The effective starting date of this grant was May 15. In the first three months of this project we focused primarily on organizational and technical aspects of our research which included: organization of the database of repeats in primates; preparation of software for rapid and sensitive search of novel repetitive elements in GenBank; purchase and installation of the Sun workstation; and research on the mammal-specific MAR1 family of repetitive elements (to be communicated in October).

Advanced Sciences, Incorporated (ASI), has been performing a Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study (RI/FS) at the Feed Materials Production Center (Fernald Facility) at Fernald, Ohio, under an 8 (a) contract with the US Small Business Administration (SBA). The Fernald Facility is a Government-owned facility operated by Westinghouse Materials Company of Ohio (WMCO) under a management and operating contract. The objective of this audit was to evaluate the award and administration of the ASI contract.

The aims of the proposed project are to enrich our understanding of the roles of various aqueous soluble catalyst precursor anions on the surface electrical properties of coal and to ascertain the influence of the surface charge on the adsorption, dispersion, and activities of calcium and potassium. These goals will be achieved by impregnating a North Dakota lignite (PSOC 1482) and its demineralized derivative with calcium or potassium catalyst precursors containing acetate (CH{sub 3}COO{sup {minus}}), chloride (Cl{sup {minus}}), nitrate (NO{sub 3}{sup {minus}}), sulfate (SO{sub 4}{sup 2{minus}}), and carbonate (CO{sub 3}{sup 2{minus}}) anions. Catalyst loading will be conducted under well-controlled conditions of solution pH and ionic strength. In the last quarter, the surface charge properties of the coal was determined as a function of acetate (CH{sub 3}COO{sup {minus}}), chloride (Cl{sup {minus}}), nitrate (NO{sup 3}{sup {minus}}), carbonate (CO{sub 3}{sup 2{minus}}) or sulfate (SO{sub 4}{sup 2{minus}})concentration using the respective potassium salts of these anions. In general, low anion concentrations (10{sup {minus}3} or 10{sup {minus}2} mol/L) had little effect on the zeta potentials of the coals. However, the surface charge densities of the coal become less negative at 10-1 mol/L of the nitrate, carbonate or sulfate anions. These trends suggest that the surface charge …

Three main issues giving purpose to our visit to CERN, ESRF and DESY were to: assess the current thinking at CERN on whether Eta, the gas desorption coefficient, would continue to decrease with continued with continued beam cleaning, determine if the time between NEG reconditioning could be expanded, and acquire a knowledge of the basic fabrication processes and techniques for producing beam vacuum chambers of copper.

The Environmental Compliance Program is developing and implementing a PHMC-wide chemical management system with the goal being to: (1) manage and control chemicals from procurement through use and final disposition; (2) develop and maintain procedures for identifying and evaluating hazards and environmental impacts present in facilities, and the hazard classification of the facilities. The US Department of Energy (DOE) may promulgate the final rule, 1 0 CFR 834, Radiation Protection of the Public and the Environment in FY 1999. This rule establishes controls for the release of radioactive material and limits for the amount of radiation exposure to the public and the environment. It will be applicable to activities of DOE contractors at the Hanford site. This rule is expected to replace the bulk of DOE Orders 5400.5, Radiation Protection of the Public and the Environment and 5400. 1, General Environmental Protection Program. In doing so, these Orders will be backed by the Price-Anderson enforcement procedures and carry penalties for non-compliance.

