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The report discusses and evaluates the adequacy of buyer specifications for snubbers. Technical specifications for snubbers (hydraulic and mechanical) were studied in detail in an effort to define the ''fundamental needs'' of the industry with respect to characteristics of snubbers during operation. In the course of this study, it was determined that there is insufficient consensus among users to make such a definition. Authorities in the fields of structural dynamics, structural systems design, and snubber design were also consulted for additional information. Information from these sources is incorporated to identify the fundamental areas of concern, areas where consensus is lacking, and problems to be resolved in order to establish meaningful standards for this equipment.

Twenty charges each of low hydrogen dingot fuel and standard ingot fuel elements were irradiated at DR-reactor. Distortion data from 22 tubes are analyzed in this document. The dingot fuel elements are prone to greater tube filling capacity (TFC) and greater daimeter growths at both center and ends of the fuel elements (the growths at center are larger than at ends). The difference between average warp values for the two types of fuel elements is not statistically significant, indicating that the greater TFC values shown by th dingot fuel elements are due to their larger diameter growths at the slug center rather than to larger warp values.

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Neural networks were used to determine the sensitivity of 39 selected Melter/Melter Off Gas and Melter Feed System process parameters as related to the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) Melter Pour Spout Pressure during the overall analysis and resolution of the DWPF glass production and pouring issues. Two different commercial neural network software packages were used for this analysis. Models were developed and used to determine the critical parameters which accurately describe the DWPF Pour Spout Pressure. The model created using a low-end software package has a root mean square error of {+-} 0.35 inwc (< 2% of the instrument`s measured range, R{sup 2} = 0.77) with respect to the plant data used to validate and test the model. The model created using a high-end software package has a R{sub 2} = 0.97 with respect to the plant data used to validate and test the model. The models developed for this application identified the key process parameters which contribute to the control of the DWPF Melter Pour Spout pressure during glass pouring operations. The relative contribution and ranking of the selected parameters was determined using the modeling software. Neural network computing software was determined to be a cost-effective software tool …

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.

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In this note, the analysis on linac quadrupole misalignment is presented for the FACET linac section LI05-09 plus LI11-19. The effectiveness of the beam-based alignment technique is preliminarily confirmed by the measurement. Beam-based alignment technique was adopted at SLAC linac since SLC time. Here the beam-based alignment algorithms are further developed and applied in the FACET commissioning during 2012 run.

The recent development of downhole tiltmeter arrays for monitoring hydraulic fractures has provided new information on fracture growth and geometry. These downhole arrays offer the significant advantages of being close to the fracture (large signal) and being unaffected by the free surface. As with surface tiltmeter data, analysis of these measurements requires the inversion of a crack or dislocation model. To supplement the dislocation models of Davis [1983], Okada [1992] and others, this work has extended several elastic crack solutions to provide tilt calculations. The solutions include constant-pressure 2D, penny-shaped, and 3D-elliptic cracks and a 2D-variable-pressure crack. Equations are developed for an arbitrary inclined fracture in an infinite elastic space. Effects of fracture height, fracture length, fracture dip, fracture azimuth, fracture width and monitoring distance on the tilt distribution are given, as well as comparisons with the dislocation model. The results show that the tilt measurements are very sensitive to the fracture dimensions, but also that it is difficult to separate the competing effects of the various parameters.

A General Purpose Heat Source (GPHS) has been designed for the purpose of supplying power to a radioisotope thermal generator intended for interplanetary missions. The baseline configuration, nominally 2 in. x 4 in. x 4 in. with sharp edges and corners, is required to survive accidental earth reentry as well as terminal impact velocities. Several problems have been identified relative to survival criteria during reentry. This paper is concerned with the flow field and reentry heating for a broad face-on or side-on reentry orientation. Moreover, the analysis considers convective heat transfer in the absence of roughness or ablation effects during the supersonic/hypersonic regime of reentry. The anaytical results are compared with wind tunnel data. From these studies it was concluded that heat transfer distributions for non-circular shapes ca be obtained for reentry conditions using wind tunnel data for the surface distributions and a stagnation value based on a reference sphere condition. The distributions obtained at a fixed Mach number (M > 1) appear valid over an extended range of Mach numbers. The above required definition of a proper velocity gradient, and definition of an area aspect ratio. Flowfield predictions (inviscid) using the CM2DT program provide a proper definition of pressure …

Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) is an isotope based measurement technology that utilizes carbon-14 labeled compounds in the pharmaceutical development process to measure compounds at very low concentrations, empowers microdosing as an investigational tool, and extends the utility of {sup 14}C labeled compounds to dramatically lower levels. It is a form of isotope ratio mass spectrometry that can provide either measurements of total compound equivalents or, when coupled to separation technology such as chromatography, quantitation of specific compounds. The properties of AMS as a measurement technique are investigated here, and the parameters of method validation are shown. AMS, independent of any separation technique to which it may be coupled, is shown to be accurate, linear, precise, and robust. As the sensitivity and universality of AMS is constantly being explored and expanded, this work underpins many areas of pharmaceutical development including drug metabolism as well as absorption, distribution and excretion of pharmaceutical compounds as a fundamental step in drug development. The validation parameters for pharmaceutical analyses were examined for the accelerator mass spectrometry measurement of {sup 14}C/C ratio, independent of chemical separation procedures. The isotope ratio measurement was specific (owing to the {sup 14}C label), stable across samples storage conditions for at …

The growth and properties of undoped and Mn-doped ZnGa{sub 2}O{sub 4} thin-film phosphors on (100) MgO and glass substrates using pulsed laser ablation were investigated. Blue-white and green emission were observed for as-deposited undoped and Mn-doped films, respectively. Luminescent properties as well as crystallinity were considerably affected by processing conditions and film stoichiometry. Films with enhanced luminescent characteristics were obtained on single crystal substrates without post-annealing.

The French and British nuclear programs have prepared a series of natural uranium oxide fuel samples spiked with small amounts of the individual fission products which makeup a large fraction of the total neutron absorption by fission products in spent nuclear fuel. Both programs have utilized these samples in experimental reactors and have inferred the worth of the individual fission products. These results have been used to validate the cross sections used in criticality safety calculations. These measurements constitute a major element in support of spent fuel burnup credit in these countries.

This paper discusses the features of an annotation language that we believe to be essential for optimizing user-defined abstractions. These features should capture semantics of function, data, and object-oriented abstractions, express abstraction equivalence (e.g., a class represents an array abstraction), and permit extension of traditional compiler optimizations to user-defined abstractions. Our future work will include developing a comprehensive annotation language for describing the semantics of general object-oriented abstractions, as well as automatically verifying and inferring the annotated semantics.

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) commitment to assuring the health and safety of its workers includes the conduct of illness and injury surveillance activities that provide an early warning system to detect health problems among workers. The Illness and Injury Surveillance Program monitors illnesses and health conditions that result in an absence, occupational injuries and illnesses, and disabilities and deaths among current workers.

This report talks about the annual progress report of 1977

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.

We report the ongoing work of our group in hydrodynamics and radiation hydrodynamics with astrophysical applications. During the period of the existing grant, we have carried out two types of experiments at the Omega laser. One set of experiments has studied radiatively collapsing shocks, obtaining data using a backlit pinhole with a 100 ps backlighter and beginning to develop the ability to look into the shock tube with optical or x-ray diagnostics. Other experiments have studied the deeply nonlinear development of the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability from complex initial conditions, using dual-axis radiographic data with backlit pinholes and ungated detectors to complete the data set for a Ph.D. student. We lead a team that is developing a proposal for experiments at the National Ignition Facility and are involved in experiments at NIKE and LIL. All these experiments have applications to astrophysics, discussed in the corresponding papers. We assemble the targets for the experiments at Michigan, where we also prepare many of the simple components. We also have several projects underway in our laboratory involving our x-ray source. The above activities, in addition to a variety of data analysis and design projects, provide good experience for graduate and undergraduates students. In the …

