Annual report of the Texas Racing Commission describing goals, activities, and accomplishments during fiscal year 2005.

A prototype oligonucleotide ''functional chip'' has been developed to screen novel DNA repair proteins for their ability to bind or alter different forms of DNA. This chip has been developed as a functional genomics screen for analysis of protein-DNA interactions for novel proteins identified from the Human Genome Project The process of novel gene identification that has ensued as a consequence of available sequence information is remarkable. The challenge how lies in determining the function of newly identified gene products in a time-and cost-effective high-throughput manner. The functional chip is generated by the robotic application of DNA spotted in a microarray format onto a glass slide. Individual proteins are then analyzed against the different form of DNA bound to the slide. Several prototype functional chips were designed to contain various DNA fragments tethered to a glass slide for analysis of protein-DNA binding or enzymatic activity of known proteins. The technology has been developed to screen novel, putative DNA repair proteins for their ability to bind various types of DNA alone and in concert with protein partners. An additional scheme has been devised to screen putative repair enzymes for their ability to process different types of DNA molecules. Current methods to …

A research effort performed by the Target Fabrication Group has developed a method for producing precision, meso-scale gold support rings for laser targets. Many different laser targets consist of planar components that are built upon a gold support ring, such as the HyDiv and RadG targets shown in Figure 1. Because of the sequence in which laser targets such as these must be built to achieve the required overall precision, the washer-shaped support rings must fit precisely onto fixtures that are used throughout the manufacturing process. Because the support ring is the fundamental structure onto which the target is built, any imprecision in the support ring propagates through the entire target. Thus, even if the physics performance of a laser target does not require a flat and precise support ring, the manufacturing methods used to achieve the overall level of precision demanded in the targets rely heavily on the precision of the support rings. Past efforts to purchase gold support rings from outside vendors have been either extremely costly, or the vendors were unable to deliver acceptable parts. On several occasions, difficulties in obtaining acceptable support rings in a timely manner have compromised the ability to manufacture and deliver targets …

Various aspects of the Laboratory's national security mission are now highly dependent on accurate computer code simulations of plastic flow (i.e., non-reversible deformation) of materials under conditions of high hydrostatic pressure. Strength models are typically dependent on pressure, temperature, and strain rate. Current strength models can not be extrapolated to high pressure because they are not based on the underlying mechanisms of plastic deformation. The critical need for predictive models of material strength, which describe flow stress in computer code simulations, has motivated LLNL's multiscale modeling efforts. Over the past three years, the ''Material Strength at High Pressure'' LDRD Strategic Initiative has established a framework for the development of predictive strength models for deformation of metals under conditions of high hydrostatic pressure. Deformation experiments have been developed to measure the effect of high pressure on the yield strength and work hardening behavior of high purity Mo and Ta single crystals. The over arching goal of the SI is to experimentally validate multiscale-modeling capabilities for deformation of metals under conditions of high pressure. The work performed and accomplished is a necessary next step in the development of predictive strength models. Our initial experimental results show that the influence of pressure is …

Most chemically stable organic materials age through changes on the mesoscopic scale (from 10 nm to 10 mm). Examples include the slow crystallization of polymers, changes in particle size distributions with age, and the swelling of pressed powders. We began the Mesochem project to develop a new mesoscopic modeling capability for organic materials, including polymers, molecular crystals, and filled polymer composites. Our goal was to develop and validate novel mesoscopic modeling techniques that are well suited for materials of interest to LLNL's nation security mission, such as high explosives, binding agents, and foams.

The subject milestone was completed on March 1st. This milestone signifies the completion the mechanical installation and assembly of PuCTF in room 1345 in the LLNT Plutonium Facility. This installation included equipment both in room 1345 and in the loft, As reported in the last milestone, ''LLNL Pu Facility space prepared for installation of PUCTF'', milestone 6.2.2/Fy00/c, steel plates had been installed on the floor to support the PuCTF glovebox and equipment. The steel plate system was a substantial help in completing the mechanical installation reported here. The glovebox sections were brought into the room and attached together. Temporary seismic tie-down straps were used to brace the assembly. This temporary tie-down also provided Flexibility for alignment and adjustment. The internal equipment, (attritors, granulator, press feed shoe and die set, furnace, robot and powder transport system) were subsequently installed. The glovebox was then welded to the steel plates for permanent seismic anchoring. The control racks were attached to the floor and are ready for wiring and the press hydraulic power unit has been installed in the loft.

