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

The radioactive startup of two new SRS processing facilities, the Actinide Removal Process (ARP) and the Modular Caustic-Side-Solvent-Extraction Unit (MCU) will add two new waste streams to the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF). The ARP will remove actinides from the 5.6 M salt solution resulting in a sludge-like product that is roughly half monosodium titanate (MST) insoluble solids and half sludge insoluble solids. The ARP product will be added to the Sludge Receipt and Adjustment Tank (SRAT) at boiling and dewatered prior to pulling a SRAT receipt sample. The cesium rich MCU stream will be added to the SRAT at boiling after both formic and nitric acid have been added and the SRAT contents concentrated to the appropriate endpoint. A concern was raised by an external hydrogen review panel that the actinide loaded MST could act as a catalyst for hydrogen generation (Mar 15, 2007 report, Recommendation 9). Hydrogen generation, and it's potential to form a flammable mixture in the off-gas, under SRAT and Slurry Mix Evaporator (SME) processing conditions has been a concern since the discovery that noble metals catalyze the decomposition of formic acid. Radiolysis of water also generates hydrogen, but the radiolysis rate is orders of magnitude …

The design of flight control systems for high performance maneuvering reentry vehicles presents a significant challenge to the control systems designer. These vehicles typically have a much higher ballistic coefficient than crewed vehicles like as the Space Shuttle or proposed crew return vehicles such as the X-38. Moreover, the missions of high performance vehicles usually require a steeper reentry flight path angle, followed by a pull-out into level flight. These vehicles then must transit the entire atmosphere and robustly perform the maneuvers required for the mission. The vehicles must also be flown with small static margins in order to perform the required maneuvers, which can result in highly nonlinear aerodynamic characteristics that frequently transition from being aerodynamically stable to unstable as angle of attack increases. The control system design technique of dynamic inversion has been applied successfully to both high performance aircraft and low beta reentry vehicles. The objective of this study was to explore the application of this technique to high performance maneuvering reentry vehicles, including the basic derivation of the dynamic inversion technique, followed by the extension of that technique to the use of tabular trim aerodynamic models in the controller. The dynamic inversion equations are developed for …

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Surface permanent magnet (SPM) synchronous machines using fractional-slot concentrated windings are being investigated as candidates for high-performance traction machines for automotive electric propulsion systems. It has been shown analytically and experimentally that such designs can achieve very wide constant-power speed ratios (CPSR) [1,2]. This work has shown that machines of this type are capable of achieving very low cogging torque amplitudes as well as significantly increasing the machine power density [3-5] compared to SPM machines using conventional distributed windings. High efficiency can be achieved in this class of SPM machine by making special efforts to suppress the eddy-current losses in the magnets [6-8], accompanied by efforts to minimize the iron losses in the rotor and stator cores. Considerable attention has traditionally been devoted to maximizing the full-load efficiency of traction machines at their rated operating points and along their maximum-power vs. speed envelopes for higher speeds [9,10]. For example, on-line control approaches have been presented for maximizing the full-load efficiency of PM synchronous machines, including the use of negative d-axis stator current to reduce the core losses [11,12]. However, another important performance specification for electric traction applications is the machine's efficiency at partial loads. Partial-load efficiency is particularly important if …

Groundwater is sampled from 39 monitoring wells on the Nevada Test Site (NTS) as part of the Routine Radiological Environmental Monitoring Program. Many of these wells were not designed or constructed for long-term groundwater monitoring. Some have extensive completion zones and others have obstructions such as pumps and tubing. The high-volume submersible pumps in some wells are unsuitable for long-term monitoring and result in large volumes of water that may have to be contained and characterized before subsequent disposition. The configuration of most wells requires sampling stagnant well water with a wireline bailer. Although bailer sampling allows for the collection of depth-discrete samples, the collected samples may not be representative of local groundwater because no well purging is done. Low-maintenance, solar-powered jack pumps will be deployed in nine of these onsite monitoring wells to improve sample quality. These pumps provide the lift capacity to produce groundwater from the deep aquifers encountered in the arid environment of the NTS. The water depths in these wells range from 700 to 2,340 ft below ground surface. The considerable labor and electrical power requirements of electric submersible pumps are eliminated once these pumps are installed. Access tubing will be installed concurrent with the installation …

This paper reports the interim status in identifying and reviewing photovoltaic (PV) codes and standards (C&S) and related electrical activities for grid-connected, high-penetration PV systems with a focus on U.S. electric utility distribution grid interconnection.

