Recently a collaboration of LLNL and LBNL has constructed a second generation Compton coincidence instrument to study the non-proportionality of scintillators. This device, known as SLYNCI (Scintillator Light-Yield Non-proportionality Characterization Instrument), has can completely characterize a sample with less than 24 hours of running time. Thus, SLYNCI enables a number of systematic studies of scintillators since many samples can be processed in a reasonable length of time. These studies include differences in nonproportionality between different types of scintillators, different members of the same family of scintillators, and impact of different doping levels. The results of such recent studies are presented here, including a study of various alkali halides, and the impact of europium doping level in strontium iodide. Directions of future work area also discussed.

Li(Ni{sub 0.4}Co{sub 0.15}Al{sub 0.05}Mn{sub 0.4})O{sub 2} was investigated to understand the effect of replacement of the cobalt by aluminum on the structural and electrochemical properties. In situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) was performed, utilizing a novel in situ electrochemical cell, specifically designed for long-term X-ray experiments. The cell was cycled at a moderate rate through a typical Li-ion battery operating voltage range. (1.0-4.7 V) XAS measurements were performed at different states of charge (SOC) during cycling, at the Ni, Co, and the Mn edges, revealing details about the response of the cathode to Li insertion and extraction processes. The extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) region of the spectra revealed the changes of bond distance and coordination number of Ni, Co, and Mn absorbers as a function of the SOC of the material. The oxidation states of the transition metals in the system are Ni{sup 2+}, Co{sup 3+}, and Mn{sup 4+} in the as-made material (fully discharged), while during charging the Ni{sup 2+} is oxidized to Ni{sup 4+} through an intermediate stage of Ni{sup 3+}, Co{sup 3+} is oxidized toward Co{sup 4+}, and Mn was found to be electrochemically inactive and remained as Mn{sup 4+}. The EXAFS results during cycling …

Heat pump clothes dryers (HPCDs) can be as much as 50percent more energy-efficient than conventional electric resistance clothes dryers, and therefore have the potential to save substantial amounts of electricity. While not currently available in the U.S., there are manufacturers in Europe and Japan that produce units for those markets. Drawing on analysis conducted for the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) current rulemaking on amended standards for clothes dryers, this paper evaluates the cost-effectiveness of HPCDs in American homes, as well as the national impact analysis for different market share scenarios. In order to get an accurate measurement of real energy savings potential, the paper offers a new energy use calculation methodology that takes into account the most current data on clothes washer cycles, clothes dryer usage frequency, remaining moisture content, and load weight per cycle, which is very different from current test procedure values. Using the above methodology along with product cost estimates developed by DOE, the paper presents the results of a life-cycle cost analysis of the adoption of HPCDs in a representative sample of American homes. The results show that HPCDs have positive economic benefits only for households with high clothes dryer usage or for households with …

For X-ray Free-Electron Lasers such as LCLS and TESLA FEL, a change in the electron energy while amplifying the FEL radiation can shift the resonance condition out of the bandwidth of the FEL. The largest sources of energy loss is the emission of incoherent undulator radiation. Because the loss per electron depends only on the undulator parameters and the beam energy, which are fixed for a given resonant wavelength, the average energy loss can be compensated for by a fixed taper of the undulator. Coherent radiation has a strong enhancement proportional to the number of electrons in the bunch for frequencies comparable to or longer than the bunch dimension. If the emitted coherent energy becomes comparable to that of the incoherent emission, it has to be included in the taper as well. However, the coherent loss depends on the bunch charge and the applied compression scheme and a change of these parameters would require a change of the taper. This imposes a limitation on the practical operation of Free-Electron Lasers, where the taper can only be adjusted manually. In this presentation we analyze the coherent emission of undulator radiation and transition undulator radiation for LCLS, and estimate whether the resulting …

National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a high-energy laser facility comprised of 192 laser beams focused with enough power and precision on a hydrogen-filled spherical, cryogenic target to initiate a fusion reaction. The target container, or hohlraum, must be accurately aligned to an x-ray imaging system to allow careful monitoring of the frozen fuel layer in the target. To achieve alignment, x-ray images are acquired through starburst-shaped windows cut into opposite sides of the hohlraum. When the hohlraum is in alignment, the starburst pattern pairs match nearly exactly and allow a clear view of the ice layer formation on the edge of the target capsule. During the alignment process, x-ray image analysis is applied to determine the direction and magnitude of adjustment required. X-ray detector and source are moved in concert during the alignment process. The automated pointing alignment system described here is both accurate and efficient. In this paper, we describe the control and associated image processing that enables automation of the starburst pointing alignment.