The purpose of this engineering study is to investigate the available technology related to dissolution of the K Basin sludge in nitric acid. The conclusion of this study along with laboratory and hot cell tests with actual sludge samples will provide the basis for beginning conceptual design of the sludge dissolver. The K Basin sludge contains uranium oxides, fragments of metallic U, and some U hydride as well as ferric oxyhydroxide, aluminum oxides and hydroxides, windblown sand that infiltrated the basin enclosure, ion exchange resin, and miscellaneous materials. The decision has been made to dispose of this sludge separate from the fuel elements stored in the basins. The sludge will be conditioned so that it meets Tank Waste Remediation System waste acceptance criteria and can be sent to one of the underground storage tanks. Sludge conditioning will be done by dissolving the fuel constituents in nitric acid, separating the insoluble material, adding neutron absorbers for criticality safety, and then reacting the solution with caustic to co-precipitate the uranium and plutonium. There will be five distinct feed streams to the sludge conditioning process two from the K East (KE) Basin and three from the K West (KW) Basin. The composition of …

The K East (KE) and K West (KW) fuel storage basins at the 100 K Area of the Hanford Site contain sludge on the floor, in pits, and inside fuel storage canisters. The major sources of the sludge are corrosion of the fuel elements and steel structures in the basin, sand intrusion from outside the buildings, and degradation of the structural concrete that forms the basins. The decision has been made to dispose of this sludge separate from the fuel elements stored in the basins. The sludge will be treated so that it meets Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) acceptance criteria and can be sent to one of the double-shell waste tanks. The US Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office accepted a recommendation by Fluor Daniel Hanford, Inc., to chemically treat the sludge. Sludge treatment will be done by dissolving the fuel constituents in nitric acid, separating the insoluble material, adding neutron absorbers for criticality safety, and reacting the solution with caustic to co-precipitate the uranium and plutonium. A truck will transport the resulting slurry to an underground storage tank (most likely tank 241-AW-105). The undissolved solids will be treated to reduce the transuranic (TRU) and content, stabilized in grout, …

The aims of the proposed project are to enrich our understanding of the roles of various aqueous soluble catalyst precursor anions on the surface electrical properties of coal and to ascertain the influence of the surface charge on the adsorption, dispersion, and activities of calcium and potassium. These goals will be achieved by impregnating a North Dakota lignite (PSOC 1482) and its demineralized derivative with calcium or potassium catalyst precursors containing acetate (CH{sub 3}COO{sup {minus}}), chloride (Cl{sup {minus}}), nitrate (NO{sub 3}{sup {minus}}), sulfate (SO{sub 4}{sup 2{minus}}), and carbonate (CO{sub 3}{sup 2{minus}}) anions. Catalyst loading will be conducted under well-controlled conditions of solution pH and ionic strength. In the last quarter, the surface charge properties of the coal was determined as a function of acetate (CH{sub 3}COO{sup {minus}}), chloride (Cl{sup {minus}}), nitrate (NO{sup 3}{sup {minus}}), carbonate (CO{sub 3}{sup 2{minus}}) or sulfate (SO{sub 4}{sup 2{minus}})concentration using the respective potassium salts of these anions. In general, low anion concentrations (10{sup {minus}3} or 10{sup {minus}2} mol/L) had little effect on the zeta potentials of the coals. However, the surface charge densities of the coal become less negative at 10-1 mol/L of the nitrate, carbonate or sulfate anions. These trends suggest that the surface charge …

The proposed piping layout for the DO upgrade will run along the south wall of DAB. The cryogenic service pipe runs above the upper and lower cleanroom roofs and will need to be supported by the roofs beams. Calculations were done to determine the stresses in the I-beams created by the existing and additional loads due to the upgrade. Refer to drawing no. 3823.115-ME-317283 for drawings of the piping layout. Figure 1 shows the 'plan view' portion of this drawing. The weight of the individual lines were calculated in figure 2 assuming a pipe density of O.28 lbm/in{sup 3} for stainless steel (0.12% C) and a fluid density (assuming LN2 at 1 atm) of 0.03 lbm/in{sup 3}. The weights of the corrugated steel flooring, assembly hall feed cans, support beams, and roof hatch were also included in the analysis. These loads are calculated on pgs. 5-6. A floor load of 50 lbf/ft{sup 2} was also added in order to maintain the existing floor load limit in addition to the added piping loads. Measurements of the dimensions of the I-beams determined that the nominal sizes of the beams were W8 x 21 for the lower roof and W14 x 26 for …

