We present results of theoretical nuclear structure model calculations for the gamma-ray laser candidate nucleus /sup 186/Re proposed by Collins. Our calculations of this odd-odd transitional nucleus are based on an axially-asymmetric (particle plus triaxial rotor) model for constructing the orbitals of the odd nucleons that couple under the influence of the residual neutron-proton interaction. We include pairing correlations in the determination of these orbitals by using the BCS approximation with newly determined pairing strengths. The matrix elements of the residual neutron-proton interaction are obtained using phenomenological spin-dependent delta function potentials of both surface and volume forms. We examine the sensitivity of the calculated low-excitation level structure of /sup 186/Re to the strength of these potentials. Calculated energy levels of /sup 186/Re will be presented and compared with experiment. The impact of our results on the proposed use of /sup 186/Re as a gamma-ray laser will be discussed. In addition, based upon these and other model calculations to be described, we assess the level of effort necessary in a full-scale theoretical search for a viable candidate nucleus for a gamma-ray laser. 17 refs., 1 fig., 3 tabs.

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.

A sensitive search for the rare decays {Omega}{sup -} {yields} {Lambda}{pi}{sup -} and {Xi}{sup 0} {yields} p{pi}{sup -} has been performed using data from the 1997 run of the HyperCP (Fermilab E871) experiment. Limits on other such processes do not exclude the possibility of observable rates for |{Delta}S| = 2 nonleptonic hyperon decays, provided the decays occur through parity-odd operators. They obtain the branching-fraction limits {Beta}({Omega}{sup -} {yields} {Lambda}{pi}{sup -}) < 2.9 x 10{sup -6} and {Beta}({Xi}{sup 0} {yields} p{pi}{sup -}) < 8.2 x 10{sup -6}, both at 90% confidence level.

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.

There is a general consensus that robots could be beneficial in performing tasks within hazardous radiological environments. Most control of robots in hazardous environments involves master-slave or teleoperation relationships between the human and the robot. While teleoperation-based solutions keep humans out of harms way, they also change the training requirements to accomplish a task. In this paper we present a research methodology that allowed scientists at Idaho National Laboratory to identify, develop, and prove a semi-autonomous robot solution for search and characterization tasks within a hazardous environment. Two experiments are summarized that validated the use of semi-autonomy and show that robot autonomy can help mitigate some of the performance differences between operators who have different levels of robot experience, and can improve performance over teleoperated systems.

We address deceptiveness, one of at least four reasons genetic algorithms can fail to converge to function optima. We construct fully deceptive functions and other functions of intermediate deceptiveness. For the fully deceptive functions of our construction, we generate linear transformations that induce changes of representation to render the functions fully easy. We further model genetic algorithm selection recombination as the interleaving of linear and quadratic operators. Spectral analysis of the underlying matrices allows us to draw preliminary conclusions about fixed points and their stability. We also obtain an explicit formula relating the nonuniform Walsh transform to the dynamics of genetic search. 21 refs.

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.

ATHEANA, a second-generation Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) method integrates advances in psychology with engineering, human factors, and Probabilistic Risk Analysis (PRA) disciplines to provide an HRA quantification process and PRA modeling interface that can accommodate and represent human performance in real nuclear power plant events. The method uses the characteristics of serious accidents identified through retrospective analysis of serious operational events to set priorities in a search process for significant human failure events, unsafe acts, and error-forcing context (unfavorable plant conditions combined with negative performance-shaping factors). ATHEANA has been tested in a demonstration project at an operating pressurized water reactor.

