The Single Heater Test (SHT) is one of two in-situ thermal tests included in the site characterization program for the potential underground nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. The heating phase of the SHT started in August 1996, and was completed in May 1997 after 9 months of heating. The coupled processes in the unsaturated fractured rock mass around the heater were monitored by numerous sensors for thermal, hydrological, mechanical and chemical data. In addition to passive monitoring, active testing of the rock mass moisture content was performed using geophysical methods and air injection testing. The extensive data set available from this test gives a unique opportunity to improve the understanding of the thermal-hydrological situation in the natural setting of the repository rocks. The present paper focuses on the 3-D numerical simulation of the thermal-hydrological processes in the SHT using TOUGH2. In the comparative analysis, they are particularly interested in the accuracy of different fracture-matrix-interaction concepts such as the Effective Continuum (ECM), the Dual Continuum (DKM), and the Multiple Interacting Continua (MINC) method.

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A cosmic ray test stand is being constructed at Lab 3. The stand consists of two stacks of steel plates one resting on top of the other. The top stack is composed of 6 plates of steel making an overall stack size of 34.5-inch x 40-inch x 99-inch. The bottom stack also has 6 layers of plate making an overall size of approximately 49.5-inch x 82-inch x 99-inch. The bottom stack is supported with three support legs. See drawing 3823.000ME-900428 for the individual plate orientation. The minimum support leg size and necessary welds between plates are determined.

This Systems Engineering Management Plan (SEMP) describes the Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) implementation of the US Department of Energy (DOE) systems engineering policy provided in 97-IMSD-193. The SEMP defines the products, process, organization, and procedures used by the TWRS Project to implement the policy. The SEMP will be used as the basis for tailoring the systems engineering applications to the development of the physical systems and processes necessary to achieve the desired end states of the program. It is a living document that will be revised as necessary to reflect changes in systems engineering guidance as the program evolves. The US Department of Energy-Headquarters has issued program management guidance, DOE Order 430. 1, Life Cycle Asset Management, and associated Good Practice Guides that include substantial systems engineering guidance.

The configuration management program for the Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) Project Mission supports management of the project baseline by providing the mechanisms to identify, document, and control the functional and physical characteristics of the products. This document is one of the tools used to develop and control the mission and work. It is an integrated approach for control of technical, cost, schedule, and administrative information necessary to manage the configurations for the TWRS Project Mission. Configuration management focuses on five principal activities: configuration management system management, configuration identification, configuration status accounting, change control, and configuration management assessments. TWRS Project personnel must execute work in a controlled fashion. Work must be performed by verbatim use of authorized and released technical information and documentation. Application of configuration management will be consistently applied across all TWRS Project activities and assessed accordingly. The Project Hanford Management Contract (PHMC) configuration management requirements are prescribed in HNF-MP-013, Configuration Management Plan (FDH 1997a). This TWRS Configuration Management Plan (CMP) implements those requirements and supersedes the Tank Waste Remediation System Configuration Management Program Plan described in Vann, 1996. HNF-SD-WM-CM-014, Tank Waste Remediation System Configuration Management Implementation Plan (Vann, 1997) will be revised to implement the requirements of …

Revisions 0 and 0A of this document provided estimated chemical and radionuclide inventories of spent nuclear fuel and sludge currently stored within the Hanford Site`s 105-K Basins. This Revision (Rev. 1) incorporates the following changes into Revision 0A: (1) updates the tables to reflect: improved cross section data, a decision to use accountability data as the basis for total Pu, a corrected methodology for selection of the heat generation basis fee, and a revised decay date; (2) adds section 3.3.3.1 to expand the description of the approach used to calculate the inventory values and explain why that approach yields conservative results; (3) changes the pre-irradiation braze beryllium value.

This document describes the configuration process, choices and conventions used during the configuration activities, and issues involved in making changes to the configuration. Includes the master listings of the Tag definitions, which should be revised to authorize any changes. Revision 2 incorporates minor changes to ensure the document setpoints accurately reflect limits (including exhaust stack flow of 800 scfm) established in OSD-T-151-00019. The MICON DCS software controls and monitors the instrumentation and equipment associated with plant systems and processes.

A 1400 lb blower fan and a 2700 lb filter box are to be supported at Lab 3. The support structure is a framework that suspends from the building wall to the cleanroom and to a washroom. The framework is made of welded 4-inch x 8-inch x 1/4-inch rectangular A36 steel tube. Welds are to be standard prequalified welds as by AISC. The main support frame is approximately 7-feet off the floor and welded onto the top of 10 columns. A deflection and stress study was performed on the planned structure. A scaled plan view is given in drawing 3823.113-MD-358764. The heaviest loaded beams were labeled with a letter designation and were studied for beam deflections and stresses. The 4-inch x 8-inch rectangular tube was also used for the substructure for the fan and filter mounts and to support a temporary floor grating during maintenance.