In this letter, we propose a scheme to generate tunable coherent X-ray radiation for future light source applications. This scheme uses an energy chirped electron beam, a laser modulators, a laser chirper and two bunch compressors to generate a prebunched kilo-Ampere current electron beam from a few tens Ampere electron beam out of a linac. The initial modulation energy wavelength can be compressed by a factor of 1 + h{sub b}R{sub 56}{sup a} phase space, where h{sub b} is the energy bunch length chirp introduced by the laser chirper, R{sub 56}{sup a} is the momentum compaction factor of the first bunch compressor. As an illustration, we present an example to generate more than 400 MW, 170 atto-seconds pulse, 1 nm coherent X-ray radiation using a 60 Ampere electron beam out. of the linac and 200 nm laser seed. Both the final wavelength and the radiation pulse length in the proposed scheme are tunable by adjusting the compression factor and the laser parameters.

This paper describes our approach to adapting a text document similarity classifier based on the Term Frequency Inverse Document Frequency (TFIDF) metric to two massively multi-core hardware platforms. The TFIDF classifier is used to detect web attacks in HTTP data. In our parallel hardware approaches, we design streaming, real time classifiers by simplifying the sequential algorithm and manipulating the classifier's model to allow decision information to be represented compactly. Parallel implementations on the Tilera 64-core System on Chip and the Xilinx Virtex 5-LX FPGA are presented. For the Tilera, we employ a reduced state machine to recognize dictionary terms without requiring explicit tokenization, and achieve throughput of 37MB/s at slightly reduced accuracy. For the FPGA, we have developed a set of software tools to help automate the process of converting training data to synthesizable hardware and to provide a means of trading off between accuracy and resource utilization. The Xilinx Virtex 5-LX implementation requires 0.2% of the memory used by the original algorithm. At 166MB/s (80X the software) the hardware implementation is able to achieve Gigabit network throughput at the same accuracy as the original algorithm.

Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC) project at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is designed to produce energetic, ultrafast x-rays in the range of 70-100 keV for backlighting NIF targets. The chirped pulse amplification (CPA) laser system will deliver kilo-Joule pulses at an adjustable pulse duration from 1 ps to 50 ps. System complexity requires sophisticated simulation and modeling tools for design, performance prediction, and comprehension of experimental results. We provide a brief overview of ARC, present our main modeling tools, and describe important performance predictions. The laser system (Fig. 1) consists of an all-fiber front end, including chirped-fiber Bragg grating (CFBG) stretchers. The beam after the final fiber amplifier is split into two apertures and spatially shaped. The split beam first seeds a regenerative amplifier and is then amplified in a multi-pass Nd:glass amplifier. Next, the preamplified chirped pulse is split in time into four identical replicas and injected into one NIF Quad. At the output of the NIF beamline, each of the eight amplified pulses is compressed in an individual, folded, four-grating compressor. Compressor grating pairs have slightly different groove densities to enable compact folding geometry and eliminate adjacent beam cross-talk. Pulse duration is adjustable with a small, rack-mounted compressor …

We demonstrate the potential to modify the magnetic behavior and structural properties of ferromagnetic thin films using focused ion beam 'direct-write' lithography. Patterns inspired by the split-ring resonators often used as components in meta-materials were defined upon 15 nm Fe films using a 30 keV Ga{sup +} focused ion beam at a dose of 2 x 10{sup 16} ions cm{sup -2}. Structural, chemical and magnetic changes to the Fe were studied using transmission soft X-ray microscopy at the ALS, Berkeley CA. X-ray absorption spectra showed a 23% reduction in the thickness of the film in the Ga irradiated areas, but no chemical change to the Fe was evident. X-ray images of the magnetic reversal process show domain wall pinning around the implanted areas, resulting in an overall increase in the coercivity of the film. Transmission electron microscopy showed significant grain growth in the implanted regions.

