SOLUBILITY OF URANIUM AND PLUTONIUM IN ALKALINE SAVANNAH RIVER SITE HIGH LEVEL WASTE SOLUTIONS (open access)

SOLUBILITY OF URANIUM AND PLUTONIUM IN ALKALINE SAVANNAH RIVER SITE HIGH LEVEL WASTE SOLUTIONS

Five actual Savannah River Site tank waste samples and three chemically-modified samples were tested to determine solubility limits for uranium and plutonium over a one year time period. Observed final uranium concentrations ranged from 7 mg U/L to 4.5 g U/L. Final plutonium concentrations ranged from 4 {micro}g Pu/L to 12 mg Pu/L. Actinide carbonate complexation is believed to result in the dramatic solubility increases observed for one sample over long time periods. Clarkeite, NaUO{sub 2}(O)OH {center_dot} H{sub 2}O, was found to be the dominant uranium solid phase in equilibrium with the waste supernate in most cases.
Date: March 10, 2010
Creator: King, W.; Hobbs, D.; Wilmarth, B. & Edwards, T.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Advances in Modeling Exploding Bridgewire Initiation (open access)

Advances in Modeling Exploding Bridgewire Initiation

There is great interest in applying magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation techniques to the designs of electrical high explosive (HE) initiators, for the purpose of better understanding a design's sensitivities, optimizing its performance, and/or predicting its useful lifetime. Two MHD-capable LLNL codes, CALE and ALE3D, are being used to simulate the process of ohmic heating, vaporization, and plasma formation in exploding bridgewires (EBW). Initiation of the HE is simulated using Ignition & Growth reactive flow models. 1-D, 2-D and 3-D models have been constructed and studied. The models provide some intuitive explanation of the initiation process and are useful for evaluating the potential impact of identified aging mechanisms (such as the growth of intermetallic compounds or powder sintering). The end product of this work is a simulation capability for evaluating margin in proposed, modified or aged initiation system designs.
Date: March 10, 2010
Creator: Hrousis, C A & Christensen, J S
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Reactive Flow Modeling of Liquid Explosives via ALE3D/Cheetah Simulations (open access)

Reactive Flow Modeling of Liquid Explosives via ALE3D/Cheetah Simulations

We carried out reactive flow simulations of liquid explosives such as nitromethane using the hydrodynamic code ALE3D coupled with equations of state and reaction kinetics modeled by the thermochemical code Cheetah. The simulation set-up was chosen to mimic cylinder experiments. For pure unconfined nitromethane we find that the failure diameter and detonation velocity dependence on charge diameter are in agreement with available experimental results. Such simulations are likely to be useful for determining detonability and failure behavior for a wide range of experimental conditions and explosive compounds.
Date: March 10, 2010
Creator: Kuo, I W; Bastea, S & Fried, L E
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
MEASUREMENT OF MATERIAL PROPERTIES OF DAMAGED ENERGETIC MATERIALS (open access)

MEASUREMENT OF MATERIAL PROPERTIES OF DAMAGED ENERGETIC MATERIALS

We recently conducted damaged experiments on three explosives (mechanical damage on LX-04 and thermal experiments on HPP and PBXN-9) and characterized the effect of damage on some material properties. The MTS equipment was used to apply compressive cycling to LX-04 pressed parts and the results showed that older LX-04 parts became mechanically weaker than newer parts. After repeated compressive cycling for over 20,000 times, older LX-04 parts failed but newer LX-04 parts survived. Thermal insults were applied to PBXN-9 and HPP at 180 C and 200 C, respectively in unconfined conditions for several hours. The thermally-damaged HPP sample suffered 12.0% weight losses and a volume expansion of 20% was observed. Porosity of the damaged HPP increased to 25% after thermal exposure, which led to higher gas permeability. Burn rates of damaged PBXN-9 were 2 orders of magnitude higher than those of pristine samples but burn rates of damaged HPP were only slightly higher than those of pristine HPP. Small-scale safety tests (impact, friction, and spark) showed no significant sensitization when the damaged samples were tested at room temperature. Gas permeation measurements showed that gas permeability in damaged materials was several orders of magnitude higher than that in pristine materials. In-situ …
Date: March 10, 2010
Creator: Hsu, P C; Hust, G; Dehaven, M; Chidester, S; Glascoe, L; Hoffman, M et al.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Measure Of Quasi-Static Toughness And Fracture Parameters For Mock Explosive And Insensitive High Explosive LX-17 (open access)

Measure Of Quasi-Static Toughness And Fracture Parameters For Mock Explosive And Insensitive High Explosive LX-17

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Date: March 10, 2010
Creator: Ferranti, L., Jr.; Gagliardi, F. J.; Cunningham, B. J. & Vandersall, K. S.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Axions from cosmic string and wall decay (open access)

Axions from cosmic string and wall decay

If inflation occurred with a reheat temperature > T{sub PQ}, axions from the decay of global axion strings and domain walls would make an important contribution to the cosmological energy density, comparable to that from vacuum misalignment. Several groups have numerically studied the evolution of axion strings and walls in the past, however substantial uncertainties remain in their contribution to the present density {Omega}{sub a,string+wall} {approx} 1-100 (f{sub a}/10{sup 12} GeV){sup 7/6}, where f{sub a} is the axion decay constant. I will describe the numerical methods used in our simulations and show results for several string and wall configurations.
Date: March 10, 2010
Creator: Hagmann, C A
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Wavelength measurement of n = 3 - n' = 3 transitions in highly charged tungsten ions (open access)

