The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) commitment to assuring the health and safety of its workers includes the conduct of epidemiologic surveillance activities that provide an early warning system for health problems among workers. The Illness and Injury Surveillance Program monitors illnesses and health conditions that result in an absence of workdays, occupational injuries and illnesses, and disabilities and deaths among current workers.

The Gaseous Ions: Structures, Energetics and Reactions Gordon Research Conference will focus on ions and their interactions with molecules, surfaces, electrons, and light. The conference will cover theory and experiments, and systems ranging from molecular to biological to clusters to materials. The meeting goal continues to be bringing together scientists interested in fundamentals, with those applying fundamental phenomena to a wide range of practical problems. Each of the ten conference sessions will focus on a topic within this spectrum, and there will also be poster sessions for contributed papers, with sufficient space and time to allow all participants to present their latest results. To encourage active participation by young investigators, about ten of the poster abstracts will be selected for 15 minute 'hot topic' talks during the conference sessions. Hot topic selection will be done about a month before the meeting. Funds should be available to offset the participation cost for young investigators.

A model-based flotation control scheme is being implemented to achieve optimal performance in the handling and treatment of fine coal. The control scheme monitors flotation performance through on- line analysis of ash content. Then, based on the economic and metallurgical performance of the circuit, variables such as reagent dosage, pulp density and pulp level are adjusted using model-base control algorithms to compensate for feed variations and other process disturbances. Recent developments in sensor technology are being applied for on-line determination of slurry ash content. During the fifth quarter of this project, all work was on hold pending the final novation of the contract to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

A model-based flotation control scheme is being implemented to achieve optimal performance in the handling and treatment of fine coal. The control scheme monitors flotation performance through on-line analysis of ash content. Then, based on the economic and metallurgical performance of the circuit, variables such as reagent dosage, pulp density and pulp level are adjusted using model-based control algorithms to compensate for feed variations and other process disturbances. Recent developments in sensor technology are being applied for on-line determination of slurry ash content. During the fourth quarter of this project, a final attempt was made to calibrate a video-based ash analyzer for use in this application. It was concluded that the low ash content and the coarse particle size of the flotation tailings slurry at the Maple Meadow plant site made the video-based system unsuitable for this application. Plans are now underway to lease a nuclear-based analyzer as the primary sensor for this project.

The state of South Dakota is considering adopting a commercial building energy standard. This report evaluates the potential costs and benefits to South Dakota residents from requiring compliance with the most recent edition of the ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA 90.1-2001 Energy Standard for Buildings except Low-Rise Residential Buildings. These standards were developed in an effort to set minimum requirements for the energy efficient design and construction of new commercial buildings. The quantitative benefits and costs of adopting a commercial building energy code are modeled by comparing the characteristics of assumed current building practices with the most recent edition of the ASHRAE Standard, 90.1-2001. Both qualitative and quantitative benefits and costs are assessed in this analysis. Energy and economic impacts are estimated using results from a detailed building simulation tool (Building Loads Analysis and System Thermodynamics [BLAST] model) combined with a Life-Cycle Cost (LCC) approach to assess corresponding economic costs and benefits.

This report covers work carried out during a six year period under a DoE interagency grant. Because all results have been published as full papers in appropriate refereed journals that are openly available in most scientific libraries, the report takes the form of an annotated bibliography. In the interests of scientific continuity and bibliographic usefulness, however, work carried out on this same project from 1990-1992 under an earlier DoE award, as well as related work currently (2000-2002) in progress, will also be discussed. It should be stressed, however, that only work directly connected to the grantee is cited explicitly in this final grant report. The many important papers by other workers in the field during the last decade must be obtained from reference citations in the 21 publications mentioned.

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The Mirror Fusion Test Facility (MFTF-B) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory requires state-of-the-art structural-mechanics methods to deal with access constraints for plasma heating and diagnostics, alignment requirements, and load complexity and variety. Large interactive structures required an integrated analytical approach to achieve a reasonable level of overall system optimization. The Tandem Magnet Generator (TMG) creates a magnet configuration for the EFFI calculation of electromagnetic-field forces that, coupled with other loads, form the input loading to magnet and vessel finite-element models. The analytical results provide the data base for detailed design of magnet, vessel, foundation, and interaction effects.

