As a first step toward the development of a large-aperture Nb{sub 3}Sn superconducting quadrupole for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) luminosity upgrade, two-layer technological quadrupole models (TQS01 at LBNL and TQC01 at Fermilab) are being constructed within the framework of the US LHC Accelerator Research Program (LARP). Both models use the same coil design, but have different coil support structures. This paper describes the TQC01 design, fabrication technology and summarizes its main parameters.

This report documents development of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models that were applied to The Dalles spillway for the US Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District. The models have been successfully validated against physical models and prototype data, and are suitable to support biological research and operations management. The CFD models have been proven to provide reliable information in the turbulent high-velocity flow field downstream of the spillway face that is typically difficult to monitor in the prototype. In addition, CFD data provides hydraulic information throughout the solution domain that can be easily extracted from archived simulations for later use if necessary. This project is part of an ongoing program at the Portland District to improve spillway survival conditions for juvenile salmon at The Dalles. Biological data collected at The Dalles spillway have shown that for the original spillway configuration juvenile salmon passage survival is lower than desired. Therefore, the Portland District is seeking to identify operational and/or structural changes that might be implemented to improve fish passage survival. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) went through a sequence of steps to develop a CFD model of The Dalles spillway and tailrace. The first step was to identify a preferred CFD …

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) evaluated two fish screen facilities in the Walla Walla River basin in 2005 and early 2006. The Garden City/Lowden screen site was evaluated in April and June 2005 to determine whether the fish screens met National Marine Fisheries Service criteria to provide safe passage for juvenile salmonids. Louvers behind the screens at the Nursery Bridge Fishway were modified in fall 2005 in an attempt to minimize high approach velocities. PNNL evaluated the effects of those modifications in March 2006. Results of the Garden City/Lowden evaluations indicate the site performs well at varying river levels and canal flows. Approach velocities did not exceed 0.4 feet per second (fps) at any time. Sweep velocities increased toward the fish ladder in March but not in June. The air-burst mechanism appears to keep large debris off the screens, although it does not prevent algae and periphyton from growing on the screen face, especially near the bottom of the screens. At Nursery Bridge, results indicate all the approach velocities were below 0.4 fps under the moderate river levels and operational conditions encountered on March 7, 2006. Sweep did not consistently increase toward the fish ladder, but the site generally met …

The Office of Space and Defense Power Systems of the Department of Energy (DOE) provides Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS) for applications where conventional power systems are not feasible. For example, radioisotope thermoelectric generators were supplied by the DOE to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for deep space missions including the Cassini Mission launched in October of 1997 to study the planet Saturn. For the Cassini Mission, ORNL produced carbon-bonded carbon fiber (CBCF) insulator sets, iridium alloy blanks and foil, and clad vent sets (CVS) used in the generators. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has been involved in developing materials and technology and producing components for the DOE for more than three decades. This report reflects program guidance from the Office of Space and Defense Power Systems for fiscal year (FY) 2005. Production activities for prime quality (prime) CBCF insulator sets, iridium alloy blanks and foil, and CVS are summarized in this report. Technology activities are also reported that were conducted to improve the manufacturing processes, characterize materials, or to develop information for new radioisotope power systems.

We compiled and analyzed available data concerning indoor-outdoor air leakage rates and building leakiness parameters for commercial buildings and apartments. We analyzed the data, and reviewed the related literature, to determine the current state of knowledge of the statistical distribution of air exchange rates and related parameters for California buildings, and to identify significant gaps in the current knowledge and data. Very few data were found from California buildings, so we compiled data from other states and some other countries. Even when data from other developed countries were included, data were sparse and few conclusive statements were possible. Little systematic variation in building leakage with construction type, building activity type, height, size, or location within the u.s. was observed. Commercial buildings and apartments seem to be about twice as leaky as single-family houses, per unit of building envelope area. Although further work collecting and analyzing leakage data might be useful, we suggest that a more important issue may be the transport of pollutants between units in apartments and mixed-use buildings, an under-studied phenomenon that may expose occupants to high levels of pollutants such as tobacco smoke or dry cleaning fumes.

This paper documents a probabilistic risk assessment of existing and alternative power supply systems at a large telecommunications office. The analysis characterizes the increase in the reliability of power supply through the use of two alternative power configurations. Failures in the power systems supporting major telecommunications service nodes are a main contributor to significant telecommunications outages. A logical approach to improving the robustness of telecommunication facilities is to increase the depth and breadth of technologies available to restore power during power outages. Distributed energy resources such as fuel cells and gas turbines could provide additional on-site electric power sources to provide backup power, if batteries and diesel generators fail. The analysis is based on a hierarchical Bayesian approach and focuses on the failure probability associated with each of three possible facility configurations, along with assessment of the uncertainty or confidence level in the probability of failure. A risk-based characterization of final best configuration is presented.

