This is the functional design criteria for the gas characterization systems being placed on selected flammable gas watch-list tanks in support of the hydrogen mitigation tests.

Plans are to determine the Cs-137 content of low-level waste packages generated in High-Level Waste by measuring the radiation level at a specified distance from the package with a hand-held radiation instrument. The measurement taken at this specified distance, either 3 or 5 feet, is called the far-field measurement. This report documents a method for adjusting the gamma exposure rate (mR/hr) reading used in dose-to-curie determinations when the far-field measurement equals the background reading. This adjustment is necessary to reduce the conservatism resulting from using a minimum detection limit exposure rate for the dose-to-curie determination for the far-field measurement position. To accomplish this adjustment, the near-field (5 cm) measurement is multiplied by a geometry correction factor to obtain an estimate of the far field exposure rate (which is below instrument sensitivity). This estimate of the far field exposure rate is used to estimate the Cs-137 curie content of the package. This report establishes the geometry correction factors for the dose-to-curie determination when the far-field gamma exposure measurement equals the background reading. This report also provides a means of demonstrating compliance to 1S Manual requirements for exposure rate readings at different locations from waste packages while specifying only two measurement positions. …

Two of the most important chemically reactive tropospheric gases are ozone (O{sub 3}) and the hydroxyl radical (OH). Although ozone in the stratosphere is a necessary protector against the sun`s radiation, tropospheric ozone is actually a pollutant which damages materials and vegetation, acts as a respiratory irritant, and is a greenhouse gas. One of the two main sources of ozone in the troposphere is photochemical production. The photochemistry is initiated when hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide (CO) react with nitrogen oxides (NO{sub x} = NO + NO{sub 2}) in the presence of sunlight. Reaction with the hydroxyl radical, OH, is the main sink for many tropospheric gases. The hydroxyl radical is highly reactive and has a lifetime on the order of seconds. Its formation is initiated by the photolysis of tropospheric ozone. Tropospheric chemistry involves a complex, non-linear set of chemical reactions between atmospheric species that vary substantially in time and space. To model these and other species on a global scale requires the use of a global, three-dimensional chemistry, transport, and deposition (CTD) model. In this work, I developed two such three dimensional CTD models. The first model incorporated the chemistry necessary to model tropospheric ozone production from the reactions …

This document is a plan which serves as the contractual agreement between the Characterization Program, Sampling Operations, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and PNL tank vapor program. The scope of this plan is to provide guidance for the sampling and analysis of vapor samples from tank 241-T-107.

Two chronosequence of unsaturated buried loess sediments ranging in age from <10,000 years to >1 million years were investigated to reconstruct patterns of microbial ecological succession that have occurred since sediment burial. The relative importance of microbial transport and survival to succession were inferred from sediment ages, porewater ages, patterns of abundance (measured by direct counts, counts of culturable cells, and total phospholipid fatty acids), activities (measured by radiotracer and enzyme assays), and community composition (measured by phospholipid fatty acid patterns and Biolog substrate usage). Samples were collected by coring at two sites 40 km apart in the Palouse region of eastern Washington State near the towns of Washtucna and Winona. The Washtucna site was flooded multiple times during the Pleistocene by glacial outburst floods; the elevation of the Winona site is above flood stage. Sediments at the Washtucna site were collected from near surface to 14.9 m depth, where the sediment age was {approx}250 ka and the porewater age was 3700 years; sample intervals at the Winona site ranged from near surface to 38 m (sediment age: {approx}1 Ma; porewater age: 1200 years). Microbial abundance and activities declined with depth at both sites; however, even the deepest, oldest sediments …

A series of hafnia/silica, oblique incidence (56{degrees}), 1064 nm high reflectors (HRs) were prepared and coated with silica overlayers of varying optical thickness from {lambda}/2 to 4{lambda} in order to determine the effect of an overlayer on the laser-damage resistance of the HRs. The stress and laser damage thresholds for S and P polarization of the HRs were measured, and the damage sites for P polarization examined by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). All the multilayers were found to be in compression, with an intrinsic stress increasing with overlayer thickness. The presence of an overlayer and its thickness did not affect the damage threshold significantly. However, the presence of an overlayer greatly influenced the size and morphology of the damage. First, the overlayer prevented catastrophic ``burns`` of the hafnia top layer. Second, as the overlayer thickness increased, two distinct damage morphologies were found: agged pits and round craters. The diameter of these pits and craters then increased somewhat with thicker overlayers. The depths of the pits and craters also increased with overlayer thickness, and the depths showed failure occurring at the interfaces below the hafnia layers. The side-wall angles of the craters were shallower with thicker overlayers, but there was no …

For the past two years, the Isotope Sciences Division (formerly Nuclear Chemistry) has been developing a program to extract forensic information from samples of plutonium or highly-enriched uranium. In the case of Pu, it is possible to determine the date of chemical separation, the date of its casting as metal, the enrichment of the uranium starting material, the length and perhaps other details (neutron spectrum and fluence) of reactor irradiation, the reprocessing technique, and clues to the identity of a specific facility. For enriched uranium, information is possible on the detailed timeline of material production, including the date of enrichment, whether the plant feed was formerly-irradiated uranium, the date of final purification, and facility-specific clues.