The purpose of this CRADA was to assist in technology transfer from Russia to the US and assist in development of the technology improvements and applications for use in the U.S. and worldwide. Over the period of this work, ORNL has facilitated design, development and demonstration of a low-pressure liquid extractor and development of initial design for high-pressure supercritical CO2 fluid extractor.

Buildings are at the locus of three trends driving China's increased energy use and emissions: urbanization, growing personal consumption, and surging heavy industrial production. Migration to cities and urban growth create demand for new building construction. Higher levels of per-capita income and consumption drive building operational energy use with demand for higher intensity lighting, thermal comfort, and plug-load power. Demand for new buildings, infrastructure, and electricity requires heavy industrial production. In order to quantify the implications of China's ongoing urbanization, rising personal consumption, and booming heavy industrial sector, this study presents a lifecycle assessment (LCA) of the energy use and carbon emissions related to residential and commercial buildings. The purpose of the LCA model is to quantify the impact of a given building and identify policy linkages to mitigate energy demand and emissions growth related to China's new building construction. As efficiency has become a higher priority with growing energy demand, policy and academic attention to buildings has focused primarily on operational energy use. Existing studies estimate that building operational energy consumption accounts for approximately 25% of total primary energy use in China. However, buildings also require energy for mining, extracting, processing, manufacturing, and transporting materials, as well as energy …

The 3M Company has developed a high-temperature low-sag conductor referred to as Aluminum- Conductor Composite-Reinforced or ACCR. The conductor uses an aluminum metal matrix material to replace the steel in conventional conductors so the core has a lower density and higher conductivity. The objective of this work is to accelerate the commercial acceptance by electric utilities of these new conductor designs by testing four representative conductor classes in controlled conditions. Overhead transmission lines use bare aluminum conductor strands wrapped around a steel core strands to transmit electricity. The typical cable is referred to as aluminum-conductor steel-reinforced (ACSR). The outer strands are aluminum, chosen for its conductivity, low weight, and low cost. The center strand is of steel for the strength required to support the weight without stretching the aluminum due to its ductility. The power density of a transmission corridor has been directly increased by increasing the voltage level. Transmission voltages have increased from 115-kV to 765- kV over the past 80 years. In the United States, further increasing the voltage level is not feasible at this point in time, so in order to further increase the power density of a transmission corridor, conductor designs that increase the current carrying …

This report is prepared in the context of a larger program whose mission is to advance understanding of ventilation and indoor air quality in U.S. homes. A specific objective of this program is to develop the scientific basis ? through controlled experiments, monitoring and analysis ? for health risk-based ventilation standards. Appropriate and adequate ventilation is a basic element of a healthy home. Ventilation provides outdoor air and in the process removes indoor odors and contaminants including potentially unhealthful chemicals emitted by indoor materials, products and activities. Ventilation traditionally was assured to occur via infiltration of outdoor air through cracks and other leakage pathways in the residential building envelope. As building air tightness is improved for energy efficiency, infiltration can be reduced to inadequate levels. This has lead to the development of standards requiring mechanical ventilation. Though nominally intended to ensure acceptable indoor air quality, the standards are not explicitly tied to health risk or pollutant exposure targets. LBNL is currently designing analyses to assess the impact of varying ventilation standards on pollutant concentrations, health risks and energy use. These analyses require information on sources of chemical pollutant emissions, ideally including emission rates and the impact of ventilation on emissions. …

We propose to construct and deploy a fine-grained detector in the Fermilab NOvA 2 GeV narrow-band neutrino beam. In this beam, the detector can make unique contributions to the measurement of quasi-elastic scattering, neutral-current elastic scattering, neutral-current {pi}{sup 0} production, and enhance the NOvA measurements of electron neutrino appearance. To minimize cost and risks, the proposed detector is a copy of the SciBar detector originally built for the K2K long baseline experiment and used recently in the SciBooNE experiment.

Experiments in a number of conventional aspect ratio tokamaks have been successful in pacing edge localized modes (ELMs) by rapid vertical jogging of the plasma. This paper demonstrates the first pacing of ELMs in a spherical torus plasma. Applied 30 Hz vertical jogs synchronized the ELMs with the upward motion of the plasma. 45 Hz jogs also lead to an increase in the ELM frequency, though the synchronization of the ELMs and jogs was unclear. A reduction in the ELM energy was observed at the higher driven ELM frequencies. __________________________________________________

A novel thin-film poly-Si fabrication process has been demonstrated. This low thermal budget process transforms the single- and multi-layer amorphous silicon thin films into a poly-Si structure in one simple step over a pulsed rapid thermal annealing process with the enhancement of an ultrathin Ni layer. The complete poly-Si solar cell was fabricated in a short period of time without deteriorating the underneath glass substrate. The unique vertical crystallization process including the mechanism is discussed. Influences of the dopant type and process parameters on crystal structure will be revealed. The poly-Si film structure has been proved using TEM, XRD, Raman, and XPS methods. The poly-Si solar cell structure and the performance have been examined. In principle, the new process is potentially applicable to produce large-area thin-film poly-Si solar cells at a high throughput and low cost. A critical issue in this process is to prevent the excessive dopant diffusion during crystallization. Process parameters and the cell structure have to be optimized to achieve the production goal.

