The D{O} Level 3 data acquisition system for Run II of the Tevatron has been reliably operating since May 2002. Designed to handle average event sizes of 250 kilobytes at a rate of 1 kHz, the system has been upgraded to be able to process more events, doubling its typical output rate from 50 Hz to 100 Hz, while coping with higher event sizes at the beginning of high luminosity collider stores. The system routes and transfers event fragments from 63 VME crates to any of approximately 320 processing nodes. The addition of more farm nodes, the performance of the components, and the running experience are described here.

The treatment of spent nuclear fuel for disposition using an electrometallurgical technique results in two high-level waste forms: a ceramic waste form (CWF) and a metal waste form. Reactive metal fuel constituents, including all the transuranic metals and the majority of the fission products remain in the salt as chlorides and are processed into the CWF. The solidified salt is containerized and transferred to the CWF process where it is ground in an argon atmosphere. Zeolite 4A is ground and then dried in a mechanically-fluidized dryer. The salt and zeolite are mixed in a V-mixer and heated to 500°C to occlude the salt into the structure of the zeolite. The salt-loaded zeolite is cooled, mixed with borosilicate glass frit, and transferred to a crucible, which is placed in a furnace and heated to 925°C. During this process, known as pressureless consolidation, the zeolite is converted to the final sodalite form and the glass thoroughly encapsulates the sodalite, producing a dense, leach-resistant final waste form.

A new non-TRISO fuel and clad design concept is proposed for the prismatic, heliumcooled Very High Temperature Reactor core. The new concept could substantially reduce the current 10-20 wt% TRISO uranium enrichments down to 4-6 wt% for both initial and reload cores. The proposed fuel form would be a high-temperature, high-density uranium ceramic, for example UO2, configured into very small diameter cylindrical rods. The small diameter fuel rods significantly increase core reactivity through improved neutron moderation and fuel lumping. Although a high-temperature clad system for the concept remains to be developed, recent success in tube fabrication and preliminary irradiation testing of silicon carbide (SiC) cladding for light water reactor applications offers good potential for this application, and for future development of other carbide clad designs. A high-temperature ceramic fuel, together with a high-temperature clad material, could also lead to higher thermal safety margins during both normal and transient reactor conditions relative to TRISO fuel. The calculated neutronic results show that the lowenrichment, small diameter fuel rods and low thermal neutron absorbing clad retain the strong negative Doppler fuel temperature coefficient of reactivity that ensures inherent safe operation of the VHTR, and depletion studies demonstrate that an 18-month power cycle can …

The CDF and D0 collaborations have updated their measurements of the mass of the top quark using proton-antiproton collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV produced at the Tevatron. The uncertainties in each of the top-antitop decay channels have been reduced. The new Tevatron average for the mass of the top quark based on about 1 fb{sup -1} of data per experiment is 170.9 {+-} 1.8 GeV/c{sup 2}.

The greatest challenge in the interpretation of galaxy clustering data from any surveys is galaxy bias. Using a simple Fisher matrix analysis, we show that the bispectrum provides an excellent determination of linear and non-linear bias parameters of intermediate and high-z galaxies, when all measurable triangle configurations down to mildly non-linear scales, where perturbation theory is still valid, are included. The bispectrum is also a powerful probe of primordial non-Gaussianity. The planned galaxy surveys at z {approx}> 2 should yield constraints on non-Gaussian parameters, f{sub NL}{sup loc.} and f{sub NL}{sup eq.}, that are comparable to, or even better than, those from CMB experiments. We study how these constraints improve with volume, redshift range, as well as the number density of galaxies. Finally we show that a halo occupation distribution may be used to improve these constraints further by lifting degeneracies between gravity, bias, and primordial non-Gaussianity.

Many advanced nuclear reactor designs require new fuel, cladding, and structural materials. Data are needed to characterize the performance of these new materials in high temperature, radiation conditions. However, traditional methods for measuring temperature inpile degrade at temperatures above 1100 ºC. To address this instrumentation need, the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) developed and evaluated the performance of a high temperature irradiation-resistant thermocouple that contains alloys of molybdenum and niobium. To verify the performance of INL’s recommended thermocouple design, a series of high temperature (from 1200 to 1800 ºC) long duration (up to six months) tests has been initiated. This paper summarizes results from the tests that have been completed. Data are presented from 4000 hour tests conducted at 1200 and 1400 ºC that demonstrate the stability of this thermocouple (less than 2% drift). In addition, post test metallographic examinations are discussed which confirm the compatibility of thermocouple materials throughout these long duration, high temperature tests.

