Public opinion and nuclear power decision-making (open access)

Public opinion and nuclear power decision-making

This document discusses public opinion regarding nuclear power which is particularly difficult to tie down because of five important paradoxes that characterize it: it can be based on sound reason, but also on intense emotion; it is both national and local in perspective; at varying times it has seen nuclear power as both clean'' and dirty''; it believes nuclear power is both economic, and uneconomic; and nuclear power is perceived as having a fairly safe record, but being potentially unsafe. Equally as complex as the process by which public opinion is formed is the process by which it is converted into public policy. The American political system has numerous checks and balances designed to moderate the power of public opinion. A complex series of legislative, judicial, and executive branch hurdles must be cleared before any idea, however popular, can become day-to-day operating reality in government. As a result, major changes in policy or programs are difficult, and we may expect that nuclear power will be no different; radical change in one direction or the other is unlikely. Nevertheless, carefully focused programs could achieve modest progress, and carefully designed public opinion surveys could support such programs.
Date: August 6, 1991
Creator: Benson, B.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Innovative Clean Coal Technology (ICCT): Demonstration of innovative applications of technology for cost reductions to the CT-121 FGD process (open access)

Innovative Clean Coal Technology (ICCT): Demonstration of innovative applications of technology for cost reductions to the CT-121 FGD process

The objective of this project is to demonstrate on a commercial scale several innovative applications of cost-reducing technology to the Chiyoda Thoroughbred-121 (CT-121) process. CT-121 is a second generation flue gas desulfurization (FGD) process which is considered by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and Southern Company Services (SCS) to be one of the most reliable and lowest cost FGD options for high-sulfur coal-fired utility boiler applications. Demonstrations of the innovative design approaches will further reduce the cost and provide a clear advantage to CT121 relative to competing technology.
Date: August 6, 1990
Creator: unknown
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Glass-heat-pipe evacuated-tube solar collector (open access)

Glass-heat-pipe evacuated-tube solar collector

A glass heat pipe is adapted for use as a solar energy absorber in an evacuated tube solar collector and for transferring the absorbed solar energy to a working fluid medium or heat sink for storage or practical use. A capillary wick is formed of granular glass particles fused together by heat on the inside surface of the heat pipe with a water glass binder solution to enhance capillary drive distribution of the thermal transfer fluid in the heat pipe throughout the entire inside surface of the evaporator portion of the heat pipe. Selective coatings are used on the heat pipe surface to maximize solar absorption and minimize energy radiation, and the glass wick can alternatively be fabricated with granular particles of black glass or obsidian.
Date: August 6, 1981
Creator: McConnell, R.D. & VanSant, J.H.
Object Type: Patent
System: The UNT Digital Library
Ductile nickel-silicon alloy (open access)

Ductile nickel-silicon alloy

An improvement over prior compositions wherein the ductility of Ni-Si alloys are improved with minor alloying additions of hafnium or zirconium.
Date: August 6, 1990
Creator: Oliver, W. C.
Object Type: Patent
System: The UNT Digital Library
Harmonically excited orbital variations (open access)

Harmonically excited orbital variations

Rephrasing the equations of motion for orbital maneuvers in terms of Lagrangian generalized coordinates instead of Newtonian rectangular cartesian coordinates can make certain harmonic terms in the orbital angular momentum vector more readily apparent. In this formulation the equations of motion adopt the form of a damped harmonic oscillator when torques are applied to the orbit in a variationally prescribed manner. The frequencies of the oscillator equation are in some ways unexpected but can nonetheless be exploited through resonant forcing functions to achieve large secular variations in the orbital elements. Two cases are discussed using a circular orbit as the control case: (1) large changes in orbital inclination achieved by harmonic excitation rather than one impulsive velocity change, and (2) periodic and secular changes to the longitude of the ascending node using both stable and unstable excitation strategies. The implications of these equations are also discussed for both artificial satellites and natural satellites. For the former, two utilitarian orbits are suggested, each exploiting a form of harmonic excitation. 5 refs.
Date: August 6, 1985
Creator: Morgan, T.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Review of thermodynamic and kinetic data for the molten-tin process (open access)

