Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CdZnTe or CZT) is a very attractive material for using as room-temperature semiconductor detectors, because it has a wide bandgap and a high atomic number. However, due to the material's poor hole mobility, several special techniques were developed to ensure its suitability for radiation detection. Among them, the virtual Frisch-grid CZT detector is an attractive option, having a simple configuration, yet delivering an outstanding spectral performance. The goal of our group in Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is to improve the performance of Frisch-ring CZT detectors; most recently, that effort focused on the non-contacting Frisch-ring detector, allowing us to build an inexpensive, large-volume detector array with high energy-resolution and a large effective area. In this paper, the principles of virtual Frisch-grid detectors are described, especially BNL's innovative improvements. The potential applications of virtual Frisch-grid detectors are discussed, and as an example, a hand-held gamma-ray spectrometer using a CZT virtual Frischgrid detector array is introduced, which is a self-contained device with a radiation detector, readout circuit, communication circuit, and high-voltage supply. It has good energy resolution of 1.4% (FWHM of 662-keV peak) with a total detection volume of {approx}20 cm{sup 3}. Such a portable inexpensive device can be used …

A new facility for microdiffraction strain measurements and microfluorescence mapping has been built on beamline 12.3.2 at the advanced light source of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This beamline benefits from the hard x-radiation generated by a 6 T superconducting bending magnet (superbend) This provides a hard x-ray spectrum from 5 to 22 keV and a flux within a 1 mu m spot of ~;;5x109 photons/ s (0.1percent bandwidth at 8 keV). The radiation is relayed from the superbend source to a focus in the experimental hutch by a toroidal mirror. The focus spot is tailored bytwo pairs of adjustable slits, which serve as secondary source point. Inside the lead hutch, a pair of Kirkpatrick-Baez (KB) mirrors placed in a vacuum tank refocuses the secondary slit source onto the sample position. A new KB-bending mechanism with active temperature stabilization allows for more reproducible and stable mirror bending and thus mirror focusing. Focus spots around 1 um are routinely achieved and allow a variety of experiments, which have in common the need of spatial resolution. The effective spatial resolution (~;;0.2 mu m) is limited by a convolution of beam size, scan-stage resolution, and stage stability. A four-bounce monochromator consisting of two …

The scientific programs of the FSMRL supported under the DOE A9024 Grant consisted of four interdisciplinary research clusters, as described. The clusters were led by Professors Tai Chiang (Physics), Jeffrey Moore (Chemistry), Paul Goldbart (Physics), and Steven Granick (Materials Science and Engineering). The completed work followed a dominant theme--Nanoscale Materials Systems--and emphasized studies of complex phenomena involving surfaces, interfaces, complex materials, dynamics, energetics, and structures and their transformations. A summary of our key accomplishments is provided for each cluster.

Executive Order 13423, Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management establishes the policy that Federal agencies conduct their environmental, transportation, and energy-related activities in a manner that is environmentally, economically and fiscally sound, integrated, continually improving, efficient, and sustainable. The Department of Energy (DOE) has approved DOE Order 450.1A, Environmental Protection Program and DOE Order 430.2B, Departmental Energy, Renewable Energy and Transportation Management as the means of achieving the provisions of this Executive Order. DOE Order 450.1A mandates the development of Environmental Management Systems (EMS) to implement sustainable environmental stewardship practices that: (1) Protect the air, water, land, and other natural and cultural resources potentially impacted by facility operations; (2) Meet or exceed applicable environmental, public health, and resource protection laws and regulations; and (3) Implement cost-effective business practices. In addition, the DOE Order 450.1A mandates that the EMS must be integrated with a facility's Integrated Safety Management System (ISMS) established pursuant to DOE P 450.4, 'Safety Management System Policy'. DOE Order 430.2B mandates an energy management program that considers energy use and renewable energy, water, new and renovated buildings, and vehicle fleet activities. The Order incorporates the provisions of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and Energy Independence and …

