A prediction of dynamic soil properties at the site of a nuclear power plant plays a very important role in the seismic analysis of the facility. Conventional modal analysis procedures can accommodate virtually any range of equivalent elastic soil stiffness which is used to characterize the site. However, high radiation damping associated with energy dissipation in the soil half-space is difficult to accommodate in an elastic modal solution to the dynamic problem. Several methods are available to combine the soil damping with the structural damping in a composite modal damping coefficient. However, even with this convenient representation, the resulting large fractions of critical damping can make modal solutions to the problems suspect. This paper is based on experience gained in this area during studies performed for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission involving seismic analyses of power plants.

A possible source of preheat for heavy ion driven inertial fusion targets is the production of fast precursors by nuclear interactions between the incident heavy ions and the outer parts of the target. A model has been developed which roughly describes these interactions for all beam-target combinations for all incident energies. This interaction model has been applied to a specific capsule design. The resultant preheat is an order of magnitude below the level which could impair target performance.

Dihadron fragmentation functions and their evolution arestudied in the process of e+e- annihilation. Under the collinearfactorization approximation and facilitated by the cut-vertex technique,the two hadron inclusive cross section at leading order (LO) is shown tofactorize into a short distance parton cross section and a long distancedihadron fragmentation function. We provide the definition of such adihadron fragmentation function in terms of parton matrix elements andderive its DGLAP evolution equation at leading log. The evolutionequation for the non-singlet quark fragmentation function is solvednumerically with a simple ansatz for the initial condition and resultsare presented for cases of physical interest.

Abstract: We report the application of the new Monte Carlo method, Smoothed Particle Inference (SPI, described in a pair of companion papers), towards analysis and interpretation of X-ray observations of clusters of galaxies with the XMM-Newton satellite. Our sample consists of publicly available well-exposed observations of clusters at redshifts z > 0.069, totaling 101 objects. We determine the luminosity and temperature structure of the X-ray emitting gas, with the goal to quantify the scatter and the evolution of the L{sub X} - T relation, as well as to investigate the dependence on cluster substructure with redshift. This work is important for the establishment of the potential robustness of mass estimates from X-ray data which in turn is essential towards the use of clusters for measurements of cosmological parameters. We use the luminosity and temperature maps derived via the SPI technique to determine the presence of cooling cores, via measurements of luminosity and temperature contrast. The L{sub X}-T relation is investigated, and we confirm that L{sub X} {proportional_to} T{sup 3}. We find a weak redshift dependence ({proportional_to} (1 + z){sup {beta}{sub LT}}, {beta}{sub LT} = 0.50 {+-} 0.34), in contrast to some Chandra results. The level of dynamical activity is established …

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a cellular transdifferentiation program that facilitates organ morphogenesis and tissue remodeling in physiological processes such as embryonic development and wound healing. However, a similar phenotypic conversion is also detected in fibrotic diseases and neoplasia, in which it is associated with disease progression. EMT in cancer epithelial cells often appears to be an incomplete and bi-directional process. Here we discuss the phenomenon of EMT as it pertains to tumor development, focusing on exceptions to the commonly held rule that EMT promotes invasion and metastasis. We also highlight the role of the Ras-controlled signaling mediators, ERK1, ERK2 and PI3-kinase, as microenvironmental responsive regulators of EMT.

Efficiencies of interstitial absorption during pulsed ND:YAG laser welding of vanadium were compared for nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, and water vapor. Influence of interstitial levels on the embrittlement of vanadium laser welds was also measured. For 1000 ppM contaminant levels in the weld atmosphere, weld hydrogen content increased 9 ppM, nitrogen content increased 190 ppM, and oxygen content increased from 500 ppM relative to baseplate levels. Welds in ultrahigh-purity argon atmospheres contained 3 ppM hydrogen, 40 ppM nitrogen, and 250 ppM oxygen. Longitudinal all-weld tensile specimens and notched-plate specimens were used to measure weld metal tensile properties at [minus]55C. All of the laser weld notch-strength ratios exceeded unity and weld metal tensile strengths all exceeded the baseplate values. For 1000 ppM atmosphere contaminant levels, the only significant decrease in ductility, as measured by reduction-in-area at fracture was for the weld atmosphere containing oxygen. Weld atmospheres containing 1% nitrogen also reduced the weld ductility, and resulted in the onset of cleavage fracture.

