This paper describes the results of a year-long project, sponsored by the Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) and designed to improve overall electrical safety performance throughout Department of Energy (DOE)-owned sites and laboratories. As evidenced by focused metrics, the Project was successful primarily due to the joint commitment of contractor and DOE electrical safety experts, as well as significant support from DOE and contractor senior management. The effort was managed by an assigned project manager, using classical project-management principles that included execution of key deliverables and regular status reports to the Project sponsor. At the conclusion of the Project, the DOE not only realized measurable improvement in the safety of their workers, but also had access to valuable resources that will enable them to do the following: evaluate and improve electrical safety programs; analyze and trend electrical safety events; increase electrical safety awareness for both electrical and non-electrical workers; and participate in ongoing processes dedicated to continued improvement.

Remote Systems Engineering (RSE) of the Savannah River National Lab (SRNL) in combination with the Defense Waste Processing Facility(DWPF) Engineering and Operations has evaluated the existing equipment and processes used in the facility sample cells for 'pulling' samples from the radioactive waste stream and performing equipment in-cell repairs/replacements. RSE has designed and tested equipment for improving remote in-cell sampling evolutions and reducing the time required for in-cell maintenance of existing equipment. The equipment within the present process tank sampling system has been in constant use since the facility start-up over 17 years ago. At present, the method for taking samples within the sample cells produces excessive maintenance and downtime due to frequent failures relative to the sampling station equipment and manipulator. Location and orientation of many sampling stations within the sample cells is not conducive to manipulator operation. The overextension of manipulators required to perform many in-cell operations is a major cause of manipulator failures. To improve sampling operations and reduce downtime due to equipment maintenance, a Portable Sampling Station (PSS), wireless in-cell cameras, and new commercially available sampling technology has been designed, developed and/or adapted and tested. The uniqueness of the design(s), the results of the scoping tests, and …

Tank 5 at the Savannah River Site has been used to store high level waste and is currently undergoing waste removal processes in preparation for tank closure. Samples were taken from two locations to determine the contents in support of Documented Safety Analysis (DSA) development for chemical cleaning. These samples were obtained through the use of the Drop Core Sampler and the Snowbank Sampler developed by the Engineered Equipment & Systems (EES) group of the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL).

In view of the looming energy crisis facing our planet, attention increasingly focuses on materials potentially useful as a basis for energy saving technologies. The discovery of giant magnetocaloric (GMC) compounds - materials that exhibit especially large changes in temperature as the externally applied magnetic field is varied - is one such compound 1. These materials have potential for use in solid state cooling technology as a viable alternative to existing gas based refrigeration technologies that use choro-fluoro - and hydro-fluoro-carbon chemicals known to have a severe detrimental effect on human health and environment 2,3. Examples of GMC compounds include Gd5(SiGe)4 4, MnFeP1-xAsx 5 and Ni-Mn-Ga shape memory alloy based compounds 6-8. Here we explain how the properties of one of these compounds (Ni2MnGa) can be tuned as a function of temperature by adding dopants. By altering the free energy such that the structural and magnetic transitions coincide, a GMC compound that operates at just the right temperature for human requirements can be obtained 9. We show how Cu, substituted for Mn, pulls the magnetic transition downwards in temperature and also, counterintuitively, increases the delocalization of the Mn magnetism. At the same time, this reinforces the Ni-Ga chemical bond, raising …

High-average-current linear electron accelerators require photoinjectors capable of delivering tens to hundreds of mA average current, with peak currents of hundreds of amps. Standard photocathodes face significant challenges in meeting these requirements, and often have short operational lifetimes in an accelerator environment. We report on recent progress toward development of secondary emission amplifiers for photocathodes, which are intended to increase the achievable average current while protecting the cathode from the accelerator. The amplifier is a thin diamond wafer which converts energetic (few keV) primary electrons into hundreds of electron-hole pairs via secondary electron emission. The electrons drift through the diamond under an external bias and are emitted into vacuum via a hydrogen-terminated surface with negative electron affinity (NEA). Secondary emission gain of over 200 has been achieved. Two methods of patterning diamond, laser ablation and reactive-ion etching (RIE), are being developed to produce the required geometry. A variety of diagnostic techniques, including FTIR, SEM and AFM, have been used to characterize the diamonds.

