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This test procedure provides instructions for acceptance testing of modifications to the 2721-Z diesel-generator system made by Project C-189. The modifications include (1) replacing the generator NUMA-LOGIC controller with connection to the PFP distributed control system (DCS), (2) replacing ATSI with a breaker switching scheme for 2736-ZB backup power and (3) providing a method for generator load and system testing.

Sodium/potassium (NaK) liquid metal coolant, contaminated with fission products from the core meltdown of Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-I) and classified as a mixed waste, has been deactivated and converted to a contact-handled, low-level waste at Argonne's Sodium Component Maintenance Shop and land disposed at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex. Treatment of the EBR-I NaK involved converting the sodium and potassium to its respective hydroxide via reaction with air and water, followed by conversion to its respective carbonate via reaction with carbon dioxide. The resultant aqueous carbonate solution was solidified in 55-gallon drums. Challenges in the NaK treatment involved processing a mixed waste which was incompletely characterized and difficult to handle. The NaK was highly radioactive, i.e. up to 4.5 R/hr on contact with the mixed waste drums. In addition, the potential existed for plutonium and toxic characteristic metals to be present in the NaK, resultant from the location of the partial core meltdown of EBR-I in 1955. Moreover, the NaK was susceptible to degradation after more than 40 years of storage in unmonitored conditions. Such degradation raised the possibility of energetic exothermic reactions between the liquid NaK and its crust, which could have consisted of potassium superoxide as well …

Many industrial processes are highly non-linear and complex. Their simulation with first-principle or conventional input-output correlation models is not satisfactory, either because the process physics is not well understood, or it is so complex that direct simulation is either not adequately accurate, or it requires excessive computation time, especially for on-line applications. Artificial intelligence techniques (neural networks, expert systems, fuzzy logic) or their combination with simple process-physics models can be effectively used for the simulation of such processes. Feedforward (static) neural networks (FNNs) can be used effectively to model steady-state processes. They have also been used to model dynamic (time-varying) processes by adding to the network input layer input nodes that represent values of input variables at previous time steps. The number of previous time steps is problem dependent and, in general, can be determined after extensive testing. This work demonstrates that for dynamic processes that do not vary fast with respect to the retraining time of the neural network, an adaptive feedforward neural network can be an effective simulator that is free of the complexities introduced by the use of input values at previous time steps.

We have studied the energy resolution of a prototype gas tracking calorimeter in a test beam at Fermilab as part of the detector development program for the MINOS long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. The calorimeter consisted of 25 layers of 1.5 inch thick steel plates interleaved with planes of aluminum proportional tubes. The tube cells are square, with 0.9 cm edges and open tops. Cathode strips were used for read out transverse to the wire cells. The tubes operated with a nonflammable gas mixture of 88% CO{sub 2}, 9.5% isobutane and 2.5% argon which gave an operating range of >500 V (limited by the electronics). We read out the wire signals on the tubes and in some configurations the cathode stripe as well. We studied positrons, pions and muons over a momentum range of 2.5-30 GeV/c and achieved energy resolutions of about 40%/{radical}E for EM and 71%/{radical}E for hadronic showers.

This report lists the Governors and Lieutenant Governors of the 50 states, plus Amarican Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

The goals are to improve performance and reduce costs; the variables tested are fuel fabrication and assembly tolerances and cladding materials. Significant results are: goal lifetimes achieved; D9/HT9 alloys superior--reduced swelling potential duct mechanical attachment methods viable; test performance per design predictions.

This method provides a structured and cost-oriented way to determine risks associated with loss and destruction of industrial security interests consisting of material assets and human resources. Loss and destruction are assumed to be adversary perpetrated, high-impact events in which the health and safety of people or high-value property is at risk. This concept provides a process for: (1) assessing effectiveness of all integrated protection system, which includes facility operations, safety, emergency and security systems, and (2) a qualitative prioritization scheme to determine the level of consequence relative to cost and subsequent risk. The method allows managers the flexibility to establish asset protection appropriate to programmatic requirements and priorities and to decide if funding is appropriate. The evaluation objectives are to: (1) provide for a systematic, qualitative tabletop process to estimate the potential for an undesirable event and its impact; and (2) identify ineffective protection and cost-effective solutions.

FFTF was originally designed/constructed/operated to develop LMFBR fuels and materials. Inherent safety became a major focus of the US nuclear industry in the mid 1980`s. The inherent safety characteristics of LMFBRs were recognized but additional enhancement was desired. The presentation contents are: Fast Flux Test Facility history and status; Overview of contract activities; Summary of loss of flow without scram with GEMs testing; and Summary of pump start with GEMs testing.

A small-scale model track of a new type of magnetic levitation system (dubbed the ``Inductrack`` system), and a passively magnetically levitated cart, has been designed, constructed and operated. The track consists of a close-packed array of rectangular levitation coils, 15 centimeters in width transversely and 20 meters in length. The array of coils is inductively loaded above and below its lower horizontal section with ferrite tiles. Paralleling the levitation coils on each side are aluminum-channel rails on which ride auxiliary wheels attached to the cart. The cart has, on its lower surface and on its sides, fore and aft, special arrays (``Halbach arrays``) of permanent magnet bars that produce a strong periodic magnetic field below the cart. This magnetic field, when the cart is in motion, induces repelling currents in the Inductrack coils, levitating it and centering it transversely. When mechanically launched (with a pulley- and-weight system) at speeds substantially above a ``transition speed`` of about 2 meters per second, the cart levitated and flew stably down the track, settling to rest on its wheels near the end of the track. In the last phase of the program an electromagnetic launching section consisting of another array of coils, connected to …

