The selling of weapons-related nuclear knowledge by Russian scientists for economic gain constitutes a threat to US national security. Some estimate that the number of Russian scientists seeking permanent employment abroad constitute five to ten percent of all researchers who have left the field of science. And, there is concern that those who have left are ''the better minds.'' Moreover, the issue of brain drain concerns not only those who move abroad permanently, but those who still reside in Russia and travel abroad to sell their knowledge. Of particular concern to the US is the potential sale of WMD knowledge by some. To ''mitigate the risk that economic difficulties...might create the temptation for individuals or institutes to sell expertise to countries of proliferation concern and terrorist organizations,'' the Department of Energy launched a Nuclear Cities Initiative (NCI) in 1998 with the goal of creating commercial jobs and economic diversification in the ten closed cities that form the core of Russia's nuclear weapons complex to accommodate the loss of employment in the nuclear weapons industry. However, unless Russia opens access to the areas of its closed cities that are, or could become, involved in commercial activities-while of course carefully controlling access …

The Multi-Agency Radiation Survey and Site Investigation Manual (MARSSIM) provides a coherent, technically defensible process for establishing that exposed surfaces satisfy site cleanup requirements. Unfortunately, many sites have complications that challenge a direct application of MARSSIM. Example complications include Record of Decision (ROD) requirements that are not MARSSIM-friendly, the potential for subsurface contamination, and incomplete characterization information. These types of complications are typically the rule, rather than the exception, for sites undergoing radiologically-driven remediation and closure. One such site is the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) Linde site in Tonawanda, New York. Cleanup of the site is currently underway. The Linde site presented a number of challenges to designing and implementing a closure strategy consistent with MARSSIM. This paper discusses some of the closure issues confronted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Buffalo District at the Linde site, and describes how MARSSIM protocols were adapted to address these issues.

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This paper illustrates a method for choosing the optimal mix of wind capacity at several geographically dispersed locations. The method is based on a dynamic fuzzy search algorithm that can be applied to different optimization targets. We illustrate the method using two objective functions for the optimization: maximum economic benefit and maximum reliability. We also illustrate the sensitivity of the fuzzy economic benefit solutions to small perturbations of the capacity selections at each wind site. We find that small changes in site capacity and/or location have small effects on the economic benefit provided by wind power plants. We use electric load and generator data from Iowa, along with high-quality wind-speed data collected by the Iowa Wind Energy Institute.

We report recent application experiments on the LLNL COMET tabletop facility using the picosecond, 14.7 nm Ni-like Pd x-ray laser. This work includes measurements of a laser-produced plasma density profile with a diffraction grating interferometer.

The use of sprayed flammable fluids as solvents in dissolution and cleaning processes demand detailed understanding of ignition and fire hazards associated with these applications. When it is not feasible to inert the atmosphere in which the spraying process takes place, then elimination of all possible ignition sources must be done. If operators are involved in the process, the potential for human static build-up and ultimate discharge is finite, and it is nearly impossible to eliminate. The specific application discussed in this paper involved the use of heated Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO) to dissolve high explosives (HE). Search for properties of DMSO yielded data on flammability limits and flash point, but there was no published information pertaining to the minimum energy for electrical arc ignition. Due to the sensitivity of this procedure, The Hazards Control Department of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) was tasked to determine the minimum ignition energy of DMSO aerosol and vapor an experimental investigation was thus initiated. Because there were no electrical sources in spray chamber, Human Electro-Static Discharge (HESD) was the only potential ignition source. Consequently, the electrostatic generators required for this investigation were designed to produce electrostatic arcs with the defined voltage and current pulse …

Coherent vector meson production in peripheral nucleus-nucleus collisions is discussed. These interactions may occur for impact parameters much larger than the sum of the nuclear radii. Since the vector meson production is always localized to one of the nuclei, the system acts as a two-source interferometer in the transverse plane. By tagging the outgoing nuclei for Coulomb dissociation it is possible to obtain a measure of the impact parameter and thus the source separation in the interferometer. This is of particular interest since the life-time of the vector mesons are generally much shorter than the impact parameters of the collisions.

At the Spallation Neutron Source being constructed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, power levels will be greater than at any other operating pulsed spallation neutron scattering facility. Some of the moderators at the facility will contain cadmium that will be used to tailor neutron time distributions by absorbing low-energy neutrons. Because of the higher operating power levels, indications are that there will be considerable burnup of this cadmium during the lifetime of the moderators. Cadmium burnup rates have been calculated for locations around the moderators. Assumed operating conditions for these calculations were a 2-mA beam of 1-GeV protons on the mercury target for 5,000 operating hours per year and a three-year lifetime for the moderators and inner-plug assembly. With the present proposed cadmium thickness in the moderator region (0.05 cm), Monte Carlo calculations indicate considerable depletion of the active cadmium isotope. In places, the calculations indicate complete depletion. An obvious solution to the problem would be to increase the cadmium thickness with a concomitant increase in heat load. Results from some cadmium heating calculations are also presented for a cadmium thickness of 0.05 cm.

