Membership status report for the Texas Daily Newspaper Association board of directors meeting on July 13, 2006 at the Headliners Club, in Austin, Texas. The document states that TDNA expects to receive $410,103 in member dues for 2006 - $390,623 from newspapers and $19,480 from associate members. The report gives details on the associates who were billed dues but have not yet paid.

Circulation report from August 2006 that details the numbers of newspapers circulated by Brownwood Bulletin in the year 2006 compared to the year 2005.

A membership services report of the Texas Daily Newspaper Association board of directors meeting, July 13, 2006 at the Headliners Club in Austin, Texas. The document details the many ways that the association will help their members through various services, benefiting the Texas newspapers both directly and indirectly.

This data quality objective (DQO) summary report provides the results of the DQO process conducted for waste characterization activities for the 324 and 327 Building hot cells decommission, deactivate, decontaminate, and demolish activities. This DQO summary report addresses the systems and processes related to the hot cells, air locks, vaults, tanks, piping, basins, air plenums, air ducts, filters, an adjacent elements that have high dose rates, high contamination levels, and/or suspect transuranic waste, which will require nonstandard D4 techniques.

Water injection has been recognized as a powerful techniquefor enhancing energy recovery from vapor-dominated geothermal systemssuch as The Geysers. In addition to increasing reservoir pressures,production well flow rates, and long-term sustainability of steamproduction, injection has also been shown to reduce concentrations ofnon-condensible gases (NCGs) in produced steam. The latter effectimproves energy conversion efficiency and reduces corrosion problems inwellbores and surface lines.This report reviews thermodynamic andhydrogeologic conditions and mechanisms that play an important role inreservoir response to water injection. An existing general-purposereservoir simulator has been enhanced to allow modeling of injectioneffects in heterogeneous fractured reservoirs in three dimensions,including effects of non-condensible gases of different solubility.Illustrative applications demonstrate fluid flow and heat transfermechanisms that are considered crucial for developing approaches to insitu abatement of NCGs.

The objective of this project is to apply the Argonne National Laboratory's Glass Furnace Model (GFM) to the Longhorn oxy-fuel furnace to improve energy efficiency and to investigate the transport of gases released from the batch/melt into the exhaust. The model will make preliminary estimates of the local concentrations of water, carbon dioxide, elemental oxygen, and other subspecies in the entire combustion space as well as the concentration of these species in the furnace exhaust gas. This information, along with the computed temperature distribution in the combustion space may give indications on possible locations of crown corrosion. An investigation into the optimization of the furnace will be performed by varying several key parameters such as the burner firing pattern, exhaust number/size, and the boost usage (amount and distribution). Results from these parametric studies will be analyzed to determine more efficient methods of operating the furnace that reduce crown corrosion. Finally, computed results from the GFM will be qualitatively correlated to measured values, thus augmenting the validation of the GFM.

The well-known Kapchinskij-Vladimirskij (KV) equations are difficult to solve in general, but the problem is simplified for the matched-beam case with sufficient symmetry. They show that the interdependence of the two KV equations is eliminated, so that only one needs to be solved--a great simplification. They present an iterative method of solution which can potentially yield any desired level of accuracy. The lowest level, the well-known smooth approximation, yields simple, explicit results with good accuracy for weak or moderate focusing fields. The next level improves the accuracy for high fields; they previously showed how to maintain a simple explicit format for the results. That paper used expansion in a small parameter to obtain the second level. The present paper, using straightforward iteration, obtains equations of first, second, and third levels of accuracy. For a periodic lattice with beam matched to lattice, they use the lattice and beam parameters as input and solve for phase advances and envelope waveforms. They find excellent agreement with numerical solutions over a wide range of beam emittances and intensities.

Individual raw data streams from instrumentation at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program Climate Research Facility (ACRF) fixed and mobile sites are collected and sent to the Data Management Facility (DMF) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for processing in near real time. Raw and processed data are then sent daily to the ACRF Archive, where they are made available to users. For each instrument, we calculate the ratio of the actual number of data records received daily at the Archive to the expected number of data records. The results are tabulated by (1) individual data stream, site, and month for the current year and (2) site and fiscal year dating back to 1998. The U.S. Department of Energy requires national user facilities to report time-based operating data. The requirements concern the actual hours of operation (ACTUAL); the estimated maximum operation or uptime goal (OPSMAX), which accounts for planned downtime; and the VARIANCE [1-(ACTUAL/OPSMAX)], which accounts for unplanned downtime. The OPSMAX time for the third quarter for the Southern Great Plains (SGP) site is 2,074.80 hours (0.95 x 2,184 hours this quarter). The OPSMAX for the North Slope Alaska (NSA) locale is 1,965.60 hours (0.90 x 2,184), and that for …

