The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Nondestructive Assay (NDA) Service Center was contracted to develop and demonstrate a simple and inexpensive method of assaying 110 gallon drums at the Hanford Site’s T-Plant. The drums contained pucks of crushed old drums used for storage of transuranic (TRU) waste. The drums were to be assayed to determine if they meet the criteria for TRU or Low Level Waste (LLW). Because of the dense matrix (crushed steel drums) gamma measurement techniques were excluded and a mobile, configurable neutron system, consisting of four sequentially connected slab detectors was chosen to be used for this application. An optimum measurement configuration was determined through multiple test measurements with californium source. Based on these measurements the initial calibration of the system was performed applying the isotopic composition for aged weapon-grade plutonium. A series of background and blank puck drum measurements allowed estimating detection limits for both total (singles) and coincidence (doubles) counting techniques. It was found that even conservative estimates for minimum detection concentration using singles count rate were lower than the essential threshold of 100 nCi/g. Whereas the detection limit of coincidence counting appeared to be about as twice as high of the threshold. A series …

This performance analysis evaluated 24 events that occurred at LLNL from January through August 2010. The analysis identified areas of potential work control process and/or implementation weaknesses and several common underlying causes. Human performance improvement and safety culture factors were part of the causal analysis of each event and were analyzed. The collective significance of all events in 2010, as measured by the occurrence reporting significance category and by the proportion of events that have been reported to the DOE ORPS under the ''management concerns'' reporting criteria, does not appear to have increased in 2010. The frequency of reporting in each of the significance categories has not changed in 2010 compared to the previous four years. There is no change indicating a trend in the significance category and there has been no increase in the proportion of occurrences reported in the higher significance category. Also, the frequency of events, 42 events reported through August 2010, is not greater than in previous years and is below the average of 63 occurrences per year at LLNL since 2006. Over the previous four years, an average of 43% of the LLNL's reported occurrences have been reported as either ''management concerns'' or ''near misses.'' …

We describe a low-temperature sample probe for the electrical detection of magnetic resonance in a resonant W-band (94 GHz) microwave cavity. The advantages of this approach are demonstrated by experiments on silicon field-effect transistors. A comparison with conventional low-frequency measurements at X-band (9.7 GHz) on the same devices reveals an up to 100-fold enhancement of the signal intensity. In addition, resonance lines that are unresolved at X-band are clearly separated in the W-band measurements. Electrically detected magnetic resonance at high magnetic fields and high microwave frequencies is therefore a very sensitive technique for studying electron spins with an enhanced spectral resolution and sensitivity.

Our final report on the accomplishments of ITAPS at Stony Brook during period covered by the research award includes component service, interface service and applications. On the component service, we have designed and implemented a robust functionality for the Lagrangian tracking of dynamic interface. We have migrated the hyperbolic, parabolic and elliptic solver from stage-wise second order toward global second order schemes. We have implemented high order coupling between interface propagation and interior PDE solvers. On the interface service, we have constructed the FronTier application programer's interface (API) and its manual page using doxygen. We installed the FronTier functional interface to conform with the ITAPS specifications, especially the iMesh and iMeshP interfaces. On applications, we have implemented deposition and dissolution models with flow and implemented the two-reactant model for a more realistic precipitation at the pore level and its coupling with Darcy level model. We have continued our support to the study of fluid mixing problem for problems in inertial comfinement fusion. We have continued our support to the MHD model and its application to plasma liner implosion in fusion confinement. We have simulated a step in the reprocessing and separation of spent fuels from nuclear power plant fuel rods. …

