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The IAEA Nuclear Data Section convened the 18th meeting of the International Network of Nuclear Structure and Decay Data Evaluators at the IAEA Headquarters, Vienna, 23 to 27 March 2009. This meeting was attended by 22 scientists from 14 Member States, plus IAEA staff, concerned with the compilation, evaluation and dissemination of nuclear structure and decay data. A summary of the meeting, recommendations/conclusions, data centre reports, and various proposals considered, modified and agreed by the participants are contained within this document. The International Network of Nuclear Structure and Decay Data (NSDD) Evaluators holds biennial meetings under the auspices of the IAEA, and consists of evaluation groups and data service centres in several countries. This network has the objective of providing up-to-date nuclear structure and decay data for all known nuclides by evaluating all existing experimental data. Data resulting from this international evaluation collaboration is included in the Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File (ENSDF) and published in the journals Nuclear Physics A and Nuclear Data Sheets (NDS).

Wet Air Oxidation (WAO) is one of the two technologies being considered for the destruction of Tetraphenylborate (TPB) in Tank 48H. Batch bench-scale autoclave testing with radioactive (actual) Tank 48H waste is among the tests required in the WAO Technology Maturation Plan. The goal of the autoclave testing is to validate that the simulant being used for extensive WAO vendor testing adequately represents the Tank 48H waste. The test objective was to demonstrate comparable test results when running simulated waste and real waste under similar test conditions. Specifically: (1) Confirm the TPB destruction efficiency and rate (same reaction times) obtained from comparable simulant tests, (2) Determine the destruction efficiency of other organics including biphenyl, (3) Identify and quantify the reaction byproducts, and (4) Determine off-gas composition. Batch bench-scale stirred autoclave tests were conducted with simulated and actual Tank 48H wastes at SRNL. Experimental conditions were chosen based on continuous-flow pilot-scale simulant testing performed at Siemens Water Technologies Corporation (SWT) in Rothschild, Wisconsin. The following items were demonstrated as a result of this testing. (1) Tetraphenylborate was destroyed to below detection limits during the 1-hour reaction time at 280 C. Destruction efficiency of TPB was > 99.997%. (2) Other organics (TPB …

This report develops three scenarios to approximate different dimensions of the relationship between the global economic downturn and protectionism. The scenarios are not predictions, but descriptions of how and why pressures for protection could be manifested and transmitted under different circumstances and assumptions.

This report focuses on the creation of the Transatlantic Economic Council; the role of legislatures in the regulatory process; and the Transatlantic Legislators' Dialogue and its new role as an advisor to transatlantic regulatory efforts.

This report looks at the regulations surrounding the polar bear, which has been protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) since 1972. The report discusses the protections, prohibitions, and special rules for polar bears as well as exceptions to the rules, habitat issues, recovery plans, and other issues regarding polar bear protections.

During the 110th Congress (calendar years 2007 and 2008), Matthew Allen, a Sandian nuclear scientist, served as a Congressional Fellow on the Committee on Homeland Security in the House of Representatives. This report is an informative account of the role staffers play in assisting the members of Congress in their oversight and legislative duties. It is also a personal account of Matthew Allen's experience as a committee staffer in the House of Representatives.

The survey includes degrees granted between September 1, 2007 and August 31, 2008. Enrollment information refers to the fall term 2008. Twenty-six academic programs were included in the survey universe, and all 26 programs provided data.

The survey includes degrees granted between September 1, 2007, and August 31, 2008, and fall 2008 enrollments. Thirty-one academic programs reported having nuclear engineering programs during 2008, and data was provided by all thirty-one programs.

This report discusses various aspects of the Department of Defense's (DOD) fuel consumption and any resulting policy considerations for Congress.

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The objectives of the confirmatory surveys were to provide independent contractor field data reviews and to generate independent radiological data for use by the NRC in evaluating the adequacy and accuracy of the licensee’s procedures and survey results.

