The goal of the present technology development was to increase the efficiency of internal combustion engines while minimizing the energy penalty of meeting emissions regulations. This objective was achieved through experimentation and the development of advanced combustion regimes and emission control strategies, coupled with advanced petroleum and non-petroleum fuel formulations. To meet the goals of the project, it was necessary to improve the efficiency of expansion work extraction, and this required optimized combustion phasing and minimized in-cylinder heat transfer losses. To minimize fuel used for diesel particulate filter (DPF) regeneration, soot emissions were also minimized. Because of the complex nature of optimizing production engines for real-world variations in fuels, temperatures and pressures, the project applied high-fidelity computing and high-resolution engine experiments synergistically to create and apply advanced tools (i.e., fast, accurate predictive models) developed for low-emission, fuel-efficient engine designs. The companion experiments were conducted using representative single- and multi-cylinder automotive and truck diesel engines.

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This report details the chemical and radionuclide contaminant results for the characterization of the 2012 Third Quarter sampling of Tank 50 for the Saltstone Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC). Information from this characterization will be used by Waste Solidification Engineering (WSE) to support the transfer of low-level aqueous waste from Tank 50 to the Salt Feed Tank in the Saltstone Facility in Z-Area, where the waste will be immobilized. This information is also used to update the Tank 50 Waste Characterization System.

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The goal of this work is to characterize surfaces of intermetallics, including quasicrystals. In this work, surface characterization is primarily focused on composition and structure using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) performed under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions.

This report presents the results of a 10-year project conducted by Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (Air Products) to determine the feasibility of coproducing hydrogen with electricity. The primary objective was to demonstrate the technical and economic viability of a hydrogen energy station using a high-temperature fuel cell designed to produce power and hydrogen. This four-phase project had intermediate go/no-go decisions and the following specific goals: • Complete a technical assessment and economic analysis of the use of high-temperature fuel cells, including solid oxide and molten carbonate, for the co-production of power and hydrogen (energy park concept). • Build on the experience gained at the Las Vegas H2 Energy Station and compare/contrast the two approaches for co-production. • Determine the applicability of co-production from a high-temperature fuel cell for the existing merchant hydrogen market and for the emerging hydrogen economy. • Demonstrate the concept on natural gas for six months at a suitable site with demand for both hydrogen and electricity. • Maintain safety as the top priority in the system design and operation. • Obtain adequate operational data to provide the basis for future commercial activities, including hydrogen fueling stations. Work began with the execution of the cooperative agreement …

This article reviews the recent measurement of D{sup 0}-{bar D}{sup 0} mixing with the D{sup 0} {yields} K{pi} decay channel from the BABAR experiment at the PEP-II B-Factory. Averages from the Heavy Flavor Averaging Group between this result and a previous result from BELLE are also presented.

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.

Energy dependent electron emission between zero and 1.4 keV generated by the natural reactivity of plutonium was measured by an electrostatic spectrometer with known acceptance angle and acceptance area. The electron spectral intensity decreases continuously except for a distinctive feature of unknown origin at approximately 180eV. The spectrum was converted to energy dependent electron flux (e/cm{sup 2} s) using the assumption that the emission has a cosine angular distribution. The energy dependent electron mean free path in gases and literature cross sections for electron induced reactions were used to determine the number of ionization and dissociation reactions per cm{sup 2} second, found to be about 8*10{sup 8}/cm{sup 2}s and 1.5*10{sup 8}/cm{sup 2}s, respectively, for hydrogen. These results are to be used with caution until complementary measurements can be made, e.g. independent measurement of the total emitted electron current, since the results here are based on the assumption that the electron emission has a cosine angular distribution. That is unlikely to be correct.

Energy dependent electron emission (counts per second) between zero and 1.4 keV generated by the natural reactivity of uranium was measured by an electrostatic spectrometer with known acceptance angle and acceptance area. The electron intensity decreases continuously with energy, but at different rates in different energy regimes, suggesting that a variety of processes may be involved in producing the observed electron emission. The spectrum was converted to energy dependent electron flux (e-/cm{sup 2} s) using the assumption that the emission has a cosine angular distribution. The flux decreased rapidly from {approx}10{sup 6}/cm{sup 2}s to {approx}10{sup 5}/cm{sup 2}s in the energy range from zero to 200 eV, and then more slowly from {approx}10{sup 5}/cm{sup 2}s to {approx}3*10{sup 4}/cm{sup 2} s in the range from 200 to 1400 eV. The energy dependent electron mean free path in gases together with literature cross sections for electron induced reactions were used to determine the number of ionization and dissociation reactions per cm{sup 2}s within the inelastic mean free path of electrons, and found to be about 1.3*10{sup 8}/cm{sup 2}s and 1.5*10{sup 7}/cm{sup 2}s, respectively, for hydrogen. An estimate of the number of ionization and dissociation reactions occurring within the total range, rather than the …