The Carbon Capture Simulation Initiative (CCSI) is a partnership among national laboratories, industry and academic institutions that is developing and deploying state-of-the-art computational modeling and simulation tools to accelerate the commercialization of carbon capture technologies from discovery to development, demonstration, and ultimately the widespread deployment to hundreds of power plants. The CCSI Toolset will provide end users in industry with a comprehensive, integrated suite of scientifically validated models, with uncertainty quantification (UQ), optimization, risk analysis and decision making capabilities. The CCSI Toolset incorporates commercial and open-source software currently in use by industry and is also developing new software tools as necessary to fill technology gaps identified during execution of the project. Ultimately, the CCSI Toolset will (1) enable promising concepts to be more quickly identified through rapid computational screening of devices and processes; (2) reduce the time to design and troubleshoot new devices and processes; (3) quantify the technical risk in taking technology from laboratory-scale to commercial-scale; and (4) stabilize deployment costs more quickly by replacing some of the physical operational tests with virtual power plant simulations. CCSI is led by the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and leverages the Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories’ core strengths in modeling …

In September 2005, the Commodity Credit Corporation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (CCC/USDA) initiated periodic sampling of groundwater in the vicinity of a grain storage facility formerly operated by the CCC/USDA at Morrill, Kansas. The sampling at Morrill is being performed on behalf of the CCC/USDA by Argonne National Laboratory, in accord with a monitoring program approved by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE 2005), to monitor levels of carbon tetrachloride contamination identified in the groundwater at this site (Argonne 2004, 2005a). This report provides results for monitoring events in April and September 2009. Under the KDHE-approved monitoring plan (Argonne 2005b), groundwater was initially sampled twice yearly for a period of two years (in fall 2005, in spring and fall 2006, and in spring and fall 2007). The samples were analyzed for volatile organic compounds (VOCs), as well as for selected geochemical parameters to aid in the evaluation of possible natural contaminant degradation (reductive dechlorination) processes in the subsurface environment. The analytical results for groundwater sampling events at Morrill from September 2005 to October 2008 were documented previously (Argonne 2006a,b, 2007, 2008a,b, 2009). Those results consistently demonstrated the presence of carbon tetrachloride contamination, at levels exceeding the …

During 1994, EIA`s main goal was to assure its data and analyses were of the highest quality, relevant to its customers` needs, and easily accessible. Efforts to ensure product relevance and quality consisted of conducting new or modified surveys, issuing new information products, revising existing products to include data and analyses desired by EIA`s customers, and eliminating products that no longer meet customer needs. Efforts to improve access to energy information consisted of several electronic dissemination initiatives, including Internet services, the Energy Information Highway, and the Energy Emergency Notebook. These activities are discussed in detail in the first two sections of this report. In addition to maintaining its traditional energy information base, EIA plays an important role in developing new information resources required by policymakers and legislators around the world. Examples include data on alternative fuels and greenhouse gas emissions.

Alloy 22 (N06022) has been extensively tested for general and localized corrosion behavior both in the wrought and annealed condition and in the as-welded condition. The specimens for testing were mostly prepared from flat plates of material. It was important to determine if the process of fabricating a full diameter Alloy 22 container will affect the corrosion performance of the alloy. Specimens were prepared directly from a fabricated container and tested for corrosion resistance. Results show that both the anodic corrosion behavior and the localized corrosion resistance of specimens prepared from a welded fabricated container was the same as from flat welded plates.

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 Anticipatory System (AS) formalism developed by Robert Rosen provides some insight into the problem of embedding intelligent behavior in machines. AS emulates the anticipatory behavior of biological systems. AS bases its behavior on its expectations about the near future and those expectations are modified as the system gains experience. The expectation is based on an internal model that is drawn from an appeal to physical reality. To be adaptive, the model must be able to update itself. To be practical, the model must run faster than real-time. The need for a physical model and the requirement that the model execute at extreme speeds, has held back the application of AS to practical problems. Two recent advances make it possible to consider the use of AS for practical intelligent sensors. First, advances in transducer technology make it possible to obtain previously unavailable data from which a model can be derived. For example, acoustic emissions (AE) can be fed into a Bayesian system identifier that enables the separation of a weak characterizing signal, such as the signature of pump cavitation precursors, from a strong masking signal, such as a pump vibration feature. The second advance is the development of extremely fast, …