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The observation of neutrino oscillations (neutrino changing from one flavor to another) has provided compelling evidence that the neutrinos have non-zero masses and that leptons mix, which is not part of the original Standard Model of particle physics. The theoretical framework that describes neutrino oscillation involves two mass scales ({Delta}m{sub atm}{sup 2} and {Delta}m{sub sol}{sup 2}), three mixing angles ({theta}{sub 12}, {theta}{sub 23}, and {theta}{sub 13}) and one CP violating phase ({delta}{sub CP}). Both mass scales and two of the mixing angles ({theta}{sub 12} and {theta}{sub 23}) have been measured by many neutrino experiments. The mixing angle {theta}{sub 13}, which is believed to be very small, remains unknown. The current best limit on {theta}13 comes from the CHOOZ experiment: {theta}{sub 13} < 11{sup o} at 90% C.L. at the atmospheric mass scale. {delta}{sub CP} is also unknown today. MINOS, the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search, is a long baseline neutrino experiment based at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The experiment uses a muon neutrino beam, which is measured 1 km downstream from its origin in the Near Detector at Fermilab and then 735 km later in the Far Detector at the Soudan mine. By comparing these two measurements, MINOS can obtain …

A finite element computational approach to simulation of the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) Core Thermal-Fluid behavior is developed. These models were developed to facilitate design of a low enriched core for the HFIR, which will have different axial and radial flux profiles from the current HEU core and thus will require fuel and poison load optimization. This report outlines a stepwise implementation of this modeling approach using the commercial finite element code, COMSOL, with initial assessment of fuel, poison and clad conduction modeling capability, followed by assessment of mating of the fuel conduction models to a one dimensional fluid model typical of legacy simulation techniques for the HFIR core. The model is then extended to fully couple 2-dimensional conduction in the fuel to a 2-dimensional thermo-fluid model of the coolant for a HFIR core cooling sub-channel with additional assessment of simulation outcomes. Finally, 3-dimensional simulations of a fuel plate and cooling channel are presented.

Brief scientific notes on the relationship between coarse woody debris and arthropod abundance.

Describes NREL's R&D to optimize the design of batteries for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to meet established requirements at minimum cost.

This report evaluates the relative performance of 12 global and four direct beam solar radiometers deployed at a single site over a 12-month period. Test radiometer irradiances were compared with a reference irradiance consisting of either an absolute cavity radiometer (during calibrations) or a low uncertainty thermopile pyrheliometer (during the evaluation period) for pyrheliometers; and for pyranometers a reference global irradiance computed from the reference pyrheliometer and diffuse irradiance from a shaded pyranometer.

The newly completed Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Carbon Characterization Laboratory (CCL) is located in Lab-C20 of the Idaho National Laboratory Research Center. This laboratory was established under the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) Project to support graphite research and development activities. The CCL is designed to characterize and test carbon-based materials such as graphite, carbon-carbon composites, and silicon-carbide composite materials. The laboratory is fully prepared to measure material properties for nonirradiated carbon-based materials. Plans to establish the laboratory as a radiological facility within the next year are definitive. This laboratory will be modified to accommodate irradiated materials, after which it can be used to perform material property measurements on both irradiated and nonirradiated carbon-based material. Instruments, fixtures, and methods are in place for preirradiation measurements of bulk density, thermal diffusivity, coefficient of thermal expansion, elastic modulus, Young’s modulus, Shear modulus, Poisson ratio, and electrical resistivity. The measurement protocol consists of functional validation, calibration, and automated data acquisition.

Abstract. Many of the soils in the south-eastern US are characterized by an argillic, or clay horizon, that largely parallels the soil surface at depths ranging from a few centimeters to 100 cen-timeters. The degree to which these argillic horizons alter subsurface movement of infiltrated water is not well known. Interflow, or throughflow, is shallow lateral subsurface flow that moves over a horizon that restricts percolation. This research investigates how often and under what conditions a relatively deep (20-150+cm) argillic horizon on low slope (2-6%) hillsides causes interflow to oc-cur. Research is being conducted at the Savannah River Site, Aiken, South Carolina, on a small zero-order watershed. In the first phase of this research, a high resolution topographic map of the clay layer was developed. This map will be used to instrument designated “low” spots with max rise piezo-meters in order to determine if there is channelized subsurface flow. In situ conductivities of the clay layer and the surface horizons were measured using an Amoozegar meter, and bulk density samples were taken and measured. Along with soil topographic measurements, data-logging piezometers have been installed to measure the piezometric head above, in, and below the argillic horizon to further investigate interflow …

We report on a search for the supersymmetric partner of the bottom quark produced from gluino decays in data from 2.5 fb{sup -1} of integrated luminosity collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV. Candidate events are selected requiring two or more jets and large missing transverse energy. At least two of the jets are required to be tagged as originating from a b quark to enhance the sensitivity. The results are in good agreement with the prediction of the standard model processes, giving no evidence for gluino decay to sbottom quarks. This result constrains the gluino-pair-production cross section to be less than 40 fb at 95% credibility level for a gluino mass of 350 GeV/c{sup 2}.