At the U. S. Department of Energy's Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State, 216 million liters (57 million gallons) of nuclear waste is currently stored in aging underground tanks, threatening the Columbia River. The River Protection Project (RPP), a fully integrated system of waste storage, retrieval, treatment, and disposal facilities, is in varying stages of design, construction, operation, and future planning. These facilities face many overlapping technical, regulatory, and financial hurdles to achieve site cleanup and closure. Program execution is ongoing, but completion is currently expected to take approximately 40 more years. Strategic planning for the treatment of Hanford tank waste is by nature a multi-faceted, complex and iterative process. To help manage the planning, a report referred to as the RPP System Plan is prepared to provide a basis for aligning the program scope with the cost and schedule, from upper-tier contracts to individual facility operating plans. The Hanford Tank Waste Operations Simulator (HTWOS), a dynamic flowsheet simulation and mass balance computer model, is used to simulate the current planned RPP mission, evaluate the impacts of changes to the mission, and assist in planning near-term facility operations. Development of additional modeling tools, including an operations research model and a …

As much as one million gallons of waste is believed to have leaked from tanks, pipelines or other equipment in the single-shell tank farm waste management areas (WMAs) within the 200 East and West areas of the U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford Site near Richland, Washington. Although some contamination has reached groundwater, most contamination still resides in the vadose zone. The magnitude ofthis problem requires new approaches for soil characterization if we are to understand the nature and extent of the contamination and take action to protect the enviromnent. Because of the complexity and expense of drilling traditional boreholes in contaminated soil, direct push characterization using a hydraulic hammer has been extensively employed. Direct push probe holes <3-inch diameter have been pushed to a maximum depth of 240 feet below ground surface in 200 East area. Previously gross gamma and moisture logging of these narrow probe holes was perfonned to identify the location of cesium-137 ({sup 137}Cs) (which has limited mobility in Hanford soil) and moisture peaks. Recently a bismuth germinate detector has been deployed for detecting and quantifying the spectrum of cobalt-60 ({sup 60}Co) (a more mobile contaminant), which provides additional information. The direct push system is configured to …

The ability to effectively mix, sample, certify, and deliver consistent batches of High Level Waste (HLW) feed from the Hanford Double Shell Tanks (DST) to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) presents a significant mission risk with potential to impact mission length and the quantity of HLW glass produced. DOE's River Protection Project (RPP) mission modeling and WTP facility modeling assume that individual 3785 cubic meter (l million gallon) HLW feed tanks are homogenously mixed, representatively sampled, and consistently delivered to the WTP. It has been demonstrated that homogenous mixing ofHLW sludge in Hanford DSTs is not likely achievable with the baseline design thereby causing representative sampling and consistent feed delivery to be more difficult. Inconsistent feed to the WTP could cause additional batch-to-batch operational adjustments that reduce operating efficiency and have the potential to increase the overall mission length. The Hanford mixing and sampling demonstration program will identify DST mixing performance capability, will evaluate representative sampling techniques, and will estimate feed batch consistency. An evaluation of demonstration program results will identify potential mission improvement considerations that will help ensure successful mission completion. This paper will discuss the history, progress, and future activities that will define and mitigate the …

Washington River Protection Solutions, LLC (WRPS) has faced significant project management challenges in managing Davis-Bacon construction work that meets contractually required small business goals. The unique challenge is to provide contracting opportunities to multiple small business construction subcontractors while performing high hazard work in a safe and productive manner. Previous to the Washington River Protection Solutions, LLC contract, Construction work at the Hanford Tank Farms was contracted to large companies, while current Department of Energy (DOE) Contracts typically emphasize small business awards. As an integral part of Nuclear Project Management at Hanford Tank Farms, construction involves removal of old equipment and structures and installation of new infrastructure to support waste retrieval and waste feed delivery to the Waste Treatment Plant. Utilizing the optimum construction approach ensures that the contractors responsible for this work are successful in meeting safety, quality, cost and schedule objectives while working in a very hazardous environment. This paper describes the successful transition from a traditional project delivery method that utilized a large business general contractor and subcontractors to a new project construction management model that is more oriented to small businesses. Construction has selected the Agency Construction Management Method. This method was implemented in the first …

