This Post-Closure Inspection Report provides an analysis and summary of the semi-annual inspections conducted at the Tonopah Test Range (TTR) during Calendar Year 2004. The report includes the inspection and/or repair activities completed at the following nine Corrective Action Units (CAUs) located at TTR, Nevada: (1) CAU 400: Bomblet Pit and Five Points Landfill (TTR); (2) CAU 404: Roller Coaster Lagoons and Trench (TTR); (3) CAU 407: Roller Coaster RadSafe Area (TTR); (4) CAU 423: Area 3 Underground Discharge Point, Building 0360 (TTR) (5) CAU 424: Area 3 Landfill Complexes (TTR); (6) CAU 426: Cactus Spring Waste Trenches (TTR); (7) CAU 427: Area 3 Septic Waste Systems 2,6 (TTR); (8) CAU 453: Area 9 UXO Landfill (TTR); and (9) CAU 487: Thunderwell Site (TTR). Site inspections were conducted on July 7,2004, and November 9-10,2004. All inspections were conducted according to the post-closure plans in the approved Closure Reports (CRs). The post-closure inspection plan for each CAU is included in Appendix B, with the exception of CAU 400 and CAU 423. CAU 400 does not require post-closure inspections, but inspections of the vegetation and fencing are conducted as a best management practice. In addition, post-closure inspections are not currently required at …

Tonopah Test Range (TTR) in Nevada and Kauai Test Facility (KTF) in Hawaii are government-owned, contractor-operated facilities operated by Sandia Corporation, a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), through the Sandia Site Office (SSO), in Albuquerque, NM, manages TTR and KTF's operations. Sandia Corporation conducts operations at TTR in support of DOE/NNSA's Weapons Ordnance Program and has operated the site since 1957. Westinghouse Government Services subcontracts to Sandia Corporation in administering most of the environmental programs at TTR. Sandia Corporation operates KTF as a rocket preparation launching and tracking facility. This Annual Site Environmental Report (ASER) summarizes data and the compliance status of the environmental protection and monitoring program at TTR and KTF through Calendar Year (CY) 2004. The compliance status of environmental regulations applicable at these sites include state and federal regulations governing air emissions, wastewater effluent, waste management, terrestrial surveillance, and Environmental Restoration (ER) cleanup activities. Sandia Corporation is responsible only for those environmental program activities related to its operations. The DOE/NNSA, Nevada Site Office (NSO) retains responsibility for the cleanup and management of ER TTR sites. Currently, there are no ER Sites at KTF. Environmental monitoring and …

The goal of this project was to develop and implement advanced thin film process technology which would significantly improve the manufacturability of both static and dynamic high performance energy saving coatings for windows. The work done has been aimed at improvements to the process that will result in increases in yield, and this was divided into four main areas, dealing with improvements in substrate preparation methods, reductions in the incidence of problems caused by particulate contamination, use of in-situ optical monitoring to improve process control, and overall system integration to enable simplified, and therefore lower cost operation. Significant progress has been made in each of the areas. In the area of substrate preparation, the enhanced washing techniques which have been developed, in combination with a new inspection technique, have resulted in significant reductions in the number of EC devices which are rejected because of substrate problems. Microscopic inspection of different defects in electrochromic devices showed that many were centered on particles. As a result, process improvements aimed at reducing the incidence of particles throughout the entire process have been implemented. As a result, the average number of defects occurring per unit area has been significantly reduced over the period of …

On-site energy production, known as distributed energy resources (DER), offers consumers many benefits, such as bill savings and predictability, improved system efficiency, improved reliability, control over power quality, and in many cases, greener electricity. Additionally, DER systems can benefit electric utilities by reducing congestion on the grid, reducing the need for new generation and transmission capacity, and offering ancillary services such as voltage support and emergency demand response. Local aggregations of distributed energy resources (DER) that may include active control of on-site end-use energy devices can be called microgrids. Microgrids require control to ensure safe operation and to make dispatch decisions that achieve system objectives such as cost minimization, reliability, efficiency and emissions requirements, while abiding by system constraints and regulatory rules. This control is performed by an energy manager (EM). Preferably, an EM will achieve operation reasonably close to the attainable optimum, it will do this by means robust to deviations from expected conditions, and it will not itself incur insupportable capital or operation and maintenance costs. Also, microgrids can include supervision over end-uses, such as curtailing or rescheduling certain loads. By viewing a unified microgrid as a system of supply and demand, rather than simply a system of …

