The Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II (SDSS-II) has embarked on a multi-year project to identify and measure light curves for intermediate-redshift (0.05 < z < 0.35) Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) using repeated five-band (ugriz) imaging over an area of 300 sq. deg. The survey region is a stripe 2.5 degrees wide centered on the celestial equator in the Southern Galactic Cap that has been imaged numerous times in earlier years, enabling construction of a deep reference image for discovery of new objects. Supernova imaging observations are being acquired between 1 September and 30 November of 2005-7. During the first two seasons, each region was imaged on average every five nights. Spectroscopic follow-up observations to determine supernova type and redshift are carried out on a large number of telescopes. In its first two three-month seasons, the survey has discovered and measured light curves for 327 spectroscopically confirmed SNe Ia, 30 probable SNe Ia, 14 confirmed SNe Ib/c, 32 confirmed SNe II, plus a large number of photometrically identified SNe Ia, 94 of which have host-galaxy spectra taken so far. This paper provides an overview of the project and briefly describes the observations completed during the first two seasons of operation.

Individual raw data streams from instrumentation at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program Climate Research Facility (ACRF) fixed and mobile sites are collected and sent to the Data Management Facility (DMF) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for processing in near real time. Raw and processed data are then sent daily to the ACRF Archive, where they are made available to users. For each instrument, we calculate the ratio of the actual number of data records received daily at the Archive to the expected number of data records. The results are tabulated by (1) individual data stream, site, and month for the current year and (2) site and fiscal year dating back to 1998. Table 1 shows the accumulated maximum operation time (planned uptime), the actual hours of operation, and the variance (unplanned downtime) for the period October 1 through December 31, 2006, for the fixed and mobile sites. Although the AMF is currently up and running in Niamey, Niger, Africa, the AMF statistics are reported separately and not included in the aggregate average with the fixed sites. The first quarter comprises a total of 2,208 hours. For all fixed sites, the actual data availability (and therefore actual hours of …

A diagnostic to measure electron cloud formation and trapping in a quadrupole magnet has been developed, installed, and successfully tested at PSR. Beam studies with this diagnostic show that the electron flux striking the wall in the quadrupole is comparable to or larger than in an adjacent drift. In addition, the trapped electron signal, obtained using the sweeping feature of diagnostic, was larger than expected and decayed very slowly with an exponential time constant of 50 to 100 {micro}s. Experimental results were also obtained which suggest that a significant fraction of the electrons observed in the adjacent drift space were seeded by electrons ejected from the quadrupole.

The Geo-Heat Center (GHC) staff provided responses to 1442 technical support requests during the contract period (April 1, 2006 to September 30, 2007), which were six quarters under this contract. Our website, consisting of 1900 files, also contributes to our technical assistance activity. Downloaded files were 1,889,323 (3,448 per day) from our website, the total number of users was 1,365,258 (2,491 per day), and the total number of hits were 6,008,500 (10,064 per day). The GHC staff attended 60 workshops, short course and professional meeting and made 29 technical presentations. The staff also prepared and mailed out 2,000 copies of each of five issues of the GHC Quaterly Bulletin which contained 26 articles. We also mailed out approximately 5,000 papers and publications to interested individuals and organizations.

Long-range, ultra-wideband (UWB), passive radio frequency (RF) tags are key components in Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) system that will revolutionize inventory control and tracking applications. Unlike conventional, battery-operated (active) RFID tags, LLNL's small UWB tags, called 'UTag', operate at long range (up to 20 meters) in harsh, cluttered environments. Because they are battery-less (that is, passive), they have practically infinite lifetimes without human intervention, and they are lower in cost to manufacture and maintain than active RFID tags. These robust, energy-efficient passive tags are remotely powered by UWB radio signals, which are much more difficult to detect, intercept, and jam than conventional narrowband frequencies. The features of long range, battery-less, and low cost give UTag significant advantage over other existing RFID tags.

This report contains citrate data for groundwaters received from the 100-N Area. On April 4, 2007, 7 water samples were received from the 100-N Area for citrate analysis. The analyses for this project were performed at the 325 building located in the 300 Area of the Hanford Site. The analyses were performed according to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) approved procedures. The data sets include the sample identification numbers, analytical results, estimated quantification limits (EQL) and quality control data.

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Transmission electron microscopy was used to study defects in lateral epitaxial layers of GaN which were overgrown on a template of a-plane (11{und 2}0) GaN grown on (1{und 1}02) r-plane Al2O3. A high density of basal stacking faults is formed in these layers because the c-planes of wurtzite structure are arranged along the growth direction. Density of these faults is decreasing at least by two orders of magnitude lower in the wings compared to the seed areas. Prismatic stacking faults and threading dislocations are also observed, but their densities drastically decrease in the wings. The wings grow with opposite polarities and the Ga-wing width is at least 6 times larger than N-wing and coalescence is rather difficult. Some tilt and twist was detected using Large Angle Convergent Beam Electron Diffraction.

