We made considerable progress towards developing a thermogravimetric reactor with in-situ video imaging capability (TGA/IVIM). Such a reactor will allow us to observe macroscopic changes in the morphology of pyrolyzing particles and thermal ignitions while monitoring at the time the weight of pyrolyzing or reacting samples. The systematic investigation on the effects of pyrolysis conditions and char macropore structure on char reactivity continued. Pyrolysis and gasification experiments were performed consecutively in our TGA reactor and the char reactivity patterns were measured for a wide range of temperatures (400 to 600{degrees}C). These conditions cover both the kinetic and the diffusion limited regimes. Our results show conclusively that chars produced at high pyrolysis heating rates (and, therefore, having a more open cellular macropore structure) are more reactive and ignite more easily than chars pyrolyzed at low heating rates. These results have been explained using available predictions from theoretical models. We also investigated for the first time the effect of coal particle size and external mass transfer limitations on the reactivity patterns and ignition behavior of char particles combusted in air. Finally, we used our hot stage reactor to monitor the structural transformations occurring during pyrolysis via a video microscopy system. Pyrolysis experiments …

In a coal liquefaction process an aqueous slurry of coal is prepared containing a dissolved liquefaction catalyst. A small quantity of oil is added to the slurry and then coal-oil agglomerates are prepared by agitation of the slurry at atmospheric pressure. The resulting mixture is drained of excess water and dried at atmospheric pressure leaving catalyst deposited on the agglomerates. The agglomerates then are fed to an extrusion device where they are formed into a continuous ribbon of extrudate and fed into a hydrogenation reactor at elevated pressure and temperature. The catalytic hydrogenation converts the extrudate primarily to liquid hydrocarbons in the reactor. The liquid drained in recovering the agglomerates is recycled. 1 fig.

The NA34 (HELIOS) calorimeter has measured e/{pi} {congruent} 1.1 in a uranium/liquid argon calorimeter with a shaping time of 135 nsec. Lead may be a viable alternative, but e/{pi} must first be measured at fast shaping times in lead. We re preparing to measure e/{pi} at momenta ranging from 0.5 to 20 GeV/c and with shaping times of 50, 100 and 150 nsec.

During the past three months, the coal feeding system has been tested and currently undergoing evaluation at the University of Cincinnati. The system consists primarily of an auger feed tube which is used to both convey and provide desulfurization of a high sulfur coal feedstock. The coal is conveyed at temperatures ranging from 350 to 550{degrees}C and under normal atmospheric pressure. Under these mild processing conditions, the coal partially pyrolizes and emits sulfur in the form of hydrogen sulfide while maintaining a relatively high heating value in the char product. The evolved gases are evacuated from the reactor (the feed tube) to another absorbing bed where H{sub 2}S reacts with the sorbent, usually lime or limestone. The resultant sorbent utilization is substantially higher than the values found in current dry scrubbing system and the produced low-sulfur char may then be used in a conventional steam boiler.

High-level radioactive sludge at the Savannah River Site (SRS) will be processed at the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) into durable borosilicate glass wasteforms. The sludges are analyzed for elemental content before processing to ensure compatibility with the glass-making processes. Noble metal fission products in sludge, can under certain conditions, cause problems in the glass melter. Therefore, reliable noble metal determinations are important. The scheme used to measure noble metals in SRS sludges consists of dissolving sludge with hot aqua regia followed by determinations with inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and ICP-Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS) techniques. ICP-MS is the preferred method for measuring trace levels of noble metals in SRS radioactive waste because of superior sensitivity. Analytical results are presented for the two major types of SRS sludge.

The Real Time Modeling Computer (RTMC) is a duplicate implementation of the software from the Savannah River Simulator on an independent hardware system. Such a ``cloned`` software tool allows a wide range of development and support activities to be undertaken independently of the training simulator complex. In addition to the expected simulator support function provided by the RTMC (e.g., deficiency corrections and development of model enhancements), the facility is also used for engineering analysis scoping studies and to drive an artificial intelligence research laboratory. An application anticipated for the future is its use as a test-bed for a major hardware upgrade of the simulator complex. Finally, the proprietorship of the RTMC by a laboratory group independent of the simulator organization, allows the site to leverage a wide range of technical skills and interests into a simulator support role.

