Laser-plasma interactions (LPI) have been studied experimentally in high-temperature, high-energy density plasmas. The studies have been performed using the Omega laser at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE), Rochester, NY. Up to 10 TW of power was incident upon reduced-scale hohlraums, distributed in three laser beam cones. The hot hohlraums fill quickly with plasma. Late in the laser pulse, most of the laser energy is deposited at the laser entrance hole, where most of the LPI takes place. Due to the high electron temperature, the stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) spectrum extends well beyond {omega}{sub 0}/2, due to the Bohm-Gross shift. This high-temperature, high-energy density regime provides a unique opportunity to study LPI beyond inertial confinement fusion (ICF) conditions.

The thin windows for the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) liquid Absorber will be fabricated from 6061-T6-aluminum. The absorber and vacuum vessel thin windows are 300-mm in diameter and are 180 mm thick at the center. The windows are designed for an internal burst pressure of 0.68 MPa (100 psig) when warm. The MICE experiment design calls for changeable windows on the absorber, so a bolted window design was adopted. Welded windows offer some potential advantages over bolted windows when they are on the absorber itself. This report describes the bolted window and its seal. This report also describes an alternate window that is welded directly to the absorber body. The welded window design presented permits the weld to be ground off and re-welded. This report presents a thermal FEA analysis of the window seal-weld, while the window is being welded. Finally, the results of a test of a welded-window are presented.

The effects of Ce incorporation into ZrO2 on the catalyticperformance of Cu/ZrO2 for the hydrogenation of CO have beeninvestigated. A Ce0.3Zr0.7O2 solid solution was synthesized by forcedhydrolysis at low pH. After calcination at 873 K, XRD and Ramanspectroscopy characterization indicated that the Ce0.3Zr0.7O2 had a t''crystal structure. 1.2 wt percent Cu/Ce0.3Zr0.7O2 exhibited H2consumption peaks at low temperature (<473 K) during H2-TPRindicating a significant fraction (~; 70 percent) of Ce4+ is reduced toCe3+. 1.2 wt percent Cu/Ce0.3Zr0.7O2 is 2.7 times more active formethanol synthesis than 1.2 wt percent Cu/m-ZrO2 at 3.0 MPa attemperatures between 473 and 523 K and exhibits a higher selectivity tomethanol. In-situ infrared spectroscopy shows that, analogous toCu/m-ZrO2, the primary surface species on Cu/Ce0.3Zr0.7O2 during COhydrogenation are formate and methoxide species. A shift in the bandposition of the bridged methoxide species indicated that some of thesegroups were bonded to both Zr4+ and Ce3+ cations. For both catalysts, therate-limiting step for methanol synthesis is the reductive elimination ofmethoxide species. The higher rate of methanol synthesis onCu/Ce0.3Zr0.7O2 relative to Cu/m-ZrO2 was primarily due to a ~; 2.4 timeshigher apparent rate constant, kapp, for methoxide hydrogenation, whichis attributed to the higher surface concentration of H atoms on theformer catalyst. The increased …

An extensive study was conducted to determine isotopic ratios of nuclides in spent fuel that may be utilized to reveal historical characteristics of a nuclear reactor cycle. This forensic information is important to determine the origin of unknown nuclear waste. The distribution of isotopes in waste products provides information about a nuclear fuel cycle, even when the isotopes of uranium and plutonium are removed through chemical processing. Several different reactor cycles of the PWR, BWR, CANDU, and LMFBR were simulated for this work with the ORIGEN-ARP and ORIGEN 2.2 codes. The spent fuel nuclide concentrations of these reactors were analyzed to find the most informative isotopic ratios indicative of irradiation cycle length and reactor design. Special focus was given to long-lived and stable fission products that would be present many years after their creation. For such nuclides, mass spectrometry analysis methods often have better detection limits than classic gamma-ray spectroscopy. The isotopic ratios {sup 151}Sm/{sup 146}Sm, {sup 149}Sm/{sup 146}Sm, and {sup 244}Cm/{sup 246}Cm were found to be good indicators of fuel cycle length and are well suited for analysis by accelerator mass spectroscopy.

