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.

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). …

This report is about the INMM Annual Meeting 1998 Status of Underground Testing Program.

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 advanced Large-Area Plastic Scintillator (ALPS) Project at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory investigated possible technological avenues for substantially advancing the state-of-the-art in gamma-ray detection via large-area plastic scintillators. The three predominant themes of these investigations comprised the following: * Maximizing light collection efficiency from a single large-area sheet of plastic scintillator, and optimizing hardware event trigger definition to retain detection efficiency while exploiting the power of coincidence to suppress single-PMT "dark current" background; * Utilizing anti-Compton vetoing and supplementary spectral information from a co-located secondary, or "Back" detector, to both (1) minimize Compton background in the low-energy portion of the "Front" scintillator's pulse-height spectrum, and (2) sharpen the statistical accuracy of the front detector's low-energy response prediction as impelmented in suitable energy-windowing algorithms; and * Investigating alternative materials to enhance the intrinsic gamma-ray detection efficiency of plastic-based sensors.

During the past three years, the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) Load Modeling Task Force (LMTF) has led the effort to develop the new modeling approach. As part of this effort, the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), Southern California Edison (SCE), and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Solutions tested 27 residential air-conditioning units to assess their response to delayed voltage recovery transients. After completing these tests, different modeling approaches were proposed, among them a performance modeling approach that proved to be one of the three favored for its simplicity and ability to recreate different SVR events satisfactorily. Funded by the California Energy Commission (CEC) under its load modeling project, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) led the follow-on task to analyze the motor testing data to derive the parameters needed to develop a performance models for the single-phase air-conditioning (SPAC) unit. To derive the performance model, PNNL researchers first used the motor voltage and frequency ramping test data to obtain the real (P) and reactive (Q) power versus voltage (V) and frequency (f) curves. Then, curve fitting was used to develop the P-V, Q-V, P-f, and Q-f relationships for motor running and stalling states. The resulting performance model ignores the …

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 purpose of this study was to examine alternative biomass-to-ethanol conversion process assumptions and configuration options to determine their relative effects on overall process economics. A process-flow-sheet computer model was used to determine the heat and material balance for each configuration that was studied. The heat and material balance was then fed to a costing spreadsheet to determine the impact on the ethanol selling price. By examining a number of operational and configuration alternatives and comparing the results to the base flow sheet, alternatives having the greatest impact the performance and cost of the overall system were identified and used to make decisions on research priorities.

Aqueous radioactive wastes from Savannah River Site (SRS) separations and vitrification processes are contained in large underground carbon steel tanks. The 2007 inspection program revealed that the structural integrity and waste confinement capability of the Savannah River Site waste tanks were maintained. A very small amount of material had seeped from Tank 12 from a previously identified leaksite. The material observed had dried on the tank wall and did not reach the annulus floor. A total of 5945 photographs were made and 1221 visual and video inspections were performed during 2007. Additionally, ultrasonic testing was performed on four Waste Tanks (15, 36, 37 and 38) in accordance with approved inspection plans that met the requirements of WSRC-TR-2002- 00061, Revision 2 'In-Service Inspection Program for High Level Waste Tanks'. The Ultrasonic Testing (UT) In-Service Inspections (ISI) are documented in a separate report that is prepared by the ISI programmatic Level III UT Analyst. Tanks 15, 36, 37 and 38 are documented in 'Tank Inspection NDE Results for Fiscal Year 2007'; WSRC-TR-2007-00064.

Paper number 1 addresses the fact that the procedure used in the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment for identifying the presence of clouds over snow/ice surfaces is known to have shortcomings, and this is corroborated through use of surface insolation measurements at the South Pole as an independent means of identifying clouds. These surface insolation measurements are then used to validate the more detailed cloud identification scheme used in the follow-up Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES), and this validation is extended to the polar night through use of CERES measurements of the outgoing longwave radiation. General circulation models (GCMs) are highly sophisticated computer tools for modeling climate change, and they incorporate a large number of physical processes and variables. One of the most important challenges is to properly account for water vapor (clouds and humidity) in climate warming. In this Perspective, Cess discusses results reported in the same issue by Soden et al. in which water vapor feedback effects are tested by studying moistening trends in the upper troposphere. Satellite observations of atmospheric water vapor are found to agree well with moisture predictions generated by one of the key GCMs, showing that these feedback effects are being properly …

The beta-cells used in the beta-gamma detector have taken time to develop and to standardize the assembly of them. In making the assembly routine it is important to have step by step assembly instructions as well as a list of potential problems and their solutions. This document attempts to accomplish these goals.

