Advanced Natural Language Processing Tools for Web Information Retrieval, Content Analysis, and Synthesis. The goal of this SBIR was to implement and evaluate several advanced Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools and techniques to enhance the precision and relevance of search results by analyzing and augmenting search queries and by helping to organize the search output obtained from heterogeneous databases and web pages containing textual information of interest to DOE and the scientific-technical user communities in general. The SBIR investigated 1) the incorporation of spelling checkers in search applications, 2) identification of significant phrases and concepts using a combination of linguistic and statistical techniques, and 3) enhancement of the query interface and search retrieval results through the use of semantic resources, such as thesauri. A search program with a flexible query interface was developed to search reference databases with the objective of enhancing search results from web queries or queries of specialized search systems such as DOE's Information Bridge. The DOE ETDE/INIS Joint Thesaurus was processed to create a searchable database. Term frequencies and term co-occurrences were used to enhance the web information retrieval by providing algorithmically-derived objective criteria to organize relevant documents into clusters containing significant terms. A thesaurus provides …

The Nuclear Engineering and Chemical Engineering Artificial Intelligence Groups at The Ohio State University have developed a diagnostic system for the heavy water production reactors at the Savannah River Site. The diagnostic module of the system uses hybrid hierarchical decomposition methodology to decompose the search space. The knowledge is arranged so that the search space is traversed similarly to how an expert would solve the problem. The system was tested on the SRS development simulator and the results show that the system can properly diagnose all the process water and cooling water malfunctions that are programmed into the simulator. The system was not validated by operators due to hardware unavailability. Since the New Production Reactor development efforts have been halted, the probability for future work on this project is unlikely. The development used a standardized Verification and Validation program to assist in the design and construction of the system. The use of this standardized procedure is referred to as a text book example of designing an expert system in the expectation that its use would provide guidance in future projects. Of the eight phases of the software development lifecycle, five of the phases were completed and documented.

Following recommendations made in Homeland Security Presidential Directive 7, which established a national policy for the identification and increased protection of critical infrastructure and key resources (CIKR) by Federal departments and agencies, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2006 developed the Enhanced Critical Infrastructure Protection (ECIP) program. The ECIP program aimed to provide a closer partnership with state, regional, territorial, local, and tribal authorities in fulfilling the national objective to improve CIKR protection. The program was specifically designed to identify protective measures currently in place in CIKR and to inform facility owners/operators of the benefits of new protective measures. The ECIP program also sought to enhance existing relationships between DHS and owners/operators of CIKR and to build relationships where none existed (DHS 2008; DHS 2009). In 2009, DHS and its protective security advisors (PSAs) began assessing CIKR assets using the ECIP program and ultimately produced individual protective measure and vulnerability values through the protective measure and vulnerability indices (PMI/VI). The PMI/VI assess the protective measures posture of individual facilities at their 'weakest link,' allowing for a detailed analysis of the most vulnerable aspects of the facilities (Schneier 2003), while maintaining the ability to produce an overall protective measures …

To assess the stimulation technology developed in the oil and gas industry as to its applicability to the problems of geothermal well stimulation, a literature search was performed through on-line computer systems. Also, field records of well stimulation programs that have worked successfully were obtained from oil and gas operators and service companies. The results of these surveys are presented. (MHR)

Hunton formation in Oklahoma has been the subject of attention for the last ten years. The new interest started with the drilling of the West Carney field in 1995 in Lincoln County. Subsequently, many other operators have expanded the search for oil and gas in Hunton formation in other parts of Oklahoma. These fields exhibit many unique production characteristics, including: (1) decreasing water-oil or water-gas ratio over time; (2) decreasing gas-oil ratio followed by an increase; (3) poor prediction capability of the reserves based on the log data; and (4) low geological connectivity but high hydrodynamic connectivity. The purpose of this investigation is to understand the principal mechanisms affecting the production, and propose methods by which we can optimize the production from fields with similar characteristics.

This is the first quarterly report on the efforts to evaluate the feasibility of excavating coal and overburden from surface mines using impact breakers. The initial stages of the project are devoted to a literature search, equipment selection, test site selection, and conceptual test system design. Hence, this report details the progress made in these areas; the next quarter will see the finalization of Phase I. Included as appendices to this report are FMA internal reports on the individual mines visited. These reports are the basis of the test site selection, and have been censored here to remove data the mine operators deemed as confidential.

