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Advanced window wall systems have the potential to provide demand response by reducing peak electric loads by 20-30% in many commercial buildings through the active control of motorized shading systems, switchable window coatings, operable windows, and ventilated double-skin facade systems. These window strategies involve balancing daylighting and solar heat gains, heat rejection through ventilation, and night-time natural ventilation to achieve space-conditioning and lighting energy use reductions without the negative impacts on occupants associated with other demand responsive (DR) strategies. This paper explores conceptually how advanced window systems fit into the context of active load management programs, which cause customers to directly experience the time-varying costs of their consumption decisions. Technological options are suggested. We present pragmatic criteria that building owners use to determine whether to deploy such strategies. A utility's perspective is given. Industry also provides their perspectives on where the technology is today and what needs to happen to implement such strategies more broadly in the US. While there is significant potential for these advanced window concepts, widespread deployment is unlikely to occur with business-as-usual practice. Technologically, integrated window-lighting-HVAC products are underdeveloped. Implementation is hindered by fragmented labor practices, non-standard communication protocols, and lack of technical expertise. Design tools …

response curve for radiation-induced neoplastic transformation of HeLa x skin fibroblast human hybrid cells in vitro under experimental conditions where an adaptive response, if it were induced, would have an opportunity to be expressed. During the first two years of the grant an exhaustive series of experiments were performed and the resulting data were reported at the 2000 Annual Meeting of the Radiation Research Society and then subsequently published (Redpath et al., 2001). The data showed that an adaptive response against spontaneous neoplastic transformation was seen up to doses of 10cGy of Cs-137 gamma rays. At dose of 30, 50 and 100 cGy the transformation frequencies were above background. This indicated that for this system, under the specific experimental conditions used, there was a threshold of somewhere between 10 and 30 cGy. The results also indicated some unexpected, though very interesting, correlations with relative risk estimates made from human epidemiologic studies (for details see the Redpath et al., 2001 ).

The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) Advanced Test Reactor (ATR), a DOE Category A reactor, was designed to provide an irradiation test environment for conducting a variety of experiments. The ATR Safety Analysis Report, determined by DOE to meet the requirements of 10 CFR 830, Subpart B, provides versatility in types of experiments that may be conducted. This paper addresses two general types of experiments in the ATR facility and how safety analyses for experiments are related to the ATR safety basis. One type of experiment is more routine and generally represents greater risks; therefore this type of experiment is addressed with more detail in the safety basis. This allows individual safety analyses for these experiments to be more routine and repetitive. The second type of experiment is less defined and is permitted under more general controls. Therefore, individual safety analyses for the second type of experiment tend to be more unique from experiment to experiment. Experiments are also discussed relative to "major modifications" and DOE-STD-1027-92. Application of the USQ process to ATR experiments is also discussed.

The objective of this project is to enhance the capabilities of a real-time airborne particle mass spectrometer by implementing matrix-independent methods for sample ionization. The enhancements should result in improved sensitivity for trace substances and, more importantly, permit quantitative determination of the presence of target species in microparticle samples on an individual particle basis.

This report describes a new microsystems technology for the creation of microsensors and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) using stress-free amorphous diamond (aD) films. Stress-free aD is a new material that has mechanical properties close to that of crystalline diamond, and the material is particularly promising for the development of high sensitivity microsensors and rugged and reliable MEMS. Some of the unique properties of aD include the ability to easily tailor film stress from compressive to slightly tensile, hardness and stiffness 80-90% that of crystalline diamond, very high wear resistance, a hydrophobic surface, extreme chemical inertness, chemical compatibility with silicon, controllable electrical conductivity from insulating to conducting, and biocompatibility. A variety of MEMS structures were fabricated from this material and evaluated. These structures included electrostatically-actuated comb drives, micro-tensile test structures, singly- and doubly-clamped beams, and friction and wear test structures. It was found that surface micromachined MEMS could be fabricated in this material easily and that the hydrophobic surface of the film enabled the release of structures without the need for special drying procedures or the use of applied hydrophobic coatings. Measurements using these structures revealed that aD has a Young's modulus of {approx}650 GPa, a tensile fracture strength of 8 GPa, …

Since 1983, ground surface elevation data from the US DOE West Hackberry Strategic Petroleum crude oil storage facility has been routinely collected. The data have been assimilated, analyzed, and presented in terms of absolute elevations, subsidence rate, and estimates of volumetric changes of the storage facility. The information presented impacts operations and maintenance of the facility, and provides important constraints on the interpretation of ongoing structural analyses of the facility.

