Daily newspaper from Altus, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Alvin, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Holliday, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

The relationship between toxicity and soil contamination must be understood to develop reliable indicators of environmental restoration for bioremediation. Two bacterial rapid bioassays: SOS chromotest and umu-test with and without metabolic activation (S-9 mixture) were used to evaluate genotoxicity of petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated soil following bioremediation treatment. The soil was taken from an engineered biopile at the Czor Polish oil refinery. The bioremediation process in the biopile lasted 4 years, and the toxicity measurements were done after this treatment. Carcinogens detected in the soil, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), were reduced to low concentrations (2 mg/kg dry wt) by the bioremediation process. Genotoxicity was not observed for soils tested with and without metabolic activation by a liver homogenate (S-9 mixture). However, umu-test was more sensitive than SOS-chromotest in the analysis of petroleum hydrocarbon-bioremediated soil. Analytical results of soil used in the bioassays confirmed that the bioremediation process reduced 81 percent of the petroleum hydrocarbons including PAHs. We conclude that the combined test systems employed in this study are useful tools for the genotoxic examination of remediated petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated soil.

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Rusk, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with extensive advertising.

Weekly newspaper from The Colony, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

PEMFC technology for transportation must be competitive with internal combustion engine powertrains in a number of key metrics, including performance, life, reliability, and cost. Demonstration of PEMFC cost competitiveness has its own challenges because the technology has not been applied to high volume automotive markets. The key stack materials including membranes, electrodes, bipolar plates, and gas diffusion layers have not been produced in automotive volumes to the exacting quality requirements that will be needed for high stack yields and to the evolving property specifications of high performance automotive stacks. Additionally, balance-of-plant components for air, water, and thermal management are being developed to meet the unique requirements of fuel cell systems. To address the question of whether fuel cells will be cost competitive in automotive markets, the DOE has funded this project to assess the high volume production cost of PEM fuel cell systems. In this report a historical perspective of our efforts in assessment of PEMFC cost for DOE is provided along with a more in-depth assessment of the cost of compressed hydrogen storage is provided. Additionally, the hydrogen storage costs were incorporated into a system cost update for 2004. Assessment of cost involves understanding not only material and production …

None

None

Weekly newspaper from Cuero, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

It is well-known that the diversity of life appears to fluctuate during the course the Phanerozoic, the eon during which hard shells and skeletons left abundant fossils (0-542 Ma). Using Sepkoski's compendium of the first and last stratigraphic appearances of 36380 marine genera, we report a strong 62 {+-} 3 Myr cycle, which is particularly strong in the shorter-lived genera. The five great extinctions enumerated by Raup and Sepkoski may be an aspect of this cycle. Because of the high statistical significance, we also consider contributing environmental factors and possible causes.

The purpose of this report is to document the development of a model for calculating the release rate for radionuclides and other key elements from high-level radioactive waste (HLW) glasses under exposure conditions relevant to the performance of the repository. Several glass compositions are planned for the repository, some of which have yet to be identified (i.e., glasses from Hanford and Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory). The mechanism for glass dissolution is the same for these glasses and the glasses yet to be developed for the disposal of DOE wastes. All of these glasses will be of a quality consistent with the glasses used to develop this report.

We conducted reversed deliquescence experiments in saturated NaCl-NaNO{sub 3}-H{sub 2}O, KNO{sub 3}-NaNO{sub 3}-H{sub 2}O, and NaCl-KNO{sub 3}-H{sub 2}O systems from 90 to 120 C as a function of relative humidity and solution composition. NaCl, NaNO{sub 3}, and KNO{sub 3} represent members of dust salt assemblages that are likely to deliquesce and form concentrated brines on high-level radioactive waste package surfaces in a repository environment at Yucca Mountain, NV, USA. Discrepancy between model prediction and experimental code can be as high as 8% for relative humidity and 50% for dissolved ion concentration. The discrepancy is attributed primarily to the use of 25 C models for Cl-NO{sub 3} and K-NO{sub 3} ion interactions in the current Yucca Mountain Project high-temperature Pitzer model to describe the non-ideal behavior of these highly concentrated solutions.

We have detected CO(4-3) in the z=3.8 radio galaxy 4C 41.17 with the IRAM Interferometer. The CO is in two massive (M{sub dyn} {approx}> 2.5 x 10{sup 11} M{sub {circle_dot}}) systems separated by 1.8 (13 kpc), and by 400 km s{sup -1} in velocity, which coincide with two different dark lanes in a deep Ly{alpha} image. One CO component coincides with the cm-radio core of the radio galaxy, and its redshift is close to that of the He II {lambda} 1640 AGN line. The second CO component is near the base of a cone-shaped region southwest of the nucleus, which resembles the emission-line cones seen in nearby AGN and starburst galaxies. The characteristics of the CO sources and their mm/submm dust continuum are similar to those found in ultraluminous IR galaxies and in some high-z radio galaxies and quasars. The fact that 4C 41.17 contains two CO systems is further evidence for the role of mergers in the evolution of galaxies at high redshift.

