Recent reports have shown that, despite efforts to the contrary, chemical accidents continue to occur at an unacceptable rate and there is no evidence that this rate is decreasing. Based on this observation, one can conclude that previous analyses have not accurately identified and implemented appropriate fixes to eliminate identified root causes for chemical events. Based on this, it is time to reevaluate chemical accident data with a fresh eye and determine (a) what corrective actions have already been identified but have not been implemented, (b) what other root causes may be involved, and (c) what new corrective actions should be taken to eliminate these newly identified root causes.

When direct reactions populate highly excited, unbound configurations in the residual nucleus, the nucleus may further evolve into a compound nucleus. Alternatively, the residual system may decay by emitting particles into the continuum. Understanding the relative weights of these two processes as a function of the angular momentum and parity deposited in the nucleus is important for the surrogate-reaction technique. A particularly interesting case is compound-nucleus formation via the (d, p) reaction, which may be a useful tool for forming compound nuclei off the valley of stability in inverse-kinematics experiments. We present here a study of the compound formation probability for a closely-related direct reaction, direct-semidirect radiative neutron capture.

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Yucca Mountain (YM), Nevada, has been proposed by the U.S. Department of Energy as a geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. In this study, we investigate the potential for groundwater advective pathways from underground nuclear testing areas on the Nevada Test Site (NTS) to the YM area by estimating the timeframe for advective travel and its uncertainty resulting from porosity value uncertainty for hydrogeologic units (HGUs) in the region. We perform sensitivity analysis to determine the most influential HGUs on advective radionuclide travel times from the NTS to the YM area. Groundwater pathways and advective travel times are obtained using the particle tracking package MODPATH and flow results from the Death Valley Regional Flow System (DVRFS) model by the U.S. Geological Survey. Values and uncertainties of HGU porosities are quantified through evaluation of existing site porosity data and expert professional judgment and are incorporated through Monte Carlo simulations to estimate mean travel times and uncertainties. We base our simulations on two steady state flow scenarios for the purpose of long term prediction and monitoring. The first represents pre-pumping conditions prior to groundwater development in the area in 1912 (the initial stress period of the DVRFS model). …

The candidate division Korarchaeota comprises a group of uncultivated microorganisms that, by their small subunit rRNA phylogeny, may have diverged early from the major archaeal phyla Crenarchaeota and Euryarchaeota. Here, we report the initial characterization of a member of the Korarchaeota with the proposed name,"Candidatus Korarchaeum cryptofilum," which exhibits an ultrathin filamentous morphology. To investigate possible ancestral relationships between deep-branching Korarchaeota and other phyla, we used whole-genome shotgun sequencing to construct a complete composite korarchaeal genome from enriched cells. The genome was assembled into a single contig 1.59 Mb in length with a G + C content of 49percent. Of the 1,617 predicted protein-coding genes, 1,382 (85percent) could be assigned to a revised set of archaeal Clusters of Orthologous Groups (COGs). The predicted gene functions suggest that the organism relies on a simple mode of peptide fermentation for carbon and energy and lacks the ability to synthesize de novo purines, CoA, and several other cofactors. Phylogenetic analyses based on conserved single genes and concatenated protein sequences positioned the korarchaeote as a deep archaeal lineage with an apparent affinity to the Crenarchaeota. However, the predicted gene content revealed that several conserved cellular systems, such as cell division, DNA replication, and tRNA …

Nonlinear optics plays a central role in the advancement of optical science and laser-based technologies. We report on the confinement of the nonlinear interaction of light with matter to a single wave cycle and demonstrate its utility for time-resolved and strong-field science. The electric field of 3.3-femtosecond, 0.72-micron laser pulses with a controlled and measured waveform ionizes atoms near the crests of the central wave cycle, with ionization being virtually switched off outside this interval. Isolated sub-100-attosecond pulses of extreme ultraviolet light (photon energy {approx} 80 electron volts), containing {approx} 0.5 nanojoule of energy, emerge from the interaction with a conversion efficiency of {approx} 10{sup -6}. These tools enable the study of the precision control of electron motion with light fields and electron-electron interactions with a resolution approaching the atomic unit of time ({approx} 24 attoseconds).

