Matching Grants and Public Goods: A Closed-Ended Contingent Valuation Experiment

Matching grants are commonly used to influence the bundle of public goods provided by governments. We design a contingent valuation experiment to determine the value individuals place on improved recreational facilities under a matching grant proposal. The experiment provides an opportunity to examine preferences given the public good exists in an active and well-defined market, and the valuation experiment is perceived as meaningful to public policy. We estimate a mean willingness-to-pay for park improvements of $8.30, far less than the implied tax increase of$21 provided by local politicians opposed to the project, but nearly doubled the actual tax increase for the average property owner

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750 tr.; 21 cm

Computational modeling of magentically driven liner-on-plasma fusion experiments

Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) is an approach to controlled fusion which potentially avoids the difficulties of the traditional magnetic and inertial confinement approaches. It appears possible to investigate the critical issues for MTF at low cost, relative to traditional fusion programs, utilizing pulsed power drivers much less expensive than ICF drivers, and plasma configurations much less expensive than those needed for full magnetic confinement. Computational and experimental research into MTF is proceeding at Los Alamos, VNIIEF, and other laboratories

MHD modeling of magnetized target fusion experiments.

Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) is an alternate approach to controlled fusion in which a dense (0(1017-'8 cm-')), preheated (O(200 ev)), and magnetized (0( 100 kG)) target plasma is hydrodynamically compressed by an imploding liner. If electron thermal conduction losses are magnetically suppressed, relatively slow O(1 cm/microsecond) 'liner-on-plasma' compressions may be practical, using liners driven by inexpensive electrical pulsed power. Target plasmas need to remain relatively free of potentially cooling contaminants during formation and compression. Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) calculations including detailed effects of radiation, heat conduction, and resistive field diffusion have been used to model separate target plasma (Russian MAGO, Field Reversed Configuration at Los Alamos National Laboratory) and liner implosion experiments (without plasma fill), such as recently performed at the Air Force Research Laboratory (Albuquerque). Using several different codes, proposed experiments in which such liners are used to compress such target plasmas are now being modeled in one and two dimensions. In this way, it is possible to begin to investigate important issues for the design of such proposed liner-on-plasma fusion experiments. The competing processes of implosion, heating, mixing, and cooling will determine the potential for such MTF experiments to achieve fusion conditions

PROGRESS TOWARD UNDERSTANDING MAGNETIZED TARGET FUSION (MTF).

Magnetized target fusion (MTF) takes advantage of (1) the reduction of the electron thermal conductivity in a plasma due to magnetization and (2) the efficient heating through bulk compression. MTF proposes to create a warm plasma with an embedded magnetic field and to compress it using an imploded liner or shell. The minimum energy required for fusion in an optimized target is directly proportional to the mass of the ignited fusion fuel. Simple theoretical arguments and parameter studies have demonstrated that MTF has the potential for significantly reducing the power and intensity of a target driver needed to achieve fusion. In order to acquire a comprehensive understanding of MTF and its potential applications it is prudent to develop more complete and reliable computational techniques. This paper briefly reviews the progress toward that goal