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Intracellular Dynamics of Energy-Transducing Organelles. The location and interaction of intracellular organelles is important for exchange of substrate and product between compartments for optimum functioning of biochemical pathways and energy transduction. Plastids and stromules, tubular plastid extensions, are highly dynamic in many plant tissues. Stromules can connect two or more plastids and proteins and macromolecular complexes can be transferred between them. Stromules have been observed to form close contacts with other organelles, the plasma membrane, and can pass through channels in the nucleus. Chloroplasts move in response to light and mechanical stimulus. Especially in non-green cells, plastids change shape and position, and stromules extend and retract. Stromules appear to be involved in recycling of chloroplast proteins when photosynthesis is limited, through an autophagic process that results in degradation of portions of the stromal contents without complete destruction of the chloroplast. Mutations in several genes known to mediate chloroplast division result in altered stromule morphology in some cells. Plastid and stromule motility is mediated by the actin cytoskeleton. The possible role of myosins in chloroplast movement was investigated by labeling the cargo-binding tails of six Arabidopsis myosin XI proteins with yellow fluorescent protein (YFP). The fluorescent proteins were found to localize …

The most important factor in limiting the stability of dye-sensitized solar cells is the use of volatile liquid solvents in the electrolytes, which causes leakage during extended operation especially at elevated temperatures. This, together with the necessary complex sealing of the cells, seriously hampers the industrial-scale manufacturing and commercialization feasibilities of DSSCs. The objective of this program was to bring about a significant improvement in the performance and longevity of dye-based solar cells leading to commercialization. This had been studied in two ways first through development of low volatility solid, gel or liquid electrolytes, second through design and fabrication of TiO2 sculptured thin film electrodes.

In early October 2010, two Laser and Detection Ranging (LIDAR) units (LIDAR-96 and LIDAR-97), a 3 m tall flux tower, and a 3 m tall meteorological tower were installed in the northern section of Site 300 (Figure 1) as a first step in development of a renewable energy testbed facility. This section of the SMS project is aimed at supporting that effort with continuous maintenance of atmospheric monitoring instruments capable of measuring vertical profiles of wind speed and wind direction at heights encountered by future wind power turbines. In addition, fluxes of energy are monitored to estimate atmospheric mixing and its effects on wind flow properties at turbine rotor disk heights. Together, these measurements are critical for providing an accurate wind resource characterization and for validating LLNL atmospheric prediction codes for future renewable energy projects at Site 300. Accurate, high-resolution meteorological measurements of wind flow in the planetary boundary layer (PBL) and surface-atmosphere energy exchange are required for understanding the properties and quality of available wind power at Site 300. Wind speeds at heights found in a typical wind turbine rotor disk ({approx} 40-140 m) are driven by the synergistic impacts of atmospheric stability, orography, and land-surface characteristics on the …

A low energy neutrino factory (LENF) is defined, for the purpose of this report, to accelerate a muon beam to a total energy in the range of 10-14 GeV, and store it in a decay ring directing a resulting neutrino beam to a detector 2200-2300 km distant. The machine should be ultimately capable of producing 10{sup 21} decays toward that detector per year of 10{sup 7} s. We consider such a neutrino factory to be the accelerator defined in the Interim Design Report (IDR) of the International Design Study for the Neutrino Factory (IDS-NF), modified to remove the final stage of acceleration, possibly modifying the remaining acceleration stages to adjust the final energy, and replacing the decay ring with one designed for the lower energy and shorter baseline. We discuss modifications to that design which would reduce the cost of the machine at the price of a reduction in neutrino production, down to as low as 10{sup 20} decays per year. These modifications will not preclude eventually upgrading the machine to the full production of 10{sup 21} decays per year. The eventual cost of a machine which achieves the full production through a series of lower-production stages should not exceed …

The iButton is a 'one-wire', temperature sensor and data logger in a short metal cylinder package 17 mm in diameter and 6 mm tall. The device is designed to be attached to a surface and acquire temperature samples over time periods as short as 1 second to as long as 300 minutes. Both 8-bit and 16-bit samples are available with 8kB of memory available. Lifetime is limited to an internal battery that cannot be replaced or recharged. The RF test interest originated with the concern that the data logger could inadvertently record electrical emanations from other nearby equipment. The normal operation of the data logger does not support high speed sampling but the control interface will operate at either 15.4 kbps or 125 kbps. There were no observable effects in the operation of the module or in the data that could be attributed to the use of RF energy. They made the assumption that these devices would potentially show RF sensitivity in any of the registers and in the data memory equally, therefore gross changes in the data might show RF susceptibility. No such sensitivity was observed. Because significant power levels were used for these tests they can extrapolate downward …