Debt Swapping as a Tool for Economic and Social Stablization in Russia's Closed Nuclear Cities

Public awareness of rock-fall hazard in Yosemite Valley has heightened after events in 1996 and 1999. Reports of audible blasts prior to rock-fall events suggest that rock cracking may in some instances precede the detachment a block from the cliff face. Seismic methods may be used to detect and locate small, inaudible rock cracking events, resulting in a catalog that outlines active areas and quantifies the level of activity. In order to test the feasibility of monitoring rock-fall activity with seismic methods, the Test Yosemite Rock-Fall Network (TYRN) was operated in the late summer and fall of 1999. The TYRN included five stations in the vicinity of the 1999 rock fall events: 2 stations at the base of the cliff and 3 above. Location of events depends on an estimate of seismic-wave velocity. During the TYRN deployment, a septic tank near Glacier Point was demolished, allowing the velocity of seismic P-waves to be calibrated. P-wave velocity was found to be about 5.68 km/s. Recordings of the explosion also allow assessment of arrival time precision, which controls the precision of seismic locations. Explosion recordings suggest that P-waves can be picked with a precision of about 0.005 seconds, suggesting that a seismic …

The purpose of this report is to provide a concise but comprehensive overview of Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility instrumentation status. The report is divided into the following five sections: (1) new instrumentation in the process of being acquired and deployed, (2) field campaigns, (3) existing instrumentation and progress on improvements or upgrades, (4) proposed future instrumentation, and (5) Small Business Innovation Research instrument development.

The IPP/DOE program office has finished its evaluation of the alpha-emitting isotope work with Kurchatov Institute and IPPE, and they have made an important decision about the future of this work. IPP/DOE has directed us to re-program the work and add more funds, so the emphasis will be on production of Th228. By making this re-direction of the isotope work, IPPE will see several important benefits: (a) the payments will be made faster to IPPE by using the ISTC Agreement; (b) a larger amount of money will be paid to IPPE; and (c) a profitable future business opportunity for IPPE is more probable.

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory conducted this study for the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) with funding provided through the Northwest Power and Conservation Council(a) and the BPA Fish and Wildlife Program. The study was conducted in the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River. The goal of study was to determine the physical habitat factors necessary to define the redd capacity of fall Chinook salmon that spawn in large mainstem rivers like the Hanford Reach and Snake River. The study was originally commissioned in FY 1994 and then recommissioned in FY 2000 through the Fish and Wildlife Program rolling review of the Columbia River Basin projects. The work described in this report covers the period from 1994 through 2004; however, the majority of the information comes from the last four years of the study (2000 through 2004). Results from the work conducted from 1994 to 2000 were covered in an earlier report. More than any other stock of Pacific salmon, fall Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) have suffered severe impacts from the hydroelectric development in the Columbia River Basin. Fall Chinook salmon rely heavily on mainstem habitats for all phases of their life cycle, and mainstem hydroelectric dams have inundated or blocked …

The purpose of the Craig Wood Fired Boiler Project is to use waste wood from local sawmilling operations to provide heat to local public buildings, in an effort to reduce the cost of operating those buildings, and put to productive use a byproduct from the wood milling process that otherwise presents an expense to local mills. The scope of the project included the acquisition of a wood boiler and the delivery systems to feed wood fuel to it, the construction of a building to house the boiler and delivery systems, and connection of the boiler facility to three buildings that will benefit from heat generated by the boiler: the Craig Aquatic Center, the Craig Elementary School, and the Craig Middle School buildings.

This report summarizes results of a literature review, a workshop, and many meetings with demand response and thermostat researchers and implementers. The information obtained from these resources was used to identify key issues of thermostat performance from both energy savings and peak demand perspectives. A research plan was developed to address these issues and activities have already begun to pursue the research agenda.

To identify emerging basic science and engineering research needs and opportunities that will require major advances in electron-scattering theory, technology, and instrumentation.

