A well developed infrastructure exists for the reuse and recycling of automotive parts and materials. At the end of a vehicle's useful life many parts are removed and sold for reuse and fluids are recovered for recycling or proper disposal. What remains is shredded, along with other metal bearing scrap such as home appliances, demolition debris and process equipment, and the metals are separated out and recycled. The remainder of the vehicle materials is call shredder residue which ends up in the landfill. As energy and natural resources becomes more treasured, increased effort has been afforded to find ways to reduce energy consumption and minimize the use of our limited resources. Many of the materials found in shredder residue could be recovered and help offset the use of energy and material consumption. For example, the energy content of the plastics and rubbers currently landfilled with the shredder residue is equivalent to 16 million barrels of oil per year. However, in the United States, the recovered materials, primarily polymers, cannot be recycled due to current regulatory barriers which preclude the re-introduction into commerce of certain materials because of residual contamination with substances of concern (SOCs) such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The …

This report serves as the combined annual report for post-closure activities for the following closed Corrective Action Units (CAUs): (1) CAU 90, Area 2 Bitcutter Containment; (2) CAU 91, Area 3 U-3fi Injection Well; (3) CAU 92, Area 6 Decon Pond Facility; (4) CAU 110, Area 3 WMD U-3ax/bl Crater; and (5) CAU 112, Area 23 Hazardous Waste Trenches. The locations of the sites are shown in Figure 1. This report covers fiscal year 2010 (October 2009-September 2010). The post-closure requirements for these sites are described in Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Permit Number NEV HW0021 and summarized in each CAU-specific section in Section 1.0 of this report. Site inspections are conducted semiannually at CAUs 90 and 91 and quarterly at CAUs 92, 110, and 112. Additional inspections are conducted at CAU 92 if precipitation occurs in excess of 0.50 inches in a 24-hour period. Inspections include an evaluation of the condition of the units and identification of any deficiencies that may compromise the integrity of the units. The condition of covers, fencing, signs, gates, and locks is documented. In addition, soil moisture monitoring and subsidence surveys are conducted at CAU 110. The results of the inspections, summary of maintenance …

The National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX, [M. Ono et al., Nucl. Fusion 40, 557 (2000)]) routinely operates with neutral beam injection as the primary system for heating and current drive. The resulting fast ion population is super-Alfv#19;enic, with velocities 1 < vfast=vAlfven < 5. This provides a strong drive for toroidicity-induced Alfv#19;en eigenmodes (TAEs). As the discharge evolves, the fast ion population builds up and TAEs exhibit increasing bursts in amplitude and down-chirps in frequency, which eventually lead to a so-called TAE avalanche. Avalanches cause large (≤ 30%) fast ion losses over ~ 1 ms, as inferred from the neutron rate. The increased fast ion losses correlate with a stronger activity in the TAE band. In addition, it is shown that a n = 1 mode with frequency well below the TAE gap appears in the Fourier spectrum of magnetic fluctuations as a result of non-linear mode coupling between TAEs during avalanche events. The non-linear coupling between modes, which leads to enhanced fast ion transport during avalanches, is investigated.

NCSU research group has been focused on accomplising the key goals of this initiative: establishing new generation of quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) computational tools as a part of Endstation petaflop initiative for use at the DOE ORNL computational facilities and for use by computational electronic structure community at large; carrying out high accuracy quantum Monte Carlo demonstration projects in application of these tools to the forefront electronic structure problems in molecular and solid systems; expanding the impact of QMC methods and approaches; explaining and enhancing the impact of these advanced computational approaches. In particular, we have developed quantum Monte Carlo code (QWalk, www.qwalk.org) which was significantly expanded and optimized using funds from this support and at present became an actively used tool in the petascale regime by ORNL researchers and beyond. These developments have been built upon efforts undertaken by the PI's group and collaborators over the period of the last decade. The code was optimized and tested extensively on a number of parallel architectures including petaflop ORNL Jaguar machine. We have developed and redesigned a number of code modules such as evaluation of wave functions and orbitals, calculations of pfaffians and introduction of backflow coordinates together with overall organization …

