A chemical diffusion model was incorporated into the thermal-hydraulics package of the MELCOR Severe Accident code (Reference 1) for analyzing air ingress events for a very high temperature gas-cooled reactor.

The high-density infrared (HDI) transient-liquid coating (TLC) process was successfully developed and demonstrated excellent, enhanced (5 times higher than the current material and process) wear performance for the selected functionally graded material (FGM) coatings under laboratory simulated, in-service conditions. The mating steel component exhibited a wear rate improvement of approximately one and a half (1.5) times. After 8000 cycles of. wear testing, the full-scale component testing demonstrated that the coating integrity was still excellent. Little or no spalling was observed to occur.

The Department of Energy Environmental Management Program is faced with two major issues involving two-phase flow in fractured rock; specifically, transport of dissolved contaminants in the Vadose Zone, and the fate of Dense Nonaqueous Phase Liquids (DNAPLs) below the water table. Conceptual models currently used to address these problems do not correctly include the influence of the fractures, thus leading to erroneous predictions. Recent work has shown that it is crucial to understand the topology, or ''structure'' of the fluid phases (air/water or water/DNAPL) within the subsurface. It has also been shown that even under steady boundary conditions, the influence of fractures can lead to complex and dynamic phase structure that controls system behavior, with or without the presence of a porous rock matrix. Complicated phase structures within the fracture network can facilitate rapid transport, and lead to a sparsely populated and widespread distribution of concentrated contaminants; these qualities are highly difficult to describe with current conceptual models. The focus of our work is to improve predictive modeling through the development of advanced conceptual models for two-phase flow in fractured rock.

This annual technical progress report summarizes the work accomplished during the second year of the program, January-December 2003, in the following task areas: Task 1--Conceptual Design, Task 2--Laboratory Scale Evaluations, Task 3--OTM Development, Task 4--Economic Evaluation and Commercialization Planning and Task 5--Program Management. The program has experienced significant delays due to several factors. The budget has also been significantly under spent. Based on recent technical successes and confirmation of process economics, significant future progress is expected. Concepts for integrating Oxygen Transport Membranes (OTMs) into boilers and process heaters to facilitate oxy-fuel combustion have been investigated. OTM reactor combustion testing was delayed to insufficient reliability of the earlier OTM materials. Substantial improvements to reliability have been identified and testing will recommence early in 2004. Promising OTM material compositions and OTM architectures have been identified that improve the reliability of the ceramic elements. Economic evaluation continued. Information was acquired that quantified the attractiveness of the advanced oxygen-fired boiler. CO{sub 2} capture and compression are still estimated to be much less than $10/ton CO{sub 2}.

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) systems have traditionally been used to image subsurface objects. The main focus of this paper is to evaluate an advanced signal analysis technique. Instead of compiling spatial data for the analysis, this technique conducts object recognition procedures based on spectral statistics. The identification feature of an object type is formed from the training vectors by a singular-value decomposition procedure. To illustrate its capability, this procedure is applied to experimental data and compared to the performance of the neural-network approach.

The goal of the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity (AVTA) is to increase the body of knowledge as well as the awareness and acceptance of electric drive and other advanced technology vehicles (ATV). The AVTA accomplishes this goal by testing ATVs on test tracks and dynamometers (Baseline Performance testing), as well as in real-world applications (Fleet and Accelerated Reliability testing and public demonstrations). This enables the AVTA to provide Federal and private fleet managers, as well as other potential ATV users, with accurate and unbiased information on vehicle performance and infrastructure needs so they can make informed decisions about acquiring and operating ATVs. The ATVs currently in testing include vehicles that burn gaseous hydrogen (H2) fuel and hydrogen/CNG (H/CNG) blended fuels in internal combustion engines (ICE), and hybrid electric (HEV), urban electric, and neighborhood electric vehicles. The AVTA is part of DOE's FreedomCAR and Vehicle Technologies Program.

