The exploration and production segment of the U.S. oil and gas industry generates millions of barrels of nonhazardous oil field wastes annually. In most cases, operators can dispose of their oil fields wastes at a lower cost on-site than off site and, thus, will choose on-site disposal. However, a significant quantity of oil field wastes are still sent to off-site commercial facilities for disposal. This paper provides information on the availability of commercial disposal companies in different states, the treatment and disposal methods they employ, and how much they charge. There appear to be two major off-site disposal trends. Numerous commercial disposal companies that handle oil field wastes exclusively are located in nine oil-and gas-producing states. They use the same disposal methods as those used for on-site disposal. In addition, the Railroad Commission of Texas has issued permits to allow several salt caverns to be used for disposal of oil field wastes. Twenty-two other oil- and gas-producing states contain few or no disposal companies dedicated to oil and gas industry waste. The only off-site commercial disposal companies available handle general industrial wastes or are sanitary landfills. In those states, operators needing to dispose of oil field wastes off-site must send …

The dissolution rates of many glasses have been observed to increase upon the formation of certain alteration phases. It is important to understand the mechanism by which alteration phases affect glass corrosion behavior and the glass dissolution rate to reliably predict whether or not similar effects will occur in a disposal environment and the impact of phase formation on the long-term performance of waste glass. While solid state transformation of a glass to thermodynamically more stable phases in kinetically prohibitive, contact by water provides an energetically favorable pathway for this transformation to occur by a dissolution-reprecipitation mechanism. The kinetics of the transformation depends on the dissolution kinetics of the glass and the precipitation kinetics of the alteration phases. The rates of these two processes are linked primarily through the solution activity of orthosilicic acid (and perhaps also that of an aluminum-bearing species).

Within the next decade, experiments measuring the anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) will add greatly to our knowledge of the universe. There are dozens of experiments scheduled to take data over the next several years, capped by the satellite missions of NASA (MAP) and ESA (PLANCK). What will we learn from these experiments? I argue that the potential pay-off is immense: We are quite likely to determine cosmological parameters to unprecedented accuracy. This will provide key information about the theory of structure formation and even about the physics behind inflation. If the experiments succeed, can anything spoil this pay-off? I focus on three possible spoilers - foregrounds, reionization, and defect models - and argue that we have every reason to be optimistic.

This paper discusses the problem of detecting explosives in the context of an object being transported for illicit purposes. The author emphasizes that technologies developed for this particular application have payoffs in many related problem areas. The author discusses nuclear techniques which can be applied to this detection problem. These include: x-ray imaging; neutronic interrogation; inelastic neutron scattering; fieldable neutron generators. He discusses work which has been done on the applications of these technologies, including results for detection of narcotics. He also discusses efforts to integrate these techniques into complementary systems which offer improved performance.

In 1985, the International Atomic Energy Agency issued revised regulations for the safe transport of radioactive material. Significant were major changes to requirements for Low Specific Activity material and Surface Contaminated Objects. As these requirements were adopted into regulations in the US, it was recognized that guidance on how to apply these requirements to large, contaminated/activated pieces of equipment and decommissioning and decontamination objects would be needed both by the regulators and those regulated to clarify technical uncertainties and ensure implementation. Thus, the US Department of Transportation and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with assistance of staff from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, are preparing regulatory guidance which will present examples of acceptable methods for demonstrating compliance with the revised rules for large items. Concepts being investigated for inclusion in the pending guidance are discussed in this paper. Under current plans, the guidance will be issued for public comment before final issuance in 1997.

The necessity to maintain the mechanical integrity of an alumina substrate during thick film processing has been documented. One of the consequences of diamond scribing sintered conductor material to remove shorts is the introduction of surface flaws in the alumina substrate. A small flaw can ultimately lead to substantial stress concentrations which result in reduced substrate strength. There is very little supporting performance data for this short removal process. How much is the flexure strength of a substrate degraded when filaments of conductor material are removed using a diamond scribe? An analysis was performed on a complex government application to determine how much a diamond scribe network had compromised the mechanical integrity of the substrate.

