A shearing tool was developed for remotely controlled severing of pipes or structural members. The shear is rotated about its axis in a wrist motion by the pumped hydraulic fluid that also powers the shear blade. It can be used in a stationary mounting or suspended from a crane. A C-shaped support for the shear was designed to pass through a small top opening of a shielded cell. The controls for manipulating the shear pass through or along the Cframe. The shear jaw opens to 5 in. in height and 7 in. in width, and the total weight of the tool is only 575 lb. It was used to cut metal sections 4 3/4 in. thick and 4-in. sched.-40 stainless steel pipe. (auth)

Techniques and equipment are described which are used for video recordings of the single- and two-phase fluid flow tests conducted with the PKL Spool Piece Measurement System designed by Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and EG and G Inc. The instrumented spool piece provides valuable information on what would happen in pressurized water reactor emergency coolant loops should an accident or rupture result in loss of fluid. The complete closed-circuit television video system, including rod lens, light supply, and associated spool mounting fixtures, is discussed in detail. Photographic examples of test flows taken during actual spool piece system operation are shown.

A mathematical model has been developed for estimati the burnup at which mechanical failure occurs in dispersion fuel elements. It is postulated that failure at low temperature, < 900 deg F, occurs as a result of brittle fracture of an elastic matrix when the intensity of the stress locally reaches the ultimate strength of the material. The contributions of fission gas pressure and thermal stress are incorporated in the stress analysis. Because of the complexity of the stress distribution and the failure process, it was necessary to make stringent assumptions in order to have a workable model. Within the framework of the postulates, burnups to failure are predicted for several values of certain important parameters and compared with burnups to failure obtained from a plastic yield model for failure developed by previous investigation. The two models give good agreement for the special cases considered. Of the parameters examined, relative density of the fuel particles has the greatest influence on predictions of allowable burnup. The thermal stress and volume fraction of fuel play minor roles. (auth)

This program is part of the National Waste Terminal Storage program. The Geologic Review Group meeting was held in New Orleans, November 16-17. Start-up of the near-surface heater experiment in the Conasauga Shale formation is under way at Oak Ridge. The first shipment of experimental equipment from Oak Ridge to Avery Island, Louisiana, for the dome salt in-situ test was successfully completed. On November 9-10, a design status review on the spent fuel repository conceptual design was held with Kaiser Engineers, Inc. On November 2, OWI personnel reviewed the progress on the Economic Studies with TRW representatives.

The purpose of the concept paper is to outline a possible approach to conducting the point-of-use component of the Virginia Electric and Power Company (VEPCO) study of alternative fuels. Alternative measures for point-of-use application (specifically for the residential sector) would include conservation, solar space conditioning and water heating, and heat pumps. An outline is presented of analytical and field work that will provide information on parameters affecting users, the utility, and the market. Six interdependent activities discussed are: performance analysis, market research, utility impact analysis, comparative analysis, strategy planning, and implementation.

The results of a conceptual design study using computer simulations to determine the physical and economic performance of combined photovoltaic/thermal collector heat-pump solar systems for a single-family residence are presented. Economic analyses are based upon projected costs for a 1986 system installation. The results show that PV/T collector systems can be economically competitive for a cold climate residence, that systems employing on-site electrical storage batteries are not economically competitive with utility-interactive systems, and that an ambient-air-source heat-pump system has a lower life-cycle cost than a solar-source heat-pump system.

This cleanup verification package documents completion of remedial action for the 618-2 Burial Ground, also referred to as Solid Waste Burial Ground No. 2; Burial Ground No. 2; 318-2; and Dry Waste Burial Site No. 2. This waste site was used primarily for the disposal of contaminated equipment, materials and laboratory waste from the 300 Area Facilities.

A Discontinuous Galerkin method for solving hyperbolic systems of conservation laws involving interfaces is presented. The interfaces are represented by a collection of element boundaries and their position is updated using an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian method. The motion of the interfaces and the numerical fluxes are obtained by solving a Riemann problem. As the interface is propagated, a simple and effective remeshing technique based on distance functions regenerates the grid to preserve its quality. Compared to other interface capturing techniques, the proposed approach avoids smearing of the jumps across the interface which leads to an improvement in accuracy. Numerical results are presented for several typical two-dimensional interface problems, including flows with surface tension.

The mean cost for converging an estimated density of states using the Wang-Landau algorithm is measured for the Ising and Heisenberg models. The cost increases in a power-law fashion with the number of spins, with an exponent near 3 for one-dimensional models, and closer to 2.4 for two-dimensional models. The effect of multiple, simultaneous walkers on the cost is also measured. For the one-dimensional Ising model the cost can increase with the number of walkers for large systems. For both the Ising and Heisenberg models in two-dimensions, no adverse impact on the cost is observed. Thus multiple walkers is a strategy that should scale well in a parallel computing environment for many models of magnetic materials.

