Absolute calibration of the Pierre Auger Observatory fluorescence detectors uses a light source at the telescope aperture. The technique accounts for the combined effects of all detector components in a single measurement. The calibrated 2.5 m diameter light source fills the aperture, providing uniform illumination to each pixel. The known flux from the light source and the response of the acquisition system give the required calibration for each pixel. In the lab, light source uniformity is studied using CCD images and the intensity is measured relative to NIST-calibrated photodiodes. Overall uncertainties are presently 12%, and are dominated by systematics.

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The overall objective of this project is the development of a mechanical rotary-disk feeder, known as the Stamet Posimetric High Pressure Solids Feeder System, to feed dry granular coal continuously and controllably into pressurized environments of up to 35 kg/cm{sup 2} (500 psi). This was to be accomplished in two phases. The first task was to review materials handling experience in pressurized operations as it related to the target pressures for this project, and review existing coal preparation processes and specifications currently used in advanced combustion systems. Samples of existing fuel materials were obtained and tested to evaluate flow, sealing and friction properties. This provided input data for use in the design of the Stamet Feeders for the project, and ensured that the material specification used met the requirements of advanced combustion & gasification systems. Ultimately, Powder River Basin coal provided by the PSDF facility in Wilsonville, AL was used as the basis for the feeder design and test program. Based on the material property information, a Phase 1 feeder system was designed and built to accomplish feeding the coal to an intermediate pressure up to 21 kg/cm{sup 2} (300 psi) at feed rates of approximately 100 kilograms (220lbs) per …

A laser hazard analysis was performed for the SNL Active Polarimeter Optical System based on the ANSI Standard Z136.1-2000, American National Standard for Safe Use of Lasers and the ANSI Standard Z136.6-2000, American National Standard for Safe Use of Lasers Outdoors. The Active Polarimeter Optical System (APOS) uses a pulsed, near-infrared, chromium doped lithium strontium aluminum fluoride (Cr:LiSAF) crystal laser in conjunction with a holographic diffuser and lens to illuminate a scene of interest. The APOS is intended for outdoor operations. The system is mounted on a height adjustable platform (6 feet to 40 feet) and sits atop a tripod that points the beam downward. The beam can be pointed from nadir to as much as 60 degrees off of nadir producing an illuminating spot geometry that can vary from circular (at nadir) to elliptical in shape (off of nadir). The JP Innovations crystal Cr:LiSAF laser parameters are presented in section II. The illuminating laser spot size is variable and can be adjusted by adjusting the separation distance between the lens and the holographic diffuser. The system is adjusted while platform is at the lowest level. The laser spot is adjusted for a particular spot size at a particular distance …

This report summarizes activities that have taken place in the last six (6) months (January 2005-June 2005) under the DOE-NETL cooperative agreement ''Adaptive Management and Planning Models for Cultural Resources in Oil and Gas Fields, New Mexico and Wyoming'' DE-FC26-02NT15445. This project examines the practices and results of cultural resource investigation and management in two different oil and gas producing areas of the United States: southeastern New Mexico and the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. The project evaluates how cultural resource investigations have been conducted in the past and considers how investigation and management could be pursued differently in the future. The study relies upon full database population for cultural resource inventories and resources and geomorphological studies. These are the basis for analysis of cultural resource occurrence, strategies for finding and evaluating cultural resources, and recommendations for future management practices. Activities can be summarized as occurring in either Wyoming or New Mexico. Gnomon as project lead, worked in both areas.

This annual technical progress report summarizes the work accomplished during the third year of the program, January-December 2004, 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 groundwork was laid for both the membrane materials development and the construction of the required facilities for testing the membrane reliability and performance. It has resulted in the construction of a single tube and multi-tube combustion test facility. Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) principles were applied to the membrane material selection process. The required ceramic powders were ordered and will be evaluated in 2005. Design of experiment techniques (fuel gas mixture design) were applied to the membrane performance evaluation process. The first results indicate that the oxygen flux of the membrane is significantly higher when the porous support is exposed to the fuel gas mixture instead of air. Failures of the oxygen transport membrane tube did not occur during the reporting period which is supporting evidence that our emphasis on design for robustness is yielding the desired result. All work on the project was performed in a safe manner as proven by zero recordable injuries or …

This paper introduces a novel augmentation to the current heuristic usability evaluation methodology. The SPAR-H human reliability analysis method was developed for categorizing human performance in nuclear power plants. Despite the specialized use of SPAR-H for safety critical scenarios, the method also holds promise for use in commercial off-the-shelf software usability evaluations. The SPAR-H method shares task analysis underpinnings with human-computer interaction, and it can be easily adapted to incorporate usability heuristics as performance shaping factors. By assigning probabilistic modifiers to heuristics, it is possible to arrive at the usability error probability (UEP). This UEP is not a literal probability of error but nonetheless provides a quantitative basis to heuristic evaluation. When combined with a consequence matrix for usability errors, this method affords ready prioritization of usability issues.