We have extended our recently reported method for determining the surface area of single microporous particles, Dudek et al., 1989 using an electrodynamic chamber (EDC) by increasing the operating pressures from 1 at to 25 at. The value of total surface area is determined from adsorption measurements of CO{sub 2} assuming monolayer adsorption. Measurements of CO{sub 2} desorption were also carried out to yield a point to point difference from the adsorption measurements of about 1%. Adsorption-desorption cycles were carried out for 10 particles to yield a scatter of less than 5% in the measured value for saturation adsorption. The major advantage of using high pressure measurements for evaluating the saturation value for CO{sub 2} adsorption is the improved accuracy of the extrapolation procedure. Previous measurements with the EDC at atmospheric pressure, Dudek, et al., 1989, yielded values for the surface area for similar particles of comparable value with a relative error of about 15%. The results of the high pressure measurements are however bounded with an error of about 3%. Also, the equilibrium adsorption-desorption coefficient was found with a high accuracy, whereas from atmospheric measurements it was not practical to obtain an accurate value.

This report discusses the research and development on the hadron shower counter for the superconducting super collider. (LSP)

Westinghouse Savannah River Company (WSRC) operates the Savannah River Site (SRS) for the Department of Energy (DOE). Waste from the processing of irradiated material is stored in large shielded tanks. Treated liquid wastes are to be transferred from these tanks to the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) for incorporation in glass suitable for storage in a federal repository. Characteristics of the wastes range from water-like liquid to highly viscous wastes containing suspended solids. Pumping head requirements for various conditions ranged from 10 meters (35 feet) to 168 meters (550 feet). A specially designed, cantilever type, remotely operated and maintained pump was designed and built to transfer the wastes. To demonstrate the design, a prototype pump was built and testing thoroughly with simulated waste. Severe vibration problems were overcome by proper drive shaft selection and careful control of the space between the pump shaft and fixed running clearances (sometimes called seals). Eleven pumps are now installed and six pumps have been successfully run in water service.

Lysimeters are large-scale, field experiments used at the Savannah River Site (SRS) to measure the effect of percolating rainfall on the release of contaminants from wasteforms. The saltstone lysimeters described are demonstrations of a disposal concept for a low-level radioactive waste resulting from the processing of high-level defense waste for vitrification. Results from the lysimeters confirm the efficacy of the slag formulation in retaining chromium and technetium. Lysimeter results were also useful in validating mathematical models used in predicting environmental effects of saltstone disposal in engineered vaults. 7 refs., 3 figs., 4 tabs.

The objective of this work is to develop an engineering framework for the exploitation of microorganisms to enhance oil recovery. Specific goals include: (1) investigation of the mechanisms of microbially induced oil mobilization; (2) the production, isolation, chemical characterization and study of the physical properties of microbially produced surfactants; (3) model studies in sandstone cores for the characterization of the interactions between growing microbially cultures and oil reservoirs; (4) development of simulators for MEOR; and (5) design of operational strategies for the sequential injection of microorganisms and nutrient in reservoirs are: (1) systematic discussion of the mechanisms important in MEOR processes; (2) Measurement of the growth characteristics of Bacillus Licheniformis under various conditions of pH, temperature and salt concentration for both aerobic and anaerobic growth.; (3) measurement of interfacial tension reducing ability of the biosurfactant under different conditions of pH and salt concentration; (4) development of some preliminary methods to concentrate and characterize the biosurfactant; (5) development of a compositional numerical simulator for MEOR processes; and (6) Measurement of the lowest interfacial tension (IFT) value reported for biosurfactants to date. Demonstration of the fact that the low IFT values required for oil recovery can be attained with biosurfactants.

This paper presents a concept for using high-temperature superconducting materials in thermoelectric generators (SCTE) to produce electricity at conversion efficiencies approaching 50% of the Carrot efficiency. The SCTE generator is applicable to systems operating in temperature ranges of high-temperature superconducting materials and thus would be a low-grade converter. Operating in cryogenic temperature ranges provides the advantage of inherently increasing the limits of the Carrot efficiency. Potential applications are for systems operating in space where the ambient temperatures are in the cryogenic temperature range. The advantage of using high-temperature superconducting material in a thermoelectric converter is that it would significantly reduce or eliminate the Joule heating losses in a thermoelectric element. This paper investigates the system aspects and the material requirements of the SCTE converter concept, and presents a conceptual design and an application for a space power system.

