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

At the Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina, there are approximately 40 million gallons of legacy High Level Waste stored in large capacity sub-surface tanks. Twelve of these tanks are single-containment, non-conforming tanks with leaks. These tanks were built in the 1950s. Some of these tanks contain sludge heels and are being considered for near-term removal efforts and vitrification. Currently, only mechanical methods (i.e., pumps) are used to remove the sludge waste with varying degrees of success. To provide for additional levels of removal, chemically-aided techniques are being considered. The objective of the was to collect and evaluate information available on chemical-based methods for removing residual solids from the Site's waste tanks. As part of this study, the team was requested to develop recommendations for chemical treatments to remove residual heels (primarily sludge). Ideally, one agent alone would be efficient at dissolving all residual tank heels and yet satisfy all safety and process concerns. No such chemical cleaning agent was found. The cleaning agents identified from the literature, included oxalic acid, a mixture of oxalic acid and citric acid, a combination of oxalic acid with hydrogen peroxide, nitric acid, formic acid, and organics. A criteria matrix for evaluating the …

The Toolkit for Advanced Optimization (TAO) focuses on the design and implementation of component-based optimization software for the solution of large-scale optimization applications on high-performance architectures. Their approach is motivated by the scattered support for parallel computations and lack of reuse of linear algebra software in currently available optimization software. The TAO design allows the reuse of toolkits that provide lower-level support (parallel sparse matrix data structures, preconditioners, solvers), and thus they are able to build on top of these toolkits instead of having to redevelop code. The advantages in terms of efficiency and development time are significant. The TAO design philosophy uses object-oriented techniques of data and state encapsulation, abstract classes, and limited inheritance to create a flexible optimization toolkit. This chapter provides a short introduction to the design philosophy by describing the objectives in TAO and the importance of this design. Since a major concern in the TAO project is the performance and scalability of optimization algorithms on large problems, they also present some performance results.

Press release regarding the launching of Brilliant Magazine by Brilliance Media in Austin, Texas.

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

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

Daily newspaper from Chickasha, 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.

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

Computational studies and experimental measurements of plasma injection into a Malmberg-Penning trap reveal that the number of trapped particles can be an order of magnitude higher than predicted by a simple estimates based on a ballistic trapping model. Enhanced trapping is associated with a rich nonlinear dynamics generated by the space-charge forces of the evolving trapped electron density. A particle-in-cell simulation is used to identify the physical mechanisms that lead to the increase in trapped electrons. The simulations initially show strong two-stream interactions between the electrons emitted from the cathode and those reflected off the end plug of the trap. This is followed by virtual cathode oscillations near the injection region. As electrons are trapped, the initially hollow longitudinal phase-space is filled, and the transverse radial density profile evolves so that the plasma potential matches that of the cathode. Simple theoretical arguments are given that describe the different dynamical regimes. Good agreement is found between simulation and theory.

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

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

In order to make space in the Savannah River Site Tank farm, the Tank 48H waste must be removed. Therefore, the Tank 48H waste must be processed to reduce or eliminate levels of nitrates, nitrites, and sodium tetraphenyl borate in order to reduce impacts of these species before it is vitrified. Fluidized Bed Steam Reforming is being considered as a candidate technology for destroying the nitrates and the NaTPB prior to melting. The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory was tasked to perform a proof-of-concept steam reforming test to evaluate the technical feasibility for pretreating the Tank 48H waste. The crucible (bench scale) tests conducted at the Savannah River Technology Center were initiated to optimize and augment the parameters subsequently tested at the pilot scale at INEEL. The purposes of the current study, organic destruction and downstream processing of T48H waste slurry were fulfilled. TPB was destroyed in all 19 samples tested with the simulated FB SR process at operational temperatures 650-725 degrees Celsius. A test temperature of 650 degrees Celsius optimized NO3 destruction during the formation of an Na2CO3 FBSR product. A test temperature of 725 degrees Celsius optimized NO3 destruction during formation of a sodium silicate FBSR product. …

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

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In some plasma confinement systems (e.g., field-reversed configurations and levitated dipoles) the confinement is provided by a closed-field-line poloidal magnetic field. We consider the influence of the magnetic field perturbations on the structure of the magnetic field in such systems and find that the effect of perturbations is quite different from that in the systems with a substantial toroidal field. In particular, even infinitesimal perturbations can, in principle, lead to large radial excursions of the field lines in FRCs and levitated dipoles. Under such circumstances, particle drifts and particle collisions may give rise to significant neoclassical transport. Introduction of a weak regular toroidal magnetic field reduces radial excursions of the field lines and neoclassical transport.

