Chemical Cleaning is currently in progress for Tanks 5 and 6 at the Savannah River Site. The Chemical Cleaning process is being utilized to remove the residual waste heel remaining after completion of Mechanical Sludge Removal. This work is required to prepare the tanks for closure. Tanks 5 and 6 are 1950s vintage carbon steel waste tanks that do not meet current containment standards. These tanks are 22.9 meters (75 feet) in diameter, 7.5 meters (24.5 feet) in height, and have a capacity of 2.84E+6 liters (750,000 gallons). Chemical Cleaning adds 8 wt % oxalic acid to the carbon steel tank to dissolve the remaining sludge heel. The resulting acidic waste solution is transferred to Tank 7 where it is pH adjusted to minimize corrosion of the carbon steel tank. The Chemical Cleaning flowsheet includes multiple strikes of acid in each tank. Acid is delivered by tanker truck and is added to the tanks through a hose assembly connected to a pipe penetration through the tank top. The flowsheet also includes spray washing with acid and water. This paper includes an overview of the configuration required for Chemical Cleaning, the planned flowsheet, and an overview of technical concerns associated with …

Previous work on intact thylakoid membranes showed that transient formation of a zeaxanthin radical cation was correlated with regulation of photosynthetic light-harvesting via energy-dependent quenching. A molecular mechanism for such quenching was proposed to involve charge transfer within a chlorophyll-zeaxanthin heterodimer. Using near infrared (880-1100 nm) transient absorption spectroscopy, we demonstrate that carotenoid (mainly zeaxanthin) radical cation generation occurs solely in isolated minor light-harvesting complexes that bind zeaxanthin, consistent with the engagement of charge transfer quenching therein. We estimated that less than 0.5percent of the isolated minor complexes undergo charge transfer quenching in vitro, whereas the fraction of minor complexes estimated to be engaged in charge transfer quenching in isolated thylakoids was more than 80 times higher. We conclude that minor complexes which bind zeaxanthin are sites of charge transfer quenching in vivo and that they can assume Non-quenching and Quenching conformations, the equilibrium LHC(N)<--> LHC(Q) of which is modulated by the transthylakoid pH gradient, the PsbS protein, and protein-protein interactions.

Optical streak cameras are used as primary diagnostics for a wide range of physics and laser experiments at facilities such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF). To meet the strict accuracy requirements needed for these experiments, the systematic nonlinearities of the streak cameras (attributed to nonlinearities in the optical and electrical components that make up the streak camera system) must be characterized. In some cases the characterization information is used as a guide to help determine how experiment data should be taken. In other cases, the characterization data are applied to the raw data images to correct for the nonlinearities. In order to characterize an optical streak camera, a specific set of data is collected, where the response to defined inputs are recorded. A set of analysis software routines has been developed to extract information such as spatial resolution, dynamic range, and temporal resolution from this data set. The routines are highly automated, requiring very little user input and thus provide very reliable and repeatable results that are not subject to interpretation. An emphasis on quality control has been placed on these routines due to the high importance of the camera characterization information.

The Hypothetical Accident Conditions (HAC) sequential test of radioactive materials packages includes a thermal test to confirm the ability of the package to withstand a transportation fire event. The test specified by the regulations (10 CFR 71) consists of a 30 minute, all engulfing, hydrocarbon fuel fire, with an average flame temperature of at least 800 C. The requirements specify an average emissivity for the fire of at least 0.9, which implies an essentially black radiation environment. Alternate test which provide equivalent total heat input at the 800 C time averaged environmental temperature may also be employed. When alternate tests methods are employed, such as furnace or gaseous fuel fires, the equivalence of the radiation environment may require justification. The effects of furnace and open confinement fire environments are compared with the regulatory fire environment, including the effects of gases resulting from decomposition of package overpack materials. The results indicate that furnace tests can produce the required radiation heat transfer environment, i.e., equivalent to the postulated pool fire. An open enclosure, with transparent (low emissivity) fire does not produce an equivalent radiation environment.