Although a number of candidate mechanisms have been proposed to participate in the IASCC phenomenon, it is not clear at this time that all of the contributing mechanisms have been identified. A new mechanism was proposed by Garner and Greenwood as a potential contribution to IASCC that involves the radiation-induced release into solution of sulphur and other deleterious elements that are normally concentrated into MnS precipitates. The instability arises from the combined action of the transmutation of manganese to iron, cascade-induced mixing and the very strong action of the inverse Kirkendall effect. The latter mechanism acts as a pump to export manganese from the precipitate surface and to replace it primarily with iron, as well as smaller amounts of chromium, nickel and other lesser elements. Evidence previously presented by Chung and coworkers appears to show that MnS precipitates in typical 300 series stainless steels become progressively depleted in manganese and enriched with iron as irradiation proceeds in boiling water reactor neutron spectra. It is shown in this paper that transmutation alone is insufficient to produce the observed behavior.

Host-guest chemistry and self-assembly techniques are being explored to develop species selective thin-films for real-time sensing of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Cyclodextrin (CD) and calixarene (CA) molecules are known to form guest-host inclusion complexes with a variety of organic molecules. Through the control of the cavity size and chemical functionality on the rims of these bucket-like molecules, the binding affinities for formation of inclusion complexes can be controlled and optimized for specific agents. Self-assembly techniques are used to covalently bond these reagent molecules to the surface of acoustic transducers to create dense, highly oriented, and stable thin films. Self-assembly techniques have also been used to fabricate multilayer thin film containing molecular recognition reagents through alternating adsorption of charged species in aqueous solutions. Self-assembly of polymeric molecules of the SAW device was also explored for fabricating species selective interfaces.

Fermilab is investigating electron cooling to recycle 8 Gev antiprotons recovered from the Tevatron. To do so, it is developing an experiment to recirculate 2 Mev electrons generated by a Pelletron at National Electrostatics Corporation. This paper reports on the optics calculations done in support of that work. We have used the computer codes EGN2 and MacTrace to represent the gun area and acceleration columns respectively. In addition to the results of our simulations, we discuss some of the problems encountered in interfacing the two codes.

Boron-doped back-surface fields (BSF`s) have potentially superior performance compared to aluminum-doped BSF`s due to the higher solid solubility of boron compared to aluminum. However, conventional boron diffusions require a long, high temperature step that is both costly and incompatible with many photovoltaic-grade crystalline-silicon materials. We examined a process that uses a relatively low-temperature aluminum-alloy process to obtain a boron-doped BSF by doping the aluminum with boron. In agreement with theoretical expectations, we found that thicker aluminum layers and higher boron doping levels improved the performance of aluminum-alloyed BSF`s.

Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK), Helsinki, Finland and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), working under the Finnish Support Program to IAEA Safeguards and the United States Department of Energy (DOE) funded International Remote Monitoring Program (Task FIN E 935), have undertaken a joint effort to demonstrate the use of remote monitoring for environmental air sampling and safeguards applications. The results of the task will be used by the IAEA to identify the feasibility, cost-effectiveness, reliability, advantages, and problems associated with remote environmental monitoring. An essential prerequisite for a reliable remote air sampling system is the protection of samples against tampering. Means must be developed to guarantee that the sampling itself has been performed as designed and the original samples are not substituted with samples produced with other equipment at another site. One such method is to label the samples with an unequivocal tag. In addition, the inspection personnel must have the capability to remotely monitor and access the automated environmental air sampling system through the use of various sensors and video imagery equipment. A unique aspect to this project is the network integration of remote monitoring equipment with a STUK radiation monitoring system. This integration will allow inspectors to remotely …

During the past few years, solid freeform fabrication has evolved into direct fabrication of metallic components using computer aided design (CAD) solid models. Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS{trademark}) is one such technique being developed at Sandia to fabricate high strength, near net shape metallic components. In the past two years a variety of components have been fabricated using LENS{trademark} for applications ranging from prototype parts to injection mold tooling. To advance direct fabrication capabilities, a process must be able to accommodate a wide range of materials, including alloys and composites. This is important for tailoring certain physical properties critical to component performance. Examples include graded deposition for matching coefficient of thermal expansion between dissimilar materials, layered fabrication for novel mechanical properties, and new alloy design where elemental constituents and/or alloys are blended to create new materials. In this paper, the authors will discuss the development of precise powder feeding capabilities for the LENS{trademark} process to fabricate graded or layered material parts. They also present preliminary results from chemical and microstructural analysis.