This booklet is published for those interested in current research being conducted at the National Center for Electron Microscopy. The NCEM is a DOE-designated national user facility and is available at no charge to qualified researchers. Access is controlled by an external steering committee. Interested researchers may contact Jane Cavlina, Administrator, at 510/486-6036.

Generation IV reactors will need to be intrinsically safe, having a proliferation-resistant fuel cycle and several advantages relative to existing light water reactor (LWR). They, however, must still overcome certain technical issues and the cost barrier before it can be built in the U.S. The establishment of a nuclear power cost goal of 3.3 cents/kWh is desirable in order to compete with fossil combined-cycle, gas turbine power generation. This goal requires approximately a 30 percent reduction in power cost for stateof-the-art nuclear plants. It has been demonstrated that this large cost differential can be overcome only by technology improvements that lead to a combination of better efficiency and more compatible reactor materials. The objectives of this research are (1) to develop a supercritical carbon dioxide Brayton cycle in the secondary power conversion side that can be applied to the Very-High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (VHTR), (2) to improve the plant net efficiency by using the carbon dioxide Brayton cycle, and (3) to test material compatibility at high temperatures and pressures. The reduced volumetric flow rate of carbon dioxide due to higher density compared to helium will reduce compression work, which eventually increase plant net efficiency.

It is necessary to improve understanding and develop validation data of the heat flux incident to an object located within the fire plume for the validation of SIERRA/ FUEGO/SYRINX fire and SIERRA/CALORE. One key aspect of the validation data sets is the determination of the relative contribution of the radiative and convective heat fluxes. To meet this objective, a cylindrical calorimeter with sufficient instrumentation to measure total and radiative heat flux had been designed and fabricated. This calorimeter will be tested both in the controlled radiative environment of the Penlight facility and in a fire environment in the FLAME/Radiant Heat (FRH) facility. Validation experiments are specifically designed for direct comparison with the computational predictions. Making meaningful comparisons between the computational and experimental results requires careful characterization and control of the experimental features or parameters used as inputs into the computational model. Validation experiments must be designed to capture the essential physical phenomena, including all relevant initial and boundary conditions. A significant question of interest to modeling heat flux incident to an object in or near a fire is the contribution of the radiation and convection modes of heat transfer. The series of experiments documented in this test plan is designed …

The coolant outlet temperature for the Modular Helium Reactor (MHR) was increased to improve the overall efficiency of nuclear hydrogen production using either thermochemical or high temperature electrolysis (HTE) processes. The inlet temperature was also increased to keep about the same _T across the reactor core. Thermal hydraulic analyses of the current MHR design were performed with these updated temperatures to determine the impact of these highter temperatures on pressure drops, coolant flow rates and temperature profiles within the vessel and core regions. Due to these increased operating temperatures, the overall efficiency of hydrogen production processes increases but the steady state reactor vessel temperature is found to be well above the ASME code limits for current vessel materials. Using the RELAP5-3D/ATHENA computer code, an alternative configuration for the MHR coolant inlet flow path was evaluated in an attempt to reduce the reactor vessel temperatures. The coolant inlet flow was shifted from channel boxes located in the annular region between the reactor core barrel and the inner wall of the reactor vessel to a flow path through the outer permanent reflector. Considering the available thickness of graphite in the permanent outer reflector, the total flow area, the number of coolant holes …

A sizable groundwater U plume exists in Hanford's 300 A resulting from the disposal of fuel rod dissolution wastes containing Al, Cu, and U to the vadose zone. This project is studying U-contaminated samples collected along a flow path from the waste source to the Columbia River. Three primary objectives are being pursued: (1) To develop microscopic models for U desorption/adsorption in sediments along the flow path including both geochemical reaction and diffusive mass transport processes. (2) To parameterize the microscopic models with appropriate laboratory measurements and data within context of a dual continuum, reactive transport model (DCM). (3) To apply the parameterized DCM to laboratory columns of different size and sediment texture for testing of scaling hypotheses.

