The Chemical Technology (CMT) Division is a diverse technical organization with principal emphases in environmental management and development of advanced energy sources. The Division conducts research and development in three general areas: (1) development of advanced power sources for stationary and transportation applications and for consumer electronics, (2) management of high-level and low-level nuclear wastes and hazardous wastes, and (3) electrometallurgical treatment of spent nuclear fuel. The Division also performs basic research in catalytic chemistry involving molecular energy resources, mechanisms of ion transport in lithium battery electrolytes, and the chemistry of technology-relevant materials. In addition, the Division operates the Analytical Chemistry Laboratory, which conducts research in analytical chemistry and provides analytical services for programs at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and other organizations. Technical highlights of the Division's activities during 1998 are presented.

We report on neutron diffraction studies of UCo{sub 1/3}T{sub 2/3}Al (T = Ru, Pt, Rh). All three solid solutions form in the hexagonal ZrNiAl structure. The Ru-containing compound is found to be chemically ordered, while the Pt-containing compound is nearly disordered and the Rh-containing compound is purely disordered. All three compounds exhibit long-range magnetic order with rather small U moments.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed an initiative for a National Wildfire Prediction Program. The program provides guidance for fire managers throughout the country, assisting them to efficiently use limited fire-fighting resources. To achieve maximum cost leveraging, the program builds upon existing physics-based atmospheric and wildfire modeling efforts, a proven emergency response infrastructure, state-of-the-art computer science, and the world's most advanced supercomputers to create a comprehensive wildfire prediction system.

Daily newspaper from Perry, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

The performance objectives of the Department of Energy's Low-level radioactive waste disposal facilities at the Nevada Test Site transcend those of any other radioactive waste disposal site in the United States. The expanded paper will describe the technical attributes of the facilities, the present and the future disposal capacities and capabilities, and includes a description of the process from waste approval to final disposition. The paper also summarizes the current status of the waste disposal operations.

Daily newspaper from Chickasha, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Altus, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Phase-pure nanocrystalline diamond thin films grown from plasmas of a hydrogen-poor carbon argon gas mixture have been analyzed regarding their hardness and elastic moduli by means of a microindentor and a scanning acoustic microscope.The films are superhard and the moduli rival single crystal diamond. In addition, Raman spectroscopy with an excitation wavelength of 1064 nm shows a peak at 1438 l/cm and no peak above 1500 l/cm, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy a shake-up loss at 4.2 eV. This gives strong evidence for the existence of solitary double bonds in the films. The hardness and elasticity of the films then are explained by the assumption, that the solitary double bonds interconnect the nanocrystals in the films, leading to an intergrain boundary adhesion of similar strength as the intragrain diamond cohesion. The results are in good agreement with recent simulations of high-energy grain boundaries.

An x-ray drive has been developed to shock compress metal foils in the solid state using an internally shielded hohlraum with a high contrast shaped pulse from the Nova laser. The drive has been characterized and hydrodynamics experiments designed to study growth of the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability in Cu foils at 3 Mbar peak pressures in the plastic flow regime have been started. Pre-imposed modulations with an initial wavelength of 20-50 {micro}m, and amplitudes of 1.0-2.5 {micro}m show growth consistent with simulations. In the Nova experiments, the fluid and solid states are expected to behave similarly for Cu. An analytic stability analysis is used to motivate an experimental design with an Al foil where the effects of material strength on the RT growth are significantly enhanced. The conditions reached in the metal foils at peak compression are similar to those predicted at the core of the earth.

Semiweekly newspaper from Sealy, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Geothermal research study at Sandia National Laboratories has conducted a program in slimhole drilling research since 1992. Although our original interest focused on slim holes as an exploration method, it has also become apparent that they have substantial potential for driving small-scale, off-grid power plants. This paper summarizes Sandia's slim-hole research program, describes technology used in a ''typical'' slimhole drilling project, presents an evaluation of using slim holes for small power plants, and lists some of the research topics that deserve further investigation.

