A molten hydroxide trapping process has been considered for removing radioiodine species from off-gas streams whereby iodine is reacted directly with molten hydroxides such as NaOH or KOH. The resulting product is the corresponding iodide, which can be separated by simple cooling of the molten mixture to grow the iodide primary phase once the mixture reaches 70-80 mol% in the iodide component. Thermodynamic analysis indicates that such a chemical process is highly favorable. Experimental testing of the trapping process using molecular iodine showed trapping of up to 96% of the volatile iodine. The trapping efficiency was dependent on operational parameters such as temperature and gas-melt contact efficiency, and higher efficiencies are expected as the process is further developed. While an iodide phase could be effectively isolated by slow cooling of a molten iodide-hydroxide mixture, the persistent appearance of hydroxide indicated that an appreciable solubility of hydroxide occurred in the iodide phase.

Daily student newspaper from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

Global temperature series have contributions from different sources, such as volcanic eruptions and El Nino Southern Oscillation variations. We investigate independent component analysis as a technique to separate unrelated sources present in such series. We first use artificial data, with known independent components, to study the conditions under which ICA can separate the individual sources. We then illustrate the method with climate data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction.

A micro-mechanistic understanding of bone fracture thatencompasses how cracks interact with the underlying microstructure anddefines their local failure mode is lacking, despite extensive research nthe response of bone to a variety of factors like aging, loading, and/ordisease.

Weekly newspaper from Emory, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

The objective of this research is to widen the applicability of gas flooding to shallow oil reservoirs by reducing the pressure required for miscibility using gas enrichment and increasing sweep efficiency with foam. Task 1 examines the potential for improved oil recovery with enriched gases. Subtask 1.1 examines the effect of dispersion processes on oil recovery and the extent of enrichment needed in the presence of dispersion. Subtask 1.2 develops a fast, efficient method to predict the extent of enrichment needed for crude oils at a given pressure. Task 2 develops improved foam processes to increase sweep efficiency in gas flooding. Subtask 2.1 comprises mechanistic experimental studies of foams with N{sub 2} gas. Subtask 2.2 conducts experiments with CO{sub 2} foam. Subtask 2.3 develops and applies a simulator for foam processes in field application. Regarding Task 1, several very important results were achieved this period for subtask 1.2. In particular, we successfully developed a robust Windows-based code to calculate MMP and MME for fluid characterizations that consist of any number of pseudocomponents. We also were successful in developing a new technique to quantify the displacement mechanism of a gas flood--that is, to determine the fraction of a displacement that is …

The objective of this research is to widen the applicability of gas flooding to shallow oil reservoirs by reducing the pressure required for miscibility using gas enrichment and increasing sweep efficiency with foam. Task 1 examines the potential for improved oil recovery with enriched gases. Subtask 1.1 examines the effect of dispersion processes on oil recovery and the extent of enrichment needed in the presence of dispersion. Subtask 1.2 develops a fast, efficient method to predict the extent of enrichment needed for crude oils at a given pressure. Task 2 develops improved foam processes to increase sweep efficiency in gas flooding. Subtask 2.1 comprises mechanistic experimental studies of foams with N{sup 2} gas. Subtask 2.2 conducts experiments with CO{sup 2} foam. Subtask 2.3 develops and applies a simulator for foam processes in field application. Regarding Task 1, several key results are described in this report relating to subtask 1.1. In particular, we show how for slimtube experiments, oil recoveries do not increase significantly with enrichments greater than the MME. For field projects, however, the optimum enrichment required to maximize recovery on a pattern scale may be different from the MME. The optimum enrichment is likely the result of greater mixing …

Develop a fuelcell mine locomotive with metal-hydride hydrogen storage. Test the locomotive for fundamental limitations preventing successful commercialization of hydride fuelcells in underground mining. During Phase 1 of the DOE-EERE sponsored project, FPI and its partner SNL, completed work on the development of a 14.4 kW fuelcell power plant and metal-hydride energy storage. An existing battery-electric locomotive with similar power requirements, minus the battery module, was used as the base vehicle. In March 2001, Atlas Copco Wagner of Portland, OR, installed the fuelcell power plant into the base vehicle and initiated integration of the system into the vehicle. The entire vehicle returned to Sandia in May 2001 for further development and integration. Initial system power-up took place in December 2001. A revision to the original contract, Phase 2, at the request of DOE Golden Field Office, established Vehicle Projects LLC as the new prime contractor,. Phase 2 allowed industry partners to conduct surface tests, incorporate enhancements to the original design by SNL, perform an extensive risk and safety analysis, and test the fuelcell locomotive underground under representative production mine conditions. During the surface tests one of the fuelcell stacks exhibited reduced power output resulting in having to replace both fuelcell …