The authors report observations of CP violation in the decays B{sup 0} {yields} K{sup +}{pi}{sup -} and B{sup 0} {yields} {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -} in a sample of 383 million {Upsilon}(4S) {yields} B{bar B} events. They find 4372 {+-} 82 B{sup 0} {yields} K{sup +}{pi}{sup -} decays and measure the direct Cp-violating charge asymmetry {Alpha}{sub K{pi}} = -0.107 {+-} 0.018(stat){sub -0.004}{sup +0.007}(syst), which excludes the CP-conserving hypothesis with a significance of 5.5 standard deviations. In the same sample they find 1139 {+-} 49 B{sup 0} {yields} {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -} decays and measure the CP-violating asymmetries S{sub {pi}{pi}} = -0.60 {+-} 0.11(stat) {+-} 0.03(syst) and C{sub {pi}{pi}} = -0.21 {+-} 0.09(stat) {+-} 0.02(syst). CP conservation in B{sup 0} {yields} {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -} (S{sub {pi}{pi}} = C{sub {pi}{pi}} = 0) is excluded at a confidence level 1-C.L. = 8 x 10{sup -8}, corresponding to 5.4 standard deviations.

The authors report a measurement of the time-dependent CP-asymmetry parameters S and C in color-suppressed B{sup 0} {yields} D{sup (*)0}h{sup 0} decays, where h{sup 0} is a {pi}{sup 0}, {eta}, or {omega} meson, and the D{sup 0} decays to one of the CP eigenstates K{sup +}K{sup -}, K{sub S}{sup 0}{pi}{sup 0}, or K{sub S}{sup 0}{omega}. The data sample consists of 383 x 10{sup 6} {Upsilon}(4S) {yields} B{bar B} decays collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B-factory at SLAC. The results are S = -0.56 {+-} 0.23 {+-} 0.05 and C = -0.23 {+-} 0.16 {+-} 0.04, where the first error is statistical and the second is systematic.

Job Control Waste (JCW) at the Savannah River Site (SRS) Solid Waste Management Facilities (SWMF) may be disposed of in special containers, and the analysis of these containers requires developing specific analysis methodologies. A method has been developed for the routine assay of prohibited items (liquids, etc.) contained in a 30-gallon drum that is then placed into a 55-gallon drum. Method development consisted of system calibration with a NIST standard at various drum-to-detector distances, method verification with a liquid sample containing a known amount of Pu-238, and modeling the inner container using Ortec Isotopic software. Using this method for measurement of the known standard in the drum-in-drum configuration produced excellent agreement (within 15%) with the known value. Savannah River Site Solid Waste Management also requested analysis of waste contained in large black boxes (commonly 18-feet x 12-feet x 7-feet) stored at the SWMF. These boxes are frequently stored in high background areas and background radiation must be considered for each analysis. A detection limit of less than 150 fissile-gram-equivalents (FGE) of TRU waste is required for the black-box analyses. There is usually excellent agreement for the measurements at different distances and measurement uncertainties of about 50% are obtained at distances …

The Savannah River Site's (SRS) Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF), the world's largest operating high level waste (HLW) vitrification plant, began stabilizing about 35 million gallons of SRS liquid radioactive waste by-product in 1996. The DWPF has since filled over 2000 canisters with about 4000 pounds of radioactive glass in each canister. In the past few years there have been several process and equipment improvements at the DWPF to increase the rate at which the waste can be stabilized. These improvements have either directly increased waste processing rates or have desensitized the process and therefore minimized process upsets and thus downtime. These improvements, which include glass former optimization, increased waste loading of the glass, the melter heated bellows liner, and glass surge protection software, will be discussed in this paper.

A saltstone waste form was prepared in the Savannah River National Laboratory from a Tank 50H sample and Z-Area premix material. After the prescribed 28 day cure, samples of the saltstone were collected, and the waste form was shown to meet the South Carolina Hazardous Waste Management Regulations (SCHWMR) R.61-79.261.24 requirements for a nonhazardous waste form with respect to RCRA metals. These analyses met all quality assurance specifications of USEPA SW-846.

The objective of the research was the development of a fiber-coupled, optical pyrometer for continuous temperature measurement in a vacuum degasser that reduces process time, enhances process control, and eliminates manual or robot-operated thermocouples. Through the live testing performed at US Steel's Edgar Thompson Works, the challenges associated with making optical temperature measurements in a vacuum chamber were identified. As a result of these challenges it was determined that continuous temperature monitoring in RH-type degassers was not a viable alternative to standard immersion thermocouples. The project was not successful.