In response to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 and the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1987, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) developed and is implementing the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project. Raven abundance was measured from August 1991 through August 1995 along treatment and control routes to evaluate whether site characterization activities resulted in increased raven abundance at Yucca Mountain. This study fulfills the requirement set forth in the incidental take provisions of the Biological Opinion that DOE monitor the abundance of ravens at Yucca Mountain. Ravens were more abundant at Yucca Mountain than in the control area, and raven abundance in both areas increased over time. However, the magnitude of differences between Yucca Mountain and control surveys did not change over time, indicating that the increase in raven abundance observed during this study was not related to site characterization activities. Increases over time on both Yucca Mountain and control routes are consistent with increases in raven abundance in the Mojave Desert reported by the annual Breeding Bird Survey of the US. Fish and Wildlife Service. Evidence from the Desert Tortoise Monitoring Program at Yucca Mountain suggests that ravens are not a significant predator of small …

Manage the Site Systems Engineering process to provide a traceable integrated requirements-driven, and technically defensible baseline. Through the Site Integration Group(SIG), Systems Engineering ensures integration of technical activities across all site projects. Systems Engineering's primary interfaces are with the RL Project Managers, the Project Direction Office and with the Project Major Subcontractors, as well as with the Site Planning organization. Systems Implementation: (1) Develops, maintains, and controls the site integrated technical baseline, ensures the Systems Engineering interfaces between projects are documented, and maintain the Site Environmental Management Specification. (2) Develops and uses dynamic simulation models for verification of the baseline and analysis of alternatives. (3) Performs and documents fictional and requirements analyses. (4) Works with projects, technology management, and the SIG to identify and resolve technical issues. (5) Supports technical baseline information for the planning and budgeting of the Accelerated Cleanup Plan, Multi-Year Work Plans, Project Baseline Summaries as well as performance measure reporting. (6) Works with projects to ensure the quality of data in the technical baseline. (7) Develops, maintains and implements the site configuration management system.

This issue of the ICF Quarterly Report focuses on the final section of the 192-arm, 1.8-MJ National Ignition Facility (NIF). We describe both technological advances necessary for optimal utilization of the delivered energy and the hohlraum physics resulting from extremely high energy densities. Two articles belong to the first category. The conversion of infrared light to ultraviolet occurs at the tripler in the NIF's Final Optics Assembly. It is then necessary to separate any unconverted (first- and second-harmonic) light from the tripled-frequency light passed to the target. Large-Aperture Color-Separation Gratings for Diverting Unconverted Light Away from the NIF Target describes the design and fabrication of novel diffraction gratings that fulfill this function. In both direct- and indirect-drive ICF, the symmetry of the capsule as it compresses is crucial. The NIF will have 48 clusters of four beams incident on targets. Optimization of Beam Angles for the National Ignition Facility (p. 15) presents the rationale used to assign beam angles for cylindrical indirect drive while still allowing direct-drive and tetrahedral indirect-drive experiments to be performed.

The objective is to provide a comprehensive geologic analysis of the Mississippi Interior Salt Basin.

This document sets forth the responsibilities, interfaces, guidelines, rules, policy, and regulations for all workers involved in the S/O and SE construction, installation, and acceptance testing. This document is enforced from the first day that S/O and SE workers set foot on the NIF construction site until the end of the Project at Critical Decision 4. This document is applicable only to site activities, which are defined as those that occur within the perimeter of the fenced-off NIF construction zone and the Target Chamber Assembly Area (Helipad). The associated Special Equipment laydown and construction support areas listed in Appendix B are not under this plan; their safety provisions are discussed in the Appendix. Prototype and other support activities, such as the Amplifier Laboratory and Frame Assembly Unit assembly area, are not included in this plan. After completion of the Operational Readiness Review, the Facility Safety Procedure, Operational Safety Requirements, and Operational Safety Procedures are the governing safety documents for the operating facility. The S/O and SE project elements are required to implement measures that create a universal awareness of and promote safe job practices at the site. This includes all Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia …

The usefulness of logistic discrimination was examined in an effort to learn how it performs in a regional seismic setting. Logistic discrimination provides an easily understood method, works with user-defined models and few assumptions about the population distributions, and handles both continuous and discrete data. Seismic event measurements from a data set compiled by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) of Chinese events recorded at station WMQ were used in this demonstration study. PNNL applied logistic regression techniques to the data. All possible combinations of the Lg and Pg measurements were tried, and a best-fit logistic model was created. The best combination of Lg and Pg frequencies for predicting the source of a seismic event (earthquake or explosion) used Lg{sub 3.0-6.0} and Pg{sub 3.0-6.0} as the predictor variables. A cross-validation test was run, which showed that this model was able to correctly predict 99.7% earthquakes and 98.0% explosions for this given data set. Two other models were identified that used Pg and Lg measurements from the 1.5 to 3.0 Hz frequency range. Although these other models did a good job of correctly predicting the earthquakes, they were not as effective at predicting the explosions. Two possible biases were discovered which affect …

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This report analyzes the pay adjustment that Federal employees are to receive in fiscal 1999 under P.L. 101-509, the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act.

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This report summarizes proposed and enacted legislative initiatives to change child nutrition programs (including WIC program) during 1997 and 1998.

This report discusses about major similarities and major differences of the two bills.