The Savannah River Site (SRS) is in the process of removing waste (sludge and salt cake) from million gallon waste tanks. The current practice for removing waste from the tanks is adding water, agitating the tanks with long shaft vertical centrifugal pumps, and pumping the sludge/salt solution from the tank to downstream treatment processes. This practice has left sludge heels ({tilde} 30,000 gallons) in the bottom of the tanks. SRS is evaluating shrouded axial impeller mixers for removing the sludge heels in the waste tanks. The authors conducted a test program to determine mixer requirements for suspending sludge heels using the shrouded axial impeller mixers. The tests were performed with zeolite in scaled tanks which have diameters of 1.5, 6.0, and 18.75 feet. The mixer speeds required to suspend zeolite particles were measured at each scale. The data were analyzed with various scaling methods to compare their ability to describe the suspension of insoluble solids with the mixers and to apply the data to a full-scale waste tank. The impact of changes in particle properties and operating parameters was also evaluated. The conclusions of the work are: Scaling of the suspension of fast settling zeolite particles was best described by …

The authors report a new approach to obtain single-transverse-mode operation of a multimode fiber amplifier, in which the gain fiber is coiled to induce significant bend loss for all but the lowest-order mode. They have demonstrated this method by constructing a coiled amplifier using Yb-doped, double-clad fiber with a core diameter of 25 {micro}m and NA of {minus}0.1 (V {approx} 7.4). When operated as an ASE source, the output beam had an M{sup 2} value of 1.09 {+-} 0.09; when seeded at 1,064 nm, the slope efficiency was similar to that of an uncoiled amplifier. This technique does not require exotic fiber designs or increase system complexity and is inexpensive to implement. It will allow scaling of pulsed fiber lasers and amplifiers to significantly higher pulse energies and peak powers and cw fiber sources to higher average powers while maintaining excellent beam quality.

The assembly and packaging of MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems) devices raise a number of issues over and above those normally associated with the assembly of standard microelectronic circuits. MEMS components include a variety of sensors, microengines, optical components, and other devices. They often have exposed mechanical structures which during assembly require particulate control, space in the package, non-contact handling procedures, low-stress die attach, precision die placement, unique process schedules, hermetic sealing in controlled environments (including vacuum), and other special constraints. These constraints force changes in the techniques used to separate die on a wafer, in the types of packages which can be used in the assembly processes and materials, and in the sealing environment and process. This paper discusses a number of these issues and provides information on approaches being taken or proposed to address them.

The sulfur content in diesel fuel has a significant effect on diesel engine emissions, which are currently subject to environmental regulations. It has been observed that engine particulate and gaseous emissions are directly proportional to fuel sulfur content. With the introduction of low-sulfur fuels, significant reductions in emissions are expected. The process of sulfur reduction in petroleum-based diesel fuels also reduces the lubricity of the fuel, resulting in premature failure of fuel injectors. Thus, another means of preventing injector failures is needed for engines operating with low-sulfur diesel fuels. In this study, the authors evaluated a near-frictionless carbon (NFC) coating (developed at Argonne National Laboratory) as a possible solution to the problems associated with fuel injector failures in low-lubricity fuels. Tribological tests were conducted with NFC-coated and uncoated H13 and 52100 steels lubricated with high- and low- sulfur diesel fuels in a high-frequency reciprocating test machine. The test results showed that the NFC coatings reduced wear rates by a factor of 10 over those of uncoated steel surfaces. In low-sulfur diesel fuel, the reduction in wear rate was even greater (i.e., by a factor of 12 compared to that of uncoated test pairs), indicating that the NFC coating holds promise …

In this study, the authors introduce a new diamondlike carbon (DLC) film providing a friction coefficient of 0.001 and wear rates of 10{sup {minus}9} to 10{sup {minus}10} mm{sup 3}/N.m in inert-gas environments (e.g., dry nitrogen and argon). The film was grown on steel and sapphire substrates in a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition system that uses using a hydrogen-rich plasma. Employing a combination of surface and structure analytical techniques, they explored the structural chemistry of the resultant DLC films and correlated these findings with the friction and wear mechanisms of the films. The results of tribological tests under a 10-N load (creating initial peak Hertz pressures of 1 and 2.2 GPa on steel and sapphire test pairs, respectively) and at 0.2 to 0.5 m/s sliding velocities indicated that a close correlation exists between the friction and wear coefficients of DLC films and the source gas chemistry. Specifically, films grown in source gases with higher hydrogen-to-carbon ratios had the lowest fiction coefficients and the highest wear resistance. The lowest friction coefficient (0.001) was achieved with a film on sapphire substrates produced in a gas discharge plasma consisting of 25% methane and 75% hydrogen.