Review of thermodynamic and kinetic data for the molten-tin process

This report gives a brief description of the Molten Tin Process for nuclear fuel reprocessing, and summarizes the available data on thermodynamics and kinetics that pertain to the process. The two main reactions of concern in the process are illustrated by: MO/sub 2/(s) + 2C(in Sn sol'n) ..-->.. M(in Sn sol'n) + 2CO(g), and M(in Sn sol'n) + 1/2 N/sub 2/(g) ..-->.. MN(s), where M represents U or some other element in an oxide fuel. It is especially important for the Molten Tin Process to have information on the chemical activities of metals dissolved in tin at temperatures in the vicinity of 1900/sup 0/K. Sufficient thermodynamic and kinetic information is presented in this report to show that the various steps in the Molten Tin Process are scientifically feasible, but more information will need to be experimentally determined to work out a detailed process flow sheet.
Date: August 6, 1979
Creator: Krikorian, O.H.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Dynamic response of a thin disk subjected to a thermal pulse (open access)

Dynamic response of a thin disk subjected to a thermal pulse

The dynamic response of a thin steel disk to a transient thermal pulse induced by a pulsed neodymium-glass laser was studied experimentally and compared with numerical results from a finite element code. The experiment was designed to provide data for use in code development work for erosion/corrosion studies.
Date: August 6, 1982
Creator: Calder, C.A. & Cornell, R.H.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Coolant monitoring apparatus for nuclear reactors. [PWR; BWR] (open access)

Coolant monitoring apparatus for nuclear reactors. [PWR; BWR]

A system for monitoring coolant conditions within a pressurized vessel is described. A length of tubing extends outward from the vessel from an open end containing a first line restriction at the location to be monitored. The flowing fluid is cooled and condensed before passing through a second line restriction. Measurement of pressure drop at the second line restriction gives an indication of fluid condition at the first line restriction. Multiple lengths of tubing with open ends at incremental elevations can measure coolant level within the vessel.
Date: August 6, 1981
Creator: Tokarz, R.D.
Object Type: Patent
System: The UNT Digital Library
Open Cavity Solutions to the Rf in Magnetic Field Problem. (open access)

Open Cavity Solutions to the Rf in Magnetic Field Problem.

It has been observed [1] that breakdown in an 805 MHz pill-box cavity occurs at much lower gradients as an external axial magnetic field is increased. This effect was not observed with on open iris cavity. It is proposed that this effect depends on the relative angles of the magnetic and maximum electric fields: parallel in the pill-box case; at an angle in the open iris case. If so, using an open iris structure with solenoid coils in the irises should perform even better. A lattice, using this principle, is presented, for use in 6D cooling for a Muon Collider. Experimental layouts to test this principle are proposed.
Date: August 6, 2007
Creator: Palmer, R. B.; Berg, J. S.; Fernow, R. C.; Gallardo, J. C. & Kirk, H. G.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Using Ffags in the Creation of Neutrino Beams. (open access)

Using Ffags in the Creation of Neutrino Beams.

A number of accelerator-based facilities have been proposed for the creation of neutrino beams: superbeams, neutrino factories, and beta beams. Fixed field alternating gradient accelerators (FFAGs) have potential uses in all of these facilities. Superbeams and neutrino factories require high power proton drivers for the production of pions; FFAGs can beneficial for accelerating protons for those machines. FFAGs can reduce the cost of accelerating muons in a neutrino factory because they enable the muons to make many passes through the RF cavities and still accelerate rapidly. FFAGs have potential uses in production of radioactive ions for a beta beam facility, since radioactive ions that decay into high energy neutrinos in their rest frame may potentially be produced in a ring, and the large energy acceptance of an FFAG may be useful for maximizing beam lifetime in such a ring. Finally, FFAGs have been contemplated for use in ionization cooling rings for neutrino factories, since the equilibrium distribution in ionization cooling has a large energy spread for which an FFAG's large energy acceptance is needed, and FFAGs may make it feasible to inject and extract from such a ring.
Date: August 6, 2007
Creator: Berg, J. S.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
The US Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment Study (open access)

The US Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment Study

The US Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment Study was commissioned jointly by Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL)and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL) to investigate the potential for future U.S. based long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments using MW class conventional neutrino beams that can be produced at FNAL. The experimental baselines are based on two possible detector locations: (1) off-axis to the existing FNAL NuMI beamline at baselines of 700 to 810 km and (2) NSF's proposed future Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) at baselines greater than 1000km. Two detector technologies are considered: a megaton class Water Cherenkov detector deployed deep underground at a DUSEL site, or a 100kT Liquid Argon Time-Projection Chamber (TPC) deployed on the surface at any of the proposed sites. The physics sensitivities of the proposed experiments are summarized. We find that conventional horn focused wide-band neutrino beam options from FNAL aimed at a massive detector with a baseline of > 1000km have the best sensitivity to CP violation and the neutrino mass hierarchy for values of the mixing angle {theta}{sub 13} down to 2{sup o}.
Date: August 6, 2007
Creator: Bishai, M.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Accurate iterative analytic solution of theKapchinskij-Vladimirskij equations for the case of a matched beam (open access)

