Final report of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States describing their activities and findings regarding the failure of the Intelligence Community to provide accurate information about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. It includes an assessment of current capabilities against threats and recommendations for improving the Intelligence Community.

The authors propose to develop a high-energy heavy-ion experimental database and make it accessible to the scientific community through an on-line interface. This database will be searchable and cross-indexed with relevant publications, including published detector descriptions. Since this database will be a community resource, it requires the high-energy nuclear physics community's financial and manpower support. This database should eventually contain all published data from Bevalac, AGS and SPS to RHIC and CERN-LHC energies, proton-proton to nucleus-nucleus collisions as well as other relevant systems, and all measured observables. Such a database would have tremendous scientific payoff as it makes systematic studies easier and allows simpler benchmarking of theoretical models to a broad range of old and new experiments. Furthermore, there is a growing need for compilations of high-energy nuclear data for applications including stockpile stewardship, technology development for inertial confinement fusion and target and source development for upcoming facilities such as the Next Linear Collider. To enhance the utility of this database, they propose periodically performing evaluations of the data and summarizing the results in topical reviews.

Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) is an ideal technology to power self-contained single-stage piloted (manned) spacecraft within the solar system because of its inherently high power/mass ratios and high specific impulses (i.e., high exhaust velocities). These technological advantages are retained when ICF is utilized with a magnetic thrust chamber, which avoids the plasma thermalization and resultant degradation of specific impulse that are unavoidable with the use of mechanical thrust chambers. We started with Rod Hyde's 1983 description of an ICF-powered engine concept using a magnetic thrust chamber, and conducted a more detailed systems study to develop a viable, realistic, and defensible spacecraft concept based on ICF technology projected to be available in the first half of the 21st century. The results include an entirely new conical spacecraft conceptual design utilizing near-existing radiator technology. We describe the various vehicle systems for this new concept, estimate the missions performance capabilities for general missions to the planets within the solar system, and describe in detail the performance for the baseline mission of a piloted roundtrip to Mars with a 100-ton payload. For this mission, we show that roundtrips totaling {ge}145 days are possible with advanced DT fusion technology and a total (wet) spacecraft mass …

Corrosion of tubing used in black-liquor recovery boilers is a major concern in all pulp and paper mills. Extensive corrosion in recovery boiler tubes can result in a significant safety and environmental hazard. Considerable plant resources are expended to inspect recovery boiler tubing. Currently, visual and ultrasonic inspections are primarily used during the annual maintenance shutdown to monitor corrosion rates and cracking of tubing. This Department of Energy, Office of Industrial Technologies project is developing guided acoustic waves for use on recovery boiler tubing. The feature of this acoustic technique is its cost-effectiveness in inspecting long lengths of tubes from a single inspection point. A piezoelectric or electromagnetic transducer induces guided waves into the tubes. The transducer detects fireside defects from the cold side or fireside of the tube. Cracking and thinning on recovery boiler tubes have been detected with this technique in both laboratory and field applications. This technique appears very promising for recovery boiler tube application, potentially expediting annual inspection of tube integrity.

This report satisfies requirements in the Operations and Maintenance Plan for the 300-FF-5 Operable Unit (DOE/RL-95-73, Rev. 1) to provide detailed information, beyond that provided in the regular annual groundwater report (e.g., PNNL-15070), on groundwater conditions. The purpose is to characterize current conditions; provide a basis for changes to the monitoring schedules; and provide technical information to support the second 5-year review of the record-of-decision for the operable unit. Key topics include historical trends in the levels of various contaminants; updating the list of contaminants of potential concern; conceptual site models for uranium (300 Area) and tritium (618-11 waste site sub-region); performance of the interim actions under the current record-of-decision; and analysis of the applicability of Monitored Natural Attenuation as a remedial action alternative.

The purpose of this report is to document the results from laboratory testing of the bulk vitri-fied (BV) waste form that was conducted in support of the 2005 integrated disposal facility (IDF) performance assessment (PA). Laboratory testing provides a majority of the key input data re-quired to assess the long-term performance of the BV waste package with the STORM code. Test data from three principal methods, as described by McGrail et al. (2000a; 2003a), are dis-cussed in this testing report including the single-pass flow-through test (SPFT) and product con-sistency test (PCT). Each of these test methods focuses on different aspects of the glass corrosion process. See McGrail et al. (2000a; 2003a) for additional details regarding these test methods and their use in evaluating long-term glass performance. In addition to evaluating the long-term glass performance, this report discusses the results and methods used to provided a recommended best estimate of the soluble fraction of 99Tc that can be leached from the engineer-ing-scale BV waste package. These laboratory tests are part of a continuum of testing that is aimed at improving the performance of the BV waste package.

