This report provides the results of the annual post-closure inspections conducted at the closed Corrective Action Unit (CAU) sites located on the Tonopah Test Range (TTR), Nevada. This report covers calendar year 2009 and includes inspection and repair activities completed at the following seven CAUs: · CAU 400: Bomblet Pit and Five Points Landfill (TTR) · CAU 407: Roller Coaster RadSafe Area (TTR) · CAU 424: Area 3 Landfill Complexes (TTR) · CAU 426: Cactus Spring Waste Trenches (TTR) · CAU 453: Area 9 UXO Landfill (TTR) · CAU 484: Surface Debris, Waste Sites, and Burn Area (TTR) · CAU 487: Thunderwell Site (TTR) The annual post-closure inspections were conducted May 5–6, 2009. All inspections were conducted according to the post-closure plans in the approved Closure Reports. The post-closure inspection plan for each CAU is included in Attachment B, with the exception of CAU 400. CAU 400 does not require post-closure inspections, but inspections of the vegetation and fencing are conducted as a best management practice. The inspection checklists for each site inspection are included in Attachment C, the field notes are included in Attachment D, and the site photographs are included in Attachment E. Vegetation monitoring of CAU 400, …

The centroid and envelope dynamics of a high-intensity charged particle beam are investigated as a beam smoothing technique to achieve uniform illumination over a suitably chosen region of the target for applications to ion-beam-driven high energy density physics and heavy ion fusion. The motion of the beam centroid projected onto the target follows a smooth pattern to achieve the desired illumination, for improved stability properties during the beam-target interaction. The centroid dynamics is controlled by an oscillating "wobbler", a set of electrically-biased plates driven by RF voltage. __________________________________________________

This month's issue has the following articles: (1) A Leader in High-Pressure Science--Commentary by William H. Goldstein; (2) Diamonds Put the Pressure on Materials--New experimental capabilities are helping Livermore scientists better understand how extreme pressure affects a material's structure; (3) Exploring the Unusual Behavior of Granular Materials--Livermore scientists are developing new techniques for predicting the response of granular materials under pressure; (4) A 1-Ton Device in a Briefcase--A new briefcase-sized tool for nuclear magnetic resonance is designed for onsite analysis of suspected chemical weapons; and (5) Targets Designed for Ignition--A series of experiments at the National Ignition Facility is helping scientists finalize the ignition target design.

A method to measure the density distribution of a dense hydrogen gas jet is pre- sented. A Mach 5.5 nozzle is cooled to 80K to form a flow capable of molecular cluster formation. A 250V, 10mA electron beam collides with the jet and produces Hα emission that is viewed by a fast camera. The high density of the jet, several 10¹⁶cm^-3, results in substantial electron depletion, which attenuates the H_α emission. The attenuated emission measurement, combined with a simplified electron-molecule collision model, allows us to determine the molecular density profile via a simple iterative calculation.

The 9977 General Purpose Fissile Package (GPFP) was designed in response to the adoption of the crush test requirement in the US regulations for packages for radioactive materials (10 CFR 71). This presentation on crush testing of the 9977 GPFP Reviews origins of Crush Test Requirements and implementation of crush test requirements in 10 CFR 71. SANDIA testing performed to support the rule making is reviewed. The differences in practice, on the part of the US Department of Energy from those required by the NRC for commercial purposes, are explained. The design features incorporated into the 9977 GPFP to enable it to withstand the crush test and the crush tests performed on the 9977 are described. Lessons learned from crush testing of GPFP packagings are given.

We use process-based modeling techniques to characterize the temporal features of natural biologically controlled surface CO{sub 2} fluxes and the relationships between the assimilation and respiration fluxes. Based on these analyses, we develop a signal-enhancing technique that combines a novel time-window splitting scheme, a simple median filtering, and an appropriate scaling method to detect potential signals of leakage of CO{sub 2} from geologic carbon sequestration sites from within datasets of net near-surface CO{sub 2} flux measurements. The technique can be directly applied to measured data and does not require subjective gap filling or data-smoothing preprocessing. Preliminary application of the new method to flux measurements from a CO{sub 2} shallow-release experiment appears promising for detecting a leakage signal relative to background variability. The leakage index of ?2 was found to span the range of biological variability for various ecosystems as determined by observing CO{sub 2} flux data at various control sites for a number of years.

