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VG Elemental Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer (ICPMS), PlasmaQuad 1 (PQ1) Model No. 4, installed in a radiohood, is used by the Savannah River Technology Center to provide non-routine mass measurements for environmental monitoring, waste tank characterization studies, isotope ratios for criticality determinations, and the measurement of elemental, fission product, and actinide mass distributions of the glass product from the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF). Modifications to improve instrument reliability, sample preparation, and data handling, as well as modifications to the laboratory that permit measurements in a radioactive environment will be discussed. Based on our operating experience, two laboratory facilities are being prepared for additional instruments to operate in a radioactive environment. A separate instrument is being installed for non-radioactive measurements and method development.

This annual report serves to inform the United States Congress on the progress for fiscal year 1996 of programs under the Department of Energy`s Office of Advanced Automotive Technologies (OAAT). This document complies with the legislative requirement to report on the implementation of Title III of the Automotive Propulsion Research and Development Act of 1978. Also reported are related activities performed under subsequent relevant legislation without specific reporting requirements. Furthermore, this report serves as a vital means of communication from the Department to all public and private sector participants. Specific requirements that are addressed in this report are: Discussion of how each research and development contract, grant, or project funded under the authority of this Act satisfies the requirements of each subsection; Current comprehensive program definition for implementing Title III; Evaluation of the state of automotive propulsion system research and development in the United States; Number and amount of contracts and grants awarded under Title III; Analysis of the progress made in developing advanced automotive propulsion system technology; and Suggestions for improvements in automotive propulsion system research and development, including recommendations for legislation.

The Advanced Recovery and Integrated Extraction System (ARIES) is a pit disassembly and conversion demonstration line at Los Alamos National Laboratory's plutonium facility. Pits are the core of a nuclear weapon that contains fissile material. With the end of the cold war, the United States began a program to dispose of the fissile material contained in surplus nuclear weapons. In January of 1997, the Department of Energy's Office of Fissile Material Disposition issued a Record of Decision (ROD) on the disposition of surplus plutonium. This decision contained a hybrid option for disposition of the plutonium, immobilization and mixed oxide fuel. ARIES is the cornerstone of the United States plutonium disposition program that supplies the pit demonstration plutonium feed material for either of these disposition pathways. Additionally, information from this demonstration is being used to design the United States Pit Disassembly and Conversion Facility. AH of the ARIES technologies were recently developed and incorporate waste minimization. The technologies include pit bisection, hydride/dehydride, metal to oxide conversion process, packaging, and nondestructive assay (NDA). The current schedule for the ARIES integrated Demonstration will begin in the Spring of 1998. The ARIES project involves a number of DOE sites including Los Alamos National Laboratory …

This report covers the progress made on the title project for the project period. The study of coal chemical structure is a vital component of research efforts to develop better chemical utilization of coals, and for furthering our basic understanding of coal geochemistry. In this grant we are addressing several structural questions pertaining to coals with advances in state of the art solids NMR methods. The main activity during this granting period was a detailed comparative analysis of the suite of spectral editing results obtained on the Argonne coals. We have extended our fitting procedure to include carbons of all types in the analysis.

Wet scrubbing is the leading proven commercial post-combustion FGD technology available to meet the sulfur dioxide reductions required by the Clean Air Act Amendments. To reduce costs associated with wet FGD, Dravo Lime Company has developed the ThioClear process. ThioClear is an ex-situ forced oxidation magnesium-enhanced lime FGD process. ThioClear process differs from the conventional magnesium-enhanced lime process in that the recycle liquor has minimal suspended solids and the by-products are wallboard quality gypsum and magnesium hydroxide, an excellent reagent for water treatment. The process has demonstrated sulfur dioxide removal efficiencies of +95% in both a vertical spray scrubber tower and a horizontal absorber operating at gas velocities of 16 fps, respectively. This report details the optimization studies and associated economics from testing conducted at Dravo Lime Company`s pilot plant located at the Miami Fort Station of the Cincinnati Gas and Electric Company.

An autonomous mobile robotic capability is critical to developing remote work applications for hazardous environments. A few potential applications include humanitarian demining and ordnance neutralization, extraterrestrial science exploration, and hazardous waste cleanup. The ability of the remote platform to sense and maneuver within its environment is a basic technology requirement which is currently lacking. This enabling technology will open the door for force multiplication and cost effective solutions to remote operations. The ultimate goal of this work is to develop a mobile robotic platform that can identify and avoid local obstacles as it traverses from its current location to a specified destination. This goal directed autonomous navigation scheme uses the Global Positioning System (GPS) to identify the robot`s current coordinates in space and neural network processing of LADAR range images for local obstacle detection and avoidance. The initial year funding provided by this LDRD project has developed a small exterior mobile robotic development platform and a fieldable version of Sandia`s Scannerless Range Imager (SRI) system. The robotic testbed platform is based on the Surveillance And Reconnaissance ground Equipment (SARGE) robotic vehicle design recently developed for the US DoD. Contingent upon follow-on funding, future enhancements will develop neural network processing of …

Significant progress has been made in the determination of the light quark masses, using both lattice QCD and sum rule methods, in the last year. The authors discuss the different methods and review the status of current results. Finally, they review the calculation of bottom and charm masses.

