It is the conclusion of this study that Los Alamos National Laboratory (Laboratory) will gain dramatically from revitalization of Technical Area 3 (TA-3) by providing a premiere facility for the US National Laboratory system, the Laboratory will be able to recruit and retain the best available expertise to help fulfill its mission, and plan for the future mission of LANL. The costs of TA-3 revitalization have been estimated at $200 million, however utilizing alternative construction and financing, commercial construction can dramatically reduce these costs and Third Party financing can reduce the overall estimated costs by nearly 50%. In addition, the costs of construction can be captured through savings in staff efficiency, energy efficiency, and reduced maintenance costs of the now aging infrastructure.

The 104th Congress pursued efforts to reform environmental regulations on several fronts: (1) revising regulatory decision making processes; (2) attaching specific reforms to funding bills; (3) establishing a House corrections day calendar of bills addressing specific regulatory problems; and (4) incorporating regulatory reforms into individual program reauthorization bills. The 105th Congress has pursued regulatory reform in four primary directions: (1) proposals to establish a comprehensive cost-benefit/risk analysis framework for regulatory programs, (2) private property “takings” initiatives, (3) amendments and reforms directed at individual environmental statutes, and (4) oversight of environmental programs.

This report presents the results of groundwater monitoring and summarizes current interpretations of conditions influencing groundwater quality and flow in the 100-K Area. The interpretations build on previous work, and statisticzd evaluations of contaminant concentrations were ptiormed for the period July 1996 through April 1998. No new basin leaks are indicated by data from this period. Tritium from a 1993 leak in the KE Basin has been detected in groundwater and appears to be dissi- pating. Tritium and strontium-90 from inactive injection wells/drain fields are still evident near the KW and KE Basins. These contaminants have increased as a result of infiltration of surface water or a higher- " than-average water table. Inactive condensate cribs near the KW and KE Basins resulted in very high tritium and carbon-14 activities in some wells. Recent tritium decreases are attributed to changes in groundwater-flow direction caused by the higher-than-average river stage in 1996-1998, which caused the contaminant plumes to move away from the monitoring wells. Results of the groundwater-monitoring program were used to identi~ and correct factors that may contribute to contaminant increases. For example, some sources of surface-water infiltration have been diverted. Additional work to reduce infiltration through contaminated sediments is planned …

High-purity tantalum single crystal cylinders oriented with [110] parallel to the cylinder axis were deformed 10, 20, and 30 percent in compression. The samples were subsequently sectioned for characterization using Orientation Imaging Microscopy (O&I) along two orthogonal sectioning planes: one in the plane containing [001] and [110] (longitudinal) and the other in the plane containing [1{anti 1}0] and[110] (transverse). To examine local lattice rotations, the Euler angles relative to a reference angle at the section center were decomposed to their in-plane and out-of-plane components. The in-plane and out-of-plane misorientation maps for all compression tests reveal inhomogeneous deformation everywhere and particularly large lattice rotations in the comers of the longitudinal section. Of particular interest are the observed alternating orientation changes. This suggests the existence of networks of dislocations with net alternating sign that are required to accommodate the observed rotations. Rotation maps from the transverse section are distinctly different in appearance from those in the longitudinal plane. However, the rotation maps confirm that the rotations observed above were about the [1{anti 1}0] axis. Alternating orientation changes are also observed on this section. Results will be directly compared with crystal rotations predicted using finite element methods and reviewed in light of the …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed federal agencies' assertions that certain private-sector regulatory concerns were, at least in part, attributable to underlying statutes, focusing on: (1) the amount of discretion the underlying statutes gave the rulemaking agencies in developing the regulatory requirements that the agencies had said were attributable to the underlying statutes; (2) whether the regulatory requirements at issue were within the authority granted by the underlying statutes; and (3) whether the rulemaking agencies could have developed regulatory approaches that would have been less burdensome to the regulated entities while still meeting the underlying statutory requirements."

A new computer program, the SX Solver, has been developed to analyze solvent-extraction equilibria. The program operates out of Microsoft Excel{reg_sign} and uses the built-in ''Solver'' function to minimize the sum of the square of the residuals between measured and calculated distribution coefficients. The extraction of nitric acid by tributyl phosphate has been modeled to illustrate the program's use.