This document is a two-page summary of researchaccomplishments in the LBNL Visualization program during FY2005.

This document is a two-page summary of research accomplishments in the LBNL Visualization program during FY2005.

This document is a two-page summary of researchaccomplishments in the LBNL Visualization program during FY2005.

This report describes a project funded by the Department of Energy, with additional funding from Bechtel National, to develop a copper electrowinning process with lower costs and lower emissions than the current process. This new process also includes more energy efficient production by using catalytic-surfaced anodes and a different electrochemical couple in the electrolyte, providing an alternative oxidation reaction that requires up to 50% less energy than is currently required to electrowin the same quantity of copper. This alternative anode reaction, which oxidizes ferric ions to ferrous, with subsequent reduction back to ferric using sulfur dioxide, was demonstrated to be technically and operationally feasible. However, pure sulfur dioxide was determined to be prohibitively expensive and use of a sulfur burner, producing 12% SO{sub 2}, was deemed a viable alternative. This alternate, sulfur-burning process requires a sulfur burner, waste heat boiler, quench tower, and reaction towers. The electrolyte containing absorbed SO{sub 2} passes through activated carbon to regenerate the ferrous ion. Because this reaction produces sulfuric acid, excess acid removal by ion exchange is necessary and produces a low concentration acid suitable for leaching oxide copper minerals. If sulfide minerals are to be leached or the acid unneeded on site, hydrogen …

Well PM-2, Aquifer Test, Municipal Water Supply Well.

A methodology was developed for computing the probability that the sensor dart for the 'Near Real-Time Site Characterization for Assured HDBT Defeat' Grand-Challenge LDRD project will survive deployment over a forested region. The probability can be decomposed into three approximately independent probabilities that account for forest coverage, branch density and the physics of an impact between the dart and a tree branch. The probability that a dart survives an impact with a tree branch was determined from the deflection induced by the impact. If a dart that was deflected so that it impacted the ground at an angle of attack exceeding a user-specified, threshold value, the dart was assumed to not survive the impact with the branch; otherwise it was assumed to have survived. A computer code was developed for calculating dart angle of attack at impact with the ground and a Monte Carlo scheme was used to calculate the probability distribution of a sensor dart surviving an impact with a branch as a function of branch radius, length, and height from the ground. Both an early prototype design and the current dart design were used in these studies. As a general rule of thumb, it we observed that for …

The study described in this report used mathematical modeling to estimate health risks from exposure to depleted uranium (DU) during the 1991 Gulf War for both U.S. troops and nearby Iraqi civilians. The analysis found that the risks of DU-induced leukemia or birth defects are far too small to result in an observable increase in these health effects among exposed veterans or Iraqi civilians. Only a few veterans in vehicles accidentally struck by U.S. DU munitions are predicted to have inhaled sufficient quantities of DU particulate to incur any significant health risk (i.e., the possibility of temporary kidney damage from the chemical toxicity of uranium and about a 1% chance of fatal lung cancer). The health risk to all downwind civilians is predicted to be extremely small. Recommendations for monitoring are made for certain exposed groups. Although the study found fairly large calculational uncertainties, the models developed and used are generally valid. The analysis was also used to assess potential uranium health hazards for workers in the weapons complex. No illnesses are projected for uranium workers following standard guidelines; nonetheless, some research suggests that more conservative guidelines should be considered.

This report documents the analysis of data collected for Well ER-6-2 during fiscal year (FY) 2004 Yucca Flat well development and testing program (herein referred to as the ''testing program''). Participants in Well ER-6-2 field development and hydraulic testing activities were: Stoller-Navarro Joint Venture (SNJV), Bechtel Nevada (BN), Desert Research Institute (DRI), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas-Harry Reid Center (UNLV-HRC). The analyses of data collected from the Well ER-6-2 testing program were performed by the SNJV.