Cloud droplet size distributions hence the key microphysical quantities (e.g., radar reflectivity, droplet concentration, liquid water content, relative dispersion, and mean-volume radius) are determined by different physical mechanisms, including pre-cloud aerosols as CCNs, cloud updraft, and various turbulent entrainment-mixing processes. Therefore, different relationships among these microphysical properties are expected in response to these various mechanisms. The effect of turbulent entrainment-mixing processes is particularly vexing, with different entrainment-mixing processes likely leading to different microphysical relationships. Cloud radar has been widely used to infer the cloud liquid water content (L) from the measurement of radar reflectivity (Z) using a Z-L relationship. Existing Z-L expressions have been often obtained empirically, and differ substantially (Khain et al. 2008). The discrepancy among Z-L relations, which has been hindering the application of cloud radar in measuring cloud properties, likely stems from the different relationships between the relevant microphysical properties caused by different physical processes. This study first analyzes the Z-L relationship theoretically, and identify the key microphysical properties that affect this relationship, and then address the effects of various processes on the Z-L relationship by discerning the characteristics of the relationships between the relative dispersion, droplet concentration, liquid water content, and mean-volume radius calculated from in-situ …

This Final Report covers the work executed by Plug Power from 8/11/03 – 10/31/07 statement of work for Topic 2: advancing the state of the art of fuel cell technology with the development of a new generation of commercially viable, stationary, Back-up/Peak-Shaving fuel cell systems, the GenCore II. The Program cost was $7.2 M with the Department of Energy share being $3.6M and Plug Power’s share being $3.6 M. The Program started in August of 2003 and was scheduled to end in January of 2006. The actual program end date was October of 2007. A no cost extension was grated. The Department of Energy barriers addressed as part of this program are: Technical Barriers for Distributed Generation Systems: o Durability o Power Electronics o Start up time Technical Barriers for Fuel Cell Components: o Stack Material and Manufacturing Cost o Durability o Thermal and water management Background The next generation GenCore backup fuel cell system to be designed, developed and tested by Plug Power under the program is the first, mass-manufacturable design implementation of Plug Power’s GenCore architected platform targeted for battery and small generator replacement applications in the telecommunications, broadband and UPS markets. The next generation GenCore will be …

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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.

Characterizing flow patterns and mixing of fossil fuel-derived CO{sub 2} is important for effectively using atmospheric measurements to constrain emissions inventories. Here we used measurements and a model of atmospheric radiocarbon ({sup 14}C) to investigate the distribution and fluxes of atmospheric fossil fuel CO{sub 2} across the state of California. We sampled {sup 14}C in annual C{sub 3} grasses at 128 sites and used these measurements to test a regional model that simulated anthropogenic and ecosystem CO{sub 2} fluxes, transport in the atmosphere, and the resulting {sup 14}C of annual grasses ({Delta}{sub g}). Average measured {Delta}{sub g} in Los Angeles, San Francisco, the Central Valley, and the North Coast were 27.7 {+-} 20.0, 44.0 {+-} 10.9, 48.7 {+-} 1.9, and 59.9 {+-} 2.5{per_thousand}, respectively, during the 2004-2005 growing season. Model predictions reproduced regional patterns reasonably well, with estimates of 27.6 {+-} 2.4, 39.4 {+-} 3.9, 46.8 {+-} 3.0, and 59.3 {+-} 0.2{per_thousand} for these same regions and corresponding to fossil fuel CO{sub 2} mixing ratios (Cf) of 13.7, 6.1, 4.8, and 0.3 ppm. {Delta}{sub g} spatial heterogeneity in Los Angeles and San Francisco was higher in the measurements than in the predictions, probably from insufficient spatial resolution in the fossil …

