The National Transplutonium Element Production Program was established in the late 1950's to concentrate the "large-scale" production of transplutonium elements at a central location. These products are then distributed to researchers throughout the country upon the recommendations of a Transplutonium Program Committee which is comprised of representatives from the major laboratories which have an interest in transplutonium element research. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory was selected as the site for these production facilities, consisting of a high flux reactor and an adjacent radiochemical processing plant, which are capable of producing gram amounts of 252 Cf and related quantities of the other heavy elements (1). These manmade elements are all intensely radioactive and can be processed safely and reliably only in an elaborate remote handling facility, such as the Transuranium Processing Plant (TRU). This facility and some of the processes carried out therein for recovery and purification of transplutonium elements are described in other papers in this symposium (2,3,4,5). We have now made over 1000 shipments of these products to 30 different laboratories throughout the U.S. and in several foreign countries, attesting to the success of the Program. All of this would not be possible without the High FluxIsotope Reactor (HFIR) to serve as a source of neutrons to carry out the transmutation of the elements. Since first reaching full power (100 MW) on October 21, 1966, the HFIR has logged 4148 equivalent full power days through December 31, 1979, for an overall operating efficiency of 86%.During many years, this figure has run 93% or more.The purpose of this paper is to indicate the capabilities of the HFIR for transplutonium element production and particularly to dwell on the mathematical techniques involved in forecasting the composition of irradiated target materials. Also described are some of the uses to which such forecasts are put. Early work along this line was published by Burch, Arnold, and ChethamStrode (6), providing the basis for design of HFIR and TRU.

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