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The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) will use colemanite bearing concrete neutron absorber panels credited with attenuating neutron flux in the criticality design analyses and shielding operators from radiation. The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) is tasked with measuring the total density, partial hydrogen density, and partial boron density of the colemanite concrete. SRNL received three samples of colemanite concrete for analysis on September 4, 2013. The average total density of each of the samples measured by the ASTM method C 642, the average partial hydrogen density was measured using method ASTM E 1131, and the average partial boron density of each sample was measured according to ASTM C 1301. The lower limits and measured values for the total density, hydrogen partial density, and boron partial density are presented. For all the samples tested, the total density and the boron partial density met or exceeded the specified limit. None of the samples met the lower limit for hydrogen partial density.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has been tasked with evaluating the effectiveness of ORNL’s new hybrid transport code, ADVANTG, on scenarios of interest to our NA-22 sponsor, specifically of detection of diversion of special nuclear material (SNM). PNNL staff have determined that acquisition and installation of ADVANTG was relatively straightforward for a code in its phase of development, but probably not yet sufficient for mass distribution to the general user. PNNL staff also determined that with little effort, ADVANTG generated weight windows that typically worked for the problems and generated results consistent with MCNP. With slightly greater effort of choosing a finer mesh around detectors or sample reaction tally regions, the figure of merit (FOM) could be further improved in most cases. This does take some limited knowledge of deterministic transport methods. The FOM could also be increased by limiting the energy range for a tally to the energy region of greatest interest. It was then found that an MCNP run with the full energy range for the tally showed improved statistics in the region used for the ADVANTG run. The specific case of interest chosen by the sponsor is the CIPN project from Las Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), which …

This work was to enable the development of a proof-of-principle nanosecond trigger system that is designed to perform a real time analysis of fast Cherenkov light flashes from air showers. The basic building blocks of the trigger system have been designed and constructed, and a real world system is now operating in the VERITAS experiment.

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The fundamental origin of flavor in the Standard Model (SM) remains a mystery. Despite the roughly eighty years since Rabi asked “Who ordered that?” upon learning of the discovery of the muon, we have not understood the reason that there are three generations or, more recently, why the quark and neutrino mixing matrices and masses are so different. The solution to the flavor problem would give profound insights into physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM) and tell us about the couplings and the mass scale at which the next level of insight can be found. The SM fails to explain all observed phenomena: new interactions and yet unseen particles must exist. They may manifest themselves by causing SM reactions to differ from often very precise predictions. The Intensity Frontier (1) explores these fundamental questions by searching for new physics in extremely rare processes or those forbidden in the SM. This often requires massive and/or extremely finely tuned detectors.

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The research studied one-step and two-step Isotope Separation on Line (ISOL) targets for future radioactive beam facilities with high driver-beam power through advanced computer simulations. As a target material uranium carbide in the form of foils was used because of increasing demand for actinide targets in rare-isotope beam facilities and because such material was under development in ISAC at TRIUMF when this project started. Simulations of effusion were performed for one-step and two step targets and the effects of target dimensions and foil matrix were studied. Diffusion simulations were limited by availability of diffusion parameters for UCx material at reduced density; however, the viability of the combined diffusion?effusion simulation methodology was demonstrated and could be used to extract physical parameters such as diffusion coefficients and effusion delay times from experimental isotope release curves. Dissipation of the heat from the isotope-producing targets is the limiting factor for high-power beam operation both for the direct and two-step targets. Detailed target models were used to simulate proton beam interactions with the targets to obtain the fission rates and power deposition distributions, which were then applied in the heat transfer calculations to study the performance of the targets. Results indicate that a direct target, …

