U.S.-China economic ties have expanded substantially over the past several years. China is now the third largest U.S. trading partner, its second largest source of imports, and its fourth largest export market. However, U.S.-China commercial ties have been strained by a number of issues, including a surging U.S. trade deficit with China, China's refusal to float its currency, and failure to fully comply with its World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments, especially its failure to provide protection for U.S. intellectual property rights (IPR). This report explores these issues in detail, especially concerning the lack of protection for U.S. IPR.

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Phenomena Identification and Ranking Technique (PIRT) is a systematic way of gathering information from experts on a specific subject and ranking the importance of the information. NRC, in collaboration with DOE and the working group, conducted the PIRT exercises to identify safety-relevant phenomena for NGNP, and to assess and rank the importance and knowledge base for each phenomenon. The overall objective was to provide NRC with an expert assessment of the safety-relevant NGNP phenomena, and an overall assessment of R and D needs for NGNP licensing. The PIRT process was applied to five major topical areas relevant to NGNP safety and licensing: (1) thermofluids and accident analysis (including neutronics), (2) fission product transport, (3) high temperature materials, (4) graphite, and (5) process heat for hydrogen cogeneration.

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In January 2006 the Smith River Rancheria (SRR), located in Smith River, California, contracted with the team of Strategic Energy Solutions (SES) and Evergreen NRG to conduct a study for the community. The objective of the study was to identify renewable generation opportunities that would facilitate Rancheria energy independence through SRR owned and operated power projects. These generation facilities were to be located either on or near the reservation. Specifically, the Rancheria was interested in the viability of generating electric power using biomass and wind fuel resources. Initial research identified that a very small portion of the community's energy could be offset by renewable energy generation due to the low solar resource in this area, and the lack of significant wind or biomass resources on or near reservation land. Some larger projects were identified which offered little or no benefit to the Rancheria. As a result, the scope of this study was changed in October 2006 to focus on energy efficiency opportunities for key reservation facilities, with a continued analysis of smaller renewable energy opportunities within reservation boundaries. The consulting team initially performed a resource analysis for biomass and solar generation opportunities in the region of the Rancheria. It was …

On November 8 -10, 2006, the first national conference on renewable energy workforce education was held at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, New York. The event was sponsored by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and organized by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) and the Partnership for Environmental Technology Education (PETE). Over 200 instructors, school administrators, and industry representatives attended this event representing 30 states and over 65 Community Colleges and Technical High Schools. The conference resulted in an enormous collection of information on the best practices and effective approaches to teaching workforce skills in the renewable energy trades and industries. This paper discusses the following educational strategies: the hybrid course delivery model; interdisciplinary instruction; linking technical high schools with the local community college; integrating a renewable energy concentration within an energy management degree program; expanding hands-on opportunities through internship programs; and an industry-sponsored certificate program. Recommendations by educators are also discussed.

Grid-connected photovoltaic installations grew by 60% in 2006. California and New Jersey have the largest markets and installations more than doubled in New Jersey, Nevada, Colorado, Connecticut, and many other states with smaller markets. The off-grid growth has been steady, but significantly lower. For the first time in more than a decade, a solar thermal electric plant was installed in 2006. More than 350 MW installed in the 1990's still generates electricity today. Solar water heating and solar space heating installations grew in 2006 after years offlat installation numbers. Hawaii dominates this market, with nearly half of the market. Solar pool heating accounts for the largest number of installations and has grown at an average rate of 10% since 1998. However, installations decreased by 7% in 2006. Installations in California and Florida together are 73% of the pool heating market.