Gas Technology Institute (GTI), together with Hamworthy Peabody Combustion Incorporated (formerly Peabody Engineering Corporation), the University of Utah, and Far West Electrochemical have developed and demonstrated an innovative combustion system suitable for natural gas and coke-oven gas firing within the steel industry. The combustion system is a simple, low-cost, energy-efficient burner that can reduce NOx by more than 75%. The U.S. steel industry needs to address NOx control at its steelmaking facilities. A significant part of NOx emissions comes from gas-fired boilers. In steel plants, byproduct gases – blast furnace gas (BFG) and coke-oven gas (COG) – are widely used together with natural gas to fire furnaces and boilers. In steel plants, natural gas can be fired together with BFG and COG, but, typically, the addition of natural gas raises NOx emissions, which can already be high because of residual fuel-bound nitrogen in COG. The Project Team has applied its expertise in low-NOx burners to lower NOx levels for these applications by combining advanced burner geometry and combustion staging with control strategies tailored to mixtures of natural gas and byproduct fuel gases. These methods reduce all varieties of NOx – thermal NOx produced by high flame temperatures, prompt NOx produced …

We report a passively mode-locked fiber-based oscillator that has no internal dispersion-compensating gratings. This design, the first of its kind, produces 25 nJ pulses at 80 MHz with the pulses compressible to 150 fs. The pulses appear to be self-similar and initial data imply that their energy is further scalable.

A dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) technique has been employed to produce uniform atmospheric plasmas of He and N2 gas mixtures in open air in order to functionalize the surface of filtered-arc deposited hydrogen-free diamond-like carbon (DLC) films. XPS measurements were carried out on both untreated and He/N2 DBD plasma treated DLC surfaces. Chemical states of the C 1s and N 1s peaks were collected and used to characterize the surface bonds. Contact angle measurements were also used to record the short- and long-term variations in wettability of treated and untreated DLC. In addition, cell viability tests were performed to determine the influence of various He/N2 atmospheric plasma treatments on the attachment of osteoblast MC3T3 cells. Current evidence shows the feasibility of atmospheric plasmas in producing long-lasting variations in the surface bonding and surface energy of hydrogen-free DLC and consequently the potential for this technique in the functionalization of DLC coated devices.

Decades of underground coal mining has left about 5,000 square miles of abandoned mine workings that are rapidly filling with water. The water quality of mine pools is often poor; environmental regulatory agencies are concerned because water from mine pools could contaminate diminishing surface and groundwater supplies. Mine pools are also a threat to the safety of current mining operations. Conversely, mine pools are a large, untapped water resource that, with treatment, could be used for a variety of industrial purposes. Others have proposed using mine pools in conjunction with heat pumps as a source of heating and cooling for large industrial facilities. The management or use of mine pool water requires accurate maps of mine pools. West Virginia University has predicted the likely location and volume of mine pools in the Pittsburgh Coalbed using existing mine maps, structure contour maps, and measured mine pool elevations. Unfortunately, mine maps only reflect conditions at the time of mining, are not available for all mines, and do not always denote the maximum extent of mining. Since 1999, the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has been evaluating helicopter-borne, electromagnetic sensing technologies for the detection and mapping of mine pools. Frequency domain electromagnetic sensors …

Composition projections for Sludge Batch 5 (SB5) were developed, based on a modeling approach at the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), to evaluate possible impacts of the Al-dissolution process on the availability of viable frit compositions for vitrification at the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF). The study included two projected SB5 compositions that bound potential outcomes (or degrees of effectiveness) of the Al-dissolution process, as well as a nominal SB5 composition projection based on the results of the recent Al-dissolution demonstration at SRNL. The three SB5 projections were the focus of a two-stage paper study assessment. A Nominal Stage assessment combined each of the SB5 composition projections with an array of 19,305 frit compositions over a wide range of waste loading (WL) values and evaluated them against the DWPF process control models. The Nominal Stage results allowed for the down-selection of a small number of frits that provided reasonable projected operating windows (typically 27 to 42 wt% WL). The frit/sludge systems were mostly limited by process related constraints, with only one system being limited by predictions of nepheline crystallization, a waste form affecting constraint. The criteria applied in selecting the frit compositions somewhat restricted the compositional flexibility of the candidate …

In the event of a toxic chemical release to the atmosphere, shelter-in-place (SIP) is an emergency response option available to protect public health. This paper is the last in a three-part series that examines the effectiveness of SIP at reducing adverse health effects in communities. We model a hypothetical chemical release in an urban area, and consider SIP effectiveness in protecting occupants of commercial buildings. Building air infiltration rates are predicted from empirical data using an existing model. We consider the distribution of building air infiltration rates both with mechanical ventilation systems turned off and with the systems operating. We also consider the effects of chemical sorption to indoor surfaces and nonlinear chemical dose-response relationships. We find that commercial buildings provide effective shelter when ventilation systems are off, but that any delay in turning off ventilation systems can greatly reduce SIP effectiveness. Using a two-zone model, we find that there can be substantial benefit by taking shelter in the inner parts of a building that do not experience direct air exchange with the outdoors. Air infiltration rates vary substantially among buildings and this variation is important in quantifying effectiveness for emergency response. Community-wide health metrics, introduced in the previous papers …