In 1997, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgated new National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for particulate matter, including for the first time particles with aerodynamic diameter smaller than 2.5 micrometers ({micro}m) referred to as PM2.5. PM2.5 in the atmosphere also contributes to reduced atmospheric visibility, which is the subject of existing rules for siting emission sources near Class 1 areas and new Regional Haze rules. There are few existing data regarding emissions and characteristics of fine aerosols from oil, gas and power generation industry combustion sources, and the information that is available is generally outdated and incomplete. Traditional stationary source air emission sampling methods tend to underestimate or overestimate the contribution of the source to ambient aerosols because they do not properly account for primary aerosol formation, which occurs after the gases leave the stack. Primary aerosol includes both filterable particles that are solid or liquid aerosols at stack temperature plus those that form as the stack gases cool through mixing and dilution processes in the plume downwind of the source. These deficiencies in the current methods can have significant impacts on regulatory decision-making. PM2.5 measurement issues were extensively reviewed by the American Petroleum Institute (API) (England …

In the past few years there has been a growing interest in lightweight metal foams. Demands for weight reduction, improved fuel efficiency, and increased passenger safety in automobiles now has manufacturers seriously considering the use of metal foams, in contrast to a few years ago, when the same materials would have been ruled out for technical or economical reasons. The objective of this program was to advance the development and use of steel foam materials, by demonstrating the advantages of these novel lightweight materials in selected generic applications. Progress was made in defining materials and process parameters; characterization of physical and mechanical properties; and fabrication and testing of generic steel foam-filled shapes with compositions from 2.5 wt.% to 0.7 wt.% carbon. A means of producing steel foam shapes with uniform long range porosity levels of 50 to 60 percent was demonstrated and verified with NDE methods. Steel foam integrated beams, cylinders and plates were mechanically tested and demonstrated advantages in bend stiffness, bend resistance, and crush energy absorption. Methods of joining by welding, adhesive bonding, and mechanical fastening were investigated. It is important to keep in mind that steel foam is a conventional material in an unconventional form. A substantial …

Metallic interconnects in solid oxide fuel cells are exposed to a dual environment: fuel on one side (i.e. H₂ gas) and oxidizer on the other side (i.e. air). It has been observed that the oxidation behavior of thin stainless steel sheet in air is changed by the presence of H₂ on the other side of the sheet. The resulting dual environment scales are flaky and more friable than the single environment scales. The H₂ disrupts the scale on the air-side. A model to explain some of the effects of a dual environment is presented where hydrogen diffusing through the stainless steel sheet reacts with oxygen diffusing through the scale to form water vapor, which has sufficient vapor pressure to mechanically disrupt the scale. Experiments on preoxidized 316L stainless steel tubing exposed to air/air, H₂/air, and H₂/Ar environments are reported in support of the model.

Chromium is used as an alloy addition in stainless steels and nickel-chromium alloys to form protective chromium oxide scales. Chromium oxide undergoes reactive evaporation in high temperature exposures in the presence of oxygen and/or water vapor. The deposition of gaseous chromium species onto solid oxide fuel cell electrodes can reduce the efficiency of the fuel cell. Manganese additions to the alloy can reduce the activity of chromium in the oxide, either from solid solution replacement of chromium with manganese (at low levels of manganese) or from the formation of manganese-chromium spinels (at high levels of manganese). This reduction in chromium activity leads to a predicted reduction in chromium evaporation by as much as a factor of 35 at 800 C and 55 at 700 C. The results of evaporation loss measurements on nickel-chromium-manganese alloys are compared with the predicted reduction. Quantifying the effects of manganese additions on chromium evaporation should aid alloy development of metallic interconnects and balance-of-plant alloys.

The evolution of an Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) chamberinvolves a repetition of short, intense depositions of energy (fromtarget ignition) into a reaction chamber, followed by the turbulentrelaxation of that energy through shock waves and thermal conduction tothe vessel walls. We present an algorithm for 2D simulations of the fluidinside an IFE chamber between fueling repetitions. Our finite-volumediscretization for the Navier-Stokes equations incorporates a Cartesiangrid treatment for irregularly-shaped domain boundaries. The discreteconservative update is based on a time-explicit Godunov method foradvection, and a two-stage Runge-Kutta update for diffusion accommodatingstate-dependent transport properties. Conservation is enforced on cutcells along the embedded boundary interface using a local redistributionscheme so that the explicit time step for the combined approach isgoverned by the mesh spacing in the uniform grid. The test problemsdemonstrate second-order convergence of the algorithm on smooth solutionprofiles, and the robust treatment of discontinuous initial data in anIFE-relevant vessel geometry.

Daily newspaper from Chickasha, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Fish that pass through a hydroelectric turbine may not be killed directly, but may nonetheless experience sublethal stresses that will increase their susceptibility to predators (indirect mortality). There is a need to develop reliable tests for indirect mortality so that the full consequences of passage through turbines (and other routes around a hydroelectric dam) can be assessed. The most commonly used laboratory technique for assessing susceptibility to predation is the predator preference test. In this report, we evaluate the field application of a new technique that may be valuable for assessing indirect mortality, based on changes in a behavioral response to a startling stimulus (akin to perceiving an approaching predator). The behavioral response is a rapid movement commonly referred to as a startle response, escape response, or C-shape, based on the characteristic body position assumed by the fish. When viewed from above, a startled fish bends into a C-shape, then springs back and swims away in a direction different from its original orientation. This predator avoidance (escape) behavior can be compromised by sublethal stresses that temporarily stun or disorient the fish. Initial studies demonstrated that turbulence created in a small laboratory tank can alter escape behavior. As a next step, …

Weekly newspaper from Goldthwaite, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with extensive advertising.

This report provides a description of initiatives within the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Departments of Energy, Homeland Security, and Defense to protect the physical transmission infrastructure.