The post-closure performance of the Area 3 Radioactive Waste Management Site (RWMS) and Area 5 RWMS are evaluated for the Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement using current performance assessment and composite analysis methods and models. Two alternatives with different future waste volumes and inventories are evaluated. The No Action Alternative evaluates the inventory disposed through fiscal year (FY) 2010 plus an additional 4.5E5 cubic meters (m3) (1.59E7 cubic feet [ft3]) of waste disposed at the Area 5 RWMS. The Expanded Operations Alternative evaluates the FY 2010 inventory plus an additional 1.42E6 m3 (5.03E7 ft3) of waste disposed at the Area 5 RWMS and 4.93E4 m3 (1.74E6 ft3) disposed at the Area 3 RWMS. Both the No Action and Expanded Operations Alternatives have a reasonable expectation of meeting all performance objectives of U.S. Department of Energy Order DOE O 435.1, “Radioactive Waste Management.” No significant difference between the two alternatives was found because the waste concentrations are similar. The performance assessment model assesses radiological risk for residents at the RWMS boundary where risk is more closely related to waste concentration than total waste inventory. Results for the composite analysis also indicate that the dose constraint and dose limit can be met for …

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 …

This report describes experimental results for the selective removal of strontium and cesium from simulated waste solutions using monosodium titanate (MST) and crystalline silicotitanate (CST)-laden filter cartridges. Four types of ion exchange cartridge media (CST and MST designed by both 3M and POROX{reg_sign}) were evaluated. In these proof-of-principle tests effective uptake of both Sr-85 and Cs-137 was observed. However, the experiments were not performed long enough to determine the saturation levels or breakthrough curve for each filter cartridge. POREX{reg_sign} MST cartridges, which by design were based on co-sintering of the active titanates with polyethylene particles, seem to perform as well as the 3M-designed MST cartridges (impregnated filter membrane design) in the uptake of strontium. At low salt simulant conditions (0.29 M Na{sup +}), the instantaneous decontamination factor (D{sub F}) for Sr-85 with the 3M-design MST cartridge measured 26, representing the removal of 96% of the Sr-85. On the other hand, the Sr-85 instantaneous D{sub F} with the POREX{reg_sign} design MST cartridge measured 40 or 98% removal of the Sr-85. Strontium removal with the 3M-design MST and CST cartridges placed in series filter arrangement produced an instantaneous decontamination factor of 41 or 97.6% removal compared to an instantaneous decontamination factor of …

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.

The specific goal of this work was to understanding the catalytic reactions pathways for the synthesis of vinyl acetate over Pd, Au and PdAu alloys. A combination of both experimental methods (X-ray and Auger spectroscopies, low-energy ion scattering (LEIS), low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) and theory (Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations and Monte Carlo methods under various different reactions) were used to track the surface chemistry and the influence of alloying. The surface intermediates involved in the various reactions were characterized using reflection-absorption infrared spectroscopy and LEED to identify the nature of the surface species and temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) to follow the decomposition pathways and measure heats of adsorption. These results along with those from density functional theoretical calculations were used determine the kinetics for elementary steps. The results from this work showed that the reaction proceeds via the Samanos mechanism over Pd surfaces whereby the ethylene directly couples with acetate to form an acetoxyethyl intermediate that subsequently undergoes a beta-hydride elimination to form the vinyl acetate monomer. The presence of Au was found to modify the adsorption energies and surface coverages of important surface intermediates including acetate, ethylidyne and ethylene which ultimately influences the critical C-H activation and coupling steps. …

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 …

Practical disposal of nuclear waste requires high-throughput separation techniques. The most dangerous part of nuclear waste is the fission product, which contains the most active and mobile radioisotopes and produces most of the heat. We suggest that the fission products could be separated as a group from nuclear waste using plasma mass filters. Plasmabased processes are well suited to separating nuclear waste, because mass rather than chemical properties are used for separation. A single plasma stage can replace several stages of chemical separation, producing separate streams of bulk elements, fission products, and actinoids. The plasma mass filters may have lower cost and produce less auxiliary waste than chemical processing plants. Three rotating plasma configurations are considered that act as mass filters: the plasma centrifuge, the Ohkawa filter, and the asymmetric centrifugal trap.

