Whiley SCHe Gauge/Root Valves

Despite the current worldwide oil glut, the US will ultimately require large-scale production of liquid (transportation) fuels from coal. Slurry phase Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) technology, with its versatile product slate, may be expected to play a major role in production of transportation fuels via indirect coal liquefaction. Some of the F-T catalysts synthesized and tested at Texas A and M University under DOE Contract No. DE-AC22-89PC89868 were more active than any other known catalysts developed for maximizing production of high molecular weight hydrocarbons (waxes). The objectives of the present contract were to demonstrate repeatability of catalyst performance and reproducibility of preparation procedures of two of these catalysts on a laboratory scale. Improvements in the catalyst performance were attempted through the use of: (a) higher reaction pressure and gas space velocity to maximize the reactor productivity; (b) modifications in catalyst preparation steps; and (c) different pretreatment procedures. Repeatability of catalyst performance and reproducibility of catalyst synthesis procedure have been successfully demonstrated in stirred tank slurry reactor tests. Reactor space-time-yield was increased up to 48% by increasing reaction pressure from 1.48 MPa to 2.17 MPa, while maintaining the gas contact time and synthesis gas conversion at a constant value. Use of calcination temperatures …

The purpose of this document is to list the Interim Stabilization equipment drawings that are classified as Essential or Support drawings. Essential Drawings: Those drawings identified by the facility staff as necessary to directly support the safe operation of the facility or equipment. Support Drawings: Those drawings identified by the facility staff that further describe the design details of structures, systems or components shown on essential drawings.

The objective of this study is to observe changes in coal structure in situ with small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) during solvent swelling and during pyrolysis. We have built a SAXS instrument at the Basic Energy Sciences Synchrotrons Research Center at the Advanced Photon Source that allows us to obtain scattering patterns in the millisecond time domain. The eight Argonne Premium Coal samples were used in this study. The information that can be derived from these experiments, such as changes in fractal dimensionality and in size and type of porosity, was found to be very rank-dependent. In the swelling experiments, it was noted that for certain coals, structural changes occurred in just a few minutes.

It is commonly thought that small couplings in a low-energy theory, such as those needed for the fermion mass hierarchy or proton stability, must originate from symmetries in a high-energy theory. We show that this expectation is violated in theories where the Standard Model fields are confined to a thick wall in extra dimensions, with the fermions ''stuck'' at different points in the wall. Couplings between them are then suppressed due to the exponentially small overlaps of their wave functions. This provides a framework for understanding both the fermion mass hierarchy and proton stability without imposing symmetries, but rather in terms of higher dimensional geography. A model independent prediction of this scenario is non-universal couplings of the Standard Model fermions to the ''Kaluza-Klein'' excitations of the gauge fields. This allows a measurement of the fermion locations in the extra dimensions at the LHC or NLC if the wall thickness is close to the TeV scale.

The Soudan 2 detector is used to search for evidence of nucleon decay. Particular emphasis is put on searches for modes with multiple-charged particles in the final state, and for modes suggested by super-symmetric theories.

Magnesium vanadates are potentially important catalytic materials for the conversion of alkanes to alkenes via oxidative dehydrogenation. However, little is known about the active sites at which the catalytic reactions take place. It may be possible to obtain a significant increase in the catalytic efficiency if the effects of certain material properties on the surface reactions could be quantified and optimized through the use of appropriate preparation techniques. Given that surface reactivity is often dependent upon surface structure and that the atomic level structure of the active sites in these catalysts is virtually unknown, we desire thin film samples consisting of a single magnesium vanadate phase and a well defined crystallographic orientation in order to reduce complexity and simplify the study of active sites. We report on the use of reactive RF sputter deposition to fabricate very highly oriented, stoichiometric Mg{sub 3}(VO{sub 4}){sub 2} thin films for use in these surface analysis studies. Deposition of samples onto amorphous substrates resulted in very poor crystallinity. However, deposition of Mg{sub 3}(VO{sub 4}){sub 2} onto well-oriented, lattice-matched thin film ''seed'' layers such as Ti(0001), Au(111), or Pt(111) resulted in very strong preferential (042) crystallographic orientation (pseudo-hexagonal oxygen planes parallel to the substrate). This …