Modeling forms an important component of radiation detection development, allowing for testing of new detector designs, evaluation of existing equipment against a wide variety of potential threat sources, and assessing operation performance of radiation detection systems. This can, however, result in large and complex scenarios which are time consuming to model. A variety of approaches to radiation transport modeling exist with complementary strengths and weaknesses for different problems. This variety of approaches, and the development of promising new tools (such as ORNL’s ADVANTG) which combine benefits of multiple approaches, illustrates the need for a means of evaluating or comparing different techniques for radiation detection problems. This report presents a set of 9 benchmark problems for comparing different types of radiation transport calculations, identifying appropriate tools for classes of problems, and testing and guiding the development of new methods. The benchmarks were drawn primarily from existing or previous calculations with a preference for scenarios which include experimental data, or otherwise have results with a high level of confidence, are non-sensitive, and represent problem sets of interest to NA-22. From a technical perspective, the benchmarks were chosen to span a range of difficulty and to include gamma transport, neutron transport, or both …

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The W4E is a patent-pending, direct-drive, variable force turbine/generator. The equipment generates electricity through the water dependent engagement of a ring of rotating magnets with coils mounted on a stator ring. Validation testing of the W4e was performed at Alden Laboratories in the Spring of 2013. The testing was independently observed and validated by GZA GeoEnvironmental, Inc. The observations made during testing and the results of the testing are included in the Test Summary Report

The objectives of this report were to: provide a current state of the science of radioiodine biogeochemistry relevant to its fate and transport at the Hanford Site; conduct a review of Hanford Site data dealing with groundwater {sup 129}I; and identify critical knowledge gaps necessary for successful selection, implementation, and technical defensibility in support of remediation decisions.

This project combines outcrop-scale heterogeneity characterization, laboratory experiments, and numerical simulations. The study is designed to test whether established dispersion theory accurately predicts the behavior of solute transport through heterogeneous media and to investigate the relationship between heterogeneity and the parameters that populate these models. The dispersion theory tested by this work is based upon the fractional advection-dispersion equation (fADE) model. Unlike most dispersion studies that develop a solute transport model by fitting the solute transport breakthrough curve, this project will explore the nature of the heterogeneous media to better understand the connection between the model parameters and the aquifer heterogeneity. Our work at the Colorado School of Mines was focused on the following questions: 1) What are the effects of multi-scale geologic variability on transport of conservative and reactive solutes? 2) Can those transport effects be accounted for by classical methods, and if not, can the nonlocal fractional-order equations provide better predictions? 3) Can the fractional-order equations be parameterized through a link to some simple observable geologic features? 4) Are the classical equations of transport and reaction sufficient? 5) What is the effect of anomalous transport on chemical reaction in groundwater systems? The work is predicated on the observation …

The Savannah River Site (SRS) conducts performance assessment (PA) calculations to determine the appropriate amount of low-level radiological waste that can be safely disposed on site. Parameters are included in these calculations that account for the interaction between the immobile solid phase and the mobile aqueous phase. These parameters are either the distribution coefficient (K{sub d} value) or the apparent solubility value (K{sub sp}). These parameters are readily found in the literature and are used throughout the DOE complex. One shortcoming of K{sub d} values is that they are only applicable to a given set of solid and aqueous phase conditions. Therefore, a given radionuclide may have several K{sub d} values as it moves between formations and comes into contact with different solids and different aqueous phases. It is expected that the K{sub d} construct will be appropriate to use for a majority of the PA and for a majority of the radionuclides. However, semi-mechanistic models would be more representative in isolated cases where the chemistry is especially transitory or the radionuclide chemistry is especially complex, bringing to bear multiple species of varying sorption tendencies to the sediment. Semi-mechanistic models explicitly accommodate the dependency of K{sub d} values, or other …

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Assessing long-term performance of Category 3 waste cement grouts for radionuclide encasement requires knowledge of the radionuclide-cement interactions and mechanisms of retention (i.e., sorption or precipitation); the mechanism of contaminant release; the significance of contaminant release pathways; how wasteform performance is affected by the full range of environmental conditions within the disposal facility; the process of wasteform aging under conditions that are representative of processes occurring in response to changing environmental conditions within the disposal facility; the effect of wasteform aging on chemical, physical, and radiological properties; and the associated impact on contaminant release. This knowledge will enable accurate prediction of radionuclide fate when the wasteforms come in contact with groundwater. Data collected throughout the course of this work will be used to quantify the efficacy of concrete wasteforms, similar to those used in the disposal of LLW and MLLW, for the immobilization of key radionuclides (i.e., uranium, technetium, and iodine). Data collected will also be used to quantify the physical and chemical properties of the concrete affecting radionuclide retention.