Recent trends in today's office environment make it increasingly more difficult for conventional centralized HVAC systems to satisfy the environmental preferences of individual officer workers using the standardized approach of providing a single uniform thermal and ventilation environment. Since its original introduction in West Germany during the 1950s, the open plan office containing modular workstation furniture and partitions is now the norm. Thermostatically controlled zones in open plan offices typically encompass relatively large numbers of workstations in which a diverse work population having a wide range of preferred temperatures must be accommodated. Modern office buildings are also being impacted by a large influx of heat-generating equipment (computers, printers, etc.) whose loads may vary considerably from workstation to workstation. Offices are often reconfigured during the building's lifetime to respond to changing tenant needs, affecting the distribution of within-space loads and the ventilation pathways among and over office partitions. Compounding this problem, there has been a growing awareness of the importance of the comfort, health, and productivity of individual office workers, giving rise to an increased demand among employers and employees for a high-quality work environment. During recent years an increasing amount of attention has been paid to air distribution systems that …

The objective of this project is to enhance the capabilities of a real-time airborne particle mass spectrometer by implementing matrix-independent methods for sample ionization. The enhancements should result in improved sensitivity for trace substances and, more importantly, permit quantitative determination of the presence of target species in microparticle samples on an individual particle basis. We have used two different approaches to eliminate matrix effects on quantitative accuracy. Both rely on delayed ionization of ablated/desorbed neutral species so that ionization of target substances occurs after most of the expansion collisions have taken place. Resonance ionization by a tunable pulsed laser permits selective ionization of target species, with the laser tuned to a resonance transition from the ground state to an excited state of the target. Additional photons of the same (when possible) or different energy make up the energy required for ionization. The other approach is to perform the laser ablation step within a discharge so that desorbed neutrals are ionized by reactions with the plasma. Electron capture generates negative ions of substances with high electron affinity while electron impact ionization, associative ionization, and Penning ionization from excited metastable species produce positive ions in the discharge. Both atmospheric pressure Corona discharge …

The ability to more rapidly process high-level waste sludge and supernate, without sacrificing cost savings, continues to be a crucial challenge facing the Savannah River Site (SRS). There has, to date, not been any extensive investigation of alternative filter technologies for the SRS baseline process. To address this problem, a focused investigation into alternative, state-of-the art filtration technologies to facilitate the strontium and actinide removal process, which can be cost effectively implemented in existing facilities and current equipment designs, was completed. Filter technologies manufactured by Mott (0.1 µm and 0.5 µm) Graver (0.07 µm), Pall (0.1 µm and 0.8 µm) and GKN (0.1 µm) were evaluated. Membranes had a nominal inside diameter of 3/8 inches and an active membrane length of 2 feet. The investigation was performed in two phases. The first phase of testing evaluated the consistency or variability in flux through the different membranes using water and a standard 5.0 wt% strontium carbonate slurry. The second phase of testing evaluated the achievable permeate flux and clarity through the various membranes using the SRS average salt supernate simulant at solids loadings of 0.06, 0.29 and 4.5 wt%. Membrane variation data indicate that membranes having an asymmetric ceramic coating (Pall …

Presents an analysis of hybridization and implications energy storage devices concerning fuel cell vehicles.

Nondestructive gamma ray characterization of remote-handled waste is significantly complicated by the presence of Compton scattering in the detector and waste matrix produced by the intense cesium gamma ray. This research seeks to understand the photophysics of a new type of inorganic scintillation gamma ray detector, optimize the combination of this gamma ray detector with a Compton guard detector, develop new Monte Carlo solution algorithms for modeling Compton scattering in the waste, and to model the real time intensity of cesium produced Compton scattering. A successful research program will provide the fundamental information needed to design and develop advanced Compton spectrometers for assay of remote handled waste and new higher sensitivity spectrometers for environmental measurements.

