Final report

Final report

Final report

Final report

Final report

Final report

Final report

Final report

Final report

Final report

Final report

Privatized services are being procured to vitrify low-activity tank wastes for eventual disposalin a shallow subsurface facility at the Hanford Site. Over 500,000 metric tons of low-activitywaste glass will be generated, which is among the largest volumes of waste within the U.S.Department of Energy (DOE) complex and is one of the largest inventories of long-livedradionuclides planned for disposal in a low-level waste facility. Before immobilized waste canbe disposed, DOE must approve a"performance assessment," which is a document that describesthe impacts of the disposal facility on public health and environmental resources. Because therelease rate of radionuclides from the glass waste form is a key factor determining these impacts,a sound scientific basis for determining their long-term release rates must be developed if thisdisposal action is to be accepted by regulatory agencies, stakeholders, and the public. In part, thescientific basis is determined from a sound testing strategy.The foundation of the proposed testing strategy is a well accepted mechanistic model that isbeing used to calculate the glass corrosion behavior over the geologic time scales required forperformance assessment. This model requires that six parameters be determined, and the testingprogram is defined by an appropriate set of laboratory experiments to determine theseparameters, and is combined with …

By making mechanical and electrical modifications to five of its oil wells under a Motor Challenge Showcase Demonstration project, OXY USA (a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corporation) reduced energy consumption by more than 12 percent and achieved total annual savings of$5,362. Other stories in the newsletter focus on the Compressed Air Challenge, a national initiative to promote efficient and effective industrial compressed air systems, a detailed discussion of what to believe--and what NOT to believe--about the efficiency numbers stamped on electric motor nameplates; and increasing international interest in establishing programs similar to Motor Challenge.

This paper summarizes an analysis of the U.S.-Russian Nuclear Material Protection, Control and Accounting (MPC&A) Program, developed on the basis of extensive discussions with U.S. laboratory participants as well as personal experience. Results of the discussions have been organized into three main areas: Technical/MPC&A Progress; Programmatic and Administrative Issues; and Professional Aspects, Implications for MPC&A effectiveness, for MPC&A sustainability, and for future relations and collaboration are derived. Suggested next steps are given.

This is the debut of another innovative NREL publication whose mission is to advance the development and commercialization of alternative fuels, this time on behalf of DOE's Office of Fuels Development (OFD)(a division of the Office of Transportation Technologies). NREL is one of two federal laboratories (Oak Ridge National Laboratory is the other) whose R&D successes have helped to promote ethanol as a cost-competitive alternative to gasoline. Ethanol use is also seen as an effective solution to the greenhouse gas problem.

Bimonthly newsletter for DOE's Motor Challenge program, which promotes the use of energy-efficient electric motor systems.

To properly interpret empirical data on the leaching and physical properties of the baseline ceramic, it is necessary but not sufficient to understand the corresponding behaviors of the main constituent phases, pyrochlore and brannerite. As a first step, the work has addressed making single phases containing only one actinide or Ce, and no neutron absorbers. This report addresses progress in making these phases.

The Optical Engineering thrust area at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) was created in the summer of 1996 with the following main objectives: (1) to foster and stimulate leading edge optical engineering research and efforts key to carrying out LLNL's mission and enabling major new programs; (2) to bring together LLNL's broad spectrum of high level optical engineering expertise to support its programs. Optical engineering has become a pervasive and key discipline, with applications across an extremely wide range of technologies, spanning the initial conception through the engineering refinements to enhance revolutionary application. It overlaps other technologies and LLNL engineering thrust areas.

The National Photovoltaic (PV) Program, a joint effort of DOE, the national laboratories, and the U.S. PV industry, had exciting advances and significant accomplishments in fiscal year 1997. The booklet provides details of new products introduced, manufacturing processes improved, capacity expanded, and new materials explored. The Million Solar Roofs Initiative, announced by President Clinton on June 26, 1997, will build on the solid foundation of steady research progress in laboratories and universities, industry investment in new technology and capacity, and the burgeoning solar power market both here and abroad.