Evaluation of facility- and commercial-scale solar energy projects on the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Reservation in Palm Springs, CA. The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians (ACBCI) conducted a feasibility and pre-development study of potential solar projects on its lands in southern California. As described below, this study as a logical and necessary next step for ACBCI. Support for solar project development in California, provided through the statewide California Solar Initiative (CSI), its Renewable Portfolio Standard and Feed-in Tariff Program, and recently announced Reverse Auction Mechanism, provide unprecedented support and incentives that can be utilized by customers of California's investor-owned utilities. Department of Energy (DOE) Tribal Energy Program funding allowed ACBCI to complete its next logical step to implement its Strategic Energy Plan, consistent with its energy and sustainability goals.

This study was undertaken to evaluate the potential impacts of the Small Column Ion Exchange (SCIX) streams - particularly the addition of Monosodium Titanate (MST) and Crystalline Silicotitanate (CST) - on the melt rate of simulated feed for the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF). Additional MST was added to account for contributions from the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF). The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) Melt Rate Furnace (MRF) was used to evaluate four melter feed compositions: two with simulated SCIX and SWPF material and two without. The Slurry-fed Melt Rate Furnace (SMRF) was then used to compare two different feeds: one with and one without bounding concentrations of simulated SCIX and SWPF material. Analyses of the melter feed materials confirmed that they met their targeted compositions. Four feeds were tested in triplicate in the MRF. The linear melt rates were determined by using X-ray computed tomography to measure the height of the glass formed along the bottom of the beakers. The addition of the SCIX and SWPF material reduced the average measured melt rate by about 10% in MRF testing, although there was significant scatter in the data. Two feeds were tested in the SMRF. It was noted that …

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.

The Salt Disposition Integration (SDI) portfolio of projects provides the infrastructure within existing Liquid Waste facilities to support the startup and long term operation of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF). Within SDI, the Blend and Feed Project will equip existing waste tanks in the Tank Farms to serve as Blend Tanks where 300,000-800,000 gallons of salt solution will be blended in 1.3 million gallon tanks and qualified for use as feedstock for SWPF. Blending requires the miscible salt solutions from potentially multiple source tanks per batch to be well mixed without disturbing settled sludge solids that may be present in a Blend Tank. Disturbing solids may be problematic both from a feed quality perspective as well as from a process safety perspective where hydrogen release from the sludge is a potential flammability concern. To develop the necessary technical basis for the design and operation of blending equipment, Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) completed scaled blending and transfer pump tests and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling. A 94 inch diameter pilot-scale blending tank, including tank internals such as the blending pump, transfer pump, removable cooling coils, and center column, were used in this research. The test tank represents a 1/10.85 …

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 …

As part of its commitment to promoting and improving the local enforcement of appliance energy efficiency standards and labeling, the China National Institute of Standardization (CNIS) launched the National and Local Enforcement of Energy Efficiency Standards and Labeling project on August 14, 2009. The project’s short-term goal is to expand the effort to improve enforcement of standards and labeling requirements to the entire country within three years, with a long-term goal of perfecting overall enforcement. For this project, Jiangsu, Shandong, Sichuan and Shanghai were selected as pilot locations. This report provides information on the local enforcement project’s recent background, activities and results as well as comparison to previous rounds of check-testing in 2006 and 2007. In addition, the report also offers evaluation on the achievement and weaknesses in the local enforcement scheme and recommendations. The results demonstrate both improvement and some backsliding. Enforcement schemes are in place in all target cities and applicable national standards and regulations were followed as the basis for local check testing. Check testing results show in general high labeling compliance across regions with 100% compliance for five products, including full compliance for all three products tested in Jiangsu province and two out of three products …

This document is the final report of research performed under U.S. DOE Award Number DE-FG02-07ER46379, entitled Synchrotron Studies of Quantum Emergence in Non-Low Dimensional Materials. It covers the full period of the award, from June 1, 2007 through May 31, 2011.

