Three-dimensional finite element analyses were performed for the two gas-filled storage caverns at the Egan field, Jennings dome, Louisiana. The effects of cavern enlargement on surface subsidence, storage loss, and cavern stability were investigated. The finite element model simulated the leaching of caverns to 6 and 8 billion cubic feet (BCF) and examined their performance at various operating conditions. Operating pressures varied from 0.15 psi/ft to 0.9 psi/ft at the bottom of the lowest cemented casing. The analysis also examined the stability of the web or pillar of salt between the caverns under differential pressure loadings. The 50-year simulations were performed using JAC3D, a three dimensional finite element analysis code for nonlinear quasistatic solids. A damage criterion based on onset of dilatancy was used to evaluate cavern instability. Dilation results from the development of microfractures in salt and, hence, potential increases in permeability onset occurs well before large scale failure. The analyses predicted stable caverns throughout the 50-year period for the range of pressures investigated. Some localized salt damage was predicted near the bottom walls of the caverns if the caverns are operated at minimum pressure for long periods of time. Volumetric cavern closures over time due to creep were …

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In recent years, the focus of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) complex has shifted from defense production to facility stabilization, decommissioning, and environmental restoration. This shift from production to cleanup requires a parallel shift from operations-focused management to project-focused management for an efficient facility deactivation. In the operation-focused management organization, activities are planned and executed based on production goals and are typically repetitive and cyclic. In the project-focused management environment, activities are based on a defined scope/end objective, start date, and completion date. Since the workforce used to perform production operations is also usually relied onto perform facility deactivation, it is important to shift from an operations management approach to a project management approach. It is best if the transition is accomplished quickly so the project can move forward and workers don't spend a lot of energy anticipating change. Therefore, it is essential that managers, planners, and other workers understand the key elements associated with planning a deactivation project. This paper describes a planning approach that has been used successfully to plan deactivation projects consistent with the requirements provided in DOE Order 430.1A Life Cycle Asset Management and the companion Deactivation Implementation Guide, G430. 1A-3, while exceeding schedule expectations …

Advanced reservoir characterization techniques are being used at the Nash Draw Brushy Canyon Pool project to develop reservoir management strategies for optimizing oil recovery from this Delaware reservoir. The reservoir characterization, geologic modeling, 3-D seismic interpretation, and simulation studies have provided a detailed model of the Brushy Canyon zones. This model was used to predict the success of different reservoir management scenarios and to aid in determining the most favorable combination of targeted drilling, pressure maintenance, well stimulation, and well spacing to improve recovery from this reservoir.

A three dimensional, finite element-based, flow and dispersion model is used to simulate the transport and fate of hazardous releases in the atmosphere. Numerical results are presented for two experimental studies: (1) Airflow and dispersion over multiple blocks in a wind tunnel; and (2) Tracer study of a point release in the neighborhood of a building complex.

We performed an analysis of error densities for the Special Perturbations orbit propagator using data for 29 satellites in orbits of interest to Space Shuttle and International Space Station collision avoidance. We find that the along-track errors predominate. These errors increase monotonically over each 36-hour prediction interval. The predicted positions in the along-track direction progressively either leap ahead of or lag behind the actual positions. Unlike the along-track errors the radial and cross-track errors oscillate about their nearly zero mean values. As the number of observations per fit interval decline the along-track prediction errors, and amplitudes of the radial and cross-track errors, increase.

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This report summarizes waste shipments to the Nevada Test Site Radioactive Waste Management Sites at Area 3 and Area 5 during fiscal year 1998. In addition this report provides a summary evaluation of each shipping campaign by source (waste generator) which identifies observable incidents, if any, associated with the actual waste shipments.

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This is the ninth Annual Report to the Congress describing Department of Energy (Department) activities in response to formal recommendations and other interactions with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (Board). The Board, an independent executive-branch agency established in 1988, provides advice and recommendations to the Secretary of energy regarding public health and safety issues at the Department`s defense nuclear facilities. The Board also reviews and evaluates the content and implementation of health and safety standards, as well as other requirements, relating to the design, construction, operation, and decommissioning of the Department`s defense nuclear facilities. The locations of the major Department facilities are provided. During 1998, Departmental activities resulted in the proposed closure of one Board recommendation. In addition, the Department has completed all implementation plan milestones associated with four other Board recommendations. Two new Board recommendations were received and accepted by the Department in 1998, and two new implementation plans are being developed to address these recommendations. The Department has also made significant progress with a number of broad-based initiatives to improve safety. These include expanded implementation of integrated safety management at field sites, a renewed effort to increase the technical capabilities of the federal workforce, and a revised …

