Nanotechnology is one of the most interesting and challenging frontiers of science and technology. We are motivated by the belief that progress will come from improved understanding and control of structure, dynamics and reactivity at interfaces. First, we provide a summary of our projects and key findings. The following pages provide a more detailed account.

This report will serve as the final report on the work performed from the contract period October 2005 thru April 2007. The project 'A Built for Purpose Microhole Coiled Tubing Rig (MCTR)' purpose was to upgrade an existing state-of-the-art Coiled Tubing Drilling Rig to a Microhole Coiled Tubing Rig (MCTR) capable of meeting the specifications and tasks of the Department of Energy. The individual tasks outlined to meet the Department of Energy's specifications are: (1) Concept and development of lubricator and tool deployment system; (2) Concept and development of process control and data acquisition; (3) Concept and development of safety and efficiency improvements; and (4) Final unit integration and testing. The end result of the MCTR upgrade has produced a unit capable of meeting the following requirements: (1) Capable of handling 1-inch through 2-3/8-inch coiled tubing (Currently dressed for 2-3/8-inch coiled tubing and capable of running up to 3-1/2-inch coiled tubing); (2) Capable of drilling and casing surface, intermediate, production and liner hole intervals; (3) Capable of drilling with coiled tubing and has all controls and installation piping for a top drive; (4) Rig is capable of running 7-5/8-inch range 2 casing; and (5) Capable of drilling 5,000 ft true …

Removal of hydrogen sulfide (H{sub 2}S) from coal gasifier gas and sulfur recovery are key steps in the development of Department of Energy's (DOE's) advanced power plants that produce electric power and clean transportation fuels with coal and natural gas. These plants will require highly clean coal gas with H{sub 2}S below 1 ppmv and negligible amounts of trace contaminants such as hydrogen chloride, ammonia, alkali, heavy metals, and particulate. The conventional method of sulfur removal and recovery employing amine, Claus, and tail-gas treatment is very expensive. A second generation approach developed under DOE's sponsorship employs hot-gas desulfurization (HGD) using regenerable metal oxide sorbents followed by Direct Sulfur Recovery Process (DSRP). However, this process sequence does not remove trace contaminants and is targeted primarily towards the development of advanced integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plants that produce electricity (not both electricity and transportation fuels). There is an immediate as well as long-term need for the development of cleanup processes that produce highly clean coal gas for next generation power plants. To this end, a novel process is now under development at several research organizations in which the H{sub 2}S in coal gas is directly oxidized to elemental sulfur over a …

This project titled 'Demonstration of the New MorElectric{trademark} Technology as an Idle Reduction Solution' is one of four demonstration projects awarded by the US Department of Energy in 2002. The goal of these demonstration and evaluation projects was to gather objective in-use information on the performance of available idle reduction technologies by characterizing the cost; fuel, maintenance, and engine life savings; payback; and user impressions of various systems and techniques. In brief, the Caterpillar Inc. project involved applying electrically driven accessories for cab comfort during engine-off stops and for reducing fuel consumption during on-highway operation. Caterpillar had equipped and operated five new trucks with the technology in conjunction with International Truck and Engine Corporation and COX Transfer. The most significant result of the project was a demonstrated average idle reduction of 13.8% for the 5 truck MEI fleet over the control fleet. It should be noted that the control fleet trucks were also equipped with an idle reduction device that would start and stop the main engine automatically in order to maintain cab temperature. The control fleet idle usage would have been reduced by 3858 hours over the 2 year period with the MEI system installed, or approximately 2315 gallons …

