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A grain boundary engineered copper sample previously characterized by Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) has been selected for nanoindentation tests. Given the fact that grain boundaries have thicknesses in the order of 1 micron or less, it is essential to use nanomechanics to test the properties of individual grain boundaries. The Hysitron nanoindenter was selected over the MTS nanoindenter due to its superior optical capabilities that aid the selection and identification of the areas to be tested. An area of 2mm by 2mm with an average grain size of 50 microns has been selected for the study. Given the EBSD mapping, grains and grain boundaries with similar orientations are tested and the hardness and modulus are compared. These results will give a relationship between the mechanical properties and the engineered grain boundaries. This will provide for the first time a correlation between grain boundary orientation and the mechanical behavior of the sample at the nanoscale.

This analysis evaluates the potential economic benefits that could result from the improvements in the permeability of membranes for reverse osmosis. The discussion provides a simple model of the operation of a reverse osmosis plant. It examines the change in the operation that might result from improvements in the membrane and computes the cost of water as a function of the membrane permeability.

Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) was requested to develop an x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry method for elemental characterization of the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) pretreated low activity waste (LAW) stream to the LAW Vitrification Plant. The WTP is evaluating the potential for using XRF as a rapid turnaround technique to support LAW product compliance and glass former batching. The overall objective of this task was to develop XRF analytical methods that provide the rapid turnaround time (<8 hours) requested by the WTP, while providing sufficient accuracy and precision to determine waste composition variations. For Phase 1a, SRNL (1) evaluated, selected, and procured an XRF instrument for WTP installation, (2) investigated three XRF sample methods for preparing the LAW sub-sample for XRF analysis, and (3) initiated scoping studies on AN-105 (Envelope A) simulant to determine the instrument's capability, limitations, and optimum operating parameters. After preliminary method development on simulants and the completion of Phase 1a activities, SRNL received approval from WTP to begin Phase 1b activities with the objective of optimizing the XRF methodology. Three XRF sample methods used for preparing the LAW sub-sample for XRF analysis were studied: direct liquid analysis, dried spot, and fused glass. …

This document reports on monitoring well installation and sampling in 2004 at the location of a grain storage facility formerly operated in Centralia, Kansas, by the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Argonne National Laboratory is conducting environmental investigations of carbon tetrachloride contamination in groundwater at this site for the CCC/USDA. With the approval of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), Argonne installed six monitoring wells at the former facility in July 2004 to supplement existing monitoring points (piezometers) installed during Argonne's Phase I investigation in 2002. Together, the monitoring wells and piezometers constitute a monitoring network designed to (1) confirm the lateral distribution of carbon tetrachloride in the groundwater, (2) track any migration of contaminants that might take place, and (3) monitor aquifer geochemical characteristics. To verify that the six new monitoring wells had been developed adequately, they were sampled after their installation in July 2004 for analysis for volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The monitoring wells were sampled again in August 2004, after a stabilization period of four weeks. Five of the Phase I piezometers were also sampled in August 2004. Results of analysis of the August 2004 groundwater samples for VOCs …

The visualization of biological molecules and assemblies can provide enormous insight into protein structure-function relationships, as well as practical applications to fields such as microbial forensics. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a powerful tool for imaging soft biomaterials such as cells, spores, and proteins with nanometer resolution. The goal of this work is to understand pathogen architecture and its application to microbial forensics and medicine. Initial work has focused on imaging Bacillus species; both live cells and dormant spores. Experiments have shown AFM capable of visualizing the fine structures of cell wall peptidoglycan and spore coat proteins. Work completed thus far indicates that AFM will be able to resolve some persistent questions in microbiology concerning structure-function relationships at cell surfaces, as well as assist in understanding the formulation and processing of spores used for bio-terrorism. In addition to imaging results, we have developed a robust method for the attachment of cells to surfaces for imaging in liquid.