Diffusion through macro- and meso-pores with the subsequent filling of open micropores is a relatively fast process and the manometric measurements with fifteen minute pressure stabilization steps provide a good estimate of excess (ad)sorption. This can be followed by a much slower processes of the penetrant diffusion into the macromolecular network, accompanied by its structural relaxation, with or without free volume changes. The “free volume” effect is a change of the sample’s excluded volume because of the penetrant molecules mixing within the formerly excluded volume of the network or because of contraction (either reversible or semi-permanent) due to external pressure. If the resulting swelling of the sample leads to the mixture’s volume equal to the sum of the initial volumes of the components, there is no apparent change to the void volume and no pressure relaxation is observed (b). On the other hand, if the external forces (either macroscopic pressure or microscopic molecular interaction forces) change the excluded volume of the network (its density), without exchange of the sorbent molecules between the sample and the free fluid phase, such change causes a corresponding change in the void volume, which constitutes a pure free volume effect (c). In this case, no …

Carbon SWNTs are attractive materials for supporting electrocatalysts. The properties of SWNTs are highly tunable and controlled by the nanotube's circumferential periodicity and their surface chemistry. These unique characteristics suggest that architectures constructed from these types of carbon support materials would exhibit interesting and useful properties. Here, we expect that the structure of the carbon nanotube support will play a major role in stabilizing metal electrocatalysts under extreme operating conditions and suppress both catalyst and support degradation. Furthermore, the chemical modification of the carbon nanotube surfaces can be expected to alter the interface between the catalyst and support, thus, enhancing the activity and utilization of the electrocatalysts. We plan to incorporate discrete reaction sites into the carbon nanotube lattice to create intimate electrical contacts with the catalyst particles to increase the metal catalyst activity and utilization. The work involves materials synthesis, design of electrode architectures on the nanoscale, control of the electronic, ionic, and mass fluxes, and use of advanced optical spectroscopy techniques.

Since ICNC 2003, the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) has continued to expand its efforts and broaden its scope. Criticality-alarm / shielding type benchmarks and fundamental physics measurements that are relevant to criticality safety applications are not only included in the scope of the project, but benchmark data are also included in the latest version of the handbook. A considerable number of improvements have been made to the searchable database, DICE and the criticality-alarm / shielding benchmarks and fundamental physics measurements have been included in the database. There were 12 countries participating on the ICSBEP in 2003. That number has increased to 18 with recent contributions of data and/or resources from Brazil, Czech Republic, Poland, India, Canada, and China. South Africa, Germany, Argentina, and Australia have been invited to participate. Since ICNC 2003, the contents of the “International Handbook of Evaluated Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments” have increased from 350 evaluations (28,000 pages) containing benchmark specifications for 3070 critical or subcritical configurations to 442 evaluations (over 38,000 pages) containing benchmark specifications for 3957 critical or subcritical configurations, 23 criticality-alarm-placement / shielding configurations with multiple dose points for each, and 20 configurations that have been categorized as fundamental physics measurements …

This paper presents a software approach to augmenting existing real-time systems with self-adaptation capabilities. In this approach, based on the control loop paradigm commonly used in industrial control, self-adaptation is decomposed into observing system events, inferring necessary changes based on a system's functional model, and activating appropriate adaptation procedures. The solution adopts an architectural decomposition that emphasizes independence and separation of concerns. It encapsulates observation, modeling and correction into separate modules to allow for easier customization of the adaptive behavior and flexibility in selecting implementation technologies.

Hydrogen is seen as the future automobile energy storage media due to its inherent cleanliness upon oxidation and its ready utilization in fuel cell applications. Its physical storage in light weight, low volume systems is a key technical requirement. In searching for ever higher gravimetric and volumetric density hydrogen storage materials and systems, it is inevitable that higher energy density materials will be studied and used. To make safe and commercially acceptable systems, it is important to understand quantitatively, the risks involved in using and handling these materials and to develop appropriate risk mitigation strategies to handle unforeseen accidental events. To evaluate these materials and systems, an IPHE sanctioned program was initiated in 2006 partnering laboratories from Europe, North America and Japan. The objective of this international program is to understanding the physical risks involved in synthesis, handling and utilization of solid state hydrogen storage materials and to develop methods to mitigate these risks. This understanding will support ultimate acceptance of commercially high density hydrogen storage system designs. An overview of the approaches to be taken to achieve this objective will be given. Initial experimental results will be presented on environmental exposure of NaAlH{sub 4}, a candidate high density hydrogen …

Long-lived, heavy particles are predicted in a number of models beyond the standard model of particle physics. We present the first direct search for such particles' decays, occurring up to 100 h after their production and not synchronized with an accelerator bunch crossing. We apply the analysis to the gluino ({tilde g}), predicted in split supersymmetry, which after hadronization can become charged and lose enough momentum through ionization to come to rest in dense particle detectors. Approximately 410 pb{sup -1} of p{bar p} collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV collected with the D0 detector during Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron collider are analyzed in search of such 'stopped gluinos' decaying into a gluon and a neutralino ({tilde {chi}}{sub 1}{sup 0}). Limits are placed on the (gluino cross section)x(probability to stop)x[BR({tilde g}{yields}g {tilde {chi}}{sub 1}{sup 0<})] as a function of the gluino and {tilde {chi}}{sub 1}{sup 0<} masses, for gluino lifetimes from 30 {micro}s-100 h.

