The purpose of this study was to examine the hypothesis that clastic dikes could form a preferential flow path through the vadose zone to the water table at the Hanford Site. Clastic dikes are subvertical structures that form within sedimentary sequences after deposition, and cut across the original sedimentary layers. They are common throughout the Hanford Site, often occurring in organized polygonal networks. In the initial phase of the project, we analyzed the large-scale geometry of the clastic dikes and developed an algorithm for simulating their spatial distribution. This result will be useful in providing maps of the potential distribution of clastic dikes in areas where they are not exposed at the surface (e.g., where covered by windblown sand or by construction of facilities like tank farms at the surface). In addition to the study of the large scale distribution of the dikes, a major focus of the project was on field, laboratory, and modeling studies of the hydrogeologic al properties of the clastic dikes and the effect that they have on transport of water through the vadose zone. These studies were performed at two field locations at the Hanford Site. We performed an extensive series of field and laboratory …

This is a collaborative LDRD Exploratory Research project involving four directorates--Energy & Environment, Engineering, NAI and Computation. The project seeks to answer the following critical questions regarding atmospheric releases--''How much material was released? When? Where? and What are the potential consequences?'' Inaccurate estimation of the source term can lead to gross errors, time delays during a crisis, and even fatalities. We are developing a capability that seamlessly integrates observational data streams with predictive models in order to provide the best possible estimates of unknown source term parameters, as well as optimal and timely situation analyses consistent with both models and data. Our approach utilizes Bayesian inference and stochastic sampling methods (Markov Chain and Sequential Monte Carlo) to reformulate the inverse problem into a solution based on efficient sampling of an ensemble of predictive simulations, guided by statistical comparisons with data. We are developing a flexible and adaptable data-driven event-reconstruction capability for atmospheric releases that provides (1) quantitative probabilistic estimates of the principal source-term parameters (e.g., the time-varying release rate and location); (2) predictions of increasing fidelity as an event progresses and additional data become available; and (3) analysis tools for sensor network design and uncertainty studies. Our computational framework incorporates …

Sludge has accumulated in the K East (KE) and K West (KW) Basins at the Hanford Site. This sludge contains metallic uranium and uranium oxides that will corrode, hydrate, and generate and consume gases during containerized storage. From these corrosion reactions, two sludge expansion mechanisms can be expected: 1) expansion of the volume of the sludge solids from the generation of corrosion oxidation products that occupy more space than the starting-state sludge; and 2) expansion of the bulk sludge volume from the retention of hydrogen gas bubbles. This report provides a review and updated projections of the volumetric expansion occurring due to corrosion and gas retention during the containerized storage of K Basin sludge. New design and safety basis volume expansion values are provided for the following sludge streams: KW Floor, KW North Loadout Pit, KW canister, and fuel piece sludge.

To investigate and verify the formation of <111>-type 4-arm multi-junction by the dislocation reaction of 1/2[111] [b1] + 1/2[{bar 1}1{bar 1}] [b2] + 1/2[{bar 1}{bar 1}1] [b3] = 1/2[{bar 1}11] [b4], which has recently been discovered through computer simulations conducted by Vasily Bulatov and his colleagues.

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At low redshifts powerful radio sources are uniquely associated with massive galaxies, and are thought to be powered by supermassive black holes. Modern 8m-10m telescopes may be used to find their likely progenitors at very high redshifts to study their formation and evolution.

A semi-quantitative map based on a series of spatially resolved X-ray diffraction (SRXRD) scans shows the progression of the ferrite ({delta})/austenite ({gamma}) phase balance throughout the HAZ during GTA welding of a 2205 duplex stainless steel (DSS). This map shows an unexpected decrease in the ferrite fraction on heating, followed by a recovery to the original ferrite fraction on cooling at locations within the HAZ. Even though such behavior is supported by thermodynamic calculations, it has not been confirmed by either experimental methods or have the kinetics been evaluated. Both Gleeble thermal simulations and time resolved x-ray diffraction measurements on spot welds in the 2205 DSS provide further evidence for this rather low-temperature transformation. On the other hand, calculations of the diffusion of alloying elements across the 6/y interface under a variety of conditions shed no further light on the driving force for this transformation. Further work on the mechanisms and driving forces for this transformation is on-going.

This report describes work to examine the gas generation behavior of actual K East (KE) Basin floor, pit and canister sludge. Mixed and unmixed and fractionated KE canister sludge were tested, along with floor and pit sludges from areas in the KE Basin not previously sampled. The first report in this series focused on gas generation from KE floor and canister sludge collected using a consolidated sampling technique. The third report will present results of gas generation testing of irradiated uranium fuel fragments with and without sludge addition. The path forward for management of the K Basin Sludge is to retrieve, ship, and store the sludge at T Plant until final processing at some future date. Gas generation will impact the designs and costs of systems associated with retrieval, transportation and storage of sludge.

