As part of its required activities in 1994, the US Department of Energy (DOE) made over 500,000 shipments. Of these shipments, approximately 4% were hazardous, and of these, slightly over 1% (over 6,400 shipments) were radioactive. Because of DOE`s cleanup activities, the total quantities and percentages of radioactive material (RAM) that must be moved from one site to another is expected to increase in the coming years, and these materials are likely to be different than those shipped in the past. Irradiated fuel will certainly be part of the mix as will RAM samples and waste. However, in many cases these materials will be of different shape and size and require a transport packaging having different shielding, thermal, and criticality avoidance characteristics than are currently available. This Handbook provides guidance on the design, testing, certification, and operation of packages for these materials.

The objective of this work was to determine whether or not a continuous air monitor (CAM) monitoring the annulus of one of the SY Tanks would be expected to alarm after three postulated leak scenarios. Using data and references provided by Lockheed Martin`s Tank Farm personnel, estimated CAM readings were calculated at specific times after the postulated scenarios might have occurred. Potential CAM readings above background at different times were calculated for the following leak scenarios: Leak rate of 0.01 gal/min; Leak rate of 0.03 gal/min (best estimate of the maximum probable leak rate from a single-shell tank); and Leak of 73 gal (equivalent to a {1/4}-in. leak on the floor of the annulus). The equation used to make the calculations along with descriptions and/or explanations of the terms are included, as is a list of the assumptions and/or values used for the calculations.

This report summarizes the results of the Gallium-Clad interactions Phase 3 and 4 tasks. Both tasks were to involve examining the out-of-pile stability of residual gallium in short fuel rods with an imposed thermal gradient. The thermal environment was to be created by an electrical heater in the center of the fuel rod and coolant flow on the rod outer cladding. Both tasks were canceled due to difficulties with fuel pellet fabrication, delays in the preparation of the test apparatus, and changes in the Fissile Materials Disposition program budget.

Congress enacted the Earthquake Hazards Reduction Act of 1977 (Public Law 95-124, as amended) to reduce risks to life and property from future earthquakes in the US. To implement the provisions of the Act, the Interagency Committee on Seismic Safety in Construction (ICSSC) was chartered. Approximately thirty Federal agencies, including the Department of Energy (DOE), participate in the ICSSC. The ICSSC is chaired by the National Institute of Standards (NIST) which also provides the technical secretariat. EO 12941, Seismic Safety of Existing Federally Owned or Leased Buildings, were prepared and issued by the ICSSC to reduce the vulnerability to buildings owned or leased by agencies or departments for Federal use. This report documents the implementation of EO 12941 at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. ORNL is managed and operated by Lockheed Martin Energy Research, Inc. (LMER) for the DOE-Oak Ridge Operations Office (DOE-ORO). The ORNL building inventory includes buildings that are physically located at ORNL, East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP), and the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant. This report addresses buildings physically located at the ORNL plant site. ORNL buildings located at ETTP and Y-12 plant sites will be included in the EO 12941 implementation reports …

This report describes how in-tank measurements of moisture (H{sub 2}O) and total organic carbon (TOC) are used to calculate combustible waste fractions (CWF) for 138 of the 149 Hanford single shell tanks. The combustible waste fraction of a tank is defined as that proportion of waste that is capable of burning when exposed to an ignition source. These CWF estimates are used to screen tanks for the organics complexant safety issue. Tanks with a suitably low fraction of combustible waste are classified as safe. The calculations in this report determine the combustible waste fractions in tanks under two different moisture conditions: under current moisture conditions, and after complete dry out. The first fraction is called the wet combustible waste fraction (wet CWF) and the second is called the dry combustible waste fraction (dry CWF). These two fractions are used to screen tanks into three categories: if the wet CWF is too high (above 5%), the tank is categorized as unsafe; if the wet CWF is low but the dry CWF is too high (again, above 5%), the tank is categorized as conditionally safe; finally, if both the wet and dry CWF are low, the tank is categorized as safe. Section …

The Saxton critical experiments were simulated with homogenized region, multigroup cross sections from the WIMS-D4M lattice physics code (ENDF/B-V library) and the diffusion code, DIF3D. The simulations were focused on assessing the codes` capabilities, including the different cell models available in WIMS-D4M. The accuracy of the core power distributions obtained with DIF3D has also been assessed. The number of experiments and their variety was used to obtain statistical parameters that allow a quantitative discussion of the assessment of the methodology.