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 …

Genetic algorithms (GAs), global optimization methods that mimic Darwinian evolution are well suited to the nonlinear inverse problems of geophysics. A standard genetic algorithm selects the best or ''fittest'' models from a ''population'' and then applies operators such as crossover and mutation in order to combine the most successful characteristics of each model and produce fitter models. More sophisticated operators have been developed, but the standard GA usually provides a robust and efficient search. Although the choice of parameter settings such as crossover and mutation rate may depend largely on the type of problem being solved, numerous results show that certain parameter settings produce optimal performance for a wide range of problems and difficulties. In particular, a low (about half of the inverse of the population size) mutation rate is crucial for optimal results, but the choice of crossover method and rate do not seem to affect performance appreciably. Optimal efficiency is usually achieved with smaller (< 50) populations. Lastly, tournament selection appears to be the best choice of selection methods due to its simplicity and its autoscaling properties. However, if a proportional selection method is used such as roulette wheel selection, fitness scaling is a necessity, and a high …

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.

Motivated by the needs of large multi-physics simulation codes, we are interested in algebraic solvers for the linear systems arising in time-domain electromagnetic simulations. Our focus is on finite element discretization, and we are developing scalable parallel preconditioners which employ only fine-grid information, similar to algebraic multigrid (AMG) for diffusion problems. In the last few years, the search for efficient algebraic preconditioners for H(curl) bilinear forms has intensified. The attempts to directly construct AMG methods had some success, see [12, 1, 7]. Exploiting available multilevel methods on auxiliary mesh for the same bilinear form led to efficient auxiliary mesh preconditioners to unstructured problems as shown in [4, 8]. A computationally more attractive approach was recently proposed by Hiptmair and Xu [5]. In contrast to the auxiliary mesh idea, the method in [5] uses a nodal H{sup 1}-conforming auxiliary space on the same mesh. This significantly simplifies the computation of the corresponding interpolation operator. In the present talk, we consider several options for constructing unstructured mesh AMG preconditioners for H(curl) problems and report a summary of computational results from [10, 9]. Our approach is slightly different than the one from [5], since we apply AMG directly to variationally constructed coarse-grid operators, …

Effective operation of the multi-state Port ofNew York/New Jersey (Port), which contributes $20 billion to the regional economy and generates nearly 250,000 jobs, is dependent on yearly navigational dredging of several million m{sup 3} of sediment for channel maintenance and deepening. Further dredging is required for remediation of environmentally sensitive areas. However, more stringent ocean placement testing regulations in the Port region have necessitated a search for other means of handling the most contaminated dredged materials. Here, we describe a dredged material decontamination program for the Port aimed at the creation of sediment decontamination facilities that produce a beneficial use product to obviate the need for ocean placement. These facilities, to be a viable component of an overall dredged material management plan, must be environmentally balanced and economically feasible with the predictable ability to process large volumes of dredged materials with rapid turn-around. Our program recognizes that the responsible management of contaminated dredged materials is a complex problem that requires the effective application and coordination of a variety of cross-cutting skills to make decontamination facilities a reality. Participants do not come from a single agency, but are ad hoc teams of scientists, engineers, regulators, port authorities and operators, technology development …

Status of lattice calculations of hadron matrix elements along with CP violation in B and in K systems is reviewed. Lattice has provided useful input which, in conjunction with experimental data, leads to the conclusion that CP-odd phase in the CKM matrix plays the dominant role in the observed asymmetry in B {yields} {psi}K{sub s}. It is now quite likely that any beyond the SM, CP-odd, phase will cause only small deviations in B-physics. Search for the effects of the new phase(s) will consequently require very large data samples as well as very precise theoretical predictions. Clean determination of all the angles of the unitarity triangle therefore becomes essential. In this regard B {yields} KD{sup 0} processes play a unique role. Regarding K-decays, remarkable progress made by theory with regard to maintenance of chiral symmetry on the lattice is briefly discussed. First application already provide quantitative information on B{sub K} and the {Delta}I = 1/2 rule. The enhancement in ReA{sub 0} appears to arise solely from tree operators, esp. Q{sub 2}; penguin contribution to ReA{sub 0} appears to be very small. However, improved calculations are necessary for {epsilon}{prime}/{epsilon} as there the contributions of QCD penguins and electroweak penguins largely seem …

