The need to provide more accurate property information on U-Mo fuel alloys to reactor operators, modelers, researchers, fabricators, and regulators increases as success of the RERTR program continues. This presentation will provide an overview of fresh fuel U-Mo characterization activities on monolithic fuel occurring at the Idaho National Laboratory. The overview will particularly be focused on properties available through current and previous research, and also on the type of information still needed. The presentation will deal with mechanical, physical, and microstructural properties in terms of both integrated and separate effects. Appropriate discussion in terms of fabrication characteristics, impurities, thermodynamic response, and the effects on the topic areas will be provided, along with a brief background on the characterization techniques being used or being developed to obtain the information. Furthermore, efforts to measure similar characteristics as a function of irradiation conditions and determine end-of-life observations with beginning-of-life behavior will be discussed.

Study compares the prices of E85 and regular gasoline nationally and regionally over time for one year.

In order to meet the 2010-2020 DOE Fossil Energy goals for Advanced Power Systems, future oxy-fuel and hydrogen-fired turbines will need to be operated at higher temperatures for extended periods of time, in environments that contain substantially higher moisture concentrations in comparison to current commercial natural gas-fired turbines. Development of modified or advanced material systems, combined with aerothermal concepts are currently being addressed in order to achieve successful operation of these land-based engines. To support the advanced turbine technology development, the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has initiated a research program effort in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh (UPitt), and West Virginia University (WVU), working in conjunction with commercial material and coating suppliers as Howmet International and Coatings for Industry (CFI), and test facilities as Westinghouse Plasma Corporation (WPC) and Praxair, to develop advanced material and aerothermal technologies for use in future oxy-fuel and hydrogen-fired turbine applications. Our program efforts and recent results are presented.

This document is a compilation of coating and characterization data for the AGR-3/4 designed-to-fail (DTF) particles. The DTF coating is a high density, high anisotropy pyrocarbon coating of nominal 20 {micro}m thickness that is deposited directly on the kernel. The purpose of this coating is to fail early in the irradiation, resulting in a controlled release of fission products which can be analyzed to provide data on fission product transport. A small number of DTF particles will be included with standard TRISO driver fuel particles in the AGR-3 and AGR-4 compacts. The ORNL Coated Particle Fuel Development Laboratory 50-mm diameter fluidized bed coater was used to coat the DTF particles. The coatings were produced using procedures and process parameters that were developed in an earlier phase of the project as documented in 'Summary Report on the Development of Procedures for the Fabrication of AGR-3/4 Design-to-Fail Particles', ORNL/TM-2008/161. Two coating runs were conducted using the approved coating parameters. NUCO425-06DTF was a final process qualification batch using natural enrichment uranium carbide/uranium oxide (UCO) kernels. After the qualification run, LEU04-02DTF was produced using low enriched UCO kernels. Both runs were inspected and determined to meet the specifications for DTF particles in section 5 …

A new luminescence beam profile monitor is realized in the polarized hydrogen gas jet target at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) facility. In addition to the spin polarization of the proton beam being routinely measured by the hydrogen gas jet, the luminescence produced by beam-hydrogen excitation leads to a strong Balmer series lines emission. A selected hydrogen Balmer line is spectrally filtered and imaged to produce the transverse RHIC proton beam shape with unprecedented details on the RHIC beam profile. Alternatively, when the passage of the high energy RHIC gold ion beam excited only the residual gas molecules in the beam path, sufficient ion beam induced luminescence is produced and the transverse gold ion beam profile is obtained. The measured transverse beam sizes and the calculated emittances provide an independent confirmation of the RHIC beam characteristics and to verify the emittance conservation along the RHIC accelerator. This optical beam diagnostic technique by making use of the beam induced fluorescence from injected or residual gas offers a truly noninvasive particle beam characterization, and provides a visual observation of proton and heavy ion beams. Combined with a longitudinal bunch measurement system, a 3-dimensional spatial particle beam profile can be reconstructed tomographically.