The overall goal of this project was to develop reliable methods for resolving macroscopic properties important for describing the flow of one or more fluid phases in reservoirs from formation measurements. Completed the facilities to house our new NMR imager, the equipment has been delivered and installed. New experimental designs will provide for more reliable estimation of permeability distributions were evaluated. Designed and built a new core holder to incorporate one of the new experimental designs.

The objective of this research is to widen the applicability of gas flooding to shallow oil reservoirs by reducing the pressure required for miscibility using gas enrichment and increasing sweep efficiency with foam. Task 1 examines the potential for improved oil recovery with enriched gases. Subtask 1.1 examines the effect of dispersion processes on oil recovery and the extent of enrichment needed in the presence of dispersion. Subtask 1.2 develops a fast, efficient method to predict the extent of enrichment needed for crude oils at a given pressure. Task 2 develops improved foam processes to increase sweep efficiency in gas flooding. Subtask 2.1 comprises mechanistic experimental studies of foams with N{sup 2} gas. Subtask 2.2 conducts experiments with CO{sup 2} foam. Subtask 2.3 develops and applies a simulator for foam processes in field application. Regarding Task 1, several results related to subtask 1.1 are given. In this period, most of our research centered on how to estimate the dispersivity at the field scale. Simulation studies (Solano et al. 2001) show that oil recovery for enriched gas drives depends on the amount of dispersion in reservoir media. But the true value of dispersion, expressed as dispersivity, at the field scale, is …

Significant work has been done by the investigators on the cerium oxide-copper oxide based sorbent/catalysts for the combined removal of sulfur and nitrogen oxides from the flue gases of stationary sources. A relatively wide temperature window was established for the use of alumina-supported cerium oxide-copper oxide mixtures as regenerable sorbents for SO{sub 2} removal. Evaluation of these sorbents as catalysts for the selective reduction of NO{sub x} gave promising results with methane. Since the replacement of ammonia by methane is commercially very attractive, in this project, it was planned to investigate the effect of promoters on the activity and selectivity of copper oxide/cerium oxide-based catalysts and to obtain data on the reaction mechanism for the SCR with methane. The investigation of the reaction mechanism will help in the selection of promoters to improve the catalytic activity and selectivity of the sorbents in the SCR with methane. This will result in new catalyst formulations. The last component of the project involves our industrial partner TDA Research, and the objective is to evaluate long- term stability and durability of the prepared sorbent/catalysts. In the second year of the project, the catalysts were investigated for their SCR activity with methane in a microreactor …

The mission of the NABIR program is to provide the fundamental science that will serve as the basis for the development of cost-effective bioremediation and long-term stewardship of radionuclides and metals in the subsurface at DOE sites. The focus of the program is on strategies leading to long-term immobilization of contaminants in situ to reduce the risk to humans and the environment. Contaminants of special interest are uranium, technetium, plutonium, chromium, and mercury. The focus of the NABIR program is on the bioremediation of these contaminants in the subsurface below the root zone, including both vadose and saturated zones. The program consists of four interrelated Science Elements (Biotransformation, Community Dynamics/Microbial Ecology, Biomolecular Science and Engineering, and Biogeochemistry). The program also has a cross-cutting Assessment Element that supports development of innovative approaches and technologies to support the science elements. An element called Bioremediation and its Societal Implications and Concerns (BASIC) addresses potential societal issues of implementing NABIR scientific findings. The material presented at this year's workshop focuses on approximately 60 research projects funded in FY 2000-2003 by the Environmental Remediation Sciences Division in DOE's Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) in the Office of Science. Abstracts of NABIR research projects …

The overall goal of this project was to develop reliable methods for resolving macroscopic properties important for describing the flow of one or more fluid phases in reservoirs from formation measurements. During this reporting period, the determination of surface relaxivity from NMR data was investigated. A new method for determining the surface relaxivity from measured data was developed and tested with data obtained from an Exxon sample. The new method avoids the use of a certain mathematical short-time approximation in the data analysis, which has been shown to be unsuitable.