Paraffin deposition has been a problem for operators in many areas since the beginning of petroleum production from wells. An extensive literature search on paraffin problems and methods of control has been carried out, and contact was made with companies which provide chemicals to aid in the treatment of paraffin problems. A discussion of the nature of paraffins and the mechanisms of this deposition is presented. The methods of prevention and treatment of paraffin problems are summarized. Suggested procedures for handling paraffin problems are provided. Suggestions for areas of further research testing are given.

Paraffin deposition has been a problem for operators in many areas since the beginning of petroleum production from wells. An extensive literature search on paraffin problems and methods of control has been carried out, and contact was made with companies which provide chemicals to aid in the treatment of paraffin problems. A discussion of the nature of paraffins and the mechanisms of this deposition is presented. The methods of prevention and treatment of paraffin problems are summarized. Suggested procedures for handling paraffin problems are provided. Suggestions for areas of further research testing are given.

The geopressured-geothermal candidates for the Wells of Opportunity program were located by the screening of published information on oil industry activity and through direct contact with the oil and gas operators. This process resulted in the recommendation to the DOE of 33 candidate wells for the program. Seven of the 33 recommended wells were accepted for testing. Of these seven wells, six were actually tested. The first well, the No. 1 Kennedy, was acquired but not tested. The seventh well, the No. 1 Godchaux, was abandoned due to mechanical problems during re-entry. The well search activities, which culminated in the acceptance by the DOE of 7 recommended wells, were substantial. A total of 90,270 well reports were reviewed, leading to 1990 wells selected for thorough geological analysis. All of the reservoirs tested in this program have been restricted by one or more faults or permeability barriers. A comprehensive discussion of test results is presented.

The research consisted of an evaluation of the existing technologies available for passive cooling with an emphasis on strategies related to the use of natural ventilation. A preliminary data base for the study was established by three major efforts: 1. An extensive literature search of the architectural press was undertaken to ascertain the degree to which passive cooling strategies in general and natural ventilation in particular are designed into buildings at the present time. 2. An investigation of existing building stock profiles was undertaken to identify the existing and potential obstacles or advantages to the implementation of natural ventilation as a passive cooling strategy. The EIA Nonresidential Buildings Energy Consumption Survey and two previous PNL studies were reviewed. 3. Components 1 and 2 were followed up with telephone interviews and site visits with the architects, building owners and operators of selected buildings from 1 and 2 above to gain more specific insights into the problems and pleasures typically associated with natural ventilation.

The Project Team accomplished two tasks during the third quarter: preparation and presentation of professional papers; and development of simulation models and sub models of the hypothetical variable wall mining installation. The project team also continued its search for the suitable animation software to be adapted to the underground mining systems. Meanwhile work is progressing along the lines of updating the original open loop flow diagram that deals with the automatic control of the thrusting, advance, and rotation of the auger train which both cuts (extracts) and transports the coal across the face. The team is integrating the control systems into a deterministic mathematical equation for optimizing the mining and material flow rate in the operating system. The long range plan is to integrate the current deterministic equations in a suitable animation program with a number of adjustable and controllable parameters. This will enable coal operators and engineers to visualize how the variations can affect the safety, cost and production levels of the system.

This research effort is a part of the Light-Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program, which is a research and development (R&D) program sponsored by Department of Energy (DOE), performed in close collaboration with industry R&D programs, to provide the technical foundations for licensing and managing the long-term, safe, and economical operation of current nuclear power plants. The LWRS program serves to help the U.S. nuclear industry adopt new technologies and engineering solutions that facilitate the continued safe operation of the plants and extension of the current operating licenses. The introduction of advanced technology in existing nuclear power plants may help to manage the effects of aging systems, structures, and components. In addition, the incorporation of advanced technology in the existing LWR fleet may entice the future workforce, who will be familiar with advanced technology, to work for these utilities rather than more newly built nuclear power plants. Advantages are being sought by developing and deploying technologies that will increase safety and efficiency. One significant opportunity for existing plants to increase efficiency is to phase out the paper-based procedures (PBPs) currently used at most nuclear power plants and replace them, where feasible, with computer-based procedures (CBPs). PBPs have ensured safe operation of …