Since the emerging of second generation sequencing technologies, the evaluation of different sequencing approaches and their assembly strategies for different types of genomes has become an important undertaken. Next generation sequencing technologies dramatically increase sequence throughput while decreasing cost, making them an attractive tool for whole genome shotgun sequencing. To compare different approaches for de-novo whole genome assembly, appropriate tools and a solid understanding of both quantity and quality of the underlying sequence data are crucial. Here, we performed an in-depth analysis of short-read Illumina sequence assembly strategies for bacterial and archaeal genomes. Different types of Illumina libraries as well as different trim parameters and assemblers were evaluated. Results of the comparative analysis and sequencing platforms will be presented. The goal of this analysis is to develop a cost-effective approach for the increased throughput of the generation of high quality microbial genomes.

A fuel cell is an electrochemical energy conversion device that produces electricity during the combination of hydrogen and oxygen to produce water. Proton exchange membranes fuel cells are favored for portable applications as well as stationary ones due to their high power density, low operating temperature, and low corrosion of components. In real life operation, the use of pure fuel and oxidant gases results in an impractical system. A more realistic and cost efficient approach is the use of air as an oxidant gas and hydrogen from hydrogen carriers (i.e., ammonia, hydrocarbons, hydrides). However, trace impurities arising from different hydrogen sources and production increases the degradation of the fuel cell. These impurities include carbon monoxide, ammonia, sulfur, hydrocarbons, and halogen compounds. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has set maximum limits for trace impurities in the hydrogen stream; however fuel cell data is needed to validate the assumption that at those levels the impurities will cause no degradation. This report summarizes the effect of selected contaminants tested at SRNL at ISO levels. Runs at ISO proposed concentration levels show that model hydrocarbon compound such as tetrahydrofuran can cause serious degradation. However, the degradation is only temporary as when the impurity …

We have developed two processes with the Biomek FX robot to construct 454 titanium and Illumina libraries in order to meet the increasing library demands. All modifications in the library construction steps were made to enable the adaptation of the entire processes to work with the 96-well plate format. The key modifications include the shearing of DNA with Covaris E210 and the enzymatic reaction cleaning and fragment size selection with SPRI beads and magnetic plate holders. The construction of 96 Titanium libraries takes about 8 hours from sheared DNA to ssDNA recovery. The processing of 96 Illumina libraries takes less time than that of the Titanium library process. Although both processes still require manual transfer of plates from robot to other work stations such as thermocyclers, these robotic processes represent about 12- to 24-folds increase of library capacity comparing to the manual processes. To enable the sequencing of many libraries in parallel, we have also developed sets of molecular barcodes for both library types. The requirements for the 454 library barcodes include 10 bases, 40-60percent GC, no consecutive same base, and no less than 3 bases difference between barcodes. We have used 96 of the resulted 270 barcodes to construct …

Abstract Benchmarking of full-wave solvers for ICRF simulations is performed using plasma profiles and equilibria obtained from integrated self-consistent modeling predictions of four ITER plasmas. One is for a high performance baseline (5.3 T, 15 MA) DT H-mode plasma. The others are for half-field, half-current plasmas of interest for the pre-activation phase with bulk plasma ion species being either hydrogen or He4. The predicted profiles are used by seven groups to predict the ICRF electromagnetic fields and heating profiles. Approximate agreement is achieved for the predicted heating power partitions for the DT and He4 cases. Profiles of the heating powers and electromagnetic fields are compared.

The purpose of this report is to provide a concise but comprehensive overview of Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility instrumentation status. The report is divided into the following five sections: (1) new instrumentation in the process of being acquired and deployed, (2) field campaigns, (3) existing instrumentation and progress on improvements or upgrades, (4) proposed future instrumentation, and (5) Small Business Innovation Research instrument development.

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This study investigates methods of automatically identifying and characterizing significant transitions in term usage over time. Within scientific literature, the occurrence of terms reflects the use of technologies and techniques as well as the study of specific species and materials. Transitions in terminology usage may be a result of vocabulary standardization or specialization in which terms are replaced with their shorter form. They may also be a result of new applications, combinations, alternatives, or interests that result in the appearance of new or existing terminology in unexpected contexts.

This thin, MEMS contact-stress sensor continuously and accurately measures time-varying, solid interface loads over tens of thousands of load cycles. The contact-stress sensor is extremely thin (150 {mu}m) and has a linear output with an accuracy of {+-} 1.5% FSO.

