This DOE research project was established to document the integrated team approach for solving reservoir engineering problems. A field study integrating the disciplines of geology, geophysics, and petroleum engineering will be the mechanism for documenting the integrated approach. This is an area of keen interest to the oil and gas industry. The goal will be to provide tools and approaches that can be used to detect reservoir compartments, reach a better reserve estimate, and improve profits early in the life of a field.

The Materials Technology Section (MTS) of the Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC) was asked to demonstrate the practicality of recycling previously contaminated stainless steel components such as reactor heat exchanger heads, process water piping and slug buckets into 208 liters (55 gallon) drums and 2.8 cubic meter (100 ft{sup 3}) storage boxes. Radioactively contaminated stainless steel scrap will be sent to several industrial partners where it will be melted, decontaminated/cast into ingots, and rolled into plate and sheet and fabricated into the drums and boxes. As part of this recycle initiative, MTS was requested to demonstrate that radioactively contaminated Type 304L stainless steel could be remelted and cast to meet the applicable ASTM specification for fabrication of drums and boxes. In addition, MTS was requested to develop the technical basis of melt decontamination and establish practicality of using this approach for value added products. The findings presented in this investigation lead to the following conclusions: recycle of 18 wt% Cr-8 wt% Ni alloy can be achieved by melting Type 304 stainless steel in a air vacuum induction furnace; limited melt decontamination of the contaminated stainless steel was achieved, surface contamination was removed by standard decontamination techniques; carbon uptake in the …

Since this project is a continuation of a cooperative effort between UMR and General Motor Research Laboratories (GMR), it seemed fitting to provide some background information which was instrumental in the evolution of this program. A family of filled epoxies that can be cast-to-size into sheet metal stamping dies has been developed by GMR. Advantages of this material over commercial plastic tooling materials are a fast curing rate, high strength, and negligible volume shrinkage after curing. Superior Tooling And Molding Plastic (STAMP) tooling dies are considerably cheaper and faster to make than steel tooling dies; therefore, they are currently used for prototype applications throughout General Motors. With improvement of wear resistance, STAMP dies can be used for limited production applications involving 10,000 or 20,000 parts. GMR proposed to provide a thin (< 25 {micro}m) wear surface for the cast-to-size STAMP die to extend its wear performance. The objective of the University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR) research effort is to technically evaluate methodologies to coat STAMP material to appreciably improve wear resistance. This does not necessarily mean that various types of coatings will be developed and evaluated. Rather, the primary responsibility is to characterize the nature of the STAMP material and design …

The concentration of hydrogen (H{sub 2}) in the radiolytically produced off-gas from 2.76-4.25M HNO{sub 3}/PU solutions has been found to be greatly reduced in the presence of sulfamic acid (HSA) and hydroxylamine nitrate (HAN). The H{sub 2} concentration ([H{sub 2}]) is reduced from 35 percent to about 4 percent by dilution caused from an increase in the production rates of nitrogen (N{sub 2}), nitrous oxide (N{sub 2}O), and oxygen (O{sub 2}) gases. The generation rate of H{sub 2} was not affected by HSA or HAN giving a measured radiolytic yield, G(H{sub 2}), value of 0.201 molecules/100 eV for 2.765M NO{sub 3}{sup -} solution (a value of 0.213 is predicted from previous data). The G(H{sub 2}) values are dependent on the solution nitrate concentration ([NO{sub 3}{sup -}]). The generation rates of N{sub 2}, N{sub 2}O, and O{sub 2} are not dependent on the [NO{sub 3}{sup -}] in this narrow range, but are dependent on the presence of HSA and the concentration of HAN. The percentage [H{sub 2}] for the 2.5 to 3.0M NO{sub 3}{sup -} range expected in the off- from the FB-Line Pu{sup +3} Hold Tanks is conservatively estimated to be about 3.5 to 4.5 % for Pu + 3 …

This document is a plan which serves as the contractual agreement between the Characterization Program, Sampling Operations, WHC 222-S Laboratory, and PNL 325 Analytical Chemistry Laboratory. The scope of this plan is to provide guidance for the sampling and analysis of samples from tank 241-C-105.

