Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

Photograph used for a story in the Daily Oklahoman newspaper.

It is inevitable that sealing and abandonment will someday occur in a SPR cavern or caverns. To gain insight into the long-term behavior of a typical SPR cavern following sealing and abandonment, a suite of mechanical finite-element calculations was performed. The initial analyses predict how quickly and to what extent a cavern pressurizes after it is plugged. The analyses also examine the stability of the cavern as it changes shape due to the excessive pressures generated as the salt creeps and the brine in the cavern thermally expands. These large-scale analyses do not include the details of the plug but assume a good seal is established in the cavern wells. In another series of analyses, the potential for forming a leak at the plug is evaluated. A cement plug, emplaced in the casing seat of a cavern well, is loaded using the predicted brine pressures from the cavern analyses. The plugged casing analyses examine the potential for forming a leak path in and along the interfaces of salt, casing, and cement plug. In the last set of analysis, the dimensional scale of the problem is further reduced to examine a preexisting crack along a casing/salt interface. The cracked interface is …

Photograph used for a story in the Daily Oklahoman newspaper. Caption: "Jim Triffo and Karen Hendrix discuss a stained-glass project they are working on that is part of a renovation plan for the state Senate Gallery ....."

Photograph used for a story in the Daily Oklahoman newspaper. Caption: "Robert Grove escapes Tuesday's cold weather in a waiting room at the Grace Rescue Mission, one of the city's charities which sees its income from donations drop after Christmas."

Photograph used for a story in the Daily Oklahoman newspaper. Caption: "This stained-glass design is one of the pieces that will be installed in the state Senate Gallery ...."

Photograph used for a story in the Daily Oklahoman newspaper. Caption: "Silver Goblin struts his stuff during a pre-season press gathering in February."

It is shown, theoretically, that a coupling cavity; namely an rf cavity operating in the TM{sup 210} mode, when inserted in a storage ring will enhance the coupling between longitudinal and transverse degrees of freedom. As a result, it is shown that the demonstrated very effective laser cooling of the longitudinal motion, can now be extended to transverse motion; i.e., employed to cool a beam in all three directions.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an update on what we`ve accomplished and have planned in our plating operation at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in the area of waste minimization. Our efforts have included issues other than waste minimization and, therefore, fall under the wider umbrella entitled pollution prevention or environmentally conscious electroplating. Approximately one year has passed since our last report on pollution prevention and since this topic remains a high-effort activity much more has been accomplished. Our efforts to date fall under the first two generation categories of waste reduction. Good housekeeping practices, inventory control, and minor changes in operating practices (first generation) resulted in an impressive amount of waste reduction. In the second generation of waste reduction, current technology, separation technologies, and material substitutions were used to reduce emission and wastes. The third generation of improvements requires significant technological advances in process synthesis and engineering. We are presently starting some projects in this third generation phase and these will be discussed at the end of this paper.

The late stages of char combustion have a special technological significance, as carbon conversions of 99% or greater are typically required for the economic operation of pulverized coal fired boilers. In the present article, two independent optical techniques are used to investigate near-extinction and final burnout phenomenas. Captive particle image sequences, combined with in situ optical measurements on entrained particles, provide dramatic illustration of the asymptotic nature of the char burnout process. Single particle combustion to complete burnout is seen to comprise two distinct stages: (1) a rapid high-temperature combustion stage, consuming about 70% of the char carbon and ending with near-extinction of the heterogeneous reactions due to a loss of global particle reactivity, and (2) a final burnout stage occurring slowly at lower temperatures. For particles containing mineral matter, the second stage can be further subdivided into: (2a) late char combustion, which begins after the near-extinction event, and converts carbon-rich particles to mixed particle types at a lower temperature and a slower rate; and (2b) decarburization of ash -- the removal of residual carbon inclusions from inorganic (ash) frameworks in the very late stages of combustion. This latter process can be extremely slow, requiring over an order of magnitude …

The Petroleum Marketing Monthly (PMM) is designed to give information and statistical data about a variety of crude oils and refined petroleum products. The publication provides statistics on crude oil costs and refined petroleum products sales for use by industry, government, private sector analysts, educational institutions, and consumers. Data on crude oil include the domestic first purchase price, the f.o.b. and landed cost of imported crude oil, and the refiners` acquisition cost of crude oil. Sales data for motor gasoline, distillates, residuals, aviation fuels, kerosene, and propane are presented.