In the quest to derive energy from renewable resources, NREL scientists pursue disciplines ranging from materials science to structural dynamics to condensed matter physics. Physics is at the core of making this transition to a renewable energy world. The role of light/matter interaction in physics will continue to dominate in the 21st century.

This project provides highly uniform, premium (unexposed to oxygen) coal samples to researchers investigating coal structure, properties and behavior, and maintains accessible databases of published reports describing work carried out on the Argonne Premium Coal Samples. The samples are made available to DOE researchers and others. The eight carefully selected samples have been kept in as pristine a condition as possible through careful control the conditions in all stages from sample collection throughout processing and packaging. The samples are available in glass ampoules to ensure sample uniformity and maintain premium quality to ensure sample integrity.

Sponsored by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is carrying out a research program to develop a technical basis to support the safety evaluation of deeply embedded and/or buried (DEB) structures as proposed for advanced reactor designs. In this program, the methods and computer programs established for the assessment of soil-structure interaction (SSI) effects for the current generation of light water reactors are evaluated to determine their applicability and adequacy in capturing the seismic behavior of DEB structures. This paper presents an assessment of the simplified vs. detailed methodologies for seismic analyses of DEB structures. In this assessment, a lump-mass beam model is used for the simplified approach and a finite element representation is employed for the detailed method. A typical containment structure embedded in a soil profile representative of a typical nuclear power plant site was utilized, considering various embedment depths from shallow to full burial. BNL used the CARES program for the simplified model and the SASSI2000 program for the detailed analyses. The calculated response spectra at the key locations of the DEB structure are used for the performance assessment of the applied methods for different depths of burial. Included in the paper are: …

Monthly newsletter discussing news and activities related to the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program, articles about weather and atmospheric phenomena, and other related topics.

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The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Specification 6M packaging was in extensive use for more than 40 years for in-commerce shipments of Type B quantities of fissile and radioactive material (RAM) across the USA, among the Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories, and between facilities in the DOE production complex. In January 2004, the DOT Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA) Agency issued a final rule in the Federal Register to ammend requirements in the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR) pertaining to the transportation of radioactive materials. The final rule became effective on October 1, 2004. One of those changes discontinued the use of the DOT specification 6M, along with other DOT specification packagings, on October 1, 2008. A main driver for the change was due to the fact that 6M specification packagings were not supported by a Safety Analysis Report for Packagings (SARP) that was compliant with Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 71 (10 CFR 71). The regulatory rules for the discontinued use have been edited in Title 49 of the CFR Parts 100-185, 2004 edition and thereafter. Prior to October 1, 2008, the use of the 6M within the boundaries of the Savannah River Site …

The Data Foundry research project at LLNL is investigating data warehousing in highly dynamic scientific environments. Specifically, we are developing a data warehouse to aid structural biologists in genetics research. Upon completion, this warehouse will present a uniform view of data obtained from several heterogeneous data sources containing distinct but related data from various genetics domains. Our warehouse uses a mediated data warehouse architecture in which only some data is represented explicitly in the warehouse; remote access is required to obtain the non-materialized data. Mediators are used to convert data from the data source representation to the warehouse representation and make it available to the warehouse. The major challenge we face is reducing the impact of source schema changes on warehouse availability and reliability: based upon previous efforts, we anticipate one source schema modification every 2-4 weeks once all of the desired sources have been integrated. Incorporating these modifications into the mediators using brute force results in an unacceptable amount of warehouse down-time. We believe that extensive use of a carefully designed ontology will allow us to overcome this problem, while providing a useful knowledge base for other applications. In addition to automatically generating the transformation between the data sources …

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An electron injector concept that uses a single injection laser pulse colliding with a pump laser pulse in a plasma is analyzed. The pump pulse generates a large amplitude laser wakefield (plasma wave). The counter propagating injection pulse collides with the pump laser pulse to generate a beat wave with a slow phase velocity. The ponderomotive force of the slow beat wave is responsible for injecting plasma electrons into the wakefield near the back of the pump pulse. Test particle simulations indicate that significant amounts of charge can be trapped and accelerated ({approx} 10 pC). For higher charge, beam loading limits the validity of the simulations. The accelerated bunches are ultrashort ({approx} 1 fs) with good beam quality (relative energy spread of a few percent at a mean energy of {approx} 10 MeV and a normalized rms emittance on the order 0.4 mm.mrad). The effects of interaction angle and polarization are also explored, e.g., efficient trapping can occur for near-collinear geometries. Beat wave injection using a single injection pulse has the advantages of simplicity, ease of experimental implementation, and requires modest laser intensity I {approx_equal} 8.8 x 10{sup 17} W/cm{sup 2}.