Mixed-conducting (electronic and ionic conducting) dense ceramics are used in many applications, including fuel cells, gas separation membranes, batteries, sensors, and electrocatalysis. This paper describes mixed-conducting ceramic membranes that are being developed to selectively remove oxygen and hydrogen from gas streams in a nongalvanic mode of operation (i.e., with no electrodes or external power supply). Ceramic membranes made of Sr-Fe-Co oxide (SFC), which exhibits high combined electronic and oxygen ionic conductivities, can be used for high-purity oxygen separation and/or partial oxidation of methane to synthesis gas (syngas, a mixture of CO and H{sub 2}). The electronic and ionic conductivities of SFC were found to be comparable in magnitude. Steady-state oxygen permeability of SFC has been measured as a function of oxygen-partial-pressure gradient and temperature. For an {approx}3-mm-thick membrane, the oxygen permeability was {approx}2.5 scc{center_dot}cm{sup {minus}2}{center_dot}min{sup {minus}1} at 900 C. Oxygen permeation increases as membrane thickness decreases. Tubular SFC membranes have been fabricated and operated at 900 C for {approx}1000 h in converting methane into syngas. The oxygen permeated through the membrane reacted with methane in the presence of a catalyst and produced syngas. We also studied the transport properties of yttria-doped BaCeO{sub 3{minus}{delta}} (BCY) by impedance spectroscopy and open-cell voltage …

Access through the Fermilab control system to beam physics models of the Fermilab accelerators has been implemented. The models run on Unix workstations, communicating with legacy VMS-based controls consoles via a relational database and TCP/IP.The client side (VMS) and the server side (Unix) are both implemented in object-oriented C++. The models allow scientists and operators in the control room to do beam physics calculations. Settings of real devices as input to the model are supported, and readings from beam diagnostics may be compared with model predictions.

Microtomography has successfully been used to characterize loss of structural integrity of wood. Tomographic images were generated with the newly developed third generation x-ray computed microtomography (XCMT) instrument at the X27A beamline at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS). The beamline is equipped with high-flux x-ray monochromator based on multilayer optics developed for this application. The sample is mounted on a translation stage with which to center the sample rotation, a rotation stage to perform the rotation during data collection and a motorized goniometer head for small alignment motions. The absorption image is recorded by a single-crystal scintillator, an optical microscope and a cooled CCD array detector. Data reconstruction has provided three-dimensional geometry of the heterogeneous wood matrix in microtomographic images. Wood is a heterogeneous material composed of long lignocellulose vessels. Although wood is a strong natural product, fungi have evolved chemical systems that weaken the strength properties of wood by degrading structural vessels. Tomographic images with a resolution of three microns were obtained nonintrusively to characterize the compromised structural integrity of wood. Computational tools developed by Lindquist et al (1996) applied to characterize the microstructure of the tomographic volumes.

In 1946 the United States (U.S.) Congress passed the Atomic Energy Act and with it created the Atomic Energy Commission. For the ensuing half-century the AEC and its successors have pursued biological and environmental research with an unwavering mandate to exploit the use of fissionable and radioactive material for medical purposes and, at the same time, to ensure the health of it's workers, the public, and the environment during energy technology development and use (AEC. 1961; DOE 1983; DOE, 1997). The following pages are testimony to the success of this undeviating vision (Figure 1). From the early days of the AEC, cooperation has also linked researchers from the national laboratories, the academic community, and the private sector. The AEC-sponsored research both at national laboratories and universities, and also supported graduate students to develop a cadre of health physicists, radiation biologists, and nuclear engineers. Coordinating these diverse performers has been crucial to the unique teaming that has made many of the successes possible. The success of the biological and environmental research program has often been shared with other federal agencies. The future will demand even stronger and more substantive intraagency, interagency, and international collaborations.

To remediate gas retention in the floating crust layer and the potential for buoyant displacement gas releases from below the crust, waste will be transferred out of Hanford Tank 241-SY-101 (SY-101) in the fall of 1999 and back-diluted with water in several steps of about 100,000 gallons each. To evaluate the effects of back-dilution on the crust a static buoyancy model is derived that predicts crust and liquid surface elevations as a function of mixing efficiency and volume of water added during transfer and back-dilution. Experimental results are presented that demonstrate the basic physics involved and verify the operation of the models. A dissolution model is also developed to evaluate the effects of dissolution of solids on crust flotation. The model includes dissolution of solids suspended in the slurry as well as in the crust layers. The inventory and location of insoluble solids after dissolution of the soluble fraction are also tracked. The buoyancy model is applied to predict the crust behavior for the first back-dilution step in SY-101. Specific concerns addressed include conditions that could cause the crust to sink and back-dilution requirements that keep the base of the crust well above the mixer pump inlet.

