The first project objective is to utilize reservoir characterization and advanced technologies to optimize the design of a carbon dioxide (CO2) project for the South Cowden Unit (SCU) located in Ector County, Texas. The SCU is a mature, relatively small, shallow shelf carbonate unit nearing waterflood depletion. The second project objective is to demonstrate the performance and economic viability of the project in the field. All work during the second quarter falls within the demonstration project.

The influence of oxygenated hydrocarbons as additives to diesel fuels on ignition, NOx emissions and soot production has been examined using a detailed chemical kinetic reaction mechanism. N-heptane was used as a representative diesel fuel, and methanol, ethanol, dimethyl ether and dimethoxymethane were used as oxygenated fuel additives. It was found that addition of oxygenated hydrocarbons reduced NOx levels and reduced the production of soot precursors. When the overall oxygen content in the fuel reached approximately 25% by mass, production of soot precursors fell effectively to zero, in agreement with experimental studies. The kinetic factors responsible for these observations are discussed.

Chemical reduction of NO{sub x} can be accomplished by injection of nitrogen atoms into the diesel engine exhaust stream. The nitrogen atoms can be generated from a separate stream of pure N{sub 2} by means of plasma jets or non-thermal plasma reactors. This paper examines the effect of exhaust temperature on the NO{sub x} reduction efficiency that can be achieved by nitrogen atom injection. It is shown that to achieve a high NO{sub x} reduction efficiency at a reasonable power consumption penalty, the exhaust temperature needs to be 100 C or less.

Linearly and circularly polarized x-rays have been very successfully applied to the study of the properties of materials. Many applications can benefit from the availability of energy-turnable, high-brilliance x-ray beams with adjustable polarization properties. A helical undulator that can generate beams of variable (linear to circular) polarization has been designed and built by the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics and the Advanced Photon Source. The first harmonic of this 12.8-cm-period device will cover the energy range from 0.4 keV to 3.5 keV. An important feature of this fully electromagnetic device is that it will allow one to generate 100% horizontally (K{sub x}=O)or vertically (K{sub y}=O) plane-polarized radiation, which will enable many experiments otherwise not technically feasible. With symmetric deflection parameters (K{sub x}=K{sub y}), the on-axis radiation will be circularly polarized, with a user-selectable handedness. The polarization can be changed at rates up to 10 Hz.

The primary objectives of the project are to increase the base of scientific knowledge concerning (1) the fate and environmental effects of organics, trace metals, and NORM in water, sediment, and biota near several offshore oil and gas facilities; (2) the characteristics of produced water and produced sand discharges as they pertain to organics, trace metals, and NORM variably found in association with the discharges; (3) the recovery of three terminated produced water discharge sites located in wetland and high-energy open bay sites of coastal Louisiana; (4) the economic and energy supply impacts of existing and anticipated federal and state offshore and coastal discharge regulations; and (5) the catch, consumption and human use patterns of seafood species collected from coastal and offshore waters. The products of the effort will be a series of technical reports detailing the study procedures, results, and conclusions which contribute to the transfer of technology to the scientific community, petroleum industry, and state and federal agencies.

The authors have developed the world's first etched silicon grisms at LLNL in September 1999. The high optical surface quality of the grisms allows diffraction-limited spectral resolution in the IR wavelengths where silicon has good transmission. They estimated that the scattering light level is less than 4% at 2.2 {micro}m. Silicon can significantly increase the dispersive power of spectroscopic instruments for NGST due to its very large refractive index (n = 3.4). For example, a silicon grism with 40 mm clear entrance aperture and a 46 wedge angle can provide R = 10,000--100,000 in {approximately} 1--10 {micro}m. The same grating working in the immersed reflection mode can provide {approximately} three times higher spectral resolution than in the transmission mode. To achieve a desired spectral resolution for NGST, the spectrograph size and weight can be significantly reduced if silicon gratings are used instead of conventional gratings.

There is an unsurpassed lack of scientific data with respect to the concentrations and isotopic compositions of uranium, thorium, and radium in the produced formation fluids (brine), precipitates, and sludges generated with the operation of oil and gas wells in Mississippi. These radioactive elements when contained in the formation fluids have been given the term NORM, which is an acronym for naturally occurring radioactive materials. When they are technologically enhanced during oil and gas production activities resulting in the formation of scale (precipitates) and sludges they are termed TENORM (technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials). As used in this document, NORM and TENORM will be considered equivalent terms and the occurrence of NORM in the oilfield will be considered the result of production operations. As a result of the lack of data no scientifically sound theses may be developed concerning the presence of these radionuclides in the fluid brine, precipitate (scale), or sludge phases. Over the period of just one year, 1997 for example, Mississippi produced over 39,372,963,584 liters (10,402,368,186 gallons or 247,675,433 barrels) of formation water associated with hydrocarbon production from 41 counties across the state.

