We have made preliminary neutron-capture cross-section calculations of the Hauser-Feshbach type for the isotopes /sup 144/Sm, /sup 145/Sm, and /sup 145/Pm to investigate the production of radioactive /sup 145/Pm by neutron capture on the stable isotope /sup 144/Sm. The calculations were made for incident neutron energies from 2.5 MeV to about 1/sup -4/ or 10/sup -5/ MeV, wherever the first unbound resonance was estimated to occur in each case. At that energy, the calculated value was reduced by a somewhat arbitrary factor, and the excitation function extended down to thermal energy using a (E/sub n/)/sup -1/2/ energy dependence. Since very large uncertainties are associated with the position and magnitude of the first unbound resonance and the subsequent extrapolation back to thermal energy, the cross sections in this low-energy region should not be considered more accurate than +- a factor of 10. For incident neutron energies above each step, the calculations represent an average through the separated and overlapping resonance regions and may be accurate to better than +- a factor of 2. 18 refs., 7 figs., 5 tabs.

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This report discusses the current status of liquid-metal fast breeder reactor (LMFBR) development. Selected bibliographic information on LMFBRs relative to the development and safety of the breeder reactor is presented for the year 1977. The bibliography consists of approximately 198 abstracts covering research and development, operating experience, and design practices. Keyword, author, and permuted-title indexes are included for completeness.

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The formation of negative ions by hydrogen collisions on cesium-coated surfaces is discussed in the limiting cases where the resident cesium is either in the purely ionic state or in the purely atomic state. The survival fraction for negative ions moving away from a metal surface is calculated using a method employing complex eigenvalues. The fraction of surviving ions is found to be larger than calculated by previous workers. The secondary emission coefficient for negative ion production by incident atoms with energies of ten to one hundred electron volts is estimated to be in the range thirty to forty percent.

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This report discusses issues regarding the Presidential Nomination Process including information about the 2008 election, calendar changes from 1988 to 2008, changes to national party rules for 2012, an evaluation of the primary system, reform proposals, and legislative considerations.

The U. S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Industrial Technologies Program (ITP), through Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is supporting plant wide energy efficiency assessments that will lead to substantial improvements in industrial efficiency, waste reduction, productivity, and global competitiveness in industries identified in ITP’s Industries of the Future. The stated goal of the assessments is to develop a comprehensive strategy at manufacturing locations that will significantly increase plant productivity, profitability, and energy efficiency, and reduce environmental emissions. ITP awarded a contract to Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation to conduct a plant wide energy efficiency assessment for their Mt Pleasant Facility in Mt Pleasant, Texas. Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation is the largest poultry company in the U.S. and Mexico producing nearly 9 billion pounds of poultry per year. Pilgrim's Pride products are sold to foodservice, retail and frozen entrée customers. Pilgrim's Pride owns and operates 37 chicken processing plants (34 in the U.S. and three in Mexico), 12 prepared foods plants and one turkey processing plant. Thirty-five feed mills and 49 hatcheries support these plants. Pilgrim's Pride is ranked number 382 on 2006's FORTUNE 500 list and net sales were $7.4 billion. In Mt. Pleasant, Texas, Pilgrim's Pride operates one of the largest prepared foods …

A solvent was developed at Oak Ridge National laboratory (ORNL) for a caustic-side solvent extraction (CSSX) process that removes cesium from Savannah River Site (SRS) tank waste. After treatment, a small fraction of the solvent is entrained in the caustic raffinate at a level of 100-300 ppm, well above the solubilities for the various solvent components. Recovery of this solvent can produce a potential cost saving in excess of $5M per annum based on a processing rate of 20 gpm. In this study we examined the issues associated with the use of a coalescer for solvent recovery and measured the physical properties of the solvent and simulant. The density, surface, and interfacial tension, and viscosity of the optimized solvent and a full-component SRS waste simulant were determined as a function of temperature. The entrainment of the solvent components in the SRS waste simulant during the operation of a four-stage 4-cm contactor unit was quantified based on chemical and volumetric analysis. The chemical stabilities of several candidate commercial coalescing media in the caustic simulant were examined. Stainless steel media showed little degradation over a 30-day test; polymer media tended to be coated by the organic. A laboratory-scale coalescer was operated in …

ABS>Progress in nuclear safety research and development is reported. Topics covered include: reactivity effects of small fuel displacements in a pool- type reactor; studies in nuclear safety of fuels outside reactors; release of fission products from out-of-pile reactor fuels; release of fission products in in-pile melting or burning of reactor fuels; characterization and control of accident-released fission products; fission-product evaluation; I/sub 2/ removal from oxidizing gases at high temperatures; attenuation of fissionproduct escape by intrinsic processes; nuclear safety pilot plant; nuclear safety information center; radiochemicalplant safety studies; and space safety. (J.R.D.)

