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

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Student newspaper of the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma that includes national, local, and campus news along with advertising.

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Recent high temporal resolution Ni-like x-ray laser experiments have yielded important insights into the output characteristics of picosecond pumped x-ray lasers. However, current experimental observations do not fully explain the plasma dynamics which are critical to the gain generation within the x-ray laser medium. A theoretical study of the Ni-like Silver x-ray laser has therefore been undertaken to compliment our experimental results, in an attempt to further our understanding of the processes at play in yielding the observed x-ray laser output. Preliminary findings are presented within this paper.

We report on a series of experiments, using the COMET picosecond facility, designed to characterize and develop different x-ray laser sources. This work encompasses collisional pumping of slab and gas puff targets.

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

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The goal of the radiation modeling effort was to develop and implement a radiation algorithm that is fast and accurate for the underhood environment. As part of this CRADA, a net-radiation model was chosen to simulate radiative heat transfer in an underhood of a car. The assumptions (diffuse-gray and uniform radiative properties in each element) reduce the problem tremendously and all the view factors for radiation thermal calculations can be calculated once and for all at the beginning of the simulation. The cost for online integration of heat exchanges due to radiation is found to be less than 15% of the baseline CHAD code and thus very manageable. The off-line view factor calculation is constructed to be very modular and has been completely integrated to read CHAD grid files and the output from this code can be read into the latest version of CHAD. Further integration has to be performed to accomplish the same with STAR-CD. The main outcome of this effort is to obtain a highly scalable and portable simulation capability to model view factors for underhood environment (for e.g. a view factor calculation which took 14 hours on a single processor only took 14 minutes on 64 processors). …

This report examines characteristics of both the insured and the uninsured populations in the United States.

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Building 7602 at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) was constructed in 1963 as a Reactor Service Building for the Experimental Gas-Cooled Reactor; the reactor was never fueled or operated, and the project was terminated in 1965. Significant building modifications were performed during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Beginning in 1984, separation processes and equipment development and testing were initiated for the Consolidated Fuel Reprocessing Program (CFRP). The principal materials used in the processes were depleted and natural uranium, nitric acid, and organic solvents. CFRP operations continued until 1994 when the program was discontinued and the facility declared surplus to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Systems and equipment were shut down; feed and waste materials were removed; and process fluids, chemicals, and uranium were drained and flushed from systems. This paper will present an overview of the Building 7602 D&D activities, final radiological survey , facility modifications, and project interfaces.

Surface contamination evaluation is a tough problem since it is difficult to isolate the radiations emitted by the surface, especially in a highly irradiating atmosphere. In that case the only possibility is to evaluate smearable (removeable) contamination since ex-situ countings are possible. Unfortunately, according to our experience at CEA, these values are not consistent and thus non relevant. In this study, we show, using in-situ Fourier Transform Infra Red spectrometry on contaminated metal samples, that fixed contamination seems to be chemisorbed and removeable contamination seems to be physisorbed. The distribution between fixed and removeable contamination appears to be variable. Chemical equilibria and reversible ion exchange mechanisms are involved and are closely linked to environmental conditions such as humidity and temperature. Measurements of smearable contamination only give an indication of the state of these equilibria between fixed and removeable contamination at the time and in the environmental conditions the measurements were made.

In order to reduce costs and achieve schedules for Closure of the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS), the Waste Requirements Group has implemented a number of cost saving initiatives aimed at integrating waste volume reduction with the selection of compliant waste packaging methods for the disposal of RFETS low level radioactive waste (LLW). Waste Guidance Inventory and Shipping Forecasts indicate that over 200,000 m3 of low level waste will be shipped offsite between FY2002 and FY2006. Current projections indicate that the majority of this waste will be shipped offsite in an estimated 40,000 55-gallon drums, 10,000 metal and plywood boxes, and 5000 cargo containers. Currently, the projected cost for packaging, shipment, and disposal adds up to $80 million. With these waste volume and cost projections, the need for more efficient and cost effective packaging and transportation options were apparent in order to reduce costs and achieve future Site packaging a nd transportation needs. This paper presents some of the cost saving initiatives being implemented for waste packaging at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (the Site). There are many options for either volume reduction or alternative packaging. Each building and/or project may indicate different preferences and/or combinations of options.