The Pierre Auger Observatory data have been analyzed to search for excesses of events near the direction of the galactic center in several energy ranges around EeV energies. In this region the statistics accumulated by the Observatory are already larger than that of any previous experiment. Using both the data sets from the surface detector and our hybrid data sets (events detected simultaneously by the surface detector and the fluorescence detector) we do not find any significant excess. At our present level of understanding of the performance and properties of our detector, our results do not support the excesses reported by AGASA and SUGAR experiments. We set an upper bound on the flux of cosmic rays arriving within a few degrees from the galactic center in the energy range from 0.8-3.2 EeV. We also have searched for correlations of cosmic ray arrival directions with the galactic plane and with the super-galactic plane at energies in the range 1-5 EeV and above 5 EeV and have found no significant excess.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity (AVTA), along with Electric Transportation Applications and Arizona Pubic Service (APS), is monitoring the operations of the APS Alternative Fuel (Hydrogen) Pilot Plant to determine the costs to produce hydrogen fuels (including 100% hydrogen as well as hydrogen and compressed natural gas blends) for use by fleets and other operators of advanced-technology vehicles. The hydrogen fuel cost data will be used as benchmark data by technology modelers as well as research and development programs. The Pilot Plant can produce up to 18 kilograms (kg) of hydrogen per day by electrolysis. It can store up to 155 kg of hydrogen at various pressures up to 6,000 psi. The dispenser island can fuel vehicles with 100% hydrogen at 5,000 psi and with blends of hydrogen and compressed natural gas at 3,600 psi. The monitoring system was designed to track hydrogen delivery to each of the three storage areas and to monitor the use of electricity on all major equipment in the Pilot Plant, including the fuel dispenser island. In addition, water used for the electrolysis process is monitored to allow calculation of the total cost of plant operations and plant efficiencies. The …

Several of the new generation nuclear power plant designs have structural configurations which are proposed to be deeply embedded. Since current seismic analysis methodologies have been applied to shallow embedded structures (e.g., ASCE 4 suggest that simple formulations may be used to model embedment effect when the depth of embedment is less than 30% of its foundation radius), the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is sponsoring a program at the Brookhaven National Laboratory with the objective of investigating the extent to which procedures acceptable for shallow embedment depths are adequate for larger embedment depths. This paper presents the results of a study comparing the response spectra obtained from two of the more popular analysis methods for structural configurations varying from shallow embedment to complete embedment. A typical safety related structure embedded in a soil profile representative of a typical nuclear power plant site was utilized in the study and the depths of burial (DOB) considered range from 25-100% the height of the structure. Included in the paper are: (1) the description of a simplified analysis and a detailed approach for the SSI analyses of a structure with various DOB, (2) the comparison of the analysis results for the different DOBs between …

For a ground based cosmic-ray observatory the atmosphere is an integral part of the detector. Air fluorescence detectors (FDs) are particularly sensitive to the presence of aerosols in the atmosphere. These aerosols, consisting mainly of clouds and dust, can strongly affect the propagation of fluorescence and Cherenkov light from cosmic-ray induced extensive air showers. The Pierre Auger Observatory has a comprehensive program to monitor the aerosols within the atmospheric volume of the detector. In this paper the aerosol parameters that affect FD reconstruction will be discussed. The aerosol monitoring systems that have been deployed at the Pierre Auger Observatory will be briefly described along with some measurements from these systems.

The dependence of atmospheric conditions on altitude and time have to be known at the site of an air shower experiment for accurate reconstruction of extensive air showers and their simulations. The height-profile of atmospheric depth is of particular interest as it enters directly into the reconstruction of longitudinal shower development and of the primary energy and mass of cosmic rays. For the southern part of the Auger Observatory, the atmosphere has been investigated in a number of campaigns with meteorological radio soundings and with continuous measurements of ground-based weather stations. Focusing on atmospheric depth and temperature profiles, temporal variations are described and monthly profiles are developed. Uncertainties of the monthly atmospheres that are currently applied in the Auger reconstruction are discussed.

The authors describe the algorithms used to identify b jets in CDF, and discuss various methods used to measure their performance.

Many high p{sub T} physics analyses at the Tevatron contain a b-quark and hence a b-jet in the final states. We report on the b-jet identification methods in D0 and their performance. For 0.5% of light jet tagging rate, 40 or 45% of b-jet tagging efficiency is achieved for jets with 35 < E{sub T} < 55 GeV and |{eta}| < 1.2.

Till the start of the LHC, the Tevatron is the only running accelerator which produces enough B{sub s} mesons to perform {Delta}m{sub s} measurements. The status--as it was at the time of the conference--of two different {Delta}m{sub s} analysis performed both by the CDF and D0 collaboration will be presented.

This guide establishes a test methodology for determining the overall ballistic resistance of the passenger compartment of assembled nontactical armored passenger vehicles (APVs). Because ballistic testing of every piece of every component of an armored vehicle is impractical, if not impossible, this guide describes a testing scheme based on statistical sampling of exposed component surface areas. Results from the test of the sampled points are combined to form a test score that reflects the probability of ballistic penetration into the passenger compartment of the vehicle.