Iodide-impregnated activated carbon that had been in use for up to 30 months was studied to characterize those factors that affect its interaction with and retention of methyl iodide. Humidity and competing organic sorbents were observed to decrease the residence time of the methyl iodide on the carbon bed. Additionally, changes in the effective surface area and the loss of iodide from the surface are both important in determining the effectiveness of the carbon for retaining radioactive iodine from methyl iodide. A simple model incorporating both factors gave a fairly good fit to the experimental data.

It was discovered that presence of low concentration of ammonia greatly reduces rate of hydrogenation of an aromatic compound (propylbenzene) on an industrial NiMo/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} catalyst while it has only a mild inhibiting effect on hydrodenitrogenation (of quinoline). This suggests a way of industrial by reaction conditions of minimizing undesired aromatic hydrogenation during catalytic hydrodenitrogenation Coal liquids contain substantial amounts of a base fraction that consists of hydroxy pyridines, hydroxy indoles and/or hydroxy anilines. No information has been published on the HDN-HDO hydrotreating reactions of a compound in which a hydroxyl (phenolic) group is attached to a heterocyclic N compound. Thus the question has been raised of the extent to which quinoline HDN may or may not reflect the behaviour of such compounds. We have therefore performed a limited study with 8-hydroxy quinoline dissolved in tetralin utilizing a NiMo/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} catalyst in a packed bed reactor operating at 360 and 385 and 6.9 MPa. We find that the N-heterocyclic ring is hydrogenated first to form an equilibrium mixture with a reaction intermediate identified as 8-OH-1,2,3,4 tetrahydroquinoline. Oxygen is then removed to form the same reaction intermediates we have observed from quinoline alone, but in somewhat different ratios. Therefore, …

The radioactive waste glass melter used at Savannah River Site (SRS) is a liquid slurry feed joule-heated ceramic melter. The physical nature of a joule-heated meter is complex and involves interactions between electric, thermal, and flow fields. These interactions take place through strongly temperature-dependent glass properties, natural convection, advection, diffusion, and volumetrically distributed joule heating sources. The cold feed on top of heated glass distabilizes the flow field and develops unsteady asymmetric flow motions underneath. Thus waste glass modeling requires solving a full 3-D, unsteady, momentum, energy, and electric equation with temperature-dependent properties. Simulation of noble metal deposit process requires an additional mass diffusion equation that is coupled to the momentum equation through mass advection term. The objective of this paper is to identify critical issues anticipated in the Defense Waste Process Facility (DWPF) melter operation and address how these issues can be resolved with current state-of-the-art mathematical modeling techniques.

Experiments in the high level cells at WSRC have established that PuO{sub 2} has an extremely high absorption factor the microwaves: temperatures in excess of 1000{degrees}C were reached in less than 5 minutes with a multi mode, 2450 MHz, 600 watt, microwave oven. In other microwave heating experiments: stoichiometric compositions of PuO{sub 2}-UO{sub 2} were prepared and U{sub 3}O{sub 8} was reduced to U{sub 4}O{sub g}.

The objectives of this research are: To develop a theoretical and experimental framework for understanding isotope fractionations in plants; and to develop methods for using this isotope fractionation for understanding the dynamics of CO{sub 2} fixation in plants. Progress is described.

The Savannah River Site has generated 77 million gallons of high level radioactive waste since the early 1950`s. By 1987, evaporation had reduced the concentration of the waste inventory to 35 million gallons. Currently, the wastes reside in large underground tanks as a soluble fraction stored, crystallized salts, and an insoluble fraction, sludge, which consists of hydrated transition metal oxides. The bulk of the radionuclides, 67 percent, are in the sludge while the crystallized salts and supernate are composed of the nitrates, nitrites, sulfates and hydroxides of sodium, potassium, and cesium. The principal radionuclide in the soluble waste is {sup 137}Cs with traces of {sup 90}Sr. The transformation of the high level wastes into a borosilicate glass suitable for permanent disposal is the goal of the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF). To minimize the volume of glass produced, the soluble fraction of the waste is treated with sodium tetraphenylborate and sodium titanate in the waste tanks to precipitate the radioactive cesium ion and absorb the radioactive strontium ion. The precipitate is washed in the waste tanks and is then pumped to the DWPF. The precipitate, as received, is incompatible with the vitrification process because of the high aromatic carbon content …