Fosmid or BAC end sequencing plays an important role in de novo assembly of large genomes like fungi and plants. However construction and Sanger sequencing of fosmid or BAC libraries are laborious and costly. The current 454 Paired-End (PE) Library and Illumina Jumping Library construction protocols are limited with the gap sizes of approximately 20 kb and 8 kb, respectively. In the attempt to understand the limitations of constructing PE libraries with greater than 30Kb gaps, we have purified 18, 28, 45, and 65Kb sheared DNA fragments from yeast and circularized the ends using the Cre-loxP approach described in the 454 PE Library protocol. With the increasing fragment sizes, we found a general trend of decreasing library quality in several areas. First, redundant reads and reads containing multiple loxP linkers increase when the average fragment size increases. Second, the contamination of short distance pairs (<10Kb) increases as the fragment size increases. Third, chimeric rate increases with the increasing fragment sizes. We have modified several steps to improve the quality of the long span PE libraries. The modification includes (1) the use of special PFGE program to reduce small fragment contamination; (2) the increase of DNA samples in the circularization step …

The Taiwanese-American Occultation Survey (TAOS) project has collected more than a billion photometric measurements since 2005 January. These sky survey data - covering timescales from a fraction of a second to a few hundred days - are a useful source to study stellar variability. A total of 167 star fields, mostly along the ecliptic plane, have been selected for photometric monitoring with the TAOS telescopes. This paper presents our initial analysis of a search for periodic variable stars from the time-series TAOS data on one particular TAOS field, No. 151 (RA = 17{sup h} 30{sup m} 6.67{sup s}, Dec = 27 degrees, 17 minutes, 30 seconds, J2000), which had been observed over 47 epochs in 2005. A total of 81 candidate variables are identified in the 3 square degree field, with magnitudes in the range 8 < R < 16. On the basis of the periodicity and shape of the lightcurves, 32 variables, 18 of which were previously unknown, are classified as RR Lyrae, Cepheid, {delta} Scuti, SX Phonencis, semi-regular and eclipsing binaries.

The behavior of melter feed (a mixture of nuclear waste and glass-forming additives) during waste-glass processing has a significant impact on the rate of the vitrification process. We studied the effects of silica particle size and sucrose addition on the volumetric expansion (foaming) of a high-alumina feed and the rate of dissolution of silica particles in feed samples heated at 5 C/min up to 1200 C. The initial size of quartz particles in feed ranged from 5 to 195 {micro}m. The fraction of the sucrose added ranged from 0 to 0.20 g per g glass. Extensive foaming occurred only in feeds with 5-{micro}m quartz particles; particles {ge}150 {micro}m formed clusters. Particles of 5 {micro}m completely dissolved by 900 C whereas particles {ge}150 {micro}m did not fully dissolve even when the temperature reached 1200 C. Sucrose addition had virtually zero impact on both foaming and the dissolution of silica particles. Over 100 sites in the United States are currently tasked with the storage of nuclear waste. The largest is the Hanford Site located in southeastern Washington State with 177 subterranean tanks containing over fifty-million gallons of nuclear waste from plutonium production from 1944 through 1987. This waste will be vitrified at …

We describe ab initio, self-consistent, 3D, fully electromagnetic numerical simulations of current drive and field-reversed-configuration plasma formation by odd-parity rotating magnetic fields (RMFo). Magnetic-separatrix formation and field reversal are attained from an initial mirror configuration. A population of punctuated-betatron-orbit electrons, generated by the RMFo, carries the majority of the field-normal azimuthal electrical current responsible for field reversal. Appreciable current and plasma pressure exist outside the magnetic separatrix whose shape is modulated by the RMFo phase. The predicted plasma density and electron energy distribution compare favorably with RMFo experiments. __________________________________________________

The Smart Grid opens the door to the development of many companion technologies which will in turn enable the development of a variety of devices for household electricity-consuming appliances that can communicate with it; especially, many major appliance manufacturers (such as Whirlpool and General Electric) have made public commitments to design their appliances to be Smart Grid-compatible over the next several years. Yet during that same time period, customers will purchase many millions of long-lasting appliances which are not compatible with the Smart Grid. This research project's purpose is to bring significant Smart Grid compatibility to previously-installed appliances that were not specifically designed for any Smart Grid communications, in a way that is both economical and attractive for users who want to share in the energy cost savings and reduction of peak power demand opportunities provided by the evolving Smart Grid infrastructure. The focus of this effort is to identify and research smart control solutions which take advantage of the effective strategies of demand-response (DR) communications from utilities [including time-of-day (TOD) and peak-demand pricing options] and function apart from any need for operational changes to be designed into the non-smart appliances. Our Phase I concepts promote technological advancements for enabling …