Efficiencies of interstitial absorption during pulsed ND:YAG laser welding of vanadium were compared for nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, and water vapor. Influence of interstitial levels on the embrittlement of vanadium laser welds was also measured. For 1000 ppM contaminant levels in the weld atmosphere, weld hydrogen content increased 9 ppM, nitrogen content increased 190 ppM, and oxygen content increased from 500 ppM relative to baseplate levels. Welds in ultrahigh-purity argon atmospheres contained 3 ppM hydrogen, 40 ppM nitrogen, and 250 ppM oxygen. Longitudinal all-weld tensile specimens and notched-plate specimens were used to measure weld metal tensile properties at {minus}55C. All of the laser weld notch-strength ratios exceeded unity and weld metal tensile strengths all exceeded the baseplate values. For 1000 ppM atmosphere contaminant levels, the only significant decrease in ductility, as measured by reduction-in-area at fracture was for the weld atmosphere containing oxygen. Weld atmospheres containing 1% nitrogen also reduced the weld ductility, and resulted in the onset of cleavage fracture.

Hall thrusters provide efficient space propulsion by electrostatic acceleration of ions. Rotating electron clouds in the thruster overcome the space charge limitations of other methods. Images of the thruster startup, taken with a fast camera, reveal a bright ionization period which settles into steady state operation over 50 μs. The cathode introduces azimuthal asymmetry, which persists for about 30 μs into the ignition. Plasma thrusters are used on satellites for repositioning, orbit correction and drag compensation. The advantage of plasma thrusters over conventional chemical thrusters is that the exhaust energies are not limited by chemical energy to about an electron volt. For xenon Hall thrusters, the ion exhaust velocity can be 15-20 km/s, compared to 5 km/s for a typical chemical thruster

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of River Protection (ORP) is responsible for the retrieval, treatment, immobilization, and disposal of Hanford's tank waste. Currently there are approximately 56 million gallons of highly radioactive mixed wastes awaiting treatment. A key aspect of the River Protection Project (RPP) cleanup mission is to construct and operate the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). The WTP will separate the tank waste into high-level and low-activity waste (LAW) fractions, both of which will subsequently be vitrified. The projected throughput capacity of the WTP LAW Vitrification Facility is insufficient to complete the RPP mission in the time frame required by the Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order, also known as the Tri-Party Agreement (TPA), i.e. December 31, 2047. Therefore, Supplemental Treatment is required both to meet the TPA treatment requirements as well as to more cost effectively complete the tank waste treatment mission. The Supplemental Treatment chosen will immobilize that portion of the retrieved LAW that is not sent to the WTP's LAW Vitrification facility into a solidified waste form. The solidified waste will then be disposed on the Hanford site in the Integrated Disposal Facility (IDF). In addition, the WTP LAW vitrification facility off-gas …

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This paper describes the design of the Bench-scale Steam Reformer (BSR); a processing unit for demonstrating steam reforming technology on actual radioactive waste [1]. It describes the operating conditions of the unit used for processing a sample of Savannah River Site (SRS) Tank 48H waste. Finally, it compares the results from processing the actual waste in the BSR to processing simulant waste in the BSR to processing simulant waste in a large pilot scale unit, the Fluidized Bed Steam Reformer (FBSR), operated at Hazen Research Inc. in Golden, CO. The purpose of this work was to prove that the actual waste reacted in the same manner as the simulant waste in order to validate the work performed in the pilot scale unit which could only use simulant waste.

Lateral shearing interferometry (LSI) provides a simple means for characterizing the aberrations in optical systems at EUV wavelengths. In LSI, the test wavefront is incident on a low-frequency grating which causes the resulting diffracted orders to interfere on the CCD. Due to its simple experimental setup and high photon efficiency, LSI is an attractive alternative to point diffraction interferometry and other methods that require spatially filtering the wavefront through small pinholes which notoriously suffer from low contrast fringes and improper alignment. In order to demonstrate that LSI can be accurate and robust enough to meet industry standards, analytic models are presented to study the effects of unwanted grating and detector tilt on the system aberrations, and a method for identifying and correcting for these errors in alignment is proposed. The models are subsequently verified by numerical simulation. Finally, an analysis is performed of how errors in the identification and correction of grating and detector misalignment propagate to errors in fringe analysis.

A scheme of glucose degradation has been validated by the use of intermediates of known isotopic composition. In this scheme: glucose {yields} lactic acid {yields} CO{sub 2} (C-3,4) + acetic acid {yields} CO{sub 2} (C-2,5) + acetone {yields} iodoform (C-1,6) + acetate (C-1,6; 2,5), it was found that (a) in the oxidation of lactic acid, approximately 4.7% of the acetic acid was oxidized to CO{sub 2}; and (b) under the conditions prescribed, BaCO{sub 3} from the degradation of Ba acetate contained approximately 1.5% of the activity of the methyl group.