In 1952, we began laboratory operations in the barracks building of the Naval Air Station with approximately 50 employees. Today, the Chemistry and Materials Science (CMS) Directorate is a major organization at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory with more than 500 employees who continue to contribute to our evolving national security mission. For more than half a century, the mission of the Laboratory revolved primarily around nuclear deterrence and associated defense technologies. Today, Livermore supports a broad-based national security mission, and our specialized capabilities increasingly support emerging missions in human health and energy security. In the future, CMS will play a significantly expanded role in science and technology at the intersection of national security, energy and environment, and health. Our world-class workforce will provide the science and technology base for radically innovative materials to our programs and sponsors. Our 2005 Annual Report describes how our successes and breakthroughs follow a path set forward by our strategic plan and four organizing research themes, each with key scientific accomplishments by our staff and collaborators. Organized into two major sections-research themes and dynamic teams, this report focuses on achievements arising from earlier investments that address future challenges. The research presented in this annual …

On May 22, 2000, as required by Congress in its 1980 Amendments to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a Regulatory Determination on Wastes from the Combustion of Fossil Fuels. On the basis of information contained in its 1999 Report to Congress: Wastes from the Combustion of Fossil Fuels, the EPA concluded that coal combustion wastes (CCWs), also known as coal combustion by-products (CCBs), did not warrant regulation under Subtitle C of RCRA, and it retained the existing hazardous waste exemption for these materials under RCRA Section 3001(b)(3)(C). However, the EPA also determined that national regulations under Subtitle D of RCRA were warranted for CCWs that are disposed of in landfills or surface impoundments. The EPA made this determination in part on the basis of its findings that 'present disposal practices are such that, in 1995, these wastes were being managed in 40 percent to 70 percent of landfills and surface impoundments without reasonable controls in place, particularly in the area of groundwater monitoring; and while there have been substantive improvements in state regulatory programs, we have also identified gaps in State oversight' (EPA 2000). The 1999 Report to Congress (RTC), however, …

This document builds on the discussion notes from September 21, 2006. It provides a summary of the ideas relating to the scenario bank tables and their associated requirements. Two conceptual groupings were identified for the contents requirements of the scenario bank. The first, called ProjectTemplate, shall consist of <Project, Scenarios, and Miscellaneous Files> groups. The second, ProjectArchive, shall consist of groups of <Project, Scenarios, Results, and Miscellaneous Files>. The figure below illustrates the multiplicity of the associations between the different tables, with color coding used to distinguish between current MESA (brown) and USDA (light green) requirements. Scenario bank tables are shown in black with their general contents specified within the box. The metadata associated with each table is expected to include database key information as well as relevant timestamps. Each File is expected to be a file with an arbitrary format.

On June 1, 2006, public health officials working in surveillance, epidemiological modeling, and information technology communities from the Seattle/Tacoma area and State of Washington met with members of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to discuss the current state of disease surveillance and gaps and needs to improve the current systems. The meeting also included a discussion of PNNL initiatives that might be appropriate to enhance disease surveillance and the current tools being used for disease surveillance. Participants broke out into two groups to identify critical gaps and needs for improving a surveillance system, and discuss the requirements for developing improved surveillance. Each group developed a list of key priorities summarizing the requirements for improved surveillance. The objective of this meeting was to work towards the development of an improved disease surveillance system.

Expression arrays are introducing a paradigmatic change in biology by shifting experimental approaches from single gene studies to genome-level analysis, monitoring the ex-pression levels of several thousands of genes in parallel. The massive amounts of data obtained from the microarray data needs to be integrated and interpreted to infer biological meaning within the context of information-rich pathways. In this paper, we present a methodology that integrates textual information with annotations from cross-referenced ontolo-gies to map genes to pathways in a semi-automated way. We illustrate this approach and compare it favorably to other tools by analyzing the gene expression changes underlying the biological phenomena related to stroke. Stroke is the third leading cause of death and a major disabler in the United States. Through years of study, researchers have amassed a significant knowledge base about stroke, and this knowledge, coupled with new technologies, is providing a wealth of new scientific opportunities. The potential for neu-roprotective stroke therapy is enormous. However, the roles of neurogenesis, angiogenesis, and other proliferative re-sponses in the recovery process following ischemia and the molecular mechanisms that lead to these processes still need to be uncovered. Improved annotation of genomic and pro-teomic data, including annotation of pathways in …

This report provides information on groundwater monitoring at the K Basins during July, August, and September 2006. Conditions remain very similar to those reported in the previous quarterly report, with no evidence in monitoring results to suggest groundwater impact from current loss of basin water to the ground. The K Basins monitoring network will be modified in the coming quarters as a consequence of remedial action at KE Basin, i.e., removal of sludge and basin demolition.

