In this project, both the fundamental chemistry of actinides in alkaline solutions (relevant to those present in Hanford-style waste storage tanks), and their dissolution from sludge simulants (and interactions with supernatants) have been investigated under representative sludge leaching procedures. The leaching protocols were designed to go beyond conventional alkaline sludge leaching limits, including the application of acidic leachants, oxidants and complexing agents. The simulant leaching studies confirm in most cases the basic premise that actinides will remain in the sludge during leaching with 2-3 M NaOH caustic leach solutions. However, they also confirm significant chances for increased mobility of actinides under oxidative leaching conditions. Thermodynamic data generated improves the general level of experiemental information available to predict actinide speciation in leach solutions. Additional information indicates that improved Al removal can be achieved with even dilute acid leaching and that acidic Al(NO3)3 solutions can be decontaminated of co-mobilized actinides using conventional separations methods. Both complexing agents and acidic leaching solutions have significant potential to improve the effectiveness of conventional alkaline leaching protocols. The prime objective of this program was to provide adequate insight into actinide behavior under these conditions to enable prudent decision making as tank waste treatment protocols develop.

The maintenance of the magnetic configuration of a Reversed Field Pinch (RFP) is an unsolved problem. Even a toroidal loop voltage does not suffice to maintain the magnetic configuration in axisymmetry but could if the plasma had helical shaping. The theoretical tools for plasma optimization using helical shaping have advanced, so an RFP could be relatively easily designed for optimal performance with a spatially constant toroidal loop voltage. A demonstration that interesting solutions exist is given.

The work has consisted of three projects. The first one is a continuation of the previous work that was done on the generation of zonal flows due to the four wave modulational instability. In this work, we examined the growth of streamers. This work was done with undergraduate student, and was presented at an APS DPP meeting. A summary of the work is given below. Another project was a study of the stability of curvature driven modes with tied field line geometry. The purpose of this study was to see if this instability was relevant to the observed 'blob' phenomenon in the edge. A summary of this work is given starting in Section II. This work was done with undergraduate student. The final project was an extension of electrostatic work that had been done on the parallel velocity shear instability. In this work, we included electromagnetic effects. We performed the linear stability analysis and discovered a new regime of instability. This work was done in collaboration with undergraduate student, who presented the work at an APS DPP meeting. Details of this are shown in Section III.

Pc1-2 ULF waves are strongly associated with the presence of various ions in the magnetosphere. We investigate the role of heavy ion resonances in nonuniform plasmas near the equatorial region. By adopting the invariant imbedding method, the coupled plasma wave equations are solved in an exact manner to calculate the resonant absorption at the ion-ion hybrid resonance. Our results show that irreversible mode conversion occurs at the resonance, which absorbs the fast wave energy. It is found that waves near the resonances appear with linear polarization, and their amplitude and frequency are sensitive to the properties of the heavy ion plasma composition. We examine how these resonances occur for various H+ - He+ populations in detail by performing an accurate calculation of the mode conversion effciency. Because the multi-ion hybrid resonance locations in cold plasmas are determined by simple parameters such as the fraction of the ion number density of each species and the magnetic field, we suggest that it is possible to monitor heavy ion composition by examining the peak frequencies of linearly polarized wave events in either electric field or magnetic field spectral data.

The Commodity Credit Corporation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (CCC/USDA) operated a grain storage facility at Barnes, Kansas, during most of the interval 1949-1974. Carbon tetrachloride contamination was initially detected in 1986 in the town's public water supply wells. In 2006-2007, the CCC/USDA conducted a comprehensive targeted investigation at and near its former property in Barnes to characterize this contamination. Those results were reported previously (Argonne 2008a). In November 2007, the CCC/USDA began quarterly groundwater monitoring at Barnes. The monitoring is being conducted on behalf of the CCC/USDA by Argonne National Laboratory, in accord with the recommendations made in the report for the 2006-2007 targeted investigation (Argonne 2008a). The objective is to monitor the carbon tetrachloride contamination identified in the groundwater at Barnes. The sampling is presently conducted in a network of 28 individual monitoring wells (at 19 distinct locations), 2 public water supply wells, and 1 private well (Figure 1.1). The results of the 2006-2007 targeted investigation and the subsequent monitoring events in November 2007 (Argonne 2008b) and March 2008 (Argonne 2008c) demonstrated the presence of carbon tetrachloride contamination in groundwater at levels slightly exceeding the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) Tier 2 risk-based screening level …

