Effective management of available groundwater resources and strategies for remediation of water impacted by past nuclear testing practices depend on knowledge about the migration of radionuclides in groundwater away from the sites of the explosions. A primary concern is to assess the relative mobilities of the different radionuclide species found near sites of underground nuclear tests and to determine the concentration, extent, and speed of this movement. Ultimately the long term transport behavior of radionuclides with half-lives long enough that they will persist for decades, their interaction with groundwater, and the resulting flux of these contaminants is of paramount importance. As part of a comprehensive approach to these assessments, more than three decades of site-specific sites studies have been undertaken at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) which have focused on the means responsible for the observed or suspected movement of radionuclides away from underground nuclear tests (RNM, 1983). More recently regional and local models of groundwater flow and radionuclide transport have been developed as part of a federal and state of Nevada program to assess the long-term effects of underground nuclear testing on human health and environment (e.g., U.S. DOE/NV, 1997a; Tompson et al., 1999; Pawloski et al., 2001). Necessary …

The Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on MULTIPHOTON PROCESSES was held at Tilton School, Tilton, NH. Emphasis was placed on current unpublished research and discussion of the future target areas in this field.

This final report summarizes the activities of the DOE Inventions and Innovations sponsored project, ''A New Energy Saving Method of Manufacturing Ceramic Products from Waste Glass.'' The project involved an innovative method of lowering energy costs of manufacturing ceramic products by substituting traditional raw materials with waste glass. The processing method is based on sintering of glass powder at {approx}750 C to produce products which traditionally require firing temperatures of >1200 C, or glass-melting temperatures >1500 C. The key to the new method is the elimination of previous processing problems, which have greatly limited the use of recycled glass as a ceramic raw material. The technology is aligned with the DOE-OIT Glass Industry Vision and Roadmap, and offers significant energy savings and environmental benefits compared to current technologies. A U.S. patent (No. 6,340,650) covering the technology was issued on January 22, 2002. An international PCT Patent Application is pending with designations made for all PCT regions and countries. The goal of the project was to provide the basis for the design and construction of an energy-efficient manufacturing plant that can convert large volumes of waste glass into high-quality ceramic tile. The main objectives of the project were to complete process …

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This study determines safety hazards associated with using a 300-mW 785-nm near-IR Raman laser for sample analysis. Most safety concerns are associated with excessive sample heating resulting from sample illumination. Thermography experiments were designed to quantitatively assess which visible surface colors heat most when exposed to the Raman laser. Temperatures achieved after illuminating 216 color patches with the unfocussed laser are presented. Figures contained in this report allow a field agent to rapidly determine the thermal hazards associated with Raman analysis of unknown colored samples. Dark colors tended to heat the most when exposed to the Raman laser. Studies were also conducted with a flammable organic solvent mixed with a near-IR absorbing dye to evaluate the magnitude of solution heating. Heating was minimal and Raman analysis was not considered a likely ignition hazard. The next series of experiments examined the tendency of propellants and military explosives, as well as mixtures of these explosives with IR-opaque dyes or matrix materials, to deflagrate upon illumination. All neat military explosives studied and most mixtures could be analyzed safely; however, an occasional mixture exhibited self-sustained deflagration, emphasizing safety hazards exist. Safety protocols include assessing the thermal consequences of sample analysis by referencing the thermography …

We have developed the Scaled Thermal Explosion Experiment (STEX) to provide a database of reaction violence from thermal explosion for explosives of interest. Such data are needed to develop, calibrate, and validate predictive capability for thermal explosions using simulation computer codes. A cylinder of explosive 25, 50 or 100 mm in diameter, is confined in a steel cylinder with heavy end caps, and heated under controlled conditions until reaction. Reaction violence is quantified through non-contact micropower impulse radar measurements of the cylinder wall velocity and by strain gauge data at reaction onset. Here we describe the test concept, design and diagnostic recording, and report results with HMX- and RDX-based energetic materials.

Ultra-intense laser-matter interactions provide a unique source of temporally short, broad spectrum electrons, which may be utilized in many varied applications. One such, which we are pursuing, is as part of a novel diagnostic to trace magnetic field lines in a magnetically-confined fusion device. An essential aspect of this scheme is to have a detailed characterization of the electron angular and energy distribution. To this effect we designed and constructed a compact electron spectrometer that uses permanent magnets for electron energy dispersion and over 100 scintillating fibers coupled to a 1024 x 1024 pixel CCD as the detection system. This spectrometer has electron energy coverage from 10 keV to 2 MeV. We tested the spectrometer on a high intensity (10{sup 17} to 10{sup 21} W/cm{sup 2}) short pulse (< 100 fs) laser, JanUSP, at Lawrence Livermore National laboratory using various solid targets. The details of the spectrometer and the experimental results will be reported.

This morning I will describe a program that we refer to as STARS, for Science and Technology to Advance Regional Security, in Central Asia. It is a program that is based on cooperative, bilateral and multilateral, science and technology projects. It is our premise that such cooperative projects provide an opportunity for engagement while addressing real problems that could otherwise lead to destabilizing tensions in the region. The STARS program directly supports USCENTCOM's activities and objectives in environmental security. In fact, we think that STARS is a great vehicle for implementing and amplifying USCENTCOM's environmental security objectives and activities. We are very grateful and very pleased to have General DeLong's support in this matter. I am going to briefly describe the program. I want to stress again that it is a cooperative program. We would like to get input, suggestions, and feedback from the Central Asians here today so we can move forward together.

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