The Steam Plant at Sandia National Laboratories/New Mexico (SNL/NM) supplies on average 680,000 kg/day (1.5 x 10{sup 6} lb/day) of saturated steam for space heating and laboratory processes for SNL/NM, Technical Area 1, the eastern portion of Kirtland Air Force Base, the Department of Energy`s Albuquerque Office, and the KAFB Coronado Club. The primary fuel is natural gas (740 mscf/yr); the secondary fuel in the event of a natural gas interruption is diesel fuel. Two storage tanks provide a diesel fuel reserve of 1.5 million gallons. The Steam Plant has been in continuous operation since 1949, and some of the boilers are past their design life. Each of the boilers is controlled through a central Digital Control System (DCS). The DCS design is based on the stoichiometric equation, where the O{sub 2} stack concentration and load rate are set points and the combustion air and gas flow are adjusted based on the equation. The DCS was installed and programmed in 1992, but has not been updated since. Long range studies are being conducted to determine the fate of the steam plant, but implementation of any of these options is at least 5 years in the future. Because it is a …

The growth of pits in carbon steel exposed to dilute (0.055 M nitrate-bearing) alkaline salt solutions that simulate radioactive waste was investigated in coupon immersion tests. Most coupons were tested in the as-received condition, with the remainder having been heat treated to produce an oxide film. Nitrite, which is an established pitting inhibitor in these solutions, was present in concentrations from 0 to 0.031 M to 0.16 M; the last concentration is known to prevent pitting initiation in the test solution at the 50 degrees C test temperature. The depths of the deepest pits on coupons of particular exposure conditions were measure microscopically and were analyzed as simple, type 1 extreme value statistical distributions, to predict the deepest expected pit in a radioactive waste tank subject to the test conditions. While the growth rate of pits could not be established from these tests, the absolute value of the deepest pits predicted is of the order of 100 mils after 448 days of exposure. The data indicate that even nitrite concentrations insufficient to prevent pitting have a beneficial effect on limiting the growth of deepest pits.

The nominal composition of PBX is 94.9% HMX, 2.5% Estane 5703, 2.5% bis-2,2-dinitropropyl acetal/formal (nitroplasticizer, NP), and 0.1% stabilizer (diphenylamine, DPA or Irganox 1010). In addition to the stabilizer added to the PBX formulation, the NP eutectic liquid contains 0.1% of the stabilizer phenyl-beta-naphthylamine (PBNA). For PBX 9501 containing weapons, it is known that NP migrates from the charge into the shield polymer, and ethylene-vinyl acetate-vinyl alcohol terpolymer, becomes saturated over time with NP and that migration is then stopped. Experiments have been performed showing the saturation concentration of the shield material to be 8.8 weight percent. Prior to this work, analyses were performed on weapon components from a W76 unit that had been in the stockpile for 172 months. The HE, stress cushions, and shields were analyzed for NP and for possible products of NP decomposition. Although no evidence of NP decomposition was found, it was discovered that the PBX stabilizer and the HMX impurity, RDX, were also moving into the shields. This paper will summarize the analytical data obtained from a number of weapons of various ages. Quantitation of NP, DPA, Irganox, RDX, and PBNA has been performed on shields from six different W76 units.