Highly basic tank wastes contain several important radionuclides, including 90Sr, 99Tc, and 60Co, as well as actinide elements (i.e., isotopes of U, Pu, and Am). These highly basic tank wastes are known to have leaked into the vadose zone at the Hanford Site. Upon entering the sediments in the vadose zone, the highly basic solutions dissolve large concentrations of silica from the silica and aluminosilicate minerals present in the subsurface. These dissolution reactions alter the chemical composition of the leaking solutions, transforming them from a highly basic (as high 2M NaOH) solution into a pore solution with a very high concentration of dissolved silica and a significantly reduced pH. This moderately basic (pH 9 to 11), high-silica solution has the potential to complex radionuclides and move through the subsurface. Such strong radionuclide complexation is a currently unconsidered transport vector that has the potential to expedite radionuclide transport through the vad ose zone. These strong complexation effects have the ability to significantly alter current conceptual models of contaminant migration beneath leaking tanks. In this project, we are determining the aqueous thermodynamics and speciation of dissolved silica and silica-radionuclide complexes to high silica concentration. We are also initiating studies of U(VI) speciation …

Dual Organellar GenoMe Annotator (DOGMA) automates the annotation of extra-nuclear organellar (chloroplast and animal mitochondrial) genomes. It is a web-based package that allows the use of comparative BLAST searches to identify and annotate genes in a genome. DOGMA presents a list of putative genes to the user in a graphical format for viewing and editing. Annotations are stored on our password-protected server. Complete annotations can be extracted for direct submission to GenBank. Furthermore, intergenic regions of specified length can be extracted, as well the nucleotide sequences and amino acid sequences of the genes.

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The Million Solar Roofs Partnership Update is an annual report from all the Partnership and Partners who participate in the Million Solar Roofs Initiative.

Lipoprotein and weight differences between vigorously active and sedentary MZ twins are used to: (1) estimate the effects of training while controlling for genotype; (2) estimate genetic concordance in the presence of divergent lifestyles.

This report describes the results of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT) of Santa Clara, California. This project encompassed the continued development and integration of the ORNL Automated Image Retrieval (AIR) technology, and an extension of the technology denoted Automated Signature Retrieval (ASR), and other related technologies with the Defect Source Identification (DSI) software system that was under development by AMAT at the time this work was performed. In the semiconductor manufacturing environment, defect imagery is used to diagnose problems in the manufacturing line, train yield management engineers, and examine historical data for trends. Image management in semiconductor data systems is a growing cause of concern in the industry as fabricators are now collecting up to 20,000 images each week. In response to this concern, researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) developed a semiconductor-specific content-based image retrieval method and system, also known as AIR. The system uses an image-based query-by-example method to locate and retrieve similar imagery from a database of digital imagery using visual image characteristics. The query method is based on a unique architecture that takes advantage of the statistical, morphological, and structural characteristics of image data, generated by inspection …

The Big Sky Partnership, led by Montana State University, is comprised of research institutions, public entities and private sectors organizations, and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the Nez Perce Tribe. Efforts during the second performance period fall into four areas: evaluation of sources and carbon sequestration sinks; development of GIS-based reporting framework; designing an integrated suite of monitoring, measuring, and verification technologies; and initiating a comprehensive education and outreach program. At the first two Partnership meetings the groundwork was put in place to provide an assessment of capture and storage capabilities for CO{sub 2} utilizing the resources found in the Partnership region (both geological and terrestrial sinks), that would complement the ongoing DOE research. The region has a diverse array of geological formations that could provide storage options for carbon in one or more of its three states. Likewise, initial estimates of terrestrial sinks indicate a vast potential for increasing and maintaining soil C on forested, agricultural, and reclaimed lands. Both options include the potential for offsetting economic benefits to industry and society. Steps have been taken to assure that the GIS-based framework is consistent among types of sinks within the Big Sky Partnership area and with the …

