The purpose of this report is to provide information needed by the DOE to assess WIPP's environmental performance and to make WIPP environmental information available to stakeholders and members of the public. This report has been prepared in accordance with DOE Order 231.1A and DOE guidance. This report documents WIPP's environmental monitoring programs and their results for 2004. The WIPP Project is authorized by the DOE National Security and Military Applications of Nuclear Energy Authorization Act of 1980 (Pub. L. 96-164). After more than 20 years of scientific study and public input, WIPP received its first shipment of waste on March 26, 1999. Located in southeastern New Mexico, WIPP is the nation's first underground repository permitted to safely and permanently dispose of TRU radioactive and mixed waste (as defined in the WIPP LWA) generated through defense activities and programs. TRU waste is defined, in the WIPP LWA, as radioactive waste containing more than 100 nanocuries (3,700 becquerels [Bq]) of alpha-emitting TRU isotopes per gram of waste, with half-lives greater than 20 years except for high-level waste, waste that has been determined not to require the degree of isolation required by the disposal regulations, and waste the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission …

Section 9006 of Title IX of The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (the '2002 Farm Bill') established the Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvements Program (the 'Section 9006 program'). Administered by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Section 9006 program provides grants, loan guarantees, and - perhaps in the future - direct loans to farmers, ranchers, and rural small businesses for assistance with purchasing renewable energy systems and making energy efficiency improvements. In the three rounds of Section 9006 funding to date (FY03-FY05), roughly 40% of all grant dollars in aggregate have been awarded to 'large' (defined as > 100 kW) wind projects. Such projects are also typically eligible for the Federal Production Tax Credit (PTC) codified in Section 45 of the US tax code. Because the PTC provides a significant amount of value to a wind project, most 'large wind' applicants to the Section 9006 program have also tried to take advantage of the PTC. Through what are known as 'anti-double-dipping' or, more colloquially, 'haircut' provisions, however, the size of the PTC is reduced if a project receives certain other forms of governmental support. Specifically, Section 45(b)(3) of the US tax code reduces …

This cleanup verification package documents completion of remedial action for the 118-B-6, 108-B Solid Waste Burial Ground. The 118-B-6 site consisted of 2 concrete pipes buried vertically in the ground and capped by a concrete pad with steel lids. The site was used for the disposal of wastes from the "metal line" of the P-10 Tritium Separation Project.

This report presents the analyses results for three samples obtained under RPP-PLAN-28509, Sampling and Analysis Plan for Building 241 702-AZ A Train. The sampling and analysis was done in response to problem evaluation request number PER-2004-6139, 702-AZ Filter Rooms Need Radiological Cleanup Efforts.

This cleanup verification package documents completion of remedial action for the 300 Area Vitrification Test Site, also known as the 300 VTS site. The site was used by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as a field demonstration site for in situ vitrification of soils containing simulated waste.

According to the results from a Livermore computer model, some of the small change jingling in your pocket contains zinc and copper created in massive gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) that rank as the most impressive light shows in the universe. Livermore astrophysicist Jason Pruet and his colleagues Rebecca Surman and Gail McLaughlin from North Carolina State University (NCSU) reported on their calculations in the February 20, 2004, issue of ''Astrophysical Journal Letters''. They found that GRBs from black holes surrounded by a disk of dense, hot plasma may have contributed heavily to the galactic inventory of elements such as calcium, scandium, titanium, zinc, and copper. ''A typical GRB of this kind briefly outshines all the stars in millions of galaxies combined'', says Pruet. ''Plus it makes about 100 times as much of some common elements as an ordinary supernova''.

This document is a final report for DOE grant DE-FG02-00ER41147. The research described herein was funded in large part by this grant with additional support from the National Science Foundation. The primary focus of Averett's research effort is centered around the polarized {sup 3}He target in Hall A at Jefferson Lab. The close proximity of the College of William and Mary to Jefferson Lab has provided an outstanding opportunity to maintain a very active research program which still satisfying the demands of the college. Our research group includes four faculty, two post-doctoral fellows and eight graduate students. Averett also maintains a fully functional polarized {sup 3}e target lab at William and Mary which allows him to support the research program at Jefferson Lab while also doing research on polarized targets themselves. Since 1998, seven experiments using polarized {sup 3}He have been completed by the Jefferson Lab Hall A Polarized {sup 3}He Collaboration. Ten publications have been produced on this research and analysis of the two most recently completed experiments is underway. A description of the recent experiments and results is given below. In addition to target expertise, Averett has remained one of the most active collaborators in the data analysis …