In fiscal year (FY) 1998 two new fusion technology programs were initiated in the US, with the goal of making marked progress in the scientific understanding of technologies and materials required to withstand high plasma heat flux and neutron wall loads. APEX is exploring new and revolutionary concepts that can provide the capability to extract heat efficiently from a system with high neutron and surface heat loads while satisfying all the fusion power technology requirements and achieving maximum reliability, maintainability, safety, and environmental acceptability. ALPS program is evaluating advanced concepts including liquid surface limiters and divertors on the basis of such factors as their compatibility with fusion plasma, high power density handling capabilities, engineering feasibility, lifetime, safety and R and D requirements. The APEX and ALPS are three-year programs to specify requirements and evaluate criteria for revolutionary approaches in first wall, blanket and high heat flux component applications. Conceptual design and analysis of candidate concepts are being performed with the goal of selecting the most promising first wall, blanket and high heat flux component designs that will provide the technical basis for the initiation of a significant R and D effort beginning in FY2001. These programs are also considering opportunities …

This paper presents our assessment of field experience related to pressurized water reactor (PWR) primary system leaks in terms of their number and rates, how aging affects frequency of leak events, the safety significance of such leaks, industry efforts to reduce leaks, and effectiveness of current leak detection systems. We have reviewed the licensee event reports to identify the events that took place during 1985 to the third quarter of 1996, and reviewed related technical literature and visited PWR plants to analyze these events. Our assessment shows that USNRC licensees have taken effective actions to reduce the number of leak events. One main reason for this decreasing trend was the elimination or reportable leakages from valve stem packing after 1991. Our review of leak events related to vibratory fatigue reveals a statistically significant decreasing trend with age (years of operation), but not in calendar time. Our assessment of worldwide data on leakage caused by thermal fatigue cracking is that the fatigue of aging piping is a safety significant issue. Our review of leak events has identified several susceptible sites in piping having high safety significance; but the inspection of some of these sites is not required by the ASME Code. …

The assessment of smolt condition for travel time analysis (ASCTTA) project provided information on the level of smoltification in Columbia River hatchery and wild salmonid stocks to the Fish Passage Center (FPC), for the primary purpose of in-river management of flows.

Alkanolamines are commonly used by the natural gas industry to remove hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, and other acid gases from the natural gas in which they occur (''sour'' gas if hydrogen sulfide is present). At sour gas-processing plants, as at all plants that use alkanolamines for acid gas removal (AGR), spills and on-site management of wastes containing alkanolamines and associated reaction products have occasionally resulted in subsurface contamination that is presently the focus of some environmental concern. In 1994, the Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) initiated a three-phase program to investigate the natural attenuation processes that control the subsurface transport and fate of the most commonly used alkanolamine in Canada, monoethanolamine (MEA). Funding for the MEA research program was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), Canadian Occidental Petroleum Ltd. (CanOxy), Gas Research Institute (GRI), Environment Canada, and the National Energy Board of Canada. The MEA research program focused primarily on examining the biodegradability of MEA and MEA-related waste materials in soils and soil-slurries under a variety of environmentally relevant conditions, evaluating the mobility of MEA in soil and groundwater and the effectiveness of bioremediation techniques for removing contaminants and toxicity from …

This document offers information on video and audio material for educating outdoor sports persons.

Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to reviewing agency use of long-term contract and temporary workers and determining the agencies' reasons for using a contract workforce, decision-making processes used when hiring contract versus state workers, and levels of management exercised with contract workforce; to determining how to improve collection and reporting of contract workforce information to the Legislature; and to providing agencies with information on what considerations they should take into account when creating a contract workforce.

This paper presents guidance on how to perform internal audits that get management's attention and result in effective corrective action. It assumes that the reader is already familiar with the basic constructs of auditing and knows how to perform them. Instead, it focuses on additional techniques that have proven to be effective in our internal auditing program. Examples using a theoretical audit of a calibration program are included.