Photograph of a chiseled sculpture of a bald man's bust with a focus on the face and neck on a plinth in front of a window, taken at the Sharing Our History - Visual Images from African, Caribbean, and African American Artists exhibit sponsored by The Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas, Texas.

Highly basic tank wastes contain several important radionuclides, including {sup 90}Sr, {sup 99}Tc, and {sup 60}Co, as well as actinide elements (i.e., isotopes of U, Pu, and Am). These highly basic tank wastes are known to have leaked into the vadose zone at the Hanford Site. Upon entering the sediments in the vadose zone, the highly basic solutions dissolve large concentrations of silica from the silica and aluminosilicate minerals present in the subsurface. These dissolution reactions alter the chemical composition of the leaking solutions, transforming them from a highly basic (as high as 2M NaOH) solution into a pore solution with a very high concentration of dissolved silica and a significantly reduced pH. This moderately basic (pH 9 to 11), high-silica solution has the potential to complex radionuclides and move through the subsurface. Such strong radionuclide complexation is a currently unconsidered transport vector that has the potential to expedite radionuclide transport through the vadose zone. These strong complexation effects have the ability to significantly alter current conceptual models of contaminant migration beneath leaking tanks. In this project, we are determining the aqueous thermodynamics and speciation of dissolved silica and silica-radionuclide complexes to high silica concentration using a combination of (1) …

A test campaign was undertaken during April 16-19 in LaHonda, California to match the operational performance of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL)Varitron accelerator to that of an ARACOR Eagle accelerator. This Eagle-matched condition, with the INEEL Varitron, will be used during a concept demonstration test at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). This operational characterization involved the use of similar electron beam energies, similar production of photoneutrons from selected non-nuclear materials, and similar production of photofissionbased, delayed neutrons from an INEEL-provided, depleted uranium sample. Then using the matched operation, the Varitron was used to define detector performances for several INEEL and LANL detectors using the depleted uranium target and Eagle-like, bremsstrahlung collimation. This summary report provides neutron measurements using the INEEL detectors. All delayed neutron data are acquired in the time interval ranging from 4.95 to 19.9 ms after each accelerator pulse. All prompt neutron data are acquired during 0.156 to 4.91 ms after each accelerator pulse. Prompt and delayed neutron counting acquisition intervals can still be optimized.

The objective of this work is to demonstrate a practical, atmospheric pressure plasma tool for the surface decontamination of heavy metal waste. Decontamination of radioactive materials that have accumulated on the surfaces of equipment and structures is a challenging and costly undertaking for the US Department of Energy. Our technology shows great promise for mitigating the cost of this clean up effort.

Our current EMSP project continues an effort begun in 1997 to develop ultrashallow seismic imaging as a cost-effective method applicable to DOE facilities. The objective of the present research is to refine and demonstrate the use of an automated method of conducting shallow seismic surveys--an approach that represents a significant departure from conventional seismic-survey field procedures. Recent tests involving a second-generation mechanical geophone-planting device have shown that large numbers of geophones can be placed quickly and automatically and can acquire good data. In some easy-access environments, this device is expected to make shallow seismic surveying considerably more efficient and less expensive. Another element of our research plan involves monitoring the cone of depression of a pumping well that serves as a proxy location for fluid-flow at a contaminated site. In May 2001, we collected data from a well site at which drawdown equilibrium had been reached. That information is being interpreted and evaluated. The development of noninvasive, in-situ methods such as placing geophones automatically and using near-surface seismic methods alone or in concert with ground-penetrating radar to identify and characterize the hydrologic flow regimes at contaminated sites supports the prospect of developing effective, cost-conscious cleanup strategies for DOE and others.