Early experiences with energy savings certificates (ESCs) have revealed both their merit and the challenges associated with them. In the United States, there has been little activity to date, so any lessons must be drawn from experiences in Italy, the United Kingdom (UK), France, and elsewhere. The staying power of European examples, particularly in Italy, demonstrates that ESCs can help initiate more efficiency projects. Although a robust market for renewable energy certificates (RECs) has emerged in both the voluntary and policy compliance contexts in the United States, ESCs have yet to gain significant traction. This report looks at the opportunity presented by ESCs, the unique challenges they bring, a comparison with RECs that can inform expectations about ESC market development, and the solutions and best practices early ESC market experience have demonstrated. It also examines whether there are real market barriers that have kept ESCs from being adopted and what structural features are necessary to develop effective trading programs.

Simulations of the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) Chemical Processing Cell (CPC) vessels were performed as part of the ongoing investigation into catalytic hydrogen generation. Rhodium, ruthenium, and mercury have been identified as the principal elemental factors affecting the peak hydrogen generation rate in the DWPF Sludge Receipt and Adjustment Tank (SRAT) for a given acid addition. The primary goal of this study is to identify any significant interactions between the three factors. Noble metal concentrations were similar to recent sludge batches. Rh ranged from 0.0026-0.013% and Ru ranged from 0.010-0.050% in the dried sludge solids, while initial Hg ranged from 0.5-2.5 wt%. An experimental matrix was developed to ensure that the existence of statistically significant two-way interactions could be determined without confounding of the main effects with the two-way interaction effects. The nominal matrix design consisted of twelve SRAT cycles. Testing included: a three factor (Rh, Ru, and Hg) study at two levels per factor (eight runs), two duplicate midpoint runs, and two additional replicate runs to assess reproducibility away from the midpoint. Midpoint testing can identify potential quadratic effects from the three factors. A single sludge simulant was used for all tests. Acid addition was kept effectively constant …

Lack of aspen (Populus tremuloides) recruitment and canopy replacement of aspen stands that grow on the edges of grasslands on the low-elevation elk (Cervus elaphus) winter range of Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) in Colorado has been a cause of concern for more than 70 years (Packard, 1942; Olmsted, 1979; Stevens, 1980; Hess, 1993; R.J. Monello, T.L. Johnson, and R.G. Wright, Rocky Mountain National Park, 2006, written commun.). These aspen stands are a significant resource since they are located close to the park's road system and thus are highly visible to park visitors. Aspen communities are integral to the ecological structure of montane and subalpine landscapes because they contain high native species richness of plants, birds, and butterflies (Chong and others, 2001; Simonson and others, 2001; Chong and Stohlgren, 2007). These low-elevation, winter range stands also represent a unique component of the park's plant community diversity since most (more than 95 percent) of the park's aspen stands grow in coniferous forest, often on sheltered slopes and at higher elevations, while these winter range stands are situated on the low-elevation ecotone between the winter range grasslands and some of the park's drier coniferous forests.

The objective of this investigation is to develop a shear punch testing (SPT) procedure and standardize it to evaluate the mechanical properties of irradiated fuels in a hot-cell so that the tensile behavior can be predicted using small volumes of material and at greatly reduced irradiation costs. This is highly important in the development of low-enriched uranium fuels for nuclear research and test reactors. The load-displacement data obtained using SPT can be interpreted in terms of and correlated with uniaxial mechanical properties. In order to establish a correlation between SPT and tensile data, sub-size tensile and microhardness testing were performed on U-Mo alloys. In addition, efforts are ongoing to understand the effect of test parameters (such as specimen thickness, surface finish, punch-die clearance, crosshead velocity and carbon content) on the measured mechanical properties, in order to rationalize the technique, prior to employing it on a material of unknown strength.