The high cost of optoelectronic (OE) devices is due mainly to the labor-intensive packaging process. Manually pigtailing such devices as single-mode laser diodes and modulators is very time consuming with poor quality control. The Photonics Program and the Engineering Research Division at LLNL are addressing several issues associated with automatically packaging OE devices. A furry automated system must include high-precision fiber alignment, fiber attachment techniques, in-situ quality control, and parts handling and feeding. This paper will present on-going work at LLNL in the areas of automated fiber alignment and fiber attachment. For the fiber alignment, we are building an automated fiber pigtailing machine (AFPM) which combines computer vision and object recognition algorithms with active feedback to perform sub-micron alignments of single-mode fibers to modulators and laser diodes. We expect to perform sub-micron alignments in less than five minutes with this technology. For fiber attachment, we are building various geometries of silicon microbenches which include on-board heaters to solder metal-coated fibers and other components in place; these designs are completely compatible with an automated process of OE packaging. We have manually attached a laser diode, a thermistor, and a thermo-electric heater to one of our microbenches in less than 15 minutes …

This report is organized in four sections. In the first the authors will outline structural features which are common to all fine grained alumina, as well as to non-framework alumina in zeolites. This section will be followed by a study of the surface vs. bulk coordination of aluminum. The third section will deal with measurement of the number of acid sites and the scaling of their strength. The fourth and last section will describe three model reactions: the isomerization of 1-butene and of 2 cis-butene; the isomerization and disproportionation of oxtho-xylene; and the transformation of trichloroethane into vinyl chloride followed by the polymerization of the vinyl chloride. The relationship between chemical activity and selectivity and what is known of the local structure of the active catalytic sites will be underlined. Other kinds of zeolites besides Y zeolite have been studied. Instead of the aluminum pillared silicates they found it more interesting to study the substitution of silicon by aluminum in a layered structure containing a permanent porosity (aluminated sepiolite).

The central limit theorem can be applied to a Monte Carlo solution if: The random variable x has a finite mean and a finite variance; and the number N of independent observations grows large. When these two conditions are satisfied, a confidence interval based on the normal distribution with a specified coverage probability can be formed. The first requirement is generally satisfied by the knowledge of the type of Monte Carlo tally being used. The Monte Carlo practitioner has only a limited number of marginally quantifiable methods to assess the fulfillment of the second requirement. Ten new statistical checks have been created and added to MCNP4A to assist with this assessment. The checks examine the mean, relative error, figure of merit, and two new quantities: The relative variance of the variance; the empirical history score probability density function f(x). The two new quantities are described. For the first time, the underlying f(x) for Monte Carlo tallies is calculated for routine inspection and automated analysis. The ten statistical checks are defined, followed by the results from a statistical study on analytic Monte Carlo and other realistic f(x)s to validate their values and uses in MCNP. Passing all 10 checks is a …

The distributions of 14 elements into ten extractants were measured from simulant solutions that represent acidic dissolved sludge and acidified supernate from Hanford HLW Tank 102-SY. The extractants: LIX{sup TM}-26, LIX{sup TM}-54, LIX{sup TM}-84, LIX{sup TM}-1010, Cyanex{sup TM} 272, Cyanex{sup TM} 923, Aliquat{sup TM} 336, DHDECMP, DHDECMP-DIPB, and CMPO-DIPB, were sorbed on porous carbon beads to provide dry-appearing beads that would be suitable for column operations. The selected elements, which represent fission products: Ce, Cs, Sr, Tc, and Y; actinides: U, Pu, and Am; and matrix elements: Cr, Co, Fe, Mn, Zn, and Zr; were traced by radionuclides and measured by gamma spectrometry. Distribution coefficients for each of 280 element/absorber/solution combinations were measured for dynamic contact periods of 30 minutes, 2 hours, and 6 hours to provide sorption kinetics information for the selected elements from these complex media. The resulting 840 measured distribution coefficients are presented.

Several general trends were observed in reactivity patterns of sulfur compounds in macerals. Sulfur is reduced in the asphaltene fraction compared to initial maceral. Aliphatics are removed and polycyclic aromatic compounds are both stable and probably formed under these conditions. Molecules containing two sulfur atoms are formed. The preasphaltenes are now being analyzed by DEIHRMS.