The objective of this project is to develop dense ceramic membranes that, without using an external power supply or circuitry, can produce hydrogen via coal/coal gas-assisted water dissociation. This project grew from an effort to develop a dense ceramic membrane for separating hydrogen from gas mixtures such as those generated during coal gasification, methane partial oxidation, and water-gas shift reactions. That effort led to the development of various cermet (i.e., ceramic/metal composite) membranes that enable hydrogen production by two methods. In one method, a hydrogen transport membrane (HTM) selectively removes hydrogen from a gas mixture by transporting it through either a mixed protonic/electronic conductor or a hydrogen transport metal. In the other method, an oxygen transport membrane (OTM) generates hydrogen mixed with steam by removing oxygen that is generated through water splitting. This project focuses on the development of OTMs that efficiently produce hydrogen via the dissociation of water. Supercritical boilers offer very high-pressure steam that can be decomposed to provide pure hydrogen by means of OTMs. Oxygen resulting from the dissociation of steam can be used for coal gasification, enriched combustion, or synthesis gas production. Hydrogen and sequestration-ready CO{sub 2} can be produced from coal and steam by using …

The objective of this work is to develop dense ceramic membranes for separating hydrogen from other gaseous components in a nongalvanic mode, i.e., without using an external power supply or electrical circuitry. The goal of this project is to develop dense hydrogen transport membranes (HTMs) that nongalvanically (i.e., without electrodes or external power supply) separate hydrogen from gas mixtures at commercially significant fluxes under industrially relevant operating conditions. HTMs will be used to separate hydrogen from gas mixtures such as the product streams from coal gasification, methane partial oxidation, and water-gas shift reactions. Potential ancillary uses of HTMs include dehydrogenation and olefin production, as well as hydrogen recovery in petroleum refineries and ammonia synthesis plants, the largest current users of deliberately produced hydrogen. This report describes progress that was made during Fy 2008 on the development of HTM materials.

Hatchery supplementation of kokanee Oncorhynchus nerka and rainbow trout O. mykiss has been the primary mitigation provided by Bonneville Power Administration for loss of anadromous fish to the waters above Grand Coulee Dam (GCD). The hatchery program for rainbow trout has consistently met management goals and provided a substantial contribution to the fishery; however, spawner returns and creel survey results for kokanee have been below management goals. Our objective was to identify factors that limit limnetic fish production in Lake Roosevelt by evaluating abiotic conditions, food limitations, piscivory, and entrainment. Dissolved oxygen concentration was adequate throughout most of the year; however, levels dropped to near 6 mg/L in late July. For kokanee, warm water temperatures during mid-late summer limited their nocturnal distribution to 80-100 m in the lower section of the reservoir. Kokanee spawner length was consistently several centimeters longer than in other Pacific Northwest systems, and the relative weights of rainbow trout and large kokanee were comparable to national averages. Large bodied daphnia (> 1.7 mm) were present in the zooplankton community during all seasons indicating that top down effects were not limiting secondary productivity. Walleye Stizostedion vitreum were the primary piscivore of salmonids in 1998 and 1999. Burbot …

Intense beams of heavy ions offer a very attractive tool for fundamental research in high energy density physics and inertial fusion energy science. These applications build on the significant recent advances in the generation, compression and focusing of intense heavy ion beams in the presence of a neutralizing background plasma. Such beams can provide uniform volumetric heating of the target during a time-scale shorter than the hydrodynamic response time, thereby enabling a significant suite of experiments that will elucidate the underlying physics of dense, strongly-coupled plasma states, which have been heretofore poorly understood and inadequately diagnosed, particularly in the warm dense matter regime. The innovations, fundamental knowledge, and experimental capabilities developed in this basic research program is also expected to provide new research opportunities to study the physics of directly-driven ion targets, which can dramatically reduce the size of heavy ion beam drivers for inertial fusion energy applications. Experiments examining the behavior of thin target foils heated to the warm dense matter regime began at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 2008, using the Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment - I (NDCX-I) facility, and its associated target chamber and diagnostics. The upgrade of this facility, called NDCX-II, will enable an exciting …

