The authors investigated the decomposition of HMX or PBX-9404 as a 25% solution in DMSO by treatment with aqueous base solutions. They investigated investigated two concentrations of NaOH solutions, 40% NaOH and 2N NaOH. {sup 1}H-nmr spectroscopy was chosen to follow the decomposition by {sup 1}H-nmr spectroscopy, watching the disappearance of the -CH{sub 2}-absorbance of HMX at 6.2 ppm. The 40% NaOH solution is initially immiscible with the DMSO solution but becomes miscible as it reacts. The reaction is exothermic with recorded temperatures after mixing reaching 90{degrees}C. The mixture does foam somewhat but this can be controlled by slowing down the stirring speed. The 2N NaOH solution is miscible with the HMX/DMSO solution but upon mixing the HMX is precipitated by the water present in the base solution. The mixing of the solutions is much less exothermic and the decomposition is slower than the 40% NaOH solution so the mixture is heated at 60{degrees}C for 1h to facilitate the decomposition.

The objective of this project is to produce one or more microorganisms capable of removing the organic and inorganic sulfur in coal. The original specific technical objectives of the project were to: Clone and characterize the genes encoding the enzymes of the ``4S`` pathway (sulfoxide/sulfone/sulfonate/sulfate) for release of organic sulfur from coal; Return multiple copies of genes to the original host to enhance the biodesulfurization activity of that organism; Transfer this pathway into a fast-growing chemolithotrophic bacterium; Conduct a batch-mode optimization/analysis of scale-up variables.

Letter opinion issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether certain disabled individuals in a state university vocational training program are “employees” under V.T.C.S. article 8309g, (relating to workers’ compensation coverage) (RQ-74)

The primary objective of this project is to evaluate the utility of a device called the ``beach cone`` in combating coastal erosion. Seven initial sites were selected for testing beach cones in a variety of geometric configurations. Permits were obtained from the State of Louisiana and the US Army Corps of Engineers to perform the work associated with this study. Six hundred beach cones were actually installed at six of the sites in late July and early August, 1992. One of the initial sites was abandoned because it was found to be unsuitable for beach cone placement. The test sites have been observed for six months and preliminary findings indicate that beach cones accreted significant amounts of materials along the beach of a barrier island. At other test sites, accretion rates have been less dramatic but importantly, no significant additional erosion has occurred, which is a positive result. It is too soon to state the categorical success of the beach cones, but results to date are encouraging.

This research is a renewal of a project to support research in the Deep Microbiology Subprogram of the Subsurface Science Program, by maintaining a culture collection of microorganisms isolated from subsurface environments (SMCC). Approximately 2,400 new subsurface microbial isolates were incorporated into the SMCC during the period August 15, 1993 to March 15, 1994. Colony morphological characteristics were determined for each of the 2,400 newly incorporated strains. Cell morphological characteristics were determined for 1,100 of the new isolates, and 21 selected physiological traits were determined for 2,200 of the new isolates.

A large percentage of the radioactivity released to the environment by operations at the Savannah River Site (SRS) is due to tritium. Because of the relative importance of the releases of tritium from SRS facilities through the groundwater to the environment, periodic evaluation and documentation of the facility operational status, proposed corrective actions, and projected changes/reductions in tritium releases are justified. Past, current, and projected tritium releases from the F and H Area Seepage Basins and the Solid Waste Disposal Facilities (SWDF) to Fourmile Branch are described. Each section provides a brief operational history along with the current status and proposed corrective actions. A conceptual model and quantitative estimates of tritium release from the facilities into the groundwater and the environment are developed. Tritium releases from the F and H Area Seepage Basins are declining and will be further reduced by the implementation of a groundwater corrective action required by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Tritium releases from the SWDF have been relatively stable over the past 10 years. It is anticipated that SWDF tritium releases to Fourmile Branch will remain approximately at current levels for at least 10--20 years. Specific characterization activities are recommended to allow an …

The vector potential, magnetic field and stored energy of a quadrupole magnet array are derived. Each magnet within the array is a current sheet with a current density proportional to the azimuthal angle 2{theta} and the longitudinal periodicity (2m-1){pi}/L. Individual quadrupoles within the array are oriented in a way that maximizes the field gradient The array does not have to be of equal spacing and can be of a finite size, however when the array is equally spaced and is of infinite size the solution can be simplified. We note that whereas, in a single quadrupole magnet with a current density proportional to cos2{theta} the gradient is pure, such purity is not preserved in a quadrupole array.

