Publisher's Synopsis
In the past the Denver X-Ray Conference has served as a forum for the interchange of information between people working in the extremely varied applied technologies which are based on x-ray physics. This year we hoped to continue this tradition by empha sizing some of the technologies associated with the energy and process control industries, which have expanded recently. The development of nuclear fusion into a power source, and the operation of the nuclear fission power reactor fuel cycle are two parts of the energy industry in which x-ray technology is currently playing a major role. The principle role of x-ray technology in the effort to develop a controlled thermonuclear or fusion power reactor, is that of a diagnostic tool to study the properties of high temperature plasmas. Since this subject is relatively new to many, it was reviewed in two of the invited papers. The role of x-ray technology in the nuclear fission reactor fuel cycle is primarily that of fluorescent x-ray analysis of reactor fuel materials for the purposes of process control and nuclear safeguards during fabrication and reprocessing. One of the invited papers reviewed this topic. This year the subject of x-ray lasers was also introduced via an invited paper. If an x-ray laser can be developed, it will probably become the center of many new technologies. The contributed papers this year covered x-ray diagnostics of plasmas, x-ray lasers, hardware and technique development for x-ray fluorescence analysis, atmospheric aerosol analysis, and materials characterization.