After boiling summer brought brown-out to most part of the country in 2004, China announced a new set of minimum energy efficiency standards for room air conditioners in September 2004, with the first tier going into effect on March 1, 2005 and the reach standard taking effect on January 1, 2009. This represents a milestone in China's standard setting process since the reach standard levels are significantly more stringent than previous standards for other appliances. This paper first analyzes cost-effectiveness of China's new standards for room air conditioners, and then attempts to evaluate the impact of the new standards on energy savings, electric generation capacity, and CO2 emissions reductions.

This data package was originally prepared to support a 2004 composite analysis (CA) of low-level waste disposal at the Hanford Site. The Technical Scope and Approach for the 2004 Composite Analysis of Low Level Waste Disposal at the Hanford Site (Kincaid et. al. 2004) identified the requirements for that analysis and served as the basis for initial preparation of this data package. Completion of the 2004 CA was later deferred, with the 2004 Annual Status Report for the Composite Analysis of Low-Level Waste Disposal in the Central Plateau at the Hanford Site (DOE 2005) indicating that a comprehensive update to the CA was in preparation and would be submitted in 2006. However, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has recently decided to further defer the CA update and will use the cumulative assessment currently under preparation for the environmental impact statement (EIS) being prepared for tank closure and other site decisions as the updated CA. Submittal of the draft EIS is currently planned for FY 2008. This data package describes the facility-specific parameters (e.g. location, operational dates, etc.) used to numerically simulate contaminant flow and transport in large-scale Hanford assessments. Kincaid et al. (2004) indicated that the System Assessment Capability …

Dual phase magnesia-zirconia ceramics doped with plutonia and erbia are being evaluated as an inert matrix fuel (IMF) for light water reactors (LWR). The motivation for this work is to develop an IMF with a thermal conductivity superior to that of the fuels based on single-phase yttria stabilized zirconia. The innovative fuel developed at INL is comprised of two major phases: pure MgO and quaternary solid solution consisting of MgO, ZrO{sub 2}, Er{sub 2}O{sub 3} and PuO{sub 2}. Pure MgO phase acts as an efficient heat conductor. It has been shown [1] that dual phase MgO-ZrO{sub 2} ceramics have the thermal conductivity superior to that of UO{sub 2} and have notable chemical resistance to water at the temperature of 573 K and pressure 8.6 MPa, which makes them attractive for use as an IMF matrix in LWRs.

This Remedial Design/Remedial Action Work Plan provides the framework for defining the remedial design requirements, preparing the design documentation, and defining the remedial actions for Waste Area Group 3, Operable Unit 3-13, Group 3, Other Surface Soils, Remediation Sets 4-6 (Phase II) located at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center at the Idaho National Laboratory. This plan details the design developed to support the remediation and disposal activities selected in the Final Operable Unit 3-13, Record of Decision.

The proposed research will elucidate the principal biogeochemical reactions that govern the concentration, chemical speciation, and reactivity of the redox-sensitive contaminant uranium. The results will provide an improved understanding and predictive capability of the mechanisms that govern the biogeochemical reduction of uranium in subsurface environments. In addition, the work plan is designed to: (1) Generate fundamental scientific understanding on the relationship between U(VI) chemical speciation and its susceptibility to biogeochemical reduction reactions. ? Elucidate the controls on the rate and extent of contaminant reactivity. (2) Provide new insights into the aqueous and solid speciation of U(VI)/U(IV) under representative groundwater conditions.

Improved estimates for corrosion rates in variably saturated porous media are required by the U.S. Department of Energy to maintain long-term storage of radioactive contaminants in stainless steel containers. To better define these parameters, research was undertaken to complete the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) long-term study of buried stainless steel began 35 years ago. The 1970 study was initiated by the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), now known as NIST, when over 1000 specimens—including stainless steel Types 201, 202, 301, 304, 316, 409, 410, 430, and 434—configured as plates, U-bend, and tubes in both annealed and cold worked conditions with various treatments—were buried at six distinctive soil-type sites throughout the United States. During the first eight years of the study, four of five planned removals were completed with specimens retrieved after one, two, four, and eight years at each of the six sites. The fifth and final set of specimens remained undisturbed for over 34 years.

Tc contamination is found within the DOE complex at those sites whose mission involved extraction of plutonium from irradiated uranium fuel or isotopic enrichment of uranium. At the Hanford Site, chemical separations and extraction processes generated large amounts of high level and transuranic wastes that are currently stored in underground tanks. The waste from these extraction processes is currently stored in underground High Level Waste (HLW) tanks. However, the chemistry of the HLW in any given tank is greatly complicated by repeated efforts to reduce volume and recover isotopes. These processes ultimately resulted in mixing of waste streams from different processes. As a result, the chemistry and the fate of Tc in HLW tanks are not well understood. This lack of understanding has been made evident in the failed efforts to leach Tc from sludge and to remove Tc from supernatants prior to immobilization. Although recent interest in Tc chemistry has shifted from pretreatment chemistry to waste residuals, both needs are served by a fundamental understanding of Tc chemistry.

