The Department of Energy has a rich heritage of meeting important national goals in the areas of energy, national security, science, and technology. The end of the Cold War, and the election of President Clinton, have given us a new national agenda. Through a comprehensive strategic planning process, we have determined that the Department must now unleash its extraordinary scientific and technical talent and resources on new and more sharply focused goals: fueling a competitive economy, improving the environment through waste management and pollution prevention, and reducing the nuclear danger.

With the end of the Cold War and the election of President Clinton, the Department of Energy (DOE) set a new course which began with the publication of its first departmental strategic plan in April 1994. Entitled ``Fueling a Competitive Economy, it provided the framework and shared vision for meeting responsibilities in energy, national security, environmental quality, and science and technology. The strategic plan was the guidepost for the formulation of the Department`s FY 1996, FY 1997, and FY 1998 budgets and was critical to the development of the Department`s Strategic Alignment Initiative, designed to save $1.7 billion over five years. This current plan, which has been significantly improved through a very close consultation process with Congress and customers stakeholders, takes DOE to the next important performance level by being more directly linked to actions and results. It defines a strategic goal for each of the Department`s four business lines and, in the spirit of the Government Performance and Results Act and the National Performance Review, identifies a fifth goal addressing corporate management. Reengineering the business practices, managing for results, being open with neighbors and stakeholders, and ensuring the safety and health of DOE workers and the public are, and …

DOE has a major initiative under way to demonstrate two high-efficiency gasification systems for converting biomass into electricity. As this fact sheet explains, the Biomass Power Program is cost-sharing two scale-up projects with industry in Hawaii and Vermont that, if successful, will provide substantial market pull for U.S. biomass technologies, and provide a significant market edge over competing foreign technologies.

This document describes the hardware and software required for the Federal Emergency Management Information System version 1.4.7 (FEMIS v1.4.7) released by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Information included in this document about hardware and software requirements is subject to change.

Disclosed is an apparatus and method for in situ remediation of contaminated subsurface soil or groundwater contaminated by chlorinated hydrocarbons. A nutrient fluid (NF) is selected to simulated the growth and reproduction of indigenous subsurface microorganisms capable of degrading the contaminants; an oxygenated fluid (OF) is selected to create an aerobic environment with anaerobic pockets. NF is injected periodically while OF is injected continuously and both are extracted so that both are drawn across the plume. NF stimulates microbial colony growth; withholding it periodically forces the larger, healthy colony of microbes to degrade the contaminants. Treatment is continued until the subsurface concentration of contaminants is acceptable. NF can be methane and OF be air, for stimulating production of methanotrophs to break down chlorohydrocarbons, especially TCE and tetrachloroethylene.

Do you have waste disposal problems? Do you have land sitting idle because it is not quite good enough for food crops? Would you like to be in on a major new industry and help solve air pollution and global warming problems? The US. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) may have just the ticket-technology to convert cellulosic biomass such as agricultural residues and wastes to ethanol, a clean burning alternative transportation fuel.

The high-level radioactive waste sludge in the underground storage tanks at the Hanford Site contains various chromium solid phases. Dissolution and removal of chromium from tank waste sludges is desirable prior to high-level waste vitrification because increased volume is required to incorporate the residual chromium. Unfortunately, dissolution of chromium from the sludge to form Cr(OH){sub 4}{sup -} through treatment with heated NaOH solution (also used to dissolve aluminum phases and metathesize phosphates to sodium salts) generally has been unsuccessful in tests with both simulated and genuine Hanford waste sludges. Oxidative dissolution of the Cr(III) compounds to form soluble chromate has been proposed as an alternative chromium solid phase dissolution method and results of limited prior testing have been reported. The present systematic tests investigated oxygen gas, hydrogen peroxide, and sodium persulfate oxidants to dissolve Cr(III) under alkaline conditions to form soluble chromate. Permanganate and ozone also were considered for testing but were thought to be of secondary interest because of the insoluble residue (MnO{sub 2} from permanganate) and complex equipment (necessary to generate ozone) implicit with use of these reagents. The oxygen and hydrogen peroxide reagents leave no condensable residue and sodium persulfate only leaves soluble sodium sulfate. Crystalline Cr(OH){sub …

The voltage or electric potential difference across the terminals of a cell when no current is drawn from it. The emf of a cell is the sum of the electric potential differences (PDs) produced by a separation of charges (electrons or ions) that can occur at each phase boundary (or interface) in the cell. The magnitude of each PD depends on the chemical nature of the two contacting phases. Thus, at the interface between two different metals, some electrons will have moved from the metal with a higher free energy of electrons to the metal with a lower free energy of electrons. The resultant charge separation will produce a PD (just as charge separation produces a voltage across a capacitor) that, at equilibrium, exactly opposes further electron flow. Similarly, PDs can be produced when electrons partition across a metal/solution interface or metal/solid interface, and when ions partition across a solution/membrane/solution interface.

This FAQ sheet discusses the concept of ''energy payback,'' or how long a PV system must operate to recover the energy -- and associated generation of pollution and carbon dioxide -- that went into making the system in the first place. Energy payback estimates for rooftop PV systems boil down to 4, 3, 2, and 1 years: 4 years for systems using current multicrystalline-silicon PV modules, 3 years for current thin-film modules, 2 years for future multicrystalline modules, and 1 year for future thin-film modules. With energy paybacks of 1-4 years and assumed life expectancies of 30 years, 87% to 97% of the energy that PV systems generate will be free of pollution, greenhouse gases, and depletion of resources.