Western Research Institute (WRI) in conjunction with the University of Wyoming, Department of Renewable Resources and the U.S. Department of Energy, under Task 35, conducted a laboratory-scale study of hydrocarbon biodegradation rates versus a variety of physical and chemical parameters to develop a base model. By using this model, biodegradation of Petroleum hydrocarbons in heterogeneous soils can be predicted. The base model, as developed in this study, have been tested by both field and laboratory data. Temperature, pH, and nutrients appear to be the key parameters that can be incorporate into the model to predict biodegradation rates. Results to date show the effect of soil texture and source on the role of each parameter in the rates of hydrocarbon biodegradation. Derived from the existing study, an alternative approach of using CO{sub 2} accumulation data has been attempted by our collaborators at the University of Wyoming. The model has been modified and fine tuned by incorporating these data to provide more information on biodegradation.

The output fluence and pulse duration of XFELs such as LCLS and TESLA will pose significant challenges to the optical components which may be damaged by the XFEL beam [1]. It is expected that low-atomic-number materials such as SiC, B{sub 4}C, and diamond exhibit weak absorption and therefore are damaged least. It has been suggested that the fundamental damage mechanism that determines the fluence damage threshold for single-shot exposures is thermal melting of the materials [2]. For multiple-shot exposures, the damage threshold is potentially lower than the melt threshold due to fatigue effects associated with mechanical stresses during to thermal cycling [3].

This report provides a summary of the results on the properties of cementitious waste forms obtained as part of the International Program. In particular, this report focuses on the results of Task 4 of the Program that was initially entitled ''Improved Retention of Key Contaminants of Concern in Low Temperature Immobilized Waste Forms''. Task 4 was a joint program between Khlopin Radium Institute and the Savannah River National Laboratory. The task evolved during this period into a study of cementitious waste forms with an expanded scope that included heat of hydration and fate and transport modeling. This report provides the results for Task 4 of the International Program as of the end of FY06 at which time funding for Task 4 was discontinued due to the needs of higher priority tasks within the International Program. Consequently, some of the subtasks were only partially completed, but it was considered important to capture the results up to this point in time. Therefore, this report serves as the closeout report for Task 4. The degree of immobilization of Tc-99 within the Saltstone waste form was measured through monolithic and crushed grout leaching tests. An effective diffusion coefficient of 4.8 x 10{sup -12} (Leach …

The purpose of this design analysis and calculation is to determine the demand for domestic cold water and to size the supply main piping for the Change House Facility No.5008 in accordance with the Uniform Plumbing Code (Section 4.4.1) and US Department of Energy Order 6430.1A-1540 (Section 4.4.2).

This Soil Management Plan applies to all activities conducted under the auspices of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Oak Ridge Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12) that involve soil disturbance and potential management of waste soil. The plan was prepared under the direction of the Y-12 Environmental Compliance Department of the Environment, Safety, and Health Division. Soil disturbances related to maintenance activities, utility and building construction projects, or demolition projects fall within the purview of the plan. This Soil Management Plan represents an integrated, visually oriented, planning and information resource tool for decision making involving excavation or disturbance of soil at Y-12. This Soil Management Plan addresses three primary elements. (1) Regulatory and programmatic requirements for management of soil based on the location of a soil disturbance project and/or the regulatory classification of any contaminants that may be present (Chap. 2). Five general regulatory or programmatic classifications of soil are recognized to be potentially present at Y-12; soil may fall under one or more these classifications: (a) Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) pursuant to the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) Federal Facilities Agreement; (b) Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA); (c) RCRA 3004(u) solid waste managements units pursuant …

Work in radiation areas can occasionally result in accidental wounds containing radioactive materials. When a wound is incurred within a radiological area, the presence of radioactivity in the wound needs to be confirmed to determine if additional remedial action needs to be taken. Commonly used radiation area monitoring equipment is poorly suited for measurement of radioactive material buried within the tissue of the wound. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) In Vivo Measurement Facility has constructed a portable wound counter that provides sufficient detection of radioactivity in wounds as shown in Fig. 1. The LLNL wound measurement system is specifically designed to measure low energy photons that are emitted from uranium and transuranium radionuclides. The portable wound counting system uses a 2.5cm diameter by 1mm thick NaI(Tl) detector. The detector is connected to a Canberra NaI InSpector{trademark}. The InSpector interfaces with an IBM ThinkPad laptop computer, which operates under Genie 2000 software. The wound counting system is maintained and used at the LLNL In Vivo Measurement Facility. The hardware is designed to be portable and is occasionally deployed to respond to the LLNL Health Services facility or local hospitals for examination of personnel that may have radioactive materials within a …