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is operating under a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Hazardous Waste Facility Permit (HWFP) for contact-handled (CH) transuranic (TRU) waste. The HWFP contains limitations on allowable emissions from waste disposed in the underground. This environmental performance standard imposed on the WIPP consists of limiting volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from emplaced waste to ensure protection of human health and the environment. The standard is currently met by tracking individual waste container headspace gas concentrations, which are determined by headspace gas sampling and analysis of CH TRU waste containers. The WIPP is seeking a HWFP modification to allow the disposal of remote-handled (RH) TRU waste. Because RH TRU waste is limited to approximately 5% of the waste volume and is emplaced in the disposal room walls, it is possible to bound the potential RH TRU waste contribution to VOC emissions using conservative upper bounds. These conservative upper bounds were developed as an alternative to RH TRU waste canister headspace gas sampling and analysis. The methodology used to perform the calculations used to evaluate VOC emissions from emplaced RH TRU waste canisters applied the same equations as those used to evaluate VOC emissions in the …

The microcapsules enclosing two kinds of functional materials, inorganic ion-exchangers and organic extractants, were prepared by taking advantage of the high immobilization ability of alginate gel polymer. The fine powders of inorganic ion-exchanger and oil drops of extractant were kneaded with sodium alginate (NaALG) solution and the kneaded sol readily gelled in a salt solution of CaCl2, BaCl2 or HCl to form spherical gel particles. The uptake properties of various nuclides, 137Cs, 85Sr, 60Co, 88Y, 152Eu and 241Am, for thirty-four specimens of microcapsules in the presence of 10-1-10-4 M HNO3 were evaluated by the batch method. The distribution coefficient (Kd) of Cs+ above 103 cm3/g was obtained for the microcapsules enclosing CuFC or AMP. The Kd of Sr2+ around 102 cm3/g was obtained for the microcapsules containing clinoptilolite, antimonic acid, zeolite A, zeolite X or titanic acid. The microcapsules enclosing DEHPA exhibited relatively large Kd values of trivalent metal ions above 103 cm3/g; for example, the Kd values of Cs+, Sr2+, Co2+, Y3+, Eu3+ and Am3+ for a favorable microcapsule (CuFC/clinoptilolite/DEHPA/CaALG) were 1.1x104, 7.5x10, 1.1x10, 1.0x104, 1.4x104, 3.4x103 cm3/g, respectively. The uptake rates of Cs+, Y3+, Eu3+ and Am3+ for this microcapsule were rather fast; the uptake percentage above 90% …

Risk assessment and environmental impact analysis at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Hanford Site in Washington State has made significant progress in refining the strategy for using risk analysis to support closing of several hundred waste sites plus 149 single-shell tanks at the Hanford Site. A Single-Shell Tank System Closure Work Plan outlines the current basis for closing the single-shell tank systems. An analogous site approach has been developed to address closure of aggregated groups of similar waste sites. Because of the complexity, decision time frames, proximity of non-tank farm waste sites to tank farms, scale, and regulatory considerations, various projects are providing integrated assessments to support risk analyses and decision-making. This paper will describe the approach for using risk assessment to support waste site and tank closure decisions, the tools being developed, and how integration of these risk assessments and analyses are being performed to ad dress near-term and longterm decisions.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is considering the possible recommendation of a site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, for the potential development of a geologic repository for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. Consequences of hypothetical disruption of the Yucca Mountain site by igneous activity or human intrusion have been evaluated in the Yucca Mountain Science and Engineering Report (S&ER) (1), which presents technical information supporting the consideration of the possible site recommendation. Since completion of the S&ER, supplemental analyses have examined possible impacts of new information and alternative assumptions on the estimates of the consequences of these events. Specifically, analyses of the consequences of igneous disruption address uncertainty regarding: (1) the impacts of changes in the repository footprint and waste package spacing on the probability of disruption; (2) impacts of alternative assumptions about the appropriat e distribution of future wind speeds to use in the analysis; (3) effects of alternative assumptions about waste particle sizes; and (4) alternative assumptions about the number of waste packages damaged by igneous intrusion; and (5) alternative assumptions about the exposure pathways and the biosphere dose conversion factors used in the analysis. Additional supplemental analyses, supporting the Final Environmental Impact …

Characterization, packaging, transport, handling and disposal of remotely handled transuranic (RH TRU) waste at WIPP will be different than similar operations with contact handled transuranic (CH TRU) waste. This paper presents results of technical evaluations associated with the planned disposal of remotely handled transuranic waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).

In 1997, the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) Oak Ridge Operations (ORO) Office awarded the Management and Integration (M&I) contract for all five of their Oak Ridge Operations facilities to Bechtel Jacobs Company, LLC (BJC). This paper will focus on the success and challenges of several of the M&I projects at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The initial goals for BJC were to transition up to 93% of their staff to the subcontract community as they moved away from operations to ''integration.'' The perspectives of BJC and one of their Remedial Action/Decontamination & Decommissioning (RADD) subcontractors will be combined in this paper to share with others how ''partnering'' together was essential for success. Projects completed by Safety and Ecology Corporation (SEC) under their RADD subcontract will be used to illustrate the process and the challenges/successes to completion. These projects will include pond remediation, tank remediation, and building cleanup for reuse. All these projects were ''fixed price'' with defined milestones keyed into award fee for BJC and regulatory milestones for DOE. By working together to form integrated teams focused on site remediation without sacrificing safety, all milestones were met. This paper will discuss the following items associated with the …