A recent accomplishment of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) Nuclear Safety analysis group was to obtain DOE-ID approval for the inter-facility transfer of greater-than-Hazard-Category-3 quantity radioactive/fissionable waste in Department of Transportation (DOT) Type A drums at MFC. This accomplishment supported excellence in operations through safety analysis by better integrating nuclear safety requirements with waste requirements in the Transportation Safety Document (TSD); reducing container and transport costs; and making facility operations more efficient. The MFC TSD governs and controls the inter-facility transfer of greater-than-Hazard-Category-3 radioactive and/or fissionable materials in non-DOT approved containers. Previously, the TSD did not include the capability to transfer payloads of greater-than-Hazard-Category-3 radioactive and/or fissionable materials using DOT Type A drums. Previous practice was to package the waste materials to less-than-Hazard-Category-3 quantities when loading DOT Type A drums for transfer out of facilities to reduce facility waste accumulations. This practice allowed operations to proceed, but resulted in drums being loaded to less than the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) waste acceptance criteria (WAC) waste limits, which was not cost effective or operations friendly. An improved and revised safety analysis was used to gain DOE-ID approval for adding this container configuration to the MFC …

Batch and semi-batch experiments were conducted to assess feasibility of utilizing mixtures of caustic bauxite residue slurry and produced brine from the Oriskany sandstone formation to sequester CO2 • Bauxite residue/brine mixture of 90/10 by volume sequestered 9.5 g of CO2 per liter of mixture (100 psig of CO2 at 20 ºC) • Carbon trapping is accomplished primarily through solubilization • Solution of the product mixture was neutralized following carbonation • Flow-through carbonation at 25 ºC and 1 atm. demonstrates that carbonation rates are acceptable for proposed process applications

I present a measurement of the W boson mass (M{sub W}) and width ({Gamma}{sub W}) using 200 and 350 pb{sup -1} of CDF Run II data respectively. The measurements, performed in both the electron and muon decay channels, rely on a fit to the W transverse mass distribution. We measure M{sub W} = 80413 {+-} 48 MeV and {Gamma}W = 2032 {+-} 71 MeV which represent the world's single most precise measurements to date.

Recent QCD jet production measurements in p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV at the Tevatron Collider at Fermilab are presented. Preliminary: inclusive jet, dijet, isolated photon + jet and Z + jets measurements are compared to available perturbative QCD models.

The CDF Collaboration has measured the inclusive jet cross section using 1992-93 collider data at 1.8 TeV. The CDF measurement is in very good agreement with NLO QCD predictions for transverse energies (E{sub T}) below 200 GeV. However, it is systematically higher than NLO QCD predictions for E{sub T} above 200 GeV.

Gas hydrates are solid crystalline compounds in which gasmolecules are lodged within the lattices of ice crystals. Vast amounts ofCH4 are trapped in gas hydrates, and a significant effort has recentlybegun to evaluate hydrate deposits as a potential energy source. Class 3hydrate deposits are characterized by an isolated Hydrate-Bearing Layer(HBL) that is not in contact with any hydrate-free zone of mobile fluids.The base of the HBL in Class 3 deposits may occur within or at the edgeof the zone of thermodynamic hydrate stability.In this numerical study oflong-term gas production from typical representatives of unfracturedClass 3 deposits, we determine that simple thermal stimulation appears tobe a slow and inefficient production method. Electrical heating and warmwater injection result in very low production rates (4 and 12 MSCFD,respectively) that are orders of magnitude lower than generallyacceptable standards of commercial viability of gas production fromoceanic reservoirs. However, production from depressurization-baseddissociation based on a constant well pressure appears to be a promisingapproach even in deposits characterized by high hydrate saturations. Thisapproach allows the production of very large volumes ofhydrate-originating gas at high rates (>15 MMSCFD, with a long-termaverage of about 8.1 MMSCFD for the reference case) for long times usingconventional technology. Gas production from hydrates …

Highlights opportunities using GPS travel survey techniques and systems simulation tools for plug-in hybrid vehicle design improvements, which maximize the benefits of energy efficiency technologies.