Recovery of energy from relatively low-temperature waste streams is a goal that has not been achieved on any large scale. Heat exchangers do not operate efficiently with low-temperature streams and thus require such large heat exchanger surface areas that they are not practical. Condensing economizers offer one option for heat recovery from such streams, but they have not been widely implemented by industry. A promising alternative to these heat exchangers and economizers is a prototype ceramic membrane system using transport membrane technology for separation of water vapor and recovery of heat. This system was successfully tested by the Gas Technology Institute (GTI) on a natural gas fired boiler where the flue gas is relatively clean and free of contaminants. However, since the tubes of the prototype system were constructed of aluminum oxide, the brittle nature of the tubes limited the robustness of the system and even limited the length of tubes that could be used. In order to improve the robustness of the membrane tubes and make the system more suitable for industrial applications, this project was initiated with the objective of developing a system with materials that would permit the system to function successfully on a larger scale and …

To reveal the richer chemistry of CO oxidation by CeO2 supported Au Nanoclusters NCs)/Nanoparticles, we design a Au12 supported on a stepped-CeO2 model (Au/CeO2-step) and study various kinds of CO oxidation mechanisms at the interface of the Au/CeO2-step: oxygen spillover from the CeO2 to the Au NCs;2 CO oxidation by the O2 bound to the Au-Ce3+ interface;3 and CO oxidation by the Mars-van Krevelen (M-vK) mechanism.4 DFT+U calculations show that lattice oxygen at the CeO2 step edge oxidizes CO bound to Au NCs by the M-vK mechanism. CO2 desorption determines the rate of CO oxidation and the vacancy formation energy (Evac) is a reactivity descriptor for CO oxidation. The maximum Evac that insures spontaneous CO2 production is higher for the Au/CeO2-step than the Au/CeO2-surface suggesting that the CeO2-step is a better supporting material than the CeO2-surface for CO oxidation by the Au/CeO2. Our results also suggest that for CO oxidation by Au NCs supported on nano- or meso-structured CeO2, which is the case of industrial catalysts, the M-vK mechanism accounts for a large portion of the total activity.

Magnetic vortices in magnetic nanodots, which are characterized by an in-plane (chirality) and an out-of-plane (polarity) magnetizations, have been intensively attracted because of their high potential for technological application to data storage and memory scheme as well as their scientific interest for an understanding of fundamental physics in magnetic nanostructures. Complete understanding of the formation process of vortex state in magnetic vortex systems is very significant issue to achieve storage and memory technologies using magnetic vortices and understand intrinsic physical properties in magnetic nanostructures. In our work, we have statistically investigated the formation process of vortex state in permalloy (Py, Ni{sub 80}Fe{sub 20}) nanodisks through the direct observation of vortex structure utilizing a magnetic transmission soft X-ray microscopy (MTXM) with a high spatial resolution down to 20 nm. Magnetic imaging in Py nanodots was performed at the Fe L{sub 3} (707 eV) absorption edge. Figure 1 shows in-plane and out-of-plane magnetic components observed in 40 nm thick nanodot arrays with different dot radius of r = 500 and 400 nm, respectively. Vortex chirality, either clockwise (CW) or counter-clockwise (CCW), and polarity, either up or down, are clearly visible in both arrays. To investigate the statistical behavior in formation process of …

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded a financial assistance grant under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) to ArcelorMittal USA, Inc. (ArcelorMittal) for a project to construct and operate a blast furnace gas recovery boiler and supporting infrastructure at ArcelorMittal’s Indiana Harbor Steel Mill in East Chicago, Indiana. Blast furnace gas (BFG) is a by-product of blast furnaces that is generated when iron ore is reduced with coke to create metallic iron. BFG has a very low heating value, about 1/10th the heating value of natural gas. BFG is commonly used as a boiler fuel; however, before installation of the gas recovery boiler, ArcelorMittal flared 22 percent of the blast furnace gas produced at the No. 7 Blast Furnace at Indiana Harbor. The project uses the previously flared BFG to power a new high efficiency boiler which produces 350,000 pounds of steam per hour. The steam produced is used to drive existing turbines to generate electricity and for other requirements at the facility. The goals of the project included job creation and preservation, reduced energy consumption, reduced energy costs, environmental improvement, and sustainability.

