Gas storage is a critical element in the natural gas industry. Producers, transmission and distribution companies, marketers, and end users all benefit directly from the load balancing function of storage. The unbundling process has fundamentally changed the way storage is used and valued. As an unbundled service, the value of storage is being recovered at rates that reflect its value. Moreover, the marketplace has differentiated between various types of storage services, and has increasingly rewarded flexibility, safety, and reliability. The size of the natural gas market has increased and is projected to continue to increase towards 30 trillion cubic feet (TCF) over the next 10 to 15 years. Much of this increase is projected to come from electric generation, particularly peaking units. Gas storage, particularly the flexible services that are most suited to electric loads, is critical in meeting the needs of these new markets. In order to address the gas storage needs of the natural gas industry, an industry-driven consortium was created--the Gas Storage Technology Consortium (GSTC). The objective of the GSTC is to provide a means to accomplish industry-driven research and development designed to enhance operational flexibility and deliverability of the Nation's gas storage system, and provide a …

We present a new technique to accelerate the convergence of the folded spectrum method in empirical pseudopotential band edge state calculations for colloidal quantum dots. We use bulk band states of the materials constituent of the quantum dot to construct initial vectors and a preconditioner. We apply these to accelerate the convergence of the folded spectrum method for the interior states at the top of the valence and the bottom of the conduction band. For large CdSe quantum dots, the number of iteration steps until convergence decreases by about a factor of 4 compared to previous calculations.

This paper reports the results in the effort to destabilize lithium borohydride for reversible hydrogen storage. A number of metals, metal hydrides, metal chlorides and complex hydrides were selected and evaluated as the destabilization agents for reducing dehydriding temperature and generating dehydriding-rehydriding reversibility. It is found that some additives are effective. The Raman spectroscopic analysis shows the change of B-H binding nature.

Seasonally managed wetlands in the Grasslands Basin ofCalifornia's San Joaquin Valley provide food and shelter for migratorywildfowl during winter months and sport for waterfowl hunters during theannual duck season. Surface water supply to these wetland contain saltwhich, when drained to the San Joaquin River during the annual drawdownperiod, negatively impacts downstream agricultural riparian waterdiverters. Recent environmental regulation, limiting discharges salinityto the San Joaquin River and primarily targeting agricultural non-pointsources, now addresses return flows from seasonally managed wetlands.Real-time water quality management has been advocated as a means ofmatching wetland return flows to the assimilative capacity of the SanJoaquin River. Past attempts to build environmental monitoring anddecision support systems to implement this concept have failed forreasons that are discussed in this paper. These reasons are discussed inthe context of more general challenges facing the successfulimplementation of environmental monitoring, modelling and decisionsupport systems. The paper then provides details of a current researchand development project which will ultimately provide wetland managerswith the means of matching salt exports with the available assimilativecapacity of the San Joaquin River, when fully implemented. Manipulationof the traditional wetland drawdown comes at a potential cost to thesustainability of optimal wetland moist soil plant habitat in thesewetlands - hence the project …

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An international, multiple-code benchmark test (BMT) studyis being conducted within the international DECOVALEX project to analysecoupled thermal, hydrological, mechanical and chemical (THMC) processesin the excavation disturbed zone (EDZ) around emplacement drifts of anuclear waste repository. This BMT focuses on mechanical responses andlong-term chemo-mechanical effects that may lead to changes in mechanicaland hydrological properties in the EDZ. This includes time-de-pendentprocesses such as creep, and subcritical crack, or healing of fracturesthat might cause "weakening" or "hardening" of the rock over the longterm. Five research teams are studying this BMT using a wide range ofmodel approaches, including boundary element, finite element, and finitedifference, particle mechanics, and elasto-plastic cellular automatamethods. This paper describes the definition of the problem andpreliminary simulation results for the initial model inception part, inwhich time dependent effects are not yet included.

This paper presents preliminary results from an ongoing post-irradiation analysis of materials that have been irradiated at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) Isotope facility. The effort is part of an experimental study that focuses on how prone to irradiation damage these materials are and thus what is their potential in playing the role of high power targets in the neutrino superbeam and the muon collider initiatives.

Address both thickness dependence of Jc, in thick film YBCO coated conductors through an application of a suite of new measurement techniques to thick film wire samples produced by commercially viable coated conductor technologies.

