The purpose of the Multiscale Thermohydrologic Model (MSTHM) is to describe the thermohydrologic evolution of the near-field environment (NFE) and engineered barrier system (EBS) throughout the potential high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain for a particular engineering design (CRWMS M&O 2000c). The process-level model will provide thermohydrologic (TH) information and data (such as in-drift temperature, relative humidity, liquid saturation, etc.) for use in other technical products. This data is provided throughout the entire repository area as a function of time. The MSTHM couples the Smeared-heat-source Drift-scale Thermal-conduction (SDT), Line-average-heat-source Drift-scale Thermohydrologic (LDTH), Discrete-heat-source Drift-scale Thermal-conduction (DDT), and Smeared-heat-source Mountain-scale Thermal-conduction (SMT) submodels such that the flow of water and water vapor through partially-saturated fractured rock is considered. The MSTHM accounts for 3-D drift-scale and mountain-scale heat flow, repository-scale variability of stratigraphy and infiltration flux, and waste package (WP)-to-WP variability in heat output from WPs. All submodels use the nonisothermal unsaturated-saturated flow and transport (NUFT) simulation code. The MSTHM is implemented in several data-processing steps. The four major steps are: (1) submodel input-file preparation, (2) execution of the four submodel families with the use of the NUFT code, (3) execution of the multiscale thermohydrologic abstraction code (MSTHAC), and (4) binning …

An integrated code system consisting of RELAP5-3D and a multiphase CFD program has been created through the use of a generic semi-implicit coupling algorithm. Unlike previous CFD coupling work, this coupling scheme is numerically stable provided the material Courant limit is not violated in RELAP5-3D or at the coupling locations. The basis for the coupling scheme and details regarding the unique features associated with the application of this technique to a four-field CFD program are presented. Finally, the results of a verification problem are presented. The coupled code system is shown to yield accurate and numerically stable results.

17th Edition of TOP500 List of World's Fastest Supercomputers Released MANNHEIM, GERMANY; KNOXVILLE, TENN.; BERKELEY, CALIF. In what has become a much-anticipated event in the world of high-performance computing, the 17th edition of the TOP500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers was released today (June 21). The latest edition of the twice-yearly ranking finds IBM as the leader in the field, with 40 percent in terms of installed systems and 43 percent in terms of total performance of all the installed systems. In second place in terms of installed systems is Sun Microsystems with 16 percent, while Cray Inc. retained second place in terms of performance (13 percent). SGI Inc. was third both with respect to systems with 63 (12.6 percent) and performance (10.2 percent).

A search for a 33.9 MeV/c weakly interacting neutral particle produced in pion decay is discussed along with other studies.

Semiconductor bulk crystals and multilayer structures with controlled isotopic composition have attracted much scientific and technical interest in the past few years. Isotopic composition affects a large number of physical properties, including phonon energies and lifetimes, bandgaps, the thermal conductivity and expansion coefficient and spin-related effects. Isotope superlattices are ideal media for self-diffusion studies. In combination with neutron transmutation doping, isotope control offers a novel approach to metal-insulator transition studies. Spintronics, quantum computing and nanoparticle science are emerging fields using isotope control.

Coherent vector meson production in peripheral nucleus-nucleus collisions is discussed. These interactions may occur for impact parameters much larger than the sum of the nuclear radii. Since the vector meson production is always localized to one of the nuclei, the system acts as a two-source interferometer in the transverse plane. By tagging the outgoing nuclei for Coulomb dissociation it is possible to obtain a measure of the impact parameter and thus the source separation in the interferometer. This is of particular interest since the life-time of the vector mesons are generally much shorter than the impact parameters of the collisions.

This Streamlined Approach for Environmental Restoration (SAFER) Plan addresses the actions necessary for the characterization and closure of Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 356, Mud Pits and Disposal Sites, as identified in the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (FFACO). The CAU, located on the Nevada Test Site in Nevada, consists of seven Corrective Action Sites (CASs): CAS 03-04-01, Area 3 Change House Septic System; CAS 03-09-01, Mud Pit Spill Over; CAS 03-09-03, Mud Pit; CAS 03-09-04, Mud Pit; CAS 03-09-05, Mud Pit; CAS 20-16-01, Landfill; CAS 20-22-21, Drums. Sufficient information and process knowledge from historical documentation and investigations are the basis for the development of the phased approach chosen to address the data collection activities prior to implementing the preferred closure alternative for each CAS. The Phase I investigation will determine through collection of environmental samples from targeted populations (i.e., mud/soil cuttings above textural discontinuity) if contaminants of potential concern (COPCs) are present in concentrations exceeding preliminary action levels (PALs) at each of the CASs. If COPCs are present above PALs, a Phase II investigation will be implemented to determine the extent of contamination to support the appropriate corrective action alternative to complete closure of the site. Groundwater impacts from …