Daily newspaper from Altus, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Alvin, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

This report provides information on projects conducted by the Amarillo National Resource Center for Plutonium, a consortium of Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University, and the University of Texas. Progress is reported for four major areas: (1) plutonium information resource; (2) environmental, safety, and health; (3) communication, education, training, and community involvement; and (4) nuclear and other material studies. Environmental, safety, and health projects reported include a number of studies on high explosives. Progress reported for nuclear material studies includes storage and waste disposal investigations.

The authors propose to use an analog neural network controller implemented in hardware, independent of the active control system, for use in a satellite backup control mode. The controller uses coarse sun sensor inputs. The field of view of the sensors activate the neural controller, creating an analog dead band with respect to the direction of the sun on each axis. This network controls the orientation of the vehicle toward the sunlight to ensure adequate power for the system. The attitude of the spacecraft is stabilized with respect to the ambient magnetic field on orbit. This paper develops a model of the controller using real-time coarse sun sensor data and a dynamic model of a prototype system based on a satellite system. The simulation results and the feasibility of this control method for use in a satellite backup control mode are discussed.

A crush pad has been designed and analyzed to absorb the kinetic energy of a hypothetically dropped spent nuclear fuel shipping cask into a 44-ft. deep cask unloading pool at the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant. The 110-ton Large Cell Cask was assumed to be accidentally dropped onto the parapet of the unloading pool, causing the cask to tumble through the pool water and impact the floor mounted crush pad with the cask`s top corner. The crush pad contains rigid polyurethane foam, which was modeled in a separate computer analysis to simulate the manufacturer`s testing of the foam and to determine the foam`s stress and strain characteristics. This computer analysis verified that the foam was accurately represented in the analysis to follow. A detailed non-linear, dynamic finite element analysis was then performed on the crush pad and adjacent pool structure to assure that a drop of this massive cask does not result in unacceptable damage to the storage facility. Additionally, verification was made that the crush pad adequately protects the cask from severe impact loading. At impact, the cask has significant vertical, horizontal and rotational velocities. The crush pad absorbs much of the energy of the cask through plastic deformation during …

The purpose of this paper is to provide a summary analysis and comparison of various environment, safety, and health (ES&H) management systems required of, or suggested for use by, the Departrnent of Energy Defense Programs` sites. The summary analysis is provided by means of a comparison matrix, a set of Vean diagrams that highlights the focus of the systems, and an `End Gate` filter diagram that integrates the three Vean diagrams. It is intended that this paper will act as a starting point for implementing a particular system or in establishing a comprehensive site-wide integrated ES&H management system. Obviously, the source documents for each system would need to be reviewed to assure proper implementation of a particular system. The matrix compares nine ES&H management systems against a list of elements generated by identifying the unique elements of all the systems. To simplify the matrix, the elements are listed by means of a brief title. An explanation of the matrix elements is provided in Attachment 2 entitled, `Description of System Elements.` The elements are categorized under the Total Quality Management (TQM) `Plan, Do, Check, Act` framework with the added category of `Policy`. (The TQM concept is explained in the `DOE Quality …

Grain boundaries and twin boundaries in commercial Cd{sub 1{minus}x}Zn{sub x}Te, which is prepared by a high pressure Bridgeman technique, have been investigated with transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, infrared light microscopy and visible light microscopy. Boundaries inside these materials were found to be decorated with Te precipitates. The shape and local density of the precipitates were found to depend on the particular boundary. For precipitates that decorate grain boundaries, their microstructure was found to consist of a single, saucer shaped grain of hexagonal Te (space group P3{sub 1}21). Analysis of a Te precipitate precipitates by selected area diffraction revealed the Te to be aligned with the surrounding Cd{sub 1{minus}x}Zn{sub x}Te grains. This alignment was found to match the (111) Cd{sub 1{minus}x}Z{sub x}Te planes with the (1{bar 1}01) planes of hexagonal Te. Crystallographic alignments between the Cd{sub 1{minus}x}Zn{sub x}Te grains were also observed for a high angle grain boundary. The structure of the grain boundaries and the Te/Cd{sub 1{minus}x}Zn{sub x}Te interface are discussed.

This report summarizes work force restructuring and community transition activities at all sites. It outlines work force restructuring activity for FY 1997, changing separation patterns, cost savings and separation costs, program assessment, activities to mitigate restructuring impacts, community transition activities, status of displaced workers, lessons learned, and emerging issues in worker and community transition. Work force restructuring and community transition activities for defense nuclear sites are summarized, as are work force restructuring activities at non-defense sites.