This issue of Biofuels News contains two articles. The first focuses on the art and science of bioenergy project financing using the example of three companies planning biomass-to-ethanol plants. The second highlights the objectives and activities of the five Regional Biomass Energy Programs (RBEP) within the US DOE.

An extensive knowledge of the effect on the mechanical properties of metals of prolonged exposure to neutron radiation is considered necessary to properly establish design and operating criteria for in-reactor pressure tubes and test loops. An opportunity to obtain a limited amount of this information on Zircaloy-2 presented itself when, after two years of service, the pressure tubes were replaced in the RE reactor recirculating test facility. Three Zircaloy-2 tubes, with a two-inch inside diameter and 48 feet long, had operated intermittently with prototypical fuel elements at water temperatures up to 250 C (480 F) and pressures up to 1350 psi. During this period, the tubes received an estimated integrated neutron exposure of 1.9 {times} 10{sup 22} nvt. After the tubes were removed from the reactor, metallographic examinations, longitudinal-tensile tests, flattening tests, and burst tests were performed. In this report, the techniques for performing the burst tests are described and the results of the burst tests are compared with the results from tensile tests on coupons cut from corresponding locations along the tube.

This document supports the development and presentation of the following accident scenario in the TWRS Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR): Steam Intrusion From Interfacing Systems. The calculations needed to quantify the risk associated with this accident scenario are included in the following sections to aid in the understanding of this accident scenario. Information validation forms citing assumptions that were approved for use specifically in this analysis are included in Appendix A. Copies of these forms are also on file with TWRS Project Files. Calculations performed in this document, in general, are expressed in traditional (English) units to aid understanding of the accident scenario and related parameters.

This paper presents a methodology to calculate the impingement load in the region of a submerged turbulent jet where a potential core exits and the jet is not fully developed. The profile of the jet flow velocities is represented by a piece-wise linear function which satisfies the conservation of momentum flux of the jet flow. The adequacy of the of the predicted jet expansion is further verified by considering the continuity of the jet flow from the region of potential core to the fully developed region. The jet impingement load can be calculated either as a direct impingement force or a drag force using the jet velocity field determined by the methodology presented.

Waste tank fissile material and non-fissile material estimates are used to evaluate criticality safety for the existing sludge inventory and batches of sludge sent to Extended Sludge Processing (ESP). This report documents the weight ratios of several non-fissile waste constituents to fissile waste constituents from canyon reprocessing waste streams. Weight ratios of Fe, Mn, Al, Mi, and U-238 to fissile material are calculated from monthly loss estimates from the F and H Canyon Low Heat Waste (LHW) and High Heat Waste (HHW) streams. The monthly weight ratios for Fe, Mn and U-238 are then compared to calculated minimum safe weight ratios. Documented minimum safe weight ratios for Al and Ni to fissile material are currently not available. Total mass data for the subject sludge constituents is provided along with scatter plots of the monthly weight ratios for each waste stream.

The objective of this project was to develop an Internet-based electronic performance support system (EPSS) for cellular manufacturing providing hardware/software specifications, process descriptions, estimated cost savings, manufacturing simulations, training information, and service resources for government and industry users of Cincinnati Milacron machine tools and products. AlliedSignal Federal Manufacturing and Technologies (ASFM and T) used expertise in the areas of Internet design and multimedia creation to develop a performance support system (PSS) for the Internet with assistance from CM's subject matter experts from engineering, manufacturing, and technical support. Reference information was both created and re-purposed from other existing formats, then made available on the Internet. On-line references on cellular manufacturing operations include: definitions of cells and cellular manufacturing; illustrations on how cellular manufacturing improves part throughput, resource utilization, part quality, and manufacturing flexibility; illustrations on how cellular manufacturing reduces labor and overhead costs; identification of critical factors driving decisions toward cellular manufacturing; a method for identifying process improvement areas using cellular manufacturing; a method for customizing the size of cells for a specific site; a simulation for making a part using cellular manufacturing technology; and a glossary of terms and concepts.