The study of the effects of contacting a simulated salt solution spiked with uranium, plutonium, and neptunium with Tank 50H solids. General findings include: There is no evidence for interaction between Tank 50H solids and uranium from the spiked salt solution. Lack of uranium removal may reflect prior removal of uranium. There is evidence for interaction between Tank 50H solids with plutonium and neptunium as evidenced by loss of these two actinides from the salt solution. The amount of plutonium and neptunium lost from solution increased with an increase in the quantity of Tank 50H solids for a fixed simulant volume. The removal of plutonium and neptunium fit typical sorption isotherms allowing development of loading curves for estimating maximum solids loading. The maximum loading capacities for plutonium and neptunium in the simulants are, respectively, 2.01 and 4.48 micrograms per gram of Tank 50H solids. The oxalate in the Tank 50H solids is not directly responsible for the loss of plutonium and neptunium from the salt solution. The removal of plutonium and neptunium may be attributed to other minor components of the Tank 50H solids. We recommend additional testing to identify the component responsible for the plutonium and neptunium removal.

In this study, glasses are designed or selected to assess the impacts of U3O8 and ThO2 on various glass properties of interest. More specifically, glasses were fabricated in which Th replaced U (on a molar basis) to assess the impact of ThO2 on the durability response (as measured by the Product Consistency Test ) and viscosity. Based on the measured normalized boron release values, the results indicated that the Th-enriched glasses were less durable than their Ubased counterparts. Although molar substitution of Th or U had a negative impact, all of the glasses were more durable than the Environmental Assessment glass - the highest release being 7.39 g/L as compared to 16.695 g/L as reported for EA. With respect to model predictions, THERMOTM predicts that a molar substitution of thorium for uranium should increase glass durability. However, these data suggest that the signs and/or magnitudes of the Gi values associated with U3O8 and ThO2 are inconsistent with the theory on which the current model is based for the limited number of glasses tested. It should be noted that these glasses cover a narrow compositional region. With respect to the impact on viscosity, the data suggest that there may be a …

Monthly student newspaper from St. Philip's College in San Antonio, Texas that includes campus news along with advertising.

Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) has achieved unparalleled control in the integration of semiconductors at the nanometer. These advances were made through the use of epitaxy, epitaxial stabilization, and a combination of composition-control techniques including adsorption-controlled growth and RHEED-based composition control that we have developed, understood, and utilized for the growth of oxides. Also key was extensive characterization (utilizing RHEED, four-circle x-ray diffraction, AFM, TEM, and electrical characterization techniques) in order to study growth modes, optimize growth conditions, and probe the structural, dielectric, and ferroelectric properties of the materials grown. The materials that we have successfully engineered include titanates (PbTiO3, Bi4Ti3O12), tantalates (SrBi2Ta2O9), and niobates (SrBi2Nb2O9); layered combinations of these perovskite-related materials (Bi4Ti3O12-SrTiO3 and Bi4Ti3O12-PbTiO3 Aurivillius phases and metastable PbTiO3/SrTiO3 and BaTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices), and new metastable phases (Srn+1TinO3n+1 Ruddlesden-Popper phases). The films were grown by reactive MBE and pulsed laser deposition (PLD). Many of these materials are either new or have been synthesized with the highest perfection ever reported. The controlled synthesis of such layered oxide heterostructures offers great potential for tailoring the superconducting, ferroelectric, and dielectric properties of these materials. These properties are important for energy technologies.

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

Interview with Larry Aldrich, a U.S. Air Force veteran who served in England during the Iraqi war. Aldrich describes his experiences when he enlisted including his training and work as a guard at a nuclear weapons storage facility and later, overseas at RAF Lakenheath.

Monthly report written by the Texas Daily Newspaper Association's (TDNA's) office manager, Darla Thompson, to Phil Berkebile providing a summary of revenues and account balances, programs, meetings, and other activities in the office during the previous month.