We have monitored Supernova 1987A in optical/near-infrared bands from a few weeks following its birth until the present time in order to search for a pulsar remnant. We have found an apparent pattern of emission near the frequency of 467.5 Hz - a 2.14 ms pulsar candidate, first detected in data taken on the remnant at the Las Campanas Observatory (LCO) 2.5-m Dupont telescope during 14-16 Feb. 1992 UT. We detected further signals near the 2.14 ms period on numerous occasions over the next four years in data taken with a variety of telescopes, data systems and detectors, at a number of ground- and space-based observatories. The sequence of detections of this signal from Feb. `92 through August `93, prior to its apparent subsequent fading, is highly improbable (< 10{sup -10} for any noise source). We also find evidence for modulation of the 2.14 ms period with a {approx}1,000 s period which, when taken with the high spindown of the source (2-3 x 10{sup -10} Hz/s), is consistent with precession and spindown via gravitational radiation of a neutron star with a non- axisymmetric oblateness of {approx}10{sup -6}, and an implied gravitational luminosity exceeding that of the Crab Nebula pulsar by …

The PHERMEX (Pulsed High Energy Radiographic Machine Emitting X-rays) Radiographic Facility is a 50-MHz, 3-Cavity, RF-Linac driven by a pulsed, thermionic electron-gun Injector. The PHERMEX is used to take flash radiographs using x-rays at a single time in an explosively driven event. To investigate the time evolution of these events requires two things: (1) a multiple-pulser to drive the electron-gun Injector and (2) a large-format, gamma-ray, camera system to record a scintillator at the different times. The authors report the recent success of developing a reliable double-pulser that consists of two Marx generators that independently charge two PFLs that are switched out at about 1.4 MV. The PFLs are connected in series by large diaphragm switches that are independently laser triggered by two quadrupled-YAG lasers. Recent tests of the system into a dummy load, produced two high quality 600 kV pulses separated by 1.0 {micro}s. Each pulse has a FWHM of 90 ns, a 50 ns flat-top {+-} 3%, and a risetime of 25 ns and a falltime of 35 ns. The interpulse time is variable up to about 275 {micro}s; the first switch is kept closed by a keep alive inductor. The system has produced a 50 shot sequence …

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The application of ray deviation calculations based on aberration coefficients for a single optical surface for the design of beamline optical systems is reviewed. A systematic development is presented which allows insight into which aberration may be causing the rays to deviate from perfect focus. A new development allowing analytical calculation of line shape is presented.

The surface thermal lensing technique (STL) successfully resolved and measured the absorptance of transmissive optical components: near- normal angle-of-incidence anti-reflectors and beam splatters. The STL system uses an Ar ion laser to pump the components at 514.5 mn. The absorptance-induced surface deformation diffracts the HeNe probe beam into a photo-detector. The signal intensity was calibrated with a sample of known absorptance. The optical components were designed to function in a copper vapor laser (CVL) transport system, and were previously tested for absorptance with a high power CVL system at 511 rtm. To assure proper absorptance data from the STL system, the pump laser power densities were set at the operational level of the coatings, absorptance time trends were monitored, and absorptance area scans were made. Both types of transmissive optics are more stable than the CVL high reflectors that were measured in another study. Parameter studies based on Fresnel diffraction theory were also performed to optimize experimental condition. The STL system was assessed to have 10 ppb sensitivity for absorption measurement given 2 W of pump power.

The AC magnetic losses at power frequencies (60 Hz) were investigated for mono- and multifilament Ag-sheathed (Bi, Pb){sub 2}Sr{sub 2}Ca{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub y} (BSCCO-2223) tapes with similar transport critical current (I{sub c}) values at 77 K. The multifilament sample exhibited higher losses than the monofilament under the same conditions. Loss peaks are discussed in terms of intergranular, intragranular and eddy current losses. Because of BSCCO`s anisotropy, field orientation has a large effect on the magnitude of these peaks, even at relatively small angles. Losses for fields applied parallel to the c-axis of the textured BSCCO grains are larger by more than one order of magnitude than those applied perpendicular.

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry is a mass spectrometric method of detecting long-lived radioisotopes without regard to their decay products or half-life. The technique is normally applied to geochronology, but recently has been developed for bioanalytical tracing. AMS detects isotope concentrations to parts per quadrillion, quantifying labeled biochemicals to attomole levels in milligram- sized samples. Its advantages over non-isotopeic and stable isotope labeling methods are reviewed and examples of analytical integrity, sensitivity, specificity, and applicability are provided.

