Statistical and probabilistic methods for estimating the probability that a fracture is nonconductive (or equivalently, the conductive-fracture frequency) and the distribution of the transmissivities of conductive fractures from transmissivity measurements made in single-hole injection (well) tests were developed. These methods were applied to a database consisting of over 1,000 measurements made in nearly 25 km of borehole at five sites in Sweden. The depths of the measurements ranged from near the surface to over 600-m deep, and packer spacings of 20- and 25-m were used. A probabilistic model that describes the distribution of a series of transmissivity measurements was derived. When the parameters of this model were estimated using maximum likelihood estimators, the resulting estimated distributions generally fit the cumulative histograms of the transmissivity measurements very well. Further, estimates of the mean transmissivity of conductive fractures based on the maximum likelihood estimates of the model's parameters were reasonable, both in magnitude and in trend, with respect to depth. The estimates of the conductive fracture probability were generated in the range of 0.5--5.0 percent, with the higher values at shallow depths and with increasingly smaller values as depth increased. An estimation procedure based on the probabilistic model and the maximum likelihood …

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A laboratory-scale experimental device having an outside diameter of 1.2 m has been designed to test the idea of electrostatic end plugging of an open-ended magnetic-field configuration. The configuration is a toroidal quadrupole having four very thin (less than 1-mm-thick) line cusps produced by four circular copper coils. Iron is used to concentrate the magnetic flux density to 2.0 T; without the use of iron, the power consumption, which is about 1 MW, would be about 25 times higher. The use of iron also produces a precisely known magnetic field and allows good access for diagnostics and pumping. Iron is also used for both the flux return path and the vacuum chamber. A hollow anode with an adjustable (nominally 1-mm-wide) gap is biased from 10 to 20 kV. Plasma densities of about 10/sup 13/ cm/sup -3/ and temperatures of about 1 keV might be produced by an electron beam and by electron cyclotron resonance heating. Higher-order multipoles (hexapoles and octopoles) also are described.

Two novel techniques which produce a uniform frozen layer of deuterium-tritium on the inside surface of a glass microsphere are presented.

We have developed techniques for measuring the power and frequency of the Electron Laser Facility (ELF) II free-electron laser (FEL) used for plasma heating experiments on the Microwave Tokamak Experiment (MTX). We also have designed a multichannel, 140-GHz receiver capable of measuring FEL power levels from 10 mW to 0.1 {mu}W within an accuracy of {plus minus}1 dB with a 50-dB dynamic range and a 2-ns response time. By using calibrated attenuators, we can measure power levels from 10 GW to 0.1 {mu}W. We sample the microwave output of the FEL in a microwave load tank by using WR-8 or WR-28 stub waveguide antennas. Microwave turning mirrors are used to guide the microwave beam down an evacuated beam tube to the MTX. Stub, WR-8, fundamental-mode, waveguide antennas are used for beam detection on the microwave turning mirrors. Orthogonal, WR-8, stub waveguides are machined into the surfaces of the mirrors and used as directional couplers to measure forward and reflected power from the FEL. The microwave power is then transported to the microwave receiver via a low-loss, over-moded, WR-28 waveguide. A movable modes probe in the microwave load tank is used to scan across the microwave beam to determine the modes …

A rocket powered by fusion microexplosions is well suited for quick interplanetary travel. Fusion pellets are sequentially injected into a magnetic thrust chamber. There, focused energy from a fusion Driver is used to implode and ignite them. Upon exploding, the plasma debris expands into the surrounding magnetic field and is redirected by it, producing thrust. This paper discusses the desired features and operation of the fusion pellet, its Driver, and magnetic thrust chamber. A rocket design is presented which uses slightly tritium-enriched deuterium as the fusion fuel, a high temperature KrF laser as the Driver, and a thrust chamber consisting of a single superconducting current loop protected from the pellet by a radiation shield. This rocket can be operated with a power-to-mass ratio of 110 W gm/sup -1/, which permits missions ranging from occasional 9 day VIP service to Mars, to routine 1 year, 1500 ton, Plutonian cargo runs.

