In December 1998, LBNL Director Charles Shank and LLNL Director Bruce Tarter signed a Memorandum of Agreement to create the Heavy-Ion Fusion Virtual National Laboratory (HIF-VNL) with the purpose of improving the efficiency and productivity of heavy ion research through coordination of the two laboratories' efforts under one technical director. In 1999, PPPL Director Robert Goldston signed the VNL MOA for PPPL's heavy-ion fusion group to join the VNL. LBNL and LLNL each contribute about 45% of the $10.6 M/yr trilab VNL effort, and PPPL contributes currently about 10% of the VNL effort. The three labs carry out collaborative experiments, theory and simulations of a variety of intense beam scientific issues described below. The tri-lab HIF VNL program is part of the DOE Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (OFES) fusion program. A short description of the four major tasks areas of HIF-VNL research is given in the next section. The task areas are: High Current Experiment, Final Focus/Chamber Transport, Source/Injector/Low Energy Beam Transport (LEBT), and Theory/Simulation. As a result of the internal review, more detailed reviews of the designs, costs and schedules for some of the tasks have been completed, which will provide more precision in the scheduled completion dates …

Initial measurements are reported for the Mercury laser system, a scalable driver for rep-rated inertial fusion energy. The performance goals include 10% electrical efficiency at 10 Hz and 100 J with a 2-10 ns pulse length. We report on the first Yb:S-FAP crystals grown to sufficient size for fabricating full size (4 x 6 cm) amplifier slabs. The first of four 160 kW (peak power) diode arrays and pump delivery systems were completed and tested with the following results: 5.5% power droop over a 0.75 ms pulse, 3.95 nm spectral linewidth, far field divergence of 14.0 mrad and 149.5 mrad in the microlensed and unmicrolensed directions respectively, and 83% optical-to-optical transfer efficiency through the pump delivery system.

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

Weekly newspaper from Alvin, 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.

Predictions of increasing levels of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) and the specter of global warming have intensified research efforts to identify ways to sequester carbon. A number of novel avenues of research are being considered, including bioprocessing methods to promote and accelerate biosequestration of CO{sub 2} from the environment through the growth of organisms such as coccolithophorids, which are capable of sequestering CO{sub 2} relatively permanently. Calcium and magnesium carbonates are currently the only proven, long-term storage reservoirs for carbon. Whereas organic carbon is readily oxidized and releases CO{sub 2} through microbial decomposition on land and in the sea, carbonates can sequester carbon over geologic time scales. This proposal investigates the use of coccolithophorids--single-celled, marine algae that are the major global producers of calcium carbonate--to sequester CO{sub 2} emissions from power plants. Cultivation of coccolithophorids for calcium carbonate (CaCO{sub 3}) precipitation is environmentally benign and results in a stable product with potential commercial value. Because this method of carbon sequestration does not impact natural ecosystem dynamics, it avoids controversial issues of public acceptability and legality associated with other options such as direct injection of CO{sub 2} into the sea and ocean fertilization. Consequently, cultivation of coccolithophorids could be carried …

This report discusses the characterization of the nature of Sr{sup 2+} sorption on MST in HLW salt solutions.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) believes it is increasingly likely that an adversary will use chemical or biological weapons against U.S. forces to degrade superior U.S. conventional warfare capabilities, placing servicemembers' lives and effective military operations at risk. To reduce the effects of such an attack on military personnel, DOD has determined the quantity of chemical and biological protective suits, masks, breathing filters, gloves, boots, and hoods that are needed based on projected wartime requirements. DOD's assessment process is unreliable for determining the risk to military operations. DOD's 2000 report is inaccurate because it includes erroneous inventory data and wartime requirements. Inadequate inventory management is an additional risk factor because readiness can be compromised by DOD's inventory management practices, which prevent an accurate accounting of the availability or adequacy of its protective equipment."

This report is categorized into four categories: (I) Some Basic Facts About the Child Care Workforce, (II) Job Growth and Turnover Among Child Caregivers, (III) Child Caregiver Wager and Wage Growth and (IV) Initiatives to improve the Compensation of the Child Care Workforce.

This comprehensive supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) literature review is divided into three major sections. The first section describes the electronic literature search details including the abstract service used and the different topics searched. This section also contains an overview of the seven search topics that yielded relevant references along with a brief synopsis of the most significant literature citations. These seven groupings are (1) chemical warfare agents; (2) explosives; (3) hazardous chemicals; (4) poisons, toxins and mycotoxins; (5) toxic (lethal) chemical and toxicants; (6) pesticides in soil; and (7) pesticides from plant and animal tissues. The second section contains tables of each of these groupings. Each of the seven tables contains entries for individual literature citations listed along with the specific compounds or compound classes that are addressed. The third section refers to the abstracts used in the literature search.

Water-soluble, highly fluorescent, silanized semiconductor nanocrystals with different surface charges were synthesized. To covalently attach the nanocrystals to biological macromolecules with a variety of mild coupling chemistries, the outermost siloxane shells were derivatized with thiol, amino, or carboxyl functional groups. Single- or double-stranded DNA was coupled to the nanocrystal surfaces by using commercially available bifunctional cross-linker. Conjugation had little effect on the optical properties of the nanocrystals, and the resulting conjugates were more stable than previously reported systems. By using the strategies developed in this study, most biomolecules can be covalently coupled to semiconductor nanocrystals. These nanocrystal-DNA conjugates promise to be a versatile tool for fluorescence imaging and probing of biological systems.

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

This report details the experimental effort to demonstrate the continuous precipitation of cesium from Savannah River Site High Level Waste using sodium tetraphenylborate. In addition, the experiments examined the removal of strontium and various actinides through addition of monosodium titanate.