The results of a review and evaluation of neutron and non-neutron nuclear data published in the scientific literature are presented. The status of new chemical elements is examined. Data on revised values for the isotopic composition of the elements are reviewed and recommended values are presented. Half-lives of very long-lived nuclides are presented, including double beta decay, double electron capture, long-lived alpha decay and long-lived beta decay. Data from new measurements on the very heavy elements (trans-meitnerium elements) are discussed and tabulated. The first observation of the radioactive decay mode of the free neutron is discussed. New measurements that have expanded the neutron drip line for magnesium and aluminum are discussed. Data on recent neutron cross-section and resonance integral measurements are also discussed.

As part of a program to characterize and baseline selected environmental parameters in the region around the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, ambient radon-222 monitoring was conducted in the rural community of Amargosa Valley, the community closest to the proposed repository site. Passive integrating radon monitors and a continuous radon monitoring instrument were deployed adjacent to the Community Environmental Monitoring Program (CEMP) (http://www.cemp.dri.edu/index.html) station located in the Amargosa Valley Community Center near the library. The CEMP station provided real-time ambient gamma exposure and meteorological data used to correct the integrated radon measurements as well as verify meteorological data collected by the continuous radon monitoring instrument. Additionally, different types of environmental enclosures that housed the monitors and instrument were used to determine if particular designs influenced the ambient radon measurements.

The Department of Energy (DOE) and Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) entered into an Interagency Agreement to transfer approximately 40 metric tons of highly enriched uranium (HEU) to TVA for conversion to fuel for the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant. Savannah River Site (SRS) inventories included a significant amount of this material, which resulted from processing spent fuel and surplus materials. The HEU is blended with natural uranium (NU) to low enriched uranium (LEU) with a 4.95% 235U isotopic content and shipped as solution to the TVA vendor. The HEU Blend Down Project provided the upgrades needed to achieve the product throughput and purity required and provided loading facilities. The first blending to low enriched uranium (LEU) took place in March 2003 with the initial shipment to the TVA vendor in July 2003. The SRS Shipments have continued on a regular schedule without any major issues for the past 5 years and are due to complete in September 2008. The HEU Blend program is now looking to continue its success by dispositioning an additional approximately 21 MTU of HEU material as part of the SRS Enriched Uranium Disposition Project.

We report the scintillation properties of the undoped and cerium-doped variations of LiGdCl4 and NaGdCl4. Powder samples of these materials exhibit significant scintillation under X-rays. The samples were synthesized by solid-state methods from a 1:1 molar ratio of lithium or sodium chloride and gadolinium chloride. Cerium trichloride was used as the dopant. The physical, optical, and scintillation properties of these materials were analyzed by powder X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence, X-ray excited luminescence, and pulsed X-ray luminosity measurements. Increases in light yields are observed as the concentration of cerium increases. The highest light yields occurred at 20 percent cerium doping for both compounds. At larger concentrations neither compound formed, indicating a breakdown of the lattice with the addition of large amounts of cerium cations. At 20 percent cerium, LiGdCl4 and NaGdCl4 display scintillation light 3.6 times and 2.2 times the light yield of the reference material, YAlO3:Ce3+, respectively. Both emit in the ranges of 340 ? 350 nm and 365 - 370 nm and display multiexponential decays with cerium-like decay components at 33 ns (LiGdCl4:Ce) and 26 ns (NaGdCl4:Ce).

High-speed microchannel plate (MCP)–based imagers are critical detectors for x-ray diagnostics employed on Z-experiments at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) to measure time-resolved x-ray spectra and to image dynamic hohlraums. A multiframe design using eight half strips in one imager permits recordings of radiation events in discrete temporal snapshots to yield a time-evolved movie. We present data using various facilities to characterize the performance of this design. These characterization studies include DC and pulsed-voltage biased measurements in both saturated and linear operational regimes using an intense, short-pulsed UV laser. Electrical probe measurements taken to characterize the shape of the HV pulse propagating across the strips help to corroborate the spatial gain dependence.