In this project, GE developed electrolyzer stack technologies to meet DOE’s goals for low cost electrolysis hydrogen. The main barrier to meeting the targets for electrolyzer cost was in stack assembly and construction. GE’s invention of a single piece or “monolithic” plastic electrolyzer stack reduces these costs considerably. In addition, GE developed low cost cell electrodes using a novel application of metal spray coating technology. Bench scale stack testing and cost modeling indicates that the DOE targets for stack capital cost and efficiency can be met by full-scale production of industrial electrolyzers incorporating GE’s stack technology innovations.

This project was intended to advance the science of surface bonding in order to provide the functionality demanded by target fabrication requirements, as well as similar needs in other fields of importance to LLNL. We have developed and demonstrated a very powerful capability, i.e. 'single molecule force spectroscopy', that allows the strength of individual chemical bonds to be measured. This project focused on long chain molecules that are covalently bound to surfaces on one end and have complementary reactive groups that have the potential for bridging between surfaces. In biological systems, long chain tethers provide the mechanism for adhesion between dissimilar surfaces, e.g. bacteria adhesion to cells, and were found useful for developing the methodology. Polymer tethers offer the means to bridge across finite surface roughness and have the potential of forming thin, well-characterized bonds on a variety of surfaces.

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The goal of this project is to measure transport through CNTs and study effects of confinement at molecular scale. This work is motivated by several simulation papers in high profile journals that predict significantly higher transport rates of gases and liquids through carbon nanotubes as compared with similarly-sized nanomaterials (e.g. zeolites). The predictions are based on the effects of confinement, atomically smooth pore walls and high pore density. Our work will provide the first measurements that would compare to and hopefully validate the simulations. Gas flux is predicted to be >1000X greater for SWNTs versus zeolitesi. A high flux of 6-30 H2O/NT/ns {approx} 8-40 L/min for a 1cm{sup 2} membrane is also predicted. Neutron diffraction measurements indicate existence of a 1D water chain within a cylindrical ice sheet inside carbon nanotubes, which is consistent with the predictions of the simulation. The enabling experimental platform that we are developing is a semipermeable membrane made out of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes with gaps between nanotubes filled so that the transport occurs through the nanotubes. The major challenges of this project included: (1) Growth of CNTs in the suitable vertically aligned configuration, especially the single wall carbon nanotubes; (2) Development of a process …

The 100-F-38 Stained Soil site was an area of yellow stained soil that was discoverd while excavating a trench for the placement of electrical conduit. The 100-F-38 Stained Soil site meets the remedial action objectives specified in the Remaining Sites ROD. The results of verification sampling show demonstrate that residual contaminant concentrations support future unrestricted land uses that can be represented by a rural-residential scenario. The results also show that residual contaminant concentrations do not preclude any future uses and allow for unrestricted use of shallow zone soils and the contaminant concentrations remaining in the soil are protective of groundwater and the Columbia River.

With the goal of understanding how to mitigate the safety hazard of splash and spray around heavy vehicles, a computational study of the aerodynamics and spray dispersion about a simplified trailer wheel assembly has been completed. A tandem dual slick (TDS) wheel model that neglects complex geometric features such as brakes, wheel bolts and wheel cutouts but with the same dimensions as an actual trailer wheel assembly was used . A detailed simulation of the wheels alone demonstrated that the flow field is both unsteady and complex, containing a number of vortical structures that interact strongly with spray. Preliminary simulations with fenders and fairings demonstrated that these devices prevent the ballistic transport of drops larger than approximately 0.1 mm, but the fine mist speculated to be responsible for visibility reduction is unaffected. This work suggests that to use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to design and evaluate spray mitigation strategies the jet or sheet breakup processes can be modeled using an array of injectors of small (< 0.01 mm) water droplets; however the choice of size distribution, injection locations, directions and velocities is largely unknown and requires further study. Possible containment strategies would include using flow structures to 'focus' particles into …

Work performed as a part of this ER sets the foundation for applications of high brightness light sources to important homeland security and nonproliferation problems. Extensive modeling has been performed with the aim to understand the performance of a class of interrogation systems that exploit nuclear resonance fluorescence to detect specific isotopes, of particular importance for national security and industry.