This Corrective Action Investigation Plan contains the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Operations Office's approach to collect data necessary to evaluate corrective action alternatives appropriate for the closure of Corrective Action Unit 168 under the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order. Corrective Action Unit 168 consists of a group of twelve relatively diverse Corrective Action Sites (CASs 25-16-01, Construction Waste Pile; 25-16-03, MX Construction Landfill; 25-19-02, Waste Disposal Site; 25-23-02, Radioactive Storage RR Cars; 25-23-18, Radioactive Material Storage; 25-34-01, NRDS Contaminated Bunker; 25-34-02, NRDS Contaminated Bunker; CAS 25-23-13, ETL - Lab Radioactive Contamination; 25-99-16, USW G3; 26-08-01, Waste Dump/Burn Pit; 26-17-01, Pluto Waste Holding Area; 26-19-02, Contaminated Waste Dump No.2). These CASs vary in terms of the sources and nature of potential contamination. The CASs are located and/or associated wit h the following Nevada Test Site (NTS) facilities within three areas. The first eight CASs were in operation between 1958 to 1984 in Area 25 include the Engine Maintenance, Assembly, and Disassembly Facility; the Missile Experiment Salvage Yard; the Reactor Maintenance, Assembly, and Disassembly Facility; the Radioactive Materials Storage Facility; and the Treatment Test Facility Building at Test Cell A. Secondly, the three CASs located in …

The Multi-Agency Radiation Survey and Site Investigation Manual (MARSSIM) provides a coherent, technically defensible process for establishing that exposed surfaces satisfy site cleanup requirements. Unfortunately, many sites have complications that challenge a direct application of MARSSIM. Example complications include Record of Decision (ROD) requirements that are not MARSSIM-friendly, the potential for subsurface contamination, and incomplete characterization information. These types of complications are typically the rule, rather than the exception, for sites undergoing radiologically-driven remediation and closure. One such site is the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) Linde site in Tonawanda, New York. Cleanup of the site is currently underway. The Linde site presented a number of challenges to designing and implementing a closure strategy consistent with MARSSIM. This paper discusses some of the closure issues confronted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Buffalo District at the Linde site, and describes how MARSSIM protocols were adapted to address these issues.

The synthesis of oxime-linked mucin mimics was accomplished via the incorporation of multiple ketone residues into a peptide followed by reaction with aminooxy sugars corresponding to the tumor-related T{sub N} and sialyl T{sub N} (ST{sub N}) antigens.

This is a multiyear experimental research program focused on improving relevant material properties of high-T{sub c} superconductors (HTSs) and on development of fabrication methods that can be transferred to industry for production of commercial conductors. The development of teaming relationships through agreements with industrial partners is a key element of the Argonne (ANL) program.

Progress in the performance of tokamak devices has enabled not only the production of significant bursts of fusion energy from deuterium-tritium (D-T) plasmas in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) and the Joint European Torus (JET) but, more importantly, the initial study of the physics of burning magnetically confined plasmas. The TFTR and JET, in conjunction with the worldwide fusion effort, have studied a broad range of topics including magnetohydrodynamic stability, transport, wave-particle interactions, the confinement of energetic particles, and plasma boundary interactions. The D-T experiments differ in three principal ways from previous experiments: isotope effects associated with the use of deuterium-tritium fuel, the presence of fusion-generated alpha particles, and technology issues associated with tritium handling and increased activation. The effect of deuterium-tritium fuel and the presence of alpha particles is reviewed and placed in the perspective of the much large r worldwide database using deuterium fuel and theoretical understanding. Both devices have contributed substantially to addressing the scientific and technical issues associated with burning plasmas. However, future burning plasma experiments will operate with larger ratios of alpha heating power to auxiliary power and will be able to access additional alpha-particle physics issues. The scientific opportunities for extending our understanding …

