96/02712 A private venture. The Mescalero/utility storage ini-tiative progressesAragon, R. Nuclear Engineering Int., Apr. 1996, 41, (501), 35-37.Frustrated by the US government's slow progress at Yucca Mountain andfailure to site an interim spent fuel store, the Mescalero/utility-consortiumteam formed to build a privately funded central temporary store are prepar­ing to submit a licence application to the USNRC. The aim is to startaccepting spentfuel in 2002.

96/02713 Proceedings of Advanced Monte Carlo ComputerPrograms for Radiation TransportNEA/OECD, Paris, 1995, 481 pp.

Proceedings of the Advanced Monte Carlo Computer Programs for Radia­tion Transport held Saclay, 27-29 April 1995.

96/02714 Proceedings of International Symposium Sarcoph­agus Safety '94: The state of the Chernobyl nuclear power plantUnit 4 - Zeleny Mys, Chernobyl, 14-18 March 1994NEA/OECD, Paris, 1995, 474 pp.

96/02715 Reconstruction of pin power in fuel assembliesfrom nodal calculations in hexagonal geometrySingh, K. and Kumar, V. Ann. Nucl. Energy, Oct. 1995, 22, (10),629-647.A new fomulation based on maximum entropy and minimum cross-entropymethods has been worked out for pin power reconstruction in hexagonalfuel assemblies. These methods help in estimation of boundary fluxes atthe surfaces of an assembly using the values from nodal calculations. Rep­resenting the heterogeneities in the assembly using fine meshes, the diffu­sion equation in it is solved using finite difference technique.

96/02716 Remarks on the physics of early fuel latticesEmendorfer, D. Kerntechnik, Feb. 1996, 61, (1), 7-9.Neutron multiplication properties of lattices of natural uranium and heavywater, as investigated in Germany 1940-45, are discussed in terms of fastfission effects, resonance escape probability, thermal utilization, and disad­vantage factor. The comparison comprises lattices of spheres and slabswith equal mean chord lengths in the fuel, and lattices of optimum dimen­sions for maximum neutron multiplication. Reasons for the superiority ofspheres over slabs in neutron multiplication are given.

96/02717 Remarks on the use of a corrected formula for theneutron flux in a heterogeneous lattice cell. (Letter to theEditors)Martinez, A. S. Ann. Nucl. Energy, Dec. 1995, 22, (12), 819-821.

96/02718 Safety and engineering aspects of spent fuelstoragelAEA, 1995, 445 pp.

The book is a collection of 50 papers presented at the IAEA symposium inOctober 1994.

96/02719 Safety aspect of long-life small safe power reactorsZaki, S. and Sekimoto, H. Ann. NucJ. Energy, Nov. 1995, 22, (11),711-722.Discusses safety aspects of several design options of long-life small safefast power reactors using nitride fuel and lead-bismuth as coolant. In thepresent study hypothetical accidents are simulated for these reactors, i.e.,unprotected simultaneous ULOF (total loss of primary pumping system)and UTOP (rod run out transient over power) accidents, caused by thesimultaneous withdrawal of all control rods.

96/02720 The Sarcophagus. What do we know? What shouldwe do?Borovoi, A. Nuclear Engineering Int., Apr. 1996, 41, (501), 28-30.It has been nine and a half years since the Chernobyl Sarcophagus wasconstructed, during which time intensive research has been undertkaen(although this has slowed over the last two years). Nevertheless, ourknowledge of its condition is not complete and this provides considerableroom for speculation. This is why, before discussing future plans, theauthor would like to review what is known, and points out where ourknowledge is lacking or incomplete.

96/02721 sa performance monitorKittmer, C. A. Nuclear Engineering Int., Mar. 1996, 41, (500), p. 27.Until recently there has been no easy way to determine steam generator(SG) performance while a power plant is actually operating. Describes howAECL has developed a non-intrusive, ultrasonic system to measure thedowncomer flow velocity in an operating steam generator. This systemprovides a non-intrusive means to monitor whether the SG is performing asspecified.

96/02722 Sierra Nuclear Corporation/BNFL TranStor™Hobbs, J. Nuclear Engineering Int., Apr. 1996, 41, (501), p. 38.Describes an advanced spent fuel storage and transportation systemdesigned by Sierra Nuclear Corporation and British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL).