We report research activities and technical progress on the development of high-efficiency long wavelength ({lambda} {approx} 540nm) green light emitting diodes which covers whole years of the three-year program 'Novel approaches to high-efficiency III-V nitride heterostructure emitters for next-generation lighting applications'. The research activities were focused on the development of p-type layer that has less/no detrimental thermal annealing effect on as well as excellent structural and electrical properties and the development of green LED active region that has superior luminescence quality for {lambda}{approx}540nm green LEDs. We have also studied (1) the thermal annealing effect on blue and green LED active region during the p-type layer growth; (2) the effect of growth parameters and structural factors for LED active region on electroluminescence properties; (3) the effect of substrates and orientation on electrical and electro-optical properties of green LEDs. As a progress highlight, we obtained green-LED-active-region-friendly In{sub 0.04}Ga{sub 0.96}N:Mg exhibiting low resistivity with higher hole concentration (p=2.0 x 10{sup 18} cm{sup -3} and a low resistivity of 0.5 {omega}-cm) and improved optical quality green LED active region emitting at {approx}540nm by electroluminescence. The LEDs with p-InGaN layer can act as a quantum-confined Stark effect mitigation layer by reducing strain in the QW. …

Slug-test results obtained from single and multiple, stress-level slug tests conducted during drilling and borehole advancement provide detailed hydraulic conductivity information at two Hanford Site Operable Unit (OU) ZP-1 test well locations. The individual test/depth intervals were generally sited to provide hydraulic-property information within the upper ~10 m of the unconfined aquifer (i.e., Ringold Formation, Unit 5). These characterization results complement previous and ongoing drill-and-test characterization programs at surrounding 200-West and -East Area locations (see Figure S.1).

We construct a sigma model in two dimensions with Galilean symmetry in flat target space similar to the sigma model of the critical string theory with Lorentz symmetry in 10 flat spacetime dimensions. This is motivated by the works of Gomis and Ooguri[1] and Danielsson et. al.[2, 3]. Our theory is much simpler than their theory and does not assume a compact coordinate. This non-relativistic string theory has a bosonic matter {beta}{gamma} CFT with the conformal weight of {beta} as 1. It is natural to identify time as a linear combination of {gamma} and {bar {gamma}} through an explicit realization of the Galilean boost symmetry. The angle between {gamma} and {bar {gamma}} parametrizes one parameter family of selection sectors. These selection sectors are responsible for having a non-relativistic dispersion relation without a nontrivial topology in the non-relativistic setup, which is one of the major differences from the previous works[1, 2, 3]. This simple theory is the non-relativistic analogue of the critical string theory, and there are many different avenues ahead to be investigated. We mention a possible consistent generalization of this theory with different conformal weights for the {beta}{gamma} CFT. We also mention supersymmetric generalizations of these theories.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will be the world's largest and most powerful laser system for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and experiments studying high energy density (HED) science. NIF is a 192 beam Nd-glass laser facility that will produce 1.8 MJ, 500 TW of ultraviolet light making it over fifty times more energetic than present ICF facilities. The NIF Project began in 1995 and is scheduled for completion in 2009. Ignition experiments on NIF, which will use tritium, are scheduled to begin in 2010. Tritium will arrive at the facility in individual target assemblies. The assemblies will be mounted to the Cryogenic TARget POSitioner (TARPOS), which provides the cryogenic cooling systems necessary to complete the formation of the ignition target's fuel ice layer. It also provides the positioning system that transports and holds the target at the center of the NIF chamber during a shot. After a shot, unburned tritium will be captured by the cryopumps. Upon regeneration, the cryopump effluent will be directed to the Tritium Processing System, part of NIF's. Personnel and Environmental Protection Systems. These systems also include, local contamination control systems, area and stack tritium monitoring systems, a decontamination area, and …

We have developed a forward modeling technique to retrieve rupture characteristics of small earthquakes (3<M<5), including rupture propagation direction, fault dimension, and rupture speed.