The primary goal of the project is to develop a user-friendly computer program to integrate geological and engineering information using Artificial Intelligence (AI) methodology. The project is restricted to fluvially dominated deltaic environments. The static information used in constructing the reservoir description includes well core and log data. Using the well core and the log data, the program identifies the marker beds, and the type of sand facies, and in turn, develops correlations between wells. Using the correlations and sand facies, the program is able to generate multiple realizations of sand facies and petrophysical properties at interwell locations using geostatistical techniques. The generated petrophysical properties are used as input in the next step where the production data are honored. By adjusting the petrophysical properties, the match between the simulated and the observed production rates is obtained. Although all the components within the overall system are functioning, the integration of dynamic data may not be practical due to the single-phase flow limitations and the computationally intensive algorithms. The future work needs to concentrate on making the dynamic data integration computationally efficient.

For the past several years at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) the authors have been working to apply methods of human error analysis to the design of complex systems. They have focused on adapting human reliability analysis (HRA) methods that were developed for Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) for application to system design. They are developing methods so that human errors can be systematically identified during system design, the potential consequences of each error can be assessed, and potential corrective actions (e.g. changes to system design or procedures) can be identified. The primary vehicle the authors have used to develop and apply these methods has been a series of projects sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to apply human error analysis to aviation operations. They are currently adapting their methods and tools of human error analysis to the domain of air traffic management (ATM) systems. Under the NASA-sponsored Advanced Air Traffic Technologies (AATT) program they are working to address issues of human reliability in the design of ATM systems to support the development of a free flight environment for commercial air traffic in the US. They are also currently testing the application of their human …

The objective of this project is to develop the capability of symbolically generating an analytical model of a wind turbine for studies of control systems. This report focuses on a theoretical formulation of the symbolic equations of motion (EOMs) modeler for horizontal axis wind turbines. In addition to the power train dynamics, a generic 7-axis rotor assembly is used as the base model from which the EOMs of various turbine configurations can be derived. A systematic approach to generate the EOMs is presented using d`Alembert`s principle and Lagrangian dynamics. A Matlab M file was implemented to generate the EOMs of a two-bladed, free yaw wind turbine. The EOMs will be compared in the future to those of a similar wind turbine modeled with the YawDyn code for verification. This project was sponsored by Sandia National Laboratories as part of the Adaptive Structures and Control Task. This is the final report of Sandia Contract AS-0985.

High-level waste (HLW) produces flammable gases as a result of radiolysis and thermal decomposition of organics. Under certain conditions, these gases can accumulate within the waste for extended periods and then be released quickly into the dome space of the storage tank. As part of the effort to reduce the safety concerns associated with flammable gas in HLW tanks at Hanford, a flammable gas watch list (FGWL) has been established. Inclusion on the FGWL is based on criteria intended to measure the risk associated with the presence of flammable gas. It is important that all high-risk tanks be identified with high confidence so that they may be controlled. Conversely, to minimize operational complexity, the number of tanks on the watchlist should be reduced as near to the true number of flammable risk tanks as the current state of knowledge will support. This report presents an alternative to existing approaches for FGWL screening based on the theory of approximate reasoning (AR) (Zadeh 1976). The AR-based model emulates the inference process used by an expert when asked to make an evaluation. The FGWL model described here was exercised by performing two evaluations. (1) A complete tank evaluation where the entire algorithm is …

This report describes a methodology to proactively and methodically assess future potential environmental legislative, regulatory, and judicial events. This is an important endeavor because new, revised, and reauthorized legislation, proposed and final regulations, and outcomes of judicial proceedings have the potential to impose new actions, directions, and costs of many organizations in the United States (related to capital investments, operating approaches, and research and development) and to affect the quality of life. The electric power industry is particularly impacted by environmental regulatory events (the term `regulatory` is used to cover all the types of legal events listed above), as the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity affects air and water quality, require disposal of solid, hazardous, and radioactive wastes, and at times, impacts wetlands and endangered species. Numerous potential regulatory events, such as the reauthorization of the Clean Water Act and new regulations associated with global climate change, can greatly affect the power industry. Organizations poised to respond proactively to such events will improve their competitive positions, reduce their costs in the long-term, and improve their public images.

Optical model potential parameters play an important role in the evaluation of nuclear data for applied purposes. The IAEA Coordinated Research Program on {open_quotes}Reference Input Parameter Library for Evaluation of Nuclear Data for Application in Nuclear Technology{close_quotes} aims to release a reference input file of various types of parameters for the evaluation of nuclear cross sections using nuclear model codes. Included in the parameter files are a collection of optical model potentials that are available in the literature to evaluate these cross sections. As part of this research program we assess the applicability of these potentials over a range of target mass and projectile energy.

Through the Atomic Energy Act, Congress made is possible for the public to get a full and fair hearing on civilian nuclear matters. Individuals who are directly affected by any licensing action involving a facility producing or utilizing nuclear materials may participate in a formal hearing, on the record, before independent judges on the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel (ASLBP or Panel). Frequently, in deciding whether a license, permit, amendment, or extension should be granted to a particular applicant, the Panel members must be more than mere umpires. If appropriate, they are authorized to go beyond the issues the parties place before them in order to identify, explore, and resolve significant questions involving threats to the public health and safety that come to a board`s attention during the proceedings. This brochure explains the purpose of the panel. Also addressed are: type of hearing handled; method of public participation; formality of hearings; high-level waste; other panel responsibilities and litigation technology.