Separation and pre-concentration of the desired analyte is often a critical step in many radioanalytical methods. Current procedures for separating and concentrating analytes for detection are complex, and can be both expensive and time consuming. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to develop an alternative method of separating lanthanide ions through the use of an extraction chromatography resin containing a Klaui ligand salt. This research is a continuation of a concerted effort to develop new methods of detecting small concentrations of radionuclides and lanthanides using Klaui ligands. The Klaui ligands, C5Me5Co(OP(OR)2)3- (R=Me, Et, n-Pr) (LOR-), have unique affinity for lanthanide and actinide ions in the presence of competing metal ions. The use of 1 wt% NaLOR (R=Et or n-Pr) adsorbed onto resin support has been shown to extract lanthanide ions from aqueous nitric acid solutions of different concentrations. In order to further evaluate the utility of these materials in radiochemical separation, the selectivity of the resins for the different lanthanide ions was examined by measuring the distribution coefficients (Kd) for a series of lanthanides over a range of solution conditions. Based on prior research with actinide ions, it was hypothesized that the lanthanide ions would bond strongly with the …

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The Nearby Supernova Factory (SNfactory) is an international project to discover and study a large sample of type Ia supernovae in the redshift range 0.03 < z < 0.08. Follow-up spectro-photometric observations are performed using the dedicated Supernovae Integral-Field Spectrograph, mounted since 2004 on 2.2 m UH telescope. The goal is to acquire for each supernova and over its full life-time (more than 10 epochs) high spectro-photometric quality spectra over the extended optical range (320-1000 nm).I will present the current status of the SNfactory project, from search efficiency to first scientific results, with an emphasis on the spectro-photometric calibration issues and achievements.

HFE-7100 and FC-72 fluorinert are two fluids used during weapon component manufacturing. HFE-7100 is a solvent used in the cleaning of parts, and FC-72 is the blowing agent of a polymeric removable foam. The presence of either FC-72 or HFE-7100 gas in weapon components can provide valuable information as to the stability of the materials. Therefore, gas standards are needed so HFE-7100 and FC-72 gas concentrations can be accurately measured. There is no current established procedure for generating gas standards of either HFE-7100 or FC-72. This report outlines the development of a method to generate gas standards ranging in concentration from 0.1 ppm to 10% by volume. These standards were then run on a Jeol GC-Mate II mass spectrometer and analyzed to produce calibration curves. We present a manifold design that accurately generates gas standards of HFE-7100 and FC-72 and a procedure that allows the amount of each to be determined.

This report covers work to (1) develop and validate distribution circuit models, (2) determine optimum distributed generator operating conditions, and (3) determine distributed generation penetration limits.

Controlling beam loss in the Tevatron collider is of great importance because of the delicate nature of the cryogenic magnet system and the collider detectors. Maximizing the physics potential requires optimized performance as well as protection of all equipment. The operating history of the Tevatron has significantly influenced the way losses are managed. The development of beam loss management in the Tevatron will be presented.

This 2006 issue of the NREL Research Review again reveals just how vital and diverse our research portfolio has become. Our feature story looks at how our move to embrace the tenants of "translational research" is strengthening our ability to meet the nation's energy goals. By closing the gap between basic science and applied research and development (R&D)--and focusing a bright light on the valuable end uses of our work--translational research promises to shorten the time it takes to push new technology off the lab bench and into the marketplace. This issue also examines our research into fuels of the future and our computer modeling of wind power deployment, both of which point out the real-world benefits of our work.

We present a measurement of the W boson mass using 200 pb{sup -1} of data collected in p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV by the CDF II detector at Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron. With a sample of 63964 W {yields} ev candidates and 51128 W W {yields} {mu}v candidates, we measure M{sub W} = (80413 {+-} 34{sub stat} {+-}34{sub syst} = 80413 {+-} 48) MeV/c{sup 2}. This is the most precise single measurement of the W boson mass to date.

Presentation for the Clean Cities Website highlighting the benefits, challenges, and implementation considerations when utilizing natural gas as a transportation fuel.

