New insight into the atomic segregation of copper to an aluminum grain boundary has been obtained using atomic resolution electron microscopy techniques coupled with ab-initio electronic structure calculations. We find the copper segregation to be site specific, changing the structure of the boundary by unexpectedly occupying interstitial sites. The calculated energy for segregation was found to be sufficient for essentially all of the interstitial sites to be filled. Minor elemental constituents in materials can have profound effects on their engineering performance, often through segregation to grain boundaries in the host material. One important example is the great resistance to electromigration damage in microelectronics imparted by small additions of copper to aluminum interconnects.

This report presents the results of the seismic structural analyses completed on the Waste Characterization Reduction and Repackaging (WCRR) Building in support of ongoing safety analyses. WCRR is designated as TA-50-69 at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico. The facility has been evaluated against Department of Energy (DOE) seismic criteria for Natural Phenomena Hazards (NPH) Performance Category II (PC 2). The seismic capacities of two subsystems within the WCRR building, the material handling glove box and the lift rack immediately adjacent to the Glove Box are also documented, and the results are presented.

Mixtures of sodium bentonite and crushed rock are being examined as components of the engineered barrier system in a geologic repository of high-level nuclear waste. Laboratory experiments were performed to determine the thermal and unsaturated hydraulic properties of bentonite/crushed diorite mixtures. Water-retention curves were conventionally obtained from pressure cell and evaporation experiments. In addition, transient data from heating and gas injection experiments on laboratory columns were analyzed using inverse modeling techniques. Measured pressures, temperatures, and drained-water volumes were jointly inverted to estimate absolute permeability, thermal conductivity, specific heat, and capillary strength parameters. Simultaneous matching of all available data specifically the gas breakthrough at the top of the column proved difficult, pointing towards aspects of the experimental design and the conceptual model that need to be refined. The analysis of sensitivity coefficients and the correlation structure of the parameters revealed the importance of accurately capturing coupled thermal hydrological processes within the column as well as the details of the experimental apparatus, such as heat losses and storage of water and gas in the measuring burette. The parameters estimated using different experimental and analytical procedures were consistent with one another, providing backfill material properties useful for the simulation of gas-and heat-generating nuclear …

The science of heat treatment has been well studied and is the basis from which existing specifications and practices for the heat treatment of steel castings have been developed. Although these existing specifications address the general needs of steel castings to be heat-treated, they do not take into account the variability in the parameters that govern the processes. The need for a heat treatment qualification procedure that accounts for this variability during heat treatment is an important step toward heat treatment quality assurance. The variability in temperatures within a heat treatment furnace is one such variable that a foundry has to contend with in its day-to-day activity. Though specifications indicate the temperatures at which a particular heat treatment has to be conducted, heat treatment specifications do not adequately account for all aspects of heat treatment quality assurance. The heat treatment qualification procedure will comprise of a robust set of rules and guidelines that ensure that foundries will still be able to operate within the set of constraints imposed on them by non-deterministic elements within the processes.