In order to create a successful grid infrastructure, sites and resource providers must be able to publish information about their underlying resources and services. This information makes it easier for users and virtual organizations to make intelligent decisions about resource selection and scheduling, and can be used by the grid infrastructure for accounting and troubleshooting services. However, such an outbound stream may include data deemed sensitive by a resource-providing site, exposing potential security vulnerabilities or private user information to the world at large, including malicious entities. This study analyzes the various vectors of information being published from sites to grid infrastructures. In particular, it examines the data being published to, and collected by the Open Science Grid, including resource selection, monitoring, accounting, troubleshooting, logging and site verification data. We analyze the risks and potential threat models posed by the publication and collection of such data. We also offer some recommendations and best practices for sites and grid infrastructures to manage and protect sensitive data.

Hydrogen storage is one of the greatest challenges for implementing the ever sought hydrogen economy. Here we report a novel cycle to reversibly form high density hydrogen storage materials such as aluminium hydride. Aluminium hydride (AlH{sub 3}, alane) has a hydrogen storage capacity of 10.1 wt% H{sub 2}, 149 kg H{sub 2}/m{sup 3} volumetric density and can be discharged at low temperatures (< 100 C). However, alane has been precluded from use in hydrogen storage systems because of the lack of practical regeneration methods; the direct hydrogenation of aluminium to form AlH{sub 3} requires over 10{sup 5} bars of hydrogen pressure at room temperature and there are no cost effective synthetic means. Here we show an unprecedented reversible cycle to form alane electrochemically, using alkali alanates (e.g. NaAlH{sub 4}, LiAlH{sub 4}) in aprotic solvents. To complete the cycle, the starting alanates can be regenerated by direct hydrogenation of the dehydrided alane and the alkali hydride being the other compound formed in the electrochemical cell. The process of forming NaAlH{sub 4} from NaH and Al is well established in both solid state and solution reactions. The use of adducting Lewis bases is an essential part of this cycle, in the isolation …

We propose a method for generating well-shaped curved unstructured meshes using a nonlinear elasticity analogy. The geometry of the domain to be meshed is represented as an elastic solid. The undeformed geometry is the initial mesh of linear triangular or tetrahedral elements. The external loading results from prescribing a boundary displacement to be that of the curved geometry, and the final configuration is determined by solving for the equilibrium configuration. The deformations are represented using piecewise polynomials within each element of the original mesh. When the mesh is sufficiently fine to resolve the solid deformation, this method guarantees non-intersecting elements even for highly distorted or anisotropic initial meshes. We describe the method and the solution procedures, and we show a number of examples of two and three dimensional simplex meshes with curved boundaries. We also demonstrate how to use the technique for local refinement of non-curved meshes in the presence of curved boundaries.

We present here results of continued efforts to understand the performance of microchannel plate (MCP)–based, high-speed, gated, x-ray detectors. This work involves the continued improvement of a Monte Carlo simulation code to describe MCP performance coupled with experimental efforts to better characterize such detectors. Our goal is a quantitative description of MCP saturation behavior in both static and pulsed modes. We have developed a new model of charge buildup on the walls of the MCP channels and measured its effect on MCP gain. The results are compared to experimental data obtained with a short-pulse, high-intensity ultraviolet laser; these results clearly demonstrate MCP saturation behavior in both DC and pulsed modes. The simulations compare favorably to the experimental results. The dynamic range of the detectors in pulsed operation is of particular interest when fielding an MCP–based camera. By adjusting the laser flux we study the linear range of the camera. These results, too, are compared to our simulations.

The solar power market is growing at a quickening pace, fueled by an array of national and local initiatives and policies aimed at improving the value proposition of customer-sited photovoltaic (PV) systems. Though these policies take many forms, they commonly include up-front capital cost rebates or ongoing production incentives, supplemented by net metering requirements to ensure that customer-sited PV systems offset the full retail rate of the customer-hosts. Somewhat less recognized is the role of retail rate design, beyond net metering, on the customer-economics of grid-connected PV. Over the life of a PV system, utility bill savings represent a substantial portion of the overall economic value received by the customer. At the same time, the design of retail electricity rates, particularly for commercial and industrial customers, can vary quite substantially. Understanding how specific differences in rate design affect the value of customer-sited PV is therefore essential to supporting the continued growth of this market.

This paper describes the results of the analyses of High Level Waste (HLW) sludge slurry samples and of the calculations necessary to decay the radionuclides to meet the reporting requirement in the Waste Acceptance Product Specifications (WAPS) [1]. The concentrations of 45 radionuclides were measured. The results of these analyses provide input for radioactive decay calculations used to project the radionuclide inventory at the specified index years, 2015 and 3115. This information is necessary to complete the Production Records at Savannah River Site's Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) so that the final glass product resulting from Macrobatch 5 (MB5) can eventually be submitted to a Federal Repository. Five of the necessary input radionuclides for the decay calculations could not be measured directly due to their low concentrations and/or analytical interferences. These isotopes are Nb-93m, Pd-107, Cd-113m, Cs-135, and Cm-248. Methods for calculating these species from concentrations of appropriate other radionuclides will be discussed. Also the average age of the MB5 HLW had to be calculated from decay of Sr-90 in order to predict the initial concentration of Nb-93m. As a result of the measurements and calculations, thirty-one WAPS reportable radioactive isotopes were identified for MB5. The total activity of MB5 …

Using two climate-vegetation model simulations from the Fast Ocean Atmosphere Model (FOAM) and the Community Climate System Model (CCSM, version 2), we investigate vegetation-precipitation feedbacks across North Africa during the mid-Holocene. From mid-Holocene snapshot runs of FOAM and CCSM2, we detect a negative feedback at the annual timescale with our statistical analysis. Using the Monte- Carlo bootstrap method, the annual negative feedback is further confirmed to be significant in both simulations. Additional analysis shows that this negative interaction is partially caused by the competition between evaporation and transpiration in North African grasslands. Furthermore, we find the feedbacks decrease with increasing timescales, and change signs from positive to negative at increasing timescales in FOAM. The proposed mechanism for this sign switch is associated with the different persistent timescales of upper and lower soil water contents, and their interactions with vegetation and atmospheric precipitation.

The G{sub 2}-MSSM is a model of particle physics coupled to moduli fields with interesting phenomenology both for colliders and astrophysical experiments. In this paper we consider a more general model--whose moduli Kahler potential is a completely arbitrary G{sub 2}-holonomy Kahler potential and whose matter Kahler potential is also more general. We prove that the vacuum structure and spectrum of BSM particles is largely unchanged in this much more general class of theories. In particular, gaugino masses are still suppressed relative to the gravitino mass and moduli masses. We also consider the effects of higher order corrections to the matter Kahler potential and find a connection between the nature of the LSP and flavor effects.

The Static X-ray Imager (SXI) is a diagnostic used at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to measure the position of the X-rays produced by lasers hitting a gold foil target. The intensity distribution taken by the SXI camera during a NIF shot is used to determine how accurately NIF can aim laser beams. This is critical to proper NIF operation. Imagers are located at the top and the bottom of the NIF target chamber. The CCD chip is an X-ray sensitive silicon sensor, with a large format array (2k x 2k), 24 μm square pixels, and 15 μm thick. A multi-anode Manson X-ray source, operating up to 10kV and 10W, was used to characterize and calibrate the imagers. The output beam is heavily filtered to narrow the spectral beam width, giving a typical resolution E/ΔE≈10. The X-ray beam intensity was measured using an absolute photodiode that has accuracy better than 1% up to the Si K edge and better than 5% at higher energies. The X-ray beam provides full CCD illumination and is flat, within ±1% maximum to minimum. The spectral efficiency was measured at 10 energy bands ranging from 930 eV to 8470 eV. We observed an energy dependent …

The Synchrotron Radiation Photoemission Spectroscopic (SRPES) study was conducted to (a) investigate the surface chemistry of In{sub 0.53}Ga{sub 0.47}As and In{sub 0.52}Al{sub 0.48}As post chemical and thermal treatments, (b) construct band diagram and (c) investigate the interface property of HfO{sub 2}/In{sub 0.53}Ga{sub 0.47}As and HfO{sub 2}/In{sub 0.52}Al{sub 0.48}As. Dilute HCl and HF etch remove native oxides on In{sub 0.53}Ga{sub 0.47}As and In{sub 0.52}Al{sub 0.47}As, whereas in-situ vacuum annealing removes surface arsenic pile-up. After the atomic layer deposition of HfO{sub 2}, native oxides were considerably reduced compared to that in as-received epi-layers, strongly suggesting the self-clean mechanism. Valence and conduction band offsets are measured to be 3.37 {+-} 0.1eV, 1.80 {+-} 0.3eV for In{sub 0.53}Ga{sub 0.47}As and 3.00 {+-} 0.1eV, 1.47 {+-} 0.3eV for In{sub 0.52}Al{sub 0.47}As, respectively.

Hydrogen reduces the service life of many metallic components. Such reductions may be manifested as blisters, as a decrease in fatigue resistance, as enhanced creep, as the precipitation of a hydride phase and, most commonly, as unexpected, macroscopically brittle failure. This unexpected, brittle fracture is commonly termed hydrogen embrittlement. Frequently, hydrogen embrittlement occurs after the component has been is service for a period of time and much of the resulting fracture surface is distinctly intergranular. Many failures, particularly of high strength steels, are attributed to hydrogen embrittlement simply because the failure analyst sees intergranular fracture in a component that served adequately for a significant period of time. Unfortunately, simply determining that a failure is due to hydrogen embrittlement or some other form of hydrogen induced damage is of no particular help to the customer unless that determination is coupled with recommendations that provide pathways to avoid such damage in future applications. This paper presents qualitative and phenomenological descriptions of the hydrogen damage processes and outlines several metallurgical recommendations that may help reduce the susceptibility of a particular component or system to the various forms of hydrogen damage.

We propose to use an echo effect previously observed in hadron accelerators for up-frequency conversion of density modulation in an electron beam. We show that, for generation of high harmonics, this method is much more efficient in comparison with the currently used approach. A one dimensional model of the effect is developed which allows to optimize the amplitude of the modulation for a given harmonic number.

We consider the energy accumulation in meta-stable clusters. This energy can be much larger than the typical chemical bond energy (~;;1 ev/atom). For example, polymeric nitrogen can accumulate 4 ev/atom in the N8 (fcc) structure, while helium can accumulate 9 ev/atom in the excited triplet state He2* . They release their energy by cluster fission: N8 -> 4N2 and He2* -> 2He. We study the locus of states in thermodynamic state space for the detonation of such meta-stable clusters. In particular, the equilibrium isentrope, starting at the Chapman-Jouguet state, and expanding down to 1 atmosphere was calculated with the Cheetah code. Large detonation pressures (3 and 16 Mbar), temperatures (12 and 34 kilo-K) and velocities (20 and 43 km/s) are a consequence of the large heats of detonation (6.6 and 50 kilo-cal/g) for nitrogen and helium clusters respectively. If such meta-stable clusters could be synthesized, they offer the potential for large increases in the energy density of materials.

With the full BABAR data sample of 465 million B{bar B} pairs, they observe the decays B{sup {+-}} {yields} {psi}K{sub 1}(1270){sup {+-}} and B{sup {+-}} {yields} {psi}K*{sub 2}(1430){sup {+-}}. They measure the branching fractions (6.1 {+-} 1.6 {+-} 1.1) x 10{sup -6} and (8.4 {+-} 1.9 {+-} 0.9) x 10{sup -6} and the fractions of longitudinal polarization 0.46{sub -0.13-0.07}{sup +0.12+0.03} and 0.80{sub -0.10}{sup +0.09} {+-} 0.03, respectively. They also report on the B{sup {+-}} {yields} {psi}K*{sub 0}(1430){sup {+-}} decay branching fraction of (7.0 {+-} 1.3 {+-} 0.9) x 10{sup -6} and several parameters sensitive to CP violation and interference in the above three decays. Upper limits are placed on the B{sup {+-}} decay rates to final states with {psi} and K{sub 1}(1400){sup {+-}}, K*(1410){sup {+-}}, K{sub 2}(1770){sup {+-}}, or K{sub 2}(1820){sup {+-}}. Understanding the observed polarization pattern requires amplitude contributions from an uncertain source.

We present techniques for implicit solution of discontinuous Galerkin discretizations of the Navier-Stokes equations on parallel computers. While a block-Jacobi method is simple and straight-forward to parallelize, its convergence properties are poor except for simple problems. Therefore, we consider Newton-GMRES methods preconditioned with block-incomplete LU factorizations, with optimized element orderings based on a minimum discarded fill (MDF) approach. We discuss the difficulties with the parallelization of these methods, but also show that with a simple domain decomposition approach, most of the advantages of the block-ILU over the block-Jacobi preconditioner are still retained. The convergence is further improved by incorporating the matrix connectivities into the mesh partitioning process, which aims at minimizing the errors introduced from separating the partitions. We demonstrate the performance of the schemes for realistic two- and three-dimensional flow problems.

Recent photoemission experiments have discovered a highly monochromatized secondary electron peak emitted from diamondoid self-assembled monolayers on metal substrates. New experimental data and simulation results are presented to show that a combination of negative electron affinity and strong electron-phonon scattering is responsible for this behavior. The simulation results are generated using a simple Monte Carlo transport algorithm. The simulated spectra contain the main spectral features of the measured ones.

The surface cleaning of InGaAs and InAlAs is studied using Synchrotron Radiation Photoelectron Spectroscopy. Thermal annealing at 400 C can not completely remove the native oxides from those surfaces. Elemental arsenic build-up is observed on both surfaces after acid treatment using HCl, HF or H{sub 2}SO{sub 4} solutions, which is similar to acid-cleaned GaAs surface. Cleaned InGaAs surface is oxide free but small amount of aluminum oxide remains on cleaned InAlAs surface. The common chemical reactions between III-As semiconductors and acid solutions are identified and are found to be dominated by arsenic chemistry.

Correlations among interface properties and chemical bonding characteristics in HfO{sub 2}/GeO{sub x}N{sub y}/Ge MIS stacks were investigated using in-situ remote nitridation of the Ge (100) surface prior to HfO{sub 2} atomic layer deposition (ALD). Ultra thin ({approx}1.1 nm), thermally stable and aqueous etch-resistant GeO{sub x}N{sub y} interfaces layers that exhibited Ge core level photoelectron spectra (PES) similar to stoichiometric Ge{sub 3}N{sub 4} were synthesized. To evaluate GeO{sub x}N{sub y}/Ge interface defects, the density of interface states (D{sub it}) was extracted by the conductance method across the band gap. Forming gas annealed (FGA) samples exhibited substantially lower D{sub it} ({approx} 1 x 10{sup 12} cm{sup -2} eV{sup -1}) than did high vacuum annealed (HVA) and inert gas anneal (IGA) samples ({approx} 1x 10{sup 13} cm{sup -2} eV{sup -1}). Germanium core level photoelectron spectra from similar FGA-treated samples detected out-diffusion of germanium oxide to the HfO{sub 2} film surface and apparent modification of chemical bonding at the GeO{sub x}N{sub y}/Ge interface, which is related to the reduced D{sub it}.

Scientists are front and center in quantifying and solving environmental problems. Yet, as a spate of recent news articles in scientific journals point out, much can be done to enhance sustainability within the scientific enterprise itself, particularly by trimming the energy use associated with research facilities and the equipment therein (i,ii,iii, iv). Sponsors of research unwittingly spend on the order of $10 billion each year on energy in the U.S. alone, and the underlying inefficiencies drain funds from the research enterprise while causing 80 MT CO2-equivalent greenhouse-gas emissions (see Box). These are significant sums considering the opportunity costs in terms of the amount of additional research that could be funded and emissions that could be reduced if the underlying energy was used more efficiently. By following commercially proven best practices in facility design and operation, scientists--and the sponsors of science--can cost-effectively halve these costs, while doing their part to put society on alow-carbon diet.

The rotation of Sn grains in Pb-free flip chip solder joints hasn't been reported in literature so far although it has been observed in Sn strips. In this letter, we report the detailed study of the grain orientation evolution induced by electromigration by synchrotron based white beam X-ray microdiffraction. It is found that the grains in solder joint rotate more slowly than in Sn strip even under higher current density. On the other hand, based on our estimation, the reorientation of the grains in solder joints also results in the reduction of electric resistivity, similar to the case of Sn strip. We will also discuss the reason why the electric resistance decreases much more in strips than in the Sn-based solders, and the different driving force for the grain growth in solder joint and in thin film interconnect lines.