Information is presented concerning transients in research reactors and nuclear power plants.

The Tandem Mirror Experiment (TMX) system, part of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory magnetic mirror program incorporates in its design various types of coils or magnets. This paper describes the physical construction of each coil within the system as well as the structural design required for their support and installation.

This paper presents the design and construction, as well as the initial operation, of the Microwave Transmission System. The system consists of containment vessels, mirror boxes, mirrors, an alignment system, two turbo-molecular pump vacuum stations, and microwave source. Fifty-ns-length pulses of 6-MeV electrons pass through a free electron laser (FEL) wiggler. A 300 W extended interaction oscillator (EIO) of 140 GHz frequency supplies the seed signal for amplification in the wiggler. The electron beam is dumped and the microwave beam is transmitted quasi-optically 90 ft by six aluminum mirrors through an evacuated tube. Three of the mirrors are elliptical paraboloids and the others are flat. A seventh mirror is rotated into the microwave beam to divert it into a load tank. The transport vacuum vessel is 20-in.-diameter stainless steel tube with bellows and mirror boxes at each mirror. Two vacuum systems at each end of the transport tube allow a base pressure of 10{sup {minus}7} Torr to be attained by 7000 L/s of turbo-molecular pumping. Also at each mirror, at the MTX vessel, and at the two ends of the wiggler waveguide are HeNe laser detectors used for vacuum alignment. Descriptions of the major components, their requirements and system requirements …

In 2003, the U.S. Department of Energy issued the Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition (ENLC) funding to implement ecological restoration in Gleason Creek and Smith Valley Watersheds. This project was made possible by congressionally directed funding that was provided through the US Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of the Biomass Program. The Ely District Bureau of Land Management (Ely BLM) manages these watersheds and considers them priority areas within the Ely BLM district. These three entities collaborated to address the issues and concerns of Gleason Creek and Smith Valley and prepared a restoration plan to improve the watersheds’ ecological health and resiliency. The restoration process began with watershed-scale vegetation assessments and state and transition models to focus on restoration sites. Design and implementation of restoration treatments ensued and were completed in January 2007. This report describes the restoration process ENLC undertook from planning to implementation of two watersheds in semi-arid Eastern Nevada.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a 192-beam Nd:glass laser facility being constructed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to conduct research in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and high energy density (HED) science. When completed, NIF will produce 1.8 MJ, 500 TW of ultraviolet light, making it the world's largest and highest-energy laser system. The NIF is poised to become the world's preeminent facility for conducting ICF and fusion energy research and for studying matter at extreme densities and temperatures.

We have developed a new target platform to study Laser Plasma Interaction in ignition-relevant condition at the Omega laser facility (LLE/Rochester)[1]. By shooting an interaction beam along the axis of a gas-filled hohlraum heated by up to 17 kJ of heater beam energy, we were able to create a millimeter-scale underdense uniform plasma at electron temperatures above 3 keV. Extensive Thomson scattering measurements allowed us to benchmark our hydrodynamic simulations performed with HYDRA [1]. As a result of this effort, we can use with much confidence these simulations as input parameters for our LPI simulation code pF3d [2]. In this paper, we show that by using accurate hydrodynamic profiles and full three-dimensional simulations including a realistic modeling of the laser intensity pattern generated by various smoothing options, fluid LPI theory reproduces the SBS thresholds and absolute reflectivity values and the absence of measurable SRS. This good agreement was made possible by the recent increase in computing power routinely available for such simulations.