Binghamton University carried out basic studies on thermal characteristics of the current ELDC design and characterization of current active and conductive carbon materials used to fabricate ELDC and p-ELDC. Multi physics approach was take for thermal modeling to understand the temperature distribution of an individual cell as well as multi-cell systems, which is an important factor to the reliability of ELDC?s and p-ELDC?s. Structure and properties were characterized for various raw active carbon materials which can be used as electrode to look into potential cost reduction opportunity without degrading the performance. BU team also performed experiments for compositional optimization studies for active carbon, conductive carbon, and binder formulation. A few laboratory instruments were installed for this project at BU. These instruments will continued to be used to carry out further research and development tasks relevant to ELDC and p-ELDC. Project subawardee, Ioxus, Inc., successfully created, enhanced, and then generated a product line of hybrid capacitors which now range in size from 220 Farads (F) to 1000F. These products have been proven to work as the primary energy storage method for LED lighting applications, and two significant commercial applications are evaluating these devices for use. Both of these applications will be …

Quarterly report to ITP for Nanomanufacturing program. Report covers FY11 Q2. The primary objective of this project is to develop a nanomanufacturing process which will reduce the manufacturing energy, environmental discharge, and production cost associated with current nano-scale thin-film photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing approaches. The secondary objective is to use a derivative of this nanomanufacturing process to enable greener, more efficient manufacturing of higher efficiency quantum dot-based photovoltaic cells now under development. The work is to develop and demonstrate a scalable (pilot) microreactor-assisted nanomaterial processing platform for the production, purification, functionalization, and solution deposition of nanomaterials for photovoltaic applications. The high level task duration is shown. Phase I consists of a pilot platform for Gen II PV films along with parallel efforts aimed at Gen III PV quantum dot materials. Status of each task is described.

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 …

Operational inventory limits for the disposal of solid low-level waste in Slit Trenches 1-7 were established by the Special Analysis (SA) performed by Collard and Hamm (2008). To determine disposal limits for the Slit Trenches, the SA followed the methodology used in the 2008 PA (WSRC, 2008) which assumed that the inventories in each trench were instantaneously placed in 12/1995, which is the date when SLIT1 began operation. The 2008 SA analyzed the impact from placing storm-water runoff covers simultaneously over Slit Trenches 1-7 at 5, 10 and 15 years after the inventory was introduced. To include a measure of conservatism in the limits, the lowest of the limits calculated for any storm-water runoff cover placement time or that calculated in the original 2008 PA was chosen as the operational limit for each radionuclide. Through the availability of funding provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), storm-water runoff covers were placed over Slit Trenches 1-5 in December 2010. SRNL was requested to perform a UDQE for this accelerated action. Table 1 below lists the operational dates for Slit Trenches 1-5 and the time elapsed between when the first waste package was disposed in each Slit Trench and when …

Diatoms are a distinctive group of microalgae with the unique ability to produce a highly-ordered biosilica matrix, known as the frustule. Diatoms hold significant potential in the biotechnology field as a silica scaffold for embedding proteins. In this study, we analyzed the funtionalization of biosilica with a receptor complex through genetic modification of the diatom, Thalassiosira pseudonana. Through the use of Foerster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET), the receptor was shown to remain active in transformed frustules after the inner cellular contents were removed. In addition to protein functionality, growth conditions for T. pseudonana were optimized. Untransformed cultures receiving aeration grew more rapidly than stagnant untransformed cultures. Surprisingly, transformed cultures grew more quickly than untransformed cultures. This study demonstrates isolated diatom frustules provide an effective scaffold for embedded receptor complexes. Through this research, we provide the groundwork for the development of new biosensors for use in diagnostics and environmental remediation.

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.