The reshocked single-mode Richtmyer-Meshkov instability is simulated in two spatial dimensions using the fifth- and ninth-order weighted essentially non-oscillatory shock-capturing method with uniform spatial resolution of 256 points per initial perturbation wavelength. The initial conditions and computational domain are modeled after the single-mode, Mach 1.21 air(acetone)/SF{sub 6} shock tube experiment of Collins and Jacobs [J. Fluid Mech. 464, 113 (2002)]. The simulation densities are shown to be in very good agreement with the corrected experimental planar laser-induced fluorescence images at selected times before reshock of the evolving interface. Analytical, semianalytical and phenomenological linear and nonlinear, impulsive, perturbation and potential flow models for single-mode Richtmyer-Meshkov unstable perturbation growth are summarized. The simulation amplitudes are shown to be in very good agreement with the experimental data and with the predictions of linear amplitude growth models for small times and with those of nonlinear amplitude growth models at later times up to the time at which the driver-based expansion in the experiment (but not present in the simulations or models) expands the layer before reshock. The qualitative and quantitative differences between the fifth- and ninth-order simulation results are discussed. Using a local and global quantitative metric, the prediction of the Zhang and Sohn …

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

In this research and development project, LLNL will leverage the process for fabrication of the membranes developed by our internally funded effort (LLNL Laboratory Directed Research and Development). LLNL will then employ chemical manipulations to modify charge at the ends of the nanotubes and make the membranes more selective to either positive or negative ions through a combination of size and charge selectivity. LLNL's goal is to demonstrate ion exclusion while preserving high permeabilities and low energy use. Success of this research and development project may warrant further developments in the fabrication of membranes.

We outline a method to study the spatial and orientation statistics of dynamical dislocation systems by modeling the dislocations as a stochastic fiber process. Statistical measures have been introduced for the density, velocity, and flux of dislocations, and the connection between these measures and the dislocation state and plastic distortion rate in the crystal is explained. A dislocation dynamics simulation model has been used to extract numerical data to study the evolution of these statistical measures numerically in a body-centered cubic crystal under deformation. The orientation distribution of the dislocation density, velocity and dislocation flux, as well as the dislocation correlations have been computed. The importance of the statistical measures introduced here in building continuum models of dislocation systems is highlighted.

Well ER-12-4 was drilled for the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office, in support of the Nevada Environmental Restoration Project at the Nevada Test Site, Nye County, Nevada. This well was drilled in May 2005, as part of a hydrogeologic investigation program for the Rainier Mesa-Shoshone Mountain Corrective Action Unit in the north-central portion of the Nevada Test Site. The well is located on Rainier/Aqueduct Mesa, northwest of Yucca Flat, within Area 12 of the Nevada Test Site. The well provided information regarding the radiological and physical environment near underground nuclear tests conducted in U12t Tunnel, information on the pre-Tertiary rocks in the area, and depth to the regional water table.

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The Regional HEP Team (RHT) and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) staff conducted a follow-up habitat evaluation procedures (HEP) analysis on the Ladd Marsh Wildlife Management Area (LMWA) in May 2005. The 2005 HEP assessment resulted in a total of 647.44 HUs, or 0.76 HUs/acre. This is an increase of 420.34 HUs (0.49 HUs/acre) over 2001 HEP survey results. The most significant increase in HUs occurred on the Wallender and Simonis parcels which increased by 214.30 HUs and 177.49 HUs respectively. Transects were established at or near 2001 HEP analysis transect locations whenever possible. ODFW staff biologists assisted the RHT re-establish transect locations and/or suggested areas for new surveys. Since 2001, significant changes in cover type acreage and/or structural conditions have occurred due to conversion of agriculture cover types to emergent wetland and grassland cover types. Agricultural lands were seeded to reestablish grasslands and wetlands were restored through active management and manipulation of extant water sources including natural stream hydrology/flood regimes and available irrigation. Grasslands increased on the Wallender parcel by 21% (65 acres), 23% (71 acres) at the Simonis site, and 39% (62 acres) at Conley Lake. The emergent wetland cover type also changed significantly increasing 60% …

This is volume 2 of a two-volume report on the project. Volume 1 provides general information about industry participation and commercialization plan. This volume provides details of technical work and results.