The subcontract between Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc., and the CEA provides for the refurbishment of the high pressure COMEDIE test loop in the SILOE reactor and a series of experiments to characterize fission product lift-off from MHTGR heat exchanger surfaces under several depressurization accident scenarios. The data will contribute to the validation of models and codes used to predict fission product transport in the MHTGR. In the meeting at CEA headquarters in Paris the program schedule and preparation for the DCAA and Quality Assurance audits were discussed. Long-range interest in expanded participation in the gas-cooled reactor technology Umbrella Agreement was also expressed by the CEA. At the CENG, in Grenoble, technical details on the loop design, fabrication components, development of test procedures, and preparation for the DOE quality assurance (QA) audit in May were discussed. After significant delays in CY 1989 it appears that good progress is being made in CY 1990 and the first major test will be initiated by December. An extensive list of agreements and commitments was generated to facilitate the coordination and planning of future work. 2 figs., 2 tabs.

The basic objective of this project is to convert waste streams from the food processing industry to usable fuels and chemicals using novel bioreactors. These bioreactors should allow economical utilization of waste (whey, waste sugars, waste starch, bottling wastes, candy wastes, molasses, and cellulosic wastes) by the production of ethanol, acetone/butanol, organic acids (acetic, lactic, and gluconic), yeast diacetyl flavor, and antifungal compounds. Continuous processes incorporating various processing improvements such as simultaneous product separation and immobilized cells are being developed to allow commercial scale utilization of waste stream. The production of ethanol by a continuous reactor-separator is the process closest to commercialization with a 7,500 liter pilot plant presently sited at an Iowa site to convert whey lactose to ethanol. Accomplishments during 1993 include installation and start-up of a 7,500 liter ICRS for ethanol production at an industry site in Iowa; Donation and installation of a 200 liter yeast pilot Plant to the project from Kenyon Enterprises; Modeling and testing of a low energy system for recovery of ethanol from vapor is using a solvent absorption/extractive distillation system; Simultaneous saccharification/fermentation of raw corn grits and starch in a stirred reactor/separator; Testing of the ability of `koji` process to ferment raw …

The projects undertaken were to address two areas of concern for metal-fueled fast reactors: metallurgical compatibility of fuel and its fission products with the stainless steel cladding, and effects of porosity development in the fuel on fuel/cladding interactions and on sodium penetration in fuel. The following studies are reported on extensively in appendices: hot isostatic pressing of U-10Zr by coupled boundary diffusion/power law creep cavitation, liquid Na intrusion into porous U-10Zr fuel alloy by differential capillarity, interdiffusion between U-Zr fuel and selected Fe-Ni-Cr alloys, interdiffusion between U-Zr fuel vs selected cladding steels, and interdiffusion of Ce in Fe-base alloys with Ni or Cr.

In order to evaluate the radiation recordkeeping practices at DOE facilities, a questionnaire was sent to DOE and DOE contractor facilities which requested information concerning the record keeping systems. The questionnaire was sent to the DOE/DOE contractor facilities via DOE/HQ and the respective field offices. The questionnaire stipulated that at multiple contractor sites, only those facilities who kept the records should respond to the questionnaire; however, those responding should indicate the facilities for which they maintained records.