Corrective Action Unit 552 is being investigated because man-made radionuclides and chemical contaminants may be present in concentrations that could potentially pose an unacceptable risk to human health and/or the environment. The CAI will be conducted following the data quality objectives (DQOs) developed by representatives of the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP) and the DOE National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office (NNSA/NSO). The DQOs are used to identify the type, amount, and quality of data needed to define the nature and extent of contamination and identify and evaluate the most appropriate corrective action alternatives for CAU 552. The primary problem statement for the investigation is: ''Existing information on the nature and extent of potential contamination is insufficient to evaluate and recommend corrective action alternatives for CAS 12-23-05.'' To address this problem statement, the resolution of the following two decision statements is required: (1) The Decision I statement is: ''Is a contaminant present within the CAU at a concentration that could pose an unacceptable risk to human health and the environment?'' Any site-related contaminant detected at a concentration exceeding the corresponding preliminary action level (PAL), as defined in Section A.1.4.2, will be considered a contaminant of concern (COC). A …

This Corrective Action Investigation Plan (CAIP) contains project-specific information including facility descriptions, environmental sample collection objectives, and criteria for conducting site investigation activities at Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 552: Area 12 Muckpile and Ponds, Nevada Test Site (NTS), Nevada. This CAIP has been developed in accordance with the ''Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order'' (FFACO) (1996) that was agreed to by the State of Nevada, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the U.S. Department of Defense. The NTS is approximately 65 miles (mi) northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada (Figure 1-1). Corrective Action Unit 552 is comprised of the one Corrective Action Site which is 12-23-05, Ponds. One additional CAS, 12-06-04, Muckpile (G-Tunnel Muckpile), was removed from this CAU when it was determined that the muckpile is an active site. A modification to the FFACO to remove CAS 12-06-04 was approved by the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP) on December 16, 2004. The G-Tunnel ponds were first identified in the 1991 Reynolds Electrical & Engineering Co., Inc. document entitled, ''Nevada Test Site Inventory of Inactive and Abandoned Facilities and Waste Sites'' (REECo, 1991). Corrective Action Unit 552 is being investigated because existing information on the nature and extent of …

The authors report an investigation of the semileptonic decay {Xi}{sup 0} {yields} {sigma}{sup +} {mu}{sup -}{bar {nu}}{sub {mu}}. This decay was observed for the first time with nine identified events using the KTeV beam line and detector at Fermilab. The decay is normalized to the {Xi}{sup 0} beta decay mode and yields a value for the ratio of decay rates {Lambda}({Xi}{sup 0} {yields} {Sigma}{sup +} {mu}{sup -}{bar {nu}}{sub {mu}})/{Lambda}({Xi}{sup 0} {yields} {Sigma}{sup +}e{sup -}{bar {nu}}{sub e}) of (1.8{sub -0.5}{sup +0.7}(stat.) {+-} 0.2(syst.)) x 10{sup -2} at the 68.27% confidence level, being the official measurement of KTeV Collaboration. They also used the dominant decay {Xi}{sup 0} {yields} {Lambda}{pi}{sup 0}({Lambda} {yields} p{pi}{sup -}) as normalization mode in an independent analysis which corroborated with the main result. In addition, a new measurement of the {Xi}{sup 0} {yields} {Sigma}{sup +} e{sup -}{bar {nu}}{sub e} branching ratio is presented, based on 1139 events and normalized to the {Xi}{sup 0} {yields} {Lambda}{pi}{sup 0}({Lambda} {yields} p{pi}{sup -}) decay mode. The results are in agreement with the SU(3) flavor symmetric quark model.

The U.S. natural gas pipeline industry is facing the twin challenges of increased flexibility and capacity expansion. To meet these challenges, the industry requires improved choices in gas compression to address new construction and enhancement of the currently installed infrastructure. The current fleet of installed reciprocating compression is primarily slow-speed integral machines. Most new reciprocating compression is and will be large, high-speed separable units. The major challenges with the fleet of slow-speed integral machines are: limited flexibility and a large range in performance. In an attempt to increase flexibility, many operators are choosing to single-act cylinders, which are causing reduced reliability and integrity. While the best performing units in the fleet exhibit thermal efficiencies between 90% and 92%, the low performers are running down to 50% with the mean at about 80%. The major cause for this large disparity is due to installation losses in the pulsation control system. In the better performers, the losses are about evenly split between installation losses and valve losses. The major challenges for high-speed machines are: cylinder nozzle pulsations, mechanical vibrations due to cylinder stretch, short valve life, and low thermal performance. To shift nozzle pulsation to higher orders, nozzles are shortened, and to …

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) Wind Energy Research Program has begun a new effort to partner with U.S. industry to develop wind technology that will allow wind systems to compete in regions of low wind speed. The Class 4 and 5 sites targeted by this effort have annual average wind speeds of 5.8 m/s (13 mph), measured at 10 m (33 ft) height. Such sites are abundant in the United States and would increase the land area available for wind energy production twenty-fold. The new program is targeting a levelized cost of energy of 3 cents/kWh at these sites by 2010. A three-element approach has been initiated. These efforts are concept design, component development, and system development. This work builds on previous activities under the WindPACT program and the Next Generation Turbine program. If successful, DOE estimates that his new technology could result in 35 to 45 gigawatts of additional wind capacity being installed by 2020.