The authors propose a concept of thermonuclear fusion reactor in which the plasma pressure is balanced by direct gas-wall interaction in a high-pressure vessel. The energy confinement is achieved by means of the self-contained toroidal magnetic configuration sustained by an external current drive or charged fusion products. This field structure causes the plasma pressure to decrease toward the inside of the discharge and thus it should be magnetohydrodynamically stable. The maximum size, temperature and density profiles of the reactor are estimated. An important feature of confinement physics is the thin layer of cold gas at the wall and the adjacent transitional region of dense arc-like plasma. The burning condition is determined by the balance between these nonmagnetized layers and the current-carrying plasma. They suggest several questions for future investigation, such as the thermal stability of the transition layer and the possibility of an effective heating and current drive behind the dense edge plasma. The main advantage of this scheme is the absence of strong external magnets and, consequently, potentially cheaper design and lower energy consumption.

Studies of Rocky Mountain area petroleum product availability with reduced refining capacity in Petroleum Administration for Defense IV (PADD IV, part of the Rocky Mountain area) have been performed with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Refinery Yield Model, a linear program which has been updated to blend gasolines to satisfy constraints on emissions of nitrogen oxides and winter toxic air pollutants. The studies do not predict refinery closures in PADD IV. Rather, the reduced refining capacities provide an analytical framework for probing the flexibility of petroleum refining and distribution for winter demand conditions in the year 2000. Industry analysts have estimated that, for worst case scenarios, 20 to 35 percent of PADD IV refining capacity could be shut-down as a result of clean air and energy tax legislation. Given these industry projections, the study scenarios provide the following conclusions: The Rocky Mountain area petroleum system would have the capability to satisfy winter product demand with PADD IV refinery capacity shut-downs in the middle of the range of industry projections, but not in the high end of the range of projections. PADD IV crude oil production can be maintained by re-routing crude released from PADD IV refinery demands to satisfy increased …

This report describes a new flexible technology which is now available to design sensor and control networks based on a protocol embedded in an intelligent communications processor. The flexibility allows a system designer and/or a technical installer to make appropriate tradeoffs among simplicity, functionality, and cost in the design of network nodes and their installation. This is especially important in designing an installation scenario for the safeguards network. The network technology permits several choices of installations with the same basic node hardware. A pre-installed network offers maximum simplicity and no flexibility since it will operate as programmed during manufacture or the pre-installation setup and checkout. At the other end of the spectrum, a network can be installed using network management software and a computer. The combination of the network management software and computer hardware is generally referred to as a Network Management Tool (NMT). The NMT option offers full flexibility to change the network during or after installation. Different NMT can provide different degrees of complexity depending upon the applications and the amount of changes that need to be made during installation.

The authors use the Los Alamos LAHET Code System (LCS)/CINDER`90 suite of codes in a variety of spallation neutron source applications to predict neutronic performance and as a basis for making engineering decisions. They have broadened their usage of the suite from designing LANSCE and the next generation of spallation neutron sources for materials science and nuclear physics research to designing a target system for Accelerator Production of Tritium and Accelerator Transmutation of Waste. While designing, they continue to validate the LCS/CINDER`90 code suite against experimental data whenever possible. In the following, they discuss comparisons between calculations and measurements for: integral neutron yields from a bare-target of lead; fertile-to-fissile conversion yields for thorium and depleted uranium targets; dose rates from the LANSCE tungsten target; energy deposition in a variety of light and heavy materials; and neutron spectra from LANSCE water and liquid hydrogen moderators. The accuracy with which the calculations reproduce experimental results is an indication of their confidence in the validity of their design calculations.

The Department of Energy is entrusted to contribute to the welfare of the Nation by providing the scientific and educational foundation or the technology, policy, and institutional leadership necessary to achieve efficiency in energy use, diversity in energy sources, and access to technical information required for a more productive and competitive economy, improved environmental quality, and a secure national defense.

The objective of this study was to find a material and configuration that could reliably detect the proper functioning of a current slapper detonator. Because of the small size of the slapper geometry (on the order of a 15 mils), most diagnostic techniques are not suitable. This program has the additional requirement that the device could not use any electrical power or output signals. This required that the diagnostic be completely passive. The paper describes the three facets of the development effort: complete characterization of the slapper using VISAR measurements, selection of the diagnostic material and configuration, and testing of the prototype designs. The VISAR testing required the use of a special optical probe to allow the laser light to reach both bridges of the slapper detonator. Results are given in the form of flyer velocity as a function of the initiating voltage level. The selected diagnostic design functions in a manner similar to a dent block except that the impact of the Kapton disk causes a fracture pattern. A quick visual inspection is all that is needed to determine if the flyer velocity exceeded the threshold value. Sub-threshold velocities produce a substantially different appearance.