The 2011 review of the INL Criticality Safety Program has determined that the program is robust and effective. The review was prepared for, and fulfills Contract Data Requirements List (CDRL) item H.20, 'Annual Criticality Safety Program performance summary that includes the status of assessments, issues, corrective actions, infractions, requirements management, training, and programmatic support.' This performance summary addresses the status of these important elements of the INL Criticality Safety Program. Assessments - Assessments in 2011 were planned and scheduled. The scheduled assessments included a Criticality Safety Program Effectiveness Review, Criticality Control Area Inspections, a Protection of Controlled Unclassified Information Inspection, an Assessment of Criticality Safety SQA, and this management assessment of the Criticality Safety Program. All of the assessments were completed with the exception of the 'Effectiveness Review' for SSPSF, which was delayed due to emerging work. Although minor issues were identified in the assessments, no issues or combination of issues indicated that the INL Criticality Safety Program was ineffective. The identification of issues demonstrates the importance of an assessment program to the overall health and effectiveness of the INL Criticality Safety Program. Issues and Corrective Actions - There are relatively few criticality safety related issues in the Laboratory ICAMS …

This report discusses considerations for designing an air distribution system for an energy efficient house that requires less air volume to condition the space. Considering the HVAC system early in the design process will allow adequate space for equipment and ductwork and can result in cost savings. Principles discussed that will maximize occupant comfort include delivery of the proper amount of conditioned air for appropriate temperature mixing and uniformity without drafts, minimization of system noise, the impacts of pressure loss, efficient return air duct design, and supply air outlet placement, as well as duct layout, materials, and sizing.

The AFIP-6 (ATR Full-size-plate In center flux trap Position) Characterization Summary Report outlines the fresh fuel characterization efforts performed during the AFIP-6 experiment. The AFIP-6 experiment was designed to evaluate the performance of monolithic uranium-molybdenum (U-Mo) fuels at a scale prototypic of Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) fuel plates (45-inches long). The AFIP-6 test was the first test with plates that were swaged into the rails of the assembly. This test served to examine the effects of a plate in a swaged condition with longer fuel zones (22.5-inches long), that were centered in the plate. AFIP-6 test plates employed a zirconium interlayer that was co-rolled with the fuel foil. Previous mini-plate and AFIP irradiation experiments performed in ATR have demonstrated the stable behavior of the interface between the U-Mo fuel and the zirconium interlayer.

This report summarizes the 2011 fiscal+calendar year efforts for developing waste forms for a spent salt generated in reprocessing nuclear fuel with an electrochemical separations process. The two waste forms are tellurite (TeO2-based) glasses and sol-gel-derived high-halide mineral analogs to stable minerals found in nature.

Development of an effective strategy for shelter and evacuation is among the most important planning tasks in preparation for response to a low yield, nuclear detonation in an urban area. Extensive studies have been performed and guidance published that highlight the key principles for saving lives following such an event. However, region-specific data are important in the planning process as well. This study examines some of the unique regional factors that impact planning for a 10 kT detonation in the National Capital Region. The work utilizes a single scenario to examine regional impacts as well as the shelter-evacuate decision alternatives at one exemplary point. For most Washington, DC neighborhoods, the excellent assessed shelter quality available make shelter-in-place or selective transit to a nearby shelter a compelling post-detonation strategy.

Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to the classified state employee turnover rate for Fiscal Year 2011. This report provides and analyzes information on employee turnover and identifies the reasons cited by separating workers for leaving state employment.

This paper surveys the landscape of systems engineering methods and current wind modeling capabilities to assess the potential for development of a systems engineering to wind energy research, design, and development. Wind energy has evolved from a small industry in a few countries to a large international industry involving major organizations in the manufacturing, development, and utility sectors. Along with this growth, significant technology innovation has led to larger turbines with lower associated costs of energy and ever more complex designs for all major subsystems - from the rotor, hub, and tower to the drivetrain, electronics, and controls. However, as large-scale deployment of the technology continues and its contribution to electricity generation becomes more prominent, so have the expectations of the technology in terms of performance and cost. For the industry to become a sustainable source of electricity, innovation in wind energy technology must continue to improve performance and lower the cost of energy while supporting seamless integration of wind generation into the electric grid without significant negative impacts on local communities and environments. At the same time, issues associated with wind energy research, design, and development are noticeably increasing in complexity. The industry would benefit from an integrated approach …

Abstract: In 2009, the Texas Transportation Institute produced for the Texas Department of Transportation a document called Video over IP Design Guidebook. This report summarized an implementation of that project in the form of a workshop. The workshop was developed and presented as a pilot in Austin in 2010 and taught an additional four times in 2011 in Fort Worth, Lubbock, Houston, and San Antonio.

