The purpose of this calculation is to determine the quantity and significance of annual Monitored Geologic Repository (MGR) subsurface normal radiological releases due to neutron activation of air and silica dust in emplacement drifts. This calculation includes the following items: (1) Calculate activation of ventilation airflow through emplacement drifts to quantify radioactive gaseous releases; and (2) Calculate the bounding potential activated silica dust concentration and releases. The sources of silica dust may arise from air supply to emplacement drifts as well as host rock around emplacement drifts. For this calculation, the source of dust is conservatively assumed to be the host rock (Assumption 3.6), which is subject to long-term neutron exposure resulting in saturated radioactivity. The scope of this calculation is limited to releases from activated air and silica dust only, excluding natural radioactive releases such as radon or releases from defective waste packages (breached or contaminated). This work supports the repository ventilation system design and Preclosure Safety Analysis. This includes MGR items classified as Quality Level 1, for example, the Uncanistered Spent Nuclear Fuel Waste Package (CRWMS M&O [Civilian Radioactive Waste Management and Operation Contractor] 1999a, page 7). Therefore, this calculation is subject to the requirements of the ''Quality …

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the NNSA Livermore Site Office teamed up to prepare a site specific work smart standard setting requirements for preparation of safety basis documents for LLNL non-nuclear operations and facilities. This standard documents how all hazards (biological, chemical, explosive, industrial, and radiological) shall be evaluated, classified, analyzed, and controls developed. This standard was developed to evaluate hazards at the facility level to mesh with LLNL's ISM system for reviewing hazards at the activity level. This standard presents an approach to establishing safety basis for non-nuclear operations and activities, taking a graded approach based on the potential for impacts to the health of collocated workers and the public. Direct worker safety is covered by LLNL's work activity level reviews and requirements. This standard includes streamlined mechanisms for classifying hazards based upon the unmitigated potential for human health impacts. A review or practices at several private industries, government laboratories, and DOE complex sites provided a benchmark and comparison of safety analysis processes. These approaches were compared with LLNL's existing systems, leading to a determination that facility specific safety basis documents added value to a rapid authorization for new work activities in LLNL facilities. A process for hazard …

This report talks about The Chemical Equilibration Volume: Measuring the Degree of Thermalization

Electromigration during accelerated testing can induce large scale plastic deformation in Al interconnect lines as recently revealed by the white beam scanning X-ray microdiffraction. In the present paper, we provide a first quantitative analysis of the dislocation structure generated in individual micron-sized Al grains during an in-situ electromigration experiment. Laue reflections from individual interconnect grains show pronounced streaking after electric current flow. We demonstrate that the evolution of the dislocation structure during electromigration is highly inhomogeneous and results in the formation of unpaired randomly distributed dislocations as well as geometrically necessary dislocation boundaries. Approximately half of all unpaired dislocations are grouped within the walls. The misorientation created by each boundary and density of unpaired individual dislocations is determined.

An authorized budget was unavailable during this first 3-month working period of this project. Our ability to use the $100K that DOE had dedicated to the project was frustrated by the internal problem of getting an account number issued to bill our expenses to. This has delayed the initiation of a portion of the tasks to be performed. However, enough has been accomplished to allow the project to meet the first years planting goals. This will also allow the initiation of several start-up activities that could not have been possible without established tree plantations.

Pruet Production Co. and the Center for Sedimentary Basin Studies at the University of Alabama, in cooperation with Texas A&M University, Mississippi State University, University of Mississippi, and Wayne Stafford and Associates are undertaking a focused, comprehensive, integrated and multidisciplinary study of Upper Jurassic Smackover carbonates (Class II Reservoir), involving reservoir characterization and 3-D modeling and an integrated field demonstration project at Womack Hill Oil Field Unit, Choctaw and Clarke Counties, Alabama, Eastern Gulf Coastal Plain. The principal objectives of the project are: increasing the productivity and profitability of the Womack Hill Field Unit, thereby extending the economic life of this Class II Reservoir and transferring effectively and in a timely manner the knowledge gained and technology developed from this project to producers who are operating other domestic fields with Class II Reservoirs. The principal research efforts for Year 3 of the project have been recovery technology analysis and recovery technology evaluation. The research focus has primarily been on well test analysis, 3-D reservoir simulation, microbial core experiments, and the decision to acquire new seismic data for the Womack Hill Field area. Although Geoscientific Reservoir Characterization and 3-D Geologic Modeling have been completed and Petrophysical and Engineering Characterization and Microbial …

A test method, the Tensile Brazil Nut Sandwich (TBNS) specimen, was developed to measure mixed-mode interfacial toughness of bonded materials. Interfacial toughness measured by this technique is compared to the interfacial toughness of thin film adhesive coatings using a nanoindentation technique. The interfacial toughness of solvent-cast and melt-spun adhesive thin films is compared and found to be similar. Finally, the Johnson-Kendall-Roberts (JKR) technique is used to evaluate the cleanliness of aluminum substrates.

Conditions were optimized for the first plant-scale dissolution of an aluminum-containing nuclear material without using mercury as a catalyst. This nuclear material was a homogeneous mixture of plutonium oxide and aluminum metal that had been compounded for use as the core matrix in Mark 42 nuclear fuel. Because this material had later failed plutonium distribution specifications, it was rejected for use in the fabrication of Mark 42 fuel tubes, and was stored at the Savannah River Site (SRS) awaiting disposition. This powder-like material was composed of a mixture of approximately 80 percent aluminum and 11 percent plutonium. Historically, aluminum-clad spent nuclear fuels [13] have been dissolved using a mercuric nitrate catalyst in a nitric acid (HNO3) solution to facilitate the dissolution of the bulk aluminum cladding. Developmental work at SRS indicated that the plutonium oxide/aluminum compounded matrix could be dissolved without mercury. Various mercury-free conditions were studied to evaluate the rate of dissolution of the Mark 42 compact material and to assess the corrosion rate to the stainless steel dissolver. The elimination of mercury from the dissolution process fit with waste minimization and industrial hygiene goals to reduce the use of mercury in the United States. The mercury-free dissolution technology …

The long term goals of this research were to define the substrate oxidation pathways, the electron transport mechanisms, and the modes of energy conservation employed during the dissimilatory oxidation of sulfur practiced by various species of the thiobacilli. Specific adhesion of the thiobacilli to elemental sulfur was studied by electrical impedance, dynamic light scattering, laser Doppler velocimetry, and optical trapping methods. The conclusion is that the thiobacilli appear to express specific receptors that enable the bacteria to recognize and adhere to insoluble sulfur. The enzyme tetrathionate oxidase was purified from two species of the thiobacilli. Extensive structural and functional studies were conducted on adenosine 5'-phosphosulfate reductase purified from cell-free extracts of Thiobacillus denitrificans. The kinetic mechanism of rhodanese was studied.