Accurate iterative analytic solution of theKapchinskij-Vladimirskij equations for the case of a matched beam

The well-known Kapchinskij-Vladimirskij (KV) equations are difficult to solve in general, but the problem is simplified for the matched-beam case with sufficient symmetry. They show that the interdependence of the two KV equations is eliminated, so that only one needs to be solved--a great simplification. They present an iterative method of solution which can potentially yield any desired level of accuracy. The lowest level, the well-known smooth approximation, yields simple, explicit results with good accuracy for weak or moderate focusing fields. The next level improves the accuracy for high fields; they previously showed how to maintain a simple explicit format for the results. That paper used expansion in a small parameter to obtain the second level. The present paper, using straightforward iteration, obtains equations of first, second, and third levels of accuracy. For a periodic lattice with beam matched to lattice, they use the lattice and beam parameters as input and solve for phase advances and envelope waveforms. They find excellent agreement with numerical solutions over a wide range of beam emittances and intensities.
Date: August 6, 2006
Creator: Anderson, Oscar A.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Multiple-Coincidence Active Neutron Interrogation of Fissionable Materials (open access)

Multiple-Coincidence Active Neutron Interrogation of Fissionable Materials

Using a beam of tagged 14.1 MeV neutrons to probe for the presence of fissionable materials, we have measured n-γ-γ coincidences from depleted uranium (DU). The multiple coincidence rate is substantially above that measured from lead, tungsten, and iron. The presence of coincidences involving delayed gammas in the DU time spectra provides a signature for fissionable materials that is distinct from non-fissionable ones. In addition, the information from the tagged neutron involved in the coincidence gives the position of the fissionable material in all three dimensions. The result is an imaging probe for fissionable materials that is more compact and that produces much less radiation than other solutions.
Date: August 6, 2008
Creator: J.P. Hurley, R.P. Keegan, J.R. Tinsley, R. Trainham, and S.C. Wilde
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Photodeposition of Pt on Colloidal CdS and CdSe/CdS Semiconductor Nanostructures (open access)

Photodeposition of Pt on Colloidal CdS and CdSe/CdS Semiconductor Nanostructures

Semiconductor photocatalysis has been identified as a promising avenue for the conversion of solar energy into environmentally friendly fuels, most notably by the production of hydrogen from water.[1-5] Nanometer-scale materials in particular have attracted considerable scientific attention as the building blocks for light-harvesting applications.[6,7] Their desirable attributes include tunability of the optical properties with size, amenability to relatively inexpensive low-temperature processing, and a high degree of synthetic sophistication leading to increasingly complex and multi-functional architectures. For photocatalysis in particular, the high surface-to-volume ratios in nanoscale materials should lead to an increased availability of carriers for redox reactions on the nanoparticle surface. Recombination of photoexcited carriers directly competes with photocatalytic activity.[3] Charge separation is often achieved with multi-component heterostructures. An early example is the case of TiO2 powders functionalized with Pt and RuO2 particles, where photoexcited electrons are transferred to Pt (the reduction site) and holes to RuO2 (the oxidation site).[8] More recently, many colloidally synthesized nanometer-scale metal-semiconductor heterostructures have been reported.[7,9,10] A majority of these structures are made by thermal methods.[7,10] We have chosen to study photochemical formation of metal-semiconductor heterostructures. The detailed understanding of the mechanisms involved in photodeposition of metals on nanometer-scale semiconductors is necessary to enable a …
Date: August 6, 2008
Creator: Dukovic, Gordana; Merkle, Maxwell G.; Nelson, James H.; Hughes, Steven M. & Alivisatos, A. Paul
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
R AND D TOPICS FOR NEUTRINO FACTORY ACCELERATION. (open access)

R AND D TOPICS FOR NEUTRINO FACTORY ACCELERATION.

