'This project fits well within the overall objectives established by the Environmental Management and Science Program to promote long-term basic research that will provide the tools for more effective and lower cost remediation efforts at DOE sites where hazardous and radioactive wastes or contamination zones are present. In order to develop the necessary remediation technology it has been recognized that a fundamental understanding of the various chemical and physical factors associated with waste treatment and contaminant transport must be established. Some of the specific topics include waste pretreatment, volume reduction, immobilization, separation methods, the interactions of actinides and heavy metals with surfaces in the presence of organic residues and co-contaminants, contaminant transport in the environment, and long-term storage site assessment. This project has direct and potential application in all these areas. The interaction and partitioning of contaminant metals and radionuclides between solution and solid- surface phases is a fundamental issue for waste treatment and predicting contaminant transport in the environment. Many factors are involved in the functional relationships describing chemical reactivity and physical distribution of chemical species. These include modification of chemical behavior by the suite of chemical co-contaminants in a system. Organic complexing agents are common components of waste …

The cleanup of high level defense nuclear waste at the Hanford site presents several progressive challenges. Among these is the removal and disposal of various components from buried active waste tanks to allow new equipment insertion or hazards mitigation. A unique automated retrieval system at the tank provides for retrieval, high pressure washing, inventory measurement, and containment for disposal. Key to the inventory measurement is a three detector HPGe high performance gamma spectroscopy system capable of recovering data at up to 90% saturation (200,000 counts per second). Data recovery is based on a unique embedded electronic pulser and specialized software to report the inventory. Each of the detectors have different shielding specified through Monte Carlo simulation with the MCNP program. This shielding provides performance over a dynamic range of eight orders of magnitude. System description, calibration issues and operational experiences are discussed.

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Richland Operations Office (RL) letter 97-MSD-163 dated January 15, 1997, directed the Project Hanford Management Contractor (Contractor), Fluor Daniel Hanford, inc., to form a joint RL-Contractor Integrated Control Decision Team (ICDT) to evaluate the Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) accident scenarios that were identified to be above the risk evaluation guidelines (radiological and/or toxicological) defined by the April 8, 1996, letter from J. Kinzer, RL-TWRS (96-MSO-069) to Dr. A. L. Trego, Westinghouse Hanford Company. The ICDT evaluated six postulated accidents from the draft FSAR which had analyzed consequences above the DOE directed risk evaluation guidelines after controls were applied. The accidents were: (1) Organic Solvent Fires; (2) Organic Salt-Nitrate Fire; (3) Spray Leak; (4) Flammable Gas; (5) Steam Intrusion; and (6) Seismic Event. Five of the postulated accidents exceed radiological risk guidelines. Although the postulated steam intrusion accident does not exceed the radiological risk guidelines, it was considered in the ICDT evaluation because its calculated consequences exceed toxicological risk evaluation guidelines. Figure 1 delineates the mitigated and unmitigated risk evaluations performed for the FSAR.

Natural fractures exert a strong influence over oil production in Spraberry Trend Area reservoirs in the Permian Basin of west Texas. The importance of the fracture network has been known since the 1950s, but until recently, there has been very little detailed study of the fractures themselves. In 1996, a horizontal Spraberry well was cored as part of a DOE Class III Field Demonstration Project. Fractures from the horizontal core as well as other fractures encountered in vertical Spraberry cores were analyzed in detail for information on both large scale features including orientation and spacing and small-scale features such as the relationships between fracture mineralization and matrix rock composition. At least three sets of fractures are found within the upper and middle Spraberry cores. These sets have distinct orientations, spacing, mineralization, distribution with respect to lithology, and surface characteristics (Lorenz, 1997). Fractures found in the 1U zone of the upper Spraberry have a NE strike, and tend to be partly mineralized with barite, quartz, and dolomite. Distribution of these mineral phases can greatly affect conductivity between the fractures and the rock matrix. The 5U zone of the upper Spraberry contains fractures with NNE and ENE orientations. The NNE set of …

The growing concerns for the environment and increasingly stringent standards for NO emission have presented a major challenge to control NO emmissions from electric utility plants and automobiles. Catalytic decomposition of NO is the most attractive approach for the control of NO emission for its simplicity. Successful development of an effective catalyst for NO decomposition will greatly decrease the equipment and operation cost of NO control. Due to lack of understanding of the mechanism of NO decomposition, efforts on the search of an effective catalyst have been unsuccesful. Scientific development of an effective catalyst requires fundamental understanding of the nature of active site, the rate-limiting step, and an approach to prolong the life of the catalyst. Research is proposed to study the reactivity of adsorbates for the direct NO decomposition and to investigate the feasibility of two novel approaches for improving catalyst activity and resistance to sintering. The first approach is the use of silanation to stabilize metal crystallites and supports for Cu-ZSM-5 and promoted Pt catalysts; the second is utilization of oxygen spillover and desorption to enhance NO decomposition activity. An innovative infrared reactor system will be used to observe and determine the dynamic behavior and the reactivity of …

The report documents the maximum exposure for transfer of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) Isotopic Heat Sources from the 324 Building and placed in interim storage at the Central Waste Complex (CWC). These results are to be reported in the Environmental Assessment DOE-EA- 1 21 1.

