The invention provides for a method for removing elemental mercury from a fluid, the method comprising irradiating the mercury with light having a wavelength of approximately 254 nm. The method is implemented in situ at various fuel combustion locations such as power plants and municipal incinerators.

We describe Merlot, a system for delivery of digital imagery over high speed networks. We describe various use cases, the client/server interaction, and the image and network codecs. We also describe some possible applications using Merlot and future work.

Millions of people suffering from diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration are legally blind due to the loss of photoreceptor function. Fortunately a large percentage of the neural cells connected to the photoreceptors remain viable, and electrical stimulation of these cells has been shown to result in visual perception. These findings have generated worldwide efforts to develop a retinal prosthesis device, with the hope of restoring vision. Advances in microfabrication, integrated circuits, and wireless technologies provide the means to reach this challenging goal. This dissertation describes the development of innovative silicone-based microfabrication techniques for producing an implantable microelectrode array. The microelectrode array is a component of an epiretinal prosthesis being developed by a multi-laboratory consortium. This array will serve as the interface between an electronic imaging system and the human eye, directly stimulating retinal neurons via thin film conducting traces. Because the array is intended as a long-term implant, vital biological and physical design requirements must be met. A retinal implant poses difficult engineering challenges due to the size of the intraocular cavity and the delicate retina. Not only does it have to be biocompatible in terms of cytotoxicity and degradation, but it also has to be structurally …

This revision of PNNL-13895 is an updated version of the original document. The changes in this document include the addition of Kd data for iodide and uranium that became available during fiscal year 2003. Supplementary data are also included regarding the sediment and solution characteristic used in the studies. The original document compiles in a single source the Kd values measured with Hanford sediment for radionuclides and toxic compounds that have the greatest potential for driving risk to human health and safety in the vadose zone and groundwater at the Hanford Site.

This document presents the vision for Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) for the next five years, and a roadmap for implementing that vision. Brookhaven is a multidisciplinary science-based laboratory operated for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), supported primarily by programs sponsored by the DOE's Office of Science. As the third-largest funding agency for science in the U.S., one of the DOE's goals is ''to advance basic research and the instruments of science that are the foundations for DOE's applied missions, a base for U.S. technology innovation, and a source of remarkable insights into our physical and biological world, and the nature of matter and energy'' (DOE Office of Science Strategic Plan, 2000 http://www.osti.gov/portfolio/science.htm). BNL shapes its vision according to this plan.

An immediate EM science need is a reliable kinetic model that predicts long-term waste glass performance. A framework for which the kinetics of mineral-solution reactions can be used to interpret complex silicate glass properties is required to accurately describe the current and future behavior of glasses as synthetic monoliths or natural analogs. Reaction rates and mechanisms are essential elements in deciphering mineral/material reactivity trends within a compositional series or across a matrix of complex solution compositions. An essential place to start, and the goal of this research, is to quantify the reactivity of crystalline and amorphous SiO2 phases in the complex fluids of natural systems.

Last year's paper by Bell and Gray [1] examined past trends in high performance computing and asserted likely future directions based on market forces. While many of the insights drawn from this perspective have merit and suggest elements governing likely future directions for HPC, there are a number of points put forth that we feel require further discussion and, in certain cases, suggest alternative, more likely views. One area of concern relates to the nature and use of key terms to describe and distinguish among classes of high end computing systems, in particular the authors use of ''cluster'' to relate to essentially all parallel computers derived through the integration of replicated components. The taxonomy implicit in their previous paper, while arguable and supported by some elements of our community, fails to provide the essential semantic discrimination critical to the effectiveness of descriptive terms as tools in managing the conceptual space of consideration. In this paper, we present a perspective that retains the descriptive richness while providing a unifying framework. A second area of discourse that calls for additional commentary is the likely future path of system evolution that will lead to effective and affordable Petaflops-scale computing including the future role …