The muons in a neutrino factory must be accelerated from the energy of the capture, phase rotation, and cooling systems (around 120 MeV kinetic energy) to the energy of the storage ring (around 25 GeV). This is done with a sequence of accelerators of different types: a linac, one or more recirculating linear accelerators, and finally one or more fixed field alternating gradient accelerators (FFAGs). I discuss the R&D that is needed to arrive at a complete system which we can have confidence will accelerate the beam and for which we can obtain a cost estimate.
Date: August 6, 2007
Creator: SCOTT,J.S.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Electronic and Sturctural Transitions in Dense Liquid Sodium (open access)

Electronic and Sturctural Transitions in Dense Liquid Sodium

At ambient conditions, the light alkali metals are free-electron like crystals with a highly symmetric structure. However, they were shown recently to exhibit unexpected complexity under pressure. It was predicted from theory and later confirmed by experiment that Li and Na undergo a sequence of symmetry breaking transitions driven by a Peierls mechanism. Most recently, measurements of the Na melting curve revealed an unprecedented and still unexplained drop in the melting temperature from 1000 K at 30 GPa to room temperature at 120 GPa. Here we report results from ab initio calculations that explain the unusual melting behavior in dense Na. We show that molten Na undergoes a series of pressure-induced structural and electronic transitions analogous to that observed in solid Na, but commencing at much lower pressure in the presence of disorder. With increasing pressure, liquid Na initially evolves by assuming a more compact local structure. However, a transition to a lower coordinated liquid takes place at a pressure around 65 GPa, accompanied by a threefold drop in electrical conductivity. A pseudogap opening at the Fermi level, an effect previously not observed in a liquid metal, drives this transition. Remarkably, the lower coordinated liquid emerges at rather elevated temperatures …
Date: August 6, 2007
Creator: Raty, J Y; Schwegler, E R & Bonev, S A
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Emma Lattice. (open access)

The Emma Lattice.

EMMA is a 10 to 20MeV electron ring designed to test our understanding of beam dynamics in a relativistic linear non-scaling fixed field alternating gradient accelerator (FFAG). I will give a basic review of the EMMA lattice parameters. Then I will review the different lattice configurations that we would like to have for EMMA. Finally, I will briefly discuss the process of commissioning each lattice configuration.
Date: August 6, 2007
Creator: Berg, J. S.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Diffusion of Zonal Variables Using Node-Centered Diffusion Solver (open access)

Diffusion of Zonal Variables Using Node-Centered Diffusion Solver

Tom Kaiser [1] has done some preliminary work to use the node-centered diffusion solver (originally developed by T. Palmer [2]) in Kull for diffusion of zonal variables such as electron temperature. To avoid numerical diffusion, Tom used a scheme developed by Shestakov et al. [3] and found their scheme could, in the vicinity of steep gradients, decouple nearest-neighbor zonal sub-meshes leading to 'alternating-zone' (red-black mode) errors. Tom extended their scheme to couple the sub-meshes with appropriate chosen artificial diffusion and thereby solved the 'alternating-zone' problem. Because the choice of the artificial diffusion coefficient could be very delicate, it is desirable to use a scheme that does not require the artificial diffusion but still able to avoid both numerical diffusion and the 'alternating-zone' problem. In this document we present such a scheme.
Date: August 6, 2007
Creator: Yang, T B
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Development/Demonstration of an Advanced Oxy-Fuel Front-End System (open access)

Development/Demonstration of an Advanced Oxy-Fuel Front-End System

Owens Corning and other glass manufacturers have used oxy-fuel combustion technology successfully in furnaces to reduce emissions, increase throughput, reduce fuel consumption and, depending on the costs of oxygen and fuel, reduce energy costs. The front end of a fiberglass furnace is the refractory channel system that delivers glass from the melter to the forming process. After the melter, it is the second largest user of energy in a fiberglass plant. A consortium of glass companies and suppliers, led by Owens Corning, was formed to develop and demonstrate oxy/fuel combustion technology for the front end of a fiberglass melter, to demonstrate the viability of this energy saving technology to the U.S. glass industry, as a D.O.E. sponsored project. The project goals were to reduce natural gas consumption and CO2 green house gas emissions by 65 to 70% and create net cost savings after the purchase of oxygen to achieve a project payback of less than 2 years. Project results in Jackson, TN included achieving a 56% reduction in gas consumption and CO2 emissions. A subsequent installation in Guelph ON, not impacted by unrelated operational changes in Jackson, achieved a 64% reduction. Using the more accurate 64% reduction in the payback …
Date: August 6, 2007
Creator: Mighton, Steven, J.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Actinic EUV mask inspection beyond 0.25 NA (open access)