A small amount of a highly polar compound, such as methanol, is frequently added to supercritical fluid (SCF) carbon dioxide to enhance its ability to dissolve polar molecules in SCF separation technology. Few diffusion coefficients in SCF mixtures have been reported in the literature. The pulsed field gradient spin-echo technique (PGSE) has been used extensively to measure self-diffusion in neat monohydric alcohols under pressure. Hurle et al. and Luedemann et al. showed that the experimental diffusion coefficients of methanol may be explained by a rough hard-sphere model (RHS) with a roughness parameter, A. In this paper, diffusion measurements are reported for CO{sub 2}-methanol and CO{sub 2}-decanol mixtures in supercritical fluids. Since methanol in CO{sub 2} is primarily monomeric at low concentration, the RHS model, that is accurate for most simple, non-associated liquids, should apply. Previous nuclear spin-lattice relaxation studies in SCF CO{sub 2} suggest a large local solvent density enhancement, or solvent clustering, near a alcohol solute molecule under SCF conditions. If solvent clustering occurs in the vicinity of alcohol solute molecules, it should affect the diffusion coefficients. The authors have made the requisite measurements and found that they corroborate their previous spin-relaxation data.

The Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) 800 MeV proton linear accelerator (linac) operates at a maximum repetition rate of twice the AC power line frequency, i.e. 120 Hz. The start of each machine cycle occurs a fixed delay after each zero-crossing of the AC line voltage. Fluctuations in the AC line frequency and phase are therefore present on all linac timing signals. Proper beam acceleration along the linac requires that the timing signals remain well synchronized to the AC line. For neutron chopper spectrometers, e.g., PHAROS at the Manuel Lujan Jr. Neutron Scattering Center, accurate neutron energy selection requires that precise synchronization be maintained between the beam-on-target arrival time and the neutron chopper rotor position. This is most easily accomplished when the chopper is synchronized to a stable, fixed frequency signal. A new zero-crossing circuit which employs a Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) has been developed to increase the phase and frequency stability of the linac timing signals and thereby improve neutron chopper performance while simultaneously maintaining proper linac operation. Results of timing signal data analysis and modeling and a description of the PLL circuit are presented.

Both geobotanical and structural interpretations of remotely sensed data tend to be plagued by random associations. However, a combination of these methods has the potential to provide a methodology for excluding many false associations. To test this approach, a test site in West Virginia has been studied using remotely sensed and field data. The historic Volcano Oil Field, in Wood, Pleasants and Ritchie Counties was known as an area of hydrocarbon seeps in the last century. Although pressures in the reservoir are much reduced today, hydrocarbons remain in the reservoir. An examination of a multi-seasonal Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery has shown little difference between the forests overlying the hydrocarbon reservoirs compared to the background areas, with the exception of an image in the very early fall. This image has been enhanced using an nPDF spectral transformation that maximizes the contrast between the anomalous and background areas. A field survey of soil gas chemistry showed that hydrocarbon concentration is generally higher over the anomalous region. In addition, soil gas hydrocarbon concentration increases with proximity to linear features that cross the strike of the overall structure of the reservoir. Linear features that parallel the strike, however, do not have any discernible influence …

A search for new physics in the channel p{anti p} {yields} {gamma}{gamma}jj has been studied. In some extended Higgs models, a light neutral scalar Higgs boson is produced with suppressed couplings to fermions and standard model(SM) strength couplings to vector bosons(bosonic Higgs), thus enhancing the H {yields} {gamma}{gamma} channel. We required one photon in the event with E{sup {gamma}}{sub T} > 20 GeV, {vert_bar}{eta}{sup {gamma}}{vert_bar} < 1.1 or 1.5 < {vert_bar}{eta}{sup {gamma}}{vert_bar} < 2.0 and a second photon with E{sup {gamma}}{sub T} > 15 GeV, {vert_bar}{eta}{sup {gamma}}{vert_bar} < 1.1 or 1.5 < {vert_bar}{eta}{sup {gamma}}{vert_bar} < 2.25. Additionally, we required one hadronic jet in the event with E{sup jet}{sub T} > 20 GeV, {vert_bar}{eta}{sup jet}{vert_bar} < 2.0 and a second hadronic jet with E{sup jet}{sub T} > 15 GeV, {vert_bar}{eta}{sup jet}{vert_bar} < 2.25. The photons are required to have a {summation}{rvec E}{sub T}({gamma}) {>=} 10 GeV, and likewise the jets are required to have a {summation}{rvec E}{sub T}(jet) {>=} 10 GeV. The final M{sub {gamma}{gamma}} distribution is consistent with background and no resonance is observed. A 90(95)% C.L. upper limit cross section vs M{sub {gamma}{gamma}} is calculated, which ranges from 0.6(0.7) pb{sup -1} for M{sub {gamma}{gamma}} = 60 GeV/c{sup 2} to …