This paper describes a face validation process developed to assess computer models used in Phase I of the Theater Missile Defense (TMD) Cost and Operational Effectiveness Analysis (COEA) and to aid the COEA Study Director in making accreditation decisions for those models. The process was applied to five BMDO models, only two of which had a formal configuration management program. The process was expedient, efficient and proved to be an effective method of distilling essential information for the decision maker. Further, the process identified model deficiencies which provided a road-map for modeling improvements needed for follow-on COEA studies. The paper describes each phase of the process: preparation (including validation team membership, analyst interviews to develop needs, preparation of developer questionnaires and solicitation of preliminary responses, and the selection of assessment criteria); conduct of the panel/development team interaction; report preparation; and review cycles. The paper concludes with a list of limitations for face validation and lessons learned from the authors experience, including what did and did not work well during the model assessments. This same process has since been used by BMDO to collect information needed for planning and decision making, and to orient the continued development of TMD models consistent …

The Adaptive Multisensor Integrated Security System (AMISS) uses a variety of computational intelligence techniques to reason from raw sensor data through an array of processing layers to arrive at an assessment for alarm/alert conditions based on human behavior within a secure facility. In this paper, the authors give an overview of the system and briefly describe some of the major components of the system. This system is currently under development and testing in a realistic facility setting.

Epitaxial PbTiO{sub 3} and Bi{sub 4}Ti{sub 3}O{sub 12} thin films have been grown on (100) SrTiO{sub 3} and (100) LaAlO{sub 3} substrates by reactive molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Titanium is supplied to the film in the form of shuttered bursts each containing a one monolayer dose of titanium atoms for the growth of PbTiO{sub 3} and three monolayers for the growth of Bi{sub 4}Ti{sub 3}O{sub 12}. Lead, bismuth, and ozone are continuously supplied to the surface of the depositing film. Growth of phase pure, c-axis oriented epitaxial films with bulk lattice constants is achieved using an overpressure of these volatile species. With the proper choice of substrate temperature (600--650 C) and ozone background pressure (P{sub O{sub 3}} = 2 {times} 10{sup {minus}5} Torr), the excess of the volatile metals and ozone desorb from the surface of the depositing film leaving a phase-pure stoichiometric crystal. The smooth PbTiO{sub 3} surface morphology revealed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) suggests that the PbTiO{sub 3} films grow in a layer-by-layer fashion. In contrast the Bi{sub 4}Ti{sub 3}O{sub 12} films contain islands which evolve either continuously or around screw dislocations via a spiral-type growth mechanism.

At the Advanced Photon Source (APS), undulator insertion devices are capable of producing x-ray beams with total power of about 5 kW and normal incidence heat fluxes of about 170 W/mm{sup 2} at 30 m from the source. On beamlines in which the first optical element is a mirror, the reflected beam from the mirror still carries considerable power and power density. Depending on its location, the monochromator downstream of the mirror might be subject to 300 W total power and 5 W/mm{sup 2} normal incidence heat flux. Thus, it is still necessary to carefully design a monochromator that provides acceptable performance under these heat loads. A contact-cooled u-shaped monochromator may be used in this case. The main feature of the u-shaped monochromator is that, by carefully selecting the geometry and cooling locations, is passively corrects for some of the thermally induced crystal distortions. We present experimental and computational results of a contact cooled u-shaped monochromator tested on an APS undulator beamline. The results are encouraging and compare favorably with liquid-gallium internally cooled crystals.

This paper presents a segmentation algorithm for gray-level images and addresses issues related to its performance on noisy images. It formulates an image segmentation problem as a partition of an image into (arbitrarily-shaped) connected regions to minimize the sum of gray-level variations over all partitioned regions, under the constraints that (1) each partitioned region has at least a specified number of pixels, and (2) two adjacent regions have significantly different {open_quotes}average{close_quotes} gray-levels. To overcome the computational difficulty of directly solving this problem, a minimum spanning tree representation of a gray-level image has been developed. With this tree representation, an image segmentation problem is effectively reduced to a tree partitioning problem, which can be solved efficiently. To evaluate the algorithm, the authors have studied how noise affects the performance of the algorithm. Two types of noise, transmission noise and Gaussian additive noise, are considered, and their effects on both phases of the algorithm, construction of a tree representation and partition of a tree, are studied. Evaluation results have shown that the algorithm is stable and robust in the presence of these types of noise.

The US Home Team has investigated the physics and engineering issues for two alternate poloidal field coil configurations for ITER. The first is called the Segmented CS configuration, where all of the solenoid modules are pancake-wound. The second option, termed the Hybrid CS configuration, utilizes a layer-wound central module and pancake-wound end modules. Performance comparisons are presented for the baseline design and the two alternate PF configurations, characterizing the 21 MA reference scenario. Alternate operating modes such as reverse-shear operation and a 17 MA driven mode were evaluated, but are not reported here.