To help reduce US dependence on imported petroleum, Congress passed the Energy Security Act of 1980 (public Law 96-294). This legislation authorized the US Department of Energy (DOE) to promote expansion of the fuel alcohol industry through, among other measures, its Alcohol Fuels Loan Guarantee Program. Under this program, selected proposals for the conversion of plant biomass into fuel-grade ethanol would be granted loan guarantees. of 57 applications submitted for loan guarantees to build and operate ethanol fuel projects under this program, 11 were considered by DOE to have the greatest potential for satisfying DOE`s requirements and goals. In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), DOE evaluated the potential impacts of proceeding with the Loan Guarantee Program in a programmatic environmental assessment (DOE 1981) that resulted in a finding of no significant impact (FANCY) (47 Federal Register 34, p. 7483). The following year, DOE conducted site-specific environmental assessments (EAs) for 10 of the proposed projects. These F-As predicted no significant environmental impacts from these projects. Eventually, three ethanol fuel projects received loan guarantees and were actually built: the Tennol Energy Company (Tennol; DOE 1982a) facility near Jasper in southeastern Tennessee; the Agrifuels Refining Corporation (Agrifuels; DOE 1985) facility …

Progress was achieved in four areas: development of surface supported Group 5 metal organometallic compounds for catalytic arene hydrogenation, isolation and reactivity of possible intermediates in catalytic arene hydrogenation, synthesis and characterization of new d{sup 0}-metal hydride compounds, and stoichiometric reactivity of d{sup 0} metal hydrido, aryloxide compounds. (DLC)

This supporting document details calculations completed to properly design an adjustable lifting beam. The main use of the lifting beam is to hoist the Data Acquisition and Controls Systems (DACS) trailer over a steam line. All design work was completed using the American Institute of Steel Construction, Manual of Steel Construction (AISC, 1989) and Hanford Hoisting and Rigging Manual (WHC, 1992).

Numerous computer codes calculate beam dynamics of particles traversing an accelerating gap. In order to carry out these calculations the electric field of a gap must be determined. The electric field is obtained from derivatives of the scalar potential which solves Laplace`s equation and satisfies the appropriate boundary conditions. An integral approach for the solution of Laplace`s equation is used in this work since the objective is to determine the potential and fields without solving on a traditional spatial grid. The motivation is to quickly obtain forces for particle transport, and eliminate the need to keep track of a large number of grid point fields. The problem then becomes one of how to evaluate the appropriate integral. In this work the integral solution has been converted to a finite sum of easily computed functions. Representing the integral solution in this manner provides a readily calculable formulation and avoids a number of difficulties inherent in dealing with an integral that can be weakly convergent in some regimes, and is, in general, highly oscillatory.

I discuss non-trivial effects in the soft SUSY breaking terms which appear when one integrates out heavy fields. The effects exist only when the SUSY breaking terms are non-universal. They may spoil (1) the hierarchy between the weak and high-energy scales, or (2) degeneracy among the squark masses even in the presense of a horizontal symmetry. I argue, in the end, that such new effects may be useful in probing physics at high-energy scales from TeV-scale experiments.

Current performance assessment calculations show that technetium (Tc) and neptunium (Np) will deliver the major fraction of the radiation dose to the accessible environment from the potential Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. Therefore, materials that can immobilize or delay the transport of Tc or Np (getters) are being considered for addition to either the waste-package or the backfill adjacent to the waste-package. Of the two radionuclides, Tc presents the greater challenge in identifying a suitable getter material. This report identifies several materials that warrant further consideration for immobilizing and/or sorbing Tc as additives to the backfill, and recommends active carbon and an inorganic oxide for initial testing. Other materials, such as zero valent iron, might be useful as getters if they were placed in the waste package itself, a subject that merits further investigation.

Bandpass filtering has been applied recently in two widely different seismic applications: S.R. Taylor and A.A. Velasco in their source-path amplitude-correction (SPAC) algorithm and N.K. Yacoub in his maximum spectral energy algorithm for picking teleseismic P-wave arrival times. Though the displacement spectrum is the intermediate product in both cases, the filters and scaling corrections used to estimate it are entirely different. They tested both and found that the scaling used by Taylor and Velasco worked in all cases tested whereas Yacoub's did not. They also found that bandpass filtering as implemented by Taylor and Velasco does not work satisfactorily; however, the Gaussian filter used by Yacoub does work. The bandpass filter of Taylor and Velasco works satisfactorily when the results are centered in the band; however, a comb filter with the same number of poles and zeros as the bandpass used by Taylor and Velasco works better than the bandpass filter.

