Fuel Cells at the Crossroads examines financial community and fuel cell industry views on the investment climate for the fuel cell industry. It also explores the investment history of the US fuel cell industry and projects potential future job creation. The scope of the study included the transportation, stationary power generation and portable sectors. Interviews were conducted with industry and financial experts. The results of the interviews provide a snapshot of industry perspective just prior to President Bush's endorsement of a hydrogen economy in his 2003 State of the Union address. In April 2003, we conducted a spot check to test whether the State of the Union address had changed opinions. We found little change among the financial and investment communities, but some guarded new optimism among industry leaders. The general outlook of our sample was cautiously hopeful. There is no question, however, that the current climate is one of great uncertainty, particularly when compared with the enthusiasm that existed just a few years ago. Among other things: (1) Respondents generally believed that the energy industry will undergo profound change over the next few decades, resulting in some form of hydrogen economy. They acknowledged, however, that huge technology and cost …

In core-collapse supernovae, strong blast waves drive interfaces susceptible to Rayleigh-Taylor (RT), Richtmyer-Meshkov (RM), and Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instabilities. In addition, perturbation growth can result from material expansion in large-scale velocity gradients behind the shock front. Laser-driven experiments are designed to produce a strongly shocked interface whose evolution is a scaled version of the unstable hydrogen-helium interface in core-collapse supernovae such as SN 1987A. The ultimate goal of this research is to develop an understanding of the effect of hydrodynamic instabilities and the resulting transition to turbulence on supernovae observables that remain as yet unexplained. In this dissertation, we present a computational study of unstable systems driven by high Mach number shock and blast waves. Using multi-physics radiation hydrodynamics codes and theoretical models, we consider the late nonlinear instability evolution of single mode, few mode, and multimode interfaces. We rely primarily on 2D calculations but present recent 3D results as well. For planar multimode systems, we show that compressibility effects preclude the emergence of a regime of self-similar instability growth independent of the initial conditions (IC's) by allowing for memory of the initial conditions to be retained in the mix-width at all times. The loss of transverse spectral information is demonstrated, …

The Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab or LBNL) is a multi-program national research facility operated by the University of California for the Department of Energy (DOE). As an integral element of DOE's National Laboratory System, Berkeley Lab supports DOE's missions in fundamental science, energy resources, and environmental quality. Berkeley Lab programs advance four distinct goals for DOE and the nation: (1) To perform leading multidisciplinary research in the computing sciences, physical sciences, energy sciences, biosciences, and general sciences in a manner that ensures employee and public safety and protection of the environment. (2) To develop and operate unique national experimental facilities for qualified investigators. (3) To educate and train future generations of scientists and engineers to promote national science and education goals. (4) To transfer knowledge and technological innovations and to foster productive relationships among Berkeley Lab's research programs, universities, and industry in order to promote national economic competitiveness. In FY03, Berkeley Lab was authorized by DOE to establish a funding ceiling for the LDRD program of $15.0 M, which equates to about 3.2% of Berkeley Lab's FY03 projected operating and capital equipment budgets. This funding level was provided to develop new scientific ideas and opportunities and …

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