Under the Materials-in-Inventory (MIN) initiative, US DOE intends to develop policies to ensure that materials are managed and use efficiently, cost-effectively, and safely throughout DOE. The MIN initiative covers depleted uranium, scrap metals, chemicals, explosives, spent nuclear fuel, lead, alkali metals, etc.; by far the largest component is depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6). A technically defensible approach has been developed and is being used to select a long-term management strategy for DOE's DUF6 inventory. The same approach can be adapted to management of other materials in inventory that have the potential to be reutilized

[en] Permanent disposal of spent nuclear fuel is proposed in a repository located in the volcanic tuff beds near Yucca Mountain, Nevada, and it is the responsibility of the National Spent Nuclear Fuel Program (NSNFP) to provide the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP) with information related to the release of fission products from the DOE-owned SNF resulting from SNF corrosion. Hydrologically unsaturated spent fuel tests (''drip'' tests) are designed to simulate and monitor the release of radionuclides from the spent fuel under potential exposure conditions in the repository. Of the priority fuels being tested under the NSNFP, the aluminum-based fuels are included because of their high relative volume and uranium enrichment. The Al fuel structure is composed of fissile and aluminum powders pressed and annealed between Al plates to form thin metallic plates. The most widely used fissile powder was the intermetallic compound aluminide UAl_x (where x=2,3,4). As part of this testing program, preliminary corrosion tests using unirradiated UAl_x were initiated to address experimental design, sampling, and analysis issues prior to conducting tests with spent fuels. However, during this program the decision was made by U.S. DOE to convert the aluminum-based fuels to safer enrichment levels by using the melt-dilute process at Savannah River. Nonetheless, the product ingot of the melt-dilute process resembles low enriched UAl_x fuel and corrosion of the fuel is expected to be similar. This paper summarizes the preliminary testing results for the first year of the program and compares them to other corrosion testing results on aluminum fuels as well as other DOE fuel types

[en] The presentations concerning heavy flavor physics at the 1988 BNL Workshop are summarized. Heavy flavor physics received special attention at this year's workshop. New results on B bar B mixing, charmless decays of B's and prospects for future CP violation experiments were of particular interest. Studies of charm via hadronic production have become competitive with results from e⁺e^- colliders. 5 references

[en] The cross section for J/psi and γ production in proton--proton collisions was measured at the CERN Intersecting Storage Rings for center-of-mass energies up to √s = 63 GeV. Electrons were identified using lithium foil transition radiators and liquid argon calorimeters, which also measure their energy. Results are reported as a function of √s and P/sub perpendicular/. In addition to the J/psi and γ they cover the production of electron pairs with invariant masses from 6 to 8.7 GeV. 10 references

No abstract available

[en] Energy development activities will be impacted by the Underground Injection Control Regulations that are formulated under Part C of the Safe Drinking Water Act. The thrust of Part C of the Act is to protect groundwater that now is or in the future might be used for drinking water. A new draft of the regulations, on which this analysis is based, is currently being considered. These regulations will be either another set of proposed regulations or will be interim final which means they can be enforced immediately but EPA will still entertain comments on them and modify them if necessary. There are four possible situations in which the Underground Control Regulations would not apply. They are: If the aquifer in question can be left unprotected despite the fact that its solids level is less than 10,000 mg/1; if the aquifer is oil or mineral producing; if the aquifer is located at a depth that would made recovery of drinking water uneconomical; and if the aquifer is already contaminated. However, the individual states have to demonstrate this to the satisfaction of the EPA administrator. If none of the conditions holds, construction, monitoring operating and reporting requirements will be necessary to receive a permit. The economic impact of these requirements is uncertain but could involve significant economic and time expenditures. Permits do not have to be renewed and one permit can serve for a whole field of wells. However, the permit application requires a significant amount of information and will take a considerable amount of time and expense to fill out. Solution mining operations also will incur extra expenses establishing initial water quality profiles and maintaining monitoring wells

[en] Characteristics of Higgs meson production from e/sup +/e/sup -/ collision with center of mass energies at the Z⁰ peak are discussed along with techniques for isolating the Higgs signal. Experiments to find the standard Higgs should be feasible with anticipated luminosities

[en] Higgs production in e/sup +/e/sup -/ collision with center of mass energies above the Z⁰ mass is discussed. A comparison is made with Higgs produced from Z⁰ decay for a range of Higgs masses. The primary diagram for the decay Z⁰ → H⁰e/sup +/e/sup -/ when rotated predicts cross sections for the reaction e/sup +/e/sup -/ → Z⁰ + H⁰. The author compares the two processes. For the cleanest signature he considers the chain e/sup +/e/sup -/ → Z⁰ + H⁰ vertical bar → e/sup +/e/sup -/ with a 3% Z⁰ → e/sup +/e/sup -/ branching ratio, and thereby arrives at the identical final state as in the first reaction. As in that reaction, the electron positron effective mass, recoil mass and angle with sphericity axis will eliminate background from the reaction