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of River Projection manages the River Protection Project, which has the mission to retrieve and treat the Hanford tank waste for disposal and close the tank farms (Certa et al. 2011). Washington River Protection Solutions, LLC (WRPS) is responsible for a primary objective of this mission which is to retrieve and transfer tank waste to the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). A mixing and sampling program with four separate demonstrations is currently being conducted to support this objective and also to support activities in a plan for addressing safety concerns identified by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board related to the ability of the WTP to mix, sample, and transfer fast settling particles. Previous studies have documented the objectives, criteria, and selection of non-radioactive simulants for these four demonstrations. The identified simulants include Newtonian suspending liquids with densities and viscosities that span the range expected in waste feed tanks. The identified simulants also include non-Newtonian slurries with Bingham yield stress values that span a range that is expected to bound the Bingham yield stress in the feed delivery tanks. The previous studies identified candidate materials for the Newtonian and non-Newtonian suspending fluids, …

The 3-rd International 3-days Workshop "Baryon and Lepton Number Violations: BLV-2011" took place at Gatlinburg, TN for September 22-24, 2011. Workshop was organized by the International Organizing Committee and had received advice from the International Program Advisory Committee (see Appendix 1). Workshop was co-chaired by Pavel Fileviez Perez (University of Wisconsin) for theory and Yuri Kamyshkov (University of Tennessee) for experiment and local organization. Workshop was supported and sponsored by the University of Tennessee, Indiana University, North Carolina State University together with TUNL, and by the HEP office of the Department of Energy. DOE financial support in this sponsoring grant was $8,000; that was 23% of the overall budget of the Workshop. Remaining 77% were provided by the sponsoring Universities. Workshop sponsors including DOE are shown on the Workshop webpage. There were 90 workshop participants with 52 from US and remaining from Bosnia/Herzegovina (1), Brazil (1), China (1), Columbia (1), France (1), Germany (10), Italy (9), Japan (4), Russian Federation (3), Slovenia (2), Spain (4), and Switzerland (1). Among Workshop participants there were 17 postdocs and young researchers and 11 graduate students. Total 67 talks and 14 posters were presented at Workshop during 3 days of sessions. Appendix 2 shows …

The divertor plasma-material interface (PMI) must be able to withstand steady-state heat fluxes up to 10 MW/m{sup 2} (a limit imposed by the present day divertor material and engineering constraints) with minimal material erosion, as well as to provide impurity control and ion density pumping capabilities. In spherical tokamaks (STs), the compact divertor geometry and the requirement of low core electron collisionality n*{sub e} at n{sub e} < 0.5-0.7 n{sub G} (where n{sub G} is the Greenwald density) for increased neutral beam current drive efficiency impose much greater demands on divertor and first-wall particle and heat flux mitigation solutions. In NSTX, divertor heat flux mitigation and impurity control with an innovative 'snowflake' divertor configuration and ion density pumping by evaporated lithium wall and divertor coatings are studied. Lithium coatings have enabled ion density reduction up to 50% in NSTX through the reduction of wall and divertor recycling rates. The 'snowflake' divertor configuration was obtained in NSTX in 0.8-1 MA 4-6 MW NBI-heated H-mode lithium-assisted discharges using three divertor coils. The snowflake divertor formation was always accompanied by a partial detachment of the outer strike point with an up to 50% increase in divertor radiation from intrinsic carbon, the peak divertor …

The purpose of this report was to review pertinent literature and studies that might reveal models capable of optimizing the siting, sizing and economic value of energy storage in the future smart grid infrastructure. Energy storage technology and utility system deployment have been subjects of intense research and development for over three decades. During this time, many models have been developed that consider energy storage implementation in the electric power industry and other applications. Nevertheless, this review of literature discovered no actual models and only a few software tools that relate specifically to the application environment and expected requirements of the evolving smart grid infrastructure. This report indicates the existing need for such a model and describes a pathway for developing it.