Basic and applied research is being conducted to develop simple to use chemical and biological sensor chips utilizing bio-chemo-mechanics for real-time, in-situ, detection of technetium, mercury, uranium, copper, and lead for deactivation and decommissioning applications. The bio-chemo-opto-mechanical (Bio-COM) chip involves properly fashioned arrays of micromachined silicon cantilevers containing embedded deformable diffraction gratings functionalized with chemically selective coatings. Adsorption of specific molecules on the cantilever array leads to bending, which changes the diffraction of light from the array. The biochemo- opto-mechanical (BioCOM) chips will be designed to contain an array of pixels, with each pixel containing an array of microcantilever springs in which one surface is derivatized with either an antibody coating or a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) coating for detecting Hg(II), Hg(0), Cu(II), Pb(II), U(VI), or TcO4 -. The BioCOM sensor platform also offers the advantage of simultaneous measurement of many analytes using a single chip. The readout mechanism can be a reflected laser beam, producing a diffraction pattern, or in an ideal case the diffraction of daylight resulting in a change of color. In the latter case the proposed sensors would not require any external power, external or on-board electronics, or fluorescent dyes and associated optics, which will keep its …

Cofiring biomass-for example, forestry residues such as wood chips-with coal in existing boilers is one of the easiest biomass technologies to implement in a federal facility. The current practice is to substitute biomass for up to 20% of the coal in the boiler. Cofiring has many benefits: it helps to reduce fuel costs as well as the use of landfills, and it curbs emissions of sulfur oxide, nitrogen oxide, and the greenhouse gases associated with burning fossil fuels. This Federal Technology Alert was prepared by the Department of Energy's Federal Energy Management Program to give federal facility managers the information they need to decide whether they should pursue biomass cofiring at their facilities.

Report analyzing the use of biomass oils to help meet Office of the Biomass Program goals of establishing a commercial biorefinery by 2010 and commercializing at least four biobased products.

This report summarizes progress made from June 2003 to July 2004. During this period research focused on further understanding the factors controlling the growth and activity of dissimilatory metal reducers in subsurface environments and the application of these findings to better design of strategies for in situ bioremediation of uranium.

Advantages of implementation of power plants based on electrochemical reactions are successfully demonstrated in the USA and Japan. One of the msot promising types of fuel cells (FC) is a type of high temperature fuel cells. At present, thanks to the efforts of the leading countries that develop fuel cell technologies power plants on the basis of molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFC) and solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) are really close to commercialization. One of the problems that are to be solved for practical implementation of MCFC and SOFC is a problem of corrosion of metal components of stacks that are assembled of a number of fuel cells. One of the major components of MCFC and SOFC stacks is a bipolar separator plate (BSP) that performs several functions - it is separation of reactant gas flows sealing of the joints between fuel cells, and current collection from the surface of electrodes. The goal of Task 1 of the project is to develop new cost-effective nickel coatings for the Russian 20X23H18 steel for an MCFC bipolar separator plate using technological processes usually implemented to apply corrosion stable coatings onto the metal parts for products in the defense. There was planned the …

As part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Wind Partnerships for Advanced Component Technologies (WindPACT) program, Global Energy Concepts, LLC is performing a Blade System Design Study (BSDS) concerning innovations in materials, processes and structural configurations for application to wind turbine blades in the multi-megawatt range. The BSDS Volume I project report addresses issues and constraints identified to scaling conventional blade designs to the megawatt size range, and evaluated candidate materials, manufacturing and design innovations for overcoming and improving large blade economics. The current report (Volume II), presents additional discussion of materials and manufacturing issues for large blades, including a summary of current trends in commercial blade manufacturing. Specifications are then developed to guide the preliminary design of MW-scale blades. Using preliminary design calculations for a 3.0 MW blade, parametric analyses are performed to quantify the potential benefits in stiffness and decreased gravity loading by replacement of a baseline fiberglass spar with carbon-fiberglass hybrid material. Complete preliminary designs are then presented for 3.0 MW and 5.0 MW blades that incorporate fiberglass-to-carbon transitions at mid-span. Based on analysis of these designs, technical issues are identified and discussed. Finally, recommendations are made for composites testing under Part I1 of the BSDS, and …