The effect of line disorder induced by heavy ion irradiation and of point disorder induced by proton and electron irradiation on the upper and lower critical points in the vortex phase diagram of YBCO is presented. The authors find that dilute line disorder induces a Bose glass transition at low fields which is replaced at the lower critical point by first order melting at higher fields. Strong pinning point defects raise the lower critical point, while weak pinning point defects have little or no effect on the lower critical point. The upper critical point is lowered by point disorder, but raised by line disorder. First order melting is suppressed by point disorder in two ways, by lowering of the upper critical point only for weak point pins, or by merging of the upper and lower critical points for strong point pins. The differing responses of the upper and lower critical points to line and point disorder can be understood in a picture of transverse and longitudinal spatial fluctuations.

The last five years have witnessed a rapid increase in the volume of data on proton decaying nuclei. The path was led by decay studies with recoil mass separators equipped with double-sided Si strip detectors. The properties of many proton-decaying states were deduced, which triggered renewed theoretical interest in the process of proton decay. The decay experiments were closely followed by in-beam {gamma}-ray studies which extended one's knowledge of high-spin states of proton emitters. The unparalleled selectivity of the Recoil-Decay Tagging method combined with the high efficiency of large arrays of Ge detectors allowed, despite small cross sections and overwhelming background from strong reaction channels, the observation of excited states in several proton emitters. Recently, in-beam studies of the deformed proton emitters {sup 141}Ho and {sup 131}Eu have been performed with the GAMMASPHERE array of Ge detectors and the Fragment Mass Analyzer at ATLAS. Evidence was found for rotational bands in {sup 141}Ho and {sup 131}Eu. The deformations and the single-particle configurations proposed for the proton emitting states from the earlier proton-decay studies were confronted with the assignments deduced based on the in-beam data. It should be noted that the cross section for populating {sup 131}Eu is only about 50 …

While sulfur in diesel fuels helps reduce friction and prevents wear and galling in fuel pump and injector systems, it also creates environmental pollution in the form of hazardous particulates and SO{sub 2} emissions. The environmental concern is the driving force behind industry's efforts to come up with new alternative approaches to this problem. One such approach is to replace sulfur in diesel fuels with other chemicals that would maintain the antifriction and antiwear properties provided by sulfur in diesel fuels while at the same time reducing particulate emissions. A second alternative might be to surface-treat fuel injection parts (i.e., nitriding, carburizing, or coating the surfaces) to reduce or eliminate failures associated with the use of low-sulfur diesel fuels. This research explores the potential usefulness of a near-frictionless carbon (NFC) film developed at Argonne National Laboratory in alleviating the aforementioned problems. The lubricity of various diesel fuels (i.e., high-sulfur, 500 ppm; low sulfur, 140 ppm; ultra-clean, 3 ppm; and synthetic diesel or Fischer-Tropsch, zero sulfur) were tested by using both uncoated and NFC-coated 52100 steel specimens in a ball-on-three-disks and a high-frequency reciprocating wear-test rig. The test program was expanded to include some gasoline fuels as well (i.e., regular gasoline …

In past years, nuclear analysts had to rely on a limited amount of nuclear data for reactor design. In that time, the need for nuclear data was driven by the thermal and fast reactor programs. In a thermal reactor, the fissions of importance all take place below 4 eV. Because of this, evaluations for thermal applications emphasized this region. In a typical fast reactor, however, the most important fission range shifts upwards to the 10's to 100's of keV region, and this led to evaluations that emphasized this range. Nuclear criticality situations involve an energy spectrum that peaks in the 10's to 100's eV range, and need critical attention to the cross sections in this range. Since all of these systems produce fission neutrons at high energies-500 keV to a few MeV-attention has been given to this energy range. As noted, the region most neglected is the epithermal region; however, calculational experiences suggest many nuclides need improvements in all energy regions.

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Using supercritical fluids as solvents is useful for both practical and theoretical reasons. It has been proposed to use supercritical CO{sub 2} as a solvent for synthesis because it eliminates the air pollution arising from other solvents. The properties of supercritical fluids can be easily varied with only modest changes in temperature and density, so they provide a way of testing theories of chemical reactions. It has also been proposed to use supercritical fluids for the treatment of hazardous mixed waste. For these reasons the authors have studied the production of radiolytic species in supercritical CO{sub 2} and have measured their reactivity as a function of density. They have shown that the C{sub 2}O{sub 4}{sup +} is formed. They also have shown that the electron transfer reactions of dimethylaniline to C{sub 2}O{sub 4}{sup +} and CO{sub 2}(e{sup {minus}}) to benzoquinone are diffusion controlled over a considerable density range.

