We report an updated amplitude analysis of the charmless hadronic decays of neutral B mesons to K{sup +} {pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup 0}. With a sample of 454 million {Upsilon}(4S) {yields} B{bar B} decays collected by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B Factory at SLAC, we measure the magnitudes and phases of the intermediate resonant and nonresonant amplitudes for B{sup 0} and B{sup 0} decays and determine the corresponding CP-averaged fit fractions and charge asymmetries.

Superconductors hold the promise for a more stable and efficient electrical grid, but new isotropic, high-temperature superconductors are needed in order to reduce cable manufacturing costs. The effort to understand high-temperature superconductivity, especially in the layered cuprates, provides guidance to the search for new superconductors. Neutron scattering has long provided an important probe of the collective excitations that are involved in the pairing mechanism. For the cuprates, neutron and x-ray diffraction techniques also provide information on competing types of order, such as charge and spin stripes, that appear to be closely connected to the superconductivity. Recently, inelastic x-ray scattering has become competitive for studying phonons and may soon provide valuable information on electronic excitations. Examples of how these techniques contribute to our understanding of superconductivity are presented.

Oxygen and air mixing with spargers was performed in a 30 foot tall by 30 inch diameter column, to investigate mass transfer as air sparged up through the column and removed saturated oxygen from solution. The mixing techniques required to support this research are the focus of this paper. The fluids tested included water, water with an antifoam agent (AFA), and a high, solids content, Bingham plastic, nuclear waste simulant with AFA, referred to as AZ01 simulant, which is non-radioactive. Mixing of fluids in the column was performed using a recirculation system and an air sparger. The re-circulation system consisted of the column, a re-circulating pump, and associated piping. The air sparger was fabricated from a two inch diameter pipe concentrically installed in the column and open near the bottom of the column. The column contents were slowly re-circulated while fluids were mixed with the air sparger. Samples were rheologically tested to ensure effective mixing, as required. Once the fluids were adequately mixed, oxygen was homogeneously added through the re-circulation loop using a sintered metal oxygen sparger followed by a static mixer. Then the air sparger was re-actuated to remove oxygen from solution as air bubbled up through solution. To …

The resolution limit of present 0.3 NA 13.5 nm wavelength micro-exposure tools is compared to next generation lithography research requirements. Findings suggest that a successor design is needed for patterning starting at the 16 nm semiconductor process technology node. A two-mirror 0.5 NA optical design is presented, and performance expectations are established from detailed optical and lithographic simulation. Here, we report on the results from a SEMATECH program to fabricate a projection optic with an ultimate resolution limit of approximately 11 nm.

Saproxylic beetles are highly sensitive to forest management practices that reduce the abundance and variety of dead wood. However, this diverse fauna continues to receive little attention in the southeastern United States even though this region supports some of the most diverse, productive and intensively managed forests in North America. In this replicated three-way factorial experiment, we investigated the habitat associations of saproxylic beetles on the coastal plain of South Carolina. The factors of interest were forest type (upland pine-dominated vs. bottomland hardwood), tree species (Quercus nigra L., Pinustaeda L. and Liquidambar styraciflua L.) and wood posture (standing and downed dead wood, i.e., snags and logs). Wood samples were taken at four positions along each log and snag (lower bole,middle bole, upper bole and crown) _11 months after the trees were killed and placed in rearing bags to collect emerging beetles. Overall, 33,457 specimens from 52 families and _250 species emerged. Based on an analysis of covariance, with surface area and bark coverage as covariates, saproxylic beetle species richness differed significantly between forest types as well as between wood postures. There were no significant interactions. Species richness was significantly higher in the upland pine-dominated stand than the bottomland hardwood forest, …

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This paper presents a global approach to the validation of the parameters that enter into the neutronics simulation tools for advanced fast reactors with the objective to reduce the uncertainties associated to crucial design parameters. This global approach makes use of sensitivity/uncertainty methods; statistical data adjustments; integral experiment selection, analysis and “representativity” quantification with respect to a reference system; scientifically based cross section covariance data and appropriate methods for their use in multigroup calculations. This global approach has been applied to the uncertainty reduction on the criticality of the Advanced Burner Reactor, (both metal and oxide core versions) presently investigated in the frame of the GNEP initiative. The results obtained are very encouraging and allow to indicate some possible improvements of the ENDF/B-VII data file.

