Installations of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems have been growing at a rapid pace in recent years. In 2008, 5,948 MW of PV was installed globally, up from 2,826 MW in 2007, and was dominated by grid-connected applications. The United States was the world's third largest PV market in terms of annual capacity additions in 2008, behind Spain and Germany; 335 MW of PV was added in the U.S. in 2008, 293 MW of which came in the form of grid-connected installations. Despite the significant year-on-year growth, however, the share of global and U.S. electricity supply met with PV remains small, and annual PV additions are currently modest in the context of the overall electric system. The market for PV in the U.S. is driven by national, state, and local government incentives, including up-front cash rebates, production-based incentives, requirements that electricity suppliers purchase a certain amount of solar energy, and Federal and state tax benefits. These programs are, in part, motivated by the popular appeal of solar energy, and by the positive attributes of PV - modest environmental impacts, avoidance of fuel price risks, coincidence with peak electrical demand, and the location of PV at the point of use. Given the …

We describe a funnel cone for concentrating an ion beam on a target. The cone utilizes the reflection characteristic of ion beams on solid walls to focus the incident beam andincrease beam intensity on target. The cone has been modeled with the TRIM code. A prototype has been tested and installed for use in the 350-keV K+ NDCX target chamber.

Summary of the specific research and project accomplishments: Through this collaboration, LBNL and FPSI determined the specific energy manipulations that apply to the Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment (NDCX) ion beam and developed the preliminary design of a Fast Induction Energy Corrector (FIEC). This effort was successfully completed, firmly establishing the technical feasibility of the proposed approach for regulating the longitudinal energy distribution of the NDCX ion beam. This is a critical step in achieving the NDCX goal of axial compression of the beam by a factor of 100 during neutralized drift.

This report examines the federal drug enforcement data reported annually by key agencies charged with enforcing federal drug control laws.

Research was focused on how a single double-strand break - a model of low-dose ionizing radiation-induced DNA damage - could be studied in a simple model system, budding yeast. Breaks were induced in several different ways. We used the site-specific HO endonuclease to create a single DSB in all cells of the population so that its fate could be extensively analyzed genetically and molecularly. We also used two heterologous systems, the plant DS element and the Rag1/Rag2 proteins, to generate different types of DSBs, these containing hairpin ends that needed to be cleaved open before end-joining could take place. All three approaches yielded important new findings. We also extended our analysis of the Mre11 protein that plays key roles in both NHEJ and in homologous recombination. Finally we analyzed the poorly understood recombination events that were independent of the key recombination protein, Rad52. This line of inquiry was strongly motivated by the fact that vertebrate cells do not rely strongly on Rad52 for homologous recombination, so that some clues about alternative mechanisms could be gained by understanding how Rad52-independent recombination occurred. We found that the Mre11 complex was the most important element in Rad52-independent recombination.

At the Saltstone Production Facility (SPF), decontaminated salt solution (DSS) is combined with premix (a cementitious mixture of portland cement (PC), blast furnace slag (BFS) and Class F fly ash (FA)) in a Readco mixer to produce fresh (uncured) Saltstone. After transfer to the Saltstone Disposal Facility (SDF) the hydration reactions initiated during the contact of the premix and salt solution continue during the curing period to produce the hardened waste form product. The amount of heat generated from hydration and the resultant temperature increase in the vaults depend on the composition of the decontaminated salt solution being dispositioned as well as the grout formulation (mix design). This report details the results from Task 3 of the Saltstone Variability Study for FY09 which was performed to identify, and quantify when possible, those factors that drive the performance properties of the projected ARP/MCU Batches. A baseline ARP/MCU mix (at 0.60 water to cementitious materials (w/cm) ratio) was established and consisted of the normal premix composition and a salt solution that was an average of the projected compositions of the last three ARP/MCU batches developed by T. A. Le. This task introduced significant variation in (1) wt % slag, w/cm ratio, and …

Distinct minima and maxima in the neutron total cross section uncertainties were observed in model calculations using spherical optical potential. We found this oscillating structure to be a general feature of quantum mechanical wave scattering. Specifically, we analyzed neutron interaction with 56Fe from 1 keV up to 65 MeV, and investigated physical origin of the minima.We discuss their potential importance for practical applications as well as the implications for the uncertainties in total and absorption cross sections.

Student newspaper of the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma that includes national, local, and campus news along with advertising.

Article on the harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja) and how high levels of genetic diversity and differentiation can fuel conservation programs.