Evaluating spatial and temporal trends in contaminant residues in Puget Sound fish and macroinvertebrates are the objectives of the Puget Sound Ambient Monitoring Program (PSAMP). In a cooperative effort between the ENVironmental inVESTment group (ENVVEST) and Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, additional biota samples were collected during the 2007 PSAMP biota survey and analyzed for chemical residues and stable isotopes of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N). Approximately three specimens of each species collected from Sinclair Inlet, Georgia Basin, and reference locations in Puget Sound were selected for whole body chemical analysis. The muscle tissue of specimens selected for chemical analyses were also analyzed for δ13C and δ15N to provide information on relative trophic level and food sources. This data report summarizes the chemical residues for the 2007 PSAMP fish and macro-invertebrate samples. In addition, six Spiny Dogfish (Squalus acanthias) samples were necropsied to evaluate chemical residue of various parts of the fish (digestive tract, liver, embryo, muscle tissue), as well as, a weight proportional whole body composite (WBWC). Whole organisms were homogenized and analyzed for silver, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, nickel, lead, zinc, mercury, 19 polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners, PCB homologues, percent moisture, percent lipids, δ13C, and δ15N.

This paper presents an evaluation methodology for proliferation resistance and physical protection (PR&PP) of Generation IV nuclear energy systems (NESs). For a proposed NES design, the methodology defines a set of challenges, analyzes system response to these challenges, and assesses outcomes. The challenges to the NES are the threats posed by potential actors (proliferant States or sub-national adversaries). The characteristics of Generation IV systems, both technical and institutional, are used to evaluate the response of the system and determine its resistance against proliferation threats and robustness against sabotage and terrorism threats. The outcomes of the system response are expressed in terms of six measures for PR and three measures for PP, which are the high-level PR&PP characteristics of the NES. The methodology is organized to allow evaluations to be performed at the earliest stages of system design and to become more detailed and more representative as design progresses. Uncertainty of results are recognized and incorporated into the evaluation at all stages. The results are intended for three types of users: system designers, program policy makers, and external stakeholders. Particular current relevant activities will be discussed in this regard. The methodology has been illustrated in a series of demonstration and case …

Clean surfaces and those with adsorbates have been investigated to obtain electronic and atomic structure data. The various modes of synchrotron radiation (SR) photoemission spectroscopy (PES) have been performed mostly beam line 7.0.1 at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) in Berkeley, CA and some at the Synchrotron Radiation Center (SRC) in Madison, WI. These were done on silicon, carbon, and group III nitrides.

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Recent developments in the field of anisotropic flow in nuclear collision are reviewed. The results from the top AGS energy to the top RHIC energy are discussed with emphasis on techniques, interpretation, and uncertainties in the measurements.

We identify an invariant light-front coordinate {zeta} which allows the separation of the dynamics of quark and gluon binding from the kinematics of constituent spin and internal orbital angular momentum. The result is a single-variable light-front Schroedinger equation for QCD which determines the eigenspectrum and the light-front wavefunctions of hadrons for general spin and orbital angular momentum. This frame-independent light-front wave equation is equivalent to the equations of motion which describe the propagation of spin-J modes on anti-de Sitter (AdS) space. Light-front holography is a remarkable feature of AdS/CFT: it allows hadronic amplitudes in the AdS fifth dimension to be mapped to frame-independent light-front wavefunctions of hadrons in physical space-time, thus providing a relativistic description of hadrons at the amplitude level. In principle, the model can be systematically improved by diagonalizing the full QCD light-front Hamiltonian on the AdS/QCD basis. Quark and gluon hadronization can be computed at the amplitude level by convoluting the off-shell T matrix calculated from the QCD light-front Hamiltonian with the hadronic light-front wavefunctions. We also note the distinction between static observables such as the probability distributions computed from the square of the light-front wavefunctions versus dynamical observables such as the structure functions and the leading-twist …

Effects of stray electrons are a main factor limiting performance of many accelerators. Because heavy-ion fusion (HIF) accelerators will operate in regimes of higher current and with walls much closer to the beam than accelerators operating today, stray electrons might have a large, detrimental effect on the performance of an HIF accelerator. A primary source of stray electrons is electrons generated when halo ions strike the beam pipe walls. There is some research on these types of secondary electrons for the HIF community to draw upon, but this work is missing one crucial ingredient: the effect of grazing incidence. The overall goal of this project was to develop the numerical tools necessary to accurately model the effect of grazing incidence on the behavior of halo ions in a HIF accelerator, and further, to provide accurate models of heavy ion stopping powers with applications to ICF, WDM, and HEDP experiments.

