In this section the results of HYDRA [1] design simulations will be discussed. The simulations were conducted in two dimensional, RZ geometry, with the fill tube on axis. The radiation transport was treated in the diffusion approximation using 15 energy groups. Opacities were calculated. The equations of state (EOS) for all materials used were from a combined analytic/Thomas-Fermi EOS which uses a modified Cowan model for the ion EOS, and uses a scaled Thomas-Fermi table for the electron EOS.

Smith River Rancheria (SRR), for some time, has had a strong commitment to attaining energy selfsufficiency, to reduce overall energy costs and concurrently initiate economic development within the community. Early on it was recognized that the development of an energy organization was important and for this reason was made part of the SRR's strategic review not only for economic development but also the reduction of energy costs. Towards this end, SRR retained Werner G. Buehler of W.G. Buehler & Associates to investigate the many phases or steps required to establish such an energy organization and determine, if in fact, it could benefit the Tribe. The basic phases are delineated as: (1) Identify potential sources of wholesale power and transmission paths; (2) Evaluating the various forms of energy organizations; (3) Determining the benefits (and disadvantages) of each form of organization; (4) Gathering costs to organize and operate the selected form or energy organization; (5) Performing an economic analysis of forming and operating an energy organization; and (6) Develop an implementation plan.

Conservation is playing a prominent role in the development of a farm bill by the 110th Congress. This report introduces some of the issues that are influencing the development of a conservation title. It then reviews the contents of the House-passed bill, H.R. 2419.

This is the final technical report on an Office of Basic Energy Sciences Grant, detailing the work accomplished on solving time-dependent operator equations of interest in nanoscale physics. A summary of the results and list of publications is given.

The destruction of ammonium by the semi-continuous addition of sodium nitrite during acidic evaporation can be achieved with a wide range of waste compositions. The efficiency of nitrite utilization for ammonium destruction was observed to vary from less than 20% to 60% depending on operating conditions. The effects of nitric acid concentration and nitrite addition rate are dominant factors that affect the efficiency of nitrite utilization for ammonium destruction. Reducing the acid concentration by performing acid recovery via steam stripping prior to performing nitrite destruction of ammonium will require more nitrite due to the low destruction efficiency. The scale-up of the baseline rate nitrite addition rate from the 100 mL to the 1600 gallon batch size has significant uncertainty and poses the risk of lower efficiency at the plant scale. Experience with plant scale processing will improve confidence in the application of nitrite destruction of ammonium to different waste streams.

This report introduces some of the issues that are influencing the development of a conservation title. It then reviews the contents of the House-passed bill, H.R. 2419. Some alternative proposals that the House considered are summarized in an appendix. The House-passed bill includes some elements of the alternative proposals (usually in modified form). This report is limited to the conservation title. However, conservation topics in recent farm bills have been increasingly addressed in other titles, and that trend continues with the House-passed version, which contains conservation provisions in the energy, forestry, and research titles, and others as well.

None

This report is on Climate Change: The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) Gets Ready for Kyoto.

This report considers the Agriculture and Related Agencies appropriations bill. The report compares and contrasts the Senate and House versions of the bill in terms of budgeting. Both bills provide 7.5 billion dollars less than FY2007.

This report analyzes the development of an industry, GTL, which may grow into a formidable competitor to LNG for worldwide natural gas supplies.

Fluidized Bed Steam Reforming (FBSR) processing of Sodium Bearing Waste simulants was performed in December 2006 by THOR{sup sm} Treatment Technologies LLC (TTT) The testing was performed at the Hazen Research Inc. (HRI) pilot plant facilities in Golden, CO. FBSR products from these pilot tests on simulated waste representative of the SBW at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC) were subsequently transferred to the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) for characterization and leach testing. Four as-received Denitration and Mineralization Reformer (DMR) granular/powder samples and four High Temperature Filter (HTF) powder samples were received by SRNL. FBSR DMR samples had been taken from the ''active'' bed, while the HTF samples were the fines collected as carryover from the DMR. The process operated at high fluidizing velocities during the mineralization test such that nearly all of the product collected was from the HTF. Active bed samples were collected from the DMR to monitor bed particle size distribution. Characterization of these crystalline powder samples shows that they are primarily Al, Na and Si, with > 1 wt% Ca, Fe and K. The DMR samples contained less than 1 wt% carbon and the HTF samples ranged from 13 to 26 wt% carbon. …

Lateral gene transfer (LGT) is an important adaptive mechanism among prokaryotic organisms. This mechanism is particularly important for the response of microorganisms to changing environmental conditions because it facilitates the transfer of a large number of genes and their rapid expression. Together the transferred genes promote rapid genetic and metabolic changes that may enhance survival to newly established and sometimes hostile environmental conditions. The goal of our project was to examine if and how LGT enhances microbial adaptation to toxic heavy metals in subsurface environments that had been contaminated by mixed wastes due to activities associated with the production of nuclear energy and weapons. This task has been accomplished by dividing the project to several sub-tasks. Thus, we: (1) Determined the level of resistance of subsurface bacterial isolates to several toxic metals, all identified as pollutants of concern in subsurface environments; (2) Designed, tested, and applied, a molecular approach that determined whether metal resistance genes had evolved by LGT among subsurface bacteria; and (3) Developed a DNA hybridization array for the identification of broad host range plasmids and of metal resistance plasmids. The results are briefly summarized below with references to published papers and manuscripts in preparation where details about …

None