The centrality dependence of the charged multiplicity, transverse energy, and elliptic flow coefficient is studied in a hydrodynamic model, using a variety of different initializations which model the initial energy or entropy production process as a hard or soft process, respectively. While the charged multiplicity depends strongly on the chosen initialization, the p{sub T}-integrated elliptic flow for charged particles as a function of charged particle multiplicity and the p{sub T}-differential elliptic flow for charged particles in minimum bias events turn out to be almost independent of the initialization.

It is proposed that the steel components of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) storage casks, transport casks, and repository waste packages (WPs) be replaced with a depleted uranium dioxide (DUO{sub 2})-steel cermet consisting of DUO{sub 2} particulates embedded in a continuous-steel phase. Typical cermets use a sandwich-type construction with clean uncontaminated steel layers on both sides of the cermet. Cermets have several potential advantages over other materials of construction: (1) better gamma and neutron shielding than steel; (2) ability to withstand extreme conditions (fire, accident, sabotage); (3) potential to improve repository performance when used in WPs; and (4) use of excess DUO{sub 2} and recycled steel from nuclear facilities, thereby avoiding disposal costs for these materials. New methods of manufacture and other factors may provide economic incentives for cermet packages when large numbers of casks are manufactured.

We review concurrent multiscale simulations of dynamic and temperature-dependent processes found in nanomechanical systems coupled to larger scale surroundings. We focus on the behavior of sub-micron Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), especially microresonators. These systems are often called NEMS, for Nano-Electro-Mechanical Systems. The coupling of length scales methodology we have developed for MEMS employs an atomistic description of small but key regions of the system, consisting of millions of atoms, coupled concurrently to a finite element model of the periphery. The model, Coarse-Grained Molecular Dynamics (CGMD), builds a generalized finite element formalism from the underlying atomistic physics in order to ensure a smooth coupling between regions governed by different length scales. The result is a model that accurately describes the behavior of the mechanical components of MEMS down to the atomic scale.

We describe progress on the issue of pathological elastic wave reflection in atomistic and multiscale simulation. First we briefly review Coarse-Grained Molecular Dynamics (CGMD). Originally CGMD was formulated as a Hamiltonian system in which energy is conserved. This formulation is useful for many applications, but recently CGMD has been extended to include generalized Langevin forces. Here we describe how Langevin dynamics arise naturally in CGMD, and we examine the implication for elastic wave scattering.

Materials properties measurements are made for the RDX-based explosive, PBXN-109, and initial ALE3D model predictions are given for the cookoff temperature in a U.S. Navy test. This work is part of an effort in the U.S. Navy and Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories to understand the thermal explosion behavior of this material. Benchmark cookoff experiments are being performed by the U.S. Navy to validate DOE materials models and computer codes. The ALE3D computer code can model the coupled thermal, mechanical, and chemical behavior of heating, ignition, and explosion in cookoff tests. In our application, a standard three-step step model is selected for the chemical kinetics. The strength behavior of the solid constituents is represented by a Steinberg-Guinan model while polynomial and gamma-law expressions are used for the Equation Of State (EOS) for the solid and gas species, respectively. Materials characterization measurements are given for thermal expansion, heat capacity, shear modulus, bulk modulus, and One-Dimensional-Time-to-Explosion (ODTX). These measurements and those of the other project participants are used to determine parameters in the ALE3D chemical, mechanical, and thermal models. Time-dependent, two-dimensional results are given for the temperature and material expansion. The results show predicted cookoff temperatures slightly higher than the measured values.

The radiation transport and dose levels at four egresses located in the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) accelerator system were analyzed based on controlled and uncontrolled beam losses in the accelerator system. A six-step hybrid Monte Carlo/Discrete Ordinates approach was employed to solve these problems using the Monte Carlo code MCNPX and the discrete ordinates code DORT along with the coupling tools MTD and DTD. MCNPX served to characterize the generation and leakage of secondary radiation from the accelerator and beam line structures, whereas DORT performed the analyses of the radiation fields (neutrons and gammas) in the accelerator tunnels and walkways of the egress. The coupling tools facilitated generation of the boundary sources from one transport step to the next step. In this effort, large detailed accelerator models were built for MCNPX to properly describe the different types of linac structures, the beam transport and focusing elements (dipoles, quadrupoles, sextupoles) , and the beam collimators. The studies confirmed that the present egress designs were adequate to attenuate the dose in the linac tunnel of up to 100 rem/hr to a level of about 0.5 mrem/hr at the egress exit during normal operation. The egress in the accumulator ring is located at …

The objectives of this report are: to demonstrate complete CSSX process flowsheet (proof of concept)--decontamination factor {ge} 40,000, and concentration factor {approx}15; Scientific and technical issues evaluated--stage efficiency, temperature control, hydraulic performance, long time (multi-day) operation, short-term shutdown, effect of solids, and recovery from Cs moving through strip section.