This document is the Individual Software Plan (ISP) for version 2.0 of the Non-isothermal Unsaturated-saturated Flow and Transport (NUFT.) analysis computer program. This document addresses the applicable requirements of LLNL YMP procedure 033-YMP-QP 3.2, Section 4.2.1.1. The purpose of this ISP is to plan and organize the activities required to certify the NUFT code for quality affecting work involving problems that include cross drift analysis of the Yucca Mountain Repository facility. NUFT is software for application to the solution of a class of coupled mass and heat transport problems in porous geologic media including Yucca Mountain Repository Cross Drift Problem (YMRCDP- also known as the Enhanced Characterization of the Repository Block (ECRB)). Solution of this class of problems requires a suite of multiphase, multi-component models for numerical solution of non- isothermal flow and transport in porous media with applications to subsurface contaminant transport problems. NUFT is a suite of multiphase, multi-component models for numerical solution of non- isothermal flow and transport in porous media, with application to subsurface contaminant transport problems, and in particular, to the hydrology in and about the Yucca Mountain Repository Site. NUFI� is acquired software, as defined by 033-YMP-QP 3.2, and a preliminary baseline of source …

In 1995, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Fossil Energy, asked Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) to conduct a preliminary technical and legal evaluation of disposing of nonhazardous oil field waste (NOW) into salt caverns. That study concluded that disposal of NOW into salt caverns is feasible and legal. If caverns are sited and designed well, operated carefully, closed properly, and monitored routinely, they can be a suitable means of disposing of NOW (Veil et al. 1996). Considering these findings and the increased U.S. interest in using salt caverns for NOW disposal, the Office of Fossil Energy asked Argonne to conduct further research on the cost of cavern disposal compared with the cost of more traditional NOW disposal methods and on preliminary identification and investigation of the risks associated with such disposal. The cost study (Veil 1997) found that disposal costs at the four permitted disposal caverns in the United States were comparable to or lower than the costs of other disposal facilities in the same geographic area. The risk study (Tomasko et al. 1997) estimated that both cancer and noncancer human health risks from drinking water that had been contaminated by releases of cavern contents were significantly lower …

At about 4:30 pm PDT on Friday, August 7, 1998 a fire ignited the large tire disposal pit of Royster Tire Co. on Macarthur Drive about 5 km (3 miles) south of downtown Tracy, California. While providing on-scene mutual aid late Friday night, the LLNL Fire Department called and requested that the Atmospheric Release Advisory Capability (ARAC) make a plume forecast for Saturday. The response team in the field was interested in the forecasted location as well as an estimate of potential health effects on the following day. Not having any previous experience with tire fire source terms, ARAC assessors used a constant unit source rate (1 g/s) of particulate and produced plots showing only the location of the ground-level normalized time-integrated air concentrations from the smoke plume. Very early Saturday morning the assessors faxed plots of ground-level smoke air concentrations forecasted for Saturday from 6 am through 6 pm PDT to the Tracy Fire Emergency Operations Center. (As a part of standard procedure, before delivering the plots, the assessors notified ARAC's DOE sponsor.) Fortunately due to the intense heat from the fire, the dense black smoke immediately lofted into the air preventing high ground-level concentrations close to the tire …

This paper theoretically compares the performance of simulated annealing and evolutionary algorithms. Our main result is that under mild conditions a wide variety of evolutionary algorithms can be shown to have greater performance than simulated annealing after a sufficiently large number of function evaluations. This class of EAs includes variants of evolutionary strategie and evolutionary programming, the canonical genetic algorithm, as well as a variety of genetic algorithms that have been applied to combinatorial optimization problems. The proof of this result is based on a performance analysis of a very general class of stochastic optimization algorithms, which has implications for the performance of a variety of other optimization algorithm.