This report discusses the use of small cryogenic coolers for cooling the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) liquid cryogen absorbers. Since the absorber must be able contain liquid helium as well liquid hydrogen, the characteristics of the available 4.2 K coolers are used here. The issues associated with connecting two-stage coolers to liquid absorbers are discussed. The projected heat flows into an absorber and the cool-down of the absorbers using the cooler are presented. The warm-up of the absorber is discussed. Special hydrogen safety issues that may result from the use of a cooler on the absorbers are also discussed.

An experimental campaign to maximize radiation drive in small-scale hohlraums has been carried out at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore, CA USA) and at the OMEGA laser at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (Rochester, NY USA). The small-scale hohlraums, laser energy, laser pulse, and diagnostics were similar at both facilities but the geometries were very different. The NIF experiments used on-axis laser beams whereas the OMEGA experiments used 19 beams in three beam cones. In the cases when the lasers coupled well and produced similar radiation drive, images of x-ray burnthrough and laser deposition indicate the pattern of plasma filling is very different.

There are two competing effects of global land cover change on climate: an albedo effect which leads to heating when changing from grass/croplands to forest, and an evapotranspiration effect which tends to produce cooling. It is not clear which effect would dominate in a global land cover change scenario. We have performed coupled land/ocean/atmosphere simulations of global land cover change using the NCAR CAM3 atmospheric general circulation model. We find that replacement of current vegetation by trees on a global basis would lead to a global annual mean warming of 1.6 C, nearly 75% of the warming produced under a doubled CO{sub 2} concentration, while global replacement by grasslands would result in a cooling of 0.4 C. These results suggest that more research is necessary before forest carbon storage should be deployed as a mitigation strategy for global warming. In particular, high latitude forests probably have a net warming effect on the Earth's climate.

The authors present preliminary measurements of the CP asymmetry parameters in B{sup 0} {yields} K{sub S}{sup 0}K{sub S}{sup 0}K{sub S}{sup 0} decays, reconstructing two of the K{sub S}{sup 0} into {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -} and one into {pi}{sup 0}{pi}{sup 0}. In a sample of 227 M B{bar B} pairs collected by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II B Factory at SLAC, they find the CP parameters to be S = -0.25{sub -0.61}{sup +0.68}(stat) {+-} 0.05(syst) and C = 0.56{sub -0.43}{sup +0.34}(stat) {+-} 004(syst). Combining this result with the previous BABAR measurement, obtained from events with three K{sub S}{sup 0} decaying into {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}, they get S = -0.63{sub -0.28}{sup +0.32}(stat) {+-} 0.04(syst); C = -0.10 {+-} 0.25(stat) {+-} 0.05, (syst).

Tests of CPT and T symmetries and a limit on the difference between the decay rates of the two mass eigenstates in B{sup 0}-mesons oscillations are reported. The reconstructed B decays, comprising both CP and flavor eigenstates, are obtained from {Upsilon}(4S) {yields} B{bar B} decays collected by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B Factory at SLAC. Sensitivity projections for sidereal time modulation of the CPT-violating parameter based on an explicit and general CPT-breaking standard model extension are also discussed.

We experimentally demonstrate that application of laser smoothing schemes including smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD) and polarization smoothing (PS) increases the intensity range for efficient coupling of frequency doubled (527 nm) laser light to a long scalelength plasma with n{sub e}/n{sub cr} = 0.14 and T{sub e} = 2 keV.

The authors present a preliminary measurement of the time-dependent CP asymmetry for the neutral B-meson decay into the CP = +1 final state K{sub S}{sup 0}{pi}{sup 0}{pi}{sup 0}, with K{sub S}{sup 0} {yields} {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -} and {pi}{sup 0} {yields} {gamma}{gamma}. They use a sample of approximately 227 million B-meson pairs recorded at the {Upsilon}(4S) resonance by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II B-Factory at SLAC. From a maximum likelihood fit they extract the mixing-induced CP-violation parameter S{sub K{sub S}{sup 0}{pi}{sup 0}{pi}{sup 0}} = 0.84 {+-} 0.71(stat) {+-} 0.08(syst) and the direct CP-violation parameter C{sub K{sub S}{sup 0}}{pi}{sup 0}{pi}{sup 0} = 0.27 {+-} 0.52(stat) {+-} 0.13(syst), where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic.