The Solar Advisor Model (SAM) provides a consistent framework for analyzing and comparing power system costs and performance across the range of solar technologies and markets, from photovoltaic systems for residential and commercial markets to concentrating solar power and large photovoltaic systems for utility markets. This manual describes Version 2.0 of the software, which can model photovoltaic and concentrating solar power technologies for electric applications for several markets. The current version of the Solar Advisor Model does not model solar heating and lighting technologies.

This report describes a model Transport Processes Investigation (TPI) where field-scale vadose zone flow and transport processes are identified and verified through a systematic field investigation at a contaminated DOE site. The objective of the TPI is to help with formulating accurate conceptual models and aid in implementing rational and cost effective site specific characterization strategies at contaminated sites with diverse hydrogeologic settings. Central to the TPI are Transport Processes Characterization (TPC) tests that incorporate field surveys and large-scale infiltration experiments. Hypotheses are formulated based on observed pedogenic and hydrogeologic features as well as information provided by literature searches. The field and literature information is then used to optimize the design of one or more infiltration experiments to field test the hypothesis. Findings from the field surveys and infiltration experiments are then synthesized to formulate accurate flow and transport conceptual models. Here we document a TPI implemented in the glacial till vadose zone at the Fernald Environmental Management Project (FEMP) in Fernald, Ohio, a US Department of Energy (DOE) uranium processing site. As a result of this TPI, the flow and transport mechanisms were identified through visualization of dye stain within extensive macro pore and fracture networks which provided the …

To find routes to achieving nearly 10% power conversion efficiency based on a new generation of organic photovoltaic cells using vapor-deposited, small-molecular-weight organic materials.

This report examines the problem of an antenna radiating from a cylindrical hole in the earth and the subsequent far-zone field produced in the upper air half space. The approach used for this analysis was to first examine propagation characteristics along the hole for surrounding geologic material properties. Three cases of sand with various levels of moisture content were considered as the surrounding material to the hole. For the hole diameters and sand cases examined, the radiation through the earth medium was found to be the dominant contribution to the radiation transmitted through to the upper half-space. In the analysis presented, the radiation from a vertical and a horizontal dipole source within the hole is used to determine a closed-form expression for the radiation in the earth medium which represents a modified element factor for the source and hole combination. As the final step, the well-known results for a dipole below a half space, in conjunction with the use of Snell's law to transform the modified element factor to the upper half space, determine closed-form expressions for the far-zone radiated fields in the air region above the earth.

This case study describes how the Industrial Technologies Program helps steel companies find ways to improve the efficiency of energy-intensive process heating and steam systems by performing Save Energy Now energy assessments.

The 2008 Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC) was held in Washington, D.C., from March 4-6, 2008, and involved nearly 9,000 people from 125 countries. The event brought together worldwide leaders in renewable energy (RE) from governments, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to discuss the role that renewables can play in alleviating poverty, growing economies, and passing on a healthy planet to future generations. The conference concluded with more than 140 governments, international organizations, and private-sector representatives pledging to advance the uptake of renewable energy. The U.S. government authorized the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to estimate the carbon dioxide (CO2) savings that would result from the pledges made at the 2008 conference. This report describes the methodology and assumptions used by NREL in quantifying the potential CO2 reductions derived from those pledges.

Chemical solution deposited (CSD) complex oxide thin films attract considerable interest in various emerging fields as for example, fuel cells, ferroelectric random access memories or coated conductors. In the present paper the results of soft-x-ray spectroscopy between 100 eV and 500 eV on the amorphous to crystalline phase transition of ferroelectric PbZr{sub 0.3}Ti{sub 0.7}O{sub 3} (PZT) thin films are presented. Five CSD samples derived from the same wafer coated with a PZT film pyrolyzed at 350 C were heat treated at different temperatures between 400 C and 700 C. At first the sample were morphologically and electrically characterized. Subsequently the soft-x-ray absorption and emission experiments were performed at the undulator beamline 8.0 of the Advanced Light Source of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Soft-x-ray absorption spectra were acquired for the Ti L{sub 2,3-}, O K-, and C K-edge thresholds by using simultaneously the total electron yield (TEY) and total fluorescence yield (TFY) detection methods. For two samples, annealed at 400 C and 700 C, respectively, the resonant inelastic soft-x-ray spectroscopy (RIXS) was applied for various excitation energies near the Ti L-, O K-edges. We observed clear evidence of a rutile phase at untypically low temperatures. This rutile phase transforms into …

Measurements of meson mixing and CP violation parameters obtained by the CDF and D0 experiments at the Fermilab Tevatron are presented. These include results on B{sub s} and D meson mixing, and searches for CP violation in the decay B{sup +} {yields} J/{psi}K{sup +}, in mixing through semileptonic B{sub s} meson decays, and in the interference between mixing and decay in the process B{sub s} {yields} J/{psi}{phi}.

According to theories of cognitive processing style or cognitive control mode, human performance is more effective when an individual’s cognitive state (e.g., intuition/scramble vs. deliberate/strategic) matches his/her ecological constraints or context (e.g., utilize intuition to strive for a "good-enough" response instead of deliberating for the "best" response under high time pressure). Ill-mapping between cognitive state and ecological constraints are believed to lead to degraded task performance. Consequently, incorporating support systems which are designed to specifically address multiple cognitive and functional states e.g., high workload, stress, boredom, and initiate appropriate mitigation strategies (e.g., reduce information load) is essential to reduce plant risk. Utilizing the concept of Cognitive Control Models, this paper will discuss the importance of tailoring support systems to match an operator's cognitive state, and will further discuss the importance of these ecological constraints in selecting and implementing mitigation strategies for safe and effective system performance. An example from the nuclear power plant industry illustrating how a support system might be tailored to support different cognitive states is included.

The TOUGH family of codes is a suite of computer programs for the simulation of multiphase fluid and heat flows in porous and fractured media with applications to geothermal reservoir engineering, nuclear waste disposal in geologic formations, geologic carbon sequestration, gas hydrate research, vadose zone hydrology, environmental remediation, oil and gas reservoir engineering, and other mass transport and energy transfer problems in complex geologic settings. TOUGH has been developed in the Earth Sciences Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). Many modifications and enhancements have been made to TOUGH (at LBNL and elsewhere) from the time it was first released in 1987. TOUGH and its various descendants (such as iTOUGH2, T2VOC, TMVOC, EWASG, TOUGHREACT, TOUGH+ and many more) are currently in use in approximately 300 research laboratories, private companies, and universities in 33 countries. The LBNL group, headed by Karsten Pruess, serves as custodian of the code. The TOUGH simulators were developed for problems involving strongly heat-driven flow. To describe these phenomena a multi-phase approach to fluid and heat flow is used, which fully accounts for the movement of gaseous and liquid phases, their transport of latent and sensible heat, and phase transitions between liquid and vapor. TOUGH takes …

This Facility Closure Report (FCR) has been prepared to document the actions taken to permanently close the remaining accessible areas of U12t-Tunnel (T-Tunnel) in Area 12 of the Nevada Test Site (NTS). The closure of T-Tunnel was a prerequisite to transfer facility ownership from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) to the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office (NNSA/NSO). Closure of the facility was accomplished with the cooperation and concurrence of both NNSA/NSO and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP). The purpose of this FCR is to document that the closure of T-Tunnel complied with the closure requirements specified in the Facility Closure Plan for N- and T-Tunnels Area 12, Nevada Test Site (Appendix D) and that the facility is ready for transfer to NNSA/NSO. The Facility Closure Plan (FCP) is provided in Appendix D. T-Tunnel is located approximately 42 miles north of Mercury in Area 12 of the NTS (Figure 1). Between 1970 and 1987, T-Tunnel was used for six Nuclear Weapons Effects Tests (NWETs). The tunnel was excavated horizontally into the volcanic tuffs of Rainier Mesa. The T-Tunnel complex consists of a main access drift with two NWET containment structures, a Gas …

This document describes the testing and facility requirements to support the Yucca Mountain Project long-term corrosion testing needs. The purpose of this document is to describe a corrosion testing program that will (a) reduce model uncertainty and variability, (b) reduce the reliance upon overly conservative assumptions, and (c) improve model defensibility. Test matrices were developed for 17 topical areas (tasks): each matrix corresponds to a specific test activity that is a subset of the total work performed in a task. A future document will identify which of these activities are considered to be performance confirmation activities. Detailed matrices are provided for FY08, FY09 and FY10 and rough order estimates are provided for FY11-17. Criteria for the selection of appropriate test facilities were developed through a meeting of Lead Lab and DOE personnel on October 16-17, 2007. These criteria were applied to the testing activities and recommendations were made for the facility types appropriate to carry out each activity. The facility requirements for each activity were assessed and activities were identified that can not be performed with currently available facilities. Based on this assessment, a total of approximately 10,000 square feet of facility space is recommended to meet all future testing …

Nanoparticles of certain materials can respond structurally to changes in their surface environments. We have previously shown that methanol, water adsorption, and aggregation-disaggregation can change the structure of 3 nm diameter zinc sulfide (ZnS). However, in prior observations of water-driven structure change, aggregation may also have taken place. Therefore, we investigated the structural consequences of water adsorption alone on anhydrous nanoparticles that were dried to minimize changes in aggregation. Using simultaneously collected small- and wide-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS/WAXS) data, we show that water vapor adsorption alone drives a structural transformation in ZnS nanoparticles in the temperature range 22-40 C. The transition kinetics are strongly temperature dependent, with an activation energy of 58.1 {+-} 9.8 kJ/mol, consistent with atom displacement rather than bond breaking. At 50 C, aggregate restructuring occurred, increasing the transition kinetics beyond the rate expected for water adsorption alone. The observation of isosbestic points in the WAXS data suggests that the particles do not transform continuously between the initial and final structural state but rather undergo an abrupt change from a less ordered to a more ordered state.

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IMG/M is a data management and analysis system for microbial community genomes (metagenomes) hosted at the Joint Genome Institute (JGI). IMG/M consists of metagenome data integrated with isolate microbial genomes from the Integrated Microbial Genomes (IMG) system. IMG/M provides IMG's comparative data analysis tools extended to handle metagenome data, together with metagenome-specific analysis tools. IMG/M is available at http://img.jgi.doe.gov/m. Studies of the collective genomes (also known as metagenomes) of environmental microbial communities (also known as microbiomes) are expected to lead to advances in environmental cleanup, agriculture, industrial processes, alternative energy production, and human health (1). Metagenomes of specific microbiome samples are sequenced by organizations worldwide, such as the Department of Energy's (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), the Venter Institute and the Washington University in St. Louis using different sequencing strategies, technology platforms, and annotation procedures. According to the Genomes OnLine Database, about 28 metagenome studies have been published to date, with over 60 other projects ongoing and more in the process of being launched (2). The Department of Energy's (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI) is one of the major contributors of metagenome sequence data, currently sequencing more than 50% of the reported metagenome projects worldwide. Due to the higher complexity, …

Xantrex Technology accomplished subcontract goals of reducing parts cost, weight, and size of its 500-kW inverter by 25% compared to state-of-the-art PV inverters, while extending reliability by 25%.

This Post-Closure Inspection and Monitoring Report provides the results and inspections and monitoring for Corrective Action Unit 110: Area 3 Waste Management Division U-3ax/bl Crater, Nevada Test Site, Nevada. This report includes an analysis and summary of the site inpsections, repairs and maintenance, meteorological information, and soil moisture monitoring data obtained at Corrective Action Unit 110, for the annual period July 2005 thrugh June 2006.

A Monte Carlo study of a generic search for new resonances beyond the Standard Model (SM) in the CMS experiment is presented. The resonances are axigluon, coloron, E{sub 6} diquark, excited quark, W{prime}, Z{prime}, and the Randall-Sundrum graviton which decay to dijets. The dijet resonance cross section that the CMS can expect to discover at a 5{sigma} significance or to exclude at 95% confidence level for integrated luminosities of 100 pb{sup -1}, 1 fb{sup -1}, and 10 fb{sup -1} is evaluated. It is shown that a 5{sigma} discovery of a multi-TeV dijet resonance is possible for an axigluon, excited quark, and E{sub 6} diquark. However, a 5{sigma} discovery can not be projected with confidence for a W{prime}, Z{prime} and the Randall-Sundrum graviton. On the other hand, 95% CL exclusion mass regions can be measured for all resonances at high luminosities. In the second part of this dissertation, the analyses of the 2006 test beam data from the combined electromagnetic and hadronic barrel calorimeters are presented. The CMS barrel calorimeters response to a variety of beam particles in a wide momenta range (1 to 350 GeV/c) is measured. Furthermore, using these beam data, the expected performance of the barrel calorimeters to …

Placozoans are arguably the simplest free-living animals, possibly evoking an early stage in metazoan evolution, yet their biology is poorly understood. Here we report the sequencing and analysis of the {approx}98 million base pair nuclear genome of the placozoan Trichoplax adhaerens. Whole genome phylogenetic analysis suggests that placozoans belong to a 'eumetazoan' clade that includes cnidarians and bilaterians, with sponges as the earliest diverging animals. The compact genome exhibits conserved gene content, gene structure, and synteny relative to the human and other complex eumetazoan genomes. Despite the apparent cellular and organismal simplicity of Trichoplax, its genome encodes a rich array of transcription factor and signaling pathway genes that are typically associated with diverse cell types and developmental processes in eumetazoans, motivating further searches for cryptic cellular complexity and/or as yet unobserved life history stages.

Horizontal and vertical PC 3 (2,500 yr) Soil Design Basis Earthquake (DBE) 5% damped spectra, corresponding time histories, and strain-compatible soil properties were developed for the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU). The IWTU is located at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC) at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Mean and 84th percentile horizontal DBE spectra derived from site-specific site response analyses were evaluated for the IWTU. The horizontal and vertical PC 3 (2,500 yr) Soil DBE 5% damped spectra at the 84th percentile were selected for Soil Structure Interaction (SSI) analyses at IWTU. The site response analyses were performed consistent with applicable Department of Energy (DOE) Standards, recommended guidance of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Standards, and recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Panel (BRP) and Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB).

Zero net energy buildings employ efficiency to reduce energy consumption and solar technologies to produce as much energy on site as is consumed on an annual basis.

The U.S. Department of Energy has issued a challenge to the homebuilding industry to build 220,000 high-performance homes by 2012. To qualify, homes must meet the requirements of a performance path, prescriptive path, or participating in a partner program.

At the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) adiagnostic neutral beam injection system for measuring plasma parameters,flow velocity, and local magnetic field is being developed. High protonfraction and small divergence is essential for diagnostic neutral beams.In our design, a neutral hydrogen beam with an 8 cm x 11 cm (or smaller)elliptical beam spot at 2.5 m from the end of the extraction column isproduced. The beam will deliver up to 5 A of hydrogen beam to the targetwith a pulse width of ~;1 s, once every 1 - 2 min. The H1+ ion species ofthe hydrogen beamwill be over 90 percent. For this application, we havecompared two types of RF driven multicusp ion sources operating at 13.56MHz. The first one is an ion source with an external spiral antennabehind a dielectric RF-window. The second one uses an internal antenna insimilar ion source geometry. The source needs to generate uniform plasmaover a large (8 cm x 5 cm) extraction area. We expect that the ion sourcewith internal antenna will be more efficient at producing the desiredplasma density but might have the issue of limited antenna lifetime,depending on the duty factor. For both approaches there is a need forextra shielding to protect the …

The Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS) long-baseline experiment has been actively collecting beam data since 2005, having already accumulated 3 x 10{sup 20} protons-on-target (POT). MINOS uses the Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) neutrino beam measured in two locations: at Fermilab, close to beam production, and 735 km downstream, in Northern Minnesota. By observing the oscillatory structure in the neutrino energy spectrum, MINOS can precisely measure the neutrino oscillation parameters in the atmospheric sector. These parameters were determined to be |{Delta}m{sub 32}{sup 2}| = 2.74{sub -0.26}{sup +0.44} x 10{sup -3} eV{sup 2}/c{sup 4} and sin{sup 2}(2{theta}{sub 23}) > 0.87 (68% C.L.) from analysis of the first year of data, corresponding to 1.27 x 10{sup 20} POT.