This project makes use of ''biomimetic behavioral engineering'' in which adaptive strategies used by animals in the real world are applied to the development of autonomous robots. The key elements of the biomimetic approach are to observe and understand a survival behavior exhibited in nature, to create a mathematical model and simulation capability for that behavior, to modify and optimize the behavior for a desired robotics application, and to implement it. The application described in this report is dynamic soaring, a behavior that certain sea birds use to extract flight energy from laminar wind velocity gradients in the shallow atmospheric boundary layer directly above the ocean surface. Theoretical calculations, computational proof-of-principle demonstrations, and the first instrumented experimental flight test data for dynamic soaring are presented to address the feasibility of developing dynamic soaring flight control algorithms to sustain the flight of unmanned airborne vehicles (UAVs). Both hardware and software were developed for this application. Eight-foot custom foam sailplanes were built and flown in a steep shear gradient. A logging device was designed and constructed with custom software to record flight data during dynamic soaring maneuvers. A computational toolkit was developed to simulate dynamic soaring in special cases and with a …

This report provides a complete summary of what is known about basic hearing capabilities in birds in relation to the characteristics of noise generated by wind turbines. It is a review of existing data on bird hearing with some preliminary estimates of environmental noise and wind turbine noise at Altamont Pass, California, in the summer of 1999. It is intended as a resource in future discussions of the role that hearing might play in bird avoidance of turbines.

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

Basic and applied research will be conducted to develop simple to use chemical and biological sensor chips utilizing bio-chemo-mechanics for real-time, in-situ, detection of technetium, mercury, uranium, and beryllium for deactivation and decommissioning applications. The bio-chemo-opto-mechanical (Bio-COM) chip involves properly fashioned arrays of micromachined silicon cantilevers containing embedded deformable diffraction gratings functionalized with chemically selective coatings. Adsorption of specific molecules on the cantilever array leads to bending, which changes the diffraction of light from the array. The bio-chemo-opto-mechanical (BioCOM) chips will be designed to contain an array of pixels, with each pixel containing an array of microcantilever springs in which one surface is derivatized with either an antibody coating or a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) coating for detecting Hg, Be, U(VI), or TcO4-. The BioCOM sensor platform also offers the advantage of simultaneous measurement of many analytes using a single chip. The readout mechanism can be a reflected laser beam, producing a diffraction pattern, or in an ideal case the diffraction of daylight resulting in a change of color. In the latter case the proposed sensors would not require any external power, external or on-board electronics, or fluorescent dyes and associated optics, which will keep its fabrication and operation costs low …

The anaerobic biodegradation of chlorinated solvents is of great interest both for natural attenuation and for engineered remediation of these hazardous contaminants in groundwater. Compounds to be studied are carbon tetrachloride (CT) and the chlorinated ethenes, tetrachloroethene (PCE), trichloroethene (TCE) cis-1,2-dichloroethene (cDCE), and vinyl chloride (VC). The chlorinated solvents often are present as dense non-aqueous-phase liquids (DNAPLs), which are difficult to remove. Biodegradation of DNAPLs was previously thought not possible because of toxicity, but recent evidence indicates that under the right conditions, biodegradation is possible. Anaerobic biodegradation of DNAPLs is the major subject of this research. The specific objectives of this multi-investigator effort are: (1) Evaluate the potential for chlorinated solvent biodegradation near DNAPLs, (2) Provide a molecular understanding of the biological mechanisms involved, (3) Determine cellular components involved in carbon tetrachloride transformation by Pseudomonas stutzeri strain KC without chloroform formation.

This project, by Dr. Xun, supports work at PNNL (Bolton) regarding plutonium mobility in the subsurface. Ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA) is a chelating agent that can increase the mobility of radionuclides and heavy metals in groundwater. Biodegradation of EDTA can decrease the enhanced mobility. The overall objective is to understand how microbial degradation affects Plutonium-EDTA transport in the environment and the specific objective of this component is to understand how microorganisms degrade EDTA. A chelating degrading bacterium BNC1 can use EDTA and nitrilotriacetate (NTA) as sole carbon and nitrogen sources. A gene cluster responsible for both EDTA and NTA degradation has been cloned and characterized (1,2). The same enzymes are used to degrade both compounds except that additional enzymes are required for EDTA degradation. Since the enzymes are located inside cells, EDTA and NTA must be transported into cells for degradation. For the first funding year, we have focused on how EDTA and NTA are transported into BNC1 cells. The EDTA-degrading gene cluster also contains genes encoding a hypothetical ABC-type transporter. We first demonstrated that the transporter genes and EDTA monooxygenase gene (emoA) were co-transcribed by RT-PCR, suggesting that the genes are involved in EDTA transport. We then characterized one of the …

Video recording from the Black Tie Dinner Collection recorded during an interview with several community members of GLSEN, Fort Worth Men's Chorus, and the National Uncommon Legacy Foundation.