The Particle Cleanliness Validation System (PCVS) is a combination of a surface particle collection tool and a microscope based data, reduction system for determining the particle cleanliness of mechanical and optical surfaces at LLNL. Livermore is currently constructing the National Ignition Facility (NIF), a large 192 beam laser system for studying fusion physics. The laser is entirely enclosed. in aluminum and stainless steel vessels containing several environments; air, argon, and vacuum. It contains uncoated optics as well as hard dielectric coated and softer solgel coated optics which are, to varying degrees, sensitive to opaque particles, translucent particles, and molecular contamination. To quantify the particulate matter on structural surfaces during vendor cleaning and installation, a novel instrument has been developed to-both collect surface particles and to quantify the number and size distribution of these particles. The particles are collected on membrane filter paper which is ''swiped'' on a test surface for a proscribed distance to collect sufficient particles to significantly exceed the cleanliness of the filter paper. The swipe paper is then placed into a cassette for protection from further. contamination and transported to a microscope with x-y motorized stage and image analysis software, The surface of the swipe paper is …

Investigation of behavior of actinides in alkaline media containing AL(III) showed that no aluminate complexes of actinides in oxidation states (IIII-VIII) were formed in alkaline solutions. At alkaline precipitation IPH (10-14) of actinides in presence of AL(III) formation of aluminate compounds is not observed. However, in precipitates contained actinides (IIV)<(VI), and to a lesser degree actinides (III), some interference of components takes place that is reflected in change of solid phase properties in comparison with pure components or their mechanical mixture. The interference decreases with rise of precipitation PH and at PH 14 is exhibited very feebly. In the case of NP(VII) the individual compound with AL(III) is obtained, however it is not aluminate of neptunium(VII), but neptunate of aluminium(III) similar to neptunates of other metals obtained earlier.

Horizontal gene transfer as adaptive response to heavy metal stress in the presence of heavy metal stress was evaluated in oligotrophic subsurface soil laboratory scale microcosms. Increasing levels of cadmium (10, 100 and 1000 mM) were applied and an E. coli donor was used to deliver the target plasmids, pMOL187 and pMOL222, which contained the czc and ncc operons, and the helper plasmid RP4. Plasmid transfer was evaluated through monitoring of the heavy metal resistance and presence of the genes. The interactive, clearly revealed, effect of biological and chemical external factors on the extent of plasmid-DNA propagation in microbial communities in contaminated soil environments was observed in this study. Additionally, P.putida LBJ 415 carrying a suicide construct was used to evaluate selective elimination of a plasmid donor.

Spatial and temporal coherence is a fundamental property of laser beams. This peculiar quality is a problem for laser fusion because it induces spatial non uniformities of the laser intensity in the focal spot and it generates coherent coupling between the electromagnetic laser wave and the plasma waves. In the past many years, it has been shown that laser beam smoothing using different techniques (random phase plate, smoothing by spectral dispersion, polarization smoothing, ...) can reduce parametric and hydrodynamic instabilities which are detrimental processes to Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF). More recently, it has been predicted theoretically and numerically that the laser beam coherence properties can be modified by the propagation of the laser beam through an underdense plasma. Recent experiments with the six-beam LULI laser facility demonstrate the effectiveness of this process through different diagnostics, give insight on its origin, and show some of its consequences on parametric instabilities.

We report recent application experiments on the LLNL COMET tabletop facility using the picosecond, 14.7 nm Ni-like Pd x-ray laser. This work includes measurements of a laser-produced plasma density profile with a diffraction grating interferometer.

Graphical curves and text tables are presented that map out time and space distortions for data obtained from film records of the Many Beam Fabry Perot Velocimeter. Effective distortion corrections extracted from these mappings can be applied to upcoming velocimetry experiments, but only with limited success over periods of a year or more into the future. A method of using three fiducials to provide fresh time and space distortion data on each film record is presented as a more reliable procedure to correct distortions to an acceptable level of accuracy.

Analysis is described towards development of a RF undulator with a period < 1 cm, an undulator parameter K of the order of unity, and a gap greater than 2.25 mm. The application for the undulator is for a SASE source to produce 1 nm wavelength radiation using a low energy electron beam in the range 1-2 GeV. Particle orbit calculations in a conventional standing-wave resonator configuration show that the presence of a co-propagating component of RF field can cause deleterious motion for the undulating electrons that can seriously degrade their radiation spectrum. To obviate this problem, resonator designs were devised in which only the counter-propagating field components interact with the particles. Two resonator configurations with the same undulator parameter K = 0.4 have been devised and are described in this report.