In this paper the effects of moisture on the heat transfer from two basic types of building foundations, a slab-on-grade and a basement, are examined. A two-dimensional finite element heat and moisture transfer program is used to show the effects of precipitation, soil type, foundation insulation, water table depth, and freezing on the heat transfer from the building foundation. Comparisons are made with a simple heat conduction model to illustrate the dependency of the soil thermal conductivity on moisture content.

This paper addresses the question of how to handle irreducible regions during optimization, which has become even more relevant for contemporary processors since recent VLIW-like architectures highly rely on instruction scheduling. The contributions of this paper are twofold. First, a method of optimized node splitting to transform irreducible regions of control flow into reducible regions is derived. This method is superior to approaches previously published since it reduces the number of replicated nodes by comparison. Second, three methods that handle regions of irreducible control flow are evaluated with respect to their impact on compiler optimizations: traditional and optimized node splitting as well as loop analysis through DJ graphs. Measurements show improvements of 1-40% for these methods of handling irreducible loop over the unoptimized case.

Energetic oxetane polymers have shown promise as performance-enhancing ingredients in gun and missile propellants. In order to correctly predict the performance of energetic materials containing these polymers, it is important to have accurate, experimentally determined values for the polymer heats of formation ({Delta}H{sub f}). In support of a theoretical study on gun propellant performance, heats of combustion were experimentally determined for a series of oxetane polymers and monomers (see below) using combustion calorimetry, and from these, {Delta}H{sub f} values were calculated. Polymers included BAMO/AMMO, BAMO/NMMO (polyol and TPE), and BNMO/NMMO mixtures. In order to calculate the {Delta}H{sub f} of the polymers from heat of combustion data, a number of assumptions were made regarding the polymer structure and molecular weight. A comparison of the {Delta}H{sub f} values for the monomers and polymers were made, and these values were compared to heats of formation measured elsewhere.

We report infrared (IR) spectroscopic measurements of carbon monoxide (CO) at high pressures. Although CO is one of the simplest heteronuclear diatomic molecules, it displays surprisingly complex behavior at high pressures and has been the subject of several studies [1-5]. IR spectroscopic studies of high pressures phases of CO provide data complementing results from previous studies and elucidating the nature of these phases. Though a well-known and widely utilized diagnostic of molecular systems, IR spectroscopy presents several experimental challenges to high pressure diamond anvil cell research. We present measurements of the IR absorption bands of CO at high pressures and experimentally illustrate the crucial importance of accurate normalization of IR spectra specially within regions of strong absorptions in diamond.

Laser damage of large fused silica optics initiates at imperfections. Possible initiation mechanisms are considered. We demonstrate that a model based on nanoparticle explosions is consistent with the observed initiation craters. Possible mechanisms for growth upon subsequent laser irradiation, including material modification and laser intensification, are discussed. Large aperture experiments indicate an exponential increase in damage size with number of laser shots. Physical processes associated with this growth and a qualitative explanation of self-accelerated growth is presented. Rapid growth necessitates damage growth mitigation techniques. Several possible mitigation techniques are mentioned, with special emphasis on CO{sub 2} processing. Analysis of material evaporation, crack healing, and thermally induced stress are presented.

An integrated code system consisting of RELAP5-3D and a multiphase CFD program has been created through the use of a generic semi-implicit coupling algorithm. Unlike previous CFD coupling work, this coupling scheme is numerically stable provided the material Courant limit is not violated in RELAP5-3D or at the coupling locations. The basis for the coupling scheme and details regarding the unique features associated with the application of this technique to a four-field CFD program are presented. Finally, the results of a verification problem are presented. The coupled code system is shown to yield accurate and numerically stable results.

Semiconductor bulk crystals and multilayer structures with controlled isotopic composition have attracted much scientific and technical interest in the past few years. Isotopic composition affects a large number of physical properties, including phonon energies and lifetimes, bandgaps, the thermal conductivity and expansion coefficient and spin-related effects. Isotope superlattices are ideal media for self-diffusion studies. In combination with neutron transmutation doping, isotope control offers a novel approach to metal-insulator transition studies. Spintronics, quantum computing and nanoparticle science are emerging fields using isotope control.

We describe finite element modeling of the deformation of living cells by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Cells are soft systems, susceptible to large deformations in the course of an AFM measurement. Often the local properties, the subject of the measurement, are obscured by the response of the cell as a whole. The Lagrangian finite deformation model we have developed and implemented in finite elements analysis offers a solution to this problem. The effect of the gross deformation of the cell can be subtracted from the experimentally measured data in order to give a reproducible value for local properties. This facilitates concurrent experimental efforts to measure the mechanical properties at specific receptor sites on the membrane of a living cell.