The development and testing of a new technique for blending of electrolyte-binder (separator) mixes for use in thermal batteries is described. The original method of blending such materials at Sandia involved liquid Freon TF' as a medium. The ban on the use of halogenated solvents throughout much of the Department of Energy complex required the development of an alternative liquid medium as a replacement. The use of liquid nitrogen (LN) was explored and developed into a viable quality process. For comparison, a limited number of dry-blending tests were also conducted using a Turbula mixer. The characterization of pellets made from LN-blended separators involved deformation properties at 530 C and electrolyte-leakage behavior at 400 or 500 C, as well as performance in single-cells and five-cell batteries under several loads. Stack-relaxation tests were also conducted using 10-cell batteries. One objective of this work was to observe if correlations could be obtained between the mechanical properties of the separators and the performance in single cells and batteries. Separators made using three different electrolytes were examined in this study. These included the LiCl-KCl eutectic, the all-Li LiCl-LiBr-LiF electrolyte, and the low-melting LiBr-KBr-LiF eutectic. The electrochemical performance of separator pellets made with LN-blended materials was …

The partial cancellation between the effect of centrifugal space charge force on transverse bunch dynamics and the potential energy effect has been a long-standing controversial issue in the study of coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) induced bunch dynamics in bends. In this paper, we clarify our definition of the ''centrifugal space charge force,'' and discuss the meaning of the ''cancellation effect'' and its general application. We further use simulation to demonstrate the cancellation in both steady state and transient regimes, and show the behavior of the effective transverse force.

Changes in the divertor magnetic balance in DIII-D H-mode plasmas affects core, edge, and divertor plasma behavior. Both the pedestal density n{sub e,PED} and plasma stored energy W{sub T} were sensitive to changes in magnetic balance near the double-null (DN) configuration, e.g., both decreased 20%-30% when the DN shifted to a slightly unbalanced DN, where the B x {del}B drift direction pointed away from the main X-point. Recycling at each of the four divertor targets was sensitive to changes in magnetic balance and the B x {del}B drift direction. The poloidal distribution of the recycling in DN is in qualitative agreement with the predictions of UEDGE modeling with particle drifts included. The particle flux at the inner divertor target is shown to be much more sensitive to magnetic balance than the particle flux at the outer divertor target near the DN shape. These results suggest possible advantages and drawbacks for balanced DN operation.

During sludge washing procedures associated with tank waste remediation, actinide ions are expected to remain with the insoluble metal oxide/hydroxide residue as the sludges are scrubbed to remove Cr, P, Al, S, and thus to be transmitted conveniently to the vitrification plant. Unfortunately, in laboratory tests with actual sludge samples alkaline sludge treatment has proven less efficacious for Al and Cr removal than was hoped. To improve removal of Al and Cr, more aggressive treatments of sludges are anticipated, including contact with oxidants targeting Cr(III). In addition, our prior research on the alkaline scrubbing of sludge simulants indicated higher than expected ''solubilization'' of Np and U into concentrated alkali, and some tendency for Am to be mobilized in contact with oxidants. In this project, we are investigating the fundamental chemistry of actinides in sludge simulants under representative oxidative leaching conditions. We are also examining acidic leaching with concurrent secondary separations to enhance Al removal. Our objective is to provide adequate insight into actinide behavior under these conditions to enable prudent decision making as tank waste treatment protocols develop. We expect to identify those components of sludges that are likely to be problematic in the application of oxidative leaching protocols.

Large quantities of non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPL), contaminate the near surface sediments at Operable Unit 1 (OU1), Hill Air Force Base (HAFB), Utah. In October 2000, a 3D, multi-offset GPR survey was acquired at OU1 with two objectives: (1) to image the aquifer/aquitard boundary at a depth of about 30 ft, and (2) to evaluate quantitative processing and interpretation methodologies for direct detection of NAPL. Using pre-stack depth migration, we map the aquitard boundary to about {+-} 1 ft throughout the survey area. An unusual reflection is identified within the vadose zone that does not correlate with known geology. The region below this reflection has anomalously high velocity, implying low electric permittivity, and the amplitude of the anomalous reflection deviates significantly from the background AVO trend. Fitting the Fresnel equation to the AVO data, we estimate the velocity contrast at the anomaly boundary and find that it is in good agreement with the migration velocity model. We interpret the anomaly as a previously unidentified NAPL rich zone. Subsequent coring and chemical analyses verify our interpretation. This exciting result implies that these methodologies may be useful for direct detection of NAPL at other HAFB locations and at sites with similar hydrogeology.