This Corrective Action Investigation Plan (CAIP) has been developed in accordance with the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (FFACO) that was agreed to by the US Department of Energy, Nevada Operations Office (DOE/NV); the State of Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP); and the US Department of Defense (FFACO, 1996). The CAIP is a document that provides or references all of the specific information for investigation activities associated with Corrective Action Units (CAUs) or Corrective Action Sites (CASs). According to the FFACO (1996), CASs are sites potentially requiring corrective action(s) and may include solid waste management units or individual disposal or release sites. A CAU consists of one or more CASs grouped together based on geography, technical similarity, or agency responsibility for the purpose of determining corrective actions. This CAIP contains the environmental sample collection objectives and the criteria for conducting site investigation activities at the CAU 321 Area 22 Weather Station Fuel Storage, CAS 22-99-05 Fuel Storage Area. For purposes of this discussion, this site will be referred to as either CAU 321 or the Fuel Storage Area. The Fuel Storage Area is located in Area 22 of the Nevada Test Site (NTS). The NTS is approximately 105 …

A key component of the Engineered Barrier System (EBS) being designed for containment of spent-fuel and high-level waste at the proposed geological repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada is a two-layer canister. In this particular design, the inner barrier is made of a corrosion resistant material (CRM) such as Alloy 825, 625 or C-22, while the outer barrier is made of a corrosion-allowance material (CAM) such as A516 Gr 55, a carbon steel, or Monel 400. At the present time, Alloy C-22 and A516 G4 55 are favored.

We estimated the effects on per-vehicle-mile fuel-cycle petroleum use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and energy use of using ethanol blended with gasoline in a mid-size passenger car, compared with the effects of using gasoline in the same car. Our analysis includes petroleum use, energy use, and emissions associated with chemicals manufacturing, farming of corn and biomass, ethanol production, and ethanol combustion for ethanol; and petroleum use, energy use, and emissions associated with petroleum recovery, petroleum refining, and gasoline combustion for gasoline. For corn-based ethanol, the key factors in determining energy and emissions impacts include energy and chemical usage intensity of corn farming, energy intensity of the ethanol plant, and the method used to estimate energy and emissions credits for co-products of corn ethanol. The key factors in determining the impacts of cellulosic ethanol are energy and chemical usage intensity of biomass farming, ethanol yield per dry ton of biomass, and electricity credits in cellulosic ethanol plants. The results of our fuel-cycle analysis for fuel ethanol are listed below. Note that, in the first half of this summary, the reductions cited are per-vehicle-mile traveled using the specified ethanol/gasoline blend instead of conventional (not reformulated) gasoline. The second half of the summary …

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This report discusses the history of each federal holiday and explains its rationale where a public record exists.

Computational science is becoming an increasingly important component of Pacific Northwest's support to DOE's major missions. The advanced parallel computing systems in the William R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), coupled with new modeling and simulation software, data management tools, and user interfaces, are providing solutions to previously intractable problems. Research focuses on developing software and other tools to address computational challenges in molecular science, environmental management, global climate change, advanced materials and manufacturing processes, molecular biology, and information management. The Graphics and Visualization Laboratory is part of EMSL'S Molecular Science Computing Facility (MSCF). The MSCF contains a 512-processor IBM RISC System/6000 scalable power parallel computer system that provides the advanced computing capability needed to address ''Grand Challenge'' environmental research problems. The MSCF provides an integrated computing environment with links to facilities in the DOE complex, universities, and industry. The image inserts are graphical representations of simulations performed with software developed at the Laboratory.

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This analysis evaluates the mitigated consequences of a potential waste transfer spill from an underground pipeline. The spill forms a surface pool. One waste composite, a 67% liquid, 33% solid, from a single shell tank is evaluated. Even drain back from a very long pipeline (50,000 ft), does not pose dose consequences to the onsite or offsite individual above guideline values.