The project is titled 'Identification, Verification, and Compilation of Produced Water Management Practices for Conventional Oil and Gas Production Operations'. The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC), headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is the principal investigator and the IOGCC has partnered with ALL Consulting, Inc., headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in this project. State agencies that also have partnered in the project are the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation, the Kansas Oil and Gas Conservation Division, the Oklahoma Oil and Gas Conservation Division and the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. The objective is to characterize produced water quality and management practices for the handling, treating, and disposing of produced water from conventional oil and gas operations throughout the industry nationwide. Water produced from these operations varies greatly in quality and quantity and is often the single largest barrier to the economic viability of wells. The lack of data, coupled with renewed emphasis on domestic oil and gas development, has prompted many experts to speculate that the number of wells drilled over the next 20 years will approach 3 million, or near the number of current wells. This level of exploration …

Eolian sands are the main Pennsylvanian Tensleep Sandstone reservoir rocks, and were deposited in a near-shore environment interbedded with near-shore marine and sabkha calcareous and dolomitic rocks. Within the Tensleep, numerous cycles are characterized by basal marine or sabkha calcareous sandstone or dolomitic sandstone overlain by porous and permeable eolian sandstone, which in turn is capped by marine sandstone. The cycles represent the interplay of near-shore marine, sabkha, and eolian environments. On the west side of the project area, both the lower and upper Tensleep are present and the total thickness reaches a maximum of about 240 ft. The lower Tensleep is 100 to 120 ft thick and consists of a sequence of repeating cycles of limey shallow marine sandstone, sandy limestone, and sandy dolomite. The upper Tensleep is generally characterized by cycles of sandy limestone or dolomite, overlain by light-colored, eolian dune sandstone capped by marine limey sandstone. In the central and eastern parts of the project area, only the lower Tensleep is present, but here eolian sandstones are in cycles much like those in the west in the upper Tensleep. The lower Tensleep is quite variable in thickness, ranging from about 25 ft to over 200 ft. Oil …

With the emergence of soft x-ray techniques for imaging cells, there is a pressing need to develop protein localization probes that can be unambiguously identified within the region of x-ray spectrum used for imaging. TiO2 nanocrystal colloids, which have a strong absorption cross-section within the "water-window" region of x-rays, areideally suited as soft x-ray microscopy probes. To demonstrate their efficacy, TiO2-streptavidin nanoconjugates were prepared and subsequently labeled microtubules polymerized from biotinylated tubulin. The microtubules were imaged using scanning transmission x-ray microscopy (STXM), and the TiO2 nanoparticle tags were specifically identified using x-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES). These experiments demonstrate that TiO2 nanoparticles are potential probes for protein localization analyses using soft x-ray microscopy.

Previous Bechtel National, Incorporated (BNI)-sponsored studies have targeted optimizing sodium permanganate for the selective oxidation of chromium from washed Hanford tank sludges (Rapko et al. 2004; Rapko et al. 2005). The recommendation from previous work was that contact with sodium permanganate in a minimally caustic solution, i.e., 0.1 to 0.25 M [OH-] initially, provided maximum Cr dissolution while minimizing concomitant Pu dissolution. At the request of BNI, further work on oxidative alkaline leaching was performed.

It is well known that U-6wt.% Nb (U-14at.% Nb) alloy has a microstructure containing martensitic phases supersaturated with Nb that can be obtained by rapid quenching the alloy from {gamma} (bcc)-field solid solution to room temperature. The high cooling rate forces the {gamma}-phase solid solution to transform to variants of the low-temperature {alpha} (orthorhombic) phase in which Nb is forced to retain in the supersaturated solid solution. However, the crystal lattice of supersaturated solution formed by rapid quenching is in unstable conditions and is severely distorted since the solubility of Nb in the {alpha} phase at room temperature is nearly zero under an equilibrium condition. Two variant phases, a monoclinic distortion of {alpha} phase that is designated as {alpha}{double_prime} martensite and a tetragonal distortion of {gamma} phase that is designated as {gamma}{sup o} phase, can form in the as-quenched alloy, as shown in Fig. 1. We have learned from our previous TEM studies on the low-temperature aging of a water-quenched U6Nb (WQ-U6Nb) alloy that there are two possible transformation pathways for phase decomposition of the alloy supersaturated with 14 at.% of Nb upon aging at temperatures below 200 C, i.e., (1) supersaturated solid solution {alpha}{double_prime} {yields} spinodal decomposition {yields} {alpha}{sub …