The MINOS long baseline experiment has been collecting neutrino beam data since March 2005 and has accumulated 3 x 10{sup 20} protons-on-target (POT) to date. MINOS uses Fermilab's NuMI neutrino beam which is measured by two steel-scintillator tracking calorimeters, one at Fermilab and the other 735 km downstream, in northern Minnesota. By observing the oscillatory structure in the neutrino energy spectrum, MINOS can precisely measure the neutrino oscillation parameters in the atmospheric sector. From analysis of the first year of data, corresponding to 1.27 x 10{sup 20} POT, these parameters were determined to be |{Delta}m{sup 2}{sub 32}| = 2.74{sup +0.44}{sub -0.26} x 10{sup -3} eV{sup 2}/c{sup 4} and sin{sup 2}(2{theta}{sub 23}) > 0.87 (68% C.L.). MINOS is able to measure the neutrino velocity by comparing the arrival times of the neutrino beam in its two detectors. Using a total of 473 Far Detector events, (v -c)/c = (5.1{+-}2.9)x10{sup -5} (68% C.L.) was measured. In addition, we report recent progress in the analysis of neutral current events and give an outline of experimental goals for the future.

Coalbed methane is a significant natural resource in the Appalachian region. It is believed that coalbed methane production can be enhanced by injection of carbon dioxide into coalbeds. However, the influence of carbon dioxide injection on coal permeability is not yet well understood. Competitive sorption of carbon dioxide and methane gases onto coal is a known process. Laboratory experiments and limited field experience indicate that coal will swell during sorption of a gas and shrink during desorption of a gas. The swelling and shrinkage may change the permeability of the coal. In this study, the permeability of coal was determined by using carbon dioxide as the flowing fluid. Coal samples with different dimensions were prepared for laboratory permeability tests. Carbon dioxide was injected into the coal and the permeability was determined by using pressure transient methods. The confining pressure was variedto cover a wide range of depths. The permeability was also determined as a function of exposure time of carbon dioxide while the confining stress was kept constant. CT scans were taken before and after the introduction of carbon dioxide. Results show that the porosity and permeability of the coal matrix was very low. The paper presents experimental data and …

The Department of Energy and the Idaho National Laboratory are developing a Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) to serve as a demonstration of state-of-the-art nuclear technology. The purpose of the demonstration is two fold 1) efficient low cost energy generation and 2) hydrogen production. Although a next generation plant could be developed as a single-purpose facility, early designs are expected to be dual-purpose. While hydrogen production and advanced energy cycles are still in its early stages of development, research towards coupling a high temperature reactor, electrical generation and hydrogen production is under way. Many aspects of the NGNP must be researched and developed in order to make recommendations on the final design of the plant. Parameters such as working conditions, cycle components, working fluids, and power conversion unit configurations must be understood. Three configurations of the power conversion unit were demonstrated in this study. A three-shaft design with three turbines and four compressors, a combined cycle with a Brayton top cycle and a Rankine bottoming cycle, and a reheated cycle with three stages of reheat were investigated. An intermediate heat transport loop for transporting process heat to a High Temperature Steam Electrolysis (HTSE) hydrogen production plant was used. Helium, CO2, …

Soils at waste sites must be evaluated for the potential of residual soil contamination to leach and migrate to the groundwater beneath the disposal area. If migration to the aquifer occurs, contaminants can travel vast distances and contaminate drinking water wells, thus exposing human receptors to harmful levels of toxins and carcinogens. To prevent groundwater contamination, a contaminant fate and transport analysis is necessary to assess the migration potential of residual soil contaminates. This type of migration analysis is usually performed using a vadose zone model to account for complex geotechnical and chemical variables including: contaminant decay, infiltration rate, soil properties, vadose zone thickness, and chemical behavior. The distinct advantage of using a complex model is that less restrictive, but still protective, soil threshold levels may be determined avoiding the unnecessary and costly remediation of marginally contaminated soils. However, the disadvantage of such modeling is the additional cost for data collection and labor required to apply these models. In order to allay these higher costs and to achieve a less restrictive but still protective clean-up level, a multiple contaminant and multi layered soil column equilibrium partitioning model was developed which is faster, simpler and less expensive to use.

The heat transfer section of the RELAP5-3D computer program has been recently improved. The improvements are as follows: (1) the general cladding rupture model was modified (more than one heat structure segment connected to the hydrodynamic volume and heat structure geometry’s internal gap pressure), (2) the cladding rupture model was modified for reflood, and (3) the heat transfer minor edits/plots were extended to include radiation/enclosure heat flux and generation (internal heat source).