Anisotropic and heterogeneous flow in unsaturated porous media is dependent on saturation conditions, and currently there exist limited options that adequately model this phenomenon. The phenomenon of lateral spreading commonly attributed to anisotropy can move contaminants beyond compliance boundaries at unexpected velocitites essentially bypassing large regions of the subsurface.

The objective of this project is to investigate the applicability of a combined Global Positioning System and Inertial Measurement Unit (GPS/IMU) for information based displays on earthmoving machines and for automated earthmoving machines in the future. This technology has the potential of allowing an information-based product like Caterpillar's Computer Aided Earthmoving System (CAES) to operate in areas with satellite shading. Satellite shading is an issue in open pit mining because machines are routinely required to operate close to high walls, which reduces significantly the amount of the visible sky to the GPS antenna mounted on the machine. An inertial measurement unit is a product, which provides data for the calculation of position based on sensing accelerations and rotation rates of the machine's rigid body. When this information is coupled with GPS it results in a positioning system that can maintain positioning capability during time periods of shading.

This project addresses the development of advanced fabrication capabilities for energy saving electrochromic (EC) windows. SAGE EC windows consist of an inorganic stack of thin films deposited onto a glass substrate. The window tint can be reversibly changed by the application of a low power dc voltage. This property can be used to modulate the amount of light and heat entering buildings (or vehicles) through the glazings. By judicious management of this so-called solar heat gain, it is possible to derive significant energy savings due to reductions in heating lighting, and air conditioning (HVAC). Several areas of SAGE’s production were targeted during this project to allow significant improvements to processing throughput, yield and overall quality of the processing, in an effort to reduce the cost and thereby improve the market penetration. First, the overall thin film process was optimized to allow a more robust set of operating points to be used, thereby maximizing the yield due to the thin film deposition themselves. Other significant efforts aimed at improving yield were relating to implementing new procedures and processes for the manufacturing process, to improve the quality of the substrate preparation, and the quality of the IGU fabrication. Furthermore, methods for reworking …

The supersymmetric SU(N{sub c}) Yang-Mills theory coupled to NF matter fields in the fundamental representation has meta-stable vacua with broken supersymmetry when N{sub C} < N{sub F} < 3/2 N{sub C}. By gauging the flavor symmetry, this model can be coupled directly to the standard model. We show that it is possible to make a slight deformation to the model so that gaugino masses are generated and the Landau pole problem can be avoided. The deformed model has simple realizations on intersecting branes in string theory, where various features of the meta-stable vacua are encoded geometrically as brane configurations.

Traditional data mining methodologies have focused on ''flat'' data i.e. a collection of identically structured entities, assumed to be independent and identically distributed. However, many real-world datasets are innately relational in that they consist of multi-modal entities and multi-relational links (where each entity- or link-type is characterized by a different set of attributes). Link structure is an important characteristic of a dataset and should not be ignored in modeling efforts, especially when statistical dependencies exist between related entities. These dependencies can in fact significantly improve the accuracy of inference and prediction results, if the relational structure is appropriately leveraged (Figure 1). The need for models that can incorporate relational structure has been accentuated by new technological developments which allow us to easily track, store, and make accessible large amounts of data. Recently, there has been a surge of interest in statistical models for dealing with richly interconnected, heterogeneous data, fueled largely by information mining of web/hypertext data, social networks, bibliographic citation data, epidemiological data and communication networks. Graphical models have a natural formalism for representing complex relational data and for predicting the underlying evolving system in a dynamic framework. The present survey provides an overview of probabilistic methods and techniques …