We investigate aerosol effects on climate for 1980, 1995 (meant to reflect present-day) and 2030 using the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies climate model coupled to an on-line aerosol source and transport model with interactive oxidant and aerosol chemistry. Aerosols simulated include sulfates, organic matter (OM), black carbon (BC), sea-salt and dust and additionally, the amount of tropospheric ozone is calculated, allowing us to estimate both changes to air quality and climate for different time periods and emission amounts. We include both the direct aerosol effect and indirect aerosol effects for liquid-phase clouds. Future changes for the 2030 A1B scenario are examined, focusing on the Arctic and Asia, since changes are pronounced in these regions. Our results for the different time periods include both emission changes and physical climate changes. We find that the aerosol indirect effect (AIE) has a large impact on photochemical processing, decreasing ozone amount and ozone forcing, especially for the future (2030-1995). Ozone forcings increase from 0 to 0.12 Wm{sup -2} and the total aerosol forcing increases from -0.10 Wm{sup -2} to -0.94 Wm{sup -2} (AIE increases from -0.13 to -0.68 Wm{sup -2}) for 1995-1980 versus 2030-1995. Over the Arctic we find that compared to …

This paper describes ongoing advancement of airborne hazard modeling capabilities in support of multiple agencies through the National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center (NARAC) and the Interagency Atmospheric Modeling and Atmospheric Assessment Center (IMAAC). A suite of software tools developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and collaborating organizations includes simple stand-alone, local-scale plume modeling tools for end user's computers, Web- and Internet-based software to access advanced 3-D flow and atmospheric dispersion modeling tools and expert analysis from the national center at LLNL, and state-of-the-science high-resolution urban models and event reconstruction capabilities.

Electronic structure of disordered semiconducting conjugated polymers was studied. Atomic structure was found from a classical molecular dynamics simulation and the charge patching method was used to calculate the electronic structure with the accuracy similar to the one of density functional theory in local density approximation. The total density of states, the local density of states at different points in the system and the wavefunctions of several states around the gap were calculated in the case of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and polythiophene (PT) systems to gain insight into the origin of disorder in the system, the degree of carrier localization and the role of chain interactions. The results indicated that disorder in the electronic structure of alkyl substituted polythiophenes comes from disorder in the conformation of individualchains, while in the case of polythiophene there is an additional contribution due to disorder in the electronic coupling between the chains. Each of the first several wavefunctions in the conduction and valence band of P3HT is localized over several rings of a single chain. It was shown that the localization can be caused in principle both by ring torsions and chain bending, however the effect of ring torsions is much stronger. PT wavefunctions are …

The process sumps in H-Canyon at the Savannah River Site (SRS) collect leaks from process tanks and jumpers. To prevent build-up of fissile material the sumps are frequently flushed which generates liquid waste and is prone to human error. The development of inserts filled with a neutron poison will allow a reduction in the frequency of flushing. Due to concrete deterioration and deformation of the sump liners the current dimensions of the sumps are unknown. Knowledge of these dimensions is necessary for development of the inserts. To solve this problem a remote Sump Measurement System was designed, fabricated, and tested to aid development of the sump inserts.

The search for new particles, such as the top quark, charged Higgs boson, heavy gauge bosons and supersymmetric particles, at the CERN and Fermilab proton-antiproton colliders is reviewed. A preliminary result by the CDF experiment of a reconstructed B meson mass peak from the decays B{sup {plus minus}} {yields} J/{psi}K{sup {plus minus}} and B{sup 0} {yields} J/{psi}K*{sup 0} is also presented. 22 refs., 13 figs.

Energy-dispersive x-ray fluorescence analysis (XRFA) can be used to measure nondestructively pure and mixed U/Pu concentrations in process streams and hold tank solutions. The 122-keV gamma ray from /sup 57/Co excites the actinide K x rays which are detected by a HPGe detector. A computer- and disk-based analyzer system provides capability for making on-stream analyses, and the noninvasive measurement is easily adapted directly to appropriate sized pipes used in a chemical reprocessing plant. Measurement times depend on concentration and purpose but vary from 100 to 500s for process control of strong to weak solutions. Accountability measurements require better accuracy thus more time; and for solutions containing plutonium, require a measurement of the solution radioactivity made with an automatic shutter that eclipses the two exciting sources. Plutonium isotopic abundances can also be obtained. Concentrations in single or dual element solutions from less than 1 g/l to over 200 g/l are determined to an accuracy of 0.2% after calibration of the system. For mixed solutions the unknown ratio of U to Pu is linearly related to the net U/Pu K x-ray intensities. Concentration values for ratios different than the calibration ratio require only small corrections to the values derived from a calibration …