This contains abstracts from the 2009 Annual Environmental Remediation Sciences Program (ERSP) Principal Investigators (PI) Meeting. The ERSP seeks to advance fundamental science to understand, predict, and mitigate the impacts of environmental contamination from past nuclear weapons production and provide a scientific basis for the long-term stewardship of nuclear waste disposal. These ambitious goals cannot be achieved by any one project alone. Therefore, ERSP funds a combination of research programs at the DOE national laboratories, individual projects at universities and federal agencies, and large long(er)-term field site research. Integration of these activities to advance the ERSP goals is a constant challenge, but made significantly simpler by bringing together all funded ERSP researchers once a year to discuss the very latest research results. It is at these meetings where new ideas and/or scientific advancements in support of ERSP goals can be discussed and openly debated among all PIs in the program. The ERSP thrives, in part, on the new ideas, concepts, scientific connections, and collaborations generated as a result of these meetings. The annual PI Meeting is very much a working meeting with three major goals: (1) to provide opportunities for scientific interaction among the ERSP scientists, a critical element for …

As energy prices skyrocket and interest in alternative, clean energy sources builds, interest in nuclear energy has increased. This increased interest in nuclear energy has been termed the “Nuclear Renaissance”. The performance of nuclear fuels, fuels and reactor materials and waste products are becoming a more important issue as the potential for designing new nuclear reactors is more immediate. The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) Analytical Laboratory Hot Cells (ALHC) are rising to the challenge of characterizing new reactor materials, byproducts and performance. The ALHC is a facility located near Idaho Falls, Idaho at the INL Site. It was built in 1958 as part of the former Argonne National Laboratory West Complex to support the operation of the second Experimental Breeder Reactor (EBR-II). It is part of a larger analytical laboratory structure that includes wet chemistry, instrumentation and radiochemistry laboratories. The purpose of the ALHC is to perform analytical chemistry work on highly radioactive materials. The primary work in the ALHC has traditionally been dissolution of nuclear materials so that less radioactive subsamples (aliquots) could be transferred to other sections of the laboratory for analysis. Over the last 50 years though, the capabilities within the ALHC …

Presented is a measurement of the simultaneous production of a W{sup {+-}} boson in association with a second weak boson (W{sup {+-}} or Z{sup 0}) in p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV. Events are consider with one electron or one muon, missing transverse energy, and at least two hadronic jets. The data were collected by the D0 detector in Run IIa of the Tevatron accelerator and correspond to 1.07 fb{sup -1} of integrated luminosity for each of the two channels (WW/WZ {yields} e{nu}q{bar q} and WW/WZ {yields} {mu}{nu}q{bar q}). The cross section for WW + WZ production is measured to be 20.2 {+-} 2.5(stat) {+-} 3.6(sys) {+-} 1.2(lum) pb with a Gaussian significance of 4.4 standard deviations above the background-only scenario. This measurement is consistent with the Standard Model prediction and represents the first direct evidence for WW and WZ production with semi-leptonic decays at a hadron collider.

We present a measurement of the t{bar t} differential cross section with respect to the t{bar t} invariant mass, d{sigma}/dM{sub t{bar t}}, in p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV using an integrated luminosity of 2.7 fb{sup -1} collected by the CDF II experiment. The t{bar t} invariant mass spectrum is sensitive to a variety of exotic particles decaying into t{bar t} pairs. The result is consistent with the standard model expectation, as modeled by PYTHIA with CTEQ5L parton distribution functions.

The Integrated Biorefinery Research Facility (IBRF) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) expands NREL's cellulosic ethanol research and development and collaboration capabilities.

Annihilation of cosmologically distributed dark matter is predicted to produce a potentially observable flux of high energy photons. Neglecting the contribution from local structure, this signal is predicted to be virtually uniform on the sky and, in order to be identified, must compete with various extragalactic backgrounds. We focus here on unresolved blazars and discuss several techniques for separating the dark matter signal from this background. First, the spectral shapes of the signal and background are expected to differ, a feature which can be exploited with the Fisher Matrix formalism. Second, in any given angular pixel, the number of photons from blazars is drawn from a distribution which is far from Poisson. A knowledge of this distribution enhances one's ability to extract the dark matter signal, while ignorance of it can lead to the introduction of a large systematic error.