Sintering theory has been developed either as the application of complex diffusion mechanisms to a simple geometry or as the deformation and shrinkage of a continuum body. They present a model that can treat in detail both the evolution of microstructure and the sintering mechanisms, on the mesoscale, so that constitutive equations with detail microstructural information can be generated. The model is capable of simulating vacancy diffusion by grain boundary diffusion, annihilation of vacancies at grain boundaries resulting in densification, and coarsening of the microstructural features. In this paper, they review the stereological theory of sintering and its application to microstructural evolution and the diffusion mechanism, which lead to sintering. They then demonstrate how these stereological concepts and diffusion mechanisms were incorporated into a kinetic Monte Carlo model to simulate sintering. Finally, they discuss the limitations of this model.

The C49 to C54 TiSi{sub 2} transformation temperature is shown to be reduced by increasing the ramp rate during rapid thermal processing and this effect is more pronounced for thinner initial Ti and Ti(Ta) films. Experiments were performed on blanket wafers and on wafers that had patterned polycrystalline Si lines with Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} sidewall spacers. Changing the ramp rate caused no change in the transformation temperature for 60 nm blanket Ti films. For blanket Ti films of 25 or 40 nm, however, increasing the ramp rate from 7 to 180 C/s decreased the transformation temperature by 15 C. Studies of patterned lines indicate that sheet resistance of narrow lines is reduced by increased ramp rates for both Ti and Ti(Ta) films, especially as the linewidths decrease below 0.4 {micro}m. This improvement is particularly pronounced for the thinnest Ti(Ta) films, which exhibited almost no linewidth effect after being annealed with a ramp rate of 75 C/s.

Environmental impacts from electron accelerator operations at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, which is located near populated areas, are illustrated by using examples of three different accelerator facilities: the low power (a few watts) SSRL, the high power (a few kilowatts) PEP-II, and the 50-kW SLC. Three types of major impacts are discussed: (1) off-site doses from skyshine radiation, mainly neutrons, (2) off-site doses from radioactive air emission, mainly {sup 13}N, and (3) radioactivities, mainly {sup 3}H, produced in the groundwater. It was found that, from SSRL operation, the skyshine radiation result in a MEI (Maximum Exposed Individual) of 0.3 {mu}Sv/y while a conservative calculation using CAP88 showed a MEI of 0.36 {mu}Sv/y from radioactive air releases. The calculated MEI doses due to future PEP-II operation are 30 {mu}Sv/y from skyshine radiation and 2 {mu}Sv/y from air releases. The population doses due to radioactive air emission are 0.5 person-mSv from SSRL and 12 person-mSv from PEP-II. Because of the stronger decrease of skyshine dose as the distance increases, the population dose from skyshine radiation are smaller than that from air release. The third environmental impact, tritium activity produced in the groundwater, was also demonstrated to be acceptable from both the …

A major improvement in the performance of the SLC was achieved with the introduction of thin strained-layer semiconductor crystals. After some optimization, polarizations of 75-85% became standard with lifetimes that were equal to or better than that of thick unstrained crystals. Other accelerators of polarized electrons, generally operating with a much higher duty factor, have now successfully utilized similar photocathodes. For future colliders, the principal remaining problem is the limit on the total charge that can be extracted in a time scale of 10 to 100 ns. In addition, higher polarization is critical for exploring new physics, especially supersymmetry. However, it appears that strained-layer crystals have reached the limit of their optimization. Today strained superlattice crystals are the most promising candidates for better performance. The individual layers of the superlattice can be designed to be below the critical thickness for strain relaxation, thus in principle improving the polarization. Thin layers also promote high electron conduction to the surface. In addition the potential barriers at the surface for both emission of conduction-band electrons to vacuum and for tunneling of valence-band holes to the surface can be significantly less than for single strained-layer crystals, thus enhancing both the yield at any intensity …

Predicting the properties of nonequilibrium systems from molecular simulations is a growing area of interest. One important class of problems involves steady state diffusion. To study these cases, a grand canonical molecular dynamics approach has been developed by Heffelfinger and van Swol [J. Chem. Phys., 101, 5274 (1994)]. With this method, the flux of particles, the chemical potential gradients, and density gradients can all be measured in the simulation. In this paper, we present a complementary approach that couples a nonlocal density functional theory (DFT) with a transport equation describing steady-state flux of the particles. We compare transport-DFT predictions to GCMD results for a variety of ideal (color diffusion), and nonideal (uphill diffusion and convective transport) systems. In all cases excellent agreement between transport-DFT and GCMD calculations is obtained with diffusion coefficients that are invariant with respect to density and external fields.

Pulsed power is a robust and inexpensive technology for obtaining high powers. Considerable progress has been made on developing light ion beams as a means of transporting this power to inertial fusion capsules. However, further progress is hampered by the lack of an adequate ion source. Alternatively, z-pinches can efficiently convert pulsed power into thermal radiation, which can be used to drive an inertial fusion capsule. However, a z-pinch driven fusion explosion will destroy a portion of the transmission line that delivers the electrical power to the z-pinch. They investigate several options for providing standoff for z-pinch driven fusion. Recyclable Transmission Lines (RTLs) appear to be the most promising approach.

