Experiences as an environmental activist have produced some insights into addressing the current public over-reaction to environmental risks, and in particular to the risks posed by nuclear industry development.

The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) contains the most extensive verification inspection provision of any arms control agreement in history. Among its innovations are provisions for facility agreements to govern on-site verification inspections of certain facilities. A facility agreement is an agreement or arrangement between a State Party and the Organization [for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons] relating to a specific facility subject to on-site verification pursuant to Articles 4, 5 and 6. The purpose of this very brief paper is to discuss the value of specificity in the model facility agreements that are to serve as the basis for facility agreements. The views expressed herein are those of the author alone, and not necessarily those of the government of the US of America or any other institution. The model facility agreements are a key document to national implementation of the CWC. As explained in the Manual for National Implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, facility agreements are among the important protections the CWC provides for confidential business information at facilities subject to CWC inspections. Thus, the structure of the models for these agreements will fundamentally determine how national implementation of the Convention will affect various private firms. A particularly salient …

We argue that many of the features of the plastic flow behavior of tantalum can be described by a model that incorporates a two-component Peierls-type mechanism and an fcc-like obstacle mechanism in series. We compare the results of calculations based on such a model with flow data for unalloyed tantalum over a wide range of strain rates and a modest range of temperatures.

Radioactive high level wastes (HLW) generated from production of special nuclear materials at the Savannah River Site (SRS) are held in interim storage in 51 underground, million gallon tanks. Radioactive cesium ({sup 137}Cs) is segregated by evaporation of aqueous waste solution for interim storage in a salt matrix comprised of Na and K salts or in concentrated salt solution. The saltcake will be dissolved and {sup 137}Cs will be separated from the nonradioactive salts in solution in the In-Tank Precipitation (ITP) Process. The cesium will be combined with other radioactive species and glass formers to be melted and poured into stainless steel canisters in the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF). The salt solution remaining after decontamination in the ITP process will be incorporated into grout for disposal at the site`s Saltstone facility. In the ITP facility, sodium tetraphenylborate (STPB) will be added to precipitate the cesium. Potassium in the waste solution also reacts with STPB and precipitates. Due to radiolytic and chemical degradation of the tetraphenylborate (TPB) precipitate, benzene is generated. The benzene dissolves into the decontaminated salt solution (DSS) and into water (WW) used to {open_quotes}wash{close_quotes} the precipitate to lower the soluble salt content of the slurry. Safety and …

A perturbation theory has been developed to calculate the transfer of electric field amplitude and phase ripples from the first harmonic to either the second harmonic or the third harmonic. The theory is restricted to steady-state conversion processes. In the case of small phase gradients, the real and imaginary parts of the output harmonic ripple are related to the real and imaginary parts of the input perturbation by a 2 {times} 2 matrix. To confirm the validity of the perturbation theory, we have performed an initial set of experiments on the Optical Sciences Laser to investigate the transfer of a weak ripple from the first harmonic to the second harmonic.

Detailed modeling of beam propagation in Beamlet has been made to predict system performance. New software allows extensive use of optical component characteristics. This inclusion of real optical component characteristics has resulted in close agreement between calculated and measured beam distributions.

A new process, the Glass Material Oxidation and Dissolution System (GMODS), has been invented for the direct conversion of plutonium metal, scrap, and residue into borosilicate glass. The glass should be acceptable for either the long-term storage or disposition of plutonium. Conversion of plutonium from complex chemical mixtures and variable geometries into homogeneous glass (1) simplifies safeguards and security; (2) creates a stable chemical form that meets health, safety, and environmental concerns; (3) provides an easy storage form; (4) may lower storage costs; and (5) allows for future disposition options. In the GMODS process, mixtures of metals, ceramics, organics, and amorphous solids containing plutonium are fed directly into a glass melter where they are directly converted to glass. Conventional glass melters can accept materials only in oxide form; thus, it is its ability to accept materials in multiple chemical forms that makes GMODS a unique glass making process. Initial proof-of-principle experiments have converted cerium (plutonium surrogate), uranium, stainless steel, aluminum, and other materials to glass. Significant technical uncertainties remain because of the early nature of process development.