The University of Utah, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Reaction Engineering International (REI) and ABB/Combustion Engineering have joined together in this research proposal to develop fundamental understanding regarding the impact of fuel and combustion changes on ignition stability and flame characteristics because these critically affect: NO{sub x} emissions, carbon burnout, and emissions of air toxics. Existing laboratory and bench scale facilities are being used to generate critical missing data which will be used to improve the NO{sub x} and carbon burnout submodels in comprehensive combustion simulation tools currently being used by industrial boiler manufacturers. ABB/Combustion Engineering is providing needed fundamental data on the extent of volatile evolution from commercial coals as well as background information on current design needs in industrial practice. Since they will ultimately be a recipient of the enhanced design methodology, they are also providing ongoing review of the practical applicability of the tools being developed. MIT is responsible for the development of an improved char nitrogen oxidation model which will ultimately be incorporated into an enhanced NO{sub x} submodel. Reaction Engineering International is providing the lead engineering staff for the experimental studies and an overall industrial focus for the work based on their use of the …

This annual report covers work performed in the second year of research on Clean Ferrous Casting Technology Research. Significant progress was made in establishing pouring practices which avoid re-oxidation of steel during pouring; application of revised pouring practices have led to reduced inclusion levels in commercially poured steel castings.

A coal air turbine `CAT` generates electric power and heat from coal combustion. The purpose of this project is the conceptual design of a `CAT` plant, and to make a comparison of the capital cost and and cost of power and steam from the `CAT` plant with power produced by alternate plants at the same site. Three configurations investigated include: condensing plant utilizing coal fuel and a condenser tower, or river, for cooling; a cogeneration plant utilizing coal and a steam turbine; and a cogeneration plant utilizing steam export and injection with waste coal fuel.

The primary goal of this project is the engineering development of two advanced physical fine coal cleaning processes, column flotation and selective agglomeration, for premium fuel applications. The project scope includes laboratory research and bench-scale testing on six coals to optimize these processes, followed by design, and construction and operation of a 2-t/hr process development unit. The project began in October, 1992, and is scheduled for completion by June, 1997. During Quarter 12 (July--September 1995), work continued on the Subtask 3.2 in-plant testing of the Microcel{trademark} flotation column at Lady Dunn. Under Subtask 4.4, additional toxic trace element analysis of column flotation samples finalized the data set. Data analysis indicates that reasonably good mass balances were achieved for most elements. The final Subtask 6.3 Selective Agglomeration Process Optimization topical report was issued this quarter. Preliminary Subtask 6.4 work investigating coal-water-fuel slurry formulation indicated that selective agglomeration products formulate slurries with lower viscosities than advanced flotation products. Work continued on Subtask 6.5 agglomeration bench-scale testing. Results indicate that a 2 lb ash/MBtu product could be produced at a 100-mesh topsize with the Elkhorn No. 3 coal. The detailed design of the 2 t/hr selective agglomeration module neared completion this quarter with …

The objective of this engineering study is to develop the preferred method and concepts for measurement of the primary exhaust ventilation flow rates in Double Shell Tanks (DSTs) on the hydrogen watch list. This includes tanks 101-AW, 103, 104, and 105-AN, and 103-SY. A systems engineering approach is utilized to weight the desired characteristics of the flow monitoring system, and then select the best alternative

Continental Shelf Associates, Inc. (CSA) was contracted to conduct a three-year study of the environmental and health related impacts of produced water and sand discharges from oil and gas operations. Data on naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM), heavy metals, and hydrocarbons in water, sediment, and biota will be collected and evaluated. Health related impacts will be studied through field collections and analyses of commercially- and recreationally-important fish and shellfish tissues. Additionally, information on seafood catch, consumption, and use patterns for the Gulf of Mexico will be gathered and analyzed. The facilities to be studied will include both offshore and coastal facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. Coastal sites will be additionally studied to determine ecological recovery of impacted wetland and open bay areas. The economic impact of existing and proposed effluent federal and state regulations will also be evaluated. This report represents the thirteenth quarterly technical summary for the study ``Environmental and Economic Assessment of Discharges from Gulf of Mexico Region Oil and Gas Operations.`` Activities associated with Tasks 3 through 8 are discussed in this report.