The fieldwork associated with Task 1 (Baseline Assessment) was completed this quarter. Detailed cyclone inspections completed at all but one plant during maintenance shifts. Analysis of the test samples is also currently underway in Task 4 (Sample Analysis). A Draft Recommendation was prepared for the management at each test site in Task 2 (Circuit Modification). All required procurements were completed. Density tracers were manufactured and tested for quality control purposes. Special sampling tools were also purchased and/or fabricated for each plant site. The preliminary experimental data show that the partitioning performance for all seven HMC circuits was generally good. This was attributed to well-maintained cyclones and good operating practices. However, the density tracers detected that most circuits suffered from poor control of media cutpoint. These problems were attributed to poor x-ray calibration and improper manual density measurements. These conclusions will be validated after the analyses of the composite samples have been completed.

The project start date delayed by approximately 7 weeks due to contractual difficulties. Although the original start date was December 14, 2000, the Principal Investigator did not receive the Project Authorization Notice (PAN) from the Virginia Tech Office of Sponsored Programs until February 5, 2001. Therefore, the first project task (i. e., Project Planning) did not begin until February 2001. Activities completed as part of this effort included: (i) revision and updating of the Project Work Plan, (ii) preparation of equipment procurement documents for the Virginia Tech Purchasing Office, and (iii) initiation of preliminary site visits to several coal preparation plants to discuss test work with industrial personnel. After a brief (2 month) contractual delay, project activities are now underway. There are currently no contractual issues or technical problems associated with this project. Project work activities are now expected to proceed in accordance with the proposed project schedule.

Heavy Ion Fusion (HIF) is exploring a promising path to a practical inertial-confinement fusion reactor. The associated heavy ion driver will require a large number of focusing quadrupole magnets. A concept for a superconducting quadrupole array, using many simple racetrack coils, was developed at LLNL. Two, single-bore quadrupole prototypes of the same design, with distinctly different conductor, were designed, built, and tested. Both prototypes reached their short sample currents with little or no training. Magnet design, and test results, are presented and discussed.

The Alkali Metal Thermal to Electric Converter (AMTEC) is a static energy conversion device that operates at high thermal to electric conversion efficiencies that are essentially independent of size, have reached 19% and are expected to reach 25% to 30% in 1997. AMTEC systems have been chosen by NASA and DOE for spacecraft applications and have considerable promise for a wide variety of terrestrial applications. Reduction of parasitic heat losses in AMTEC systems related to radiative heat transfer from the hot side to the condenser can make a substantial contribution to system efficiency. Through design, analysis and the fabrication and testing of cells and systems, the proposed program to develop a Directed Reflectivity Condenser (DRC) has investigated the feasibility of an improved AMTEC condenser component. Phase 1 work showed the potential for adding from 4% to 7% to overall system efficiency for identical operating conditions using the concept. A detailed thermal analysis of several DRC capped cell designs was carried out and some of the conditions under which a DRC, used as the condenser at an end cap of a cylindrical converter, can reduce thermal radiation related losses were determined. A model experimental converter was built and tested to compare …

Document of an email exchange between Ibis Kaba, Steven K. Cox, Sue Wyll, and Alessandra Ogren. The email is requesting pictures of named individuals. Each name is underlined in the document, and the email is set in an informal tone.

An exploration of stellarator configuration space z for quasi-axisymmetric stellarator (QAS) designs is discussed, using methods which provide a more global view of that space. To this end, we have implemented a ''differential evolution'' (DE) search algorithm in an existing stellarator optimizer, which is much less prone to become trapped in local, suboptimal minima of the cost function chi than the local search methods used previously. This search algorithm is complemented by mapping studies of chi over z aimed at gaining insight into the results of the automated searches. We find that a wide range of the attractive QAS configurations previously found fall into a small number of classes, with each class corresponding to a basin of chi(z). We develop maps on which these earlier stellarators can be placed, the relations among them seen, and understanding gained into the physics differences between them. It is also found that, while still large, the region of z space containing practically realizable QAS configurations is much smaller than earlier supposed.

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

The Hydride Storage Vessel (HSV) in Materials Test Facility (MTF) has been monitored during FY00, and its overpressure has been sampled and analyzed. This report summarizes the findings.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Dietary supplements marketed as anti-aging therapies may pose a potential for physical harm to senior citizens. Evidence from the medical literature shows that a variety of frequently used dietary supplements can have serious health consequences for seniors. Particularly risky are products that may be used by seniors who have underlying diseases or health conditions that make the use of the product medically inadvisable or supplements that interact with medications that are being taken concurrently. Studies have also found that these products sometimes contain harmful contaminants or much more of an active ingredient than is indicated on the label. Although GAO was unable to find any recent, reliable estimates of the overall economic harm to seniors from these products, it did uncover several examples that illustrate the risk of economic harm. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have identified several products that make advertising or labeling claims with insufficient substantiation, some costing consumers hundreds or thousands of dollars apiece. The potential for harm to senior citizens from health products making questionable claims has been a concern for public health and law enforcement officials. …

In support of the crystalline silicotitanate (CST) ion exchange project of High-Level Waste (HLW) Process Engineering, heat transfer calculations have been made for a fully-loaded CST column during abnormal and normal operating conditions. The objective of the present work is to compute temperature distributions across the column when there is steady flow of salt solution through the CST column under normal conditions of the process operations.

Document of the timeline of events of the DFW Black Tie Committee. The records of the events range from 1982 to 1991. Each event during the respective years lists all of the programs and documents as well.