The metal to insulator transition displayed by all the members of the perovskite family RNiO{sub 3} (R = 4f rare earth different from La) has attracted a lot of interest since it constitutes one of the few examples of this phenomenon in perfectly stoichiometric compounds. In spite of the great deal of work performed during the last six years, the mechanism responsible for the electronic localization is still a matter of controversy. The observation of unusually large O isotope shifts on the metal-insulator temperature T{sub MI} reported in this study represents an important advance since it clearly proves the dominant role of the electron lattice interaction as driving force for the transition. Moreover, the good agreement between this observation and a simple model based on the existence of Jahn-Teller polarons in the metallic state gives further qualitative and quantitative support to the polaronic picture recently suggested to account for O isotope effects in other 3d transition metal oxides containing Jahn-Teller ions.

The BULLION Forced-Gradient Experiment (FGE) was conducted in the summer of 1997, starting June 2 and ending August 28. The site of the experiment was the ER-20-6 well field adjacent to the BULLION test. Figure 1-1 shows the location of this site on Pahute Mesa in Area 20 of the Nevada Test Site. Figure 1-2 shows the ER-20-6 site within the Pahute Mesa hydrogeologic framework, and Figure 1-3 shows the site layout with respect to the BULLION test. The purpose of the BULLION FGE was to provide information relevant to the transport of radionuclides in groundwater. Transport of radionuclides from Pahute Mesa is of special concern due to the potential for rapid movement of groundwater in the fractured volcanic rocks comprising the Mesa and formations along the anticipated downgradient path of groundwater. The objective was specifically to observe the transport process and characterize transport parameters (e.g., effective porosity, dispersivity and matrix diffusion) for use in predictive modeling of contaminant transport. Additional objectives were to characterize the hydrologic source term and the relative mobility of mobile radionuclides.

The purpose of this document is to support the US Department of Energy (DOE) Fissile Materials Disposition Program`s preparation of the draft surplus plutonium disposition environmental impact statement. This is one of several responses to data call requests for background information on activities associated with the operation of the lead assembly (LA) mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication facility. DOE-MD requested that the DOE Site Operations Offices nominate DOE sites that meet established minimum requirements that could produce MOX LAs. Six initial site combinations were proposed: (1) Argonne National Laboratory-West (ANL-W) with support from Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), (2) Hanford, (3) Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) with support from Pantex, (4) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), (5) Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR), and (6) Savannah River Site (SRS). After further analysis by the sites and DOE-MD, five site combinations were established as possible candidates for producing MOX LAs: (1) ANL-W with support from INEEL, (2) Hanford, (3) LANL, (4) LLNL, and (5) SRS. Hanford has proposed an LA MOX fuel fabrication approach that would be done entirely inside an S and S Category 1 area. An alternate approach would allow fabrication of fuel pellets and assembly of fuel rods in …

Two candidate technologies for decontamination of extensive areas of radioactively contaminated concrete, a biological technology and electro-hydraulic scabbling, that had been rated as highly useful in an earlier study were assessed more precisely. These technologies were compared to a base technology, scarification. The evaluation method was an adaptation of the Multi-Attribute Utility Technique (MAUT), a formal quantitative approach for analyzing decisions with regard to multiple objectives. The advantages of the biodecontamination technology were confirmed by this more precise quantitative analysis.

This project was initiated in October 1990, with the objective of developing and validating a new computer model of a recovery boiler furnace using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code specifically tailored to the requirements for solving recovery boiler flows, and using improved submodels for black liquor combustion based on continued laboratory fundamental studies. The key tasks to be accomplished were as follows: (1) Complete the development of enhanced furnace models that have the capability to accurately predict carryover, emissions behavior, dust concentrations, gas temperatures, and wall heat fluxes. (2) Validate the enhanced furnace models, so that users can have confidence in the predicted results. (3) Obtain fundamental information on aerosol formation, deposition, and hardening so as to develop the knowledge base needed to relate furnace model outputs to plugging and fouling in the convective sections of the boiler. (4) Facilitate the transfer of codes, black liquid submodels, and fundamental knowledge to the US kraft pulp industry. Volume 1 contains the main body of the report and the first 4 sections of Appendix 1: Modeling of black liquor recovery boilers -- summary report; Flow and heat transfer modeling in the upper furnace of a kraft recovery boiler; Numerical simulation of …