Multidimensional hydrodynamic properties of high-adiabat direct-drive plastic-shell implosions on the OMEGA laser system [T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)] are investigated using the multidimensional hydrodynamic code, DRACO. Multimode simulations including the effects of nonuniform illumination and target roughness indicate that shell stability during the acceleration phase plays a critical role in determining target performance. For thick shells that remain integral during the acceleration phase, target yields are significantly reduced by the combination of the long-wavelength ({ell} < 10) modes due to surface roughness and beam imbalance and the intermediate modes (20 {le} {ell} {le} 50) due to single-beam nonuniformities. The neutron-production rate for these thick shells truncates relative to one-dimensional (1-D) predictions. The yield degradation in the thin shells is mainly due to shell breakup at short wavelengths ({lambda} {approx} {Delta}, where {Delta} is the in-flight shell thickness). The neutron-rate curves for the thinner shells have significantly lower amplitudes and a fall-off that is less steep than 1-D rates. DRACO simulation results are consistent with experimental observations.

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Fast ignition research has reached the stage where point designs are becoming crucial to the identification of key issues and the development of projects to demonstrate high gain fast ignition. The status of point designs for cone coupled electron fast ignition and some of the issues they highlight are discussed.

Significant research at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Center (PEEMRC) is being conducted to develop ways to increase (1) torque, (2) speed range, and (3) efficiency of traction electric motors for hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) within existing current and voltage bounds. Current is limited by the inverter semiconductor devices' capability and voltage is limited by the stator wire insulation's ability to withstand the maximum back-electromotive force (emf), which occurs at the upper end of the speed range. One research track has been to explore ways to control the path and magnitude of magnetic flux while the motor is operating. The phrase, real time flux control (RTFC), refers to this mode of operation in which system parameters are changed while the motor is operating to improve its performance and speed range. RTFC has potential to meet an increased torque demand by introducing additional flux through the main air gap from an external source. It can augment the speed range by diverting flux away from the main air gap to reduce back-emf at high speeds. Conventional RTFC technology is known as vector control [1]. Vector control decomposes the stator current into two components; one that …

The subject report documents the work carried out by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) during months 5-7 (May-July 2005) of a multi-year research project. The project has the overall goal of developing methods of incorporating distributed energy (DE) that can produce reactive power locally and for injecting into the distribution system. The objective for this new type of DE is to be able to provide voltage regulation and dynamic reactive power reserves without the use of extensive communication and control systems. The work performed over this three-month period focused on four aspects of the overall objective: (1) characterization of a 250HP (about 300KVAr) synchronous condenser (SC) via test runs at the ORNL Reactive Power Laboratory; (2) development of a data acquisition scheme for collecting the necessary voltage, current and power readings at the synchronous condenser and on the distribution system; (3) development of algorithms for analyzing raw test data from the various test runs; and (4) validation of a steady-state model for the synchronous condenser via the use of a commercial software package to study its effects on the ORNL 13.8/2.4kV distribution network.

The 100-B-20 waste site, located in the 100-BC-1 Operable Unit of the Hanford Site, consisted of an underground oil tank that once serviced the 1716-B Maintenance Garage. The selected action for the 100-B-20 waste site involved removal of the oil tanks and their contents and demonstrating through confirmatory sampling that all cleanup goals have been met. In accordance with this evaluation, a reclassification status of interim closed out has been determined. The results demonstrate that the site will support future unrestricted land uses that can be represented by a rural-residential scenario. These results also show that residual concentrations support unrestricted future use of shallow zone soil and that contaminant levels remaining in the soil are protective of groundwater and the Columbia River.