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 …

The use of sprayed flammable fluids as solvents in dissolution and cleaning processes demand detailed understanding of ignition and fire hazards associated with these applications. When it is not feasible to inert the atmosphere in which the spraying process takes place, then elimination of all possible ignition sources must be done. If operators are involved in the process, the potential for human static build-up and ultimate discharge is finite, and it is nearly impossible to eliminate. The specific application discussed in this paper involved the use of heated Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO) to dissolve high explosives (HE). Search for properties of DMSO yielded data on flammability limits and flash point, but there was no published information pertaining to the minimum energy for electrical arc ignition. Due to the sensitivity of this procedure, The Hazards Control Department of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) was tasked to determine the minimum ignition energy of DMSO aerosol and vapor an experimental investigation was thus initiated. Because there were no electrical sources in spray chamber, Human Electro-Static Discharge (HESD) was the only potential ignition source. Consequently, the electrostatic generators required for this investigation were designed to produce electrostatic arcs with the defined voltage and current pulse …

Photograph used for a story in the Daily Oklahoman newspaper. Caption: "Platoons of police officers hunted the rough canyons southwest of here for two bank robbers Tuesday but they found only one good clue - a hideout shack. The two men who robbed Gracemont's First National Bank and shot the president were believed to be in the vicinity of Dead Man's and Horse Thief Canyons about 2 1/2 miles southwest of here. Crime bureau agents said tracks found in and around the shack matched those found near the bandits' abandoned get-away car. They said they believed the car had been hidden in the shack Monday for use in the robbery Tuesday......One state officer believe the bandits deliberately wrecked their car on a dirt road overlooking Dead Man's Canyon in order to throw officers of the track. A second theory, the one most generally accepted by police and most of the townspeople of Gracemont is that the robbers are still in hiding. And if they are, some believe chilly weather conditions will make it almost certain the bandits will have to come out of hiding and take refuge in one of the farm homes nearby, or perhaps steal a car in …

Nondestructive assay systems have been developed to allow data acquisition equipment to operate unattended in an automated mixed oxide facility, reducing inspector time in a facility and giving them time for other activities. Fewer inspector visits mean less impact on plant operators. Neutron detectors are located at key measurement points in the facility. Near each detector is located an electronics cabinet, which contains two JSR-11 shift registers, two COMPAQ Portable III computers, and a printer. The signal from the detector is split and sent to each shift register for redundancy and reliability. The software for unattended operation consists primarily of two programs, COLLECT and REVIEW. The COLLECT program runs on the computers in unattended operation; shift-register data are acquired each 60 s. The COLLECT program distinguishes between a normal background and a disconnected signal, between material moving near the detector and material in the detector, and whether the material in the detector is a sample or a californium normalization source. Depending on the type of assay, different data are stored on the hard disk. During an inspection, the inspector stops the current measurement campaign, examines the data from both computers briefly at the electronics cabinet, copies the campaign data to …

A short review of current efforts to determine the highly excited state spectrum of QCD, and in particular baryons, using lattice QCD techniques is presented. The determination of the highly excited spectrum of QCD is a major theoretical and experimental challenge. The experimental investigation of the excited baryon spectrum has been a long-standing element of the hadronic-physics program, an important component of which is the search for so-called 'missing resonances', baryonic states predicted by the quark model based on three constituent quarks but which have not yet been observed experimentally. Should such states not be found, it may indicate that the baryon spectrum can be modeled with fewer effective degrees of freedom, such as in quark-diquark models. In the past decade, there has been an extensive program to collect data on electromagnetic production of one and two mesons at Jefferson Lab, MIT-Bates, LEGS, MAMI, ELSA, and GRAAL. To analyze these data, and thereby refine our knowledge of the baryon spectrum, a variety of physics analysis models have been developed at Bonn, George Washington University, Jefferson Laboratory and Mainz. To provide a theoretical determination and interpretation of the spectrum, ab initio computations within lattice QCD have been used. Historically, the calculation …