This paper describes our approach to adapting a text document similarity classifier based on the Term Frequency Inverse Document Frequency (TFIDF) metric to two massively multi-core hardware platforms. The TFIDF classifier is used to detect web attacks in HTTP data. In our parallel hardware approaches, we design streaming, real time classifiers by simplifying the sequential algorithm and manipulating the classifier's model to allow decision information to be represented compactly. Parallel implementations on the Tilera 64-core System on Chip and the Xilinx Virtex 5-LX FPGA are presented. For the Tilera, we employ a reduced state machine to recognize dictionary terms without requiring explicit tokenization, and achieve throughput of 37MB/s at slightly reduced accuracy. For the FPGA, we have developed a set of software tools to help automate the process of converting training data to synthesizable hardware and to provide a means of trading off between accuracy and resource utilization. The Xilinx Virtex 5-LX implementation requires 0.2% of the memory used by the original algorithm. At 166MB/s (80X the software) the hardware implementation is able to achieve Gigabit network throughput at the same accuracy as the original algorithm.

Two important topics in the tokamak ELM control, using the non-axisymmetric (3D) magnetic perturbations, are studied in NSTX and combined envisioning ELM control in the future NSTX-U operation: Experimental observations of the edge harmonic oscillation in NSTX (not necessarily the same as EHOs in DIII-D), and theoretical study of its external drive using the high harmonic fast wave (HHFW) antenna as a 3D field coil. Edge harmonic oscillations were observed particularly well in NSTX ELM-free operation with low n core modes, with various diagnostics confirming n = 4 ~#24; 6 edge-localized and coherent oscillations in 2 ~#24; 8kHz frequency range. These oscillations seem to have a favored operational window in rotational shear, similarly to EHOs in DIII-D QH modes . However, in NSTX, they are not observed to provide particle or impurity control, possibly due to their weak amplitudes, of a few mm displacements, as measured by reflectometry. The external drive of these modes has been proposed in NSTX, by utilizing audio-frequency currents in the HHFW antenna straps. Analysis shows that the HHFW straps can be optimized to maximize n = 4 ~#24; 6 while minimizing n = 1 ~#24; 3. Also, IPEC calculations show that the optimized configuration with …

After over two decades of staggering economic growth and soaring energy demand, China has started taking serious actions to reduce its economic energy and carbon intensity by setting short and medium-term intensity reduction targets, renewable generation targets and various supporting policies and programs. In better understanding how further policies and actions can be taken to shape China's future energy and emissions trajectory, it is important to first identify where the largest opportunities for efficiency gains and emission reduction lie from sectoral and end-use perspectives. Besides contextualizing China's progress towards reaching the highest possible efficiency levels through the adoption of the most advanced technologies from a bottom-up perspective, the actual economic costs and benefits of adopting efficiency measures are also assessed in this study. This study presents two modeling methodologies that evaluate both the technical and economic potential of raising China's efficiency levels to the technical maximum across sectors and the subsequent carbon and energy emission implications through 2030. The technical savings potential by efficiency measure and remaining gap for improvements are identified by comparing a reference scenario in which China continues the current pace of with a Max Tech scenario in which the highest technically feasible efficiencies and advanced technologies …