This report describes activities and reports on progress for the first quarter (July--September) of the fourth year of the grant to support the Environmental Hazards Assessment Program (EHAP) at the Medical University of South Carolina. It reports progress against the grant objectives and the Program Implementation Plan published at the end of the first year of the grant. The objectives of EHAP stated in the proposal to DOE are to: (1) develop a holistic, national basis for risk assessment, risk management, and risk communication that recognizes the direct impact of environmental hazards on the health and well-being of all; (2) develop a pool of talented scientists and experts in cleanup activities, especially in human health aspects; and (3) identify needs and develop programs addressing the critical shortage of well-educated, highly-skilled technical and scientific personnel to address the health-oriented aspects of environmental restoration and waste management.

This is the final report for tank 241-U-203, cores 79 and 80. These samples were analyzed for safety screening purposes in accordance with the Tank 241-U-203 Tank Characterization Plan (TCP; Reference 1), and these primary safety screening results were provided in the 45-day report for tank 241-U-203 (Reference 2). The results of the lithium analysis by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP) analysis, performed to determine the extent of any possible hydrostatic head fluid (HHF) contamination due to sampling, were also provided in Reference 2. This final report contains the analysis results requested by the organic data quality objective (DQO), namely the total organic carbon (TOC) results.

Japan's uncertain political transition began in July 1993, when the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) -- in power since 1955 -- was replaced by a fragile multiparty coalition. Under Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa, the coalition faced turmoil in April 1994, when Hosokawa resigned abruptly amid a personal financial scandal. Then-deputy prime minister/foreign minister Tsutomu Hata succeeded, but only at the head of a minority government as the Social Democratic Party (SDP), a key coalition partner, quit the coalition. Though beset by its own internal squabbles, the LDP remained the single largest party in Japan's bicameral Diet, or parliament. In late June, Hata was forced to resign under threat of an LDP-led no-confidence motion.

There has been progress in three areas: electronic design, mechanical design, and experiment/research. Originally it had been conceived that off-the-shelf components could be developed into a system. This approach, which employed a single Keithley electrometer, was eventually set aside because inadequate impedance was noted in the switching circuitry. A design employing multiple electrometer amplifiers, each of high impedance (0.3 x 10E15 ohms) having no switching between the measurement electrodes and the amplifiers, was adopted. No significant changes in the mechanical design were made. Objectives in this work also include (a) the prediction and future interpretation of measured electrical potentials which are directly interpretable in terms of sulfide, hydrosulfide, and sulfate ion concentrations in marine sediments; (b) the development of an information base for presentation to potential clients; and (c) the location of marine regions of activity and the assessment of possible findings.

The integral equation describing the nucleation and growth of bubbles in a supersaturated binary liquid mixture under constant expansion rate is considered. In case of macroscopically large number of microscopic nucleation sites, the solution is shown to exhibit weak dependence on the expansion rate in contradiction with experimental data. With few nucleation sites, the supersaturation extremum agrees with experimental data.

Two auger samples from tank 241-C-203 (C-203) were received at the 222-S Laboratories and underwent safety screening analyses, consisting of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and total alpha activity. No notification limits were exceeded for the analyses. Two samples were submitted for a density determination at the request of Characterization Plant Engineering. SCOPE This document is the revised final report for the tank C-203 auger samples collected on April 5, 1995 (samples 95-AUG-20 and 95-AUG-021).

The Tank Waste Remedation System (TWRS) Risk Management List and it`s subset of critical risks, the Critical Risk Management List, provide a tool to senior RL and WHC management (Level-1 and -2) to manage programmatic risks that may significantly impact the TWRS program. The programmatic risks include cost, schedule, and performance risks. Performance risk includes technical risk, supportability risk (such as maintainability and availability), and external risk (i.e., beyond program control, for example, changes in regulations). The risk information includes a description, its impacts, as evaluation of the likelihood, consequences and risk value, possible mitigating actions, and responsible RL and WHC managers. The issues that typically form the basis for the risks are presented in a separate table and the affected functions are provided on the management lists.