The DOE Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium has evaluated four different LED replacements for existing ornamental post-top street lights in Sacramento, California. The project team was composed of the City and its consultant, PNNL (representing the Consortium), and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. Product selection was finalized in March 2011, yielding one complete luminaire replacement and three lamp-ballast retrofit kits. Computer simulations, field measurements, and laboratory testing were performed to compare the performance and cost-effectiveness of the LED products relative to the existing luminaire with 100 W high-pressure sodium lamp. After it was confirmed the LED products were not equivalent to HPS in terms of initial photopic illumination, the following parameters were scaled proportionally to enable equitable (albeit hypothetical) comparisons: light output, input wattage, and pricing. Four replacement scenarios were considered for each LED product, incorporating new IES guidance for mesopic multipliers and lumen maintenance extrapolation, but life cycle analysis indicated cost effectiveness was also unacceptable. Although LED efficacy and pricing continue to improve, this project serves as a timely and objective notice that LED technology may not be quite ready yet for such applications.

Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to verifying the accuracy of certain key financial statement balances and the effectiveness of key financial controls at the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners (Agency); verifying the accuracy of, and evaluating trends in, selected performance measures that the Agency uses; and evaluating the Agency's processes for setting fees and penalties.

The purpose of the Austin to Houston Passenger Rail Study is to analyze the feasibility of implementing 110 mph intercity passenger rail service between Austin and Houston including possible service to Bryan/ College Station. This feasibility analysis consisted of identifying the characteristics of existing rail infrastructure and operations in the study corridors, analyzing potential alternative alignments for the passenger rail operations, and determining required infrastructure and impacts for potential passenger rail service in the study area.

This project is aimed at improving buildings energy codes.

In high energy storage-ring colliders, the nonlinear effect arising from beam-beam interactions is a major source that leads to the emittance growth, the reduction of beam life time, and limits the collider luminosity. In this paper, two models of beam-beam interactions are introduced, which are weak-strong and strong-strong beam-beam interactions. In addition, space-charge model is introduced.

"This report includes a literature review related to active traffic management (ATM), an inventory of ATM deployments both overseas and in the United States, a summary of best practices and general guidelines for the deployment of ATM, information of the development of an ATM website, and the delivery of a webinar to present the project results to increase the awareness of ATM within the transportation profession."

The Biomass Energy Data Book is a statistical compendium prepared and published by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) under contract with the Biomass Program in the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) program of the Department of Energy (DOE). Designed for use as a convenient reference, the book represents an assembly and display of statistics and information that characterize the biomass industry, from the production of biomass feedstocks to their end use, including discussions on sustainability. This is the fourth edition of the Biomass Energy Data Book which is only available online in electronic format. There are five main sections to this book. The first section is an introduction which provides an overview of biomass resources and consumption. Following the introduction to biomass, is a section on biofuels which covers ethanol, biodiesel and bio-oil. The biopower section focuses on the use of biomass for electrical power generation and heating. The fourth section is on the developing area of biorefineries, and the fifth section covers feedstocks that are produced and used in the biomass industry. The sources used represent the latest available data. There are also two appendices which include frequently needed conversion factors, a table of selected biomass feedstock characteristics, …

Engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) are increasingly being used in commercial products, particularly in the biomedical, cosmetic, and clothing industries. For example, pants and shirts are routinely manufactured with silver nanoparticles to render them 'wrinkle-free.' Despite the growing applications, the associated environmental health and safety (EHS) impacts are completely unknown. The significance of this problem became pervasive within the general public when Prince Charles authored an article in 2004 warning of the potential social, ethical, health, and environmental issues connected to nanotechnology. The EHS concerns, however, continued to receive relatively little consideration from federal agencies as compared with large investments in basic nanoscience R&D. The mounting literature regarding the toxicology of ENMs (e.g., the ability of inhaled nanoparticles to cross the blood-brain barrier; Kwon et al., 2008, J. Occup. Health 50, 1) has spurred a recent realization within the NNI and other federal agencies that the EHS impacts related to nanotechnology must be addressed now. In our study we proposed to address critical aspects of this problem by developing primary correlations between nanoparticle properties and their effects on cell health and toxicity. A critical challenge embodied within this problem arises from the ability to synthesize nanoparticles with a wide array of physical …