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's New Architectures Testbed recently evaluated Exegy's Text Miner appliance to assess its applicability to high-performance, automated native language analysis. The evaluation was performed with support from the Computing Applications and Research Department in close collaboration with Global Security programs, and institutional activities in native language analysis. The Exegy Text Miner is a special-purpose device for detecting and flagging user-supplied patterns of characters, whether in streaming text or in collections of documents at very high rates. Patterns may consist of simple lists of words or complex expressions with sub-patterns linked by logical operators. These searches are accomplished through a combination of specialized hardware (i.e., one or more field-programmable gates arrays in addition to general-purpose processors) and proprietary software that exploits these individual components in an optimal manner (through parallelism and pipelining). For this application the Text Miner has performed accurately and reproducibly at high speeds approaching those documented by Exegy in its technical specifications. The Exegy Text Miner is primarily intended for the single-byte ASCII characters used in English, but at a technical level its capabilities are language-neutral and can be applied to multi-byte character sets such as those found in Arabic and Chinese. The system is …

A brief sketch of the accomplishments made in the past year is given for the following: {epsilon} expansion analysis of weak first-order transitions in the cubic anisotropy model; the non-Abelian Debye screening length beyond leading order; electric-magnetic duality and the heavy quark potential; ice water vapor interface; groups in cold dark matter simulations; Compton scattering on black body photons; nuclear reaction rates in a plasma; comparison of jets from electron-positron interactions and hadronic collisions; the energy-energy correlation in perturbation theory; CPT violation search in the kaon system; regularization of chiral gauge theories; dynamical supersymmetry breaking; electroweak baryogenesis; quenched chiral perturbation theory for heavy-light mesons; testing the chiral behavior of the hadron spectrum; hadron spectrum with Wilson fermions; quenched chiral perturbation theory for baryons; matrix elements of 4-fermion operators with quenched Wilson fermions; classical preheating and decoherence; reheating and thermalization in a simple scalar model; and from quantum field theory to hydrodynamics: transport coefficients and effective kinetic theory.

An efficient convective waste heat recovery heat exchanger was designed and tested. The prototype appliance was designed for use in laundromats and other small commercial operations which use large amounts of hot water. Information on general characteristics of the coin-op laundry business, energy use in laundromats, energy saving resources already in use, and the potential market for energy saving devices in laundromats was collected through a literature search and interviews with local laundromat operators in Fort Collins, Colorado. A brief survey of time-use patterns in two local laundromats was conducted. The results were used, with additional information from interviews with owners, as the basis for the statistical model developed. Mathematical models for the advanced and conventional types were developed and the resulting computer program listed. Computer simulations were made using a variety of parameters; for example, different load profiles, hold-up volumes, wall resistances, and wall areas. The computer simulation results are discussed with regard to the overall conclusions. Various materials were explored for use in fabricating the appliance. Resistance to corrosion, workability, and overall suitability for laundromat installations were considered for each material.

In an earlier project, a literature search identified 60 underground openings in crystalline rock capable of providing access for an in-situ experimental facility to develop geochemical and hydrological techniques for evaluating sites for radioactive waste isolation. As part of the current project, discussions with state geologists, owners, and operators narrowed the original group to 14. Three additional sites in volcanic rock and one site in granite were also identified. Site visits and application of technical criteria, including the geologic and hydrologic settings and depth, extent of the rock unit, condition, and accessibility of underground workings, determined four primary candidate sites: the Helms Pumped Storage Project in grandiodorite of the Sierra Nevada, California; the Tungsten Queen Mine in Precambrian granodiorite of the North Carolina Piedmont; the Mount Hope Mine in Precambrian granite and gneiss of northern New Jersey; and the Minnamax Project in the Duluth gabbro complex of northern Minnesota.

As proposed, the second year program will continue and expand upon the Kansas elements of the original program, and provide improved on-line access to the prototype atlas. The second year of the program will result in a prototype digital atlas sufficient to demonstrate the approach and to provide a permanent improvement in data access to Kansas operators. The ultimate goal of providing an interactive history-matching interface with a regional data base remains for future development as the program covers more geographic territory and the data base expands. As part of the first year project ``Pages`` and data schema for the atlas overview and field studies were developed and made accessible through the world-wide-web. The atlas structure includes access to geologic, geophysical and production information at levels from the natural, to the regional, to the field to the individual well. Several approaches have been developed that provide efficient and flexible screening and search procedures. The prototype of the digital atlas is accessible through the Kansas Geological Survey Petroleum Research Section (PRS) HomePage (the Universal Resource locator [URL] is http://www.kgs.ukans. edu/PRS/PRS.html). The Digital Petroleum Atlas (DPA) HomePage is available directly at http://www.kgs.ukans.edu/DPA/dpaHome.html.