Over 16,700 hours of operational experience was gained for the Oxygen Transport Membrane (OTM) elements of the proposed SOFC/OTM zero-emission power generation concept. It was repeatedly demonstrated that OTMs with no additional oxidation catalysts were able to completely oxidize the remaining depleted fuel in a simulated SOFC anode exhaust at an O{sub 2} flux that met initial targets. In such cases, neither residual CO nor H{sub 2} were detected to the limits of the gas chromatograph (<10 ppm). Dried OTM afterburner exhaust streams contained up to 99.5% CO{sub 2}. Oxygen flux through modified OTMs was double or even triple that of the standard OTMs used for the majority of testing purposes. Both the standard and modified membranes in laboratory-scale and demonstration-sized formats exhibited stable performance over extended periods (2300 to 3500 hours or 3 to 5 months). Reactor contaminants, were determined to negatively impact OTM performance stability. A method of preventing OTM performance degradation was developed and proven to be effective. Information concerning OTM and seal reliability over extended periods and through various chemical and thermal shocks and cycles was also obtained. These findings were used to develop several conceptual designs for pilot (10 kWe) and commercial-scale (250 kWe) SOFC/OTM …

Studies of thermally emitted electron Bernstein waves (EBWs) on CDX-U and NSTX, via mode conversion (MC) to electromagnetic radiation, support the use of EBWs to measure the Te profile and provide local electron heating and current drive (CD) in overdense spherical torus plasmas. An X-mode antenna with radially adjustable limiters successfully controlled EBW MC on CDX-U and enhanced MC efficiency to {approx} 100%. So far the X-mode MC efficiency on NSTX has been increased by a similar technique to 40-50% and future experiments are focused on achieving * 80% MC. MC efficiencies on both machines agree well with theoretical predictions. Ray tracing and Fokker-Planck modeling for NSTX equilibria are being conducted to support the design of a 3 MW, 15 GHz EBW heating and CD system for NSTX to assist non-inductive plasma startup, current ramp up, and to provide local electron heating and CD in high beta NSTX plasmas.

Beam loss and emittance dilution during ramping from injection to collision energy is observed in the Tevatron, now in its collider run-II stage. It is well known that the sextupole (b2) components in the superconducting dipole magnets decay during the injection plateau and snap back rapidly at the start of the ramp. These so called dynamic effects, which were originally discovered in the Tevatron, are compensated with the chromaticity correctors, distributed around the ring. Imperfect control of the chromaticity during injection and snapback can contribute to the beam loss. Therefore a thorough investigation of the b2 compensation in the Tevatron was launched, including beam chromaticity measurements and offline magnetic measurements on Tevatron dipoles. This paper reports the status of this investigation. A companion paper describes in detail the results of the magnet measurements. This work was partly conducted as a collaboration between FNAL and CERN.

At the Fermilab Recycler Ring (RR), the antiproton (pbar) beam will be stored azimuthally in different segments created by barrier buckets. The beam in each segment may have widely varying intensities. They have developed a gated integrator system to measure the beam intensity in each of the barrier bucket. Here they discuss the design of the system and the results of beam measurements using the integrator.

We will discuss several methods for measuring the tunes in the Tevatron. These methods can be separated into three classes: active, passive and hybrid. In the active method, the beam is tickled in order to obtain a frequency response. In the passive method, a Schottky detector which uses a resonant stripline is used to measure the Schottky spectrum of the beam. In the hybrid method, we tickle the beam using kickers, or the Tevatron Electron Lens (TEL) in order to bring the tune signal above the noise floor of the Schottky detectors. An automatic tune fitting algorithm is also under development which allows us to measure the tune without human intervention.

One of the highest priority physics goals for the upgraded Tevatron experiments, CDF and D0, is the search for the Higgs boson. We present the initial results from both experiments, based on 40-90 pb{sup -1} integrated luminosity, of Higgs searches in several final states, including WH and ZH, H {yields} WW, and doubly-charged Higgs.