January report of the U.S. Congressional Oversight Panel describing their activities and findings regarding government intervention in the domestic automotive industry through the financial assistance provided by the Troubled Asset Relief Program(TARP)

This status report from Lawrence Livermore Laboratory covers work in the areas of nuclear data applications - measurements, nuclear data application - calculations, nuclear data for reactor safety, fission physics, and data evaluation and compilation. Separate abstracts were prepared for seven of the contributions to this report. 7 figures, 3 tables. (RWR)

This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United Staes Government. Neither the Regents of the University of California, the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees make any warranty, express or implied, or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represent that its use would not infringe privately owned rights.

We have developed a set of modeled nuclear reaction cross sections for use in radiochemical diagnostics. Systematics for the input parameters required by the Hauser-Feshbach statistical model were developed and used to calculate neutron, proton, and deuteron induced nuclear reaction cross sections for targets ranging from strontium (Z = 38) to rhodium (Z = 45).

It is well established that the high fluences of fast neutrons likely to be encountered in the environments of fusion reactors or fusion materials test facilities will generate substantial quantities of helium (both {sup 4}He and {sup 3}He isotopes), and that the presence of this gas in bulk material can produce serious damage in engineering structures due to swelling. The present study was undertaken to survey the current status (as of early 2004) of the available fast neutron cross section information for helium production in several major structural elements of interest for the development of fusion energy systems. The scope of this study encompasses both compiled experimental cross section data and evaluated cross sections available from major nuclear data libraries used in the analysis of fusion systems. The main conclusion from this work is that the contemporary knowledge of those individual neutron reaction cross sections important for helium production is, in general, very inadequate for the purpose of producing reliable designs for fusion reactors (e.g., ITER) and materials irradiation test facilities (e.g., IFMIF). Since the number of distinct neutron reactions that must be considered is large, and the capabilities (both experimental and theoretical) of the nuclear physics community to adequately …

The KY DOE EPSCoR Program supports two research clusters. The Materials Cluster uses unique equipment and computational methods that involve research expertise at the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville. This team determines the physical, chemical and mechanical properties of nanostructured materials and examines the dominant mechanisms involved in the formation of new self-assembled nanostructures. State-of-the-art parallel computational methods and algorithms are used to overcome current limitations of processing that otherwise are restricted to small system sizes and short times. The team also focuses on developing and applying advanced microtechnology fabrication techniques and the application of microelectrornechanical systems (MEMS) for creating new materials, novel microdevices, and integrated microsensors. The second research cluster concentrates on High Energy and Nuclear Physics. lt connects research and educational activities at the University of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University and national DOE research laboratories. Its vision is to establish world-class research status dedicated to experimental and theoretical investigations in strong interaction physics. The research provides a forum, facilities, and support for scientists to interact and collaborate in subatomic physics research. The program enables increased student involvement in fundamental physics research through the establishment of graduate fellowships and collaborative work.

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This report provides an overview of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and discusses current legal and legislative developments.

To strengthen environmental science academic programs and environmental research capabilities in marine/estaurine science and environmental biotechnology.

This report discusses the legislative history of the Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Act and provides charts and summaries of Congressional action on the bill.

Project Gnome was the first nuclear experiment conducted under the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), predecessor to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Plowshare Program. Gnome was part of a joint government-industry experiment focused on developing nuclear devices exclusively for peaceful purposes. The intent of the Gnome experiment was to evaluate the effects of a nuclear detonation in a salt medium. Historically, Project Gnome consisted of a single detonation of a nuclear device on December 10, 1961. Since the Gnome detonation, the AEC/DOE has conducted surface restoration, site reconnaissance, and decontamination and decommissioning activities at the site. In addition, annual groundwater sampling is performed under a long-term hydrological monitoring program begun in 1980. Coach, an experiment to be located near the Gnome project, was initially scheduled for 1963. Although construction and rehabilitation were completed for Coach, the experiment was canceled and never executed. Known collectively as Project Gnome-Coach, the site is situated within the Salado Formation approximately 25 miles east of Carlsbad, New Mexico, in Eddy County, and is comprised of nearly 680 acres, of which 60 acres are disturbed from the combined AEC/DOE operations. The scope of this work plan is to document the environmental objectives and the proposed …

The development of In{sub x}Ga{sub 1-x} N/GaN thin film growth by Molecular Beam Epitaxy has opened a new route towards energy efficient solid-state lighting. Blue and green LED's became available that can be used to match the whole color spectrum of visible light with the potential to match the eye response curve. Moreover, the efficiency of such devices largely exceeds that of incandescent light sources (tungsten filaments) and even competes favorably with lighting by fluorescent lamps. It is, however, also seen in Figure 1 that it is essential to improve on the luminous performance of green LED's in order to mimic the eye response curve. This lack of sufficiently efficient green LED's relates to particularities of the In{sub x}Ga{sub 1-x}N materials system. This ternary alloy system is polar and large strain is generated during a lattice mismatched thin film growth because of the significantly different lattice parameters between GaN and InN and common substrates such as sapphire. Moreover, it is challenging to incorporate indium into GaN at typical growth temperatures because a miscibility gap exists that can be modified by strain effects. As a result a large parameter space needs exploration to optimize the growth of In{sub x}Ga{sub 1-x}N and …