The Hanford tank reservation contains approximately 50 million gallons of liquid legacy radioactive waste from cold war weapons production, which is stored in 177 underground storage tanks. The tanks will be in use until waste processing operations are completed. The wastes tend to be high pH (over 10) and nitrate based. Under these alkaline conditions carbon steels tend to be passive and undergo relatively slow uniform corrosion. However, the presence of nitrate and other aggressive species, can lead to pitting and stress corrosion cracking. This work is a continuation of previous work that investigated the propensity of steels to suffer pitting and stress corrosion cracking in various waste simulants. The focus of this work is an investigation of the sensitivity of the steels' pitting and stress corrosion cracking susceptibility tosimulant pH. Previous work demonstrated that wastes that are high in aggressive nitrate and low in inhibitory nitrite are susceptible to localized corrosion. However, the previous work involved wastes with pH 12 or higher. The current work involves wastes with lower pH of 10 or 11. It is expected that at these lower pHs that a higher nitrite-to-nitrate ratio will be necessary to ensure tank integrity. This experimental work involved both …

Current proposed regulatory agreements (Consent Decree) at the Hanford Site call for closure of the Single-Shell Tank (SST) Waste Management Area (WMA) C in the year 2019. WMA C is part of the SST system in 200 East area ofthe Hanford Site and is one of the first tank farm areas built in mid-1940s. In order to close WMA C, both tank and facility closure activities and corrective actions associated with existing soil and groundwater contamination must be performed. Remedial activities for WMA C and corrective actions for soils and groundwater within that system will be supported by various types of risk assessments and interim performance assessments (PA). The U.S. Department of Energy, Office of River Protection (DOE-ORP) and the State ofWashington Department of Ecology (Ecology) are sponsoring a series of working sessions with regulators and stakeholders to solicit input and to obtain a common understanding concerning the scope, methods, and data to be used in the planned risk assessments and PAs to support closure of WMA C. In addition to DOE-ORP and Ecology staff and contractors, working session members include representatives from the U.S. Enviromnental Protection Agency, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), interested tribal nations, other stakeholders groups, …

A principal goal at the Savannah River Site is to safely dispose of the large volume of liquid nuclear waste held in many storage tanks. In-tank ion exchange technology is being considered for cesium removal using a polymer resin made of resorcinol formaldehyde that has been engineered into microspheres. The waste under study is generally lower in potassium and organic components than Hanford waste; therefore, the resin performance was evaluated with actual dissolved salt waste. The ion exchange performance and resin chemistry results are discussed.

COG is a modern, general-purpose, high fidelity, multi-particle transport code developed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory specifically for use in deep penetration (shielding) and criticality safety calculations. This paper describes some features in COG of special interest to criticality safety practitioners.

We propose a simple, well grounded classification technique which is suited for group classification on brain fMRI data sets that have high dimensionality, small number of subjects, high noise level, high subject variability, imperfect registration and capture subtle cognitive effects. We propose threshold-split region as a new feature selection method and majority voteas the classification technique. Our method does not require a predefined set of regions of interest. We use average acros ssessions, only one feature perexperimental condition, feature independence assumption, and simple classifiers. The seeming counter-intuitive approach of using a simple design is supported by signal processing and statistical theory. Experimental results in two block design data sets that capture brain function under distinct monetary rewards for cocaine addicted and control subjects, show that our method exhibits increased generalization accuracy compared to commonly used feature selection and classification techniques.

Two-photon double ionization of the helium atom was the subject of early experiments at FLASH and will be the subject of future benchmark measurements of the associated electron angular and energy distributions. As the photon energy of a single femtosecond pulse is raised from the threshold for two-photon double ionization at 39.5 eV to beyond the sequential ionization threshold at 54.4 eV, the electron ejection dynamics change from the highly correlated motion associated with nonsequential absorption to the much less correlated sequential ionization process. The signatures of both processes have been predicted in accurate \textit{ab initio} calculations of the joint angular and energy distributions of the electrons, and those predictions contain some surprises. The dominant terms that contribute to sequential ionization make their presence apparent several eV below that threshold. In two-color pump probe experiments with short pulses whose central frequencies require that the sequential ionization process necessarily dominates, a two-electron interference pattern emerges that depends on the pulse delay and the spin state of the atom.