News release about DART being recognized for excellence in the preparation of its environmental report for its planned Orange Line light rail project.

This project aimed for a predictive-mechanistic understanding of the coupling between mineral weathering and contaminant (Cs, Sr, I) transport/fate in caustic waste-impacted sediments. Based on our prior studies of model clay mineral systems, we postulated that contaminant uptake to Hanford sediments would reflect concurrent adsorption and co-precipitation effects. Our specific objectives were: (1) to assess the molecular-scale mechanisms responsible for time-dependent sequestration of contaminants (Cs, Sr and I) during penetration of waste-induced weathering fronts; (2) to determine the rate and extent of contaminant release from the sorbed state; (3) to develop a reactive transport model based on molecular mechanisms and macroscopic flow experiments [(1) and (2)] that simulates adsorption, aging, and desorption dynamics. Progress toward achieving each of these objectives is discussed in this Final Report.

This report discusses issues for Congress in FY2011, which are whether to approve, reject, or modify DOD's new KC-X competition strategy, and whether to approve, reject, or modify the Air Force's request for FY2011 research and development funding for the new KC-X program.

Daily newspaper from Chickasha, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Sweetwater, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Sapulpa, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

A major challenge facing the prospective deployment of radiation detection systems for homeland security applications is the discrimination of radiological or nuclear 'threat sources' from radioactive, but benign, 'nuisance sources'. Common examples of such nuisance sources include naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM), medical patients who have received radioactive drugs for either diagnostics or treatment, and industrial sources. A sensitive detector that cannot distinguish between 'threat' and 'benign' classes will generate false positives which, if sufficiently frequent, will preclude it from being operationally deployed. In this report, we describe a first-principles physics-based modeling approach that is used to approximate the physical properties and corresponding gamma ray spectral signatures of real nuisance sources. Specific models are proposed for the three nuisance source classes - NORM, medical and industrial. The models can be validated against measured data - that is, energy spectra generated with the model can be compared to actual nuisance source data. We show by example how this is done for NORM and medical sources, using data sets obtained from spectroscopic detector deployments for cargo container screening and urban area traffic screening, respectively. In addition to capturing the range of radioactive signatures of individual nuisance sources, a nuisance source population model …

This is a white paper covering the results of a literature search and preliminary experiments on materials and methods to remove and immobilize gaseous radionuclided that come from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.

This paper shows work at Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) devoted to modeling the propagation of, and heating by, a relativistic electron beam in a idealized dense fuel assembly for fast ignition. The implicit particle-in-cell (PIC) code LSP is used. Experiments planned on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in the next few years using the Advanced Radiography Capability (ARC) short-pulse laser motivate this work. We demonstrate significant improvement in the heating of dense fuel due to magnetic forces, increased beam collimation, and insertion of a finite-radius carbon region between the beam excitation and fuel regions.

This report discusses constitutional and legal issues pertaining to a right to health care, as well as the power of Congress to enact and fund health care programs.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) commitment to assuring the health and safety of its workers includes the conduct of epidemiologic surveillance activities that provide an early warning system for health problems among workers. The Illness and Injury Surveillance Program monitors illnesses and health conditions that result in an absence of workdays, occupational injuries and illnesses, and disabilities and deaths among current workers.

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Section 1081 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 calls for the Secretary of the Air Force to conduct a pilot program to assess the feasibility and advisability of utilizing commercial fee-for-service air refueling tanker aircraft for Air Force operations. In response to your May 2009 letter to the Secretary of the Air Force requesting an update on the status of this pilot program, the Air Force submitted the Status of the Pilot Program on Commercial Fee-For-Service Air Refueling Support for the Air Force on August 7, 2009."

This executive order establishes sustainability and energy efficiency as priorities in the operations of the federal government.

Concert presented at the UNT College of Music Winspear Performance Hall.

This report describes recent efforts to develop glass property models that can be used to help estimate the volume of high-level waste (HLW) glass that will result from vitrification of Hanford tank waste. The compositions of acceptable and processable HLW glasses need to be optimized to minimize the waste-form volume and, hence, to save cost. A database of properties and associated compositions for simulated waste glasses was collected for developing property-composition models. This database, although not comprehensive, represents a large fraction of data on waste-glass compositions and properties that were available at the time of this report. Glass property-composition models were fit to subsets of the database for several key glass properties. These models apply to a significantly broader composition space than those previously publised. These models should be considered for interim use in calculating properties of Hanford waste glasses.