This report describes a study conducted by PNNL for the Bonneville Power Administration to characterized the conditions fish experience when entrained in pump flow at the Grand Coulee Dam. PNNL used the Sensor Fish to measure the acceleration and pressure conditions that might be experienced by fish who are pulled through the pumps and turbines at Grand Coulee Dam's pump generation station and transported up into the feeder canal leading to Banks Lake. The probability that fish would be struck by the pump generating plant's new 9-bladed turbines was also calculated using Monte Carlo simulations. Our measurements showed relatively low turbulence except in the immediate vicinity of the runner environment. The highest pressure experienced by the Sensor Fish was estimated at 157 psi (the pressure gauge saturated at 155 psi). The probability of strike was also calculated, based on the average length of hatchery-reared juvenile kokanee (land-locked sockeye). Strike probabilities ranged from 0.755 for 2.36-inch fish to 0.3890 for 11.8-inch fish. The probability of strike estimates indicate that the majority (77%) of kokanne would be carried through the pump without being struck and most likely without injury resulting from pressure and turbulence exposure. Of the 23% that might be struck …

Theories of evolving quintessence are constructed that generically lead to deviations from the w = -1 prediction of non-evolving dark energy. The small mass scale that governs evolution, m_\phi \approx 10^-33 eV, is radiatively stable, and the"Why Now?'' problem is solved. These results rest crucially on seesaw cosmology: in broad outline, fundamental physics and cosmology can be understood from only two mass scales, the weak scale, v, and the Planck scale, M. Requiring a scale of dark energy \rho_DE^1/4 governed by v^2/M, and a radiatively stable evolution rate m_\phi given by v^4/M^3, leads to a distinctive form for the equation of state w(z) that follows from a cosine quintessence potential. An explicit hidden axion model is constructed. Dark energy resides in the potential of the axion field which is generated by a new QCD-like force that gets strong at the scale \Lambda \approx v^2/M \approx \rho_DE^1/4. The evolution rate is given by a second seesaw that leads to the axion mass, m_\phi \approx \Lambda^2/f, with f \approx M.

Description. Individual raw data streams from instrumentation at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program Climate Research Facility (ACRF) fixed and mobile sites are collected and sent to the Data Management Facility (DMF) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for processing in near real time. Raw and processed data are then sent daily to the ACRF Archive, where they are made available to users. For each instrument, we calculate the ratio of the actual number of data records received daily at the Archive to the expected number of data records. The results are tabulated by (1) individual data stream, site, and month for the current year and (2) site and fiscal year dating back to 1998. The United States Department of Energy requires national user facilities to report time-based operating data. The requirements concern the actual hours of operation (ACTUAL); the estimated maximum operation or uptime goal (OPSMAX), which accounts for planned downtime; and the VARIANCE [1 – (ACTUAL/OPSMAX)], which accounts for unplanned downtime. The OPSMAX time for this second quarter for the Southern Great Plains (SGP) site is 2052 hours (0.95 × 2,160 hours this quarter). The annual OPSMAX for the North Slope Alaska (NSA) site is 1944 hours (0.90 × …

Maximizing production from wells drilled in low-permeability reservoirs, such as the Barnett Shale, is determined by cementing, stimulation, and production techniques employed. Studies show that cementing can be effective in terms of improving fracture effectiveness by 'focusing' the frac in the desired zone and improving penetration. Additionally, a method is presented for determining the required properties of the set cement at various places in the well, with the surprising result that uphole cement properties in wells destined for multiple-zone fracturing is more critical than those applied to downhole zones. Stimulation studies show that measuring pressure profiles and response during Pre-Frac Injection Test procedures prior to the frac job are critical in determining if a frac is indicated at all, as well as the type and size of the frac job. This result is contrary to current industry practice, in which frac jobs are designed well before the execution, and carried out as designed on location. Finally, studies show that most wells in the Barnett Shale are production limited by liquid invasion into the wellbore, and determinants are presented for when rod or downhole pumps are indicated.