A radioactive high level waste glass was made in 1980 with Savannah River Site (SRS) Tank 15 waste. This glass was buried in the SRS burial ground for 24 years but lysimeter data was only available for the first 8 years. The glass was exhumed and analyzed in 2004. The glass was predicted to be very durable and laboratory tests confirmed the durability response. The laboratory results indicated that the glass was very durable as did analysis of the lysimeter data. Scanning electron microscopy of the glass burial surface showed no significant glass alteration consistent with the results of the laboratory and field tests. No detectable Pu, Am, Cm, Np, or Ru leached from the glass into the surrounding sediment. Leaching of {beta}/{delta} from {sup 90}Sr and {sup 137}Cs in the glass was diffusion controlled. Less than 0.5% of the Cs and Sr in the glass leached into the surrounding sediment, with >99% of the leached radionuclides remaining within 8 centimeters of the glass pellet.

The local coupling of two photons to the fundamental quark currents of a hadron gives an energy-independent contribution to the Compton amplitude proportional to the charge squared of the struck quark, a contribution which has no analog in hadron scattering reactions. We show that this local contribution has a real phase and is universal, giving the same contribution for real or virtual Compton scattering for any photon virtuality and skewness at fixed momentum transfer squared t. The t-dependence of this J = 0 fixed Regge pole is parameterized by a yet unmeasured even charge-conjugation form factor of the target nucleon. The t = 0 limit gives an important constraint on the dependence of the nucleon mass on the quark mass through the Weisberger relation. We discuss how this 1=x form factor can be extracted from high energy deeply virtual Compton scattering and examine predictions given by models of the H generalized parton distribution.

New test requirements were developed by Sandia National Laboratory to simulate a regime of shock testing not previously performed at the Kansas City Plant operated by Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies. These environments were unique in that they involved amplitude of shock >1000g with relatively long pulse durations (greater 5 ms but less than 10 ms) and involved velocity changes up to 235 ft/sec. Ten months were available to develop, design, manufacture and prove-in this new capability. We designed a new shock sled to deliver this new family of shock environments in a laboratory test. The performance range of the new sled includes five specific shocks (1000 g – 8 ms, 1300 - 6 ms, 1500 g – 5.4 ms, 1950 g – 6 ms, 2250 g – 5.4 ms; all haversine shaped), and it also incorporates adjustability to accommodate new shocks within this range. These shock environments result in velocity changes ranging from 160 fps to 250 fps. The test sled accommodates test articles weighing up to 20 lbs and measuring up to 10” along any axis.

The RINSC is a 2 mega-watt, light water and graphite moderated and cooled reactor that has a graphite thermal column built as a user facility for sample irradiation. Over the past decade, after the reactor conversion from a highly-enriched uranium core to a low-enriched one, flux and dose measurements and calculations had been performed in the thermal column to update the ex-core parameters and to predict the effect from in-core fuel burn-up and rearrangement. The most recent data from measurements and calculations that have been made at the RINSC thermal column since October of 2005 are reported.

Proof-of-principle gas-reservoir MnNiMg electrochromic mirror devices have been investigated. In contrast to conventional electrochromic approaches, hydrogen is stored (at low concentration) in the gas volume between glass panes of the insulated glass units (IGUs). The elimination of a solid state ion storage layer simplifies the layer stack, enhances overall transmission, and reduces cost. The cyclic switching properties were demonstrated and system durability improved with the incorporation a thin Zr barrier layer between the MnNiMg layer and the Pd catalyst. Addition of 9 percent silver to the palladium catalyst further improved system durability. About 100 full cycles have been demonstrated before devices slow considerably. Degradation of device performance appears to be related to Pd catalyst mobility, rather than delamination or metal layer oxidation issues originally presumed likely to present significant challenges.