Under the support provided by the DOE Reactor Sharing Program the Reactor Laboratory has provided tours, lectures, and demonstrations in support of science teaching in Arizona high schools. The reactor has also been used in a very successful summer program to encourage high school students who are members of population groups underrepresented in engineering to consider careers in engineering fields. This program is in the form of one or two week on-campus workshops given several times each summer to students at different levels of junior or senior high school. The Reactor Laboratory was one of six or eight areas of engineering to which the participants were introduced. The degree of involvement ranged from tours and demonstrations of reactor operation in small groups for the younger students, to neutron activation analysis experiments, with student participation, at the higher grade levels. The reactor time funded by this DOE grant has provided significant service to students and faculty from other educational institutes using our facilities. In addition, we have had the opportunity to provide public education in nuclear reactor science and engineering to a wide variety of groups, especially school children.

Since September 1997 NCGR has produced two web-based tools for researchers to use to access and analyze data in the Genome Sequence DataBase (GSDB). These tools are: Sequence Viewer, a nucleotide sequence and annotation visualization tool, and MAR-Finder, a tool that predicts, base upon statistical inferences, the location of matrix attachment regions (MARS) within a nucleotide sequence. [The annual report for June 1996 to August 1997 is included as an attachment to this final report.]

The purpose of this review is to verify the adequacy of documentation as submitted to the Approval Authority by Fluor Daniel Hanford, Inc. (FDH). This review is not only a review of the Integrated Safety Management System (ISMS) System Description documentation, but is also a review of the procedures, policies, and manuals of practice used to implement safety management in an environment of organizational restructuring. The FDH ISMS should support the Hanford Strategic Plan (DOE-RL 1996) to safely clean up and manage the site's legacy waste; deploy science and technology while incorporating the ISMS theme to ''Do work safely''; and protect human health and the environment.

This report is a summary of the accomplishments toward completion of ''A Guidance Document for Kentucky's Oil and Gas Operators.'' During this quarter, the document received continued review and editing in an electronic format to satisfy the United States Department of Energy (DOE). Comments received from oil and gas operators reviewing this document prompted contact to be made with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to develop an addendum section to provide better explanation of USEPA requirements for Class II injection wells in Kentucky. During February of this year the consultant hired to develop the Class II, UIC addendum section to the Guidance Document met with the USEPA and state personnel responsible for regulation of the Class II, UIC program in Kentucky. At this meeting a review of the federal and state regulatory procedures used for administration of the UIC program was made. Emphasis was directed to summarizing the addendum section in a format usable b y the small oil and gas operators in Kentucky. A draft of the addendum section is underway incorporating the ideas and comments received during this meeting. During the next quarter, a meeting of the subcommittee and Region IV of the USEPA will be …

This technical report is a summary of the accomplishments toward completion of ''A Guidance Document for Kentucky's Oil and Gas Operators''. During this quarter, the document received continued review and editing in an electronic format to satisfy the United States Department of Energy (DOE). Comments received from oil and gas operators reviewing this document prompted contact to be made with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U. S. EPA) to develop an addendum section to provide better explanation of U.S. EPA requirements for Class II injection wells in Kentucky. During May of this year the consultant hired to develop the Class II, UIC addendum section to the guidance document met a second time with the U.S. EPA and state personnel responsible for regulation of the Class II, UIC program in Kentucky, to review a draft of the document. This draft was discussed during the meeting with the U.S. EPA and will receive additional editing and comment during the next quarter.

The Hanford Tank Waste Operation Simulator is tested to determine if it can replace the FORTRAN-based Operational Waste Volume Projection computer simulation that has traditionally served to project double-shell tank utilization. Three Test Cases are used to compare the results of the two simulators; one incorporates the cleanup schedule of the Tri Party Agreement.

This paper examines the hydrocarbon (C{sub 1}/NO{sub x} ratio) and electrical energy density (ratio of power to exhaust flow rate) requirements in the plasma during plasma-assisted catalytic reduction of NO{sub x}. The requirements for treatment of NO{sub x} in heavy-duty and light-duty diesel engines are compared. It is shown that, for light-duty applications, the plasma can significantly enhance the catalytic reduction of NO{sub x} with little fuel penalty incurred in the plasma process.