This preliminary Level 2 Component Specification establishes the performance, design, development, and test requirements for the in-tank sampling system which will support the BNFL contract in the final disposal of Hanford's High Level Wastes (HLW) and Low Activity Wastes (LAW). The PHMC will provide Low Activity Wastes (LAW) tank wastes for final treatment by BNFL from double-shell feed tanks. Concerns about the inability of the baseline ''grab'' sampling to provide large volume samples within time constraints has led to the development of a nested, fixed-depth sampling system. This sampling system will provide large volume? representative samples without the environmental, radiation exposure, and sample volume Impacts of the current base-line ''grab'' sampling method. This preliminary Level 2 Component Specification is not a general specification for tank sampling, but is based on a ''record of decision'', AGA (HNF-SD-TWR-AGA-001 ), the System Specification for the Double Shell Tank System (HNF-SD-WM-TRD-O07), and the BNFL privatization contract.

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The 104th Congress made extensive changes to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) with the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996 (P.L. 104-182), bringing to a close a multi-year effort to amend a statute that was widely criticized as having too little flexibility, too many unfunded mandates, and an arduous but unfocused regulatory schedule. Among the many changes to the SDWA, the 1996 amendments added provisions to provide funding to communities for drinking water madates, focus regulatory efforts on contaminants posing health risks, and add some flexibility to the regulatory process

This document provides a detailed description of the Sampling and Analysis Plan for the Preoperational Survey to be conducted for the W-314 Pipeline in the 200 East Area.

Energetic atoms which have been knocked off their lattice sites by neutron or ion irradiation leave a trail of vacancies and interstitials in their wake. Most of these defects recombine with their opposites within their own collision cascade. Some fraction, however, escape to become freely migrating defects (FMD) in the bulk of the material. The interaction of FMD with the microstructure has long been linked to changes in the macroscopic properties of materials under irradiation. We calculate the fraction of FMD in pure vanadium for a wide range of temperatures and primary knock-on atom (PKA) energies. The collision cascade database is obtained from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with an embedded atom method (EAM) potential. The actual FMD calculation is carried out by a kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) code with a set of parameters extracted either from the experimental literature or from MD simulations. We take two different approaches to the problem and compare them. The first consists of an idealized simulation for single cascades. Annealing each cascade at different temperatures allows the mobile species to escape and account for FMD. The second analyzes bulk diffusion and damage.

The initial sluicing activities of Project WRSS resulted in a two month increase in temperatures as measured by the Riser 14 thermocouple tree of tank 241-C-106. While this increase was anticipated, the maximum temperature was higher than expected. An evaluation was performed to determine if adequate subcooling exists in the waste to continue sluicing activities. It was determined that a minimum of 10 F subcooling exists in the waste and that the higher Riser 14 temperatures were the result of higher than assumed waste saturation temperature.

The goal of the study is the accurate prediction of the effect of uncontained engine debris on aircraft structures. This will provide airframe engineers the information required to design for damage mitigation and improved safety. The basis for predictive simulation tools lies in the experimental data, which motivates the initial development and application of codes that can adequately describe past experiments. This in turn validates the predictive capability of the codes to simulate future experiments.

We have collected and analyzed fracture and fluid flow data from wells both within and outside the producing geothermal reservoir at Dixie Valley. Data from wellbore imaging and flow tests in wells outside the producing field that are not sufficiently hydraulically connected to the reservoir to be of commercial value provide both the necessary control group of fracture populations and an opportunity to test the concepts proposed in this study on a regional, whole-reservoir scale. Results of our analysis indicate that fracture zones with high measured permeabilities within the producing segment of the fault are parallel to the local trend of the Stillwater fault and are optimally oriented and critically stressed for frictional failure in the overall east-southeast extensional stress regime measured at the site. In contrast, in the non-producing (i.e., relatively impermeable:) well 66-21 the higher ratio of S{sub hmin} to S{sub v} acts to decrease the shear stress available to drive fault slip. Thus, although many of the fractures at this site (like the Stillwater fault itself) are optimally oriented for normal faulting they are not critically stressed for frictional failure. Although some of the fractures observed in the non-producing well 45-14 are critically stressed for frictional failure, …

We present theory and experimental data for a resonant-delay-line pulse-compression system. The system is fed by two high power klystrons at X-band. The output power is four times bigger than the input power. The system produces flat-top output pulses. The system uses evacuated room-temperature copper delay lines as a means of storing energy. These lines achieved a quality factor greater than 4.3 x 10{sup 5}, with total losses due to external components measured at 4%. We compare theory with experimental results.