Changing requirements, programmatic challenges, and technical risk hinder even the best projects. The Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) is a complex project with technical and programmatic uncertainty. This paper presents the path forward, methods, and tools used to understand the requirements, manage the uncertainty, and mitigate the risk for the NGNP project. The key tool, technology development roadmaps, is described in detail as a means to facilitate NGNP risk-informed decision making, technology down selection, and technology qualification and maturation. Technology roadmaps for each NGNP System, Structure, or Component (SSC) were developed to set the vision for and drive the needed actions to down select technologies and designs; to assure technology readiness is demonstrated through testing, modeling, piloting, and prototyping; and to develop the test plans required to provide demonstrable evidence of the technology maturation required for codification and qualification. In the NGNP application, technology roadmaps provide the framework and structure required to systematically perform decision analysis, reduce risk, and mature technologies in a cost effective and timely manner. The steps followed include Structure Identification, Technology Readiness Assessment, Technology Selection, Technology Maturation, and Test Plan Development.

Only a handful of universities in the US offer any formal training in accelerator science. The United States Particle Accelerator School (USPAS) is National Graduate Educational Program that has developed a highly successful educational paradigm that, over the past twenty-years, has granted more university credit in accelerator / beam science and technology than any university in the world. Sessions are held twice annually, hosted by major US research universities that approve course credit, certify the USPAS faculty, and grant course credit. The USPAS paradigm is readily extensible to other rapidly developing, crossdisciplinary research areas such as high energy density physics.

The authors present measurements of the time-dependent CP-violation parameters S and C in the decays B{sup 0} {yields} {omega}K{sub S}{sup 0}, B{sup 0} {yields} {eta}{prime}K{sup 0}, reconstructed as {eta}{prime}K{sub S}{sup 0} and {eta}{prime}K{sub L}{sup 0}, and B{sup 0} {yields} {pi}{sup 0}K{sub S}{sup 0}. The data sample corresponds to the full BABAR dataset of 467 x 10{sup 6} B{bar B} pairs produced at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy e{sup +}e{sup -} collider at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. The results are S{sub {omega}K{sub S}{sup 0}} = 0.55{sub -0.29}{sup +0.26} {+-} 0.02, C{sub {omega}K{sub S}{sup 0}} = -0.52{sub -0.20}{sup +0.22} {+-} 0.03, S{sub {eta}{prime}K{sup 0}} = 0.57 {+-} 0.08 {+-} 0.02, C{sub {eta}{prime}K{sup 0}} = -0.08 {+-} 0.06 {+-} 0.02, S{sub {pi}{sup 0}K{sub S}{sup 0}} = 0.55 {+-} 0.20 {+-} 0.03, and C{sub {pi}{sup 0}K{sub S}{sup 0}} = 0.13 {+-} 0.13 {+-} 0.03, where the first errors are statistical and the second systematic. These results are consistent with the previous measurements and the world average of sin2{beta} measured in B{sup 0} {yields} J/{psi}K{sub S}{sup 0}.

An innovative hybrid loop-pool design for the sodium cooled fast reactor (SFR) has been recently proposed with the primary objective of achieving cost reduction and safety enhancement. With the hybrid loop-pool design, closed primary loops are immersed in a secondary buffer tank. This design takes advantage of features from conventional both pool and loop designs to further improve economics and safety. This paper will briefly introduce the hybrid loop-pool design concept and present the calculated thermal responses for unproctected (without reactor scram) loss of forced circulation (ULOF) transients using RELAP5-3D. The analyses examine both the inherent reactivity shutdown capability and decay heat removal performance by passive safety systems.

The RF source High Voltage Converter Modulator (HVCM) systems installed on the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) have operated well in excess of 200,000 hours, during which time numerous failures have occurred. An improved Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) switch plate is under development to help mitigate these failures. The new design incorporates two significant improvements. The IGBTs are upgraded to 4500 V, 1200 A, press-pack devices, which increase the voltage margin, facilitate better cooling, and eliminate explosive disassembly of the package in the event of device failure. The upgrade to an advanced IGBT gate drive circuit decreases switching losses and improves fault-condition response. The upgrade design and development status will be presented.

