The Thermal Test Facility (TTF) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado, was designed and constructed using a whole-building energy design approach. This approach treats a building as a single unit, not as a shell containing many separate systems. It relies on the use of energy simulation tools for optimization throughout the design process, and requires the involvement and commitment of the architect, engineer, and owner. It can produce a building that requires substantially less energy than a building designed and constructed with conventional means. TTF operating costs are 63% less than those of a code-compliant basecase building. These savings were achieved by implementing an approach that optimized passive solar technologies and integrated energy-efficient building systems. Passive solar technologies include daylighting, high-efficiency lighting systems, engineered overhangs, direct solar gains for heating, thermal mass building materials, managed glazing, and a good thermal envelope. The energy-efficient heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system, designed to work with the building's passive solar technologies, includes ventilation air preheat, ceiling fans, indirect/direct evaporative cooling, and an automatic control system. This paper focuses on the design features of the TTF and the results of tests conducted on the TTF since its completion in 1996. …

A statistics-based model is being developed to predict the laser-damage-limited lifetime of UV optical components on the NIF laser. In order to provide data for the model, laser damage experiments were performed on the Beamlet laser system at LLNL. An early prototype NIF focus lens was exposed to twenty 35 1 nm pulses at an average fluence of 5 J/cm{sup 2}, 3ns. Using a high resolution optic inspection system a total of 353 damage sites was detected within the 1160 cm{sup 2} beam aperture. Through inspections of the lens before, after and, in some cases, during the campaign, pulse to pulse damage growth rates were measured for damage initiating both on the surface and at bulk inclusions. Growth rates as high as 79 {micro}m/pulse (surface diameter) were observed for damage initiating at pre-existing scratches in the surface. For most damage sites on the optic, both surface and bulk, the damage growth rate was approximately l0{micro}m/pulse. The lens was also used in Beamlet for a subsequent 1053 {micro}m/526 {micro}m campaign. The 352 {micro}m-initiated damage continued to grow during that campaign although at generally lower growth rate.

A sizable laser damage metrology effort is required as part of optics production and installation for the 192 beam National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser. The large quantities, high damage thresholds, and large apertures of polished and coated optics necessitates vendor-based metrology equipment to assure component quality during production. This equipment must be optimized to provide the required information as rapidly as possible with limited operator experience. The damage metrology tools include: (1) platinum inclusion damage test systems for laser amplifier slabs, (2) laser conditioning stations for mirrors and polarizers, and (3) mapping and damage testing stations for UV transmissive optics. Each system includes a commercial Nd:YAG laser, a translation stage for the optics, and diagnostics to evaluate damage. The scanning parameters, optical layout, and diagnostics vary with the test fluences required and the damage morphologies expected. This paper describes the technical objectives and milestones involved in fulfilling these metrology requirements.

We designed and tested an alternating-Z tripler that consisted of two detuned, Type-1, potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KD*P) doublers and one KD*P mixer. The crystal thicknesses were, respectively, 13, 10 and 10 mm, and the detunings of the doublers were +420 and -520 µrad. All three crystals were fabricated from 80% deuterated KDP. Conversion efficiency was measured and calculated for input 1053- nm pulses with approximately rectangular waveforms and durations of either 1 or 6 ns, and for 20-ns pulses that exhibited intensity variation by a factor of 10. The measured peak conversion efficiency was more than 80%, and energy conversion efficiencies ranged from 62-80% depending on the waveform of the input pulse. The expected large dynamic range in input intensity, 9-10, was observed, and the measured and calculated efficiencies were in excellent agreement.

The down-blending of Russian highly enriched uranium (HEU) takes place at three Russian gaseous centrifuge enrichment plants. The fluorination of HEU oxide and down-blending of HEU hexafluoride began in 1994, and shipments of low enriched uranium (LEU) hexafluoride product to the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) began in 1995 US transparency monitoring under the HEU Purchase Agreement began in 1996 and includes a permanent monitoring presence US transparency monitoring at these facilities is intended to provide confidence that HEU is received and down-blended to LEU for shipment to USEC The monitoring begins with observation of the receipt of HEU oxide shipments, including confirmation of enrichment using US nondestructive assay equipment The feeding of HEU oxide to the fluorination process and the withdrawal of HEU hexafluoride are monitored Monitoring is also conducted where the blending takes place and where shipping cylinders are filled with LEU product. A series of process and material accountancy documents are provided to US monitors.

The authors have developed a computer application, called the Bayes Inference Engine, to enable one to make inferences about models of a physical object from radiographs taken of it. In the BIE calculational models are represented by a data-flow diagram that can be manipulated by the analyst in a graphical-programming environment. The authors demonstrate the operation of the BIE in terms of examples of two-dimensional tomographic reconstruction including uncertainty estimation.

Waste processing and preparing waste to support waste processing relies heavily on ventilation. Ventilation is used at the Hanford Site on the waste storage tanks to provide confinement, cooling, and removal of flammable gases.

Oil based aerosol ``Smoke`` commonly used for testing the efficiency and penetration of High Efficiency Particulate Air filters (HEPA) and HEPA systems can produce flammability hazards that may not have been previously considered. A combustion incident involving an aerosol generator has caused an investigation into the hazards of the aerosol used to test HEPA systems at Hanford.