Yucca Mountain in Nevada represents the proposed solution to what has been a lengthy national effort to dispose of high-level radioactive waste, waste which must be isolated from the biosphere for tens of thousands of years. This chapter reviews the background of that national effort and includes some discussion of international work in order to provide a more complete framework for the problem of waste disposal. Other chapters provide the regional geologic setting, the geology of the Yucca Mountain site, the tectonics, and climate (past, present, and future). These last two chapters are integral to prediction of long-term waste isolation.

This report describes the experimental work performed at Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) during fiscal year (FY 2006) under the Bechtel SAIC Company, LLC (BSC) Memorandum Purchase Order (MPO) contract number B004210CM3X. Because this experimental work is focused on the dissolution and precipitation behavior of neptunium, the report also includes, or incorporates by reference, earlier results that are relevant to presenting a more complete understanding of the likely behavior of neptunium under experimental conditions relevant to the Yucca Mountain repository. Important results relevant to the technical bases, validations, and conservatisms in current source term models are summarized. The CSNF samples were observed to corrode following the general contour of the surface rather than via (for instance) grain boundary attack. This supports the current approach of estimating the effective surface area of corroding CSNF based on the geometric surface area of fuel pellet fragments. It was observed that the neptunium and plutonium concentrations in corroded CSNF samples were somewhat higher at and near the corrosion front (i.e., at the interface between the alteration product ''rind'' layer and the underlying fuel) than in the bulk fuel. The neptunium and plutonium at the corrosion front and in the uranyl alteration layer were found to …

Although high level nuclear wastes (HLW) contain a daunting array of radioisotopes, only a restricted number are long-lived enough to be problematic, and of these many are either effectively insoluble or are likely to be scavenged from solution by minerals indigenous to all aquifers. Those few constituents likely to travel significant distances through aquifers either form colloids (and travel as particulates) or anions--which are not sorbed onto the predominantly negatively charged mineral surfaces. Iodine ({sup 129}I) is one such constituent and may travel as either iodide (I{sup -}) or iodate (IO{sub 3}{sup -}) depending on whether conditions are mildly reducing or oxidizing. Conventionally, {sup 99}Tc (traveling as TcO{sub 4}{sup -}) is regarded as being of greater concern since it is both more abundant and has a shorter half life (e.g., has a higher specific activity). However, it is unclear whether TcO{sub 4}{sup -} will ever actually form in the mildly reducing environments thought likely within degrading HLW canisters. Instead, technetium may remain reduced as highly insoluble Tc(IV), in which case {sup 129}I might become a significant risk driver in performance assessment (PA) calculations. In the 2004-2005 time frame the US Department of Energy (DOE)--Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRUM), …

Although high level nuclear wastes (HLW) contain a daunting array of radioisotopes, only a restricted number are long-lived enough to be problematic, and of these many are either effectively insoluble or are likely to be scavenged from solution by minerals indigenous to all aquifers. Those few constituents likely to travel significant distances through aquifers either form colloids (and travel as particulates) or anions--which are not sorbed onto the predominantly negatively charged mineral surfaces. Iodine ({sup 129}I) is one such constituent and may travel as either iodide (I{sup -}) or iodate (IO{sub 3}{sup -}) depending on whether conditions are mildly reducing or oxidizing. Conventionally, {sup 99}Tc (traveling as TcO{sub 4}{sup 0}) is regarded as being of greater concern since it is both more abundant and has a shorter half life (e.g., has a higher specific activity). However, it is unclear whether TcO{sub 4}{sup -} will ever actually form in the mildly reducing environments thought likely within degrading HLW canisters. Instead, technetium may remain reduced as highly insoluble Tc(lV), in which case {sup 129}I might become a significant risk driver in performance assessment (PA) calculations. In the 2004-2005 time frame the US Department of Energy (DOE)--Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRUM), …

The current disposal path for high-level waste is to place the material into secure waste packages that are inserted into a repository. The Idaho National Laboratory has been tasked with the development, design, and demonstration of the waste package closure system for the repository project. The closure system design includes welding three lids and a purge port cap, four methods of nondestructive examination, and evacuation and backfill of the waste package, all performed in a remote environment. A demonstration of the closure system will be performed with a full-scale waste package.

This report summarizes the work conducted for the Z-inertial fusion energy (Z-IFE) late start Laboratory Directed Research Project. A major area of focus was on creating a roadmap to a z-pinch driven fusion power plant. The roadmap ties ZIFE into the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) initiative through the use of high energy fusion neutrons to burn the actinides of spent fuel waste. Transmutation presents a near term use for Z-IFE technology and will aid in paving the path to fusion energy. The work this year continued to develop the science and engineering needed to support the Z-IFE roadmap. This included plant system and driver cost estimates, recyclable transmission line studies, flibe characterization, reaction chamber design, and shock mitigation techniques.