The factors affecting the optimal water chemistry of the Savannah River Site spent fuel storage basin must be determines in order to optimize facility efficiency, minimize fuel corrosion, and reduce overall environmental impact from long term spent nuclear fuel storage at the Savannah River Site. The Savannah River National Laboratory is using statistically designed experiments to study the effects of NO{sub 3}{sup -}, SO{sub 4}{sup 2-}, and Cl{sup -} concentrations on alloys commonly used not only as fuel cladding, but also as rack construction materials The results of cyclic polarization pitting and corrosion experiments on samples of Al 6061 and 1100 alloys will be used to construct a predictive model of the basin corrosion and its dependence on the species in the basin. The basin chemistry model and corrosion will be discussed in terms of optimized water chemistry envelope and minimization of cladding corrosion.

The resolution of chemically amplified resists is becoming an increasing concern, especially for lithography in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) regime. Large-scale screening and performance-based down-selection is currently underway to identify resist platforms that can support shrinking feature sizes. Resist screening efforts, however, are hampered by the absence of reliable resolution metrics that can objectively quantify resist resolution in a high-throughput fashion. Here we examine two high-throughput metrics for resist resolution determination. After summarizing their details and justifying their utility, we characterize the sensitivity of both metrics to two of the main experimental uncertainties associated with lithographic exposure tools, namely: limited focus control and limited knowledge of optical aberrations. For an implementation at EUV wavelengths, we report aberration and focus limited error bars in extracted resolution of {approx} 1.25 nm RMS for both metrics making them attractive candidates for future screening and down-selection efforts.

The purpose of this report is to provide a concise but comprehensive overview of Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility (ACRF) instrumentation status. The report is divided into the following four sections: (1) new instrumentation in the process of being acquired and deployed, (2) existing instrumentation and progress on improvements or upgrades, (3) proposed future instrumentation, and (4) SBIR instrument development.

This paper presents a systematic study of two large subsetsof bitmap indexing methods that use multi-component and multi-levelencodings. Earlier studies on bitmap indexes are either empirical or foruncompressed versions only. Since most of bitmap indexes in use arecompressed, we set out to study the performance characteristics of thesecompressed indexes. To make the analyses manageable, we choose to use aparticularly simple, but efficient, compression method called theWord-Aligned Hybrid (WAH) code. Using this compression method, a numberof bitmap indexes are shown to be optimal because their worst-case timecomplexities for answering a query is a linear function of the number ofhits. Since compressed bitmap indexes behave drastically different fromuncompressed ones, our analyses also lead to a number of new methods thatare much more efficient than commonly used ones. As a validation for theanalyses, we implement a number of the best methods and measure theirperformance against well-known indexes. The fastest new methods arepredicted and observed to be 5 to 10 times faster than well-knownindexing methods.

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A new process, phase enhanced absorption, was invented. The method is carried out in an absorber, where a liquid carrier (aqueous solution), an organic mixture (or organic compound), and a gas mixture containing a gas to be absorbed are introduced from an inlet. Since the organic mixture is immiscible or at least partially immiscible with the liquid carrier, the organic mixture forms a layer or small parcels between the liquid carrier and the gas mixture. The organic mixture in the absorber improves mass transfer efficiency of the system and increases the absorption rate of the gas. The organic mixture serves as a transportation media. The gas is finally accumulated in the liquid carrier as in a conventional gas-liquid absorption system. The presence of the organic layer does not hinder the regeneration of the liquid carrier or recovery of the gas because the organic layer is removed by a settler after the absorption process is completed. In another aspect, the system exhibited increased gas-liquid separation efficiency, thereby reducing the costs of operation and maintenance. Our study focused on the search of the organic layer or transportation layer to enhance the absorption rate of carbon dioxide. The following systems were studied, (1) …