This document explains how NREL's fermentation research has produced a major breakthrough in the production of ethanol from biomass. Use of a metabolically engineered bacterium, which will allow cofermentation of both major components (xylose and glucose) of biomass, promises to greatly simplify the production process and reduce costs.

An innovative partnership between government and industry has been awarded the prestigious R&D 100 Award for developing a new biomass gasification technology. Based on research sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the technology demonstrates how biomass can be converted into a clean burning gaseous fuel for firing advanced power systems with high efficiencies and low emissions. The award is given yearly by R&D magazine to the 100 most significant technical achievements of the year.

Geothermal Energy Technology (GET) announces on a bimonthly basis the current worldwide information available on the technologies required for economic recovery of geothermal energy and its use as direct heat or for electric power production.

A short review of the application of surface x-ray scattering techniques to the electrode/electrolyte interfaces is presented. Recent results on metal, halide, and metal-halide adlayers with three specific systems: Bi on Au(100) and Au(110); Br on Au(100) and Ag(100); and the coadsorption of Tl with Br or I on Au(111), are given as an illustration. Factors affecting ordering of pure metal and halide adlayers and the metal-halide surface compounds are discussed in some detail.

This document is a collection of the published reports describing research supporting the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) Research Program for calendar year 1992. Contributions from the principal investigators about their individual projects are included, specifically, chemistry (pituitary tumor studies, boron drug development including liposomes, lipoproteins, and carboranylalarnine derivatives), pharmacology (murine screenings, toxicity testing, ICP-AES analysis of biological samples), physics (radiation dosimetry software, neutron beam and filter design, neutron beam measurement dosimetry), and radiation biology (small and large animal models tissue studies and efficacy studies). These reports have previously appeared in two books: Progress in Neutron Capture Therapy for Cancer, edited by B. J. Allen, D. E. Moore, B. V. Harrington, Plenum Press, 1992; and Boron Neutron Capture Therapy Toward Clinical Trials of Glioma Patients, edited by D. Gabel and R. Moss, Plenum Press, 1992. Reports have also appeared in four journals: Analytica Chimica Acta, Inorganic Chemistry, Nuclear Science and Engineering, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

This informative brief describes the collaborative efforts of NREL and Amoco Corporation to demonstrate a technology that turns landfill wastes into ethanol for clean-burning transportation fuel.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is working to make ethanol Americas automotive fuel of the future by domestically producing it from lignocellulosic biomass, the most abundant renewable resource on earth.

The capability of American technology and industry to develop a ''homegrown'' motor fuel to meet national energy policy goals will take a major step forward in the next year. During 1994, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), with U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) support, will begin operating a$2.2 million Alternative Fuels Users Facility (AFUF) at its Golden, Colorado site.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and it's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are developing technology to make wood adhesives from sawdust, bark, or other biomass (plant materials or wastes derived from them).

This invention consists of a light-intensity dependent molecular switch comprised of a compound which shuttles an electron or a plurality of electrons from a plurality of electron donors to an electron acceptor upon being stimulated with light of predetermined wavelengths, and a method for making said compound.

The Performance Criteria and Evaluation System (PCES) was developed in order to make a data base of criteria accessible to radiation safety staff. The criteria included in the package are applicable to occupational radiation safety at DOE reactor and nonreactor nuclear facilities, but any data base of criteria may be created using the Criterion Data Base Utiliity (CDU). PCES assists personnel in carrying out oversight, line, and support activities.

This code enables one to display, take line-outs on, and perform various transformations on an image created by an array of integer*2 data. Uncompressed eight-bit TIFF files created on either the Macintosh or the IBM PC may also be read in and converted to a 16 bit signed integer image. This code is designed to handle all the formats used for PDS (photo-densitometer) files at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. These formats are all explained by the application code. The image may be zoomed infinitely and the gray scale mapping can be easily changed. Line-outs may be horizontal or vertical with arbitrary width, angled with arbitrary end points, or taken along any path. This code is usually used to examine spectrograph data. Spectral lines may be identified and a polynomial fit from position to wavelength may be found. The image array can be remapped so that the pixels all have the same change of lambda width. It is not necessary to do this, however. Lineouts may be printed, saved as Cricket tab-delimited files, or saved as PICT2 files. The plots may be linear, semilog, or logarithmic with nice values and proper scientific notation. Typically, spectral lines are curved.

The National Photovoltaic (PV) Program, a joint effort of DOE, the national laboratories, and the U.S. PV industry, had exciting advances and significant accomplishments in fiscal year 1997. The booklet provides details of new products introduced, manufacturing processes improved, capacity expanded, and new materials explored. The Million Solar Roofs Initiative, announced by President Clinton on June 26, 1997, will build on the solid foundation of steady research progress in laboratories and universities, industry investment in new technology and capacity, and the burgeoning solar power market both here and abroad.

The ''photovoltaic promise'' is that this solar technology is good for our nation's energy supply, good for our environment, good for our economy, and good for our future. This FAQ sheet briefly discusses details in each of these four areas. It also explains the federal role in solar electricity, specifically, the U.S. Department of Energy's PV Program, whose twofold purpose is to accelerate the development of PV as a global energy option and to assure U.S. technology and global market leadership.

The invention is a process for selectively extracting strontium values from aqueous nitric acid waste solutions containing these and other fission product values. The extractant solution is a macrocyclic polyether in an aliphatic hydrocarbon diluent containing a phase modifier. The process will selectively extract strontium values from nitric acid solutions which are up to 6 molar in nitric acid.