As part of the ongoing international DECOVALEX project, fourresearch teams used five different models to simulate coupled thermal,hydrological, and mechanical (THM) processes near underground wasteemplacement drifts. The simulations were conducted for two genericrepository types, one with open and the other with back-filled repositorydrifts, under higher and lower post-closure temperature, respectively. Inthe completed first model inception phase of the project, a goodagreement was achieved between the research teams in calculating THMresponses for both repository types, although some disagreement inhydrological responses are currently being resolved. Good agreement inthe basic thermal-mechanical responses was also achieved for bothrepository types, even though some teams used relatively simplifiedthermal-elastic heat-conduction models that neglect complex near-fieldthermal-hydrological processes. The good agreement between the complexand simplified process models indicates that the basic thermal-mechanicalresponses can be predicted with a relatively high confidencelevel.

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Document listing the three motions made during the WASP Board of Directors meeting held in Nashville, TN on March 25, 2006.

Weekly newspaper from Rusk, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with extensive advertising.

This report discusses the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act, which makes federal funds available to metropolitan areas and states to assist in health care costs and support services for individuals and families affected by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). This report discusses related legislation and appropriations.

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A suite of test problems has been developed to examine contact behavior within the nonlinear, three-dimensional, explicit finite element analysis (FEA) code DYNA3D (Lin, 2005). The test problems use multiple interfaces and a combination of enforcement methods to assess the basic functionality of the contact algorithms. The results from the DYNA3D analyses are compared to closed form solutions to verify the contact behavior. This work was performed as part of the Verification and Validation efforts of LLNL W Program within the NNSA's Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) Program. DYNA3D models the transient dynamic response of solids and structures including the interactions between disjoint bodies (parts). A wide variety of contact surfaces are available to represent the diverse interactions possible during an analysis, including relative motion (sliding), separation and gap closure (voids), and fixed relative position (tied). The problem geometry may be defined using a combination of element formulations, including one-dimensional beam and truss elements, two-dimensional shell elements, and three-dimensional solid elements. Consequently, it is necessary to consider various element interactions during contact. This report and associated test problems examine the scenario where multiple bodies interact with each other via multiple interfaces. The test problems focus on whether any ordering issues …

The CRD addresses the requirements of Department of Energy (DOE) Order 413.3-Change 1, ''Program and Project Management for the Acquisition of Capital Assets'', by providing the Secretarial Acquisition Executive (Level 0) scope baseline and the Program-level (Level 1) technical baseline. The Secretarial Acquisition Executive approves the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management's (OCRWM) critical decisions and changes against the Level 0 baseline; and in turn, the OCRWM Director approves all changes against the Level 1 baseline. This baseline establishes the top-level technical scope of the CRMWS and its three system elements, as described in section 1.3.2. The organizations responsible for design, development, and operation of system elements described in this document must therefore prepare subordinate project-level documents that are consistent with the CRD. Changes to requirements will be managed in accordance with established change and configuration control procedures. The CRD establishes requirements for the design, development, and operation of the CRWMS. It specifically addresses the top-level governing laws and regulations (e.g., ''Nuclear Waste Policy Act'' (NWPA), 10 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 63, 10 CFR Part 71, etc.) along with specific policy, performance requirements, interface requirements, and system architecture. The CRD shall be used as a vehicle to incorporate …

We have built, as far as possible, fully self-consistent models of H II regions around aging clusters of stars. These produce strong emission line diagnostics applicable to either individual H II regions in galaxies, or to the integrated emission line spectra of disk or starburst galaxies. The models assume that the expansion and internal pressure of individual H II regions is driven by the net input of mechanical energy from the central cluster, be it through winds or supernova events. This eliminates the ionization parameter as a free variable, replacing it with a parameter which depends on the ratio of the cluster mass to the pressure in the surrounding interstellar medium. These models explain why H II regions with low abundances have high excitation, and demonstrate that at least part of the warm ionized medium is the result of overlapping faint, old, large, and low pressure H II regions. We present a number of line ratios (at both optical and IR wavelengths) that provide reliable abundance diagnostics for either single H II regions or for integrated galaxy spectra, and others that are sensitive to the age of the cluster stars exciting individual H II regions.