This case study presents the lessons learned from incorporating energy efficiency in the rebuilding and renovating of New Orleans K-12 schools after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Hurricane Katrina was the largest natural disaster in the United States, striking the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005, and flooding 80% of New Orleans; to make matters worse, the city was flooded again only three weeks later by the effects of Hurricane Rita. Many of the buildings, including schools, were heavily damaged. The devastation of schools in New Orleans from the hurricanes was exacerbated by many years of deferred school maintenance. This case study presents the lessons learned from incorporating energy efficiency in the rebuilding and renovating of New Orleans K-12 schools after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The experiences of four new schools-Langston Hughes Elementary School, Andrew H. Wilson Elementary School (which was 50% new construction and 50% major renovation), L.B. Landry High School, and Lake Area High School-and one major renovation, Joseph A. Craig Elementary School-are described to help other school districts and design teams with their in-progress and future school building projects in hot-humid climates. Before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans had 128 public schools. As part of the recovery planning, New …

Annual report of the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute discussing the institute's personnel and finances as well as compiled papers summarizing in-progress and completed research, with biographical information about authors and in-press publications.

This report contains the groundwater and surface water monitoring data that were obtained during calendar year (CY) 2010 at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Y-12 National Security Complex (hereafter referenced as Y-12) on the DOE Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The CY 2010 monitoring data were obtained from wells, springs, and surface water sampling locations in three hydrogeologic regimes at Y-12 (Figure A.1). The Bear Creek Hydrogeologic Regime (Bear Creek Regime) encompasses a section of Bear Creek Valley (BCV) between the west end of Y-12 and the west end of the Bear Creek Watershed (directions are in reference to the Y-12 grid system). The Upper East Fork Poplar Creek Hydrogeologic Regime (East Fork Regime) encompasses the Y-12 industrial facilities and support structures in BCV. The Chestnut Ridge Hydrogeologic Regime (Chestnut Ridge Regime) encompasses a section of Chestnut Ridge directly south of Y-12. Section 2 of this report provides background information pertinent to groundwater and surface water quality monitoring in each hydrogeologic regime, including the topography and bedrock geology, surface water drainage, groundwater system, and extent of groundwater contamination. The CY 2010 groundwater and surface water monitoring data in this report were obtained from sampling and analysis …

The CASL Level 1 Milestone CASL.P4.01, successfully completed in December 2011, aimed to 'conduct, using methodologies integrated into VERA, a detailed sensitivity analysis and uncertainty quantification of a crud-relevant problem with baseline VERA capabilities (ANC/VIPRE-W/BOA).' The VUQ focus area led this effort, in partnership with AMA, and with support from VRI. DAKOTA was coupled to existing VIPRE-W thermal-hydraulics and BOA crud/boron deposit simulations representing a pressurized water reactor (PWR) that previously experienced crud-induced power shift (CIPS). This work supports understanding of CIPS by exploring the sensitivity and uncertainty in BOA outputs with respect to uncertain operating and model parameters. This report summarizes work coupling the software tools, characterizing uncertainties, and analyzing the results of iterative sensitivity and uncertainty studies. These studies focused on sensitivity and uncertainty of CIPS indicators calculated by the current version of the BOA code used in the industry. Challenges with this kind of analysis are identified to inform follow-on research goals and VERA development targeting crud-related challenge problems.

Report on suggested 50-year water reclamation plan in order to meet current and future water needs of the cities of Pharr and San Juan.

The objective of this NREL report is to provide information on codes and standards (of two emerging hydrogen power fuel cell technology markets; forklift trucks and backup power units), that would ease the implementation of emerging fuel cell technologies. This information should help project developers, project engineers, code officials and other interested parties in developing and reviewing permit applications for regulatory compliance.

The DAKOTA (Design Analysis Kit for Optimization and Terascale Applications) toolkit provides a flexible and extensible interface between simulation codes and iterative analysis methods. DAKOTA contains algorithms for optimization with gradient and nongradient-based methods; uncertainty quantification with sampling, reliability, and stochastic expansion methods; parameter estimation with nonlinear least squares methods; and sensitivity/variance analysis with design of experiments and parameter study methods. These capabilities may be used on their own or as components within advanced strategies such as surrogate-based optimization, mixed integer nonlinear programming, or optimization under uncertainty. By employing object-oriented design to implement abstractions of the key components required for iterative systems analyses, the DAKOTA toolkit provides a flexible and extensible problem-solving environment for design and performance analysis of computational models on high performance computers. This report serves as a theoretical manual for selected algorithms implemented within the DAKOTA software. It is not intended as a comprehensive theoretical treatment, since a number of existing texts cover general optimization theory, statistical analysis, and other introductory topics. Rather, this manual is intended to summarize a set of DAKOTA-related research publications in the areas of surrogate-based optimization, uncertainty quantification, and optimization under uncertainty that provide the foundation for many of DAKOTA's iterative analysis …

This report presents the results of a random survey of adult Texas residents aged 18 and older, to measure the citizen participation rates, the distribution and frequency of play, and the demographic profiles of past-year lottery players and non-players.