The mission of the Manufacturing Technology thrust area at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has been to have an adequate base of manufacturing technology, not necessarily resident at LLNL, to conduct their future business. The specific goals were (1) to develop an understanding of fundamental fabrication processes; (2) to construct general purpose process models that have wide applicability; (3) to document their findings and models in journals; (4) to transfer technology to LLNL programs, industry, and colleagues; and (5) to develop continuing relationships with the industrial and academic communities to advance their collective understanding of fabrication processes. In support of this mission, two projects were reported here, each of which explores a way to bring higher precision to the manufacturing challenges that we face over the next few years. The first, ''A Spatial-Frequency-Domain Approach to Designing a Precision Machine Tools,'' is an overall view of how they design machine tools and instruments to make or measure workpieces that are specified in terms of the spatial frequency content of the residual errors of the workpiece surface. This represents an improvement of an ''error budget,'' a design tool that saw significant development in the early 1980's, and has been in active use …

The NIF PEPC Mechanical Test Stand is to be used in the building 432. Building 432 is being used to test components and processes for NIF. The test stand is to be bolted to the floor. The test stand provides a platform from which the PEPC kinematic repeatability and vibrational characteristics of the PEPC LRU can be tested. The test stand will allow user access to the LRU to install instrumentation and to make adjustments to the kinematics. The mechanical test stand is designed to hold the 1700 lb. PEPC LRU.

The Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) thrust area at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) supports initiatives that advance inspection science and technology. The goal is to provide cutting-edge technologies, that show promise for quantitative inspection and characterization tools two to three years into the future. The NDE thrust area supports a multidisciplinary team, consisting of mechanical and electronics engineers, physicists, materials and computer scientists, chemists, technicians, and radiographers. These team members include personnel that cross departments within LLNL, and some are from academia and industry, within the US and abroad. This collaboration brings together the necessary and diver disciplines to provide the key scientific and technological advancements required to meet LLNL programmatic and industrial NDE challenges. The primary contributions of the NDE thrust area this year are described in these five reports: (1) Image Recovery Techniques for X-Ray Computed Tomography for Limited-Data Environments; (2) Techniques for Enhancing Laser Ultrasonic Nondestructive Evaluation; (3) Optical Inspection of Glass-Epoxy Bonds; (4) Miniature X-Ray Source Development; and (5) Improving Computed Tomography Design and Operation Using Simulation Tools.

The Power Conservation Technologies thrust area supports initiatives that enhance the core competencies of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Engineering Directorate in the area of solid-state power electronics. Through partnerships with LLNL programs, projects focus on the development of enabling technologies for existing and emerging programs that have unique power conversion requirements. This year, a multi-disciplinary effort was supported which demonstrated solid-state, high voltage generation by using a dense, monolithic photovoltaic array. This effort builds upon Engineering's strengths in the core technology areas of power conversion, photonics, and microtechnologies.

The first observation of the decay K{sup +} {yields} {pi}{sup +}{nu}{ovr {nu}} has been reported. The E787 experiment presented evidence for the K{sup +} {yields} {pi}{sup +}{nu}{ovr {nu}} decay, based on the observation of a single clean event from data collected during the 1995 run of the AGS (Alternating Gradient Synchrotron at Brookhaven National Laboratory). The branching ratio indicated by this observation, B(K{sup +} {yields} {pi}{sup +}{nu}{ovr {nu}}) = 4.2{sub -3.5}{sup +9.7} x 10{sup -10}, is consistent with the Standard Model expectation although the central experimental value is four times larger. The final E7878 data sample, from the 1995-98 runs, should reach a sensitivity of about five times that of the 1995 run alone. A new experiment, E949, has been given scientific approval and should start data collected in 2001. It is expected to achieve a sensitivity of more than an order of magnitude below the prediction of the Standard Model.