Nanoscale ferrimagnetic particles have a diverse range of uses from directed cancer therapy and drug delivery systems to magnetic recording media and transducers. Such applications require the production of monodisperse nanoparticles with well-controlled size, composition, and magnetic properties. To fabricate these materials purely using synthetic methods is costly in both environmental and economical terms. However, metal-reducing microorganisms offer an untapped resource to produce these materials. Here, the Fe(III)-reducing bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens is used to synthesize magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. A combination of electron microscopy, soft X-ray spectroscopy, and magnetometry techniques was employed to show that this method of biosynthesis results in high yields of crystalline nanoparticles with a narrow size distribution and magnetic properties equal to the best chemically synthesized materials. In particular, it is demonstrated here that cobalt ferrite (CoFe{sub 2}O{sub 4}) nanoparticles with low temperature coercivity approaching 8 kOe and an effective anisotropy constant of {approx} 10{sup 6} erg cm{sup -3} can be manufactured through this biotechnological route. The dramatic enhancement in the magnetic properties of the nanoparticles by the introduction of high quantities of Co into the spinel structure represents a significant advance over previous biomineralization studies in this area using magnetotactic bacteria. The successful production of …

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Measurements of the defect levels and performance testing of CdZnTe detectors were performed by means of Current Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (I-DLTS), Transient Charge Technique (TCT), Current versus Voltage measurements (I-V), and gamma-ray spectroscopy. CdZnTe crystals were acquired from different commercial vendors and characterized for their point defects. I-DLTS studies included measurements of defect parameters such as energy levels in the band gap, carrier capture cross sections, and defect densities. The induced current due to laser-generated carriers was measured using TCT. The data were used to determine the transport properties of the detectors under study. A good correlation was found between the point defects in the detectors and their performance.

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The Savannah River Site's (SRS) H-Canyon facility uses ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) to separate impure neptunium (Np) from a high sulfate feed stream. The material is processed using a two-pass solvent extraction purification which relies on CAN to oxidize neptunium to Np(VI) during the first pass prior to extraction. Spectrophotometric oxidation-state analyses normally used to validate successful oxidation to Np(VI) prior to extraction were compromised by this feed stream matrix. Therefore, a rapid chromatographic method to validate successful Np oxidation was developed using Eichrom Industries TRU and TEVA{reg_sign} resins. The method was validated and subsequently transferred to existing operations in the process analytical laboratories.

A new spatially resolving x-ray crystal spectrometer capable of measuring continuous spatial profiles of high resolution spectra (λ/dλ > 6000) of He-like and H-like Ar Kα lines with good spatial (~1 cm) and temporal (~10 ms) resolutions has been installed on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak. Two spherically bent crystals image the spectra onto four two-dimensional Pilatus II pixel detectors. Tomographic inversion enables inference of local line emissivity, ion temperature (Ti), and toroidal plasma rotation velocity (vφ) from the line Doppler widths and shifts. The data analysis techniqu

In an effort to locate potential law enforcement-related standards that support incident management, a team from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) contacted representatives from the National Institute of Standards-Office of Law Enforcement Standards (NIST-OLES), National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Secret Service, ASTM International committees that have a law enforcement focus, and a variety of individuals from local and regional law enforcement organizations. Discussions were held with various state and local law enforcement organizations. The NIJ has published several specific equipment-related law enforcement standards that were included in the review, but it appears that law enforcement program and process-type standards are developed principally by organizations that operate at the state and local level. Input is provided from state regulations and codes and from external non-government organizations (NGOs) that provide national standards. The standards that are adopted from external organizations or developed independently by state authorities are available for use by local law enforcement agencies on a voluntary basis. The extent to which they are used depends on the respective jurisdictions involved. In some instances, use of state and local disseminated standards is mandatory, but in most cases, use is voluntary. Usually, the extent to which …

The original approach to nuclear reactor design or safety analyses was to make very conservative modeling assumptions so as to ensure meeting the required safety margins. Traditional regulation, as established by the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission required conservatisms which have subsequently been shown to be excessive. The commission has therefore moved away from excessively conservative evaluations and has determined best-estimate calculations to be an acceptable alternative to conservative models, provided the best-estimate results are accompanied by an uncertainty evaluation which can demonstrate that, when a set of analysis cases which statistically account for uncertainties of all types are generated, there is a 95% probability that at least 95% of the cases meet the safety margins. To date, nearly all published work addressing uncertainty evaluations of nuclear power plant calculations has focused on light water reactors and on large-break loss-of-coolant accident (LBLOCA) analyses. However, there is nothing in the uncertainty evaluation methodologies that is limited to a specific type of reactor or to specific types of plant scenarios. These same methodologies can be equally well applied to analyses for high-temperature gas-cooled reactors and to liquid metal reactors, and they can be applied to steady-state calculations, operational transients, or severe accident …