This paper presents calculations of the selection intensity of common selection and replacement methods used in genetic algorithms (GAs) with generation gaps. The selection intensity measures the increase of the average fitness of the population after selection, and it can be used to predict the average fitness of the population at each iteration as well as the number of steps until the population converges to a unique solution. In addition, the theory explains the fast convergence of some algorithms with small generation gaps. The accuracy of the calculations was verified experimentally with a simple test function. The results of this study facilitate comparisons between different algorithms, and provide a tool to adjust the selection pressure, which is indispensable to obtain robust algorithms.

The authors consider the magnetic field dependence of the plasma resonance frequency in vortex crystal state. The authors found that low magnetic field induces a small correction to the plasma frequency proportional to the field. The slope of this linear field dependence is directly related to the average distance between the pancake vortices in the neighboring layers, wandering length. This length is determined by both Josephson and magnetic couplings between layers. At higher fields the Josephson coupling is suppressed collectively and is determined by elastic energy of the vortex lattice. Analyzing experimental data, they found that (1) the wandering length becomes comparable with the London penetration depth near {Tc}, (2) at small melting fields (< 20 G) the wandering length does not change much at the melting transition demonstrating existence of the line liquid phase in this field range, and (3) the self consistent theory of pancake fluctuations describes very well the field dependence of the Josephson plasma resonance frequency up to the melting point.

In preparation for future clinical BNCT trials, neutron production via the 7Li(p,n) reaction as well as subsequent moderation to produce epithermal neutrons have been studied. Proper design of a moderator and filter assembly is crucial in producing an optimal epithermal neutron spectrum for brain tumor treatments. Based on in-phantom figures-of-merit,desirable assemblies have been identified. Experiments were performed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's 88-inch cyclotron to characterize epithermal neutron beams created using several microampere of 2.5 MeV protons on a lithium target. The neutron moderating assembly consisted of Al/AlF3 and Teflon, with a lead reflector to produce an epithermal spectrum strongly peaked at 10-20 keV. The thermal neutron fluence was measured as a function of depth in a cubic lucite head phantom by neutron activation in gold foils. Portions of the neutron spectrum were measured by in-air activation of six cadmium-covered materials (Au, Mn, In, Cu, Co, W) with high epithermal neutron absorption resonances. The results are reasonably reproduced in Monte Carlo computational models, confirming their validity.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has more than 2.5 million tons of radioactive scrap metal (RSM) that is either in inventory or expected to be generated over the next 25 years as major facilities within the weapons complex are decommissioned. Since much of this metal cannot be decontaminated easily, past practice has been to either retain this material in inventory or ship it to DOE disposal sites for burial. In an attempt to conserve natural resources and to avoid burial of this material at DOE disposal sites, options are now being explored to ``beneficially reuse`` this material. Under the beneficial reuse concept, RSM that cannot be decontaminated and free released is used in applications where the inherent contamination is not a detriment to its end use. This paper describes initiatives currently in progress in the United States that support the DOE beneficial reuse concept.

Knowledge of the rheology of the radioactive sludge slurries at the Savannah River Site (SRS) is necessary in order to ensure that they can be retrieved from waste tanks and processed for final disposal. The high activity radioactive wastes stored as caustic slurries at SRS result from the neutralization of acid waste generated from production of nuclear defense materials. During storage, the wastes separate into a supernate layer and a sludge layer. In the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) at SRS, the radionuclides from the sludge and supernate will be immobilized into borosilicate glass for long term storage and eventual disposal. Before transferring the waste from a storage tank to the DWPF, a portion of the aluminum in the waste sludge will be dissolved and the sludge will be extensively washed to remove sodium. Tank 51 and Tank 42 radioactive sludges represent the first batch of HLW sludge to be processed in the DWPF. This paper presents results of rheology measurements of Tank 51 and Tank 42 at various solids concentrations. The rheologies of Tank 51 and Tank 42 radioactive slurries were measured remotely in the Shielded Cells Operations (SCO) at the Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC) using a modified …

We describe a methodology for obtaining probabilistic risk estimates of deliberate unauthorized acts, integrating estimates of frequencies of serious plots, probabilities of avoiding detection and interdiction, probabilities of successful action, and consequences of the act. This methodology allows us to compare the risks of deliberate acts with those of accidents and to identify the most cost- effective risk reduction measures through cost-benefit analysis.