Taking a bottom-up approach, this report examines seven primary drivers of wind turbine prices in the United States, with the goal of estimating the degree to which each contributed to the doubling in turbine prices from 2002 through 2008, as well as the subsequent decline in prices through 2010 (our analysis does not extend into 2011 because several of these drivers are best gauged on a full-year basis due to seasonality issues). The first four of these drivers can be considered, at least to some degree, endogenous influences – i.e., those that are largely within the control of the wind industry – and include changes in: 1) Labor costs, which have historically risen during times of tight turbine supply; 2) Warranty provisions, which reflect technology performance and reliability, and are most often capitalized in turbine prices; 3) Turbine manufacturer profitability, which can impact turbine prices independently of costs; and 4) Turbine design, which for the purpose of this analysis is principally manifested through increased turbine size. The other three drivers analyzed in this study can be considered exogenous influences, in that they can impact wind turbine costs but fall mostly outside of the direct control of the wind industry. These …

A solid object, such as a simplified approximation to an implosion core defined by the 17% intensity contour, can be described by a sum of spherical harmonics, following the notation of Butkov (Mathematical Physics, ISBN 0-201-00727-4, 1968; there are other notations so care is required), with Pl(x) being the usual (apparently standard) Legendre polynomial. For the present purposes, finding the volume and surface area of an implosion core defined by P0, P2, P4, M0, and M4, I will restrict the problem to consider only A{sub 00}, A{sub 20}, A{sub 40}, and A{sub 44}, with the phase angle set to eliminate the sin(m{phi}) term. Once the volume and surface area are determined, I will explore how these coefficients relate to measured quantities A0, A2/A0, A4/A0, M0, and M4/M0.

This report documents the final status of buildings after the completion of D4 activities at the 100 Area of the U.S. Department of Energy Hanford Site from December 1, 2008, to December 31, 2009.

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

Individual raw datastreams from instrumentation at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility 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 approximately daily to the ARM 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 datastream, site, and month for the current year and (2) site and fiscal year (FY) dating back to 1998. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) requires national user facilities to report time-based operating data. The requirements concern the actual hours of operation (ACTUAL); the estimated maximum operation or uptime goal (OPSMAX), which accounts for planned downtime; and the VARIANCE [1-(ACTUAL/OPSMAX)], which accounts for unplanned downtime. The OPSMAX time for the fourth quarter of FY2010 for the Southern Great Plains (SGP) site is 2097.60 hours (0.95 2208 hours this quarter). The OPSMAX for the North Slope of Alaska (NSA) locale is 1987.20 hours (0.90 2208) and for the Tropical …

UV antireflection coatings are a challenging coating for high power laser applications as exemplified by the use of uncoated Brewster's windows in laser cavities. In order to understand the current laser resistance of UV AR coatings in the industrial and university sectors, a double blind laser damage competition was performed. The coatings have a maximum reflectance of 0.5% at 355 nm at normal incidence. Damage testing will be performed using the raster scan method with a 7.5 ns pulse length on a single testing facility to facilitate direct comparisons. In addition to the laser resistance results, details of deposition processes and coating materials will also be shared.

Current methods for the manufacture of optical components inevitably leaves a variety of sub-surface imperfections including scratches of varying lengths and widths on even the finest finishes. It has recently been determined that these finishing imperfections are responsible for the majority of laser-induced damage for fluences typically used in ICF class lasers. We have developed methods of engineering subscale parts with a distribution of scratches mimicking those found on full scale fused silica parts. This much higher density of scratches provides a platform to measure low damage initiation probabilities sufficient to describe damage on large scale optics. In this work, damage probability per unit scratch length was characterized as a function of initial scratch width and post fabrication processing including acid-based etch mitigation processes. The susceptibility of damage initiation density along scratches was found to be strongly affected by the post etching material removal and initial scratch width. We have developed an automated processing procedure to document the damage initiations per width and per length of theses scratches. We show here how these tools can be employed to provide predictions of the performance of full size optics in laser systems operating at 351 nm. In addition we use these tools …

This is the sixth annual report of a seven-year project (2004 through 2010) to evaluate the cumulative effects of habitat restoration actions in the lower Columbia River and estuary (LCRE). The project, called the Cumulative Effects Study, is being conducted for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Portland District (USACE) by the Marine Sciences Laboratory of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), the Pt. Adams Biological Field Station of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the Columbia River Estuary Study Taskforce (CREST), and the University of Washington. The goal of the Cumulative Effects Study is to develop a methodology to evaluate the cumulative effects of multiple habitat restoration projects intended to benefit ecosystems supporting juvenile salmonids in the 235-km-long LCRE. Literature review in 2004 revealed no existing methods for such an evaluation and suggested that cumulative effects could be additive or synergistic. From 2005 through 2009, annual field research involved intensive, comparative studies paired by habitat type (tidal swamp versus marsh), trajectory (restoration versus reference site), and restoration action (tidegate replacement vs. culvert replacement vs. dike breach).