The Southern Great Plains (SGP) Cloud and Radiation Testbed (CART) site is designed to help satisfy the data needs of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program Science Team. This document defines the scientific priorities for site activities during the six months beginning on July 1, 1997, and looks forward in lesser detail to subsequent six-month periods. The primary purpose of this Site Scientific Mission Plan is to provide guidance for the development of plans for site operations. It also provides information on current plans to the ARM functional teams (Management Team, Data and Science Integration Team [DSIT], Operations Team, Instrument Team [IT], and Campaign Team) and serves to disseminate the plans more generally within the ARM Program and among the members of the Science Team. This document includes a description of the operational status of the site and the primary site activities envisioned, together with information concerning approved and proposed intensive observation periods (IOPs). The primary users of this document are the site operator, the Site Scientist Team (SST), the Science Team through the ARM Program science director, the ARM Program Experiment Center, and the aforementioned ARM Program functional teams. This plan is a living document that is updated and …

This report discusses the results of the environmental protection program at Argonne National Laboratory-East (ANL-E) for 1997. To evaluate the effects of ANL-E operations on the environment, samples of environmental media collected on the site, at the site boundary, and off the ANL-E site were analyzed and compared with applicable guidelines and standards. A variety of radionuclides were measured in air, surface water, on-site groundwater, soil, grass, and bottom sediment samples. In addition, chemical constituents in surface water, groundwater, and ANL-E effluent water were analyzed. External penetrating radiation doses were measured, and the potential for radiation exposure to off-site population groups was estimated. Results are interpreted in terms of the origin of the radioactive and chemical substances (i.e., natural, fallout, ANL-E, and other) and are compared with applicable environmental quality standards. A US Department of Energy dose calculation methodology, based on International Commission on Radiological Protection recommendations and the CAP-88 version of the EPA-AIRDOSE/RADRISK computer code, was used in preparing this report. The status of ANL-E environmental protection activities with respect to the various laws and regulations that govern waste handling and disposal is discussed, along with the progress of environmental corrective actions and restoration projects.

The effective starting date of this grant was May 15. In the first three months of this project we focused primarily on organizational and technical aspects of our research which included: organization of the database of repeats in primates; preparation of software for rapid and sensitive search of novel repetitive elements in GenBank; purchase and installation of the Sun workstation; and research on the mammal-specific MAR1 family of repetitive elements (to be communicated in October).

The general objective of this project is the investigation of phase equilibria for complex fluids using a novel methodology, Monte Carlo simulation in the Gibbs ensemble. The methodology enables the direct determination of the properties of two coexisting fluid phases (e.g. a liquid at equilibrium with its vapor) from a single computer experiment, and is applicable to multicomponent systems with arbitrary equilibrium constraints imposed. The specific goals of this work are to adapt the Gibbs technique to (a) highly asymmetric mixtures with large differences in size and potential energies of interaction (b) chain molecules and (c) ionic systems. Significant progress has been made in all three areas. In this paper, we will briefly describe the progress made in each area, using the same numbering scheme for the tasks as in the original proposal.

The purpose of this work is to provide supporting calculations for determination of the radiation source terms specific to subsurface shielding design and analysis. These calculations are not intended to provide the absolute values of the source terms, which are under the charter of the Waste Package Operations (WPO) Group. Rather, the calculations focus on evaluation of the various combinations of fuel enrichment, burnup and cooling time for a given decay heat output, consistent with the waste package (WP) thermal design basis. The objective is to determine the worst-case combination of the fuel characteristics (enrichment, burnup and cooling time) which would give the maximum radiation fields for subsurface shielding considerations. The calculations are limited to PWR fuel only, since the WP design is currently evolving with thinner walls and a reduced heat load as compared to the viability assessment (VA) reference design. The results for PWR fuel will provide a comparable indication of the trend for BWR fuel, as their characteristics are similar. The source term development for defense high-level waste and other spent nuclear fuel (SNF) is the responsibility of the WPO Group, and therefore, is not included this work. This work includes the following items responsive to the …