Recently, while performing extensive EUV irradiation endurance testing on Ru-capped multilayer mirrors in the presence of elevated partial pressures of water and hydrocarbons, NIST has observed that the amount of EUV-induced damage actually decreases with increasing levels of water vapor above {approx} 5 x 10{sup -7} Torr. It is thought that the admitted water vapor may interact with otherwise stable, condensed carbonaceous species in an UHV vacuum system to increase the background levels of simple gaseous carbon-containing molecules. Some support for this hypothesis was demonstrated by observing the mitigating effect of very small levels of simple hydrocarbons with the intentional introduction of methyl alcohol in addition to the water vapor. It was found that the damage rate decreased by at least an order of magnitude when the partial pressure of methyl alcohol was just one percent of the water partial pressure. These observations indicate that the hydrocarbon components of the vacuum environment under actual testing conditions must be characterized and controlled to 10{sup -11} Torr or better in order to quantify the damage caused by high levels of water vapor. The possible effects of exposure beam size and out-of-band radiation on mirror lifetime testing will also be discussed.

A nine-month monitored field study of the performance of automated roller shades and daylighting controls was conducted in a 401 m{sup 2} unoccupied, furnished daylighting mockup. The mockup mimicked the southwest corner of a new 110 km{sub 2} commercial building in New York, New York, where The New York Times will be the major tenant. This paper focuses on evaluating the performance of two daylighting control systems installed in separate areas of an open plan office with 1.2-m high workstation partitions: (1) Area A had 0-10 V dimmable ballasts with an open-loop proportional control system and an automated shade controlled to reduce window glare and increase daylight, and (2) Area B had digital addressable lighting interface (DALI) ballasts with a closed-loop integral reset control system and an automated shade controlled to block direct sun. Daylighting control system performance and lighting energy use were monitored. The daylighting control systems demonstrated very reliable performance after they were commissioned properly. Work plane illuminance levels were maintained above 90% of the maximum fluorescent illuminance level for 99.9{+-}0.5% and 97.9{+-}6.1% of the day on average over the monitored period, respectively, in Areas A and B. Daily lighting energy use savings were significant in both Areas …

Mechanical surface treatments are known to be effective at improving the fatigue resistance of metallic alloys at elevated temperatures ({approx}550-600 C), even though the near-surface compressive residual stress fields have been annealed out. We have investigated the thermal stability of near-surface microstructures induced by deep rolling and laser-shock peening in an austentic stainless steel (AISI 304) and a titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) using in situ hot-stage transmission electron microscopy. It is found that the improvements in fatigue resistance at elevated temperature are related to the high-temperature stability of the work-hardened near-surface microstructure in each case.

The objective of this study was to evaluate archaeological materials from underground openings or shallow burial in arid environments relevant to Yucca Mountain and to draw conclusions about how their state and their environment of preservation could be of relevance to design and operational aspects of the high-level waste repository. The study has evaluated materials from cultures in the arid regions of the ancient Middle East and compared them with the preservation of ancient materials in dry cave sites in the Great Basin desert area of Nevada. The emphasis has been on materials found in undisturbed underground openings such as caves and un-backfilled tombs. Long-term preservation of such materials in underground openings and the stability of the openings themselves provide useful analogue information that serves as a reference point for considering the operation and evolution of the Yucca Mountain repository. Being able to shed light, by close physical and environmental analogy, on what happens in underground openings over many thousands of years provides valuable underpinning to illustrations of expected system performance and offers pointers towards optimizing repository system and operational design.

A major challenge facing DNA copy number (CN) studies of tumors is that most banked samples with extensive clinical follow-up information are Formalin-Fixed Paraffin Embedded (FFPE). DNA from FFPE samples generally underperforms or suffers high failure rates compared to fresh frozen samples because of DNA degradation and cross-linking during FFPE fixation and processing. As FFPE protocols may vary widely between labs and samples may be stored for decades at room temperature, an ideal FFPE CN technology should work on diverse sample sets. Molecular Inversion Probe (MIP) technology has been applied successfully to obtain high quality CN and genotype data from cell line and frozen tumor DNA. Since the MIP probes require only a small ({approx}40 bp) target binding site, we reasoned they may be well suited to assess degraded FFPE DNA. We assessed CN with a MIP panel of 50,000 markers in 93 FFPE tumor samples from 7 diverse collections. For 38 FFPE samples from three collections we were also able to asses CN in matched fresh frozen tumor tissue. Using an input of 37 ng genomic DNA, we generated high quality CN data with MIP technology in 88% of FFPE samples from seven diverse collections. When matched fresh frozen …