Farm Energy envisaged a phased demonstration program, in which a pilot-scale straw gasifier will be installed on a farm. The synthesis gas product will be used to initially (i) generate electricity in a 300 kW diesel generator, and subsequently (ii) used as a feedstock to produce ethanol or mixed alcohols. They were seeking straw gasification and alcohol synthesis technologies that may be implemented on farm-scale. The consortium, along with the USDA ARS station in Corvallis, OR, expressed interest in the dual-bed gasification concept promoted by WRI and Taylor Energy, LLC. This process operated at atmospheric pressure and employed a solids-circulation type oxidation/reduction cycle significantly different from traditional fluidized-bed or up-draft type gasification reactors. The objectives of this project were to perform bench-scale testing to determine technical feasibility of gasifier concept, to characterize the syngas product, and to determine the optimal operating conditions and configuration. We used the bench-scale test data to complete a preliminary design and cost estimate for a 1-2 ton per hour pilot-scale unit that is also appropriate for on-farm scale applications. The gasifier configuration with the 0.375-inch stainless steel balls recirculating media worked consistently and for periods up to six hours of grass feed. The other principle …

This project concerns the replacement of the catalytic bed in a microturbine with a thermal oxidizer. The advantage of a thermal oxidizer over a traditional combustion chamber is that the length and temperature of the device allows the volatile species to oxidize relatively slowly and without a flame front. With no flame, the temperature increase throughout the unit is spread over a much larger volume so there is no hot spot for thermal NO{sub x} formation, and the gas Btu level does not have to be above the ignition concentration. Project specific objectives included assessment of the materials and performance requirements of the thermal oxidizer, design the thermal oxidizer system, fabrication of the thermal oxidizer, testing of the oxidizer's performance in concert with the microturbine and comparison of the performance of the oxidizer with catalytic beds and traditional combustion chambers. The thermal oxidizer was designed and fabricated with the assistance of High Country Fabrication of Casper, Wyoming. The design consists of a long set of tubes surrounded by a packed bed of loose ceramic material. The outer vessel containing the tubes and packing is a 3-foot diameter steel shell with multiple layers of thermal insulation. After the metal components were …

This project concerned the application of a catalytic combustion system that has been married to a micro-turbine device. The catalytic combustion system decomposes the VOC's and transmits these gases to the gas turbine. The turbine has been altered to operate on very low-level BTU fuels equivalent to 1.5% methane in air. The performance of the micro-turbine for VOC elimination has some flexibility with respect to operating conditions, and the system is adaptable to multiple industrial applications. The VOC source that was been chosen for examination was the emissions from coal upgrading operations. The overall goal of the project was to examine the effectiveness of a catalytic combustion based system for elimination of VOCs while simultaneously producing electrical power for local consumption. Project specific objectives included assessment of the feasibility for using a Flex-Microturbine that generates power from natural gas while it consumes VOCs generated from site operations; development of an engineering plan for installation of the Flex-Microturbine system; operation of the micro-turbine through various changes in site and operation conditions; measurement of the VOC destruction quantitatively; and determination of the required improvements for further studies. The micro-turbine with the catalytic bed worked effectively to produce power on levels of fuel …

Although remarkable progress has been made in developing technologies for the clean and efficient utilization of coal, the biggest challenge in the utilization of coal is still the protection of the environment. Specifically, electric utilities face increasingly stringent restriction on the emissions of NO{sub x} and SO{sub x}, new mercury emission standards, and mounting pressure for the mitigation of CO{sub 2} emissions, an environmental challenge that is greater than any they have previously faced. The Utah Clean Coal Program addressed issues related to innovations for existing power plants including retrofit technologies for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) or green field plants with CCS. The Program focused on the following areas: simulation, mercury control, oxycoal combustion, gasification, sequestration, chemical looping combustion, materials investigations and student research experiences. The goal of this program was to begin to integrate the experimental and simulation activities and to partner with NETL researchers to integrate the Program's results with those at NETL, using simulation as the vehicle for integration and innovation. The investigators also committed to training students in coal utilization technology tuned to the environmental constraints that we face in the future; to this end the Program supported approximately 12 graduate students toward the completion …

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This report discusses bills introduced into the 110th Congress pertaining to food safety that could affect farmers and ranchers. Several of these bills would expressly have required enforceable on-farm safety standards. Others that focused primarily on post-harvest food safety measures nonetheless might have led to changes in on-farm practices if the regulated sectors (handlers and processors of agricultural products) placed new demands on their suppliers in order to comply. Similar proposals are re-emerging in the 111th Congress, where food safety reform is expected to be on the agenda.

This report discusses recent developments and funding for the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle program.

This report offers an overview of energy markets, supplies and prices. It also provides figures regarding the energy consumption in United States since 1950s.