Continued testing the horizontal-well capabilities of MASTER, the DOE's pseudomiscible reservoir simulator, by running simulation tests with several combinations of horizontal and vertical wells and various alternative reservoir descriptions. These sensitivity tests were compared and validated using simulation results from a commercial simulator. This sensitivity study was used in conjunction with our numerical tests on the comparison of foam injection processes and horizontal well injection processes. In addition, a preprocessor used to set up the input file to MASTER and a postprocessor for plotting the well performance were completed. Tests were progressed and the official version of MASTER will be released in the next few months.

This report summarizes the labor market trends for health physicists through 2005.

This report summarizes the labor market trends for nuclear engineers predicted through the year 2005.

This report discusses the solution to the following problem: what is the maximum waste transfer and dilution quantities and locations which can be allowed in the first transfer of waste from SY-101 given the following constraints? (1) The crust must float on the submerged waste (waste becomes less dense when diluted, eventually allowing crust to sink); (2) No credit is taken for the top dilution; (3) Addition of water to the bulk slurry through the transfer pump must be able to refloat the crust base to above 295 inches; (4) The margin between refloating to 295 inches and crust sinking must be at least 10,000 gallons; (5) The crust can't be thinned to less than 60 inches thick.

This Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Philosophy document is intended to establish a future O&M vision, with an increased focus on minimizing worker exposure, ensuring uninterrupted retrieval operations, and minimizing operation life-cycle cost. It is intended that this document would incorporate O&M lessons learned into on-going and future project upgrades.

Plasma reactors can be operated as a particulate trap or as a NO{sub x} converter. The soluble organic fraction (SOF) of the trapped particulates can be utilized for the oxidation of NO to NO{sub 2}. The NO{sub 2} can then be used to non-thermally oxidize the carbon fraction of the particulates. This paper examines the energy density required for oxidation of the SOF hydrocarbons and the fate of NO{sub 2} during the oxidation of the particulate carbon. The energy density required for complete oxidation of the SOF hydrocarbons is shown to be unacceptably large. The reaction of NO{sub 2} with carbon is shown to lead mainly to backconversion of NO{sub 2} to NO. These results suggest that the use of a catalyst in combination with the plasma will be required to efficiently reduce the NO{sub x} and oxidize the SOF hydrocarbons.

The Plutonium Immobilization Team has developed an integrated test program to understand and optimize the controlling variables for the sintering step of the plutonium immobilization process. Sintering is the key process step that controls the product minerology. It is expected that the sintering will be the limiting process step that controls the throughput of the production line. The goal of the current sintering test program is to better understand factors that affect the sintering process.

Solid freeform fabrication is the near-net-shape manufacturing of components by sequentially stacking thin layers of material until complicated three dimensional shapes are produced. The operation is computer controlled and requires no molds. This exciting new field of technology provides engineers with the ability to rapidly produce prototype parts directly from CAD drawings and oftentimes little or no machining is necessary after fabrication. Techniques for freeform fabrication with several types of plastics and metals are already quite advanced and maybe reviewed in references 1 and 2. Very complicated plastic models can be fabricated by stereolithography, selective laser sintering, fused deposition modeling, or three-dimensional ink jet printing. Metals may be freeformed by the LENS{trademark} technique and porous ceramic bodies by three dimensional printing into a porous powder bed. However, methods for freeform fabrication that utilize particulate slurries to build dense ceramics and composites are not as well developed. The techniques that are being developed for the freeform fabrication of dense structural ceramics primarily revolve around the sequential layering of ceramic loaded polymers or waxes. Laminated Object Manufacturing and CAM-LEM processing use controlled stacking and laser cutting of ceramic tapes [2,3]. Similar to fused deposition modeling, ceramic loaded polymer/wax filaments are being used …

This report details an investigation into the efficacy of two approaches to solving the radiation diffusion equation within a radiation hydrodynamic simulation. Because leading-edge scientific computing platforms have evolved from large single-node vector processors to parallel aggregates containing tens to thousands of individual CPU's, the ability of an algorithm to maintain high compute efficiency when distributed over a large array of nodes is critically important. The viability of an algorithm thus hinges upon the tripartite question of numerical accuracy, total time to solution, and parallel efficiency.

Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM) is a common and costly contaminant of produced waters associated with natural gas production and exploration. One way of combating this problem is by identifying the problem beforehand. Our approach to this problem involves development of NORM prediction capabilities based on the geological environment. During the tenth quarter of this project, emphasis again remained on two major tasks; identifying new sampling sites and seeking approval for final project revisions. In light of the delays experienced, the project has been granted a one year extension, and a revision is currently under review.