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This project falls under the Technology Innovation and Diffusion topic of the Integrated Assessment of Climate Change Research Program. The objective was to better understand the critical variables that affect the rate of penetration of large-scale electricity technologies in order to improve their representation in integrated assessment models. We conducted this research in six integrated tasks. In our first two tasks, we identified potential factors that affect penetration rates through discussions with modeling groups and through case studies of historical precedent. In the next three tasks, we investigated in detail three potential sets of critical factors: industrial conditions, resource conditions, and regulatory/environmental considerations. Research to assess the significance and relative importance of these factors involved the development of a microeconomic, system dynamics model of the US electric power sector. Finally, we implemented the penetration rate models in an integrated assessment model. While the focus of this effort is on carbon capture and sequestration technologies, much of the work will be applicable to other large-scale energy conversion technologies.

Uranium dioxide (UO2) is the most common fuel material in commercial nuclear power reactors. UO2 has the advantages of a high melting point, good high-temperature stability, good chemical compatibility with cladding and coolant, and resistance to radiation. The main disadvantage of UO2 is its low thermal conductivity. During a reactor’s operation, because the thermal conductivity of UO2 is very low, for example, about 2.8 W/m-K at 1000 oC [1], there is a large temperature gradient in the UO2 fuel pellet, causing a very high centerline temperature, and introducing thermal stresses, which lead to extensive fuel pellet cracking. These cracks will add to the release of fission product gases after high burnup. The high fuel operating temperature also increases the rate of fission gas release and the fuel pellet swelling caused by fission gases bubbles. The amount of fission gas release and fuel swelling limits the life time of UO2 fuel in reactor. In addition, the high centerline temperature and large temperature gradient in the fuel pellet, leading to a large amount of stored heat, increase the Zircaloy cladding temperature in a lost of coolant accident (LOCA). The rate of Zircaloy-water reaction becomes significant at the temperature above 1200 oC [2]. …

The Tile Calorimeter is one of the main hadronic calorimeters to be used in the ATLAS experiment at CERN [1,2]. It is a steel/scintillator sampling calorimeter which is built by stacking 64 segments in azimuth and 3 separate cylinders to provide a total structure whose length is approximately 12m and whose diameter is a little over 8.4m. It has a total weight of about 2630 metric tons. Important features of this calorimeter are: A minimum gap (1.5mm) between modules in azimuth; Pockets in the structure to hold the scintillator tiles; Recessed channels at the edges of the module into which the readout fibers will sit; and Holes in the structure through which a radioactive source will pass. The mechanical structure for one of the 3 calorimeter sections, the Extended Barrel (EBA) was constructed at Argonne. A schematic of the calorimeter sampling structure and the layout of one of the 64 segments, termed a module, are shown in figure 1. Each module comprises mechanically of a precision machined, structural girder to which 10 submodules are bolted. One of these submodules, the ITC, has a customized shape to accommodate services for other detector elements. Each submodule weighs 850Kg and the assembled mechanical …

Searches for extrasolar planets have uncovered an astonishing diversity of planetary systems, yet the frequency of solar system analogs remains unknown. The gravitational microlensing planet search method is potentially sensitive to multiple-planet systems containing analogs of all the solar system planets except Mercury. We report the first detection of a multiple-planet system with microlensing. We identify two planets with masses of {approx} 0.71 and {approx} 0.27 times the mass of Jupiter and orbital separations of {approx} 2.3 and {approx} 4.6 astronomical units orbiting a primary of mass {approx} 0.50 solar masses. This system resembles a scaled version of our solar system in that the mass ratio, separation ratio, and equilibrium temperatures of the planets are similar to those of Jupiter and Saturn. These planets could not have been detected with other techniques; their discovery from only 6 confirmed microlensing planet detections suggests that solar system analogs may be common.

LLNL has developed an ultra-wideband (UWB) system that provides unique, through-the-wall wireless communications in heavy metallic and heavy concrete indoor channels. LLNL's UWB system is the only available wireless communications system that performs successfully and reliably in facilities where conventional narrowband communications usually fail due to destructive reflections from multiple surfaces. These environments include: cargo ships and reinforced, heavy concrete buildings. LLNL's revolutionary system has applications for the military, as well as commercial indoor communications in multistory buildings, and cluttered industrial structures.

The Central Waste Complex (CWC) is the interim storage facility for Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) mixed waste, transuranic waste, transuranic mixed waste, low-level and low-level mixed radioactive waste at the Department of Energy's (DOE'S) Hanford Site. The majority of the waste stored at the facility is retrieved from the low-level burial grounds in the 200 West Area at the Site, with minor quantities of newly generated waste from on-site and off-site waste generators. The CWC comprises 18 storage buildings that house 13,000 containers. Each waste container within the facility is scanned into its location by building, module, tier and position and the information is stored in a site-wide database. As waste is retrieved from the burial grounds, a preliminary non-destructive assay is performed to determine if the waste is transuranic (TRU) or low-level waste (LLW) and subsequently shipped to the CWC. In general, the TRU and LLW waste containers are stored in separate locations within the CWC, but the final disposition of each waste container is not known upon receipt. The final disposition of each waste container is determined by the appropriate program as process knowledge is applied and characterization data becomes available. Waste containers are stored within …

This report is an analysis of slice transverse emittance evolution in a photocathode RF gun