This final report details results, conclusions, and opportunities for future effort derived from the study. The work involved combining the molecular engineering of photoactive Ti-alkoxide systems and the optical excitation of hydrolysis and condensation reactions to influence the development of the metal-oxygen-metal network at the onset of material formation. Selective excitation of the heteroleptic alkoxides, coupled with control of alkoxide local chemical environment, enabled network connectivity to be influenced and formed the basis for direct deposition and patterning of Ti-oxide-based materials. The research provided new insights into the intrinsic photoresponse and assembly of these complex, alkoxide molecules. Using a suite of electronic, vibrational, and nuclear spectroscopic probes, coupled with quantum chemical computation, the excitation wavelength and fluence dependence of molecular photoresponse and the nature of subsequent hydrolysis and condensation processes were probed in pyridine-carbinol-based Ti-alkoxides with varied counter ligand groups. Several methods for the patterning of oxide material formation were demonstrated, including the integration of this photoprocessing approach with conventional, dip-coating methodologies.

This project was intended to assess the impact of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Agency (DOE/NNSA) -sponsored education and outreach activities on the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in DOE national laboratories. Key activities focused on a series of pilot education and outreach workshops conducted at ten national laboratories. These workshops were designed to increase awareness of the BWC, familiarize scientists with dual-use concerns related to biological research, and promote the concept of individual responsibility and accountability

In 2003, the Defense Science Board observed: 'The problem is that instruments that can detect the buried UXOs also detect numerous scrap metal objects and other artifacts, which leads to an enormous amount of expensive digging. Typically 100 holes may be dug before a real UXO is unearthed! The Task Force assessment is that much of this wasteful digging can be eliminated by the use of more advanced technology instruments that exploit modern digital processing and advanced multi-mode sensors to achieve an improved level of discrimination of scrap from UXOs.' Significant progress has been made in discrimination technology. To date, testing of these approaches has been primarily limited to test sites with only limited application at live sites. Acceptance of discrimination technologies requires demonstration of system capabilities at real UXO sites under real world conditions. Any attempt to declare detected anomalies to be harmless and requiring no further investigation will require demonstration to regulators of not only individual technologies, but of an entire decision making process. This characterization study was be the second phase in what is expected to be a continuing effort that will span several years. The FY06 Defense Appropriation contained funding for the 'Development of Advanced, Sophisticated, …

The CERTS Microgrid concept is an advanced approach for enabling integration of, in principle, an unlimited quantity of distributed energy resources into the electricity grid. A key feature of a microgrid, is its ability, during a utility grid disturbance, to separate and isolate itself from the utility seamlessly with no disruption to the loads within the microgrid (including no reduction in power quality). Then, when the utility grid returns to normal, the microgrid automatically resynchronizes and reconnects itself to the grid, in an equally seamless fashion. What is unique about the CERTS Microgrid is that it can provide this technically challenging functionality without extensive (i.e., expensive) custom engineering. In addition, the design of the CERTS Microgrid also provides high system reliability and great flexibility in the placement of distributed generation within the microgrid. The CERTS Microgrid offers these functionalities at much lower costs than traditional approaches by incorporating peer-to-peer and plug-and-play concepts for each component within the Microgrid. The predecessor to the current project involved the construction of and completion of initial testing using the world's first, full-scale, inverter-based, distributed generation test bed. The project demonstrated three advanced techniques, collectively referred to as the CERTS Microgrid concept, which collectively significantly …

Optimality principles have been used for investigating physical processes in different areas. This work attempts to apply an optimal principle (that water flow resistance is minimized on global scale) to steady-state unsaturated flow processes. Based on the calculus of variations, we show that under optimal conditions, hydraulic conductivity for steady-state unsaturated flow is proportional to a power function of the magnitude of water flux. This relationship is consistent with an intuitive expectation that for an optimal water flow system, locations where relatively large water fluxes occur should correspond to relatively small resistance (or large conductance). Similar results were also obtained for hydraulic structures in river basins and tree leaves, as reported in other studies. Consistence of this theoretical result with observed fingering-flow behavior in unsaturated soils and an existing model is also demonstrated.