We have developed an assay for detecting variant erythrocytes that occur as a result of in vivo allele loss at the glycophorin A (GPA) locus on chromosome 4 in humans. This gene codes for an erythroid- specific cell surface glycoprotein, and with our assay we are able to detect rare variant erythrocytes that have lost expression of one of the two GPA alleles. Two distinctly different variant cell types are detected with this assay. One variant cell type (called N{O}) is hemizygous. Our assay also detects homozygous variant erythrocytes that have lost expression of the GPA(M) allele and express the GPA(N) allele at twice the heterozygous level. The results of this assay are an enumeration of the frequency of N{O} and NN variant cell types for each individual analyzed. These variant cell frequencies provide a measure of the amount of somatic cell genotoxicity that has occurred at the GPA locus. Such genotoxicity could be the result of (1) reactions of toxic chemicals to which the individual has been exposed, or (2) high energy radiation effects on erythroid precursor cells, or (3) errors in DNA replication or repair in these cells of the bone marrow. Thus, the GPA-based variant cell frequency …

This report summarizes beryllium properties included in producer, Department of Energy, and government specifications. The specifications are divided into two major categories: current and historical. Within each category the data are arranged primarily according to increasing purity and secondarily by increasing tensile properties. Qualitative comments on formability and weldability are included. Also, short summaries of powder production and consolidation techniques are provided.

The progress made over the past year in assessing the feasibility of the high-temperature, boiling cauldron blanket concept for the tanden mirror reactor is reviewed. The status of the proposed experiments and recently revised estimates of the vapor void fraction in the boiling pool are discussed.

In the evaluation of the design of the support system for the Arc AG Magnets, factors which could deform or move the magnet have to be considered. Typically they are the ground movements, temperature effects, water vibrations, magnetic forces on the magnet and coil, and accidental human or equipment impacts. This note calculates the magnetic forces on the conductors at an excitation for a 50 GeV beam. It is found that the force is not negligible; therefore, a method to restrict the movement of the conductors should be introduced.

A mathematical model characterizing the operation of the benzene stripping columns in the In-Tank Precipitation (ITP) process has been developed. The model was verified using operations data of two stripping columns, and the model predicted reasonable, conservative values of the height of a transfer unit (HTU) and outlet solute concentrations. The model was applied to predict general operating efficiency of the ITP strippers, and predictions indicate that the stripping columns will be able to satisfy benzene removal requirements. 12 refs.

This report highlights activities, events, and analyses of interest to public and private sector organizations associated with the natural gas industry. Volume and price data are presented each month for natural gas production, distribution, consumption, and interstate pipeline activities. Producer-related activities and underground storage data are also reported. 7 figs., 34 tabs.

Our work on this contract was divided into two major categories; two thirds of the total effort was in support of the Laboratory Microfusion Facility (LMF), and one third of the effort was in support of Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) commercial reactors. This final report includes copies of the formal reports, memoranda, and viewgraph presentations that were completed under this contract.

This report summarizes the contamination observed at the Hanford Works and vicinity for the period July, August, and September, 1947. Daily or weekly trends for all sampling locations as included in previous reports are omitted except in those cases where a true trend can be established. Statistical analysis to determine significant values and differences is used whenever possible. The report is divided into the following topic sections: meteorological -- wind conditions; extent of beta contamination in air and radiation level in air; extent of contamination in the Columbia River; extent of beta contamination in rain; extent of alpha and beta contamination in sanitary water; extent of beta contamination on vegetation; and the extent of contamination in Hanford Wastes. An appraisal and review of all the results is considered in detail for each section.

As a consequence of the Chernobyl accident, data have been obtained throughout the Northern Hemisphere on the concentrations of radionuclides in air, vegetation, soil, water, and foodstuffs that could be important means of human exposure. At the IAEA's invitation, the traveler reviewed recently published data and handbook summaries. The traveler evaluated the need for revising the default values recommended in Chapter 5, Terrestrial and Aquatic Food Chain Transport,'' of IAEA Safety Series No. 57. All attempts at revision were made to keep the mathematical complexity of the models to a minimum without substantial underestimation of dose to critical population subgroups. The traveler also served as chairman of the Multiple Pathways Working Group of the Coordinated Research Program on VAMP. This group has been established to test predictions of models assessing multiple exposure pathways potentially leading to human exposure to {sup 137}Cs. Testing is carried out for major components of assessment models that predict deposition, environmental transport, food chain bioaccumulation, and subsequent uptake and retention in the human body and dose due to exposure to external gamma radiation.