The objective of this project is to increase oil recovery from fractured reservoirs through improved fundamental understanding of the process of spontaneous imbibition by which oil is displaced from the rock matrix into the fractures. Spontaneous imbibition is fundamentally dependent on the reservoir surface free energy but this has never been investigated for rocks. In this project, the surface free energy of rocks will be determined by using liquids that can be solidified within the rock pore space at selected saturations. Thin sections of the rock then provide a two-dimensional view of the rock minerals and the occupant phases. Saturations and oil/rock, water/rock, and oil/water surface areas will be determined by advanced petrographic analysis and the surface free energy which drives spontaneous imbibition will be determined as a function of increase in wetting phase saturation. The inherent loss in surface free energy resulting from capillary instabilities at the microscopic (pore level) scale will be distinguished from the decrease in surface free energy that drives spontaneous imbibition. A mathematical network/numerical model will be developed and tested against experimental results of recovery versus time over broad variation of key factors such as rock properties, fluid phase viscosities, sample size, shape and boundary …

The overall objective of the work scope covered by this technical work plan (TWP) is to develop new damage abstractions for the seismic scenario class in total system performance assessment (TSPA). The new abstractions will be based on a new set of waste package and drip shield damage calculations in response to vibratory ground motion and fault displacement. The new damage calculations, which are collectively referred to as damage models in this TWP, are required to represent recent changes in waste form packaging and in the regulatory time frame. The new damage models also respond to comments from the Independent Validation Review Team (IVRT) postvalidation review of the draft TSPA model regarding performance of the drip shield and to an Additional Information Need (AIN) from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

Cleveland Tool and Machine (CTM) of Cleveland, Ohio in conjunction with Harrington Product Development Center (HPDC) of Cincinnati, Ohio have developed an advanced, dimensionally accurate, temperature-stable, energy-efficient and cost-effective material and process to manufacture patterns for the investment casting industry. In the proposed technology, FOPAT (aFOam PATtern material) has been developed which is especially compatible with the investment casting process and offers the following advantages: increased dimensional accuracy; increased temperature stability; lower cost per pattern; less energy consumption per pattern; decreased cost of pattern making equipment; decreased tooling cost; increased casting yield. The present method for investment casting is "the lost wax" process, which is exactly that, the use of wax as a pattern material, which is then melted out or "lost" from the ceramic shell. The molten metal is then poured into the ceramic shell to produce a metal casting. This process goes back thousands of years and while there have been improvements in the wax and processing technology, the material is basically the same, wax. The proposed technology is based upon an established industrial process of "Reaction Injection Molding" (RIM) where two components react when mixed and then "molded" to form a part. The proposed technology has been …

We use Bane's approximation to the Bjorken-Mtingwa theory of intrabeam scattering to calculate the emittance growth as a function of bunch charge in the KEK ATF. We find that our results are consistent with the experimental data. We then calculate the emittance growth in the NLC Main Damping Rings using the same formulae; we allow for some uncertainty in the ATF data by using two different values for the Coulomb log factor in the formulae for the emittance growth rates. We find that despite the IBS emittance growth, it should still be possible to achieve the specified transverse and longitudinal emittances in the NLC Main Damping Rings at the specified bunch charge.

The theory behind how chemically reactive tracers are used to characterize the velocity and temperature distribution in steady flowing systems is reviewed. Kinetic parameters are established as a function of reservoir temperatures and fluid residence times for selecting appropriate reacting systems. Reactive tracer techniques are applied to characterize the temperature distribution in a laminar-flow heat exchanger. Models are developed to predict reactive tracer behavior in fractured geothermal reservoirs of fixed and increasing size.

This report is a compendium of sets of mechanical properties of carbon and low alloy steels following the short-term effects of hydrogen exposure. The property sets include the following: Yield Strength; Ultimate Tensile Strength; Uniform Elongation; Reduction of Area; Threshold Cracking, K{sub H} or K{sub th}; Fracture Toughness (K{sub IC}, J{sub IC}, and/or J-R Curve); and Fatigue Crack Growth (da/dN). These properties are drawn from literature sources under a variety of test methods and conditions. However, the collection of literature data is by no means complete, but the diversity of data and dependency of results in test method is sufficient to warrant a design and implementation of a thorough test program. The program would be needed to enable a defensible demonstration of structural integrity of a pressurized hydrogen system. It is essential that the environmental variables be well-defined (e.g., the applicable hydrogen gas pressure range and the test strain rate) and the specimen preparation be realistically consistent (such as the techniques to charge hydrogen and to maintain the hydrogen concentration in the specimens).

This report describes and documents the erosion that has occurred along the northeast side of Locke Island over the last 10 to 20 years. The principal cause of this erosion is the massive Locke Island landslide complex opposite the Columbia River along the White Bluffs, which constricts the flow of the river and deflects the river's thalweg southward against the island.