This report analyzes developments in the electric utility industry using the tools of transaction cost economics. During the last thirty years, the tools of economic analysis have been substantially expanded--notably, Oliver Williamson, building on the insights of Coase and others, has made significant contributions through his work in developing the new institutional economics, of which transaction cost economics reasoning plays a major role. Because of the relevance of the new institutional economics to public utilities and public utility regulation, the theoretical insights of the new institutional economics have been applied to many aspects of public utility industry structure, governance, and regulation. The contributions of Joskow and Schmalensee are most notable, but many other economists have made theoretical and empirical contributions. These insights are very applicable to the issues that policymakers and regulators are likely to address as electric restructuring progresses. The goal of this report is to synthesize the theoretical work on the new institutional economics with the recent developments in the electric utility industry--most notably, the rapid trend toward competition in electric generation, both in the US and abroad. Transaction-cost-economics reasoning provides an analytical structure for understanding the implications of asset specificity, asymmetric and imperfect information, reputation effects, ex …

In-situ barrier emplacement techniques and materials for the containment of high-risk contaminants in soils are currently being developed by the Department of Energy (DOE). Because of their relatively high cost, the barriers are intended to be used in cases where the risk is too great to remove the contaminants, the contaminants are too difficult to remove with current technologies, or the potential movement of the contaminants to the water table is so high that immediate action needs to be taken to reduce health risks. Assessing the integrity of the barrier once it is emplaced, and during its anticipated life, is a very difficult but necessary requirement. Science and Engineering Associates, Inc., (SEA) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) have developed a quantitative subsurface barrier assessment system using gaseous tracers in support of the Subsurface Contaminants Focus Area barrier technology program. Called SEAtrace{trademark}, this system integrates an autonomous, multi-point soil vapor sampling and analysis system with a global optimization modeling methodology to locate and size barrier breaches in real time. The methodology for the global optimization code was completed and a prototype code written using simplifying assumptions. Preliminary modeling work to validate the code assumptions were performed using the T2VOC numerical code. …

The Department of Energy (DOE) must treat and safely dispose of its radioactive tank contents, which can be separated into high-level waste (HLW) and low-level waste (LLW) fractions. Since the unit costs of treatment and disposal are much higher for HLW than for LLW, technologies to reduce the amount of HLW are being developed. A key process currently being studied to reduce the volume of HLW sludges is called enhanced sludge washing (ESW). This process removes, by water washes, soluble constituents such as sodium salts, and the washed sludge is then leached with 2--3 M NaOH at 60--100 C to remove nonradioactive metals such as aluminum. The remaining solids are considered to be HLW while the solutions are LLW after radionuclides such as {sup 137}Cs have been removed. Results of bench-scale tests have shown that the ESW will probably remove the required amounts of inert constituents. While both experimental and theoretical results have shown that leaching efficiency increases as the time and temperature of the leach are increased, increases in the caustic concentration above 2--3 M will only marginally improve the leach factors. However, these tests were not designed to validate the assumption that the caustic used in the ESW …

A method for developing invariant equations of state for which solutions of the Noh problem will exist is developed. The ideal gas equation of state is shown to be a special case of the general method. Explicit solutions of the Noh problem in planar, cylindrical and spherical geometry are determined for a Mie-Gruneisen and the stiff gas equation of state.

The results of a Fokker-Planck simulation of the ripple-induced loss of charged fusion products in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) are presented. It is shown that the main features of the measured "delayed loss" of partially thermalized fusion products, such as the differences between deuterium-deuterium and deuterium-tritium discharges, the plasma current and major radius dependencies, etc., are in satisfactory agreement with the classical collisional ripple transport mechanism. The inclusion of the inward shift of the vacuum flux surfaces turns out to be necessary for an adequate and consistent explanation of the origin of the partially thermalized fusion product loss to the bottom of TFTR.

