By removing air distribution and conditioning equipment from unconditioned spaces, homeowners stand to benefit substantially with respect to both energy savings and indoor air quality. Duct leakage introduces: Greater heating and cooling loads from air at extreme temperatures and humidity levels; Outside air and air from unconditioned spaces that may contain air borne contaminants, combustion gases, pollen, mold spores, and/or particles of building materials; and Higher whole-house infiltration/exfiltration rates. Exemplary studies conducted since 1990 have demonstrated the prevalence of duct leakage throughout the United States and measured energy savings of approximately 20% during both heating and cooling seasons from leakage reduction. These all dealt with duct leakage to and/or from unconditioned spaces. In the building science community, leakage within the conditioned space is generally presumed to eliminate the negative consequences of duct leakage with the exception of possibly creating pressure imbalances in the house which relates to higher infiltration and/or exfiltration. The practical challenges of isolating ducts and air handlers from unconditioned spaces require builders to construct an air-tight environment for the ducts. Florida Solar Energy Center researchers worked with four builders in Texas, North Carolina, and Florida who build a furred-down chase located either in a central hallway or …

Within the United States, there are few hands-on training centers capable of providing integrated technical training within a practical application environment. Currently, there are no training facilities that offer both radioactive and chemical hazardous response training. There are no hands-on training centers that provide training for both hazardous material operations and emergency response that also operate as a partnership between organized labor, state agencies, tribes, and local emergency responders within the US Department of Energy (DOE) complex. Available facilities appear grossly inadequate for training the thousands of people at Hanford, and throughout the Pacific Northwest, who are required to qualify under nationally-mandated requirements. It is estimated that 4,000 workers at the Hanford Site alone need hands-on training. Throughout the Pacific Northwest, the potential target audience would be over 30,000 public sector emergency response personnel, as well as another 10,000 clean-up workers represented by organized labor. The HAMMER Training Center will be an interagency-sponsored training center. It will be designed, built, and operated to ensure that clean-up workers, fire fighters, and public sector management and emergency response personnel are trained to handle accidental spills of hazardous materials. Training will cover wastes at clean-up sites, and in jurisdictions along the transportation corridors, …

The following report discusses the building design and development of the reactor building, Building 1105, for Argonne National Laboratory, that is meant to house the reactor.

This progress report describes work done October through December 1996 for the WhiteCap system. The work included installation and commissioning of the large WhiteCap system at the Common House, radiant cooling components installation in the floor of the Southwest House, preparation of an operations and maintenance manual, and commissioning of a monitoring system.

Modern and technologically up-to-date facilities and systems infrastructure are necessary to accommodate today's research environment. In response, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has a continuing commitment to develop and apply effective management models and processes to maintain, modernize, and upgrade its facilities to meet the science and technology mission. The Facility Modernization Pilot Study identifies major subsystems of facilities that are either technically or functionally obsolete, lack adequate capacity and/or capability, or need to be modernized or upgraded to sustain current operations and program mission. This study highlights areas that need improvement, system interdependencies, and how these systems/subsystems operate and function as a total productive unit. Although buildings are 'grandfathered' in and are not required to meet current codes unless there are major upgrades, this study also evaluates compliance with 'current' building, electrical, and other codes. This study also provides an evaluation of the condition and overall general appearance of the structure.

This document provides the functional design criteria required for the Phase 2 Liquid Effluent Treatment and Disposal Project, Project W-252. Project W-252 shall provide new facilities and existing facility modifications required to implement Best Available Technology/All Known, Available, and Reasonable Methods of Prevention, Control, and Treatment (BAT/AKART) for the 200 East Phase II Liquid Effluent Streams. The project will also provide a 200 East Area Phase II Effluent Collection System (PTECS) for connection to a disposal system for relevant effluent streams to which BAT/AKART has been applied. Liquid wastestreams generated in the 200 East Area are currently discharged to the soil column. Included in these wastestreams are cooling water, steam condensate, raw water, and sanitary wastewaters. It is the policy of the DOE that the use of soil columns to treat and retain radionuclides and nonradioactive contaminants be discontinued at the earliest practical time in favor of wastewater treatment and waste minimization. In 1989, the DOE entered into an interagency agreement with Ecology and EPA. This agreement is referred to as the Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (Tri-Party Agreement). Project W-252 is one of the projects required to achieve the milestones set forth in the Tri-Party Agreement. One …

Report describing experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of various kinds of shelters to protect occupants from nuclear and thermal radiation and blast effects.