On December 5, 2006, the reference case projections from 'Annual Energy Outlook 2007' (AEO 2007) were posted on the Energy Information Administration's (EIA) web site. We at LBNL have, in the past, compared the EIA's reference case long-term natural gas price forecasts from the AEO series to contemporaneous natural gas prices that can be locked in through the forward market, with the goal of better understanding fuel price risk and the role that renewables play in mitigating such risk (see, for example, http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/EMS/reports/53587.pdf or http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/ems/reports/54751.pdf). As such, we were curious to see how the latest AEO gas price forecast compares to the NYMEX natural gas futures strip. This brief memo presents our findings. As a refresher, our past work in this area has found that over the past six years, forward natural gas contracts (with prices that can be locked in--e.g., gas futures, swaps, and physical supply) have traded at a premium relative to contemporaneous long-term reference case gas price forecasts from the EIA. As such, we have concluded that, over the past six years at least, levelized cost comparisons of fixed-price renewable generation with variable-price gas-fired generation that have been based on AEO natural gas price forecasts (rather than …

In preparation for the upcoming Pu Workshop in Livermore, CA, USA, during July 14 and 15, 2006, we have begun to give some thought as to how the meeting will be structured and what will be discussed. Below, you will find our first proposal as to the agenda and contents of the meeting. From you, we need your feedback and suggestions concerning the desirability of each aspect of our proposal. Hopefully, we will be able to converge to a format that is acceptable to all parties. First, it now appears that we will be limited to three main sessions, Friday morning (July 14), Friday afternoon (July 14) and Saturday morning (July 15). The Pu Futures Meeting will conclude on Thursday, July 13. Following a social excursion, the Russian participants will be transported from Monterey Bay to their hotel in Livermore. We anticipate that the hotel will be the Residence Inn at 1000 Airway Blvd in Livermore. However, the hotel arrangements still need to be confirmed. We expect that many of our participants will begin their travels homeward in the afternoon of Saturday, July 15 and the morning of Sunday, July 16. Associated with the three main sessions, we propose that …

In this paper, the author addresses four main topics: (1) A description of the topic of his internship at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; (2) A description of his contributions to the project; (3) A discussion of research directions beneficial to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); and (4) A discussion of the impact the internship experience had on his career aspirations. He feels the first three points can best be addressed using the contents of a paper his mentor, Dr. Tina Eliassi-Rad, and he have published based on their work this summer [Roberts and Eliassi-Rad, 2006]. Sections 2 - 5 are intended for this purpose and have been excerpted from that paper. He concludes this paper in Section 6 with a discussion of the fourth point.

This report presents the final hazard categorization (FHC) for the remediation of the 118-D-1, 118-D-2, and 118-D-3 Burial Grounds located within the 100-D/DR Area of the Hanford Site and the 118-H-1, 118-H-2, and 118-H-3 Burial Grounds located within the 100-H Area of the Hanford Site.

The primary gaseous pollutants (excluding CO{sub 2}) produced by combustion of low-sulfur diesel fuel oxides of nitrogen (NO{sub x}), carbon monoxide (CO), and hydrocarbons (C{sub y}H{sub z}). The last two of these can be readily ameliorated by an oxidation catalyst in the O{sub 2}-rich environment of diesel exhaust but NO{sub x} can not.[1] For this reason NO{sub x} remediation strategies such as selective catalytic reduction (SCR) [2, 3] and the lean NO{sub x} trap (LNT) [4, 5] are being actively pursued. The ideal implementation of these strategies would employ NO{sub x} sensors to control reagent injection in the case of SCR and trap regeneration in the case of LNT. Two different NO{sub x} sensors for this application are at or near commercialization: An amperometric NO{sub x} sensor developed by NGK [6] and a 'mixed potential' NO{sub x} sensor developed by Riken [7]. The NGK sensor works by passing the sampled exhaust through a series of two chambers. In the first chamber O{sub 2} is pumped from the exhaust and in the second, NO{sub x} is decomposed electrochemically and the current from this decomposition is measured in order to determine [NO{sub x}]. Since the NO{sub x} concentrations can be small, on …

This dissertation describes the measurement of the B{sup 0}{bar B}{sup 0} oscillation frequency {Delta}m{sub d} with a sample of 122 x 10{sup 6} B{bar B} pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric B Factory at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. A fully inclusive approach is used to select dilepton events in which B meson decays semileptonically and the lepton's charge is employed to identify the flavor of each B meson. The oscillation frequency {Delta}m{sub d} is extracted from the time evolution of the dilepton events. A maximum likelihood fit to the same sign and opposite sign events simultaneously gives {Delta}m{sub d} = (0.485 {+-} 0.009(stat.) {+-} 0.010(syst.)) ps{sup 1} where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. This is one of the single most precise measurements of the B{sup 0}{bar B}{sup 0} oscillation frequency to date.