The National Spallation Neutron Source (NSNS) requires a linac that accelerates a H{sup {minus}} beam to 1.0 GeV. The linac starts with a radio-frequency quadrupole (RFQ) accelerator, which is followed by a drift-tube linac (DTL), a coupled-cavity drift-tube linac (CCDTL), and a conventional coupled-cavity linac (CCL). In this paper, the authors focus on the DTL, CCDTL, and CCL parts of the accelerator. They discuss the linac design parameters and beam dynamics issues. The design rationale of no separate matching sections between different accelerating sections maintains the current independence of beam behavior.

Commercially available capacitors do not meet the specifications of the Power Electronic Building Block (PEBB) concept. We have applied our propriety nanostructure multilayer materials technology to the fabrication of high density capacitors designed to remove this impediment to PEBB progress. Our nanostructure multilayer capacitors will also be enabling technology in many industrial and military applications. Examples include transient suppression (snubber capacitors), resonant circuits, and DC filtering in PEBB modules. Additionally, weapon applications require compact energy storage for detonators and pulsed-power systems. Commercial applications run the gamut from computers to lighting to communications. Steady progress over the last five years has brought us to the threshold of commercial manufacturability. We have demonstrated a working dielectric energy density of > 11 J/cm3 in 20 nF devices designed for 1 kV operation.

In support of stockpile stewardship and other important missions, Los Alamos is continually looking for fast and effective ways of inspecting and evaluating industrial parts. Thus, Los Alamos is continually striving to improve our radiography and computed tomography (CT) capabilities. Cormack and Hounsfield received the Nobel Prize in 1979 for their pioneering work in computed tomography that led to the development of medical scanners. Copley et al. provides a good history of the development of industrial CT systems. The early systems collect data via a single detector or linear detector array. While CT offers greatly increased spatial resolutions over radiography, CT inspections with a linear array are slow and costly. To improve the viability of CT for NDT applications, Feldkamp, Davis, and Kress reported a cone beam reconstruction technique that speeds up the CT process by using image data rather than data collected by a linear array. Because it potentially offers processing speeds up to 10 times faster than CT systems that use a linear array, we are building a cone beam CT for use with our 20 MV x-ray source and Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) neutron sources. Our software, called CoBRA, is a portable cone beam reconstruction …

Savannah River Site (SRS) is currently immobilizing the radioactive, caustic, high-level waste sludge in Tank 51 into a borosilicate glass for disposal in a geologic repository. A requirement for repository acceptance is that SRS report the concentrations of certain fission product and actinide radionuclides in the glass. This paper presents measurements of many of these concentrations in both Tank 51 sludge and the final glass. The radionuclides were measured by inductively coupled plasma - mass spectrometry and {alpha}, {beta}, and {gamma} counting methods. Examples of the radionuclides are Sr-90, Cs-137, U-238, Pu-239, and Cm-244. Concentrations in the glass are 3.1 times lower due to dilution of the sludge with a nonradioactive glass forming frit in the vitrification process. Results also indicated that in both the sludge and glass the relative concentrations of the long lived fission products insoluble in caustic area in proportion to their yields from the fission of U-235 in the SRS reactors. This allowed the calculation of a fission yield scaling factor. This factor in addition to the sludge dilution factor can be used to estimate concentrations of waste acceptance radionuclides that cannot be measured in the glass.

A 50 GeV accelerator complex for dynamic proton radiography, including a linac, synchrotron, and multiple isochronous beamlines is described, and critical technology development is outlined.