The Scaled Thermal Explosion Experiment (STEX) has been developed to quantify the violence of thermal explosion under well defined and carefully controlled initial and boundary conditions. Here we present results with HMX-based explosives (LX-04 and PBX-9501) and with Composition B. Samples are 2 inches (50 mm) in diameter and 8 inches (200 mm) in length, under confinement of 7,500-30,000 psi (50-200 MPa), with heating rates of 1-3 C/hr. We quantify reaction violence by measuring the wall velocity in the ensuing thermal explosion, and relate the measured velocity to that expected from a detonation. Results with HMX-based explosives (LX-04 and PBX-9501) have shown the importance of confinement and HMX solid phase, with reaction violence ranging from mild pressure bursts to near detonations. By contrast, Composition B has shown very violent reactions over a wide range of conditions.

Thermal cycling was used as a means to control density in the preparation of Insensitive High Explosive (IHE) specimens slated for performance testing. These samples were thermally cycled between -55 degrees C and 70 degrees C and their densities measured using hydrostatic weighing, an immersion density measurement technique. Bulk sample densities were reduced by as much as 1.5% over 40 thermal cycles. In these thermal cycling studies, the effects of several parameters were investigated. These parameters included different ME composites (LX-17 and PBX 9502), different pressing mechanisms (die-pressed and isostatically-pressed) and sample size.

We present volume, density, and tensile property change observed from both naturally and accelerated aged plutonium alloys. Accelerated alloys are plutonium alloys with a fraction of Pu-238 to accelerate the aging process by approximately 18 times the rate of unaged weapons-grade plutonium. After thirty-five equivalent years of aging on accelerated alloys, the dilatometry shows the samples at 35 C have swelled in volume by 0.12 to 0.14% and now exhibit a near linear volume increase due to helium in-growth while showing possible surface effects on samples at 50 C and 65 C. The engineering stress of the accelerated alloy at 18 equivalent years increased significantly compared to at 4.5 equivalent years.

Eight colored glasses from Fire and Light Originals (FLO) and three container cullet glasses were characterized for the viscosity, density, and thermal expansion, glass transition temperature, dilatometer softening temperature, color chromaticity, Fe(II)/Fe(total) redox ratio, and chemical composition. The results of the characterization were used to evaluate the options for the glass formulation development of colored glasses aimed at increasing the use of recycled container glass cullet. Out of several options considered, the possibility of using clear cullet for FLO’s Citrus colored glass was selected and investigated in this study. It was shown that it is possible to use clear cullet to produce Citrus glass at the cullet oxide ratio of 90 mass% and the final color can be adjusted by controlling the nitrate level and alkali concentrations. From the present study, recommendations for further development efforts are provided to increase the container cullet usage or to replace partially or entirely the clear cullet by the amber cullet.

This note will tabulate the desired phase and delay offsets for a Stacktail Momentum beam transfer function measurement as a function of beam energy and pickup leg. These phase and delay offsets were computed from beam transfer functions made around April 14, 2000. The StackTail system with these offsets will have a gain slope of about 10 MeV.

Individual raw data streams from instrumentation at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program Climate Research Facility (ACRF) fixed and mobile sites are collected and sent to the Data Management Facility (DMF) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for processing in near real time. Raw and processed data are then sent daily to the ACRF Archive, where they are made available to users. For each instrument, we calculate the ratio of the actual number of data records received daily at the Archive to the expected number of data records. The results are tabulated by (1) individual data stream, site, and month for the current year and (2) site and fiscal year dating back to 1998. Table 1 shows the accumulated maximum operation time (planned uptime), the actual hours of operation, and the variance (unplanned downtime) for the period October 1 through December 31, 2006, for the fixed and mobile sites. Although the AMF is currently up and running in Niamey, Niger, Africa, the AMF statistics are reported separately and not included in the aggregate average with the fixed sites. The first quarter comprises a total of 2,208 hours. For all fixed sites, the actual data availability (and therefore actual hours of …

This research program builds upon a multi-disciplinary effort in interphase analysis and control in thermoplastic matrix polymer matrix composites (PMC). The research investigates model systems deemed of interest by members of the Automotive Composites Consortium (ACC) as well as samples at the forefront of PMC process development (DRIFT and P4 technologies). Finally, the research investigates, based upon the fundamental understanding of the interphases created during the fabrication of thermoplastic PMCs, the role the interphase play in key bulk properties of interest to the automotive industry.

We present fabrication and characterization of a membrane based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and parylene. Carbon nanotubes have shown orders of magnitude enhancement in gas and water permeability compared to estimates generated by conventional theories [1, 2]. Large area membranes that exhibit flux enhancement characteristics of carbon nanotubes may provide an economical solution to a variety of technologies including water desalination [3] and gas sequestration [4]. We report a novel method of making carbon nanotube-based, robust membranes with large areas. A vertically aligned dense carbon nanotube array is infiltrated with parylene. Parylene polymer creates a pinhole free transparent film by exhibiting high surface conformity and excellent crevice penetration. Using this moisture-, chemical- and solvent-resistant polymer creates carbon nanotube membranes that promise to exhibit high stability and biocompatibility. CNT membranes are formed by releasing a free-standing film that consists of parylene-infiltrated CNTs, followed by CNT uncapping on both sides of the composite material. Thus fabricated membranes show flexibility and ductility due to the parylene matrix material, as well as high permeability attributed to embedded carbon nanotubes. These membranes have a potential for applications that may require high flux, flexibility and durability.