A secure and affordable energy supply is essential for achieving U.S. national security, in continuing U.S. prosperity and in laying the foundation to enable future economic growth. The next generation energy workforce in the U.S. is a critical element in meeting both national and global energy needs. The Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES) was established in 2005 in response to U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) requirements. CAES, located at the new Idaho National Laboratory (INL), will address critical energy education, research, policy study and training needs. CAES is a unique joint partnership between the Battelle Energy Alliance (BEA), the State of Idaho, an Idaho University Consortium (IUC), and a National University Consortium (NUC). CAES will be based in a new facility that will foster collaborative academic and research efforts among participating institutions.

Atomic data for both ionization and recombination of Kr and Mo ions are reviewed, since the rate coefficients for these processes need to be regularly up-dated following the publication of new theoretical calculations and new experimental data. Kr is used in magnetic-confinement-fusion devices to produce a peripheral radiating mantle meant to spread the heat confinement-load on the plasma-facing components. In a few tokamaks Mo tiles cover the plasma-facing surfaces, acting in most cases as a plasma-column limiter. The collected atomic data represent the state of the art on the ionization and recombination data for the two considered elements. Samples of rates are proposed for both ionization and recombination along with tables of the fractional abundances at ionization equilibrium. The proposed rates should be included in codes that simulate the impurity behavior in magnetic-confinement-fusion devices, i.e., when radial transport is added to ionization and recombination to predict spatially resolved charge-state distributions that are to be compared with experimental results.

Genomic comparisons between human and distant, non-primatemammals are commonly used to identify cis-regulatory elements based onconstrained sequence evolution. However, these methods fail to detectcryptic functional elements, which are too weakly conserved among mammalsto distinguish from nonfunctional DNA. To address this problem, weexplored the potential of deep intra-primate sequence comparisons. Wesequenced the orthologs of 558 kb of human genomic sequence, coveringmultiple loci involved in cholesterol homeostasis, in 6 nonhumanprimates. Our analysis identified 6 noncoding DNA elements displayingsignificant conservation among primates, but undetectable in more distantcomparisons. In vitro and in vivo tests revealed that at least three ofthese 6 elements have regulatory function. Notably, the mouse orthologsof these three functional human sequences had regulatory activity despitetheir lack of significant sequence conservation, indicating that they arecryptic ancestral cis-regulatory elements. These regulatory elementscould still be detected in a smaller set of three primate speciesincluding human, rhesus and marmoset. Since the human and rhesus genomesequences are already available, and the marmoset genome is activelybeing sequenced, the primate-specific conservation analysis describedhere can be applied in the near future on a whole-genome scale, tocomplement the annotation provided by more distant speciescomparisons.

The overall objective of this proposed research is to understand the biogeochemical cycling of Pu in environments of interest to long-term DOE stewardship issues. Central to Pu cycling (transport initiation to immobilization) is the role of microorganisms. The hypothesis underlying this proposal is that microbial activity is the causative agent in initiating the mobilization of Pu in near-surface environments: through the transformation of Pu associated with solid phases, production of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) carrier phases, and the creation of microenvironments. Also, microbial processes are central to the immobilization of Pu species, through the metabolism of organically complexed Pu species and Pu associated with extracellular carrier phases and the creation of environments favorable for Pu transport retardation.

Idaho National Laboratory in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory has evaluated technology options for a new fast spectrum reactor to meet the fast-spectrum irradiation requirements for the USDOE Generation IV (Gen IV) and Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) programs. The US currently has no capability for irradiation testing of large volumes of fuels or materials in a fast-spectrum reactor required to support the development of Gen IV fast reactor systems or to demonstrate actinide burning, a key element of the AFCI program. The technologies evaluated and the process used to select options for a fast irradiation test reactor (FITR) for further evaluation to support these programmatic objectives are outlined in this paper.

The particle size of a slurry and the viscosity of a liquid or slurry are both difficult to measure on-line and in real time. The objectives of this research are to develop the following methods for such measurements: (1) ultrasonic diffraction grating spectroscopy (UDGS) to measure the particle size and concentration of a slurry, (2) develop theoretical models and computer codes to describe the passage of ultrasound through a grating surface in order to increase the sensitivity of the particle size measurement.