This report summarizes the results of both experimental and modeling studies performed using Sludge Batch 10 (SB10) simulants and FBSR product from Tank 48 simulant testing in order to develop higher levels of coal-carbon that can be managed by DWPF. Once the Fluidized Bed Steam Reforming (FBSR) process starts up for treatment of Tank 48 legacy waste, the FBSR product stream will contribute higher levels of coal-carbon in the sludge batch for processing at DWPF. Coal-carbon is added into the FBSR process as a reductant and some of it will be present in the FBSR product as unreacted coal. The FBSR product will be slurried in water, transferred to Tank Farm and will be combined with sludge and washed to produce the sludge batch that DWPF will process. The FBSR product is high in both water soluble sodium carbonate and unreacted coal-carbon. Most of the sodium carbonate is removed during washing but all of the coal-carbon will remain and become part of the DWPF sludge batch. A paper study was performed earlier to assess the impact of FBSR coal-carbon on the DWPF Chemical Processing Cell (CPC) operation and melter off-gas flammability by combining it with SB10-SB13. The results of the …

Tasks were assigned to Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) researchers for the development of lignin-based carbon fiber from a specific precursor that was produced by the Participant (Weyerhaeuser Corporation). These tasks included characterization of precursor polymers and fibers; and the development of conversion parameters for the fibers. ORNL researchers provided recommendations for in-house characterization of the precursor at the participant’s laboratory.

This document is the Close-Out Report for design and partial fabrication of the Pressurized Button Cell Test Facility at Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL). This facility was planned to help develop the sulfur dioxide depolarized electrolyzer (SDE) that is a key component of the Hybrid Sulfur Cycle for generating hydrogen. The purpose of this report is to provide as much information as possible in case the decision is made to resume research. This report satisfies DOE Milestone M3GSR10VH030107.0. The HyS Cycle is a hybrid thermochemical cycle that may be used in conjunction with advanced nuclear reactors or centralized solar receivers to produce hydrogen by watersplitting. The HyS Cycle utilizes the high temperature (>800 C) thermal decomposition of sulfuric acid to produce oxygen and regenerate sulfur dioxide. The unique aspect of HyS is the generation of hydrogen in a water electrolyzer that is operated under conditions where dissolved sulfur dioxide depolarizes the anodic reaction, resulting in substantial voltage reduction. Low cell voltage is essential for both high thermodynamic efficiency and low hydrogen cost. Sulfur dioxide is oxidized at the anode, producing sulfuric acid that is sent to the high temperature acid decomposition portion of the cycle. Sulfur dioxide from the decomposer …

Based on the optimality principle (that the global energy expenditure rate is at its minimum for a given landscape under steady state conditions) and calculus of variations, we have derived a group of partial differential equations for describing steady-state optimal landscapes without explicitly distinguishing between hillslopes and channel networks. Other than building on the well-established Mining's equation, this work does not rely on any empirical relationships (such as those relating hydraulic parameters to local slopes). Using additional constraints, we also theoretically demonstrate that steady-state water depth is a power function of local slope, which is consistent with field data.

1. Objective The general objective of this research was to determine the kinetics and mechanisms of calcite reactions with saline waters over a wide range of saline water composition, carbon dioxide partial pressure (pCO2), and modest ranges of T and P. This would be done by studying both reaction rates and solubility from changes in solution chemistry. Also, nanoscale observations of calcite surface morphology and composition would be made to provide an understanding of rate controlling mechanisms.

This report addresses the issue of jobs outsourcing by analyzing the extent of direct investment into and out of the economy, the role such investment plays in U.S. trade, jobs, and production, and the relationship between direct investment and the broader economic changes that are occurring in the U.S. economy.

This report provides an overview of the hate crime debate, with background on current law and hate crime statistics, and a legislative history of hate crime prevention bills in recent Congresses. This report does not analyze the constitutional or other legal issues that often arise as part of the hate crime debate.

This report provides an overview of evidence based on roreign investment data that analyzes the extent of direct investment into and out of the economy, as well as the relationship between direct investment and the broader economic changes that are occurring in the U.S. economy.

This report discusses whether the balance should tip more toward humanitarian immigration policies as a consequence of the humanitarian crises that resulted from the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

This report provides an overview of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) budget and operations for FY2008, FY2009, and FY2010. It chronicles congressional action on the annual Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS), and Related Agencies Appropriations bills for those fiscal years, as well as action on supplemental and stimulus appropriations bills.

This report discusses the most recent developments after the coup in Kyrgyzstan and its aftermath.

This report compares the current federally supported medical screening and treatment program offered to various persons affected by the terrorist attack on New York City on September 11, 2001, with the federal program proposed to be established by Title I of H.R. 847, the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010, as amended and passed by the House of Representatives. The World Trade Center (WTC) Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program (MMTP) and the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP) are the specific programs compared in this report.