Actinic EUV mask inspection beyond 0.25 NA

Operating at EUV wavelengths, the SEMATECH Berkeley Actinic Inspection Tool (AIT) is a zoneplate microscope that provides high quality aerial image measurements in routine operations for SEMATECH member companies. We have upgraded the optical performance of the AIT to provide multiple image magnifications, and several inspection NA values up to 0.35 NA equivalent (0.0875 mask-side). We report on the improved imaging capabilities including resolution below 100-nm on the mask side (25 nm, 4x wafer equivalent). EUV reticles are intricate optical systems made from of several materials with wavelength-specific optical properties. The combined interactions of the substrate, multilayer-stack, buffer layer and absorber layer produce a reflected EUV optical field that is challenging to model accurately, and difficult to fully assess without actinic at-wavelength inspection. Understanding the aerial image from lithographic printing alone is complicated by photoresist properties. The AIT is now used to investigate mask issues such as amplitude and phase defect printability, pattern repair techniques, contamination, inspection damage, and mask architecture. The AIT has a 6{sup o} illumination angle, and high-resolution exposure times are typically 20 seconds per image. The AIT operates semi-automatically capturing through-focus imaging series with step sizes as small as 0.1 {micro}m (0.5-0.8 {micro}m are typical), and …
Date: August 6, 2008
Creator: Goldberg, Kenneth A.; Mochi, Iacopo; Anderson, Erik H.; Rekawa, Seno B.; Kemp, Charles D.; Huh, S. et al.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
A High Resolution Hydrometer Phase Classifier Based on Analysis of Cloud Radar Doppler Spectra. (open access)

A High Resolution Hydrometer Phase Classifier Based on Analysis of Cloud Radar Doppler Spectra.

The lifecycle and radiative properties of clouds are highly sensitive to the phase of their hydrometeors (i.e., liquid or ice). Knowledge of cloud phase is essential for specifying the optical properties of clouds, or else, large errors can be introduced in the calculation of the cloud radiative fluxes. Current parameterizations of cloud water partition in liquid and ice based on temperature are characterized by large uncertainty (Curry et al., 1996; Hobbs and Rangno, 1998; Intriery et al., 2002). This is particularly important in high geographical latitudes and temperature ranges where both liquid droplets and ice crystal phases can exist (mixed-phase cloud). The mixture of phases has a large effect on cloud radiative properties, and the parameterization of mixed-phase clouds has a large impact on climate simulations (e.g., Gregory and Morris, 1996). Furthermore, the presence of both ice and liquid affects the macroscopic properties of clouds, including their propensity to precipitate. Despite their importance, mixed-phase clouds are severely understudied compared to the arguably simpler single-phase clouds. In-situ measurements in mixed-phase clouds are hindered due to aircraft icing, difficulties distinguishing hydrometeor phase, and discrepancies in methods for deriving physical quantities (Wendisch et al. 1996, Lawson et al. 2001). Satellite-based retrievals of cloud …
Date: August 6, 2007
Creator: Luke,E. & Kollias, P.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Uncertainties in the Anti-neutrino Production at Nuclear Reactors (open access)

Uncertainties in the Anti-neutrino Production at Nuclear Reactors

Anti-neutrino emission rates from nuclear reactors are determined from thermal power measurements and fission rate calculations. The uncertainties in these quantities for commercial power plants and their impact on the calculated interaction rates in {bar {nu}}{sub e} detectors is examined. We discuss reactor-to-reactor correlations between the leading uncertainties, and their relevance to reactor {bar {nu}}{sub e} experiments.
Date: August 6, 2008
Creator: Djurcic, Zelimir; Detwiler, Jason A.; Piepke, Andreas; Foster Jr., Vince R.; Miller, Lester & Gratta, Giorgio
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Comment on "Paleoclassical Transport in Low-Collisionality Toroidal Plasmas" [Phys. Plasmas 12, 092512 (2005)] (open access)

Comment on "Paleoclassical Transport in Low-Collisionality Toroidal Plasmas" [Phys. Plasmas 12, 092512 (2005)]

None
Date: August 6, 2007
Creator: LoDestro, L.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
SENSITIVITIES OF FUTURE LONG BASELINE EXPERIMENTS IN THE U.S. (open access)

SENSITIVITIES OF FUTURE LONG BASELINE EXPERIMENTS IN THE U.S.

Sensitivities to neutrino oscillation parameters for possible very long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments are discussed. The reach for observing a non-zero mixing angle {theta}{sub 13}, establishing CP violation and determining the mass hierarchy are compared between various experimental options. Different possibilities for neutrino beams are briefly described, as well as the assumptions about the performance of a large water Cherenkov and liquid Argon detector.
Date: August 6, 2007
Creator: DIERCKXSENS,M.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library