Under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Energy/National Energy Technology Laboratory, a multi-disciplinary team led by the Advanced Power and Energy Program of the University of California at Irvine is defining the system engineering issues associated with the integration of key components and subsystems into advanced power plant systems with goals of achieving high efficiency and minimized environmental impact while using fossil fuels. These power plant concepts include ''Zero Emission'' power plants and the ''FutureGen'' H{sub 2} co-production facilities. The study is broken down into three phases. Phase 1 of this study consisted of utilizing advanced technologies that are expected to be available in the ''Vision 21'' time frame such as mega scale fuel cell based hybrids. Phase 2 includes current state-of-the-art technologies and those expected to be deployed in the nearer term such as advanced gas turbines and high temperature membranes for separating gas species and advanced gasifier concepts. Phase 3 includes identification of gas turbine based cycles and engine configurations suitable to coal-based gasification applications and the conceptualization of the balance of plant technology, heat integration, and the bottoming cycle for analysis in a future study. Also included in Phase 3 is the task of acquiring/providing turbo-machinery …

Gas storage is a critical element in the natural gas industry. Producers, transmission & distribution companies, marketers, and end users all benefit directly from the load balancing function of storage. The unbundling process has fundamentally changed the way storage is used and valued. As an unbundled service, the value of storage is being recovered at rates that reflect its value. Moreover, the marketplace has differentiated between various types of storage services, and has increasingly rewarded flexibility, safety, and reliability. The size of the natural gas market has increased and is projected to continue to increase towards 30 trillion cubic feet (TCF) over the next 10 to 15 years. Much of this increase is projected to come from electric generation, particularly peaking units. Gas storage, particularly the flexible services that are most suited to electric loads, is critical in meeting the needs of these new markets. In order to address the gas storage needs of the natural gas industry, an industry-driven consortium was created--the Gas Storage Technology Consortium (GSTC). The objective of the GSTC is to provide a means to accomplish industry-driven research and development designed to enhance operational flexibility and deliverability of the Nation's gas storage system, and provide a …

We have demonstrated that it is possible to enhance current radiation detection capability by manipulating the materials at the nano level. Fabrication of three-dimensional (3-D) nanomaterial composite for radiation detection has great potential benefits over current semiconductor- and scintillation-based technologies because of the precise control of material-radiation interaction and modulation of signal output. It is also a significant leap beyond current 2-D nanotechnology. Moreover, since we are building the materials using a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches, this strategy to make radiation detection materials can provide significant improvement to radiation-detection technologies, which are currently based on difficult-to-control bulk crystal growth techniques. We are applying this strategy to tackle two important areas in radiation detection: gamma-rays and neutrons. In gamma-ray detection, our first goal is to employ nanomaterials in the form of quantum-dot-based mixed matrices or nanoporous semiconductors to achieve scintillation output several times over that from NaI(Tl) crystals. In neutron detection, we are constructing a 3-D structure using a doped nanowire ''forest'' supported by a boron matrix and evaluating the detection efficiency of different device geometry with simulation.

Ni-Cr-Mo-W alloys (C-group alloys) are well known as materials with very high Corrosion resistance in very aggressive environments, an asset that has motivated the selection of Alloy 22 as a waste package material in the Yucca Mountain Project for the long-term geologic disposal of spent nuclear fuel and other high-level radioactive wastes. The aim of this project is to elucidate the corrosion performance of Alloy 22 under aggressive conditions and to provide a conceptual understanding and parameter data base that could act as a basis for modeling the corrosion performance of waste packages under Yucca Mountain conditions. A key issue in any corrosion process is whether or not the kinetics of the cathodic reactions involved can support a damaging rate of anodic metal (alloy) dissolution. Under Yucca Mountain conditions the primary oxidant available to drive corrosion (most likely in the form of crevice, or under-deposit, corrosion) will be oxygen. Here, we present results on the kinetics of oxygen reduction at the Alloy 22/solution interface.