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The forest products industry consumes large amounts of energy. Understanding how genetic variation in trees actually controls the characteristics of wood, the major raw material utilized by the industry, is an opportunity for energy savings. For companies that are vertically integrated (i.e., have both tree production and processing operations), energy savings can accrue for both production and processing. Tree production demands nitrogen fertilizers, the manufacture of which is highly energy intensive. Wood processing for paper product manufacturing requires digestion and bleaching, both of which are more efficient when the lignin content of wood is reduced. This project identified genes involved in utilization of nitrogen from fertilizer, and the coupling of nitrogen demand to lignin content, establishing a framework for reducing tree nitrogen demand per unit carbon gained. This creates opportunities for genetic manipulation of trees for greater energy efficiency.

The field operator, Goldrus Producing Company, has been unable to secure funding needed to continue the field demonstration phase of the project. Accordingly, we have temporarily halted all project activities until necessary funding is obtained. Goldrus is confident that funds can be acquired by third quarter 2005 at which time it will be necessary to request a project extension to complete the originally designed study.

This is the nineteenth Quarterly Technical Report for DOE Cooperative Agreement No: DEFC26-00NT40753. The goal of the project is to develop cost effective analysis tools and techniques for demonstrating and evaluating low NO{sub x} control strategies and their possible impact on boiler performance for boilers firing US coals. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is providing co-funding for this program. Refurbished corrosion probes were installed at Plant Gavin and operated for approximately 1,300 hours. This quarterly report includes further results from the BYU catalyst characterization lab and the in-situ lab, and includes the first results from a model suitable for comprehensive simulation codes for describing catalyst performance. The SCR slipstream reactor at Plant Gadsden operated for approximately 100 hours during the quarter because of ash blockage in the inlet probe.

Under this project SETECS performed research, created the design, and the initial prototype of three groups of security technologies: (a) middleware security platform, (b) Web services security, and (c) group security system. The results of the project indicate that the three types of security technologies can be used either individually or in combination, which enables effective and rapid deployment of a number of secure applications in open networking environments. The middleware security platform represents a set of object-oriented security components providing various functions to handle basic cryptography, X.509 certificates, S/MIME and PKCS No.7 encapsulation formats, secure communication protocols, and smart cards. The platform has been designed in the form of security engines, including a Registration Engine, Certification Engine, an Authorization Engine, and a Secure Group Applications Engine. By creating a middleware security platform consisting of multiple independent components the following advantages have been achieved - Object-oriented, Modularity, Simplified Development, and testing, Portability, and Simplified extensions. The middleware security platform has been fully designed and a preliminary Java-based prototype has been created for the Microsoft Windows operating system. The Web services security system, designed in the project, consists of technologies and applications that provide authentication (i.e., single sign), authorization, and federation …

This semi-annual technical progress report describes work performed at Morehouse College under DOE Grant No. DE-FG26-02NT15447 during the period October 01, 2004 to March 31, 2005 which covers the fifth six months of the project. Presently work is in progress to characterize phase and emulsion behavior for ethylbenzene/water/ethanol system. Ethylbenzene that has the equivalent carbon number is used as the model condensate. During this reporting period, electrical conductivity measurements for bottom, and top phases, as well as bottom/top, and top/bottom conjugate pair phases of the ethylbenzene/water/ethanol system were performed for various ethanol volume percentage of the mixtures starting from 2% to 60%. Preliminary findings are that electrical conductivity of the bottom phase decreased as ethanol volume fraction of the mixture increased. Conductivity of the top phase was small and remained almost the same for variations in ethanol volume fraction of the mixture. Conductivity of the emulsion of the conjugate pair phases decreased as the fraction of volume of the top phase was increased and vice versa. Also inversion phenomena was observed. Detailed analyses are in progress including the prediction of conductivity data using the theoretical model already developed in this project.

Research is being conducted under United States Department of Energy (DOE) Contract DE-FC26-03NT41865 to develop a new technology to achieve very low levels of NOx emissions from pulverized coal fired boiler systems by employing a novel system level integration between the PC combustion process and the catalytic NOx reduction with CO present in the combustion flue gas. The combustor design and operating conditions will be optimized to achieve atypical flue gas conditions. This approach will not only suppress NOx generation during combustion but also further reduce NOx over a downstream catalytic reactor that does not require addition of an external reductant, such as ammonia.