Utilizing nuclear fuel to produce power in commercial reactors results in the production of hundreds of fission product and transuranic isotopes in the spent nuclear fuel (SNF). When the SNF is disposed of in a repository, the criticality analyses could consider all of the isotopes, some principal isotopes affecting criticality, or none of the isotopes, other than the initial loading. The selected set of principal isotopes will be the ones used in criticality analyses of the SNF to evaluate the reactivity of the fuel/waste package composition and configuration. This technical document discusses the process used to select the principal isotopes and the possible affect that these isotopes could have on criticality in the SNF. The objective of this technical document is to discuss the process used to select the principal isotopes for disposal criticality evaluations with commercial SNF. The principal isotopes will be used as supporting information in the ''Disposal Criticality Analysis Methodology Topical Report'' which will be presented to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) when approved by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM).

At our Nova laser facility, the temporal history of incident and reflected laser energy is recorded on LLNL optical streak cameras. Currently, six cameras are used to record the incident 1.06-{mu}m, incident 0.35{mu}m power of each of the ten Nova beams. Each camera records seven multiplexed signals: typically one signal from each of five beam lines, a fiducial pulse, and time mark generator signal. The optical signals are transported to the camera through optical fibers. The output end of each fiber is placed in the slit plane of the camera. The light exiting the fiber is focused to the streak camera photocathode by the streak camera relay lens. One camera can record a signal from each of the ten Nova beams plus a fiducial and time mark generator signal if the number of multiplexed channels can be increased from seven to twelve. This would allow one camera to record the same data that currently requires two cameras. At a savings of $150 per camera/CCD system, this represents a savings of $450K. Additionally, camera/CCD maintenance and operation complexity would be cut in half and three streak cameras would be freed for use in other experiments. Recent laboratory measurements suggest that the …

A new ground state source of negative hydrogen ions with polarized nuclei ({rvec H}{sup {minus}}) is being developed at BNL. Extensive developmental research has been aimed at improving each element of ({rvec H}{sup {minus}}) production: cold H{degrees} beam, spin selection and focusing magnets, and ionizer. These elements have recently been integrated into a source. A first test with the accommodator nozzle cooled only to liquid nitrogen temperatures resulted in 5 {mu}A of H{sup {minus}}. Tests at liquid helium temperatures are now beginning. 7 refs., 1 fig.

This project will provide a full demonstration of an entirely new package of exploration technologies that will result in the discovery and development of significant new gas reserves now trapped in unconventional low-permeability reservoirs. This demonstration includes the field application of these technologies, prospect definition and well siting, and a test of this new strategy through wildcat drilling. In addition this project includes a demonstration of a new stimulation technology that will improve completion success in these unconventional low permeability reservoirs which are sensitive to drilling and completion damage. The work includes two test wells to be drilled by Snyder Oil Company on the Shoshone/Arapahoe Tribal Lands in the Wind River Basin. This basin is a foreland basin whose petroleum systems include Paleozoic and Cretaceous source beds and reservoirs which were buried, folded by Laramide compressional folding, and subsequently uplifted asymmetrically. The anomalous pressure boundary is also asymmetric, following differential uplift trends.

A criticality safety evaluation of the K Basin filter cartridge assemblies was completed to support operations without criticality alarm system. The results show that for normal operation, the cartridge assembly is far below the safety limit of K eff = 0.95.

This Project Execution Plan (PEP) defines the overall strategy, objectives, and contractor management requirements for the execution phase of Project W-519 (98-D403), Privatization Phase 1 Infrastructure Support, whose mission is to effect the required Hanford site infrastructure physical changes to accommodate the Privatization Contractor facilities. This plan provides the project scope, project objectives and method of performing the work scope and achieving objectives. The plan establishes the work definitions, the cost goals, schedule constraints and roles and responsibilities for project execution. The plan also defines how the project will be controlled and documented.