The conversion of biomass crops to fuel is receiving considerable attention as a means to reduce our dependence on foreign oil imports and to meet future energy needs. Besides their use for fuel, biomass crops are an attractive vehicle for producing value added products such as biopolymers. Metabolix, Inc. of Cambridge proposes to develop methods for producing biodegradable polymers polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) in green tissue plants as well as utilizating residual plant biomass after polymer extraction for fuel generation to offset the energy required for polymer extraction. The primary plant target is switchgrass, and backup targets are alfalfa and tobacco. The combined polymer and fuel production from the transgenic biomass crops establishes a biorefinery that has the potential to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil imports for both the feedstocks and energy needed for plastic production. Concerns about the widespread use of transgenic crops and the grower’s ability to prevent the contamination of the surrounding environment with foreign genes will be addressed by incorporating and expanding on some of the latest plant biotechnology developed by the project partners of this proposal. This proposal also addresses extraction of PHAs from biomass, modification of PHAs so that they have suitable properties for …

The photon counting efficiency of various CCD based cameras was studied as a function of x-ray energy and exposure. A pair of Spectral Instruments Model 800 CCD cameras fitted with 16 {micro}m thick back-illuminated CCDs were calibrated at low x-ray energy using two well established histogram methods, a standard pixel for pixel histogram and the single pixel event histogram method. In addition, two new thick substrate CCDs were evaluated for use at high energy. One was a commercially available Princeton Instruments LCX1300 deep depletion CCD camera while the other was a custom designed 650 {micro}m thick partially depleted CCD fitted to a SI 800 camera body. It is shown that at high x-ray energy, only a pixel-summing algorithm was able to derive spectral data due to the spreading of x-ray events over many pixels in the thicker substrate CCDs. This paper will describe the different algorithms used to extract spectra and the absolute detection efficiencies using these algorithms. These detectors will be very useful to detect high-energy x-ray photons from high-intensity short pulse laser interactions.

Au/TiO{sub 2} catalysts form hydroperoxy species from H{sub 2}O-O{sub 2} mixtures at near-ambient temperatures. These species can be used in the selective epoxidation of propene to propylene oxide.

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 …

Savannah River Site (SRS) sludge batch 4 (SB4) waste surrogate with high aluminum and iron content was vitrified with commercially available Frit 503-R4 (8 wt.% Li{sub 2}O, 16 wt.% B2O3, 76 wt.% SiO{sub 2}) by cold crucible inductive melting using lab- (56 mm inner diameter), bench- (236 mm) and large-scale (418 mm) cold crucible. The waste loading ranged between 40 and 60 wt.%. The vitrified products obtained in the lab-scale cold crucible were nearly amorphous with traces of unreacted quartz in the product with 40 wt.% waste loading and traces of spinel phase in the product with 50 wt.% waste loading. The glassy products obtained in the bench-scale cold crucible are composed of major vitreous and minor iron-rich spinel phase whose content at {approx}60 wt.% waste loading may achieve {approx}10 vol.%. The vitrified waste obtained in the large-scale cold crucible was also composed of major vitreous and minor spinel structure phases. No nepheline phase has been found. Average degree of crystallinity was estimated to be {approx}12 vol.%. Anionic motif of the glass network is built from rather short metasilicate chains and boron-oxygen constituent based on boron-oxygen triangular units.

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.

Staphylothermus marinus is an anaerobic, sulfur-reducing peptide fermenter of the archaeal phylum Crenarchaeota. It is the third heterotrophic, obligate sulfur reducing crenarchaeote to be sequenced and provides an opportunity for comparative analysis of the three genomes. The 1.57 Mbp genome of the hyperthermophilic crenarchaeote Staphylothermus marinus has been completely sequenced. The main energy generating pathways likely involve 2-oxoacid:ferredoxin oxidoreductases and ADP-forming acetyl-CoA synthases. S. marinus possesses several enzymes not present in other crenarchaeotes including a sodium ion-translocating decarboxylase likely to be involved in amino acid degradation. S. marinus lacks sulfur-reducing enzymes present in the other two sulfur-reducing crenarchaeotes that have been sequenced - Thermofilum pendens and Hyperthermus butylicus. Instead it has three operons similar to the mbh and mbx operons of Pyrococcus furiosus, which may play a role in sulfur reduction and/or hydrogen production. The two marine organisms, S. marinus and H. butylicus, possess more sodium-dependent transporters than T. pendens and use symporters for potassium uptake while T. pendens uses an ATP-dependent potassium transporter. T. pendens has adapted to a nutrient-rich environment while H. butylicus is adapted to a nutrient-poor environment, and S. marinus lies between these two extremes. The three heterotrophic sulfur-reducing crenarchaeotes have adapted to their habitats, terrestrial …

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.