The authors report on high-dose irradiation studies performed with a 200 MeV proton beam on a 140 Mbit/s pixel-data serializer prototype realized in standard 0.25 micron CMOS technology. The data serializer was implemented recently for the BTeV pixel readout chip developed at Fermilab.

During the Run II era at Fermilab, the Recycler stores antiprotons at 8 GeV and the Main Injector accelerates the antiprotons and the protons from 8 GeV to 150 GeV for Tevatron injection. The Recycler injects antiprotons to the Main Injector in 2.5 MHz rf buckets. This report presents an acceleration scheme for the antiprotons that involves a slow ramp with initial 2.5 MHz acceleration and subsequent fast acceleration with 53 MHz rf system. Beam acceleration and rf manipulation with space charge and beam loading effects are simulated using the longitudinal simulation code ESME. Simulation suggests that one can expect about 15% emittance growth for the entire acceleration cycle with beam loading compensations. Preliminary experimental results with proton beam will also be presented.

Measurement of the effects of helium (from tritium decay) on the weldability of Types 304 and ITER Grade 316LN stainless steel demonstrated the inherent complexities in designing and conducting an experimental program using tritium-charged-and-aged materials to simulate the effects of irradiation-induced helium on weld behavior. Differences in microstructure, surface condition and alloy chemistry are known to play key roles in tritium absorption and distribution and thus have direct effects on the subsequent 3He production and distribution. The helium embrittlement cracking produced in 0.5 in. (12.7 mm) thick 304 and 316LN plates that were tritium-charged in the same container and subsequently welded with gas metal arc, low heat input weld overlays and gas tungsten arc stringer beads, varied markedly. For example, the porosity in the weld beads was much higher in the 304 plate than in the 316LN plate. Additionally, crack measurements from weld cross-sections revealed more extensive intergranular cracking in the heat-affected zones of welds on the 304 plate when compared to the 316LN plate. However, the differences between the two types of stainless steel may not be a result of differences in the resistance to helium embrittlement cracking, but may be due to initial tritium concentration differences developed in …

Surface water and energy fluxes are tightly coupled with CO2 exchanges between the ecosystem and atmosphere. Other surface-to-atmosphere trace-gas exchanges of interest in climate change research (e.g., N2O, CH4, C18OO, and H218O) are also strongly impacted by surface energy exchanges. Further, land-use change has large effects on the surface energy balance and therefore the exchanges of these trace gases. To investigate these issues at the regional scale we have coupled MM5 (Grell et al. 1995) with ISOLSM (Riley et al. 2002, Riley et al. 2003), a land-surface model based on LSM1 (Bonan 1995).

Mainly due to the method of chirped pulse amplification, laser intensities have grown remarkably during recent years. However, the attaining of very much higher powers is limited by the material properties of gratings. These limitations might be overcome through the use of plasma, which is an ideal medium for processing very high power and very high total energy. A plasma can be irradiated by a long pump laser pulse, carrying significant energy, which is then quickly depleted in the plasma by a short counterpropagating pulse. This counterpropagating wave effect has already been employed in Raman amplifiers using gases or plasmas at low laser power. Of particular interest here are the new effects which enter in high power regimes. These new effects can be employed so that one high-energy optical system can be used like a flashlamp in what amounts to pumping the plasma, and a second low-power optical system can be used to extract quickly the energy from the plasma and focus it precisely. The combined system can be very compact. Thus, focused intensities more than 10{sup 25} W/cm{sup 2} can be contemplated using existing optical elements. These intensities are several orders of magnitude higher than what is currently available …

The fission source convergence of a very loosely coupled array of 36 fuel subassemblies with slightly non-symmetric reflection is studied. The fission source converges very slowly from a uniform guess to the fundamental mode in which about 40% of the fissions occur in one corner subassembly. Eigenvalue and fission source estimates are analyzed using a set of statistical tests similar to those used in MCNP, including the ''drift-in-mean'' test and a new drift-in-mean test using a linear fit to the cumulative estimate drift, the Shapiro-Wilk test for normality, the relative error test, and the ''1/N'' test. The normality test does not detect a drifting eigenvalue or fission source. Applied to eigenvalue estimates, the other tests generally fail to detect an unconverged solution, but they are sometimes effective when evaluating fission source distributions. None of the test provides completely reliable indication of convergence, although they can detect nonconvergence.

