We present changes in volume, immersion density, and tensile properties observed from accelerated aged plutonium alloys. Accelerated alloys (or spiked alloys) are plutonium alloys enriched with approximately 7.5 weight percent of the faster-decaying {sup 238}Pu to accelerate the aging process by approximately 17 times the rate of unaged weapons-grade plutonium. After sixty equivalent years of aging on spiked alloys, the dilatometry shows the samples at 35 C have swelled in volume by 0.15 to 0.17 % and now exhibit a near linear volume increase due to helium in-growth. The immersion density of spiked alloys shows a decrease in density, similar normalized volumetric changes (expansion) for spiked alloys. Tensile tests show increasing yield and engineering ultimate strength as spiked alloys are aged.

Chemical vapor emissions from underground hazardous waste storage tanks on the Hanford site in eastern Washington State are a potential concern because workers enter the tank farms on a regular basis for waste retrievals, equipment maintenance, and surveillance. Tank farm contractors are in the process of retrieving all remaining waste from aging single-shell tanks, some of which date to World War II, and transferring it to newer double-shell tanks. During the waste retrieval process, tank farm workers are potentially exposed to fugitive chemical vapors that can escape from tank headspaces and other emission points. The tanks are known to hold more than 1,500 different species of chemicals, in addition to radionuclides. Exposure assessments have fully characterized the hazards from chemical vapors in half of the tank farms. Extensive sampling and analysis has been done to characterize the chemical properties of hazardous waste and to evaluate potential health hazards of vapors at the ground surface, where workers perform maintenance and waste transfer activities. Worker concerns. risk communication, and exposure assessment are discussed, including evaluation of the potential hazards of complex mixtures of chemical vapors. Concentrations of vapors above occupational exposure limits-(OEL) were detected only at exhaust stacks and passive breather filter …

Article on the solubility prediction of pyrene in non-aqueous solvent mixtures using the Jouyban-Acree model.

Numerical algorithms for discrete dislocation dynamics simulations are investigated for the purpose of enabling strain hardening simulations of single crystals on massively parallel computers. The algorithms investigated include the /(N) calculation of forces, the equations of motion, time integration, adaptive mesh refinement, the treatment of dislocation core reactions, and the dynamic distribution of work on parallel computers. A simulation integrating all of these algorithmic elements using the Parallel Dislocation Simulator (ParaDiS) code is performed to understand their behavior in concert, and evaluate the overall numerical performance of dislocation dynamics simulations and their ability to accumulate percents of plastic strain.