Wavelength measurement of n = 3 - n' = 3 transitions in highly charged tungsten ions

3s{sub 1/2} - 3p{sub 3/2} and 3p{sub 1/2} - 3d{sub 3/2} transitions have been studied in potassium-like W{sup 55+} through neon-like W{sup 64}+ ions at the electron-beam ion trap facility in Livermore. The wavelengths of the lines have been measured in high resolution relative to well known reference lines from oxygen and nitrogen ions. Using the high-energy SuperEBIT electron-beam ion trap and an R = 44.3 m grazing-incidence soft x-ray spectrometer, the lines were observed with a cryogenic charge-coupled device camera. The wavelength data for the sodium-like and magnesium-like tungsten lines are compared with theoretical predictions for ions along the isoelectronic sequences.
Date: March 10, 2010
Creator: Clementson, J & Beiersdorfer, P
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
The compressibility of cubic white and orthorhombic, rhombohedral, and simple cubic black phosphorus (open access)

The compressibility of cubic white and orthorhombic, rhombohedral, and simple cubic black phosphorus

The effect of pressure on the crystal structure of white phosphorus has been studied up to 22.4 GPa. The ?alpha phase was found to transform into the alpha' phase at 0.87 +- 0.04 GPa with a volume change of 0.1 +- 0.3 cc/mol. A fit of a second order Birch- Murnaghan equation to the data gave Vo = 16.94 ? 0.08 cc/mol and Ko = 6.7 +- 0.5 GPa for the alpha phase and Vo = 16.4 +- 0.1 cc/mol and Ko = 9.1 +- 0.3 GPa for the alpha' phase. The alpha' phase was found to transform to the A17 phase of black phosphorus at 2.68 +- 0.34 GPa and then with increasing pressure to the A7 and then simple cubic phase of black phosphorus. A fit of a second order Birch-Murnaghan equation to our data combined with previous measurements gave Vo = 11.43 +- 0.05 cc/mol and Ko = 34.7 +- 0.5 GPa for the A17 phase, Vo = 9.62 +- 0.01 cc/mol and Ko = 65.0 +- 0.6 GPa for the A7 phase and , Vo = 9.23 +- 0.01 cc/mol and Ko = 72.5 +- 0.3 GPa for the simple cubic phase.
Date: March 10, 2010
Creator: Clark, Simon M & Zaug, Joseph
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Prospective Type Ia supernova surveys from Dome A (open access)

Prospective Type Ia supernova surveys from Dome A

Dome A, the highest plateau in Antarctica, is being developed as a site for an astronomical observatory. The planned telescopes and instrumentation and the unique site characteristics are conducive toward Type Ia supernova surveys for cosmology. A self-contained search and survey over 5 years can yield a spectro-photometric time series of ~;; 1000 z< 0:08 supernovae. These can serve to anchor the Hubble diagram and quantify the relationship between luminosities and heterogeneities within the Type Ia supernova class, reducing systematics. Larger aperture (>=4-m) telescopes are capable of discovering supernovae shortly after explosion out to z ~;; 3. These can be fed to space telescopes, and can isolate systematics and extend the redshift range over which we measure the expansion history of the universe.
Date: March 10, 2010
Creator: Kim, A.; Bonissent, A.; Christiansen, J. L.; Ealet, A.; Faccioli, L.; Gladney, L. et al.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Efficient Bulk Data Replication for the Earth System Grid (open access)

Efficient Bulk Data Replication for the Earth System Grid

The Earth System Grid (ESG) community faces the difficult challenge of managing the distribution of massive data sets to thousands of scientists around the world. To move data replicas efficiently, the ESG has developed a data transfer management tool called the Bulk Data Mover (BDM). We describe the performance results of the current system and plans towards extending the techniques developed so far for the up- coming project, in which the ESG will employ advanced networks to move multi-TB datasets with the ulti- mate goal of helping researchers understand climate change and its potential impacts on world ecology and society.
Date: March 10, 2010
Creator: Sim, Alex; Gunter, Dan; Natarajan, Vijaya; Shoshani, Arie; Williams, Dean; Long, Jeff et al.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
A direct measurement of rotatable and frozen CoO spins in exchange bias system of CoO/Fe/Ag(001) (open access)

A direct measurement of rotatable and frozen CoO spins in exchange bias system of CoO/Fe/Ag(001)

The exchange bias of epitaxially grown CoO/Fe/Ag(001) was investigated using x-ray magnetic circular dichroism and x-ray magnetic linear dichroism (XMLD) techniques. A direct XMLD measurement on the CoO layer during the Fe magnetization reversal shows that the CoO compensated spins are rotatable at thinner thickness and frozen at larger thickness. By a quantitative determination of the rotatable and frozen CoO spins as a function of the CoO film thickness, we find the remarkable result that the exchange bias is well established before frozen spins are detectable in the CoO film. We further show that the rotatable and frozen CoO spins are uniformly distributed in the CoO film.
Date: March 10, 2010
Creator: Wu, J.; Park, J. S.; Kim, W.; Arenholz, E.; Liberati, M.; Scholl, A. et al.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Ammonia Absorption Technologies Development for Air Conditioning, Heat Pumping and Refrigeration (open access)

Ammonia Absorption Technologies Development for Air Conditioning, Heat Pumping and Refrigeration

The project management task under the project was completed and related to the development of a plan for the implementation of the project and is thus not relevant to final report. For this reason it is not included.
Date: March 10, 2010
Creator: Rocky Research
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library