This report presents a five year plan for the laboratory. This plan takes advantage of the technical strengths of the lab and its staff to address issues of concern to the nation on a scope much broader than Sandia`s original mission, while maintaining the general integrity of the laboratory. The plan proposes initiatives in a number of technologies which overlap the needs of its customers and the strengths of its staff. They include: advanced manufacturing technology; electronics; information and computational technology; transportation energy technology and infrastructure; environmental technology; energy research and technology development; biomedical systems engineering; and post-cold war defense imperatives.

The U.S. Army Armament Research Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) sponsored this research project to support the development of new self-assembled monolayer fiber coatings. These coatings can greatly increase the bond strength between the fiber and the resin matrix of a composite material. Composite ammunition components molded from such materials will exhibit higher strength than current materials, and will provide a major improvement in the performance of composites in military applications. Use of composite materials in military applications is desirable because of the lighter weight of the materials and their high strengths. The FY97 project investigated initial interfacial chemical control for enhancement of composite material strength. The core of the project was to modify the covalent interface of glass fibers (or other reinforcing fibers) to induce strong, uniform, defect-free adhesion between the fibers' surfaces and the polymer matrix. Installing a self-assembled monolayer tailored to the specific matrix resin accomplished this. Simply, the self-assembled monolayer modifies the fiber to make it appear to have the same chemical composition as the resin matrix. The self-assembled monolayer creates a receptive, hydrophobic interface that the thermoset resin (or polymer precursors) would wet more effectively, leading to a higher contact surface area and more efficient …

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EPA appropriations are included in the annual VA-HUD-Independent Agencies Appropriation Bill. Two major issues were whether Superfund cleanups should be accelerated in the absence of statutory reforms and whether the requested state assistance funds are adequate. Because the House and Senate were in agreement on not granting the requested 50% increase in Superfund and in passing increased state funds, the chief conference issue was expected to focus on the roughly $225 million difference between the House and Senate versions. However, a veto threat over Superfund program funding made this a key conference issue.

The re-baseline of the Expedited Technology Demonstration Project (Revised Mixed Waste Facility Project) is designated as Project Baseline Revision 4.0. The last approved baseline was identified as Project Baseline Revision 3.0 and was issued in October 1996. Project Baseline Revision 4.0 does not depart from the formal DOE guidance followed by, and contained in, Revision 3.0. This revised baseline document describes the MSO and Final Forms testing activities that will occur during FY98, the final year of the ETD Project. The cost estimate for work during FY98 continues to be $2.OM as published in Revision 3.0. However, the funds will be all CENRTC rather than the OPEX/CENTRC split previously anticipated. LLNL has waived overhead charges on ETD Project CENRTC funds since the beginning of project activities. By requesting the $2.OM as all CENTRC a more aggressive approach to staffing and testing can be taken. Due to a cost under- run condition during FY97 procurements were made and work was accomplished, with the knowledge of DOE, in the Feed Preparation and Final Forms areas that were not in the scope of Revision 3.0. Feed preparation activities for FY98 have been expanded to include the drum opening station/enclosure previously deleted.

Sandia recently completed an updated strategic plan, the essence of which is presented in chapter 4. Sandia`s Strategic Plan 1994 takes its direction from DOE`s Fueling a Competitive Economy: Strategic Plan and provides tangible guidance for Sandia`s programs and operations. Although it is impossible to foresee precisely what activities Sandia will pursue many years from now, the strategic plan makes one point clear: the application of our scientific and engineering skills to the stewardship of the nation`s nuclear deterrent will be central to our service to the nation. We will provide the necessary institutional memory and continuity, experience base, and technical expertise to ensure the continued safety, security, and reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile. As a multiprogram laboratory, Sandia will also continue to focus maximum effort on a broad spectrum of other topics consistent with DOE`s enduring core mission responsibilities: Defense (related to nuclear weapons), Energy, Environment (related to waste management and environmental remediation), and Basic Science.

Previously, the proposers have delivered to ARM a documented algorithm, that is now applied operationally, and which derives water vapor profiles from combined remote sensor measurements of water vapor radiometers, cloud-base ceilometers, and radio acoustic sounding systems (RASS). With the expanded deployment of a Raman lidar at the CART Central Facility, high quality, high vertical-resolution, water vapor profiles will be provided during nighttime clear conditions, and during clear daytime conditions, to somewhat lower altitudes. The object of this effort is to use Kalman Filtering, previously applied to the combination of nighttime Raman lidar and microwave radiometer data, to derive high-quality water vapor profiles, during non-precipitating conditions, from data routinely available at the CART site. Input data to the algorithm would include: Raman lidar data, highly quality-controlled data of integrated moisture from microwave radiometers and GPS, RASS, and radiosondes. The focus of this years activities has been on the intercomparison of data obtained during the Water Vapor Intensive Operating Period'97 at the SGP CART site in central Oklahoma.