In order to improve the hot corrosion resistance of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), an Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} overlay has been deposited on the surface of YSZ by electron-beam physical vapor deposition. Currently, hot corrosion tests were performed on the YSZ coatings with and without Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} overlay in molten salt mixture (Na{sub 2}SO{sub 4} + 0 {approx} 15wt%V{sub 2}O{sub 5}) at 950 C in order to investigate the effect of amount of vanadate on the hot corrosion behaviors. The results showed that the presence of in V{sub 2}O{sub 5} the molten salt exacerbates the degradation of both the monolithic YSZ coating and the composite YSZ/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} system. The formation of low-melting Na{sub 2}O-V{sub 2}O{sub 5}-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} liquid phase is responsible for degradation of the Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} overlay. The Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} overlay acts as a barrier against the infiltration of the molten salt into the YSZ coating during exposure to the molten salt mixture with <5wt% vanadate. In the next reporting period, we will use XPS and SIMS to study the interactions between alumina overlay and molten salt containing vanadate.

Summer temperatures in the Lower Snake River can be altered by releasing cold waters that originate from deep depths within Dworshak Reservoir. These cold releases are used to lower temperatures in the Clearwater and Lower Snake Rivers, and improve hydrodynamic and water quality conditions for migrating aquatic species. This project monitored the complex three-dimensional hydrodynamic and thermal conditions at the confluence of the Clearwater and Snake Rivers and the processes that led to stratification of Lower Granite Reservoir (LGR) during the late spring, summer, and fall of 2002. Hydrodynamic, water quality, and meteorological conditions around the reservoir were monitored at frequent intervals, and this effort is currently continuing in 2003. Monitoring of the reservoir is a multi-year endeavor, and this report spans only the first year of data collection. In addition to monitoring the LGR environment, a three-dimensional hydrodynamic and water quality model has also been applied. This model uses collected field data as boundary conditions and has been applied to the entire 2002 field season. Numerous data collection sites were within the model domain and serve as both calibration and validation locations for the numerical model. Errors between observed and simulated data vary in magnitude from location to location …

Laser damage of large fused silica optics initiates at imperfections. Possible initiation mechanisms are considered. We demonstrate that a model based on nanoparticle explosions is consistent with the observed initiation craters. Possible mechanisms for growth upon subsequent laser irradiation, including material modification and laser intensification, are discussed. Large aperture experiments indicate an exponential increase in damage size with number of laser shots. Physical processes associated with this growth and a qualitative explanation of self-accelerated growth is presented. Rapid growth necessitates damage growth mitigation techniques. Several possible mitigation techniques are mentioned, with special emphasis on CO{sub 2} processing. Analysis of material evaporation, crack healing, and thermally induced stress are presented.

This report documents results from a study carried out by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville for the Office of Public Transportation, Tennessee Department of Transportation. The study team was tasked with developing a process and a supporting methodology for estimating the benefits accruing to the State from the operation of state supported public transit services. The team was also tasked with developing forecasts of the future demands for these State supported transit services at five year intervals through the year 2020, broken down where possible to the local transit system level. Separate ridership benefits and forecasts were also requested for the State's urban and rural transit operations. Tennessee's public transit systems are subsidized to a degree by taxpayers. It is therefore in the public interest that assessments of the benefits of such systems be carried out at intervals, to determine how they are contributing to the well-being of the state's population. For some population groups within the State of Tennessee these transit services have become essential as a means of gaining access to workplaces and job training centers, to educational and health care facilities, as well as to shops, social functions and recreational sites.

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