An international, multiple-code benchmark test (BMT) study is being conducted within the international DECOVALEX project to analyze coupled thermal, hydrological, mechanical and chemical (THMC) processes in the excavation disturbed zone (EDZ) around emplacement drifts of a nuclear waste repository. This BMT focuses on mechanical responses and long-term chemo-mechanical effects that may lead to changes in mechanical and hydrological properties in the EDZ. This includes time-dependent processes such as creep, and subcritical crack, or healing of fractures that might cause ''weakening'' or ''hardening'' of the rock over the long term. Five research teams are studying this BMT using a wide range of model approaches, including boundary element, finite element, and finite difference, particle mechanics, and elasto-plastic cellular automata methods. This paper describes the definition of the problem and preliminary simulation results for the initial model inception part, in which time dependent effects are not yet included.

This semi-annual progress report includes our latest research on deep ocean sequestration of CO{sub 2}-in-Water (C/W) emulsions stabilized by pulverized limestone (CaCO{sub 3}). We describe a practical system that could be employed for the release of a dense C/W emulsion. The heart of the system is a Kenics-type static mixer. The testing and evaluation of a static mixer in the NETL High-Pressure Water Tunnel Facility was described in the previous semi-annual report. The release system could be deployed from a floating platform over the open ocean, or at the end of an off-shore pipe laying on the continental slope. Because the emulsion is much denser than ambient seawater, modeling shows that upon release the plume will sink much deeper from the injection point, increasing the sequestration time for CO{sub 2}. When released in the open ocean, a plume containing the output of a 500 MW{sub el} coal-fired power plant will typically sink hundreds of meters below the injection point. When released from a pipe on the continental shelf, the plume will sink about twice as much because of the limited entrainment of ambient seawater when the plume flows along the sloping seabed. Furthermore, the plume is slightly alkaline, not acidic. …

A necessary condition for crevice corrosion is that a crevice former create a sufficiently tight, restricted geometry on the metal surface to support the development of critical crevice chemistry. Crevice corrosion is affected by the crevice geometry (tightness) and the properties of the crevice former. The objective of this study is to determine the effect of the crevice former material on the evolution of localized corrosion-damage. A standard crevice corrosion test method is modified by (a) the use of ceramic, metal or polymer materials as the crevice former and (b) the variation of size and shape of the crevice. This study focuses on the post initiation stage of crevice corrosion and addresses factors that may limit the initiation of localized corrosion and also slow or stop the continued propagation of corrosion. Controlled crevice corrosion tests are performed under aggressive, accelerated conditions on Ni-Cr-Mo alloy C-22 and other alloys for comparison. Multiple techniques are used to examine the crevice corrosion damage evolution. Current measurements during the test provide a direct measure of the corrosion rate and indicate the initiation and any stifling or arrest. The localized corrosion is found to be stifled or arrested under several test conditions. The corrosion damage …

This document is the first time that Manhattan Project and Cold War era artifacts from the Hanford Site have been assembled within a publication. The publication presents photographic and written documentation of a number of Manhattan Project and Cold War era artifacts that were identified and tagged during assessment walk throughs of historic buildings on the Hanford Site but which could not be curated within the Hanford collection because they were too large for long-term storage and/or exhibit purposes or were radiologically contaminated. The significance of the artifacts in this publication and a proposed future appendix is based not on the individual significance of any single artifact but on their collective contribution to the science and engineering of creating plutonium and advancing nuclear technology in nuclear fuel and power.

This work was performed by Advanced Resources International (ARI) on behalf of the United States Department of Energy (DOE) in order to develop a user-friendly, PC-based interface that couples DOE's BOAST 98 software with the Monte Carlo simulation technique. The objectives of the work were to improve reservoir management and maximize oil recoveries by understanding and quantifying reservoir uncertainty as well as improving the capabilities of DOE's BOAST 98 software by incorporating a probabilistic module in the simulator. In this model, probability distributions can be assigned to unknown input parameters such as permeability, porosity, etc. Options have also been added to the input file to be able to vary relative permeability curves as well as well spacing. Hundreds of simulations can then automatically be run to explore the many combinations of uncertain reservoir parameters across their spectrum of uncertainty. Output data such as oil rate and water rate can then be plotted. When historical data are available, they can be uploaded and a least-square error-function run between the simulation data and the history data. The set of input parameters leading to the best match is thus determined. Sensitivity charts (Tornado plots) that rank the uncertain parameters according to the impact …