The main immobilization technologies that are available commercially and have been demonstrated to be viable are cementation, bituminization, and vitrification. Vitrification is currently the most widely used technology for the treatment of high level radioactive wastes (HLW) throughout the world. Most of the nations that have generated HLW are immobilizing in either alkali borosilicate glass or alkali aluminophosphate glass. The exact compositions of nuclear waste glasses are tailored for easy preparation and melting, avoidance of glass-in-glass phase separation, avoidance of uncontrolled crystallization, and acceptable chemical durability, e.g., leach resistance. Glass has also been used to stabilize a variety of low level wastes (LLW) and mixed (radioactive and hazardous) low level wastes (MLLW) from other sources such as fuel rod cladding/decladding processes, chemical separations, radioactive sources, radioactive mill tailings, contaminated soils, medical research applications, and other commercial processes. The sources of radioactive waste generation are captured in other chapters in this book regarding the individual practices in various countries (legacy wastes, currently generated wastes, and future waste generation). Future waste generation is primarily driven by interest in sources of clean energy and this has led to an increased interest in advanced nuclear power production. The development of advanced wasteforms is a …

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In the relatively brief history of utility-scale wind generation, the 'community wind' sector - defined here as consisting of relatively small utility-scale wind power projects that are at least partly owned by one or more members of the local community - has played a vitally important role as a 'test bed' or 'proving ground' for wind turbine manufacturers. In the 1980s and 1990s, for example, Vestas and other now-established European wind turbine manufacturers relied heavily on community wind projects in Scandinavia and Germany to install - and essentially field-test - new turbine designs. The fact that orders from community wind projects seldom exceeded more than a few turbines at a time enabled the manufacturers to correct any design flaws or manufacturing defects fairly rapidly, and without the risk of extensive (and expensive) serial defects that can accompany larger orders. Community wind has been slower to take root in the United States - the first such projects were installed in the state of Minnesota around the year 2000. Just as in Europe, however, the community wind sector in the U.S. has similarly served as a proving ground - but in this case for up-and-coming wind turbine manufacturers that are trying to …

We develop conservation laws for coupled hydro-mechanical processes in unsaturated porous media using three-phase continuum mixture theory. From the first law of thermodynamics, we identify energy-conjugate variables for constitutive modeling at macroscopic scale. Energy conjugate expressions identified relate a certain measure of effective stress to the deformation of the solid matrix, the degree of saturation to the matrix suction, the pressure in each constituent phase to the corresponding intrinsic volume change of this phase, and the seepage forces to the corresponding pressure gradients. We then develop strong and weak forms of boundary-value problems relevant for 3D finite element modeling of coupled hydro-mechanical processes in unsaturated porous media. The paper highlights a 3D numerical example illustrating the advances in the solution of large-scale coupled finite element systems, as well as the challenges in developing more predictive tools satisfying the basic conservation laws and the observed constitutive responses for unsaturated porous materials.

Heavy ion collisions are an ideal tool to explore the QCD phase diagram. The goal is to study the equation of state (EOS) and to search for possible in-medium modifications of hadrons. By varying the collision energy a variety of regimes with their specific physics interest can be studied. At energies of a few GeV per nucleon, the regime where experiments were performed first at the Berkeley Bevalac and later at the Schwer-Ionen-Synchrotron (SIS) at GSI in Darmstadt, we study the equation of state of dense nuclear matter and try to identify in-medium modifications of hadrons. Towards higher energies, the regime of the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), the Super-Proton Synchrotron (SPS) at CERN, and the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at BNL, we expect to produce a new state of matter, the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). The physics goal is to identify the QGP and to study its properties. By varying the energy, different forms of matter are produced. At low energies we study dense nuclear matter, similar to the type of matter neutron stars are made of. As the energy is increased the main constituents of the matter will change. Baryon excitations will become …

Beginning in the early 1970s, a number of research and development efforts were undertaken at U.S. National Laboratories with a goal of developing high power lasers whose characteristics were suitable for investigating the feasibility of laser-driven fusion. A number of different laser systems were developed and tested at ever larger scale in pursuit of the optimum driver for laser fusion experiments. Each of these systems had associated with it a unique pulsed power option. A considerable amount of original and innovative engineering was carried out in support of these options. Ultimately, the Solid-state Laser approach was selected as the optimum driver for the application. Following this, the Laser Program at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the University of Rochester undertook aggressive efforts directed at developing the technology. In particular, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a series of laser systems beginning with the Cyclops laser and culminating in the present with the National Ignition Facility were developed and tested. As a result, a large amount of design information for solid-state laser pulsed power systems has been documented. Some of it is in the form of published papers, but most of it is buried in internal memoranda, engineering reports and LLNL …

Sophisticated front-end electronics are a key part of practically all modern radiation detector systems. This chapter introduces the basic principles and their implementation. Topics include signal acquisition, electronic noise, pulse shaping (analog and digital), and data readout techniques.