Prochlorococcus is a marine cyanobacterium that numerically dominates the mid-latitude oceans and is the smallest known oxygenic phototroph. Numerous isolatesfrom diverse areas of the world's oceans have been studied and shown to be physiologically and genetically distinct. All isolates described thus far can be assigned to either a tightly clustered high-light (HL)-adapted clade, or a more divergent low-light (LL)-adapted group. The 16S rRNA sequences of the entire Prochlorococcus group differ by at most 3percent, and the four initially published genomes revealed patterns of genetic differentiation that help explain physiological differences among the isolates. Here we describe the genomes of eight newly sequenced isolates and combine them with the first four genomes for a comprehensive analysis of the core (shared by all isolates) and flexible genes of the Prochlorococcus group, and the patterns of loss and gain of the flexible genes over the course of evolution. There are 1,273 genes that represent the core shared by all 12 genomes. They are apparently sufficient, according to metabolic reconstruction, to encode a functional cell. We describe a phylogeny for all 12 isolates by subjecting their complete proteomes to three different phylogenetic analyses. For each non-core gene, we used a maximum parsimony method to …

A Key objective of this program is to identify electrodes that will make it possible to significantly reduce the operating temperature of micro-SOFC and thin film-based SOFCs. Towards this end, efforts are directed towards: (a) identifying the key rate limiting steps which limit presently utilized electrodes from performing at reduced temperatures, as well as, (b) investigating the use of optical, as opposed to thermal energy, as a means for photocatalyzing electrode reactions and enabling reduced operating temperatures. During Phase I, the following objectives were achieved: (a) assembly and testing of our unique Microprobe Thin Film Characterization System; (b) fabrication of the model cathode materials system in thin film form by both PLD and ink jet printing; and (c) the successful configuration and testing of the model materials as cathodes in electrochemical cells. A further key objective (d) to test the potential of illumination in enhancing electrode performance was also achieved.

Area G is a 25.5-hectare (63-acre), fenced, low-level radioactive solid waste processing and disposal area located on the east end of Mesa del Buey at Technical Area 54 at Los Alamos National Laboratory. This disposal area has been in existence since 1957 and is expected to be filled by the year 2015. Thus, a new area, located adjacent to Area G on the west side, has been proposed for the expansion of disposal activities. Since 1994 to the present, baseline levels of several radionuclides and nonradionuclides have been collected in soils, vegetation, and small mammals (field mice and rock squirrels). These data will be used to assess potential impacts, if any, at the expanded site once operations begin. Baseline statistical reference levels (BSRLs) (mean plus three standard deviations = 99% confidence level) of radionuclides and nonradionuclides in these media were calculated and compared with regional statistical reference levels (RSRLs). RSRLs are calculated from regional areas away from the influence of the Laboratory and represent natural and worldwide fallout sources. BSRLs in most media, with the exception of field mice (mostly Peromyscus spp.), compare very well with RSRLs. Field mice, probably because they are mobile and may have spent time within …

This final technical report describes work performed at Morehouse College under DOE Grant No. DE-FC26-04NT42130 during the period July 01, 2004 to June 30, 2007 which covers the entire performance period of the project. 25 individual biomass particles (hardwood sawdust AI14546 in the size range of 100-200 microns) were levitated in an electrodynamic balance (EDB) and their external surface area, volume, and drag coefficient/mass (C{sub d}/m) ratios were characterized applying highly specialized video based and high-speed diode array imaging systems. Analysis methods were employed using shape and drag information to calculate mass and density distributions for these particles. Results of these measurements and analyses were validated by independent mass measurements using a particle weighing and counting technique. Similar information for 28 PSOC 1451D bituminous coal particles was retrieved from a previously published work. Using these two information, density correlations for coal/biomass blends were developed. These correlations can be used to estimate the density of the blend knowing either the volume fraction or the mass fraction of coal in the blend. The density correlations presented here will be useful in predicting the burning rate of coal/biomass blends in cofiring combustors. Finally, a discussion on technological impacts and economic projections of burning …