An improved collecting apparatus for small aquatic or airborne organisms such as plankton, larval fish, insects, etc. The improvement constitutes an apertured removal container within which is retained a collecting bag, and which is secured at the apex of a conical collecting net. Such collectors are towed behind a vessel or vehicle with the open end of the conical net facing forward for trapping the aquatic or airborne organisms within the collecting bag, while allowing the water or air to pass through the apertures in the container. The container is readily removable from the collecting net whereby the collecting bag can be quickly removed and replaced for further sample collection. The collecting bag is provided with means for preventing the bag from being pulled into the container by the water or air following therethrough.

The purposes for which this grant was provided were specifically (1) to construct a tandem instrument that combined a low energy electron microscope (LEEM) with an ion beam source capably of irradiating a sample during observation of the surface using LEEM; and (2) to employ the new machine to whatever degree possible to observe the evolution of clean crystal surfaces during ion beam irradiation. A principal motivation was to investigate the fundamental behavior of radiation damage under circumstances for which the damage can be observed directly in real time as it occurs. A second main motivation was to create tunable perturbations of the defect (adatom and advacancy) equilibrium on clean crystal planes and in this way explore the fundamental kinetics of surface behavior that enters into numerous phenomena of interest to DOE including surface erosion, catalysis, and the damage to crystals caused by impacts of energetic particles. The funding has been employed to successfully pursue all the original goals, and additional opportunities that developed as a result of discoveries made in this research.

The main purpose of this project was to improve the fundamental mechanistic understanding and quantification of long-term colloid mobilization and colloid-facilitated transport of radionuclides in the vadose zone, with special emphasis on the semi-arid Hanford site. While we focused some of the experiments on hydrogeological and geochemical conditions of the Hanford site, many of our results apply to colloid and colloid-facilitated transport in general. Specific objectives were (1) to determine the mechanisms of colloid mobilization and colloid-facilitated radionuclide transport in undisturbed Hanford sediments under unsaturated flow, (2) to quantify in situ colloid mobilization and colloid-facilitated radionuclide transport from Hanford sediments under field conditions, and (3) to develop a field-scale conceptual and numerical model for colloid mobilization and transport at the Hanford vadose zone, and use that model to predict long-term colloid and colloid- facilitated radionuclide transport. To achieve these goals and objectives, we have used a combination of experimental, theoretical, and numerical methods at different spatial scales, ranging from microscopic investigations of single particle attachment and detachment to larger-scale field experiments using outdoor lysimeters at the Hanford site. Microscopic and single particle investigations provided fundamental insight into mechanisms of colloid interactions with the air-water interface. We could show that a …

HEATS Project: PNNL is developing a thermal energy storage system based on a Reversible Metal Hydride Thermochemical (RMHT) system, which uses metal hydride as a heat storage material. Heat storage materials are critical to the energy storage process. In solar thermal storage systems, heat can be stored in these materials during the day and released at night—when the sun is not out—to drive a turbine and produce electricity. In nuclear storage systems, heat can be stored in these materials at night and released to produce electricity during daytime peak-demand hours. PNNL’s metal hydride material can reversibly store heat as hydrogen cycles in and out of the material. In a RHMT system, metal hydrides remain stable in high temperatures (600- 800°C). A high-temperature tank in PNNL’s storage system releases heat as hydrogen is absorbed, and a low-temperature tank stores the heat until it is needed. The low-cost material and simplicity of PNNL’s thermal energy storage system is expected to keep costs down. The system has the potential to significantly increase energy density.

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This project focused on: 1) evaluating the performance of the DOE ARM SGP Raman lidar system in measuring profiles of water vapor and aerosols, and 2) the use of the Raman lidar measurements of aerosol and water vapor profiles for assessing the vertical distribution of aerosols and water vapor simulated by global transport models and examining diurnal variability of aerosols and water vapor. The highest aerosol extinction was generally observed close to the surface during the nighttime just prior to sunrise. The high values of aerosol extinction are most likely associated with increased scattering by hygroscopic aerosols, since the corresponding average relative humidity values were above 70%. After sunrise, relative humidity and aerosol extinction below 500 m decreased with the growth in the daytime convective boundary layer. The largest aerosol extinction for altitudes above 1 km occurred during the early afternoon most likely as a result of the increase in relative humidity. The water vapor mixing ratio profiles generally showed smaller variations with altitude between day and night. We also compared simultaneous measurements of relative humidity, aerosol extinction, and aerosol optical thickness derived from the ARM SGP Raman lidar and in situ instruments on board a small aircraft flown routinely …

A pump-probe scheme measures the rise time of ultrafast x-ray pulses. Conventional high speed x-ray diagnostics (x-ray streak cameras, PIN diodes, diamond PCD devices) do not provide sufficient time resolution to resolve rise times of x-ray pulses on the order of 50 fs or less as they are being produced by modern fast x-ray sources. Here, we are describing a pump-probe technique that can be employed to measure events where detector resolution is insufficient to resolve the event. The scheme utilizes a diamond plate as an x-ray transducer and a p-polarized probe beam.

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