Simulations of thermal and hydrological evolution following the potential emplacement of a subterranean nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, NV provide data that suggest the inevitability of dependent, simultaneous chemical evolution in this system. These chemical changes will modify significantly both the magnitude and structure of local porosity and permeability; hence, they will have a dynamic feedback effect on the evolving thermal and hydrological regime. Yet, despite this intimate interdependence of transport and chemical processes, a rigorous quantitative analysis of the post- emplacement environment that incorporates this critical feedback mechanism has not been completed to date. As an initial step in this direction, the present document outlines the fundamental chemical and transport processes that must be accounted for in such an analysis, and reviews the inventory of existing software that encodes these processed in explicitly coupled form. A companion report describes the prioritization of specific capabilities that are needed for modeling post-emplacement reactive transport at Yucca Mountain.

The main objective of the proposed program is to evaluate a novel surface modification technique, which utilizes the synergistic effect of metal ions-surfactant combination, for dewatering of ultra-fine clean coal on a proof-of-concept scale of 1 to 2 tph. The novel surface modification technique developed at the UKCAER will be evaluated using vacuum, centrifuge, and hyperbaric filtration equipment. Dewatering tests will be conducted using the fine clean-coal froth produced by the column flotation units at the Powell Mountain Coal Company, Mayflower Preparation Plant in St. Charles, Virginia. The POC-scale studies will be conducted on two different types of clean coal, namely, high-sulfur and low-sulfur clean coal. The Mayflower Plant processes coals from five different seams, thus the dewatering studies results could be generalized for most of the bituminous coals.

Transport of radionuclides that escape failed waste packages (WP) may be significantly affected by interaction with the alteration products derived from the WP components and other construction materials. The interaction of WP`s and other ferrous metal materials with groundwater prior to failure is expected to result in the formation of iron oxides (Viani, 1996). These phases are expected to significantly retard U and Np, radionuclides that are not strongly retarded by the repository horizon and the surrounding rocks (Meijer, 1990). Because sorption of radionuclides onto iron oxides is strongly dependent on fluid composition (e.g.; pH and dissolved carbon), mechanistic models that capture the detailed chemistry and physics that control transport must validated before credible predictions of the effects of WP alteration products can be made, and before limits on radionuclide transport through the engineered barrier system (EBS) can be placed. Reactive transport models that couple sorption models to fluid flow models are also required to assess the ability of more simplistic PA models to capture the essential features of the transport process. This letter report presents results of sorption and transport experiments that are designed to obtain parameters to be used in coupled models and to test the ability of …

The large block heater test, to be conducted at Fran Ridge (Lin et al., 1994), is designed to provide a database with which to test codes that simulate hydrological, geochemical, and geomechanical processes that may occur within the repository block. The geochemical processes that may occur include rock-water interaction within the matrix of fracture bounded blocks, and with the minerals that line fractures (see, for example, Buscheck and Nitao, 1992,1993ab, 1994; Glassley, 1993). As a first step in evaluating these interactions, characterization of the fractures, and of the matrix that is adjacent to those fractures, must be completed Characterization of the fractures and matrix before the large block test is started will allow a `baseline` set of data to be collected that will describe the properties of the large block prior to the test. After the test is completed, the block will be dismembered and characterization of the matrix and fractures will be repeated. Changes in matrix and fracture mineralogies will allow documentation of the mineralogical consequences of rock-water interaction resulting from heating of tuff under the conditions of the test.

Hydrogen embrittlement describes a group of phenomena leading to the degradation of metal alloy properties. The hydrogen concentration in the alloy can be used as an indicator for the onset of embrittlement. A neutron tomography system has been optimized to perform nondestructive detection of hydrogen concentration in titanium aircraft engine compressor blades. Preprocessing of back projection images and postprocessing of tomographic reconstructions are used to achieve hydrogen concentration sensitivity below 200 ppm weight. This paper emphasizes the postprocessing techniques which allow automated reporting of hydrogen concentration.

In this work the basic Finite Element Tearing and Interconnecting (FETI) linear system solver and the PARPACK eigensolver are combined to compute the smallest modes of symmetric generalized eigenvalue problems that arise from structures modeled primarily by solid finite elements. Problems with over one million unknowns are solved. A comprehensive and relatively self-contained description of the FETI method is presented.

Pyrochemical conditioning of spent nuclear fuel for the purpose of final disposal is currently being demonstrated at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), and ongoing research in this area includes the demonstration of this process on spent oxide fuel. In conjunction with this research a pilot scale of the preprocessing stage is being designed by ANL-W to demonstrate the in situ hot cell capability of the chemical reduction stage. An impurity evaluation was completed for a Li/LiCl salt matrix in the presence of spent LWR uranium oxide fuel. A simple analysis was performed in which the sources of impurities in the salt matrix were only from the cell atmosphere. Only reactions with the lithium were considered. The levels of impurities were shown to be highly sensitive system conditions. A predominance diagram for the Li-O-N system was constructed for the device, and the general oxidation, nitridation and combined reactions were calculated as a function of oxygen and nitrogen partial pressure. These calculations and hotcell atmosphere data were used to determine the total number and type of impurities expected in the salt matrix and the mass rate for the device was determined.

This report discusses the Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program, Part D of Title IV of the Social Security Act, was enacted in January 1975 (P.L. 93-647).

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