The formation and evolution of stars and galaxies is a complex process that involves the cooling and collapse of dense interstellar clouds as well as energetic feedback on these clouds. Interstellar dust grains are central to the radiative transfer, thermal balance, and molecular processes in these clouds and can provide an important diagnostic. Hence, the effects of energetic processing of interstellar dust may have significant consequences. r This may be studied in our own Galaxy, where observations have shown that an appreciable fraction of silicates formed in the outflows from red giants and supergiants have a crystalline structure. Yet, the fraction of crystalline silicates in the interstellar medium is very small, pointing towards an efficient crystalline crystalline-to to-amorphous conversion process. Here we report experimental and modeling results that show that relatively ''low'' energy (0.1 - 5.0 GeV) heavy ion cosmic rays can rapidly ({approx}70 Million yrs) amorphize crystalline silicate grains ejected by stars into the interstellar medium. The implications of this are briefly discussed. We also examine the effects of cosmic ray processing of silicates in the solar system and in stellar debris disks. In the latter systems, cosmic ray processing may play a role for grains trapped in resonance …

Spray forming is a competitive low-cost alternative to ingot metallurgy for manufacturing ferrous and non-ferrous alloy shapes. It produces materials with a reduced number of processing steps, while maintaining materials properties, with the possibility of near-net-shape manufacturing. However, there are several hurdles to large-scale commercial adoption of spray forming: 1) ensuring strip is consistently flat, 2) eliminating porosity, particularly at the deposit/substrate interface, and 3) improving material yield. Through this program, a new strip/sheet casting process, termed spray rolling, has been developed, which is an innovative manufacturing technique to produce aluminum net-shape products. Spray rolling combines the benefits of twin-roll casting and conventional spray forming, showing a promising potential to overcome the above hurdles associated with spray forming. Spray rolling requires less energy and generates less scrap than conventional processes and, consequently, enables the development of materials with lower environmental impacts in both processing and final products. Spray Rolling was developed as a collaborative project between the University of California-Davis, the Colorado School of Mines, the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, and an industry team. The following objectives of this project were achieved: (1) Demonstration of the feasibility of the spray rolling process at the bench-scale level and evaluation …

We performed an experimental study of charge identification of heavy ions from helium to carbon having energy of about 290 MeV/u using an emulsion chamber. Emulsion was desensitized by means of forced fading (refreshing) to expand a dynamic range of response to highly charged particles. For the track reconstruction and charge identification, the fully automated high speed emulsion read-out system, which was originally developed for identifying minimum ionizing particles, was used without any modification. Clear track by track charge identification up to Z=6 was demonstrated. The refreshing technique has proved to be a powerful technique to expand response of emulsion film to highly ionizing particles.

We report observations of electron beam-induced light from GaN nanowires grown by chemical vapor deposition. GaN nanowires were modified in-situ with deposited opaque platinum coatings to estimate the extent to which light is channeled to the ends of nanowires. Some evidence of light channeling was found, but wire microstructure and defects play an important role in light scattering and transport, limiting the extent to which light is confined. Optical interconnects are powerful components presently applied for high bandwidth communications among high-performance processors. Future circuits based on nanometer-scale components could similarly benefit from optical information transfer among processing blocks. Strong light channeling (and even lasing) has been observed in GaN nanowires, suggesting that these structures could be useful building blocks in a future networked electro-optical processor. However, the extent to which defects and microstructure control optical performance in nanowire waveguides has not been measured. In this study, we use electron microscopy and in-situ modification of individual nanowires to begin to correlate wire structure with light transport efficiency through GaN nanowires tens of microns long.

Viruses are attractive building blocks for nanoscale heterostructures, but little is understood about the physical principles governing their directed assembly. In-situ force microscopy was used to investigate organization of Cowpea Mosaic Virus engineered to bind specifically and reversibly at nanoscale chemical templates with sub-30nm features. Morphological evolution and assembly kinetics were measured as virus flux and inter-viral potential were varied. The resulting morphologies were similar to those of atomic-scale epitaxial systems, but the underlying thermodynamics was analogous to that of colloidal systems in confined geometries. The 1D templates biased the location of initial cluster formation, introduced asymmetric sticking probabilities, and drove 1D and 2D condensation at subcritical volume fractions. The growth kinetics followed a t{sup 1/2} law controlled by the slow diffusion of viruses. The lateral expansion of virus clusters that initially form on the 1D templates following introduction of polyethylene glycol (PEG) into the solution suggests a significant role for weak interaction.

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