The sensitivity of two specific types of radionuclide detectors for conducting an on-board search in the maritime environment was evaluated using Monte Carlo simulation implemented in AVERT{reg_sign}. AVERT{reg_sign}, short for the Automated Vulnerability Evaluation for Risk of Terrorism, is personal computer based vulnerability assessment software developed by the ARES Corporation. The sensitivity of two specific types of radionuclide detectors for conducting an on-board search in the maritime environment was evaluated using Monte Carlo simulation. The detectors, a RadPack and also a Personal Radiation Detector (PRD), were chosen from the class of Human Portable Radiation Detection Systems (HPRDS). Human Portable Radiation Detection Systems (HPRDS) serve multiple purposes. In the maritime environment, there is a need to detect, localize, characterize, and identify radiological/nuclear (RN) material or weapons. The RadPack is a commercially available broad-area search device used for gamma and also for neutron detection. The PRD is chiefly used as a personal radiation protection device. It is also used to detect contraband radionuclides and to localize radionuclide sources. Neither device has the capacity to characterize or identify radionuclides. The principal aim of this study was to investigate the sensitivity of both the RadPack and the PRD while being used under controlled conditions …

This Closure Report (CR) presents information supporting the closure of Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 130: Storage Tanks, Nevada Test Site, Nevada. This CR complies with the requirements of the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order that was agreed to by the State of Nevada; U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Environmental Management; U.S. Department of Defense; and DOE, Legacy Management. The corrective action sites (CASs) within CAU 130 are located within Areas 1, 7, 10, 20, 22, and 23 of the Nevada Test Site. Corrective Action Unit 130 is comprised of the following CASs: • 01-02-01, Underground Storage Tank • 07-02-01, Underground Storage Tanks • 10-02-01, Underground Storage Tank • 20-02-03, Underground Storage Tank • 20-99-05, Tar Residue • 22-02-02, Buried UST Piping • 23-02-07, Underground Storage Tank This CR provides documentation supporting the completed corrective action investigations and provides data confirming that the closure objectives for CASs within CAU 130 were met. To achieve this, the following actions were performed: • Reviewed the current site conditions, including the concentration and extent of contamination. • Implemented any corrective actions necessary to protect human health and the environment. • Properly disposed of corrective action and investigation-derived wastes. From August 4 through September …

Graphs of composite data products produced by DOE's Controlled Hydrogen Fleet and Infrastructure Demonstration and Validation project through March 2009.

In order to demonstrate the feasibility of geological disposal of spent CANDU fuel in Canada, a safety assessment was performed for a hypothetical repository in the Canadian Shield. The assessment shows that such repository would meet international criteria for dose rate; however, uncertainties in the assumed evolution of the repository were identified. Such uncertainties could be resolved by the consideration of coupled Thermal-Hydro-Mechanical-Chemical (THMC) processes. In Task A of the DECOVALEX-THMC project, THM models were developed within the framework of the theory of poroelasticity. Such model development was performed in an iterative manner, using experimental data from laboratory and field tests. The models were used to perform near-field simulations of the evolution of the repository in order to address the above uncertainties. This paper presents the definition and rationale of task A and the results of the simulations. From a repository safety point of view, the simulations predict that the maximum temperature would be well below the design target of 100 C, however the load on the container can marginally exceed the design value of 15 MPa. However, the most important finding from the simulations is that a rock damage zone could form around the emplacement borehole. Such damage zone …

Semiweekly newspaper from Carthage, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory Office of Coal and Environmental Systems has as its mission to develop advanced gasification-based technologies for affordable, efficient, zero-emission power generation. These advanced power systems, which are expected to produce near-zero pollutants, are an integral part of DOE's Vision 21 Program. DOE has also been developing advanced gasification systems that lower the capital and operating costs of producing syngas for chemical production. A transport reactor has shown potential to be a low-cost syngas producer compared to other gasification systems since its high-throughput-per-unit cross-sectional area reduces capital costs. This work directly supports the Power Systems Development Facility utilizing the Kellogg Brown and Root transport reactor located at the Southern Company Services Wilsonville, Alabama, site. Over 3600 hours of operation on 17 different coals ranging from bituminous to lignite along with a petroleum coke has been completed to date in the pilot-scale transport reactor development unit (TRDU) at the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC). The EERC has established an extensive database on the operation of these various fuels in both air- and oxygen-blown modes utilizing a pilot-scale transport reactor gasifier. This database has been useful in determining the effectiveness of design …

Algorithmic properties of the midpoint predictor-corrector time integration algorithm are examined. In the case of a finite number of iterations, the errors in angular momentum conservation and incremental objectivity are controlled by the number of iterations performed. Exact angular momentum conservation and exact incremental objectivity are achieved in the limit of an infinite number of iterations. A complete stability and dispersion analysis of the linearized algorithm is detailed. The main observation is that stability depends critically on the number of iterations performed.

This is meant as a place to put commentary on the whitepaper and is meant to be pretty much ad-hoc. Because the whitepaper describes a potential program in DOE ASCR and because it concerns many researchers in the field, these notes are meant to be extendable by anyone willing to put in the effort. Of course criticisms of the contents of the notes themselves are also welcome.

Various sources of risk exist for all civil structures, one of which is seismic risk. As structures change in scale, the magnitude of seismic risk changes relative to risk from other sources. This paper presents an introduction to seismic hazard as applied to wind turbine structures. The existing design methods and research regarding seismic risk for wind turbines is then summarized. Finally a preliminary assessment is made based on current guidelines to understand how tower moment demand scales as rated power increases. Potential areas of uncertainty in the application of the current guidelines are summarized.