The classical fluid transport equations for a magnet-plasma as given, for example, by Braginskii [1], are complicated in their most general form. Here we obtain the simplest reduced set which contains the essential physics of the tokamak edge problem in slab geometry by systematically applying a parameter ordering and making use of specific symmetries. An important ingredient is a consistent set of boundary conditions as described elsewhere [2]. This model clearly resolves some important issues concerning diamagnetic drifts, high parallel viscosity, and the ambipolarity constraint. The final equations can also serve as a model for understanding the structure of the equations in the presence of anomalous transport terms arising from fluctuations. In fact, Braginskii-like equations are the basis of a number of scrape-off layer (SOL) transport codes [3]. However, all of these codes contain ad hoc radial diffusion terms and often neglect some classical terms, both of which make the self-consistency of the models questionable. Braginskii's equations [1] have been derived from the first principles via the kinetic equations and, thereby, contain such ''built-in'' features as the symmetry of kinetic coefficients, and automatic quasineutrality of a cross-field diffusion in a system with toroidal symmetry such as a tokamak. Our model …

Due to the large mass difference between the two isotopes, D/H ratios can be strongly affected by chemical processes. Thus, they can be sensitive monitors of fluid source, temperature, and fluid-rock interactions in geologic settings. The lack of confidence in fractionation factors has significantly hindered realization of the potential of D/H ratios in geochemical studies. The authors describe a new experimental method, relying on SIMS analysis, that allows the precise determination of mineral-water D/H fractionation factors, and the analytical considerations that are required to make both precise and accurate measurements. The development of this method is based on the fact that diffusion rates are markedly anisotropic in many hydrous minerals, varying by over five orders of magnitude depending on the crystallographic orientation. The diffusion rates can be determined by conducting controlled exchange experiments of fixed duration using isotopically labeled waters that are enriched (strongly) with D, and then measuring the depth profile by SIMS.

Recently, three liner stability experiments were performed at the Pegasus II pulsed power facility to determine the asymmetric variations in the material density of a cylindrical liner during an electro-magnetically driven implosion. The initial campaign consisted of three experiments, designated LS-1, LS-2, and LS-3. LS-1 and LS-2 were driven with a peak current of approximately 4.2 MA, whereas the peak current for LS-3 was approximately 6.4 MA. All three liners initially were 0.4 mm wall aluminum cylinders with a mean radius of 2.38 cm and a height of 2.0 cm. The inner surface of each liner was coated with a thin (18--23 {micro}m) layer of gold to aid in the determination of the position of the inner surface of the liner. Radial radiography was used to characterize the z-dependent and {theta}-dependent instabilities that were observed as the liner contracted.

Current subcritical limits for a number of uranium and plutonium materials (metals and compounds) as given in the ANSI/ANS standards for criticality safety are based on evaluations performed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This paper presents the results of an analytical study of the minimum critical mass values for a set of materials using current codes and standard cross section sets. This work is meant to produce a consistent set of minimum critical mass values that can form the basis for adding new materials to the single-parameter tables in ANSI/ANS-8.1. Minimum critical mass results are presented for bare and water reflected full-density spheres and for full density moist (1.5 wt-% water) as calculated with KENO-Va, MCNP4A and ONEDANT. Calculations were also performed for both dry and moist materials at one-half density. Some KENO calculations were repeated using several cross section sets to examine potential bias differences. The results of the calculations were compared to the currently accepted subcritical limits. The calculated minimum critical mass values are reasonably consistent for the three codes, and differences most likely reflect differences in the cross section sets. The results are also consistent with values given in ANSI/ANS-8.1. 3 refs., 2 tabs.

The authors have exploited anomalous small angle x-ray scattering (ASAXS) to monitor the solvation behavior of Cu(II), Er(III) and Yb(III) ions within the interlayers of the natural aluminosilicate clay mineral montmorillonite. The ASAXS technique can reveal the distribution of specific metallic species within a heterogeneous and disordered matrix. The variations of signal intensity as a function of absorption energy were monitored for all of the metal-clays as a function of hydration. Two different hydration levels were probed: as prepared at ambient conditions, or so-called {open_quotes}dry{close_quotes} powders, and {open_quotes}wet{close_quotes} pastes. ASAXS intensities should increase with absorption energy if the metal ion is associated with the interlayer solvent (water in this case), and decrease if the metal ion is associated with the solid matrix. The results show that: (1) Cu(II) is solvated within the interlayers of the wet sample, as expected, and (2) Er(III) and Yb(III) decrease in ASAXS intensity with increased hydration. This latter result was not expected and there is speculation that these ions have associated as hydrolyzed products with the clay surface. The basic principles underlying SAXS and ASAXS will also be presented in this paper.