This report documents a data collection where we recorded redundant range image data from multiple views of a simple scene, and recorded accurate survey measurements of the same scene. Collecting these data was a focus of the research project Automated Geometric Model Builder Using Range Image Sensor Data (96-0384), supported by Sandia's Laboratory-Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program during fiscal years 1996, 1997, and 1998. The data described here are available from the authors on CDROM, or electronically over the Internet. Included in this data distribution are Computer-Aided Design (CAD) models we constructed from the survey measurements. The CAD models are compatible with the SolidWorks 98 Plus system, the modern Computer-Aided Design software system that is central to Sandia's DeskTop Engineering Project (DTEP). Integration of our measurements (as built) with the constructive geometry process of the CAD system (as designed) delivers on a vision of the research project. This report on our final data collection will also serve as a final report on the project.

This report documents the results of a laboratory-directed research and development (LDRD) project on control and agile manufacturing in the critical metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) materials growth processes essential to high-speed microelectronics and optoelectronic components. This effort is founded on a modular and configurable process automation system that serves as a backbone allowing integration of process-specific models and sensors. We have developed and integrated MOCVD- and MBE-specific models in this system, and demonstrated the effectiveness of sensor-based feedback control in improving the accuracy and reproducibility of semiconductor heterostructures. In addition, within this framework we have constructed ''virtual reactor'' models for growth processes, with the goal of greatly shortening the epitaxial growth process development cycle.

The decays B{sup +} {r_arrow} D{sup *+}{sub s}{gamma} and B{sup +} {r_arrow} D{sup *+}{gamma} can be used for an extraction of {vert_bar}V{sub ub}{vert_bar}. When the b and c quarks are nearly degenerate the rate for these modes can be determined in terms of other observed rates, namely B{anti B} mixing and D{sup *} {r_arrow} D{gamma} decay. To this end the authors introduce a novel application of heavy quark and flavor symmetries. Although somewhat unrealistic, this limit provides them with a first estimate of these rates.

BalTrim is an Excel(R) spreadsheet designed to calculate the inertial mass properties and ballast trim weight for either an assembled reentry vehicle (RV) or reentry body (RB). With this application, the user enters known mass properties and global coordinates for each subcomponent of the assembly, and BalTrim calculates the mass properties of the total assembly. Then, using the assembly mass properties, BalTrim calculates the necessary amount of ballast trim weight required to dynamically and statically balance the assembly mass properties. The final mass properties and trim ballast weight calculated with BalTrim agree with physicaly measured values.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is required by law to treat and safely dispose of the radioactive wastes from its nuclear weapon production activities. The primary radionuclide in the DOE liquid wastes or supernatants is {sup 137}Cs. At the Savannah River Site (SRS), the In-Tank Precipitation (ITP) process was selected as the baseline technology to remove {sup 137}Cs from the supernatants, which are stored in underground storage tanks. In the ITP process, tetraphenylborate reacts with the water-soluble cesium to form a precipitant. The treated supernatant can then be immobilized in grout or saltstone and stored in vaults at the SRS. However, problems were encountered during the full-scale ITP processing. These difficulties have led to the evaluation of alternative technologies and/or concepts to the currently configured ITP process. The High-Level Waste Salt Disposition Team at the SRS is currently performing this assessment. After an initial screening of all potential alternatives, the Salt Disposition Team selected four primary options to evaluate further before the final down-selection. Crystalline silicotitanate (CST), an inorganic ion exchanger, was chosen as one of the leading alternatives. Since nearly all of the CST tests have been performed on supernatants from Hanford and Oak Ridge, the Salt Disposition Team …

We have developed a Bayesian approach to the analysis of neural electromagnetic (MEG/EEG) data that can incorporate or fuse information from other imaging modalities and addresses the ill-posed inverse problem by sarnpliig the many different solutions which could have produced the given data. From these samples one can draw probabilistic inferences about regions of activation. Our source model assumes a variable number of variable size cortical regions of stimulus-correlated activity. An active region consists of locations on the cortical surf ace, within a sphere centered on some location in cortex. The number and radi of active regions can vary to defined maximum values. The goal of the analysis is to determine the posterior probability distribution for the set of parameters that govern the number, location, and extent of active regions. Markov Chain Monte Carlo is used to generate a large sample of sets of parameters distributed according to the posterior distribution. This sample is representative of the many different source distributions that could account for given data, and allows identification of probable (i.e. consistent) features across solutions. Examples of the use of this analysis technique with both simulated and empirical MEG data are presented.

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