Large-scale combustion tests with caking bituminous coal was on hold this quarter mainly due to Riley's Commercial Burner Test Facility (CBTF) not having adequate weatherproofing to support operation under freezing conditions. The CBTF was secured and decommissioned for the winter season. CBTF bituminous coal tests shall continue to remain on hold now as a result of project funding limitations, however. No further modifications at the CBTF are planned until needed support is obtained. Activities this quarter have concentrated on finding additional support for the project. Currently, GTI has been granted a no-cost time extension through September 2005 and efforts to secure more support will continue in hopes that large-scale preheat caking bituminous combustion tests will be carried out as planned.

This is the fourth quarterly report under DOE Cooperative Agreement No.: DE-FC26-03NT41730. Due a number of circumstances, mostly associated with subcontractor agreements, the actual beginning of the project was delayed from its original award date of March 5, 2003. DOE's Project Manager was kept informed (verbally) by PPL's Project Manager throughout this period. Because of this delay, this is the fourth quarterly report and it refers to the time period from January to March 2004. The on-site deployment and testing of the ozonation system took place during this period. This report summarizes these activities including some preliminary results. No significant issues or concerns are identified.

Recycled CO{sub 2} is being used in this demonstration project to produce bypassed oil from the Silurian Dover 35 Niagaran pinnacle reef located in Otsego County, Michigan. CO{sub 2} injection in the Dover 35 field into the Salling-Hansen 4-35A well began on May 6, 2004. A second injection well, the Salling-Hansen 1-35, commenced injection in August 2004. Oil production in the Pomerzynski 5-35 producing well increased from 9 BOPD prior to operations to an average of 165 BOPD in December, 2004 and is presently producing 52 BOPD. The Salling-Hansen 4-35A also produced during this reporting period an average of 21 BOPD. These increases have occurred as a result of CO{sub 2} injection and the production rate appears to be stabilizing. CO{sub 2} injection volume has reached approximately 1.6 BCF. The CO{sub 2} injection phase of this project has been fully operational since December 2004 and most downhole mechanical issues have been solved and surface facility modifications have been completed. It is anticipated that filling operations will run for another 6-12 months from July 1, 2005. In most other aspects, the demonstration is going well and hydrocarbon production has been successfully increased to a stable rate of 73 BOPD. Our industry …

This document lists experimental references added to Nuclear Science References (NSR) during the period January 1, 2005 to March 31, 2005. The first section lists keynumbers and keywords sorted by mass and nuclide. The second section lists all references, ordered by keynumber.

The integrity of coatings used in hot section components of combustion turbines is crucial to the reliability of the buckets. This project was initiated in recognition of the need for predicting the life of coatings analytically, and non-destructively; correspondingly, four principal tasks were established. Task 1, with the objective of analytically developing stress, strain and temperature distributions in the bucket and thereby predicting thermal fatigue (TMF) damage for various operating conditions; Task 2 with the objective of developing eddy current techniques to measure both TMF damage and general degradation of coatings and, Task 3 with the objective of developing mechanism based algorithms. Task 4 is aimed at verifying analytical predictions from Task 1 and the NDE predictions from Task 3 against field observations.

Turbo diesel engine use in passenger cars in Europe has resulted in 30-50% improvement in fuel economy. Diesel engine application is particularly suitable for US because of vehicle size and duty cycle patterns. Adopting this technology for use in the US presents two issues--emissions and driveability. Emissions reduction technology is being well addressed with advanced turbocharging, fuel injection and catalytic aftertreatment systems One way to address driveability is to eliminate turbo lag and increase low speed torque. Electrically assisted turbocharging concepts incorporated in e-Turbo{trademark} designs do both The purpose of this project is to design and develop an electrically assisted turbocharger, e-Turbo{trademark}, for diesel engine use in the US. In this report, early design and development of electrical assist technology is described together with issues and potential benefits. In this early phase a mathematical model was developed and verified. The model was used in a sensitivity study. The results of the sensitivity study together with the design and test of first generation hardware was fed into second generation designs. In order to fully realize the benefits of electrical assist technology it was necessary to expand the scope of work to include technology on the compressor side as well as electronic …

The principal research effort for Year 2 of the project is the determination of the burial and thermal maturation histories and basin modeling and petroleum system identification of the North Louisiana Salt Basin. In the first six (6) to nine (9) months of Year 2, the research focus is on the determination of the burial and thermal maturation histories and the remainder of the year the emphasis is on basin modeling and petroleum system identification. No major problems have been encountered to date, and the project is on schedule.