We describe progress on the issue of pathological elastic wave reflection in atomistic and multiscale simulation. First we briefly review Coarse-Grained Molecular Dynamics (CGMD). Originally CGMD was formulated as a Hamiltonian system in which energy is conserved. This formulation is useful for many applications, but recently CGMD has been extended to include generalized Langevin forces. Here we describe how Langevin dynamics arise naturally in CGMD, and we examine the implication for elastic wave scattering.

Printed wiring board (PWB) fabrication, an operation performed both at LLNL and throughout the electronics industry, generates considerable quantities of hazardous waste, notably lead-bearing materials used for soldering, tinning, and finish coating the circuits of the board. Hot-air solder leveling (HASL), the most common method of finishing is one of the main sources of hazardous lead-bearing wastes in traditional PWB manufacturing. The development of a safer finishing method will lead to employee health and environmental benefits. In addition, there is a production advantage to eliminating HASL, for it provides a fairly uneven surface that is problematic for mounting very small components. In this project, we developed ''single-bath electroplating'' as a potential HASL replacement technology for many applications. Single-bath electroplating involves alternating deposition of one or the other metal component of a bimetal bath, through control of plating potential and mass transport. It employs a nickel layer as both etch resist and finish coat and has the potential for lowering environmental and human-health risks associated with PWB manufacture--while at the same time reconfiguring the process for greater efficiency and profitability.

Synchrotron-based soft x-ray spectroscopy is often limited by detector performance. Grating spectrometers have the resolution, but lack the efficiency for the analysis of dilute samples. Semiconducting Si(Li) or Ge detectors are efficient, but often lack the resolution to separate weak signals from strong nearby lines in multi-element samples. Superconducting tunnel junctions (STJs) operated at temperatures below 1 K can be used as high-resolution high-efficiency x-ray detectors. They combine high energy resolution around 10 eV FWHM with the broad band efficiency of energy-dispersive detectors. We have designed a two-stage adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator (ADR) to operate STJ detectors in x-ray fluorescence measurements at beam line 4 of the ALS. We demonstrate the capabilities of such a detector system for fluorescence analysis of dilute metal sites in proteins and inorganic model compounds.

The use of sprayed flammable fluids as solvents in dissolution and cleaning processes demand detailed understanding of ignition and fire hazards associated with these applications. When it is not feasible to inert the atmosphere in which the spraying process takes place, then elimination of all possible ignition sources must be done. If operators are involved in the process, the potential for human static build-up and ultimate discharge is finite, and it is nearly impossible to eliminate. The specific application discussed in this paper involved the use of heated Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO) to dissolve high explosives (HE). Search for properties of DMSO yielded data on flammability limits and flash point, but there was no published information pertaining to the minimum energy for electrical arc ignition. Due to the sensitivity of this procedure, The Hazards Control Department of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) was tasked to determine the minimum ignition energy of DMSO aerosol and vapor an experimental investigation was thus initiated. Because there were no electrical sources in spray chamber, Human Electro-Static Discharge (HESD) was the only potential ignition source. Consequently, the electrostatic generators required for this investigation were designed to produce electrostatic arcs with the defined voltage and current pulse …

Sapphire, a common optical window material used in shock-compression studies, displays significant shock-induced optical emission and extinction. It is desirable to quantify such non-ideal window behavior to enhance the usefulness of sapphire in optical studies of opaque shock-compressed samples, such as metals. At the highest stresses we can achieve with a two-stage gas gun it is technically very difficult to study the optical properties of sapphire without the aid of some opaque backing material, hence one is invariably compelled to deconvolve the optical effects of the opaque surface and the sapphire. In an effort to optimize this deconvolution process, we have constructed sapphire/thin-film/sapphire samples using two basic types of thin films: one optimized to emit copious optical radiation (the hot-film sample), the other designed to yield minimal emission (the cold-film sample). This sample geometry makes it easy to maintain the same steady shock-stress in the sapphire window (255 GPa in our case) while varying the window/film interface temperature. A six-channel time-resolved optical pyrometer is used to measure the emission from the sample assemblies. Two different sapphire crystal orientations were evaluated. We also comment on finite thermal conductivity effects of the thin-film geometry on the interpretation of our data.