If on the one hand many predictions of the Standard Model seem to be in remarkable agreement with experiments, on the other hand the full consistency of the model needs still to be proved. In particular, given our present ignorance of the Higgs sector of the theory, extensions of the Standard Model scalar sector are worth considering. The simplest extension of adding one extra SU(2) doublet of scalar fields, i.e. the Two Higgs Doublet Model, generally introduces Flavor Changing Scalar Neutral Currents. The severe constraints imposed by the low energy physics of K and B mesons (K{sup 0} {minus} {bar K}{sup 0} and B{sup 0} {minus} {bar B}{sup 0} mixing in particular) have motivated the introduction of an unnatural discrete symmetry to avoid flavor changing scalar neutral currents. This assumption may be dropped in favor of a more natural one, which takes any flavor changing coupling to be proportional to the mass of the coupled quarks. The basic idea is that a natural hierarchy is provided by the observed fermion masses and this may be transferred to the couplings between fermions and scalar fields, even when they are not the ones directly involved in the mass generation mechanism. This report …

This paper presents new results obtained using the US national gamma-ray facility Gammasphere, which has been operating at the ATLAS accelerator at Argonne National Laboratory since January 1998. Gammasphere was built at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and used primarily as a powerful spectrometer for studying nuclei at the highest spins. For pioneering research in the high-spin regime, it was constructed with high photopeak efficiency (about 10% for 1.33 MeV gamma-rays), good energy resolution (< 2.4 keV at 1.33 meV), good photopeak-to-total response (> 55% of 1.33 MeV events are in the photopeak) and high granularity (> 100 high-purity germanium (HpGe) detector channels, of which 65 are segmented, to allow precise Doppler correction and minimize the chance of double-hits). The device has a high degree of mechanical symmetry which is ideal for angular correlation studies. The whole spectrometer, both HpGe detectors and their BGO anti-Compton shields, can be used for photon calorimetry by adding the energy deposited in the nearly 900 active elements.

Two-phase flow pressure drop measurements were made during a phase-change heat transfer process with three refrigerants (R-134a, R-12, and R-113) at six different pressures ranging from 138 kPa to 856 kPa, and in two sizes of round tubes (2.46 mm and 2.92 mm inside diameters) and one rectangular channel (4.06 x 1.7 mm). State-of-the-art large-tube correlations failed to satisfactorily predict the experimental data. The data were used to develop a new correlation for two-phase pressure drop during flow boiling in small channels. The correlation was then tested against the experimental data for the three refrigerants; the error was {+-}20%.

In this, the second of two reports on diffractive studies at HERA, the inclusive measurements made by the two collaborations, H1 and ZEUS, are summarized.

We are analyzing erosion and tritium codeposition for ITER, DIII-D, and other devices with a focus on carbon divertor and metallic wall sputtering, for detached and semi-detached edge plasmas. Carbon chemical-sputtering hydrocarbon-transport is computed in detail using upgraded models for sputtering yields, species, and atomic and molecular processes. For the DIII-D analysis this includes proton impact and dissociative recombination for the full methane and higher hydrocarbon chains. Several mixed material (Si-C doping and Be/C) effects on erosion are examined. A semi-detached reactor plasma regime yields peak net wall erosion rates of {approximately}1.0 (Be), {approximately}0.3 (Fe), and {approximately}0.01 (W) cm/burn-yr, and {approximately}50 cm/burn-yr for a carbon divertor. Net carbon erosion is dominated by chemical sputtering in the {approximately}1-3 eV detached plasma zone. Tritium codeposition in divertor-sputtered redeposited carbon is high ({approximately}10-20 g-T/1000 s ). Silicon and beryllium mixing tends to reduce carbon erosion. Initial hydrocarbon transport calculations for the DIII-D DiMES-73 detached plasma experiment show a broad spectrum of redeposited molecules with {approximately}90% redeposition fraction.

The use of lasers for the generation and application of high-pressure shock waves offers unique advantages and challenges. In contrast to impact systems, the range of pressures and strain rates is substantially greater using laser drive. The ability to change the temporal shape of the drive pulse allows a variety of strain-rate conditions to be obtained. In addition, high time-resolution in situ diagnostic methods are relatively simple to implement. Lasers can be at a disadvantage compared to impact methods in terms of shock generation, simplicity of the states achieved, the difficulty of characterizing bulk properties, and sample size. I will review the physics of laser-driven shock physics, diagnostic methods, and applications, with an emphasis on material physics. I will also present some views on important new directions for this area of research.

We illustrate the possibility of observing signals from Flavor Changing Neutral Currents, originating from the scalar sector of a Two Higgs Doublet Model. In particular, we focus on the tree level process {mu}{sup +}{mu}{sup {minus}} {yields} {bar t}c + {bar c}t, via scalar exchange in the s-channel, as a distinctive process for {mu}{sup +}{mu}{sup {minus}} colliders. 12 refs., 1 fig.