We analyze the constraints on dimension-six {Delta}F = 1 effective operators in models respecting the MFV hypothesis, both in the one-Higgs doublet case and in the two-Higgs doublet scenario with large tan {beta}. The constraints are derived mainly from the b {yields} s inclusive observables measured at the B factories. The implications of these bounds in view of improved measurements in exclusive and inclusive observables in b {yields} s{ell}{sup +}{ell}{sup -} and s {yields} d{nu}{bar {nu}} transitions are discussed.

In light water reactors, components made of nickel-base alloys are susceptible to environmentally assisted cracking. This report summarizes the crack growth rate results and related metallography for field and laboratory-procured Alloy 600 and its weld alloys tested in pressurized water reactor (PWR) environments. The report also presents crack growth rate (CGR) results for a shielded-metal-arc weld of Alloy 182 in a simulated PWR environment as a function of temperature between 290 C and 350 C. These data were used to determine the activation energy for crack growth in Alloy 182 welds. The tests were performed by measuring the changes in the stress corrosion CGR as the temperatures were varied during the test. The difference in electrochemical potential between the specimen and the Ni/NiO line was maintained constant at each temperature by adjusting the hydrogen overpressure on the water supply tank. The CGR data as a function of temperature yielded activation energies of 252 kJ/mol for a double-J weld and 189 kJ/mol for a deep-groove weld. These values are in good agreement with the data reported in the literature. The data reported here and those in the literature suggest that the average activation energy for Alloy 182 welds is on the …

The reactions of the methylidyne radical (CH) with ethylene, acetylene, allene, and methylacetylene are studied at room temperature using tunable vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photoionization and time-resolved mass spectrometry. The CH radicals are prepared by 248 nm multiphoton photolysis of CHBr3 at 298 K and react with the selected hydrocarbon in a helium gas flow. Analysis of photoionization efficiency versus VUV photon wavelength permits isomer-specific detection of the reaction products and allows estimation of the reaction product branching ratios. The reactions proceed by either CH insertion or addition followed by H atom elimination from the intermediate adduct. In the CH + C2H4 reaction the C3H5 intermediate decays by H atom loss to yield 70(+-8)percent allene, 30(+-8)percent methylacetylene and less than 10percent cyclopropene, in agreement with previous RRKM results. In the CH + acetylene reaction, detection of mainly the cyclic C3H2 isomer is contrary to a previous RRKM calculation that predicted linear triplet propargylene to be 90percent of the total H-atom co-products. High-level CBS-APNO quantum calculations and RRKM calculation for the CH + C2H2 reaction presented in this manuscript predict a higher contribution of the cyclic C3H2 (27.0percent) versus triplet propargylene (63.5percent) than these earlier predictions. Extensive calculations on the C3H3 and …

We discuss the first successful K-{alpha} x-ray Thomson scattering experiment from solid density plasmas for use as a diagnostic in determining the temperature, density, and ionization state of warm dense matter with picosecond resolution. The development of this source as a diagnostic and stringent requirements for successful K-{alpha} x-ray Thomson scattering are addressed. Data for the experimental techniques described in this paper [1] suggest the capability of single shot characterization of warm dense matter and the ability to use this scattering source at future Free Electron Lasers (FEL) where comparable scattering signal levels are predicted.

Coaxial Helicity Injection (CHI), a non-inductive method to initiate plasma and generate toroidal plasma current, is being investigated in the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX). The center stack and outer vacuum vessel are separated by insulating gaps at the top and bottom of the slim central column so that a high voltage (up to 2 kV) can be applied between them from a pulsed power supply or a capacitor bank to initiate an arc discharge. In the presence of a suitable poloidal magnetic field, the discharge is initiated at the lower gap (the injector gap) and because of the strong toroidal field develops a helical structure resulting in substantial toroidal plasma current being driven. In NSTX, up to 390 kA of toroidal current has been generated for an injected current of 25 kA. The early investigations of CHI however frequently developed arcs across the insulator at the top of the machine (the absorber gap), which terminated the desired discharge. This arcing greatly restricted the operational space available for CHI studies. During 2002, the absorber region was modified to suppress these arcs. The new design includes a new ceramic insulator on the high field side of the absorber region with a …