Analogous to nickel-based superalloys, Fe-based superalloys, which are strengthened by coherent B2- type precipitates are proposed for elevated-temperature applications. During the period of this project, a series of ferritic superalloys have been designed and fabricated by methods of vacuum-arc melting and vacuum-induction melting. Nano-scale precipitates were characterized by atom-probe tomography, ultrasmall- angle X-ray scattering, and transmission-electron microscopy. A duplex distribution of precipitates was found. It seems that ferritic superalloys are susceptible to brittle fracture. Systematic endeavors have been devoted to understanding and resolving the problem. Factors, such as hot rolling, precipitate volume fractions, alloy compositions, precipitate sizes and inter-particle spacings, and hyperfine cooling precipitates, have been investigated. In order to understand the underlying relationship between the microstructure and creep behavior of ferric alloys at elevated temperatures, in-situ neutron studies have been carried out. Based on the current result, it seems that the major role of β΄ with a 16%-volume fraction in strengthening ferritic alloys is not load sharing but interactions with dislocations. The oxidation behavior of one ferritic alloy, FBB8 (Fe-6.5Al-10Ni-10Cr-3.4Mo-0.25Zr-0.005B, weight percent), was studied in dry air. It is found that it possesses superior oxidation resistance at 1,023 and 1,123 K, compared with other creep-resistant ferritic steels [T91 (modified …

Broad Funding Opportunity Announcement Project: MSU is developing a new engine for use in hybrid automobiles that could significantly reduce fuel waste and improve engine efficiency. In a traditional internal combustion engine, air and fuel are ignited, creating high-temperature and high-pressure gases which expand rapidly. This expansion of gases forces the engine’s pistons to pump and powers the car. MSU’s engine has no pistons. It uses the combustion of air and fuel to build up pressure within the engine, generating a shockwave that blasts hot gas exhaust into the blades of the engine’s rotors causing them to turn, which generates electricity. MSU’s redesigned engine would be the size of a cooking pot and contain fewer moving parts—reducing the weight of the engine by 30%. It would also enable a vehicle that could use 60% of its fuel for propulsion.

The three top-level project goals are: -We proposed to develop, test, and run a new, physically based, scale-independent microphysical scheme for those cloud processes that most strongly affect greenhouse gas scenarios, i.e. warm cloud microphysics. In particular, we propsed to address cloud droplet activation, autoconversion, and accretion. -The new, unified scheme was proposed to be derived and tested using the University of Hawaii's IPRC Regional Atmospheric Model (iRAM). -The impact of the new parameterizations on climate change scenarios will be studied. In particular, the sensitivity of cloud response to climate forcing from increased greenhouse gas concentrations will be assessed.

This project is a continuation of a long program supported by the Office of Basic Energy Science in the Office of Science of DOE for many years. The final three-year continuation started on November 1, 2005 with additional 1 year extension to October 30, 2009. The project was then granted a two-year No Cost Extension which officially ended on October 30, 2011. This report covers the activities within this six year period with emphasis on the work completed within the last 3 years. A total of 44 papers with acknowledgement to this grant were published or submitted. The overall objectives of this project are as follows. These objectives have been evolved over the six year period: (1) To use the state-of-the-art computational methods to investigate the electronic structures of complex ceramics and other novel crystals. (2) To further investigate the defects, surfaces/interfaces and microstructures in complex materials using large scale modeling. (3) To extend the study on ceramic materials to more complex bioceramic crystals. (4) To initiate the study on soft condensed matters including water and biomolecules. (5) To focus on the spectroscopic studies of different materials especially on the ELNES and XANES spectral calculations and their applications related to …

At the U. S. Department of Energy's Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State, 216 million liters (57 million gallons) of nuclear waste is currently stored in aging underground tanks, threatening the Columbia River. The River Protection Project (RPP), a fully integrated system of waste storage, retrieval, treatment, and disposal facilities, is in varying stages of design, construction, operation, and future planning. These facilities face many overlapping technical, regulatory, and financial hurdles to achieve site cleanup and closure. Program execution is ongoing, but completion is currently expected to take approximately 40 more years. Strategic planning for the treatment of Hanford tank waste is by nature a multi-faceted, complex and iterative process. To help manage the planning, a report referred to as the RPP System Plan is prepared to provide a basis for aligning the program scope with the cost and schedule, from upper-tier contracts to individual facility operating plans. The Hanford Tank Waste Operations Simulator (HTWOS), a dynamic flowsheet simulation and mass balance computer model, is used to simulate the current planned RPP mission, evaluate the impacts of changes to the mission, and assist in planning near-term facility operations. Development of additional modeling tools, including an operations research model and a …