Increasing evidence suggests that a combination of host genetics and the composition of the gut microbiota are important for development of Crohn's disease (CD). Our aim was to study identical twins with CD to determine microbial factors independently of host genetics. Fecal samples were studied from 10 monozygotic twin pairs with CD (discordant n=6, concordant n=4) and 8 healthy twin pairs. DNA was extracted, 16S rRNA genes were PCR amplified and T-RFLP fingerprints generated using general bacterial and Bacteroides group specific primers. The microbial communities were also profiled based on their % G+C contents. Bacteroides 16S rRNA genes were cloned and sequenced from a subset of the samples. The bacterial diversity in each sample and similarity indices between samples were estimated based on the T-RFLP data using a combination of statistical approaches. Healthy individuals had a significantly higher bacterial diversity compared to individuals with CD. The fecal microbial communities were more similar between healthy twins than between twins with CD, especially when these were discordant for the disease. The microbial community profiles of individuals with ileal CD were significantly different from healthy individuals and those with colonic CD. Also, CD individuals had a lower relative abundance of B. uniformis and …

The Hanford K Basin Closure Project involves the retrieval, transfer and processing of radioactive contaminated slurries containing partially corroded spent nuclear fuel from the K Basin spent fuel pools. The spent fuel is primarily metallic fuel from the operation of the Hanford reactors. The Sludge Treatment Project is being designed to treat and package this material in preparation for ultimate disposal. The processing of the contaminated slurries includes further corrosion of the remaining uncorroded uranium metal in a large heated vessel to form a more stable metal oxide for packaging and storage.

We study the photo-induced insulator-metal transition in VO2, correlating threshold and dynamic evolution with excitation wavelength. In high-quality single crystal samples, we find that switching can only be induced with photon energies above the 670-meV gap. This contrasts with the case of polycrystalline films, where formation of the metallic state can also be triggered with photon energies as low as 180 meV, well below the bandgap. Perfection of this process may be conducive to novel schemes for optical switches, limiters and detectors, operating at room temperature in the mid-IR.

Lattice mismatch strains are widely known to controlnanoscale pattern formation in heteroepitaxy, but such effects have notbeen exploited in colloidal nanocrystal growth. We demonstrate acolloidal route to synthesizing CdS-Ag2S nanorod superlattices throughpartial cation exchange. Strain induces the spontaneous formation ofperiodic structures. Ab initio calculations of the interfacial energy andmodeling of strain energies show that these forces drive theself-organization. The nanorod superlattices exhibit high stabilityagainst ripening and phase mixing. These materials are tunablenear-infrared emitters with potential applications as nanometer-scaleoptoelectronic devices.

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This letter describes how to perform model-independent searches for new pair-produced color octet particles that each subsequently decay into two jets plus missing energy at the Tevatron. Current searches are not sensitive to all regions of parameter space because they employ CMSSM-motivated cuts. Optimizing the H{sub T} and E{sub T} cuts expands the sensitivity of searches for all kinematically allowed decays.

This report summarizes work to develop a novel distributed fiber-optic micro-sensor that is capable of detecting common fossil fuel gases in harsh environments. During the 32-month research and development (R&D) program, GE Global Research successfully synthesized sensing materials using two techniques: sol-gel based fiber surface coating and magnetron sputtering based fiber micro-sensor integration. Palladium nanocrystalline embedded silica matrix material (nc-Pd/Silica), nanocrystalline palladium oxides (nc-PdO{sub x}) and palladium alloy (nc-PdAuN{sub 1}), and nanocrystalline tungsten (nc-WO{sub x}) sensing materials were identified to have high sensitivity and selectivity to hydrogen; while the palladium doped and un-doped nanocrystalline tin oxide (nc-PdSnO{sub 2} and nc-SnO{sub 2}) materials were verified to have high sensitivity and selectivity to carbon monoxide. The fiber micro-sensor comprises an apodized long-period grating in a single-mode fiber, and the fiber grating cladding surface was functionalized by above sensing materials with a typical thickness ranging from a few tens of nanometers to a few hundred nanometers. GE found that the morphologies of such sensing nanomaterials are either nanoparticle film or nanoporous film with a typical size distribution from 5-10 nanometers. nc-PdO{sub x} and alloy sensing materials were found to be highly sensitive to hydrogen gas within the temperature range from ambient to 150 …

The present program is centered on the experimental study of shock-induced interfacial fluid instabilities. Both 2-D (near-sinusoids) and 3-D (spheres) initial conditions are studied in a large, vertical square shock tube facility. The evolution of the interface shape, its distortion, the modal growth rates and the mixing of the fluids at the interface are all objectives of the investigation. In parallel to the experiments, calculations are performed using the Raptor code, on platforms made available by LLNL. These flows are of great relevance to both ICF and stockpile stewardship. The involvement of four graduate students is in line with the national laboratories' interest in the education of scientists and engineers in disciplines and technologies consistent with the labs' missions and activities.