The thermal hydraulic characteristics of low temperature helium in a Cable-in-Conduit Conductor (CICC) significantly affects the overall design and performance of the associated large scale superconducting magnet system. It is essential to understand the transient and steady state behavior of the helium in the conductor. Throughout the development of CICCs, the reduction of flow impedance has been one of the key factors to improving the overall pressure drop. The newly developed CICC for the ITER project has a hybrid cooling scheme: a central channel that is surrounded by bundles, for which the thermal hydraulic characteristics are not well understood. This thesis describes an experimental and analytical investigation of thermal hydraulic characteristics of low temperature helium in conventional and hybrid CICCS. Pressure drop measurements for both NET and CEA conductors have been conducted, using low temperature helium and liquid nitrogen to obtain a range of Reynolds numbers. The results are correlated with classical friction factor and Reynolds number analysis. The flow impedance reduction of the CEA conductor is described by measures of a developed flow model. Thermally induced flow in the CEA conductor has been studied with an inductive heating method. The induced velocity in the central channel is measured by …

The Tasks of this project are to: Task 1--complete implementation of a Risk Based Data Management System (RBDMS) in the states of Alaska, Mississippi, Montana, and Nebraska; and Task 2--conduct Area of Review (AOR) workshops in the states of California, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. In general, Task 1 provides assistance to the named states with converting data from existing data management systems where applicable; coding and internal testing of the RBDMS; preparing documentation, training, and technology transfer; plus project management. Development of RBDMS in the first grouping of states (AK, MS, MT, and NB) is complete. The paper describes the RBDMS features, continued implementation of the RBDMS and future RBDMS workshops. RBDMS includes comprehensive well information for both producing and injection well types. The purpose of AOR workshops is to acquaint state agency and industry personnel with the AOR variance methodology that has been developed and to seek input from the attendees concerning application of variance methods to injection fields in the state. Workshops have been successfully completed in California and Oklahoma. The Kansas and Texas workshops are tentatively scheduled to take place in November.

The end of the cold war has resulted in excess PCMs from nuclear weapons and associated production facilities. Consequently, the US government has undertaken studies to determine how best to manage and dispose of this excess material. The issues include (a) ensurance of domestic health, environment, and safety in handling, storage, and disposition, (b) international arms control agreements with Russia and other countries, and (c) economics. One major set of options is to convert the PCMs into glass for storage or disposal. The chemically inert characteristics of glasses make them a desirable chemical form for storage or disposal of radioactive materials. A glass may contain only plutonium, or it may contain plutonium along with other radioactive materials and nonradioactive materials. GMODS is a new process for the direct conversion of PCMs (i.e., plutonium metal, scrap, and residues) to glass. The plutonium content of these materials varies from a fraction of a percent to pure plutonium. GMODS has the capability to also convert other metals, ceramics, and amorphous solids to glass, destroy organics, and convert chloride-containing materials into a low-chloride glass and a secondary clean chloride salt strewn. This report is the initial study of GMODS for vitrification of PCMs as …

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The Forest Service currently sells timber by (a) planning and preparing the sale, (b) offering the sale, usually at an oral auction, and (c) administering the timber harvest. Many of the concerns about the timber program have focused on harvest administration, because purchasers have incentives to minimize their costs and to remove only those logs whose value for products exceeds the price paid to the Forest Service. Some critics suggest that this, together with an alleged "timber bias" and other inappropriate incentives, has contributed to environmental damages (e.g., deteriorating forest health), poor fiscal performance (e.g., below-cost timber sales), and a lack of accountability (e.g., timber theft). Possible legislative changes to the timber sale system are being considered by various interest groups and Members of Congress.