The crystalline-to-amorphous (c-a) phase transition is of fundamental importance. Particle irradiations provide an important, highly controlled means of investigating this phase transformation and the structure of the amorphous state. The interaction of heavy-particles with ceramics is complex because these materials have a wide range of structure types, complex compositions, and because chemical bonding is variable. Radiation damage and annealing can produce diverse results, but most commonly, single crystals become aperiodic or break down into a polycrystalline aggregate. The authors continued the studies of the transition from the periodic-to-aperiodic state in natural materials that have been damaged by {alpha}-recoil nuclei in the uranium and thorium decay series and in synthetic, analogous structures. The transition from the periodic to aperiodic state was followed by detailed x-ray diffraction analysis, in-situ irradiation/transmission electron microscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, extended x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy/x-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy and other spectroscopic techniques. These studies were completed in conjunction with bulk irradiations that can be completed at Los Alamos National Laboratory or Sandia National Laboratories. Principal questions addressed in this research program included: (1) What is the process at the atomic level by which a ceramic material is transformed into a disordered or aperiodic …

This research focused on the following areas: characterization of HSP100 genes and their expression during stress and development; requirement of HSP101 for thermotolerance; thermotolerance of plants over-expressing HSP100; and identifying interacting proteins that functionally interact with HSP104.

The primary objective is to further develop the environmental tensometer toward commercialization by making key technical refinements, improving the controlling and data-logging software, and testing the system in a potential customer`s laboratory. Progress has been made in Tasks 1 (completed), Task 2 (one half completed), Task 4 (one half completed) of the original work plan. In this report a detailed description of the work completed on the second prototype is explained in detail. A second prototype of the Environmental Tester, a device capable of tensile tests of fibers in controlled environments and at high temperatures, has been designed and is currently being fabricated. The first prototype includes six integrated systems; the testing system, the furnace system, the vacuum system, the mass flow control system, and the computer data acquisition and control (CDAC) system.

Brief summaries are given for the work done in the following three areas: (1) noninvertible dynamical systems; (2) equation symmetries and boundary layer flows; and (3) intermediate models and data analysis.

The objective of this audit was to determine whether architect and engineering (A-E) costs at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories were reasonable in comparison with industry standards.

The authors report new experimental results with the RDP-OB (Radiative Divertor Project-outer baffle) and cryopump in both upper single-null (USN) and double-null (DN) ELMing H-mode discharges. The baffled divertor reduced the core ionization ({approximately}2--2.5{times}), in reasonable agreement with predictions from UEDGE/DEGAS modeling ({approximately}3.75{times}). The upper cryopump achieved density control of n{sub e}/n{sub gw} {approximately} 0.22 (line density/Greenwald density) with Z{sub eff} {approximately} 2 in high-{delta} plasmas. The measured exhaust is comparable to the lower pump, except at lower core electron densities (n{sub e} < 5 {times} 10{sup 19} m{sup {minus}3}). Efficient impurity exhaust was obtained with deuterium SOL flow. Preliminary experiments with DN operation has shown that the particle exhaust to the upper pump depends on the up/down magnetic balance. Preliminary experiments indicate that the DN exhaust is roughly 40--50% of the USN exhaust at n{sub e} {approximately} 4 {times} 10{sup 19} m{sup {minus}3}.

Single-cell superconducting cavities are currently being evaluated for use in high-current proton accelerator applications being developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The designs that have been evaluated so far include 0.48 and 0.64 beta cavities. The parameters that have been checked are: peak surface electric field, magnetic quench field, multipacting levels, cavity Q, and propensity for Q disease. In limited tests to date, peak surface fields of 43 MV/m, and quench fields up to 103 mT have been achieved. Q{sub 0} values have been typically 1 {times} 10{sup 10} at 2 K, with a reduction of about 30% after being held at 150 K for two hours. While some conditioning barriers were eliminated, no obvious multipactor zones were found.

This report consists of two papers reviewing the waste storage facility and the landfill projects proposed for the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant complex. The first paper is a review of DOE`s conceptual design report for a mixed waste storage facility. This evaluation is to review the necessity of constructing a separate mixed waste storage facility. The structure is to be capable of receiving, weighing, sampling and the interim storage of wastes for a five year period beginning in 1996. The estimated cost is assessed at approximately $18 million. The review is to help comprehend and decide whether a new storage building is a feasible approach to the PGDP mixed waste storage problem or should some alternate approach be considered. The second paper reviews DOE`s conceptual design report for a solid waste landfill. This solid waste landfill evaluation is to compare costs and the necessity to provide a new landfill that would meet State of Kentucky regulations. The assessment considered funding for a ten year storage facility, but includes a review of other facility needs such as a radiation detection building, compactor/baler machinery, material handling equipment, along with other personnel and equipment storage buildings at a cost of approximately $4.1 million. …