The Savannah River Site has a mission to dissolve fissile materials and disposition them. The primary fissile material is plutonium dioxide (PuO{sub 2}). To support dissolution of these materials, the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) designed and demonstrated a vacuum salt distillation (VSD) apparatus using both representative radioactive samples and non-radioactive simulant materials. Vacuum salt distillation, through the removal of chloride salts, increases the quantity of materials suitable for processing in the site's HB-Line Facility. Small-scale non-radioactive experiments at 900-950 C show that >99.8 wt % of the initial charge of chloride salt distilled from the sample boat with recovery of >99.8 wt % of the ceric oxide (CeO{sub 2}) - the surrogate for PuO{sub 2} - as a non-chloride bearing 'product'. Small-scale radioactive testing in a glovebox demonstrated the removal of sodium chloride (NaCl) and potassium chloride (KCl) from 13 PuO{sub 2} samples. Chloride concentrations were distilled from a starting concentration of 1.8-10.8 wt % to a final concentration <500 mg/kg chloride. Initial testing of a non-radioactive, full-scale production prototype is complete. A designed experiment evaluated the impact of distillation temperature, time at temperature, vacuum, product depth, and presence of a boat cover. Significant effort has been devoted to …

The MICE superconducting coupling solenoid magnet is made from copper matrix Nb-Ti conductors with inner radius of 750 mm, length of 285 mm and thickness of 110.4 mm at room temperature. The coil is to be wound on a mandrel made of aluminum. The peak magnetic field on the conductor is about 7.3 T when fully charged at 210 A. High magnetic field and large size make the stress inside the coupling coil assembly relatively high during cool down and full energizing. The shear stress between coil winding and aluminum casing may cause premature quench. To avoid quench potential induced by stress, slip planes were designed for the coil assembly. In this paper, FE models with and without slip planes for it have been developed to simulate the stresses during the process including winding, cooling down and charging. The stress distribution in the coil assembly with and without slip planes was investigated. The results show that slip planes with low friction coefficients can improve the stress condition in the coil, especially reduce the shear stress largely so that improve the stability.

The concept of engine emissions control by modifying intake combustion gas composition from that of ambient air using gas separation membranes has been developed during several programs undertaken at Argonne. These have led to the current program which is targeted at heavy-duty diesel truck engines. The specific objective is reduction of NO{sub x} emissions by the target engine to meet anticipated 2007 standards while extracting a maximum of 5 percent power loss and allowing implementation within commercial constraints of size, weight, and cost. This report includes a brief review of related past programs, describes work completed to date during the current program, and presents interim conclusions. Following a work schedule adjustment in August 2002 to accommodate problems in module procurement and data analysis, activities are now on schedule and planned work is expected to be completed in September, 2004. Currently, we believe that the stated program requirements for the target engine can be met, based upon extrapolation of the work completed. Planned project work is designed to experimentally confirm these projections and result in a specification for a module package that will meet program objectives.

The objective of this project was to test new coupling algorithms and enable efficient and scalable multi-physics simulations of advanced nuclear reactors, with considerations regarding the implementation of such algorithms in massively parallel environments. Numerical tests were carried out to verify the proposed approach and the examples included some reactor transients. The project was directly related to the Sodium Fast Reactor program element of the Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems Initiative and the Advanced Fuel cycle Initiative, and, supported the requirement of high-fidelity simulation as a mean of achieving the goals of the presidential Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) vision.

The High Level Radioactive Waste (HLW) Sludge in Savannah River Site (SRS) waste tanks was produced over a period of over 60 years by neutralizing the acidic waste produced in the F and H Separations Canyons with sodium hydroxide. The HLW slurries have been stored at free hydroxide concentrations above 1 M to minimize the corrosion of the carbon steel waste tanks. Sodium nitrite is periodically added as a corrosion inhibitor. The resulting waste has been subjected to supernate evaporation to minimize the volume of the stored waste. In addition, some of the waste tanks experienced high temperatures so some of the waste has been at elevated temperatures. Because the waste is radioactive, the waste is transforming through the decay of shorter lived radioactive species and the radiation damage that the decay releases. The goal of the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) simulant development program is to develop a method to produce a sludge simulant that matches both the chemical and physical characteristics of the HLW without the time, temperature profile, chemical or radiation exposure of that of the real waste. Several different approaches have been taken historically toward preparing simulated waste slurries. All of the approaches used in the …