The mixing necessary to explain the Fe'' line widths and possibly the observed red shifts of 1987A is explained in terms of large scale, entropy conserving, up and down flows (calculated with a smooth particle 2-D code) taking place between the neutron star and the explosion shock wave due to the gravity and neutrino deposition. Depending upon conditions of entropy and mass flux further accretion takes place in single events, similar to relaxation oscillator, fed by the downward flows of low entropy matter. The shock, in turn, is driven by the upflow of the buoyant high entropy bubbles. Some accretion events will reach a temperature high enough to create a neutrino fireball,'' a region hot enough, 11 Mev, so as to be partially opaque to its own (neutrino) radiation. The continuing neutrino deposition drives the explosion shock until the entropy of matter flowing downwards onto the neutron star is high enough to prevent further accretion. This process should result in a robust supernova explosion.

The HELIOS (High Energy Lepton and Ion Spectrometer) experiment, installed at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron, proposes to examine in detail the physical properties of a state of high energy created in nuclei by ultra-relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions. It is generally believed that, at high densities or temperatures, a phase transition to a plasma of quark and gluons will occur. The dynamic of the expansion of such a plasma and its subsequent condensation into a hadron gas should markedly affect the composition and momentum distribution of the emerging particles and photons. The HELIOS experimental setup therefore combines 4..pi.. calorimetric coverage with measurements of inclusive particle spectra, two particle correlations, low and high mass lepton pairs and photons. The emphasis is placed on transverse energy flow (E/sub /tau//) measurements with good energy resolution, and the ability to trigger the acquisition of data in a variety of E/sub /tau// ranges, thereby selecting the impact parameter or the violence of the collisions. This short note presents HELIOS results, for the most part still preliminary, on /sup 16/O--nucleus collisions at the incident energies of 60 and 200 GeV per nucleon. The E /sub /tau// distributions from Al, Ag and W targets are discussed and compared …

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The impact of possible sources of lepton-flavor mixing on K {yields} {pi}{nu}{bar {nu}} decays is analyzed. At the one-loop level lepton-flavor mixing originated from non-diagonal lepton mass matrices cannot generate a CP-conserving K{sub L} {yields} {pi}{sup 0}{nu}{bar {nu}} amplitude. The rates of these modes are sensitive to leptonic flavor violation when there are at least two different leptonic mixing matrices. New interactions that violate both quark and lepton universalities could enhance the CP-conserving component of {Lambda}(K{sub L} {yields} {pi}{sup 0}{nu}{bar {nu}}) and have a substantial impact. Explicit examples of these effects in the context of supersymmetric models, with and without R-parity conservation, are discussed.

We report precision measurements of the Feynman-x (x{sub F}) dependence, and first measurements of the transverse momentum (p{sub T}) dependence, of transverse single spin asymmetries for the production of {pi}{sup 0} mesons from polarized proton collisions at {radical}s = 200 GeV. The x{sub F} dependence of the results are in fair agreement with perturbative QCD (pQCD) model calculations that identify orbital motion of quarks and gluons within the proton as the origin of the spin effects. Results for the p{sub T} dependence at fixed x{sub F} are not consistent with these same pQCD-based calculations.

We present a calculable supersymmetric theory of a composite"fat'" Higgs boson. Electroweak symmetry is broken dynamically through a new gauge interaction that becomes strong at an intermediate scale. The Higgs mass can easily be 200-450 GeV along with the superpartner masses, solving the supersymmetric little hierarchy problem. We explicitly verify that the model is consistent with precision electroweak data without fine-tuning. Gauge coupling unification can be maintained despite the inherently strong dynamics involved in electroweak symmetry breaking. Supersymmetrizing the Standard Model therefore does not imply a light Higgs mass, contrary to the lore in the literature. The Higgs sector of the minimal Fat Higgs model has a mass spectrum that is distinctly different from the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model.