This report documents the results from RPP-PLAN-38676, Effect of Temperature and Ammonia Concentration on A515 Carbon Steel in Tank 241-AY-101 Simulant. The purpose of this test plan was to investigate the simulant formulated for the double-shell tank (DST) 241 AY 101 (AY 101) with the addition of ammonia. The simulant was formulated from the AY-101 condensate surface layer recipe used by CC Technologies{reg_sign} in the investigation of Hanford DST chemistry, under the Expert Panel on Corrosion. AY-101 is constructed from A515 grade 60 steel. The laboratory investigation used a cylindrical corrosion coupon from this steel formulation with a surface area of 5.64 square centimeters.

This report presents the results of the corrosion rates that were measured using electrochemical methods for tanks 241-AN-102 (AN-102), 241-AP-107 (AP 107), and 241-AP-108 (AP-108) performed under test plant RPP-PLAN-38215. The steel used as materials of construction for AN and AP tank farms was A537 Class 1. Test coupons of A537 Class 1 carbon steel were used for corrosion testing in the AN-107, AP-107, and AP-108 tank waste. Supernate will be tested from AN-102, AP-107, and Ap-108. Saltcake testing was performed on AP-108 only.

This progress report offers a summary of genetic monitoring and evaluation research related to artificial propagation of Chinook salmon and steelhead in the Snake River basin. Our principal goal has been to characterize the relative (and net) reproductive success of hatchery fish spawning in the wild in multiple sub-basins. We address a critical uncertainty identified in essentially all tribal, state, and federal recovery planning efforts. Beyond simple description of those patterns of differential reproductive success, we seek to understand the biotic and abiotic factors that contribute to our observations, including genetic and environmental elements, and the real time effects of hatchery reform. We adopt two fundamentally different approaches that capture processes operating at different geographic scales. Our tier 2 design monitors changes in gene frequency through time in hatchery and wild populations. These studies monitor spatial and temporal genetic change over broad river basins and sub-basins. Tier 3 studies, by contrast, are able to construct pedigrees in naturally spawning populations that include hatchery and wild fish. We can then use actual matings to infer the fitness of hatchery versus wild individuals, based on the numbers of offspring we observe in our progeny samples. We get extraordinary detail from the tier …

The Columbia River Distinct Population Segment of bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1998. One of the identified major threats to the species is fragmentation resulting from dams on over-wintering habitats of migratory subpopulations. A migratory subgroup in the Tucannon River appeared to utilize the Snake River reservoirs for adult rearing on a seasonal basis. As a result, a radio telemetry study was conducted on this subgroup from 2002-2006, to help meet Reasonable and Prudent Measures, and Conservation Recommendations associated with the lower Snake River dams in the FCRPS Biological Opinion, and to increase understanding of bull trout movements within the Tucannon River drainage. We sampled 1,109 bull trout in the Tucannon River; 124 of these were surgically implanted with radio tags and PIT tagged, and 681 were only PIT tagged. The remaining 304 fish were either recaptures, or released unmarked. Bull trout seasonal movements within the Tucannon River were similar to those described for other migratory bull trout populations. Bull trout migrated upstream in spring and early summer to the spawning areas in upper portions of the Tucannon River watershed. They quickly moved off the spawning areas in the fall, and …

With the renewed thinking and debate about deep reductions in nuclear weapons, including recent proposals about eliminating nuclear warheads altogether, republishing the general conclusions of the Robinson Committee Report of 1992 appears useful. The report is sometimes referred to as the 3151 Report, from Section 3151 of the National Defnse Authorization Act for FY1991, from where its requirement originated. This report contains the Executive Summary only and the forwarding letters from the Committee, the President of the United States, the Secretary of Energy, and C Paul Robinson, the head of the Advisory Committee.