Enhancements have been made to the REBUS-3/DIF3D code suite to facilitate its use for the design and analysis of prismatic Very High Temperature Reactors (VHTRs). A new cross section structure, using table-lookup, has been incorporated to account for cross section changes with burnup and fuel and moderator temperatures. For representing these cross section dependencies, three new modules have been developed using FORTRAN 90/95 object-oriented data structures and implemented within the REBUS-3 code system. These modules provide a cross section storage procedure, construct microscopic cross section data for all isotopes, and contain a single block of banded scattering data for efficient data management. Fission products other than I, Xe, Pm, and Sm, can be merged into a single lumped fission product to save storage space, memory, and computing time without sacrificing the REBUS-3 solution accuracy. A simple thermal-hydraulic (thermal-fluid) feedback model has been developed for prismatic VHTR cores and implemented in REBUS-3 for temperature feedback calculations. Axial conduction was neglected in the formulation because of its small magnitude compared to radial (planar) conduction. With the simple model, the average fuel and graphite temperatures are accurately estimated compared to reference STAR-CD results. The feedback module is currently operational for the non-equilibrium fuel …

The information in this document summarizes the approach that is used to link FRAMES-2 with GMS. This linkage will provide the user with the ability to (1) send information to a specific model in GMS, thereby modifying the models input information, as allowed by the model developer, (2) run the executable of the numerical model contained in GMS, and (3) extract, from the appropriate GMS output, information required for consumption by downstream models, which are also linked with FRAMES-2.

The most important requirement for Hanford's low activity waste (LAW) form for shallow land disposal is the chemical durability of the product. A secondary, but still essential specification, is the compressive strength of the material with regards to the strength of the material under shallow land disposal conditions, e.g. the weight of soil overburden and potential intrusion by future generations, because the term ''near-surface disposal'' indicates disposal in the uppermost portion, or approximately the top 30 meters, of the earth's surface. The THOR{reg_sign} Treatment Technologies (TTT) mineral waste form for LAW is granular in nature because it is formed by Fluidized Bed Steam Reforming (FBSR). As a granular product it has been shown to be as durable as Hanford's LAW glass during testing with ASTM C-1285-02 known as the Product Consistency Test (PCT) and with the Single Pass Flow Through Test (SPFT). Hanford Envelope A and Envelope C simulants both performed well during PCT and SPFT testing and during subsequent performance assessment modeling. This is partially due to the high aluminosilicate content of the mineral product which provides a natural aluminosilicate buffering mechanism that inhibits leaching and is known to occur in naturally occurring aluminosilicate mineral analogs. In order for …

Simulations of spray dispersion in a simplified tractor-trailer wake have been completed with the goal of obtaining a better understanding of how to mitigate this safety hazard. The Generic Conventional Model (GCM) for the tractor-trailer was used. The impact of aerodynamic drag reduction devices, specifically trailer-mounted base flaps, on the transport of spray in the vehicle wake was considered using the GCM. This analysis demonstrated that base flaps including a bottom plate may actually worsen motorist visibility because of the interaction of fine spray with large vortex flows in the wake. This work suggests that to use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to design and evaluate spray mitigation strategies the jet or sheet breakup processes can be modeled using an array of injectors of small (< 0.1 mm) water droplets; however the choice of size distribution, injection locations, directions and velocities is largely unknown and requires further study. Possible containment strategies would include using flow structures to 'focus' particles into regions away from passing cars or surface treatments to capture small drops.

The action of iron oxidizing microbes can generate acid mine drainage (AMD), characterized by acidic, toxic metal-tainted water that pollutes various water resources. The acidophilic biofilm community populating the Richmond mine, a pyrite (FeS{sub 2}) deposit in Northern California, is a key component of the oxidation of Fe(II) as well as subsequent pyrite dissolution. These natural biofilms contain many novel proteins that are being studied in order to understand how these microbes oxidize iron. The focus of this study is on the structure and characteristics of one novel, abundant outer membrane protein, cytochrome 572 (Cyt{sub 572}), which is perhaps important to the function of the entire community. To detect and study this cytochrome, monoclonal antibodies (mAb) were produced and screened for specificity to Cyt{sub 572}, both purified and membrane-bound. This was accomplished using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and western blot analysis. Using western blotting, the presence of three high molecular weight bands at positions of dimer, trimer and tetramer corroborate chromatographic results that Cyt{sub 572} is a tetramer. Immunoprecipitation was used to detect a Cyt{sub 572} specific multiprotein complex, and these experiments are in progress. Apart from its novel amino acid sequence, Cyt{sub 572} binds to a heme group …