A comparative examination of the electronic interactions across a series of trimetallic actinide and mixed lanthanide-actinide and lanthanum-actinide complexes is presented. Using reduced, radical terpyridyl ligands as conduits in a bridging framework to promote intramolecular metal-metal communication, studies containing structural, electrochemical, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy are presented for (C{sub 5}Me{sub 5}){sub 2}An[-N=C(Bn)(tpy-M{l_brace}C{sub 5}Me4R{r_brace}{sub 2})]{sub 2} (where An = Th{sup IV}, U{sup IV}; Bn = CH{sub 2}C{sub 6}H{sub 5}; M = La{sup III}, Sm{sup III}, Yb{sup III}, U{sup III}; R = H, Me, Et) to reveal effects dependent on the identities of the metal ions and R-groups. The electrochemical results show differences in redox energetics at the peripheral 'M' site between complexes and significant wave splitting of the metal- and ligand-based processes indicating substantial electronic interactions between multiple redox sites across the actinide-containing bridge. Most striking is the appearance of strong electronic coupling for the trimetallic Yb{sup III}-U{sup IV}-Yb{sup III}, Sm{sup III}-U{sup IV}-Sm{sup III}, and La{sup III}-U{sup IV}-La{sup III} complexes, [8]{sup -}, [9b]{sup -} and [10b]{sup -}, respectively, whose calculated comproportionation constant K{sub c} is slightly larger than that reported for the benchmark Creutz-Taube ion. X-ray absorption studies for monometallic metallocene complexes of U{sup III}, U{sup IV}, and U{sup V} reveal …

The Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model is used in short-range simulations to explore the sensitivity of model physics and horizontal grid resolution. We choose five events with the clear-sky conditions to study the impact of different planetary boundary layer (PBL), surface and soil-layer physics on low-level wind forecast for two wind farms; one in California (CA) and the other in Texas (TX). Short-range simulations are validated with field measurements. Results indicate that the forecast error of the CA case decreases with increasing grid resolution due to the improved representation of valley winds. Besides, the model physics configuration has a significant impact on the forecast error at this location. In contrast, the forecast error of the TX case exhibits little dependence on grid resolution and is relatively independent of physics configuration. Therefore, the occurrence frequency of lowest root mean square errors (RMSEs) at this location is used to determine an optimal model configuration for subsequent decade-scale regional climate model (RCM) simulations. In this study, we perform two sets of 20-year RCM simulations using the data from the NCAR Global Climate Model (GCM) simulations; one set models the present climate and the other simulates the future climate. These RCM simulations will …

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Mixed low-level waste (MLLW) contains both low-level radioactive materials and low-level hazardous chemicals. The hazardous component of mixed waste has characteristics identified by any or all of the following statutes: the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA), as amended; the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976; and Washington State dangerous waste regulations. The Fluor Hanford Waste Management Project (WMP) is responsible for storing, treating, and disposing of solid MLLW, which includes organic and inorganic solids, organics and inorganic lab packs, debris, lead, mercury, long-length equipment, spent melters, and remote-handled (RH) and oversized MLLW. Hanford has 7,000 cubic meters, or about 25%, of the MLLW in storage at U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sites. Hanford plans to receive 57,000 cubic meters from on-site generators, or about 50% of DOE's newly generated MLLW. In addition, the Hanford Environment Restoration Program and off-site generators having approved Federal Facility Consent Agreement site treatment plans will most likely send 200 cubic meters of waste to be treated and returned to the generators. Volumes of off-site waste receipts will be affected when the MLLW Record of Decision is issued as part of the process for the Hanford Site Solid Waste Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). …

DOE complex contains many tank sludges contaminated with mercury. The high pH of these tank sludges typically fails to stabilize the mercury, resulting in these radioactive wastes also being characteristically hazardous or mixed waste. The traditional treatment for soluble inorganic mercury species is precipitation as insoluble mercuric sulfide. Sulfide treatment and a commercial mercury-stabilizing product were tested on surrogate sludges at various alkaline pH values. Neither the sulfide nor the commercial product stabilized the mercury sufficiently at the high pH of the tank sludges to pass the Toxicity Characteristic Leach Procedure (TCLP) treatment standards of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The commercial product also failed to stabilize the mercury in samples of the actual tank sludges.