The toxigenic strains of Clostridium botulinum produce seven serologically distinct types of neurotoxins labeled A - G (EC 3.4.24.69), while Clostridium tetani produces tetanus neurotoxin (EC 3.4.24.68). Botulinum and tetanus neurotoxins (BoNTs and TeNT) are produced as single inactive chains of molecular mass of approximately 150 kDa. Most of these neurotoxins are released after being cleaved into two chains, a heavy chain (HI) of 100 kDa and a light chain (L) of 50 kDa held together by an interchain disulfide bond, by tissue proteinases. BoNT/E is released as a single chain but cleaved by host proteinases [1]. Clostvidium botulinum neurotoxins are extremely poisonous proteins with their LD{sub 50} for humans in the range of 0.1 - 1 ng kg{sup -1} [2]. Botulinum neurotoxins are responsible for neuroparalytic syndromes of botulism characterized by serious neurological disorders and flaccid paralysis. BoNTs block the release of acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction causing flaccid paralysis while TeNT blocks the release of neurotransmitters like glycine and {gamma}-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the inhibitory interneurons of the spinal cord resulting in spastic paralysis. In spite of different clinical symptoms, their aetiological agents intoxicate neuronal cells in the same way and these toxins have similar structural organization [3].

This guidebook has been prepared primarily for Federal energy managers to provide practical information for applying the principles of low-energy, whole-building design in new Federal buildings. An important objective of this guidebook is to teach energy managers how to be advocates for renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies, and how to apply specific strategies during each phase of a given project's time line. These key action items are broken out by phase and appear in abbreviated form in this guidebook.

The New American Home{reg_sign} is an annual showcase project designed by committee and co-sponsored by the National Association of Home Builders' National Council of the Housing Industry, BUILDERS Magazine, and Ladies Home Journal. Hedgewood Properties teamed with Building America's IBACOS Consortium and Southface Energy Institute to build a house with a Home Energy Rating Systems (HERS) level of 90.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory Visitors Center, also known as the Dan Schaefer Federal Building, is a high-performance building located in Golden, Colorado. The 6,400-square-foot building incorporates passive solar heating, energy-efficient lighting, an evaporative cooling system, and other technologies to minimize energy costs and environmental impact. The Visitors Center displays a variety of interactive exhibits on energy efficiency and renewable energy, and the building includes an auditorium, a public reading room, and office space.

Consumers in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia, West Virginia, and New Jersey are showing increased interest in solar electric systems for their homes and businesses. This booklet provides basic information about buying a PV system. Photovoltaic (PV) systems are reliable, pollution free, and use a renewable source of energy--the sun. A PV system can be a substantial investment and careful planning will help ensure that you make the right decisions.

A brochure describing the benefits of using solar electricity in commercial buildings.

A brochure describing the benefits of using solar electricity in your home.

A brochure describing the energy-saving and cost-saving benefits of using solar water heating in commercial swimming pools.

A brochure describing the benefits of using solar to heat your home swimming pool.

A brochure describing the cost-saving and energy-saving benefits of using solar heated water in your home.

A brochure describing the energy-saving and cost-saving benefits of using solar water heating in commercial buildings.

A brochure describing the benefits of using transpired solar walls to help heat commercial buildings.

This booklet is designed to guide you through the process of buying a grid-tied solar electric system. A word of caution: This is not a technical guide for designing or installing your system.

This document provides an overview of the U.S. Department of Energy's Building America program. Building America works with the residential building industry to develop and implement innovative building processes and technologies-innovations that save builders and homeowners millions of dollars in construction and energy costs. This industry-led, cost-shared partnership program aims to reduce energy use by 50% and reduce construction time and waste, improve indoor air quality and comfort, encourage a systems engineering approach for design and construction of new homes, and accelerate the development and adoption of high performance in production housing.

This is the Fall 2000 edition of the OIT Times newsletter, a 12-page quarterly publication produced by the Office of Industrial Technologies. This issue focuses on OIT's BestPractices initiative.

This is a fact sheet written for the Inventions and Innovation Program about a new auxiliary power unit for use in the long-haul trucking industry.

This is a fact sheet written for the Inventions and Innovation Program about a new grid-tied inverter technology for alternate/renewable energy systems.