05 Nuclear fuels (economics, policy, supplies. forecasts)

96/02723 Some remarks on the relation between cluster radi-oactivity and ternary fissionRonen, Y. Kerntechnik; Feb. 1996, 61, (1), 26-28.It was found that some ternary particle yields obtained from the fission ofseven nuclides are correlated to the 2 Z-N values of the compound nuclei.The slopes of the correlations are about the same for the different ternaryparticles. It was also found that particles emitted in cluster radioactivityand particles with the highest yields in ternary fission have the hightestbinding energies per cluster. These observations point to a common rela­tion between cluster radioactivity and ternary fission.

96/02724 Stuck on site. Reviewing US efforts to deal withspent fuelRossin, A. D. Nuclear Engineering lnt., Apr. 1996, 41, (501), 34-35.The author discusses how the US utilities have been paying into theNuclear Waste Fund since 1993. Some $11 billion has been collected, anddespite the fact that $4 billion has been spent, the US Department ofEnergy is no closer to being in a position to remove the waste from utilitysites that it was in 1993.

96/02725 Taking Sellafield apartFishlock, D. Nuclear Engineering Int., Mar. 1996, 41, (500), 22-24.Reports that Sellafield, British Nuclear Fuel's site on the coast of Cumbria,is slowly dismantling itself. Among the plants being decommissioned arethe early plutonium facilities that began life in the 1950s. A team of 650 ­nearly one-tenth of BNFL's Sellafield workforce, are engaged in the work.

96/02726 Through the looking glassSich, A. R. Nuclear Engineering Int., Apr. 1996, 41, (501), 26-27.The first Westerner to live and work with the scientists of the Chernobyl30km zone recounts his experience. He found research in the zone to bepoorly organised, encumbered with ideology, hampered by layer uponlayer of bureaucracy and conducted in an atmosphere of conflict andmutual suspicion.

96/02727 Two-body kinetics treatment for neutron scatteringfrom a heavy Maxwellian gasRothenstein, W. and Dagan, R. Ann. Nucl. Energy, Nov. 1995, 22, (11),723-730.Two basic questions connected with recently published two-body kineticstreatments of neutron scattering by a heavy Maxwellian gas are discussed.They are concerned with the limitations of such treatments, and with theway they should be modelled in Monte Carlo calculations.

96/02728 Why not do it now?Pohl, P. Nuclear Engineering lnt., Mar. 1996, 41, (500), 18-19.Reports that since the shutdown of the AVR plant in Germany was firstplanned in the mid-1980s, delayed dismantling has been the acceptedroute. Now, new evaluations suggest that immediate dismantling to a greenfield would be cheaper and easier.

Economics, Policy, Supplies, Forecasts

96/02729 The cost of delaySchmalz, G. D. Nuclear Engineering Int., Mar. 1996, 41, (500), 20-21.Discusses how US conditions make immediate decommissining financiallymore attractive than entombment.

96/02730 Creating successful US client-contractor relationsLaguardia, T. S. Nuclear Engineering Int., Mar. 1996, 41, (500), 10-12,14.Discusses the recent growth in nuclear facility decommissioning world­wide which has generated renewed interest in the client-contractor relation­ship and how best to plan and contract the work. What roles should theclient -usually the owner utility - and the prime contractor and subcontrac­tors play, and which basic planning tools, contract types , work scopechanges, worker productivity factors and monitoring methods are neededto ensure the work is performed satisfactorily?

96/02731 Freeing the nuclear industryRobinson, C. Surrey Energy Economics Centre, Dept. of Economics,University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 5HX, UK, £23. (UK) £25.(Overseas) 1996, 26 pp.In an energy market which is being liberalised, there is a good case forprivatising nuclear power, moving away from the politicised decision-mak­ing of the past. Nuclear generators should be placed in a market in whichthey have to satisfy private shareholders and sell their product in competi­tion with others. But the government's proposals have serious weaknesses.By merging Nuclear Electric and Scottish Nuclear, they suppress competi­tion in ideas and they fail to increase rivalry in the electricity generationsector as a whole. A better devised scheme, retaining two companies butmaking them more equal in size (and, of course, allowing them to diver­sify), would have helped correct a fundamental weakness of electricityprivatisation - which shows up in the ability of the major generators to setprices most of the time.

Fuel and Energy Abstracts May 1996 191