A brief pedagogical overview of the phenomenology of Z{prime} gauge bosons is ILC in determining Z{prime} properties is also discussed. and explore in detail how the LHC may discover and help elucidate the models, review the current constraints on the possible properties of a Z{prime} nature of these new particles. We provide an overview of the Z{prime} studies presented. Such particles can arise in various electroweak extensions of that have been performed by both ATLAS and CMS. The role of the the Standard Model (SM). We provide a quick survey of a number of Z{prime}.

A novel liquid-desiccant air conditioner that dries and cools building supply air will transform the use of direct-contact liquid-desiccant systems in HVAC applications, improving comfort, air quality, and providing energy-efficient humidity control.

A net zero-energy building (ZEB) is a residential or commercial building with greatly reduced energy needs through efficiency gains such that the balance of energy needs can be supplied with renewable technologies. Despite the excitement over the phrase ''zero energy'', we lack a common definition, or even a common understanding, of what it means. In this paper, we use a sample of current generation low-energy buildings to explore the concept of zero energy: what it means, why a clear and measurable definition is needed, and how we have progressed toward the ZEB goal.

Windows in the U.S. consume 30 percent of building heating and cooling energy, representing an annual impact of 4.1 quadrillion BTU (quads) of primary energy. Windows have an even larger impact on peak energy demand and on occupant comfort. An additional 1 quad of lighting energy could be saved if buildings employed effective daylighting strategies. The ENERGY STAR{reg_sign} program has made standard windows significantly more efficient. However, even if all windows in the stock were replaced with today's efficient products, window energy consumption would still be approximately 2 quads. However, windows can be ''net energy gainers'' or ''zero-energy'' products. Highly insulating products in heating applications can admit more useful solar gain than the conductive energy lost through them. Dynamic glazings can modulate solar gains to minimize cooling energy needs and, in commercial buildings, allow daylighting to offset lighting requirements. The needed solutions vary with building type and climate. Developing this next generation of zero-energy windows will provide products for both existing buildings undergoing window replacements and products which are expected to be contributors to zero-energy buildings. This paper defines the requirements for zero-energy windows. The technical potentials in terms of national energy savings and the research and development (R&D) status …

A new experimental technique to study crystallographic slip system activity in metallic single crystals deformed under a condition of uniaxial stress is applied to study the behavior of Zn single crystals. The experimental apparatus allows essentially unconstrained shape change of inherently anisotropic materials under a condition of uniaxial stress by allowing 3 translational and 3 rotational degrees of freedom during compression; hence we have named the experiment 6 degrees of freedom (6DOF). The experiments also utilize a 3-D digital image correlation system to measure full-field displacement fields, which are used to calculate strain and make direct observations of slip system activity. We show that the experimental results associated with a pristine zinc single crystal are precisely consistent with the theoretical predicted shape change (sample distortion) assuming that the most favored slip system on the basal plane is the only one that is active. Another experiment was performed on a processed and annealed Zn single crystal to investigate slip that is inconsistent with the critical resolved shear stress (CRSS) theory. These experiments on zinc illustrate the ability of the 6DOF experiment, together with image correlation (IC) data, to measure slip system activity with a high degree of fidelity.

The Zero Power Physics Reactor (ZPPR) fast critical facility was built at the Argonne National Laboratory-West (ANL-W) site in Idaho in 1969 to obtain neutron physics information necessary for the design of fast breeder reactors. The ZPPR-20D Benchmark Assembly was part of a series of cores built in Assembly 20 (References 1 through 3) of the ZPPR facility to provide data for developing a nuclear power source for space applications (SP-100). The assemblies were beryllium oxide reflected and had core fuel compositions containing enriched uranium fuel, niobium and rhenium. ZPPR-20 Phase C (HEU-MET-FAST-075) was built as the reference flight configuration. Two other configurations, Phases D and E, simulated accident scenarios. Phase D modeled the water immersion scenario during a launch accident, and Phase E (SUB-HEU-MET-FAST-001) modeled the earth burial scenario during a launch accident. Two configurations were recorded for the simulated water immersion accident scenario (Phase D); the critical configuration, documented here, and the subcritical configuration (SUB-HEU-MET-MIXED-001). Experiments in Assembly 20 Phases 20A through 20F were performed in 1988. The reference water immersion configuration for the ZPPR-20D assembly was obtained as reactor loading 129 on October 7, 1988 with a fissile mass of 167.477 kg and a reactivity of -4.626 …