Nature uses enzymes to activate otherwise unreactive compounds in remarkable ways. For example, DNases are capable of hydrolyzing phosphate diester bonds in DNA within seconds,[1-3]--a reaction with an estimated half-life of 200 million years without an enzyme.[4] The fundamental features of enzyme catalysis have been much discussed over the last sixty years in an effort to explain the dramatic rate increases and high selectivities of enzymes. As early as 1946, Linus Pauling suggested that enzymes must preferentially recognize and stabilize the transition state over the ground state of a substrate.[5] Despite the intense study of enzymatic selectivity and ability to catalyze chemical reactions, the entire nature of enzyme-based catalysis is still poorly understood. For example, Houk and co-workers recently reported a survey of binding affinities in a wide variety of enzyme-ligand, enzyme-transition-state, and synthetic host-guest complexes and found that the average binding affinities were insufficient to generate many of the rate accelerations observed in biological systems.[6] Therefore, transition-state stabilization cannot be the sole contributor to the high reactivity and selectivity of enzymes, but rather, other forces must contribute to the activation of substrate molecules. Inspired by the efficiency and selectivity of Nature, synthetic chemists have admired the ability of enzymes …

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The reprocessing of commercial spent nuclear fuel (SNF) generates a Zircaloy cladding hull waste which requires disposal as a high level waste in the geologic repository. The hulls are primarily contaminated with fission products and actinides from the fuel. During fuel irradiation, these contaminants are deposited in a thin layer of zirconium oxide (ZrO{sub 2}) which forms on the cladding surface at the elevated temperatures present in a nuclear reactor. Therefore, if the hulls are treated to remove the ZrO{sub 2} layer, a majority of the contamination will be removed and the hulls could potentially meet acceptance criteria for disposal as a low level waste (LLW). Discard of the hulls as a LLW would result in significant savings due to the high costs associated with geologic disposal. To assess the feasibility of decontaminating spent fuel cladding hulls, two treatment processes developed for dissolving fuels containing zirconium (Zr) metal or alloys were evaluated. Small-scale dissolution experiments were performed using the ZIRFLEX process which employs a boiling ammonium fluoride (NH{sub 4}F)/ammonium nitrate (NH{sub 4}NO{sub 3}) solution to dissolve Zr or Zircaloy cladding and a hydrofluoric acid (HF) process developed for complete dissolution of Zr-containing fuels. The feasibility experiments were performed using Zircaloy-4 …

The purpose of this report is to document the status of revegetation projects and natural resources mitigation efforts that have been conducted for remediated waste sites and other activities associated with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) cleanup of National Priorities List waste sites at Hanford. This report documents the results of revegetation and mitigation monitoring conducted in 2007 and includes 11 revegetation/restoration projects, one revegetation/mitigation project, and 3 bat habitat mitigation projects.

The authors goal is to solve the ODE: dy/dt = f(t,y(t)) where we are to advance the independent variables y by marching forward in time t using a step size h. Here time levels are denoted by subscripts. The 'modified Euler' method (e.g., [1,2]) uses a forward-Euler step as a predictor to yield a provisional estimate {tilde y}{sub i+1} of the dependent variables at the advanced time level: {tilde y}{sub i+1} = y{sub i} + hf(t{sub i},y{sub i}).

In the paper entitled 'The shape and composition of interstellar silicate grains' (A & A, 462, 667-676 (2007)), Min et al. explore non-spherical grain shape and composition in modeling the interstellar 10 and 20 {micro}m extinction features. This progression towards more realistic models is vitally important to enabling valid comparisons between dust observations and laboratory measurements. Min et al. proceed to compare their model results with GEMS (glass with embedded metals and sulfides) from IDPs (interplanetary dust particles) and to discuss the nature and origin of GEMS. Specifically, they evaluate the hypothesis of Bradley (1994) that GEMS are interstellar (IS) amorphous silicates. From a comparison of the mineralogy, chemical compositions, and infrared (IR) spectral properties of GEMS with their modeling results, Min et al. conclude: 'GEMS are, in general, not unprocessed leftovers from the diffuse ISM'. This conclusion is based, however, on erroneous and incomplete GEMS data. It is important to clarify first that Bradley (1994) never proposed that GEMS are unprocessed leftovers from the diffuse ISM, nor did he suggest that individual subnanogram mass GEMS are a representative sampling of the enormous mass of silicates in the diffuse ISM. Bradley (1994) simply showed that GEMS properties are consistent with …