We present and employ a new kinematical approach to cosmological ''dark energy'' studies. We construct models in terms of the dimensionless second and third derivatives of the scale factor a(t) with respect to cosmic time t, namely the present-day value of the deceleration parameter q{sub 0} and the cosmic jerk parameter, j(t). An elegant feature of this parameterization is that all {Lambda}CDM models have j(t) = 1 (constant), which facilitates simple tests for departures from the {Lambda}CDM paradigm. Applying our model to the three best available sets of redshift-independent distance measurements, from type Ia supernovae and X-ray cluster gas mass fraction measurements, we obtain clear statistical evidence for a late time transition from a decelerating to an accelerating phase. For a flat model with constant jerk, j(t) = j, we measure q{sub 0} = -0.81 {+-} 0.14 and j = 2.16{sub -0.75}{sup +0.81}, results that are consistent with {Lambda}CDM at about the 1{sigma} confidence level. A standard ''dynamical'' analysis of the same data, employing the Friedmann equations and modeling the dark energy as a fluid with an equation of state parameter, w (constant), gives {Omega}{sub m} = 0.306{sub -0.040}{sup +0.042} and w = -1.15{sub -0.18}{sup +0.14}, also consistent with {Lambda}CDM …

A creep resistant high temperature Al base alloy made by conventional processing procedures is the subject of this research. The Ni-based superalloys have volume fractions of cubic L1{sub 2} phase precipitates near 50%. This is not attainable with Al base alloys and the approach pursued in this research was to add L1{sub 2} structured precipitates to the Al-Ni eutectic alloy, 2.7 at. % Ni-97.3 at. % Al. The eutectic reaction gives platelets of Al{sub 3}Ni (DO{sub 11} structure) in an almost pure Al matrix. The Al{sub 3}Ni platelets give reinforcement strengthening while the L1{sub 2} precipitates strengthen the Al alloy matrix. Based on prior research and the extensive research reported here modified cubic L1{sub 2} Al{sub 3}Zr is a candidate. While cubic Al{sub 3}Zr is metastable, the stable phase is tetragonal, only cubic precipitates were observed after 1600 hrs at 425 C and they hardly coarsened at all with time at this temperature. Also addition of Ti retards the cubic to tetragonal transformation; however, a thermodynamically stable precipitate is desired. A very thorough ab initio computational investigation was done on the stability of L1{sub 2} phases of composition, (Al,X){sub 3}(Zr,Ti) and the possible occurrence of tie lines between a stable …

Isentropic compression experiments and numerical simulations on TATB based HE were performed respectively at Z accelerator facility from Sandia National Laboratory and at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in order to study the isentrope and associated Hugoniot of this HE [1]. 3D configurations have been calculated here to test the new beta version of the electromagnetism package coupled with the dynamics in Ls-Dyna and compared with the ICE Z shot 1967.

California utilities have been exploring the use of critical peak prices (CPP) to help reduce needle peaks in customer end-use loads. CPP is a form of price-responsive demand response (DR). Recent experience has shown that customers have limited knowledge of how to operate their facilities in order to reduce their electricity costs under CPP (Quantum 2004). While the lack of knowledge about how to develop and implement DR control strategies is a barrier to participation in DR programs like CPP, another barrier is the lack of automation of DR systems. During 2003 and 2004, the PIER Demand Response Research Center (DRRC) conducted a series of tests of fully automated electric demand response (Auto-DR) at 18 facilities. Overall, the average of the site-specific average coincident demand reductions was 8% from a variety of building types and facilities. Many electricity customers have suggested that automation will help them institutionalize their electric demand savings and improve their overall response and DR repeatability. This report focuses on and discusses the specific results of the Automated Critical Peak Pricing (Auto-CPP, a specific type of Auto-DR) tests that took place during 2005, which build on the automated demand response (Auto-DR) research conducted through PIER and the …

This funding enabled the following published manuscripts in which we have developed models of direct relevance to ocean carbon sequestration and of the oceanic iron cycle, its connection to the global carbon cycle, and the sensitivity of atmospheric carbon dioxide to the external source of iron. As part of this process we have developed the adjoint of the MIT ocean biogeochemistry model which has enabled us to perform rigorous and efficient sensitivity studies.

The one year stay was possible after a long administrative process, because of the fact that this was the first participating guest of B division as a foreign national in HEAF (High Explosives Application Facility) with the Detonator/Detonation Physics Group.