The computer codes used at Brookhaven National Laboratory to compute BWR safety parameters are the Engineering Plant Analyzer (EPA) and RAMONA-3B/MOD1. Both codes have the same methodology for modeling thermal hydraulic phenomena: drift-flux formulation, two-phase multipliers for the wall friction and form losses calculations, and the momentum integral approach for spatial integration of the loop momentum equations. Both codes use explicit integration methods for solving ordinary differential equations. It is concluded that both the codes are capable of modelling the instability problems for a BWR. The accuracy of thermohydraulics codes predictions was assessed by modelling oscillatory FRIGG tests. Nodalizations studies showed that 24 axial nodes were sufficient for a converged solution, 12 axial nodes produced an error of 4.4% in the gain of the power to flow transfer function. The code predicted consistently the effects of power and inlet subcooling on gain and system resonance frequency. The comparisons showed that the code predicted the peak gains with a mean difference from experiments of 7% {plus_minus} 30% for all the tests modeled. The uncertainty in the experimental data is {minus}11% to +12%. The mean difference in the predicted frequency at the peak gain is {minus}6% {plus_minus} 14%.

Welding methods for modification or repair of irradiated nuclear reactor vessels are being evaluated at the Savannah River Site. A low-penetration weld overlay technique has been developed to minimize the adverse effects of irradiation induced helium on the weldability of metals and alloys. This technique was successfully applied to Type 304 stainless steel test plates that contained 3 to 220 appm helium from tritium decay. Conventional welding practices caused significant cracking and degradation in the test plates. Optical microscopy of weld surfaces and cross sections showed that large surface toe cracks formed around conventional welds in the test plates but did not form around overlay welds. Scattered incipient underbead cracks (grain boundary separations) were associated with both conventional and overlay test welds. Tensile and bend tests were used to assess the effect of base metal helium content on the mechanical integrity of the low-penetration overlay welds. The axis of tensile specimens was perpendicular to the weld-base metal interface. Tensile specimens were machined after studs were resistance welded to overlay surfaces.

Exploratory statistical analyses of microbiological, hydrological and geochemical data for samples from four boreholes drilled into Upper Atlantic Coastal Plain sediments near the Savannah River Site, SC, showed highly significant correlations between bacterial abundance (AODC and CFU) and hydraulic conductivity (K). Sediment texture variables (% sand (S), % silt, % clay (C), and S/C) were strongly interrelated with K and, therefore, also correlated with bacterial abundance. AODC did not correlate with the concentrations of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) or dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in pore water. CFU also did not correlate with DIN, but a negative relationship was found between the CFU and DOC for sandy sediments, suggesting that microbial activity may control pore water DOC concentration. In some, but not all boreholes, AODC and CFU correlated negatively with pore water concentrations of metals and positively with pH. Protozoan abundance correlated strongly with AODC and CFU in the two boreholes closest to the recharge areas for their major aquifers. It also correlated with sediment texture variables, but not with K. Fungal abundance did not correlate with the abundance of other microbial types when data from individual boreholes were considered; however it did correlate with both bacterial and protozoan abundance when …

This report reviews work on the optimization of film synthesized rare earth transition metal permanent magnet systems. Topics include: high coercivity in Sm-Fe-Ti-V, Sm-Fe-V, and two element systems; ThMn{sub 12} type pseudobinary SmFe{sub 12 {minus} X}T{sub X}; and sputter process control for the synthesis of precisely textured RE-TM magnetic films. (JL)

This paper describes the development of standards for emergency operations computer systems for the US Department of Energy (DOE). The proposed DOE computer standards prescribe the necessary power and simplicity to meet the expanding needs of emergency managers. Standards include networked UNIX workstations based on the client server model and software that presents information graphically using icons and windowing technology. DOE standards are based on those of the computer industry although Proposed DOE is implementing the latest technology to ensure a solid base for future growth. A case of how these proposed standards are being implemented is also presented. The Savannah River Site (SRS), a DOE facility near Aiken, South Carolina is automating a manual information system, proven over years of development. This system is generalized as a model that can apply to most, if not all, Emergency Operations Centers. This model can provide timely and validated information to emergency managers. By automating this proven system, the system is made easier to use. As experience in the case study demonstrates, computers are only an effective information tool when used as part of a proven process.

The two basic methods for modeling the atmospheric transport of pollutants (diagnostic and prognostic) are examined along with the current models utilized at SRS for emergency response (WINDS). The ability of a limited-area (mesoscale) model, nested within a synoptic scale model, to represent a wide range of flow behavior, makes it the method of choice for predicting pollutant transport. Such a mesoscale model can provide an invaluable research tool and, with a periodic processing strategy for wind field calculation and/or sufficient computer capability, can be utilized in an emergency response capacity. Various models are compared.