We demonstrate a wavelength division multiplexing approach for byte-wide optical interconnects over multimode fiber optic ribbon cable using filters based on common plastic ferrules. A dual wavelength link with eight cascaded filter stages exhibits bit error rates {le}l0{sup -l4}.

A series of experiments to explore Ge opacity at temperatures where the M-shell is almost filled will be discussed. Data are obtained at lower temperatures than previously explored and allow us to investigate the role of atomic structure calculations and their impact on opacity scalings. The experiment uses the Nova laser to irradiate a gold hohlraum within which a CH-tamped Ge sample is radiatively heated. A Nd backlight probes the sample 2 ns later to produce Ge spectral absorption features in the 1.2-1.5 keV energy range. Temperature is monitored by the use of an Al dopant and density is monitored by measuring the edge-on expansion of the sample. Temporal resolution of about 200 ps is obtained by using a short pulse backlight. Calculations in this photon energy region show significant changes in the spectral features.

In the first quarter report, comparison was made between measured water compositions obtained from Hole 16, interval 4 (16-4), and preliminary simulations of that water chemistry. This report describes additional data collected since that sampling, as well as the results of refined simulations that provide a better approximation of the reaction path followed by the water. Also, during this period waters were extracted from pads placed on SEAMIST liners in boreholes specifically for chemical sampling. Several pads exhibited evidence of having collected moisture, so they were removed and the water analyzed. However, for reasons discussed below, analytical problems were encountered. As a result, refined sampling techniques will be used in the future Drift Scale Test, when employing sample pads on the liners.

The Design Authority group for Tank Farms, in conjunction with the Construction Projects organization, have recognized that there is a need to provide consistency in the procurement and testing of pumps and to assure that known critical attributes and features are included with each pump order as well as to reduce potential confusion by pump suppliers. As a result, a panel of pump experts representing Lockheed Martin Hanford Company (LMHC), Fluor Daniel Northwest (FDNW), Numatec Hanford Corporation (NHC), SGN Eurisys Services Corporation (SESC), and ARES Corporation has been assembled to prepare a guide for pump specifications. This document contains the consensus listing of critical characteristics and procurement recommendations of the panel. It is intended to be used as a guide for future pump procurement activities. If followed, it will help reduce cleanup costs at the Hanford Site and promote prompt approval of pumping system designs and procurement specifications. Alternate criteria may be specified on a case by case basis if deviation from the requirements contained herein is merited due to special circumstances.

This document identifies and documents the justification for the safety classification of the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) buildings and structures.

Complex salts and salt/oxide combinations are being considered for the immobilization and storage or disposal of hazardous or radioactive wastes. There is very little information concerning such fundamental properties as heat of fusion and heat capacities for many of these inorganic materials. This work focuses on the use of elements or simple functional groups to estimate some of these fundamental thermodynamic properties for a variety of inorganic compounds. The major emphasis will be on properties for a variety of inorganic compounds. The major emphasis will be on properties for which some ancillary information may be easily measured, but which may be very difficult to measure directly. An example of such a property is the heat of fusion (or melting). The melting temperature for most pure materials is relatively easy to measure. However, the actual amount of energy required to liquefy, or conversely, the amount of energy which must be removed to solidify those same materials has not been measured. Similarly, important properties such as heat capacities of liquids are unavailable for many compounds. Such information is essential in the chemical industry and are paramount for chemical engineers if they are to design, build and operate plants and facilities in an …

The subject of this FY 1997 progress report is tube propagation tests of actual, dried tank waste to verify the contact temperature ignition (CTI) criterion for point-source ignition in the Hanford Site waste tanks. Testing is in support of the Organic Tanks Safety Project and will help resolve safety issues with waste containing organic constitutents. In FY 1997, improvements were made to the laboratory apparatus and procedures for conducting the testing, and the final testing strategy was formulated. The strategy lays out details of the tests to be performed, samples to be tested, and modes of reporting results.

Many experimental studies have investigated the effect of shock pressure on the post-shock mechanical properties of OFHC copper. These studies have shown that significant hardening occurs during shock loading due to dislocation processes and twinning. It has been demonstrated that when an appropriate initial value of the Mechanical Threshold Stress (MTS) is specified, the post-shock flow stress of OFE copper is well described by relationships derived independently for unshocked materials. In this study we consider the evolution of the MTS during HE driven shock loading processes and the effect on the subsequent flow stress of the copper. An increased post shock flow stress results in a higher material temperature due to an increase in the plastic work. An increase in temperature leads to thermal softening which reduces the flow stress. These coupled effects will determine if there is melting in a shaped charge jet or a necking instability in an EFP Ww. `Me critical factor is the evolution path followed combined with the `current` temperature, plastic strain, and strain rate. Preliminary studies indicate that in simulations of HE driven shock with very high resolution zoning, the MTS saturates because of the rate dependence in the evolution law. On going studies …

Functional design description for a Standard-E cabinet arrangement Standard Hydrogen Monitoring System Portable Platform.

