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A Management Prestart Review (MPR) for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) Optics Assembly Building (OAB) was conducted from June, 2000, through October, 2000. This review was performed to determine readiness of the facility and management to transfer the facility from the construction to the commissioning and operations phase. This review process provides assurance that the appropriate line management is in place to effect the turnover. Completion and acceptance of this report constitutes a turnover of facility and equipment operational responsibility from the Beampath Infrastructure System Construction organization to the Assembly Installation and Refurbishment Operations (assembly equipment installation/activation and mechanical cleaning operations) and the Beampath Infrastructure System (BIS) Commissioning and Operations Organizations (conventional facility operations). The OAB MPR provides to the NIF Project Manager an independent, systematic assessment of: (1) Readiness of line management for the turnover to take place, (2) Completeness of the equipment and facility installation of the OAB, (3) Readiness of personnel to operate within the facility, and (4) Implementation and efficacy of key management control processes and procedures. The MPR process assures that the technical, cost, and schedule risk associated with the installation/activation of OAB special equipment, mechanical cleaning, and conventional facility operations within the OAB are …

Cracks found in many of the double-shell tank (DST) pump and valve pits bring into question the ability of the pits to provide secondary containment and remain in compliance with State and Federal regulations. This study was commissioned to identify viable options for maintain/restoring secondary containment capability in these pits. The basis for this study is the decision analysis process which identifies the requirements to be met and the desired goals (decision criteria) that each option will be weighed against. A facilitated workshop was convened with individuals knowledgeable of Tank Farms Operations, engineering practices, and safety/environmental requirements. The outcome of this workshop was the validation or identification of the critical requirements, definition of the current problem, identification and weighting of the desired goals, baselining of the current repair methods, and identification of potential alternate solutions. The workshop was followed up with further investigations into the potential solutions that were identified in the workshop and through other efforts. These solutions are identified in the body of this report. Each of the potential solutions were screened against the list of requirements and only those meeting the requirements were considered viable options. To expand the field of viable options, hybrid concepts that combine …

The spherical tokamak (ST), because of its slender central column, has very limited volt-second capability relative to a standard aspect ratio tokamak of similar plasma cross-section. Recent experiments on the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) have begun to quantify and optimize the ohmic current drive efficiency in a MA-class ST device. Sustainable ramp-rates in excess of 5MA/sec during the current rise phase have been achieved on NSTX, while faster ramps generate significant MHD activity. Discharges with Ip exceeding 1MA have been achieved in NSTX with nominal parameters: aspect ratio A=1.3--1.4, elongation k=2--2.2, triangularity d=0.4, internal inductance li=0.6, and Ejima coefficient CE=0.35. Flux consumption efficiency results, performance improvements associated with first boronization, and comparisons to neoclassical resistivity are described.

Orbitmpi is a parallelized version of Roscoe White's Orbit code. The code has been parallelized using MPI, which makes it portable to many types of machines. The guidelines used for the parallelization were to increase code performance with minimal changes to the code's original structure. This document gives a general description of how the parallel sections of the code run. It discusses the changes made to the original code and comments on the general procedure for future additions to Orbitmpi, as well as describing the effects of a parallelized random number generator on the code's output. Finally, the scaling results from Hecate and from Puffin are presented. Hecate is a 64-processor Origin 2000 machine, with MIPS R12000 processors and 16GB of memory, and Puffin is a PC cluster with 9 dual-processor 450 MHz Pentium III (18 processors max.), with 100Mbits ethernet communication.

Control of the electric field profile in the Hall Thruster through the positioning of an additional electrode along the channel is shown theoretically to enhance the efficiency. The reduction of the potential drop near the anode by use of the additional electrode increases the plasma density there, through the increase of the electron and ion transit times, causing the ionization in the vicinity of the anode to increase. The resulting separation of the ionization and acceleration regions increases the propellant and energy utilizations. An abrupt sonic transition is forced to occur at the axial location of the additional electrode, accompanied by the generation of a large (theoretically infinite) electric field. This ability to generate a large electric field at a specific location along the channel, in addition to the ability to specify the electric potential there, allows one further control of the electric field profile in the thruster. In particular, when the electron temperature is high, a large abrupt voltage drop is induced at the vicinity of the additional electrode, a voltage drop that can comprise a significant part of the applied voltage.

This Corrective Action Investigation Plan contains the U.S. Department of Energy, Nevada Operations Office's approach to collect the data necessary to evaluate corrective action alternatives appropriate for the closure of Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 409 under the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order. Corrective Action Unit 409 consists of three Corrective Action Sites (CASs): TA-53-001-TAB2, Septic Sludge Disposal Pit No.1; TA-53-002-TAB2, Septic Sludge Disposal Pit No.2; and RG-24-001-RGCR, Battery Dump Site. The Septic Sludge Disposal Pits are located near Bunker Two, close to Area 3, on the Tonopah Test Range. The Battery Dump Site is located at the abandoned Cactus Repeater Station on Cactus Peak. The Cactus Repeater Station was a remote, battery-powered, signal repeater station. The two Septic Sludge Disposal Pits were suspected to be used through the late 1980s as disposal sites for sludge from septic tanks located in Area 3. Based on site history collected to support the Data Quality Objectives process, contaminants of potential concern are the same for the disposal pits and include: volatile organic compounds (VOCs), semivolatile organic compounds, total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) as gasoline- and diesel-range organics, polychlorinated biphenyls, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act metals, and radionuclides (including plutonium and depleted uranium). The …

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