Beam gauges have been used in the last decade or so for measuring the internal azimuthal compressive coil stresses in superconducting magnets. In early model Large Hadron Collider Interaction Region (LHC IR) quadrupoles tested at Fermilab, the beam gauges indicated excessively high amounts of inner and outer coil prestress during the collaring process, inconsistent with the coil size and modulus data. In response to these measurements, a simple mechanics based quantitative understanding of different factors affecting beam gauges has been developed. A finite element model with contact elements and non-linear material behavior, confirmed with experimental results, was developed. The results indicate that a small plastic deformation of either the beam or the backing plate can cause significant errors in the measured stress values. The effect of variations in coil modulus and support boundary conditions on beam gauge performance are also discussed.

The use of lasers as the driver for inertial confinement fusion and weapons physics experiments is based on their ability to produce high-energy short pulses in a beam with low divergence. Indeed, the focus ability of high quality laser beams far exceeds alternate technologies and is a major factor in the rationale for building high power lasers for such applications. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a large, 192-beam, high-power laser facility under construction at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for fusion and weapons physics experiments. Its uncorrected minimum focal spot size is limited by laser system aberrations. The NIF includes a Wavefront Control System to correct these aberrations to yield a focal spot small enough for its applications. Sources of aberrations to be corrected include prompt pump-induced distortions in the laser amplifiers, previous-shot thermal distortions, beam off-axis effects, and gravity, mounting, and coating-induced optic distortions. Aberrations from gas density variations and optic manufacturing figure errors are also partially corrected. This paper provides an overview of the NIF Wavefront Control System and describes the target spot size performance improvement it affords. It describes provisions made to accommodate the NIF's high fluence (laser beam and flashlamp), large wavefront correction range, wavefront …

The authors review the searches for supersymmetric particles achieved by the CDF and D0 collaborations at the p{bar p} Tevatron collider at FNAL, at {radical}s = 1.8 TeV and with a total integrated luminosity of 110 pb{sup {minus}1}, per experiment. The prospects for the forthcoming run at {radical}s = 2 TeV and an integrated luminosity reaching ultimately at least 20 fb{sup {minus}1}, are also discussed.

A new test methodology is described which allows access to loading rates that lie between split Hopkinson bar and shock-loading techniques. Gas gun experiments combined with velocity interferometry techniques have been used to experimentally determine the intermediate strain-rate loading behavior of Coors AD995 alumina and Cercom silicon-carbide rods. Graded-density materials have been used as impactors; thereby eliminating the tension states generated by the radial stress components during the loading phase. Results of these experiments demonstrate that the time-dependent stress pulse generated during impact allows an efficient transition from the initial uniaxial strain loading to a uniaxial stress state as the stress pulse propagates through the rod. This allows access to intermediate loading rates over 5 x 10{sup 3}/s to a few times 10{sup 4}/s.

Controlled impact methodology has been used on a powdergun to obtain dynamic behavior properties of Tributyl Phosphate (TBP). A novel test methodology is used to provide extremely accurate equation of state data of the liquid. A thin aluminum plate used for confining the liquid also serves as a diagnostic to provide reshock states and subsequent release adiabats from the reshocked state. Polar polymer, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) gauges and velocity interferometer system for any reflector (VISAR) provided redundant and precise data of temporal resolution to five nanoseconds and shock velocity measurements of better than 1%. The design and test methodologies are presented in this paper.

We have applied ultraviolet Thomson scattering to accurately measure the electron and ion temperature in high-density gas-filled hohlraums at the Nova laser facility. The implementation of a short-wavelength probe laser that operates at 263 nm (4{omega}) has allowed us for the first time to investigate scalings to high gas fill densities and to characterize the hohlraum conditions of the low-Z gas plasma. as well as of the high-Z wall plasma. These measurements have provided us with a unique data set that we use to make critical comparisons with radiation-hydrodynamic modeling using the code LASNEX. This code is presently being applied to design fusion targets for the National Ignition Facility. The Thomson scattering experiments show the existence of electron temperature gradients in the gas plasma that are well modeled when including a self-consistent calculation of magnetic fields. The fields are of relatively small strength not affecting the Thomson scattering spectra directly but limiting the electron thermal transport in the gas resulting into temperature gradients consistent with the experimental observations. In addition, the ion temperature data show that the stagnation time of the gas plasma on the hohlraum axis, which is driven by the radial inward flowing plasma, is sensitive to the …