Unites States Department of Energy sites use computerized material control and accountability (MC&A) systems to manage the large amounts of data necessary to control and account for their nuclear materials. Theft or diversion of materials from these sites would likely result in anomalies in the data, and erroneous information greatly reduces the value of the information to its users. Therefore, it is essential that MC&A data be periodically assessed for anomalies or errors. At Los Alamos National Laboratory, we have been developing expert systems to provide efficient, cost-effective, automated error and anomaly detection. Automated anomaly detection can provide assurance of the integrity of data, reduce inventory frequency, enhance assurance of physical inventory, detect errors in databases, and gain a better perspective on overall facility operations. The Automated MC&A Database Assessment Project is aimed at improving anomaly and error detection in MC&A databases and increasing confidence in the data. We are working with data from the Los Alamos Plutonium Facility and the Material Accountability and Safeguards System, the Facility`s near-real-time computerized nuclear material accountability and safeguards system. This paper describes progress in customizing the expert systems to the needs of the users of the data and reports on our results.

The DOE inventory of spent nuclear fuel consists of approximately 2700 tonnes heavy metal (MTHM), containing over 100 different fuel types. The current plan for the disposition of this fuel is to condition it for dry storage until it can be placed in a geological repository. However, the variation in the physical condition and chemical composition of DOE spent fuel complicates the task of qualifying the fuel for repository disposal. Each type or category of fuel must be characterized and certified to meet repository disposal criteria, an expensive and time-consuming process. Some of the fuel types contain chemically reactive components (such as metallic sodium), which must be stabilized prior to long-term storage or disposal. Finally, some of the fuel is damaged or declad, and some has already been altered by its present storage environment, making it difficult to qualify that general type of fuel for disposal. The electrometallurgical (EM) treatment technique developed at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) has the potential to convert many of these spent fuel types into a uniform set of three product streams (uranium metal, metal waste form, ceramic waste form). This treatment would simplify the process of preparing and qualifying these fuels for repository disposal. This …

This paper describes the installation and startup testing of the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL-E) Photo-Oxidation Organic Mixed Waste Treatment System. This system will treat organic mixed (i.e., radioactive and hazardous) waste by oxidizing the organics to carbon dioxide and inorganic salts in an aqueous media. The residue will be treated in the existing radwaste evaporators. The system is installed in the Waste Management Facility at the ANL-E site in Argonne, Illinois. 1 fig.

To assess the effect of edge neutrals on the low to high confinement transition threshold, a broad range of plasma discharges has been analyzed. From this analysis, the transition power divided by the density, at constant magnetic field, appears to be a function of a single parameter measuring the neutrals` effect, This parameter cannot be uniquely identified. For instance, it may be the radial decay length of the neutral profile or the charge exchange damping rate at about r/a {approx} 0.95. This results suggest that there is a missing parameter linked to the neutrals in the power threshold scaling laws.

The Atlas pulsed-power machine, presently being designed at Los Alamos, will deliver a pulse of {approximately} 45 MA, in 4--5 {micro}sec, with energies of up to 6 MJ (from a bank of 36 MJ maximum) to a load assembly, located in vacuum. Design considerations for the vacuum vessel, power flow channel from the vessel inward, are presented. In contrast to Sandia`s PBFA II-Z, where 20 MA currents and 2--2.5 MJ of energy are delivered to ({approximately} 15 mg) loads in {approximately} 100 nsec, the Atlas structures will have to be designed for longer timescales and higher energies to drive heavy lines ({approximately} 70 g). Design issues for the chamber include materials stresses, formation of (and protection from) debris and molten jets, impulse loading, and survivability and ease of replacement of internal structures. For the power flow channel designs, issues are minimizing inductance, preventing movement of conductors during and after firing, damage mitigation, reducing the cost of materials and installation, and electrical insulation. A key issue for damage mitigation is the radius within which total destruction of material objects occurs. Choices of vessel size, insulator materials, cost and ease of manufacturing, and mechanical stability issues are presently in the conceptual design …

An automated leak test system for tritium shipping containers has been developed at Westinghouse Savannah River Co. (WSRC). The leak detection system employs a computer controlled helium detector which allows an operator to enter key information when prompted. The software for controlling the tests and the equipment apparatus were both designed and manufactured at the Savannah River Technology Center within WSRC. Recertification Test: Every twelve months, the pressure vessel portion of the shipping container itself must undergo a rigorous recertification leak test. After an empty pressure vessel (shipping container) is assembled, it is placed into one of six stainless steel belljars for helium leak testing. The belljars are fashioned in row much the same as assembly line arrangement. Post-load Test: A post-load leak test is performed upon reservoirs that have been filled with tritium and placed inside the shipping containers mentioned above. These leak tests are performed by a rate-of-rise method where the area around the shipping container seals is evacuated, valved off from the vacuum pump, and then the vacuum pressure is monitored over a two-minute period. The Post Load Leak Test is a quality verification test to ensure that the shipping container has been correctly assembled. 2 figs.