The objective of this program was to advance the fundamental understanding of thick thermal barrier coating (TTBC) systems for application to low heat rejection diesel engine combustion chambers. Previous reviews of thermal barrier coating technology concluded that the current level of understanding of coating system behavior is inadequate and the lack of fundamental understanding may impede the application of thermal barrier coating to diesel engines.(1) Areas of TTBC technology examined in this program include powder characteristics and chemistry; bond coating composition, coating design, microstructure and thickness as they affect properties, durability, and reliability; and TTBC "aging" effects (microstructural and property changes) under diesel engine operating conditions. Fifteen TTBC ceramic powders were evaluated. These powders were selected to investigate the effects of different chemistries, different manufacturing methods, lot-to-lot variations, different suppliers and varying impurity levels. Each of the fifteen materials has been sprayed using 36 parameters selected by a design of experiments (DOE) to determine the effects of primary gas (Ar and N2), primary gas flow rate, voltage, arc current, powder feed rate, carrier gas flow rate, and spraying distance. The deposition efficiency, density, and thermal conductivity of the resulting coatings were measured. A coating with a high deposition efficiency and …

The LLNL Target Fabrication Team (TFT) asked the Center for Non-Destructive Characterization (CNDC) to use CNDC's KCAT or Xradia's Micro computed tomography (CT) system to collect three-dimensional (3D) tomographic data of a set of double-shell targets and determine, among other items, the following: (1) the concentricity of the outer surface of the inner shell with respect to the inner surface of the outer shell with an accuracy of 1-2 micrometers, and (2) the wall thickness uniformity of the outer shell with an accuracy of 1-2 micrometers. The CNDC used Xradia's Micro CT system to collect the data. Bill Brown performed the concentricity analysis, and John Sain performed the wall thickness uniformity analysis. Harry Martz provided theoretical guidance, and Dan Schneberk contributed technical (software) support. This document outlines the analysis procedures used in each case. The double-shell targets, as shown in Figures 1 and 2, consist of an inner shell (or capsule), a two-piece spherical aerogel intermediary shell, and a two-piece spherical outer shell. The three elements are designed and fabricated to be concentric--with the aerogel shell acting as a spacer between the inner shell and outer shell--with no to minimum air gaps in the final assembly. The outer diameters of …

The goal of the Phase I research was to demonstrate the feasibility of developing a high performance SPECT/CT detector module based on a combination of microcolumnar CsI(Tl) scintillator coupled to an EMCCD readout. We are very pleased to report that our Phase I research has demonstrated the technical feasibility of our approach with a very high degree of success. Specifically, we were able to implement a back-thinned EMCCD with a fiberoptic window which was successfully used to demonstrate the feasibility of near simultaneous radionuclide/CT using the proposed concept. Although significantly limited in imaging area (24 x 24 mm{sup 2}) and pixel resolution (512 x 512), this prototype has shown exceptional capabilities such as a single optical photon sensitivity, very low noise, an intrinsic resolution of 64 {micro}m for radionuclide imaging, and a resolution in excess of 10 lp/mm for x-ray imaging. Furthermore, the combination of newly developed, thick, microcolumnar CsI and an EMCCD has shown to be capable of operating in a photon counting mode, and that the position and energy information obtained from these data can be used to improve resolution in radionuclide imaging. Finally, the prototype system has successfully been employed for near simultaneous SPECT/CT imaging using both, …

The high-pressure/temperature phase diagrams of materials are largely unexplored. Combined laser heating/x-ray diffraction capabilities applied to diamond anvil cell experiment provide unique opportunities to study materials over a broad range of temperature (several 1000 K's) and pressure (several 100 GPa's). Of particular interest are high temperature phase transitions including solid-solid and melting transitions in geophysically and technologically important systems. Data derived from these experiments serve to extend our scientific understanding of materials and evaluate theoretical predictions. Using the laser heating (LH) and angle dispersive x-ray diffraction (ADXD) capabilities at BL10XU at SPring-8, we have studied several materials at high-pressure/temperature. This report will summarize results of our studies of solid-solid and melting transitions of beryllium at high pressures and high temperatures. The phase diagram of beryllium is largely unexplored, and the limited data that is available relies on indirect means to establish phase lines and phase transitions (see figure 1)[1]. At ambient pressure an hcp-bcc phase transition has been observed at 1523 K with a subsequent melt transition at 1551 K. Using electrical conductivity, Francois and Contre[2] inferred that the hcp-bcc phase line had a negative slope with pressure. It should be noted that this was established using indirect evidence, and …