As much as one million gallons of waste is believed to have leaked from tanks, pipelines or other equipment in the single-shell tank farm waste management areas (WMAs) within the 200 East and West areas of the U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford Site near Richland, Washington. Although some contamination has reached groundwater, most contamination still resides in the vadose zone. The magnitude ofthis problem requires new approaches for soil characterization if we are to understand the nature and extent of the contamination and take action to protect the enviromnent. Because of the complexity and expense of drilling traditional boreholes in contaminated soil, direct push characterization using a hydraulic hammer has been extensively employed. Direct push probe holes <3-inch diameter have been pushed to a maximum depth of 240 feet below ground surface in 200 East area. Previously gross gamma and moisture logging of these narrow probe holes was perfonned to identify the location of cesium-137 ({sup 137}Cs) (which has limited mobility in Hanford soil) and moisture peaks. Recently a bismuth germinate detector has been deployed for detecting and quantifying the spectrum of cobalt-60 ({sup 60}Co) (a more mobile contaminant), which provides additional information. The direct push system is configured to …

The ability to effectively mix, sample, certify, and deliver consistent batches of High Level Waste (HLW) feed from the Hanford Double Shell Tanks (DST) to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) presents a significant mission risk with potential to impact mission length and the quantity of HLW glass produced. DOE's River Protection Project (RPP) mission modeling and WTP facility modeling assume that individual 3785 cubic meter (l million gallon) HLW feed tanks are homogenously mixed, representatively sampled, and consistently delivered to the WTP. It has been demonstrated that homogenous mixing ofHLW sludge in Hanford DSTs is not likely achievable with the baseline design thereby causing representative sampling and consistent feed delivery to be more difficult. Inconsistent feed to the WTP could cause additional batch-to-batch operational adjustments that reduce operating efficiency and have the potential to increase the overall mission length. The Hanford mixing and sampling demonstration program will identify DST mixing performance capability, will evaluate representative sampling techniques, and will estimate feed batch consistency. An evaluation of demonstration program results will identify potential mission improvement considerations that will help ensure successful mission completion. This paper will discuss the history, progress, and future activities that will define and mitigate the …

In 1985, carbon tetrachloride was discovered in the groundwater at Agra, Kansas, during routine sampling of public water supply wells. Two of Agra's four public water supply wells contained low but detectable levels of carbon tetrachloride; the concentrations in wells PWS-3 and PWS-4 exceeded the maximum contaminant level. These wells were removed from service in 1986, although they remain available for uses other than drinking water. Other public wells, outside the area of contamination, supply drinking water for the city of Agra. In 1987-2005, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) and the Commodity Credit Corporation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (CCC/USDA) conducted investigations to delineate the contaminant plume and to identify source areas for the contamination - which results from the past use of grain fumigants containing carbon tetrachloride. Source areas were identified on the former CCC/USDA grain storage facility property and on the Producers Agricultural Marketing Association, Inc., property located to the south (Argonne 2006). The contaminant plume extends to the southeast, toward well PWS-3, from the identified source areas. Both the CCC/USDA and Pro-Ag Marketing are currently implementing KDHE-approved interim measures (IMs). To address the contamination identified on its former property, the CCC/USDA is implementing …

Washington River Protection Solutions, LLC (WRPS) has faced significant project management challenges in managing Davis-Bacon construction work that meets contractually required small business goals. The unique challenge is to provide contracting opportunities to multiple small business construction subcontractors while performing high hazard work in a safe and productive manner. Previous to the Washington River Protection Solutions, LLC contract, Construction work at the Hanford Tank Farms was contracted to large companies, while current Department of Energy (DOE) Contracts typically emphasize small business awards. As an integral part of Nuclear Project Management at Hanford Tank Farms, construction involves removal of old equipment and structures and installation of new infrastructure to support waste retrieval and waste feed delivery to the Waste Treatment Plant. Utilizing the optimum construction approach ensures that the contractors responsible for this work are successful in meeting safety, quality, cost and schedule objectives while working in a very hazardous environment. This paper describes the successful transition from a traditional project delivery method that utilized a large business general contractor and subcontractors to a new project construction management model that is more oriented to small businesses. Construction has selected the Agency Construction Management Method. This method was implemented in the first …