Spherical tokamaks, with their relatively low toroidal field, extend fast-ion-driven instability physics to parameter ranges not normally accessed in conventional tokamaks. The low field means that both the fast-ion Larmor radius normalized to the plasma minor radius and the ratio of the fast-ion velocity to the Alfven speed are relatively large. The large Larmor radius of the ions enhances their interaction with instability modes, influencing the structure of the unstable mode spectrum. The relatively large fast-ion velocity allows for a larger population of fast ions to be in resonance with the mode, increasing the drive. It is therefore an important goal of the present proof-of-principle spherical tokamaks to evaluate the role of fast-ion-driven instabilities in fast-ion confinement. This paper presents the first observations of fast-ion losses resulting from toroidal Alfven eigenmodes and a new, fishbone-like, energetic particle mode.

This project was initially targeted to the making of coke for blast furnaces by using proprietary technology of Calderon in a phased approach, and Phase I was successfully completed. The project was then re-directed to the making of iron units. U.S. Steel teamed up with Calderon for a joint effort which will last 30 months to produce directly reduced iron with the potential of converting it into molten iron or steel consistent with the Roadmap recommendations of 1998 prepared by the Steel Industry in cooperation with the Department of Energy.

The CDF collaboration will vigorously pursue a comprehensive program of electroweak physics during Run II at the Tevatron based strongly on the successful Run I program. The Run IIa integrated luminosity goal of 2 fb{sup -1} will lead to a CDF dataset twenty times larger than that collected in Run I. In addition, an increase in the energy of the colliding beams from {radical}s = 1.80 TeV to {radical}s = 1.96 TeV for Run II provides a 10% increase in the W and Z boson production cross sections and a corresponding enlargement of the electroweak event samples. In the near term, CDF expects to collect a dataset with 2-3 times the integrated luminosity of Run I by September of 2003. Utilizing these new datasets CDF will be able to make improved, precision measurements of Standard Model electroweak parameters including M{sub W}, M{sub top}, {Lambda}{sub W}, and sin{sup 2}{theta}{sub W}{sup eff}. The goal of these measurements will be to improve our understanding of the self-consistency of the Standard Model and knowledge of the Higgs boson mass within the model. The top plot in Fig. 1 illustrates our current knowledge of the Standard Model Higgs mass based on measurements of M{sub W} …

In the first quarter of the project, we reviewed many past references about using light scattering to characterize particulate matters. We also constructed light sources, detection systems and PM synthesizer for the project.

This report provides names of organizations, like the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which sponsors fellowships on Capitol Hill. This report lists Internet sites on internships and fellowships, such as the Smithsonian Institution;s Web site on internships.

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

None

THis report provides a brief overview of major issues underlying the debate about possible structural reforms or improvements to the current Medicare system. Medicare is a nationwide health insurance program for the aged and certain disabled persons.

This report lists these 39 resolutions, provides the Security Council vote on each, and sets out the complete text of each resolution. In addition, a number of relevant U.N. documents are included. The texts of the 24 resolutions adopted in 1990 and 1991 may be found in two CRS reports, 90-513 and 91-395.

This report provides information about the Country-of-Origin Labeling for Foods.Federal law requires most imports informing the "Ultimate purchaser" of their country of origin.

Engineering has touched on every challenge, every accomplishment, and every endeavor of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory during its fifty-year history. In this time of transition to new leadership, Engineering continues to be central to the mission of the Laboratory, returning to the tradition and core values of E. O. Lawrence: science-based engineering--turning scientific concepts into reality. This volume of Engineering Technical Reports summarizes progress on the projects funded for technology-base efforts. Technology-base projects effect the natural transition to reduction-to-practice of scientific or engineering methods that are well understood and established. They represent discipline-oriented, core competency activities that are multi-programmatic in application, nature, and scope. Objectives of technology-base funding include: (1) the development and enhancement of tools and processes to provide Engineering support capability, such as code maintenance and improved fabrication methods; (2) the support of Engineering science and technology infrastructure, such as the installation or integration of a new capability; (3) support for technical and administrative leadership through our technology Centers; and (4) the initial scoping and exploration of selected technology areas with high strategic potential, such as assessment of university, laboratory, and industrial partnerships. Five Centers focus and guide longer-term investments within Engineering. The Centers attract and retain top …