The Idaho National Laboratory (Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA), in collaboration with Ceramatec, Inc. (Salt Lake City, Utah, USA), is actively researching the application of solid oxide fuel cell technology as electrolyzers for large scale hydrogen and syngas production. This technology relies upon electricity and high temperature heat to chemically reduce a steam or steam / CO2 feedstock. Single button cell tests, multi-cell stack, as well as multi-stack testing has been conducted. Stack testing used 10 x 10 cm cells (8 x 8 cm active area) supplied by Ceramatec and ranged from 10 cell short stacks to 240 cell modules. Tests were conducted either in a bench-scale test apparatus or in a newly developed 5 kW Integrated Laboratory Scale (ILS) test facility. Gas composition, operating voltage, and operating temperature were varied during testing. The tests were heavily instrumented, and outlet gas compositions were monitored with a gas chromatograph. The ILS facility is currently being expanded to ~15 kW testing capacity (H2 production rate based upon lower heating value).

The field of neutrino physics has expanded greatly in recent years with the discovery that neutrinos change flavor and therefore have mass. Although there are many neutrino physics results since the last DIS workshop, these proceedings concentrate on recent neutrino physics results that either add to or depend on the understanding of Deep Inelastic Scattering. They also describe the short and longer term future of neutrino DIS experiments.

We present an extensive experimental characterization of the e{sup {+-}} phase space at the interaction point of the SLAC PEP-II B-Factory, that combines a detailed mapping of luminous-region observables using the BABAR detector, with stored-beam measurements by accelerator techniques.

The NIMROD and M3D / M3D-C1 codes now each have both a resistive MHD and a two-fluid (2F) capability including gyroviscosity and Hall terms. We describe: (1) a nonlinear 3D verification test in the resistive MHD regime in which the two codes are in detailed agreement , (2) new studies that illuminate the effect of two-fluid physics on spontaneous rotation in tokamaks, (3) studies of nonlinear reconnection in regimes of relevance to fusion plasmas with peak nonlinear reconnection rates that are essentially independent of the resistivity, and (4) linear two-fluid tearing mode calculations including electron mass that agree with analytic studies over a wide range of parameter regimes.

The US Department of Energy has embarked on a series of tests of TRISO-coated particle reactor fuel intended for use in the Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) as part of the Advanced Gas Reactor (AGR) program. The AGR-1 TRISO fuel experiment, currently underway, is the first in a series of eight fuel tests planned for irradiation in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) located at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The AGR-1 experiment reached a peak compact averaged burn up of 9% FIMA with no known TRISO fuel particle failures in March 2008. The burnup goal for the majority of the fuel compacts is to have a compact averaged burnup greater than 18% FIMA and a minimum compact averaged burnup of 14% FIMA. At the INL the TRISO fuel in the AGR-1 experiment is closely monitored while it is being irradiated in the ATR. The effluent monitoring system used for the AGR-1 fuel is the Fission Product Monitoring System (FPMS). The FPMS is a valuable tool that provides near real-time data indicative of the AGR-1 test fuel performance and incorporates both high-purity germanium (HPGe) gamma-ray spectrometers and sodium iodide [NaI(Tl)] scintillation detector-based gross radiation monitors. To quantify the fuel performance, release-to-birth …

For Pt, the best single-element catalyst for many reactions, the question of content and loading is exceedingly important because of its price and availability. Using platinum as a fuel-cell catalyst in automotive applications will cause an unquantifiable increase in the demand for this metal. This big obstacle for using fuel cells in electric cars must be solved by decreasing the content of Pt, which is a great challenge of electrocatalysis Over the last several years we inaugurated a new class of electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) based on a monolayer of Pt deposited on metal or alloy carbon-supported nanoparticles. The possibility of decreasing the Pt content in the ORR catalysts down to a monolayer level has a considerable importance because this reaction requires high loadings due to its slow kinetics. The Pt-monolayer approach has several unique features and some of them are: high Pt utilization, enhanced (or decreased) activity, enhanced stability, and direct activity correlations. The synthesis of Pt monolayer (ML) electrocatalysts was facilitated by our new synthesis method which allowed us to deposit a monolayer of Pt on various metals, or alloy nanoparticles [1, 2] for the cathode electrocatalyst. In this synthesis approach Pt is laid down …