This DOE research project was established to document the integrated team approach for solving reservoir engineering problems. The goal will be to provide tools and approaches that can be used to detect reservoir compartments, reach a better reserve estimate, and improve profits early in the life of a field. Field selection consumed nearly the first four months of the project. The choice was the Hambert Field area which is the field area being studied. During the remainder of the year, a significant portion of the data was gathered and entered into a data base. Cores have been described, log analysis performed on over 100 wells, and regional mapping and correlation of sedimentary packages completed. Compressional (P) and shear (S) wave velocity data was measured on 8 core plugs at various conditions and lithologies. The analysis of the 3D seismic data has been started and supports the interpretation that the structural component will be a significant factor for reservoir compartmentalization in this reservoir. The experimental permeability work completed includes the pressure decay profile permeability measurements on the cores. Relationships of porosity and permeability with net confining stress were developed. Core relative permeability measurements were also completed during the year. Additional experimental …

The rate of thermal decomposition of mercuric sulfide (HgS) has been measured at temperatures from 265 to 345 C. These data have been analyzed using a first-order chemical reaction model for the time dependence of the reaction and the Arrhenius equation for the temperature dependence of the rate constant. Using this information, the activation energy for the reaction was found to be 55 kcal/mol. Significant reaction vessel surface effects obscured the functional form of the time dependence of the initial portion of the reaction. The data and the resulting time-temperature reaction-rate model were used to predict the decomposition rate of HgS as a function of time and temperature in thermal treatment systems. Data from large-scale thermal treatment studies already completed were interpreted in terms of the results of this study. While the data from the large-scale thermal treatment studies were consistent with the data from this report, mass transport effects may have contributed to the residual amount of mercury which remained in the soil after most of the large-scale runs.

An offsite individual residing at the SRS boundary at the point of the maximum exposure (maximum individual) received a dose of 0.11 mrem from SRS atmospheric releases in 1993 (See Table 1 for a 5-yr history of doses). This dose was only 1.1% of the EPA public dose limit of 10 mrem/yr (DOE, 1990). Tritium oxide releases were responsible for 90% of the atmospheric dose. Ninety-nine percent of the atmospheric dose was accounted for with the inclusion of I-129, U-235, U-238, Pu-238 and Pu-239. The 50-mile population received a collective dose of 7.6 person-rem from 1993 atmospheric releases. Ninety-nine percent of this dose also resulted from the release of the same isotopes that dominated the maximum individual dose due to atmospheric releases. For both the individual and the population, atmospheric radiation dose was dominated by the inhalation and vegetation consumption pathways. The maximum dose received by an offsite individual as a result of SRS liquid releases in 1993 was 0.14 mrem (See Table 1 for a 5-yr history). This does was only 3.5% of the EPA limit for drinking water of 4 mrem/yr (DOE, 1990). This dose was dominated by Cs-137 accumulated in Savannah River fish and tritium in drinking …

Scale-up of packed bed processes, particularly those involving chromatographic separations, is made difficult by a seemingly inevitable increase in dispersion due to packing nonuniformity. To provide a suitable characterization, the authors measured the spatial distribution of dispersion and mixing in packed beds of uniform impervious spherical glass particles by a tracer impulse technique. The key feature in this work is the use of a fiberoptic array at the exit plane to obtain a time-resolved spatially distributed response. All experiments were in the creeping flow regime. The authors used a fluorescent dye with laser excitation through the fiber terminations in the bed. The fluoresced radiation was collected through the same fibers. They analyzed the data by the use of indices of the extent of micromixing based on Danckwerts`s original degree of segregation and an additional index of structural uniformity. The computations involve a moment analysis of the individual and average probe responses. A simple model gives expressions for the indices in terms of the Peclet number and is shown to provide a useful limiting case. The computed indices are also shown to be very sensitive to adsorption of dye on the surface of the glass. However, for some of the experiments …