NERSC's Global File system (NGF), accessible from all compute systems at NERSC, holds files and data from many scientific projects. A full backup of this file system to our High Performance Storage System (HPSS) is performed periodically. Disk storage usage by projects at NERSC has grown seven fold over a two year period, from ~;;20TB in June 2006 to ~;;140 TB in June 2008. The latest full backup took about 13 days and more than 200 T10k tape cartridges (.5 TB capacity). Petabyte file systems are becoming a reality in the next few years and the existing utilities are already strained in handling backup tasks.

Solar Resource Assessment Workshop, Denver CO, Oct 29, 2008 presentation: NREL's FY09 CSP Resource Assessment Plans

We present a search for high-mass resonances decaying into two leptons of different flavor: e{mu}, e{tau}, and {mu}{tau}. These resonances are predicted by several models beyond the standard model, such as the R-parity-violating MSSM. The search is based on 1 fb{sup -1} of data collected at the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF II) in proton anti-proton collisions. Our observations are consistent with the standard model expectations. The results are interpreted to set 95% C.L. upper limits on {sigma} x BR of {tilde {nu}}{sub {tau}} {yields} e{mu}, e{tau}, {mu}{tau}.

One of the goals of the low energy 60 MeV section of the HINS H{sup -} linac [1] is to demonstrate that a total of {approx}40 RF cavities can be powered by a single 2.5 MW, 325 MHz klystron. This requires individual vector modulators at the input of each RF cavity to independently adjust the amplitude and phase of the RF input signal during the 3.5 ms RF pulse. Two versions of vector modulators have been developed; a 500 kW device for the radiofrequency quadrupole (RFQ) and a 75 kW modulator for the RF cavities. High power tests showing the vector modulator phase and amplitude responses will be presented.

Advances in communications and control technology, the strengthening of the Internet, and the growing appreciation of the urgency to reduce demand side energy use are motivating the development of improvements in both energy efficiency and demand response (DR) systems. This paper provides a framework linking continuous energy management and continuous communications for automated demand response (Auto-DR) in various times scales. We provide a set of concepts for monitoring and controls linked to standards and procedures such as Open Automation Demand Response Communication Standards (Open Auto-DR or OpenADR). Basic building energy science and control issues in this approach begin with key building components, systems, end-uses and whole building energy performance metrics. The paper presents a framework about when energy is used, levels of services by energy using systems, granularity of control, and speed of telemetry. DR, when defined as a discrete event, requires a different set of building service levels than daily operations. We provide examples of lessons from DR case studies and links to energy efficiency.

Solar Resource Assessment Workshop, Denver CO, Oct 29, 2008 presentation: Uncertainty for Satellite and Station Solar Data in the Updated NSRDB,

Mars appears to have experienced little compositional differentiation of primitive lithosphere, and thus much of the surface of Mars is covered by mafic lavas. On Earth, mafic and ultramafic rocks present in ophiolites, oceanic crust and upper mantle that have been obducted onto land, are therefore good analogs for Mars. The characteristic mineralogy, aqueous geochemistry, and microbial communities of cold-water alkaline springs associated with these mafic and ultramafic rocks represent a particularly compelling analog for potential life-bearing systems. Serpentinization, the reaction of water with mafic minerals such as olivine and pyroxene, yields fluids with unusual chemistry (Mg-OH and Ca-OH waters with pH values up to {approx}12), as well as heat and hydrogen gas that can sustain subsurface, chemosynthetic ecosystems. The recent observation of seeps from pole-facing crater and canyon walls in the higher Martian latitudes supports the hypothesis that even present conditions might allow for a rockhosted chemosynthetic biosphere in near-surface regions of the Martian crust. The generation of methane within a zone of active serpentinization, through either abiogenic or biogenic processes, could account for the presence of methane detected in the Martian atmosphere. For all of these reasons, studies of terrestrial alkaline springs associated with mafic and ultramafic rocks …

We report measurements of hadronic final states produced in e{sup +}e{sup -} annihilations from the BABAR and Belle experiments. In particular, we present cross sections measured in several different processes, including two-photon physics, Initial-State Radiation, and exclusive hadron productions at center-of-mass energies near 10.58 GeV. Results are compared with theoretical predictions.