This document defines the QA activities that will be Pursued during the development of the WRAP I DMS Release 2 software.

This document represents comments generated from a review of Transnuclear`s Final Design Package distributed on December 10, 1996 and a review of the Final Design Analysis Report meeting held on December 17 & 18, 1996. The Final design describes desicn features and presents final analyses @j performed to fabricate and operate the system while meeting the Cask/Transportation Functions and Requirements, WHC-SD-SNF-FRD-011, Rev. 0 and specification WHC-S-0396, Rev. 1.

This Engineering Report (Conceptual Design) addresses remediation of the plutonium-bearing solutions currently in inventory at the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP). The recommendation from the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is that the solutions be treated thermally and stabilized as a solid for long term storage. For solutions which are not discardable, the baseline plan is to utilize a denitration process to stabilize the solutions prior to packaging for storage.

This document serves as a notice of construction (NOC), pursuant to the requirements of Washington Administrative Code (WAC) 246-247-060, and as a request for approval to construct, pursuant to 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 61.96, a portable exhauster at the 244-AR Vault. The exhauster would be used during air jetting of accumulated liquids from the cell sumps into the tanks and to make transfers among the tanks within the vault when needed. The 244-AR Vault is considered to be a double-contained receiver tank (OCRT) based on its functional characteristics, although it is not listed as one of the five designated DCRTs in the 200 Area Tank Farm systems. Process operations at the vault have been inactive since 1978 and the vault`s two stacks have not operated since 1993. Since cessation of vault operations an extremely large amount of rain water and snow melt have accumulated in the cell sumps. The water level in the sumps is substantially above their respective operating levels and there is concern for leakage to the environment through containment failure due to corrosion from backed-up sump liquid. Active ventilation is required to provide contamination control during air jetting operations within the vault. It has been …

This report documents pilot and laboratory scale testing of activated carbon for use in the 200 Area Effluent Treatment Facility peroxide decomposer columns. Recommendations are made concerning column operating conditions and hardware design, the optimum type of carbon for use in the plant, and possible further studies.

This document serves as a notice of construction pursuant to the requirements of Washington Administrative Code (WAC) 246-247-060 and as a request for approval to construct pursuant to 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 61.96 for the removal of sludge from six storage tanks located inside the 340-A Building, which is located in the 300 Area of the Hanford Site.

Solid-state waveguide lasers offer several attractive features that may make high efficiency and effective thermal management possible. Due to the ability to confine pump light to high intensity over distances much longer than the Rayleigh range, as well as maintaining good overlap between the pump and Iasing modes over the entire guiding region, effcient operation with high slope efficiency should be possible, even for quasi-three level laser systems. Since the waveguide region is typically only a few microns of thickness, heat can be extracted efficiently from the structure. The effects of heating are of less significance than in bulk solid-state lasers because mode confinement is maintained by an index of refraction difference, usually much larger than tnat induced by dn/dT or stress-optic effects. Rare earth doped waveguide laser action has been reported in numerous papers [14]. The processes for fabricating waveguides include film deposition methods such as epitaxial growth, RF sputtering, and most recently, thermal bonding of precision finished crystals [5]. In addition, ion implantation, ion exchange in a molten salt and electric field assisted solid film diffusion [6] have been utilized. The ion exchange method remains the simplest, particularly for many common laser glasses that already have mobile ions, …

The TWRS Configuration Management (CM) Requirement Source document prescribes CM as a basic product life-cycle function by which work and activities are conducted or accomplished. This document serves as the requirements basis for the TWRS CM program. The objective of the TWRS CM program is to establish consistency among requirements, physical/functional configuration, information, and documentation for TWRS and TWRS products, and to maintain this consistency throughout the life-cycle of TWRS and the product, particularly as changes are being made.

The purpose of this work was to investigate the utility of electronic aroma detection technologies for the detection and identification of accelerant residues in suspected arson debris. Through the analysis of known accelerant residues, a trained neural network was developed for classifying suspected arson samples. Three unknown fire debris samples were classified using this neural network. The item corresponding to diesel fuel was correctly identified every time. For the other two items, wide variations in sample concentration and excessive water content, producing high sample humidities, were shown to influence the sensor response. Sorbent sampling prior to aroma detection was demonstrated to reduce these problems and to allow proper neural network classification of the remaining items corresponding to kerosene and gasoline.