Choir concert performed at the UNT College of Music Winspear Hall.

Choir concert performed at the UNT College of Music Winspear Hall.

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Water issues continue to play an important role in producing natural gas from shale formations. This report examines water issues relating to shale gas production in the Fayetteville Shale. In particular, the report focuses on how gas producers obtain water supplies used for drilling and hydraulically fracturing wells, how that water is transported to the well sites and stored, and how the wastewater from the wells (flowback and produced water) is managed. Last year, Argonne National Laboratory made a similar evaluation of water issues in the Marcellus Shale (Veil 2010). Gas production in the Marcellus Shale involves at least three states, many oil and gas operators, and multiple wastewater management options. Consequently, Veil (2010) provided extensive information on water. This current study is less complicated for several reasons: (1) gas production in the Fayetteville Shale is somewhat more mature and stable than production in the Marcellus Shale; (2) the Fayetteville Shale underlies a single state (Arkansas); (3) there are only a few gas producers that operate the large majority of the wells in the Fayetteville Shale; (4) much of the water management information relating to the Marcellus Shale also applies to the Fayetteville Shale, therefore, it can be referenced from …

This report was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) Existing Plants Research Program, which has an energy-water research effort that focuses on water use at power plants. This study complements their overall research effort by evaluating water availability at power plants under drought conditions. While there are a number of competing demands on water uses, particularly during drought conditions, this report focuses solely on impacts to the U.S. steam electric power plant fleet. Included are both fossil-fuel and nuclear power plants. One plant examined also uses biomass as a fuel. The purpose of this project is to estimate the impact on generation capacity of a drop in water level at U.S. steam electric power plants due to climatic or other conditions. While, as indicated above, the temperature of the water can impact decisions to halt or curtail power plant operations, this report specifically examines impacts as a result of a drop in water levels below power plant submerged cooling water intakes. Impacts due to the combined effects of excessive temperatures of the returned cooling water and elevated temperatures of receiving waters (due to high ambient temperatures associated with drought) may be examined in …

This paper constructs strong-stability-preserving general linear time-stepping methods that are well suited for hyperbolic PDEs discretized by the method of lines. These methods generalize both Runge-Kutta (RK) and linear multistep schemes. They have high stage orders and hence are less susceptible than RK methods to order reduction from source terms or nonhomogeneous boundary conditions. A global optimization strategy is used to find the most efficient schemes that have low storage requirements. Numerical results illustrate the theoretical findings.

Concert presented at the UNT College of Music Winspear Hall.

This document summarizes the performance of the groundwater and surface water restoration systems installed by the Commodity Credit Corporation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (CCC/USDA) at the former CCC/USDA grain storage facility in Murdock, Nebraska, during the second full year of system operation, from January 1 through December 31, 2007. Performance in June 2005 through December 2006 was reported previously (Argonne 2007). In the Murdock project, several innovative technologies are being used to remove carbon tetrachloride contamination from a shallow aquifer underlying the town, as well as from water naturally discharged to the surface at the headwaters of a small creek (a tributary to Pawnee Creek) north of the town (Figure 1.1). The restoration activities at Murdock are being conducted by the CCC/USDA as a non-time-critical removal action under the regulatory authority and supervision of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region VII. Argonne National Laboratory assisted the CCC/USDA by providing technical oversight for the restoration effort and facilities during this review period. Included in this report are the results of all sampling and monitoring activities performed in accord with the EPA-approved Monitoring Plan for this site (Argonne 2006), as well as additional investigative activities conducted during the review …

On February 15, 2007, the Commodity Credit Corporation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (CCC/USDA) submitted Recommendations for Remedial Action at Everest, Kansas. Those Recommendations were accepted by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) in a letter to the CCC/USDA dated March 5, 2007. The approved Recommendations document outlines a plan for systematic groundwater sampling and monitoring at Everest to provide data necessary for the critical evaluation of remedial options - including a phytoremediation alternative - for restoration of the groundwater and protection of the surface waters of the intermittent creek at this site. Phase I of the KDHE-approved monitoring plan includes the following activities: (1) Groundwater sampling at existing monitoring wells, with analyses for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and selected biodegradation parameters; (2) Sampling of surface waters along the intermittent creek for VOCs analyses; and (3) Periodic manual measurement and automated recording of groundwater and surface water levels in the vicinity of the intermittent creek. The locations selected for groundwater and surface water sampling and analyses under the approved monitoring program were determined in consultation with the KDHE. As a result of subsequent discussions among representatives of the KDHE, the CCC/USDA, and Argonne regarding the technical program …

Under the auspices of the CEA Cadarache/ANL-US I-NERI project a comprehensive investigation has been made of improvements to the Gen-IV GFR safety case over that of the GCFR safety case twenty five years ago. In particular, it has been concluded and agreed upon [1] that the GFR safety approach for the passive removal of decay heat in a protected depressurization accident with total loss of electric power needs to be different from that taken for the HTRs. The HTR conduction cooldown to the vessel wall boundary mode for an economically attractive core is not feasible in the case of the GFR because the high power densities (100kW/1 compared to 5 kW/1 for pebble bed thermal reactor) require decay heat fluxes well beyond those achievable by the heat conduction and radiation heat transfer mode. A set of alternative novel design options has been evaluated for potential passive safety mechanisms unique to the GFR. In summary, from a technological risk viewpoint and R&D planning, the option which has been identified is the block/plate-based or a pin-based reactor with a secondary guard containment/vessel around the primary vessel to maintain the primary system pressure at a high enough level which would allow primary system …

An assessment of the potential role of Generation IV nuclear systems in an advanced fuel cycle has been performed. The Generation IV systems considered are the thermal-spectrum VHTR and SCWR, and the fast-spectrum GFR, LFR, and SFR. This report addresses the impact of each system on advanced fuel cycle goals, particularly related to waste management and resource utilization. The transmutation impact of each system was also assessed, along with variant designs for transuranics (TRU) burning. The base fuel cycle for the thermal reactor concepts (VHTR and SCWR) is a once-through fuel cycle using low-enriched uranium fuels. The higher burnup and thermal efficiency of the VHTR gives an advantage in terms of heavy-metal waste mass and volume, with lower decay heat and radiotoxicity of the spent fuel per electrical energy produced, compared to a PWR. Fuel utilization might, however, be worse compared to the PWR, because of the higher fuel enrichment essential to meeting the VHTR system design requirements. The SCWR concept also featured improved thermal efficiency; however, benefits are reduced by the lower fuel discharge burnup. The base fuel cycle for the fast reactor concepts (SFR, GFR, and LFR) is a closed fuel cycle using recycled TRU and depleted uranium …

Concert presented at Winspear Hall at the Murchison Performing Art Center.

The effect of thermal aging on tensile properties of cast stainless steels during service in light water reactors has been evaluated. Tensile data for several experimental and commercial heats of cast stainless steels are presented. Thermal aging increases the tensile strength of these steels. The high-C Mo-bearing CF-8M steels are more susceptible to thermal aging than the Mo-free CF-3 or CF-8 steels. A procedure and correlations are presented for predicting the change in tensile flow and yield stresses and engineering stress-vs.-strain curve of cast stainless steel as a function of time and temperature of service. The tensile properties of aged cast stainless steel are estimated from known material information, i.e., chemical composition and the initial tensile strength of the steel. The correlations described in this report may be used for assessing thermal embrittlement of cast stainless steel components.