We report on an approach for computing electronic structure utilizing solid-state multi-center scattering techniques, but generalized to finite temperatures to model plasmas. This approach has the advantage of handling mixtures at a fundamental level without the imposition of ad hoc continuum lowering models, and incorporates bonding and charge exchange, as well as multi-center effects in the calculation of the continuum density of states.

A modular, transportable evaporator system, using thin film evaporative technology, is planned for deployment at the Hanford radioactive waste storage tank complex. This technology, herein referred to as a wiped film evaporator (WFE), will be located at grade level above an underground storage tank to receive pumped liquids, concentrate the liquid stream from 1.1 specific gravity to approximately 1.4 and then return the concentrated solution back into the tank. Water is removed by evaporation at an internal heated drum surface exposed to high vacuum. The condensed water stream will be shipped to the site effluent treatment facility for final disposal. This operation provides significant risk mitigation to failure of the aging 242-A Evaporator facility; the only operating evaporative system at Hanford maximizing waste storage. This technology is being implemented through a development and deployment project by the tank farm operating contractor, Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), for the Office of River Protection/Department of Energy (ORP/DOE), through Columbia Energy & Environmental Services, Inc. (Columbia Energy). The project will finalize technology maturity and install a system at one of the double-shell tank farms. This paper discusses results of pre-project pilot-scale testing by Columbia Energy and ongoing technology maturation development scope through fiscal …

The frequency footprint of ID and 2D profiling instruments needs to be carefully considered in comparing ID surface roughness spectrum measurements made by different instruments. Contributions from orthogonal direction frequency components can not be neglected. The use of optical profiling instruments is ubiquitous in the measurement of the roughness of optical surfaces. Their ease-of-use and non-contact measurement method found widespread use in the optics industry for measuring the quality of delicate optical surfaces. Computerized digital data acquisition with these instruments allowed for quick and easy calculation of surface roughness statistics, such as root-mean-square (RMS) roughness. The computing power of the desktop computer allowed for the rapid conversion of spatial domain data into the frequency domain, enabling the application of sophisticated signal processing techniques to be applied to the analysis of surface roughness, the most powerful of which is the power spectral density (PSP) function. Application of the PSD function to surface statistics introduced the concept of 'bandwidth-limited' roughness, where the value of the RMS roughness depends critically upon the spatial frequency response of the instrument. Different instruments with different spatial frequency response characteristics give different answers when measuring the same surface.

The success of LCLS has opened up a new era of x-ray sciences. An upgrade to LCLS is currently being planned to enhance its capabilities. In this paper we study the feasibility of using the echo-enabled harmonic generation (EEHG) technique to generate narrow bandwidth soft x-ray radiation in the proposed LCLS-II soft x-ray beam line. We focus on the conceptual design, the technical implementation and the expected performances of the echo-seeding scheme. We will also show how the echo-seeding scheme allows one to generate two color x-ray pulses with the higher energy photons leading the lower energy ones as is favored in the x-ray pump-probe experiments.

Young people these days are very concerned about the environment. There is also a great deal of interest in using technology to improve energy efficiency. Many physics students share these concerns and would like to find ways to use their scientific and quantitative skills to help overcome the environmental challenges that the world faces. This may be particularly true for female students. Showing physics students how they can contribute to environmental and energy solutions while doing scientific research which excites them is expected to attract more physicists to work on these very important problems and to retain more of the best and the brightest in physical science. This is a major thrust of the 'Gathering Storm' report, the 'American Competitiveness Initiative' report, and several other studies. With these concerns in mind, the American Physical Society (APS) and more specifically, the newly formed APS Topical Group on Energy Research and Applications (GERA), organized and conducted a one-day workshop for graduate students and post docs highlighting the contributions that physics-related research can make to meeting the nation's energy needs in environmentally friendly ways. A workshop program committee was formed and met four times by conference call to determine session topics and to …