The Hanford tank reservation contains approximately 50 million gallons of liquid legacy radioactive waste from cold war weapons production, which is stored in 177 underground storage tanks. The tanks will be in use until waste processing operations are completed. The wastes tend to be high pH (over 10) and nitrate based. Under these alkaline conditions carbon steels tend to be passive and undergo relatively slow uniform corrosion. However, the presence of nitrate and other aggressive species, can lead to pitting and stress corrosion cracking. This work is a continuation of previous work that investigated the propensity of steels to suffer pitting and stress corrosion cracking in various waste simulants. The focus of this work is an investigation of the sensitivity of the steels' pitting and stress corrosion cracking susceptibility tosimulant pH. Previous work demonstrated that wastes that are high in aggressive nitrate and low in inhibitory nitrite are susceptible to localized corrosion. However, the previous work involved wastes with pH 12 or higher. The current work involves wastes with lower pH of 10 or 11. It is expected that at these lower pHs that a higher nitrite-to-nitrate ratio will be necessary to ensure tank integrity. This experimental work involved both …

Current proposed regulatory agreements (Consent Decree) at the Hanford Site call for closure of the Single-Shell Tank (SST) Waste Management Area (WMA) C in the year 2019. WMA C is part of the SST system in 200 East area ofthe Hanford Site and is one of the first tank farm areas built in mid-1940s. In order to close WMA C, both tank and facility closure activities and corrective actions associated with existing soil and groundwater contamination must be performed. Remedial activities for WMA C and corrective actions for soils and groundwater within that system will be supported by various types of risk assessments and interim performance assessments (PA). The U.S. Department of Energy, Office of River Protection (DOE-ORP) and the State ofWashington Department of Ecology (Ecology) are sponsoring a series of working sessions with regulators and stakeholders to solicit input and to obtain a common understanding concerning the scope, methods, and data to be used in the planned risk assessments and PAs to support closure of WMA C. In addition to DOE-ORP and Ecology staff and contractors, working session members include representatives from the U.S. Enviromnental Protection Agency, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), interested tribal nations, other stakeholders groups, …

Lithium wall coating techniques have been experimentally explored on NSTX for the last five years. The lithium experimentation on NSTX started with a few milligrams of lithium injected into the plasma as pellets and it has evolved to a lithium evaporation system which can evaporate up to ~ 100 g of lithium onto the lower divertor plates between lithium reloadings. The unique feature of the lithium research program on NSTX is that it can investigate the effects of lithium in H-mode divertor plasmas. This lithium evaporation system thus far has produced many intriguing and potentially important results; the latest of these are summarized in a companion paper by H. Kugel. In this paper, we suggest possible implications and applications of the NSTX lithium results on the magnetic fusion research which include electron and global energy confinement improvements, MHD stability enhancement at high beta, ELM control, H-mode power threshold reduction, improvements in radio frequency heating and non-inductive plasma start-up performance, innovative divertor solutions and improved operational efficiency.

A principal goal at the Savannah River Site is to safely dispose of the large volume of liquid nuclear waste held in many storage tanks. In-tank ion exchange technology is being considered for cesium removal using a polymer resin made of resorcinol formaldehyde that has been engineered into microspheres. The waste under study is generally lower in potassium and organic components than Hanford waste; therefore, the resin performance was evaluated with actual dissolved salt waste. The ion exchange performance and resin chemistry results are discussed.