The management of the Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) project at the Hanford K-Basin in the 100 N Area has successfully restructured the preventive maintenance, spare parts inventory requirements, and the operator rounds data requirements. In this investigation, they continue to examine the different facets of the operations and maintenance (O&M) of the K-Basin cleanup project in search of additional reliability and cost savings. This report focuses on the initial findings of a team of PNNL engineers engaged to identify potential opportunities for reducing the cost of O&M through the application of advanced diagnostics (fault determination) and prognostics (residual life/reliability determination). The objective is to introduce predictive technologies to eliminate or reduce high impact equipment failures. The PNNL team in conjunction with the SNF engineers found the following major opportunities for cost reduction and/or enhancing reliability: (1) Provide data routing and automated analysis from existing detection systems to a display center that will engage the operations and engineering team. This display will be operator intuitive with system alarms and integrated diagnostic capability. (2) Change operating methods to reduce major transients induced in critical equipment. This would reduce stress levels on critical equipment. (3) Install a limited sensor set on failure prone …

Stripper gas wells are an important source of domestic energy supply and under constant threat of permanent loss (shut-in) due to marginal economics. In 1998, 192 thousand stripper gas wells produced over a Tcf of gas, at an average rate of less than 16 Mcfd. This represents about 57% of all producing gas wells in the onshore lower-48 states, yet only 8% of production. Reserves of stripper gas wells are estimated to be only 1.6 Tcf, or slightly over 1% of the onshore lower-48 total (end of year 1996 data). Obviously, stripper gas wells are at the very margin of economic sustenance. As the demand for natural gas in the U.S. grows to the forecasted estimate of over 30 Tcf annually by the year 2010, supply from current conventional sources is expected to decline. Therefore, an important need exists to fully exploit known domestic resources of natural gas, including those represented by stripper gas wells. The overall objectives of this project are to develop an efficient and low-cost methodology to broadly categorize the well performance characteristics for a stripper gas field, identify the high-potential candidate wells for remediation, and diagnose the specific causes for well underperformance. With this capability, stripper …

Anomalously pressured gas (APG) assets, typically called ''basin-center'' gas accumulations, represent either an underdeveloped or undeveloped energy resource in the Rocky Mountain Laramide Basins (RMLB). Historically, the exploitation of these gas resources has proven to be very difficult and costly. In this topical report, an improved exploration strategy is outlined in conjunction with a more detailed description of new diagnostic techniques that more efficiently detect anomalously pressured, gas-charged domains. The ability to delineate gas-charged domains occurring below a regional velocity inversion surface allows operators to significantly reduce risk in the search for APG resources. The Wind River Basin was chosen for this demonstration because of the convergence of public data availability (i.e., thousands of mud logs and DSTs and 2400 mi of 2-D seismic lines); the evolution of new diagnostic techniques; a 175 digital sonic log suite; a regional stratigraphic framework; and corporate interest. In the exploration scheme discussed in this topical report, the basinwide gas distribution is determined in the following steps: (1) A detailed velocity model is established from sonic logs, 2-D seismic lines, and, if available, 3-D seismic data. In constructing the seismic interval velocity field, automatic picking technology using continuous, statistically-derived interval velocity selection, as well …

Stripper gas wells are an important source of domestic energy supply and under constant threat of permanent loss (shut-in) due to marginal economics. In 1998, 192 thousand stripper gas wells produced over a Tcf of gas, at an average rate of less than 16 Mcfd. This represents about 57% of all producing gas wells in the onshore lower-48 states, yet only 8% of production. Reserves of stripper gas wells are estimated to be only 1.6 Tcf, or slightly over 1% of the onshore lower-48 total (end of year 1996 data). Obviously, stripper gas wells are at the very margin of economic sustenance. As the demand for natural gas in the U.S. grows to the forecasted estimate of over 30 Tcf annually by the year 2010, supply from current conventional sources is expected to decline. Therefore, an important need exists to fully exploit known domestic resources of natural gas, including those represented by stripper gas wells. The overall objectives of this project are to develop an efficient and low-cost methodology to broadly categorize the well performance characteristics for a stripper gas field, identify the high-potential candidate wells for remediation, and diagnose the specific causes for well underperformance. With this capability, stripper …