A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model has been created to model high-temperature steam electrolysis in a planar solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC). The model represents a single cell, as it would exist in an electrolysis stack. Details of the model geometry are specific to a stack that was fabricated by Ceramatec, Inc. and tested at the Idaho National Laboratory. Mass, momentum, energy, and species conservation and transport are provided via the core features of the commercial CFD code FLUENT. A solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC) model adds the electrochemical reactions and loss mechanisms and computation of the electric field throughout the cell. The FLUENT SOFC user-defined subroutine was modified for this work to allow for operation in the SOEC mode. Model results provide detailed profiles of temperature, Nernst potential, operating potential, activation over-potential, anode-side gas composition, cathode-side gas composition, current density and hydrogen production over a range of stack operating conditions. Mean model results are shown to compare favorably with experimental results obtained from an actual ten-cell stack tested at INL. Mean per-cell area-specific-resistance (ASR) values decrease with increasing current density, consistent with experimental data. Predicted mean outlet hydrogen and steam concentrations vary linearly with current density, as expected. Effects …

In 1997, an international team interested in the development of Remote Area Power Supply (RAPS) systems for rural electrification projects around the world was organized by the International Lead Zinc Research Organization (ILZRO) with the support of Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). The team focused on defining load and resource profiles for RAPS systems. They identified single family homes, small communities, and villages as candidates for RAPS applications, and defined several different size/power requirements for each. Based on renewable energy and resource data, the team devised a ''strawman'' series of load profiles. A RAPS system typically consists of a renewable and/or conventional generator, power conversion equipment, and a battery. The purpose of this report is to present data and information on insolation levels and load requirements for ''typical'' homes, small communities, and larger villages around the world in order to facilitate the development of robust design practices for RAPS systems, and especially for the storage battery component. These systems could have significant impact on areas of the world that would otherwise not be served by conventional electrical grids.

We exhibit a model in which a single pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson explains dark energy, inflation and baryogenesis. The model predicts correlated signals in future collider experiments, WIMP searches, proton decay experiments, dark energy probes, and the PLANCK satellite CMB measurements.

There is a pressing need for good wind-speed measurements at greater and greater heights to assess the availability of the resource in terms of power production and to identify any frequently occurring atmospheric structural characteristics that may create turbulence that impacts the operational reliability and lifetime of wind turbines and their components. In this paper, we summarize the results of a short study that compares the relative accuracies of wind speeds derived from a high-resolution pulsed Doppler LIDAR operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and a midrange Doppler SODAR with wind speeds measured by four levels of tower-based sonic anemometry up to a height of 116 m.

A flood assessment was conducted at the Area 3 Radioactive Waste Management Site (RWMS) at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) in Nye County, Nevada (Figure 1-1). The study area encompasses the watershed of Yucca Flat, a closed basin approximately 780 square kilometers (km2) (300 square miles) in size. The focus of this effort was on a drainage area of approximately 94 km2 (36 mi2), determined from review of topographic maps and aerial photographs to be the only part of the Yucca Flat watershed that could directly impact the Area 3 RWMS. This smaller area encompasses portions of the Halfpint Range, including Paiute Ridge, Jangle Ridge, Carbonate Ridge, Slanted Buttes, Cockeyed Ridge, and Banded Mountain. The Area 3 RWMS is located on coalescing alluvial fans emanating from this drainage area.

Neutron shielding was desired to reduce worker exposure during handling of plutonium-238 (Pu-238) in a glovebox at the Idaho National Laboratory. Due to the unusual shape of the glovebox, standard methods of neutron shielding were impractical and would have interfered with glovebox operations. A silicon-based, boron-impregnated material was chosen due to its flexibility. This paper discusses the material, the installation, and the results from neutron source testing.

This report documents the key results to date from the U.S. DOE Controlled Hydrogen Fleet and Infrastructure Validation and Demonstration project.

Transition metal carbides and phosphides have shown tremendous potential as highly active catalysts. At a microscopic level, it is not well understood how these new catalysts work. Their high activity is usually attributed to ligand or/and ensemble effects. Here, we review recent studies that examine the chemical activity of metal carbide and phosphides as a function of size, from clusters to extended surfaces, and metal/carbon or metal/phosphorous ratio. These studies reveal that the C and P sites in these compounds cannot be considered as simple spectators. They moderate the reactivity of the metal centers and provide bonding sites for adsorbates.