Low-k dielectric materials are becoming increasingly interesting as alternative to SiO2 with device geometries shrinking beyond the 65 nm technology node. At elevated temperatures hydrogen migration becomes an important degradation mechanism for conductivity breakdown in semiconductor devices. The possibility of hydrogen release during the fabrication process is, therefore, of great interest in the understanding of device reliability. In this study, various low-k dielectric films were subjected to thermal annealing at temperatures that are generally used for device fabrication. Elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA) was used to investigate compositional changes and hydrogen redistribution in thin films of plasma-enhanced tetraethylortho-silicate (PETEOS), phosphorus doped silicon glass (PSG), silicon nitride (SiN) and silicon oxynitride (SiON). Except for an initial hydrogen release from the surface region in films of PETEOS and PSG, the results indicate that the elemental composition of the films was stable for at least 2 hours at 450◦C.

The development of real-time predictors of mental workload is critical for the practical application of augmented cognition to human-machine systems. This paper explores a novel method based on a short-time Fourier transform (STFT) for analyzing galvanic skin conductance (SC) and pupillometry time-series data to extract estimates of mental workload with temporal bandwidth high-enough to be useful for augmented cognition applications. We tested the method in the context of a process control task based on the DURESS simulation developed by Vincente and Pawlak (1994; ported to Java by Cosentino,& Ross, 1999). SC, pupil dilation, blink rate, and visual scanning patterns were measured for four participants actively engaged in controlling the simulation. Fault events were introduced that required participants to diagnose errors and make control adjustments to keep the simulator operating within a target range. We were interested in whether the STFT of these measures would produce visible effects of the increase in mental workload and stress associated with these events. Graphical exploratory data analysis of the STFT showed visible increases in the power spectrum across a range of frequencies directly following fault events. We believe this approach shows potential as a relatively unobtrusive, low-cost, high bandwidth measure of mental workload that …

Continuous air monitors (CAMs) are used to sense radioactive particulates in room air of nuclear facilities. CAMs alert personnel of potential inhalation exposures to radionuclides and can also actuate room ventilation isolation for public and environmental protection. This paper presents the results of a CAM operating experience review of the DOE Occurrence Reporting and Processing System (ORPS) database from the past 18 years. Regulations regarding these monitors are briefly reviewed. CAM location selection and operation are briefly discussed. Operating experiences reported by the U.S. Department of Energy and in other literature sources were reviewed to determine the strengths and weaknesses of these monitors. Power losses, human errors, and mechanical issues cause the majority of failures. The average “all modes” failure rate is 2.65E-05/hr. Repair time estimates vary from an average repair time of 9 hours (with spare parts on hand) to 252 hours (without spare parts on hand). These data should support the use of CAMs in any nuclear facility, including the National Ignition Facility and the international ITER experiment.

The ATLAS pixel detector is a high precision silicon tracking device located closest to the LHC interaction point. It belongs to the first generation of its kind in a hadron collider experiment. It will provide crucial pattern recognition information and will largely determine the ability of ATLAS to precisely track particle trajectories and find secondary vertices. It was the last detector to be installed in ATLAS in June 2007, has been fully connected and tested in-situ during spring and summer 2008, and is ready for the imminent LHC turn-on. The highlights of the past and future commissioning activities of the ATLAS pixel system are presented.

The top quark will be produced copiously at the LHC. This will make possible detailed physics studies, and also the use of top quark decays for detector calibration. This talk reviews plans and prospects for top physics activities in ATLAS and CMS experiments.

A recent report was published by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission – Industry-Average Performance for Components and Initiating Events at U.S. Commercial Nuclear Power Plants, NUREG/CR-6928. That report characterized industry performance (generally covering 1998 – 2002) for 51 component types found in commercial nuclear power plants. For example, for emergency diesel generators, three failure modes were identified: fail to start and reach rated speed and voltage, fail to load and run for one hour, and fail to run beyond one hour. Data from the U.S. industry contained in the Equipment Performance and Information Exchange (EPIX) database maintained by The Institute for Nuclear Power Operations were used to evaluate the failure probabilities and rates for these failure modes, covering 1998 – 2002. The software package Reliability and Availability Database System (RADS) was used to search and process the EPIX data. In addition, train test and maintenance unavailability was characterized for 34 train types. As a follow-on effort to this report, several components will be analyzed in more detail each year. These detailed studies include more recent data and analyze various subcategories such as manufacturer, system, size and type (as applicable). In addition, engineering insights such as piece part contribution to each …