This report reviews a demonstration of light-emitting diode (LED) accent lighting compared to halogen (typical) accent lighting in a gallery of the Field Museum in Chicago, IL.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The KC-46 program has made good progress over the past year—acquisition costs have remained relatively stable, the critical design review was successfully completed, the program is on track to meet performance parameters, and the contractor started building development aircraft. As shown, total program acquisition costs—which include development, production, and military construction costs—and unit costs have changed less than 1 percent since February 2011."

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This report identifies barriers to shortening nuclear power plant construction schedules and recommends research efforts that should minimize or eliminate the identified barriers. The identified barriers include: (1) design and construction interfacing problems; (2) problems relating to the selection and use of permanent materials and construction methods; (3) construction coordination and communication problems; and (4) problems associated with manpower availability and productivity;

This decision document provides input for the Phase I Privatization waste staging plans for the High-Level Waste (HLW)and Low-Level Waste (LLW) Disposal Programs. This AGA report evaluates what infrastructure upgrades to existing 200 East waste transfer systems are necessary for delivery of HLW and LLW streams to the Phase I Privatization vendor. The AGA identifies the transfer routing alternatives for supernatant waste transfers from the 241-AN, 241-AW, and 241-AP Tank Farms to the 241-AP-102 tank and/or the 241-AP-104 tank. These two tanks have been targeted as the initial LLW feed staging tanks. In addition,this report addresses the transfer of slurry waste from the 241-AY and 241-AZ Tank Farms to the Phase I Privatization vendor`s facilities for HLW immobilization.

From introduction: Volume I of the summary report contains a detailed plant description and the results of analysis of credible accidents and the associated hazards.

For the first time in history, direct and indirect detection techniques have enabled the exploration of the environments of nearby stars on scales comparable to the size of our solar system. Precision Doppler measurements have led to the discovery of the first extrasolar planets, while high-contrast imaging has revealed new classes of objects including dusty circumstellar debris disks and brown dwarfs. The ability to recover spectrophotometry for a handful of transiting exoplanets through secondary-eclipse measurements has allowed us to begin to study exoplanets as individual entities rather than points on a mass/semi-major-axis diagram and led to new models of planetary atmospheres and interiors, even though such measurements are only available at low SNR and for a handful of planets that are automatically those most modified by their parent star. These discoveries have galvanized public interest in science and technology and have led to profound new insights into the formation and evolution of planetary systems, and they have set the stage for the next steps--direct detection and characterization of extrasolar Jovian planets with instruments such as the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI). As discussed in Volume 1, the ability to directly detect Jovian planets opens up new regions of extrasolar planet phase …

This report looks at different ways to verify energy code compliance and to ensure that the energy efficiency goals of an adopted document are achieved. Conformity assessment is the body of work that ensures compliance, including activities that can ensure residential and commercial buildings satisfy energy codes and standards. This report identifies and discusses conformity-assessment activities and provides guidance for conducting assessments.

In July 2000, Energetics began a project in which we performed site-visit based technical analyses or evaluations on hydrogen R&D projects for the purpose of providing in-depth information on the status and accomplishments of these projects to the public, and especially to hydrogen stakeholders. Over a three year period, 32 site-visit analyses were performed. In addition two concepts gleaned from the site visits became subjects of in depth techno-economic analyses. Finally, Energetics produced a compilation document that contains each site-visit analysis that we have performed, starting in 1996 on other contracts through the end of Year One of the current project (July 2001). This included 21 projects evaluated on previous contracts, and 10 additional ones from Year One. Reports on projects visited in Years One and Two were included in their respective Annual Reports. The Year Two Report also includes the two In-depth Analyses and the Compilation document. Reports in Year three began an attempt to perform reviews more geared to hydrogen safety. This Final Report contains a summary of the overall project, all of the 32 site-visit analyses and the two In-depth Analyses.