The objective of this project is to develop a comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and quantitative characterization of a fluvial-deltaic reservoir which will allow realistic inter-well and reservoir-scale modeling to be constructed for improved oil-field development in similar reservoirs world-wide. The geological and petrophysical properties of the Cretaceous Ferron Sandstone in east-central Utah will be quantitatively determined. Both new and existing data will be integrated into a three-dimensional representation of spatial variations in porosity, storativity, and tensorial rock permeability at a scale appropriate for inter-well to regional-scale reservoir simulation. Results could improve reservoir management through proper infill and extension drilling strategies, reduction of economic risks, increased recovery from existing oil fields, and more reliable reserve calculations. Transfer of the project results to the petroleum industry is an integral component of the project. Technical progress this quarter is divided into regional stratigraphy, case studies, stochastic modeling and fluid-flow simulation, and technology transfer activities. The regional stratigraphy of the Ferron Sandstone outcrop belt is being described and interpreted. Detailed geological and petrophysical characterization of the primary reservoir lithofacies typically found in a fluvial-dominated deltaic reservoir, is continuing at selected case-study areas. Interpretations of lithofacies, bounding surfaces, and other geologic information are being combined with permeability …

The objectives of this quarterly report are to summarize the work conducted under each task during the reporting period July-September 1995, and to report all technical data and findings as specified in the {open_quotes}Federal Assistance Reporting Checklist{close_quotes}, The main objective of this project is the transfer of technologies, methodologies, and findings developed and applied in this project to other operators of Slope and Basin Clastic Reservoirs. This project will study methods to identify sands with high remaining oil saturation and to recomplete existing wells using advanced completion technology. The identification of the sands with high remaining oil saturation will be accomplished by developing a deterministic three dimensional (3-D) geologic model and by using a state of the art reservoir management computer software. The wells identified by the geologic and reservoir engineering work as having the best potential will be logged with a pulsed acoustic cased-hole logging tool. The application of the logging tools will be optimized in the lab by developing a rock-log model. The wells that are shown to have the best oil production potential will be recompleted. The recompletions will be optimized by evaluating short radius and ultra-short radius lateral recompletions.

Our project deals with the investigation of a new class of catalysts for processing coal liquids. The catalysts are supported carbides and nitrides of transition metals. These compounds are unique because they have properties similar to those of the precious metals, but are resistant to sulfur. Because they have high hydrogenation activity in the presence of sulfur, they are ideal for coal processing. For our initial work we have decided to start with unsupported carbides and nitrides in order to identify the best possible composition for work with supported catalysts. The research includes synthesis, characterization, and testing of the compounds.

As a possible alternative design approach for the 5 MW Pulsed Spallation Neutron Source (PSNS), the use of an intermediate energy Linac, in conjunction with two accumulator rings has been studied. The lower final beam energy necessitates the use of higher beam current. This disadvantage is greatly offset by the use of dc rings, reducing by an order of magnitude the RF requirements, simplifying greatly the ring magnets and associated power supplies, and eliminating the use of aperture demanding, impedance compensated, ceramic chambers. The reduced magnet/magnet power supply cost and reduction of ring beam energy, permits greater sophistication in ring lattice structure design, easing the beam injection configuration and permitting greater control over localizing unavoidable beam loss.

Inelastic-incoherent-neutron scattering can be a valuable nanostructural probe of H{sub 2}-doped porous materials, provided the spectral peaks can be interpreted in terms of crystal-field-split hydrogen-molecule energy levels, which represent a signature of the local symmetry. Inelastic-neutron-scattering measurements as well as extensive theoretical analyses have been performed on stage-2 Rb-intercalated graphite (Rb-GIC), with physisorbed H{sub 2}, HD, and D{sub 2}, a layered porous system with abundant spectral peaks, to assess whether the crystal-field-state picture enables a quantitative understanding of the observed structure. Potential-energy surfaces for molecular rotational and translational motion, as well as the intermolecular interactions of hydrogen molecules in Rb-GIC, were calculated within local-density-functional theory (LDFT). Model potentials, parameterized using results of the LDFT calculations, were employed in schematic calculations of rotational and translational excited state spectra of a single physisorbed H{sub 2} molecule in Rb-GIC. Results of the analysis are basically consistent with the assignment by Stead et al. of the lowest-lying peak at 1.4 meV to a rotational-tunneling transition of an isotropic hindered-rotor oriented normal to the planes, but indicate a small azimuthal anisotropy and a lower barrier than for the isotropic case. Based on the experimental isotope shifts and the theoretically predicted states, they conclude that spectral …

The author addresses the problem of tracking the spin of particles in a synchrotron. To do this he looks at the machine as a series of elements joined together, and derives matrix equations to represent the spin motion through each element.