During the course of experiments involving high explosives, (HE), alignment lasers are often employed where the laser beam impinges upon a metal encased HE sample or on the bare HE itself during manned operations. While most alignment lasers are of low enough power so as not to be of concern, safety questions arise when considering the maximum credible power output of the laser in a failure mode, or when multiple laser spots are focused onto the experiment simultaneously. Safety questions also arise when the focused laser spot size becomes very small, on the order of 100 {micro}m or less. This paper addresses these concerns by describing a methodology for determining safety margins for laser impingement on metal encased HE as well as one for bare HE. A variety of explosives encased in Al, Cu, Ta and stainless steel were tested using the first of these techniques. Additional experiments were performed using the second method where the laser beam was focused directly on eight different samples of pressed-powder HE.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the Army's plans to allocate its end strength to meet the force structure requirements of its combat and support forces, focusing on: (1) comparing the Army's 1996 and 1998 reviews to determine if there were changes in the Army's risk of not having sufficient forces to implement the national military strategy; and (2) assessing the Army's potential for mitigating risk by reallocating its existing end strength."

We discuss early cosmology in theories where the fundamental Planck mass is close to the TeV scale. In such theories the standard model fields are localized to a (3 + 1)-dimensional wall with n new transverse sub-millimeter sized spatial dimensions. The topics touched upon include: early inflation that occurs while the size of the new dimensions are still small, the spectrum and magnitude of density perturbations, the post-inflation era of contraction of our world while the internal dimensions evolve to their final ''large'' radius, and the production of gravitons in the bulk during these two eras. The radion moduli problem is also discussed.

The coupling of a Compton-suppressed Ge (CSGe) detector array to a recoil separator has seen limited use in the past due to the low efficiency for measuring recoil--{gamma} ray coincidences (< 0.1%). With the building of new generation recoil separators and gamma-ray arrays, a substantial increase in detection efficiency has been achieved. This allows for the opportunity to measure excited states in nuclei with cross-sections below 100 nb. In this paper, results from the coupling of a modest array of CSGe detectors (AYE-Ball) and a current generation Ge array (Gammasphere) with a recoil separator (FMA) will be presented.

United States industry has a critical need for materials that are lightweight, strong, tough, corrosion resistant and capable of performing at high temperatures; such materials will enable substantial increase in energy efficiency and reduction in emissions of pollutants. Continuous fiber ceramic composites (CFCCs) are an emerging class of materials which have the potential for the desired combination of properties to meet the industrial needs. A $10 billion annual market has been estimated for CFCC products by the year 2010, which equates to over 100,000 industrial sector jobs. The CFCC program began in the spring of 1992 as a three-phase 10-year effort to assess potential applications of CFCC materials, develop the necessary supporting technologies to design, analyze and test CFCC materials, conduct materials and process development guided by the applications assessment input, fabricate test samples and representative components to evaluate CFCC material capabilities under application conditions, and analyze scaleability and manufacturability plus demonstrate pilot-scale production engineering. DOE awarded 10 Phase I cooperative agreements to industry-lead teams plus identified generic supporting technology projects. This document highlights the broad progress and accomplishments on these contracts and support technology projects during Phase I.

The structure of a collisionless scrape-off-layer (SOL) plasma in tokamak reactors is being studied to define the electron distribution function and the corresponding sheath potential between the divertor plate and the edge plasma. The collisionless model is shown to be valid during the thermal phase of a plasma disruption, as well as during the newly desired low-recycling normal phase of operation with low-density, high-temperature, edge plasma conditions. An analytical solution is developed by solving the Fokker-Planck equation for electron distribution and balance in the SOL. The solution is in good agreement with numerical studies using Monte-Carlo methods. The analytical solutions provide an insight to the role of different physical and geometrical processes in a collisionless SOL during disruptions and during the enhanced phase of normal operation over a wide range of parameters.