This report summarizes progress through Phase 2 of the probabilistic seismic hazards analysis (PSHA) for the Santa Barbara Channel being carried out by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) for the Minerals Management Service (MMS) of the US Department of the Interior. The purpose of the PSHA is to provide a basis for development by MMS of regulations governing evaluation of applications to re-license existing oil platforms in federal waters within the Channel with respect to seismic loading. The final product of the analysis will be hazard maps of ground motion parameters at specified probability levels of exceedence. This report summarizes the characterization of local earthquake sources within the Channel and onshore areas of the Western Transverse Ranges, development of a ground motion attenuation model for the region, and presents preliminary hazard results at three selected sites.

Daily newspaper from Sapulpa, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Semiweekly newspaper from Boerne, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Sulphur Springs, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Mercury emission compliance presents one of the major potential challenges raised by the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. Simple ways of controlling emissions have not been identified. The variability in the field data suggest that inherent mercury emissions may be reduced if the source of this inherent capture can be identified and controlled. The key mechanisms appear to involve the oxidation of mercury to Hg{sup 2}, generally producing the more reactive HgCl{sub 2}, followed by its capture by certain components of the fly ash or char, or in the air pollution control equipment. This research focuses on identifying the rate-limiting steps associated with the oxidation step. Work in this reporting period focused on the refinement of the rate constants used in the kinetic mechanism for mercury oxidation. The possible reactions leading to mercury oxidation are reviewed. Rate constants for these reactions are discussed, using both literature sources and detailed estimates. The resulting mechanism represents the best present picture of the overall chlorine homogeneous oxidation chemistry. Application of this mechanism to the data will be explored in the subsequent reporting period. Work conducted under the present grant has been the subject of two meeting papers presented during the reporting period (Sliger …

Mercury emission compliance presents one of the major potential challenges raised by the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. Simple ways of controlling emissions have not been identified. The variability in the field data suggest that inherent mercury emissions may be reduced if the source of this inherent capture can be identified and controlled. The key mechanisms appear to involve the oxidation of mercury to Hg{sup 2}, generally producing the more reactive HgCl{sub 2}, followed by its capture by certain components of the fly ash or char, or in the air pollution control equipment. This research focuses on identifying the rate-limiting steps associated with the oxidation step. Work in this reporting period focused on testing of the kinetic mechanism reported in the previous semiannual report, and the interpretation of data (both ours and literature). This model yields good qualitative agreement with the data and indicates that mercury oxidation occurs during the thermal quench of the combustion gases. The model also suggests that atomic chlorine is the key oxidizing species. The oxidation is limited to a temperature window between 700-400 C that is defined by the overlap of (1) a region of significant superequilibrium Cl concentration, and (2) a region where oxidized …

Mercury emission compliance is one of the major potential challenges raised by the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. Simple ways of controlling emissions have not been identified. The variability in the field data suggests that inherent mercury emissions may be reduced if the source of this inherent capture can be identified and controlled. The key mechanisms appear to involve the oxidation of the mercury to Hg{sup 2}, generally producing the more reactive HgCl{sub 2} , followed by its capture by certain components of the fly ash or char. This research focuses on identifying the rate-limiting steps associated with the oxidation step. Work in this reporting period focused on the development and application of a kinetics model to the oxidation data developed in the present program and literature data under MSW conditions. The results indicate that the pathway Hg + Cl = HgCl followed by HgCl + HCl = HgCl{sub 2} + H predominates over Hg + Cl{sub 2} under high-temperature conditions. This primarily occurs because Cl{sub 2} concentrations are too low under the present conditions to contribute significantly.

Weekly newspaper from Grandview, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Interview with Mervin Garver. The interview includes Garver's personal experiences about education and childhood during the Great Depression, being a defense worker at Riverside Foundry, blackouts and air raid wardens, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's visits to Wrightsville by train. Garver also talks about his draft classification as 4-F due to psychoneurosis, his personal feelings about being classified as 4-F, local reactions to his 4-F status, the production of hand grenade and radar cores at Riverside Foundry, the financial and patriotic incentives to increase war production, the purchase of war bonds and stamps, employment of women and wartime shortages, rationing of food and gasoline, the "Victory Bus," effects of WW II on his personal finances and on the postwar lives of Wrightsville's citizens, the transition from wartime to peacetime production at Riverside Foundry, and his memories of post-World War II Memorial Day celebrations.

Press release from Robert Moore, Executive Director of the National Gay Pilots Association urging all major flight carriers to follow United and American Airlines and offer Domestic Partner Benefits to all employees.

Semi-weekly newspaper from Clifton, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

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.