Two dimensional (2-D) images of electron temperature fluctuations with high temporal and spatial resolution have been employed to study the sawtooth oscillation (m/n=1/1 mode) in Toroidal EXperiment for Technology Oriented Research (TEXTOR) tokamak plasmas. 2-D imaging data revealed new physics which were not available in previous studies based on the 1-D electron temperature measurement and X-ray tomography. Review of the physics of the sawtooth oscillation is given by comparative studies with prominent theoretical models suggest that a new physics paradigm is needed to describe the reconnection physics of the sawtooth oscillation. The new insights are: A pressure driven instability (not a ballooning mode) leads to the X-point reconnection process. The reconnection process is identified as a random 3-D local reconnection process with a helical structure. The reconnection time scale is similar for different types of sawtooth oscillation ("kink" and tearing type) and is significantly faster than the resistive time scale. Heat flow from the core to the outside of the inversion radius during the reconnection process is highly collective rather than stochastic.

Sum-frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy (SFG-VS) and kinetic measurements using gas chromatography have been used to study the surface reaction intermediates during the hydrogenation of three {alpha},{beta}-unsaturated aldehydes, acrolein, crotonaldehyde, and prenal, over Pt(111) at Torr pressures (1 Torr aldehyde, 100 Torr hydrogen) in the temperature range of 295K to 415K. SFG-VS data showed that acrolein has mixed adsorption species of {eta}{sub 2}-di-{sigma}(CC)-trans, {eta}{sub 2}-di-{sigma}(CC)-cis as well as highly coordinated {eta}{sub 3} or {eta}{sub 4} species. Crotonaldehyde adsorbed to Pt(111) as {eta}{sub 2} surface intermediates. SFG-VS during prenal hydrogenation also suggested the presence of the {eta}{sub 2} adsorption species, and became more highly coordinated as the temperature was raised to 415K, in agreement with its enhanced C=O hydrogenation. The effect of catalyst surface structure was clarified by carrying out the hydrogenation of crotonaldehyde over both Pt(111) and Pt(100) single crystals while acquiring the SFG-VS spectra in situ. Both the kinetics and SFG-VS showed little structure sensitivity. Pt(100) generated more decarbonylation 'cracking' product while Pt(111) had a higher selectivity for the formation of the desired unsaturated alcohol, crotylalcohol.

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Large samples of hyperon and kaon decays were collected with the Hyper CP spectrometer during two fixed-target runs at Fermilab. Based on an analysis of 110 million K pm decays from the 1997 data sample we present a branching ratio for K pm right arrow pi pm mu+ mu-. This is the first observation of K- right arrow pi- mu+ mu- decay.

One of the current priorities within the Department of Energy (DOE) complex is the stabilization, packaging and storage of plutonium-bearing materials. The packaging is key to the safe long-term handling and storage of these materials. Packaging consists of placing the stabilized materials into a set of two nested stainless steel containers. Each container is seal-welded, providing double containment of the plutonium materials. The outer container is designated as the primary barrier to the release of the materials to the environment. An initial, full scope diagnostic analysis of the equipment, welding materials / consumables and process conditions identified the primary cause of the porosity to be related to geometry at the root of the weld joint preparation. A volume of gas is trapped between the advancing weld puddle and the start of the weld, at weld tie-in, and incorporated into the weld during puddle solidification. Figure 5 illustrates the basic geometric conditions contributing to the porosity. This paper describes the efforts to analyze and understand / quantify the interaction between the weld-joint geometry and formation of porosity.

The transformation of gibbsite to boehmite in strongly caustic solutions was studied using quantitative X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy techniques. Under hydrothermal conditions we identified two transformation mechanisms; dehydration and in-situ nucleation and dissolution and nucleation. If the reaction container was not completely sealed, dehydration of gibbsite followed by in-situ nucleation of boehmite was the preferred mechanism. Boehmite produced fibrous boehmite particles within the amorphous matrix of the decomposed gibbsite particles, which exhibited a poorly crystalline structure and smaller size than the initial gibbsite particles. In a closed environment, the preferred mechanism was the dissolution of gibbsite along (001) planes. The final boehmite particles were not morphologically related to the initial gibbsite particles and could be many times larger than the gibbsite particles.