Using a sample of 383 million B{bar B} events collected by the BABAR experiment, they measure sums of seven exclusive final states B {yields} X{sub d(s)}{gamma}, where X{sub d}(X{sub s}) is a non-strange (strange) charmless hadronic system in the mass range 0.6-1.8 GeV/c{sup 2}. After correcting for unmeasured decay modes in this mass range, they obtain a branching fraction for b {yields} d{gamma} of (7.2 {+-} 2.7(stat.) {+-} 2.3(syst.)) x 10{sup -6}. Taking the ratio of X{sub d} to X{sub s} they find {Lambda}(b {yields} d{gamma})/{Lambda}(b {yields} s{gamma}) = 0.033 {+-} 0.013(stat.) {+-} 0.009(syst.), from which they determine |V{sub td}/V{sub ts}| = 0.177 {+-} 0.043.

We search for a light scalar particle produced in single-photon decays of the {Upsilon}(3S) resonance through the process {Upsilon}(3S) {yields} {gamma} + A{sup 0}, A{sup 0} {yields} invisible. Such an object appears in Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model, where a light CP-odd Higgs boson naturally couples strongly to b-quarks. If, in addition, there exists a light, stable neutralino, decays of A{sup 0} could be preferentially to an invisible final state. We search for events with a single high-energy photon and a large missing mass, consistent with a 2-body decay of {Upsilon}(3S). We find no evidence for such processes in a sample of 122 x 10{sup 6} {Upsilon}(3S) decays collected by the BABAR collaboration at the PEP-II B-factory, and set 90% C.L. upper limits on the branching fraction {Beta}({Upsilon}(3S) {yields} {gamma}A{sup 0}) x {Beta}(A{sup 0} {yields} invisible) at (0.7-31) x 10{sup -6} in the mass range m{sub A{sup 0}} {le} 7.8 GeV. The results are preliminary.

We provide a systematic treatment of possible corrections to the inflaton potential for D-brane inflation in the warped deformed conifold. We consider the D3-brane potential in the presence of the most general possible corrections to the throat geometry sourced by coupling to the bulk of a compact Calabi-Yau space. This corresponds to the potential on the Coulomb branch of the dual gauge theory, in the presence of arbitrary perturbations of the Lagrangian. The leading contributions arise from perturbations by the most relevant operators that do not destroy the throat geometry. We find a generic contribution from a non-chiral operator of dimension {Delta} = 2 associated with a global symmetry current, resulting in a negative contribution to the inflaton mass-squared. If the Calabi-Yau preserves certain discrete symmetries, this is the dominant correction to the inflaton potential, and fine-tuning of the inflaton mass is possible. In the absence of such discrete symmetries, the dominant contribution comes from a chiral operator with {Delta} = 3/2, corresponding to a {phi}{sup 3/2} term in the inflaton potential. The resulting inflationary models are phenomenologically identical to the inflection point scenarios arising from specific D7-brane embeddings, but occur under far more general circumstances. Our strategy extends immediately …

The Brookhaven Medical Research Reactor was a 5 mega-watt, light-water cooled and heavy-graphite moderated research facility. It has two shutter-equipped treatment rooms, three horizontally extended thimble tubes, and an ex-core broad beam facility. The three experimental thimbles, or activation ports, external to the reactor tank were designed for several uses, including the investigations on diagnostic and therapeutic methods using radioactive isotopes of very short half-life, the analysis of radiation exposure on tissue-equivalent materials using a collimated neutron beam, and the evaluation of dose effects on biological cells to improve medical treatment. At the broad beam facility where the distribution of thermal neutrons was essential uniform, a wide variety of mammalian whole-body exposures were studied using animals such as burros or mice. Also studied at the broad beam were whole-body phantom experiments, involving the use of a neutron or photon beam streaming through a screen to obtain the flux spectrum suitable for dose analysis on the sugar-urea-water mixture, a tissue-equivalent material. Calculations of the flux and the dose at beam ports based on Monte Carlo particle-transport code were performed, and measurements conducted at the same tally locations were made using bare or cadmium-covered gold foils. Analytical results, which show good agreement …

A dual-axis, synchroscan streak camera was used to measure longitudinal bunch profiles in three storage rings at SLAC: the PEP-II low- and high-energy rings, and SPEAR3. At high currents, both PEP rings exhibit a transient synchronous-phase shift along the bunch train due to RF-cavity beam loading. Bunch length and profile asymmetry were measured along the train for a range of beam currents. To avoid the noise inherent in a dual-axis sweep, we accumulated single-axis synchroscan images while applying a 50-ns gate to the microchannel plate. To improve the extinction ratio, an upstream mirror pivoting at 1 kHz was synchronized with the 2kHz MCP gate to deflect light from other bunches off the photocathode. Bunch length was also measured on the HER as a function of beam energy. For SPEAR3 we measured bunch length as a function of single-bunch current for several lattices: achromatic, low-emittance and low momentum compaction. In the first two cases, resistive and reactive impedance components can be extracted from the longitudinal bunch profiles. In the low-alpha configurations, we observed natural bunch lengths approaching the camera resolution, requiring special care to remove instrumental effects, and saw evidence of periodic bursting.

The interface structure and magnetism of hybrid magnetic tunnel junction-spin filter devices have been investigated and correlated with their transport properties. Magnetic tunnel junctions made of a spinel NiMn2O4 tunnel barrier sandwiched by theoretically predicted half-metallic electrodes, perovskite La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 and spinel Fe3O4, exhibit very high crystalline quality as observed by transmission electron microscopy. Structurally abrupt interfaces allow for the distinct magnetic switching of the electrodes as well as large junction magnetoresistance. The change in the magnetic anisotropy observed at the spinel-spinel interface is indicative of a thin interdiffused magnetically soft interfacial layer. The strong exchange coupling at this interface allows for low background magnetoresistance, and a spin-filter effect with when the barrier is ferrimagnetic.

We report a measurement of the branching fractions of {bar B} {yields} D** {ell}{sup -}{bar {nu}}{sub {ell}} decays based on 417 fb{sup -1} of data collected at the {Upsilon}(4S) resonance with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e{sup +}e{sup -} storage rings. Events are selected by fully reconstructing one of the B mesons in a hadronic decay mode. A fit to the invariant mass differences m(D{sup (*)})-m(D{sup (*)}) is performed to extract the signal yields of the different D** states. We observe the {bar B} {yields} D**{ell}{sup -}{bar {nu}}{sub {ell}} decay modes corresponding to the four D** states predicted by Heavy Quark Symmetry with a significance greater than six standard deviations including systematic uncertainties.

The electronic and magnetic effects of intentional compensation with non-magnetic donors are investigated in the ferromagnetic semiconductors Ga1-xMnxAs and Ga1-xMnxP synthesized using ion implantation and pulsed-laser melting (II-PLM). It is demonstrated that compensation with non-magnetic donors and MnI have similarqualitative effects on materials properties. With compensation TC decreases, resistivity increases, and stronger magnetoresistance and anomalous Hall effect attributed to skew scattering are observed. Ga1-xMnxAs can be controllably compensated with Te through a metal-insulator transition through which the magnetic and electrical properties vary continuously. The resistivity of insulating Ga1-xMnxAs:Te can be described by thermal activation to the mobility edge and simply-activated hopping transport. Ga1-xMnxP doped with S is insulating at all compositions but shows decreasing TC with compensation. The existence of a ferromagnetic insulating state in Ga1-xMnxAs:Te and Ga1-xMnxP:S having TCs of the same order as the uncompensated materials demonstrates that localized holes are effective at mediating ferromagnetism in ferromagnetic semiconductors through the percolation of ferromagnetic 'puddles' which at low temperatures.