Assessing the performance of Spent (or Used) Nuclear Fuel (UNF) in geological repository requires quantification of time-dependent phenomena that may influence its behavior on a time-scale up to millions of years. A high-level waste repository environment will be a dynamic redox system because of the time-dependent generation of radiolytic oxidants and reductants and the corrosion of Fe-bearing canister materials. One major difference between used fuel and natural analogues, including unirradiated UO2, is the intense radiolytic field. The radiation emitted by used fuel can produce radiolysis products in the presence of water vapor or a thin-film of water that may increase the waste form degradation rate and change radionuclide behavior. To study UNF, we have been working on producing synthetic UO2 ceramics, or SimFuels that can be used in testing and which will contain specific radionuclides or non-radioactive analogs so that we can test the impact of radiolysis on fuel corrosion without using actual spent fuel. Although, testing actual UNF would be ideal for understanding the long term behavior of UNF, it requires the use of hot cells and is extremely expensive. In this report, we discuss, factors influencing the preparation of SimFuels and the requirements for dopants to mimic the …

A premier applied-science laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has earned the reputation as a leader in providing science and technology solutions to the most pressing national and global security problems. The LDRD Program, established by Congress at all DOE national laboratories in 1991, is LLNL's most important single resource for fostering excellent science and technology for today's needs and tomorrow's challenges. The LDRD internally directed research and development funding at LLNL enables high-risk, potentially high-payoff projects at the forefront of science and technology. The LDRD Program at Livermore serves to: (1) Support the Laboratory's missions, strategic plan, and foundational science; (2) Maintain the Laboratory's science and technology vitality; (3) Promote recruiting and retention; (4) Pursue collaborations; (5) Generate intellectual property; and (6) Strengthen the U.S. economy. Myriad LDRD projects over the years have made important contributions to every facet of the Laboratory's mission and strategic plan, including its commitment to nuclear, global, and energy and environmental security, as well as cutting-edge science and technology and engineering in high-energy-density matter, high-performance computing and simulation, materials and chemistry at the extremes, information systems, measurements and experimental science, and energy manipulation. A summary of each project was submitted by the principal investigator. …

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This report documents observations and results obtained from a lighting demonstration project conducted under the U.S. Department of Energy GATEWAY Solid-State Lighting (SSL) Technology Demonstration Program at the Smithsonain American Art Museum in Washington, DC. LED Lamp samples were tested in the museum workshop, temporarily installed in a gallery for feedback, and ultimately replaced all traditional incandescent lamps in one gallery of modernist art at the American Art Museum and partially replacing lamps in two galleries at the Musesum's Renwick Gallery. This report describes the selection and testing process, technology challenges, perceptions, economics, energy use, and mixed results of usign LED replacement lamps in art galleries housing national treasures.

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The Department of Energy Office of Nonproliferation Policy (NA-241) is supporting the project 'Coincidence Counting With Boron-Based Alternative Neutron Detection Technology' at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for development of an alternative neutron coincidence counter. The goal of this project is ultimately to design, build and demonstrate a boron-lined proportional tube based alternative system in the configuration of a coincidence counter. This report, providing background information for this project, is the deliverable under Task 1 of the project.

Cloud data centers are projected to be the fastest growing segment of the server market through 2015, according to IDC. Increasingly people and businesses rely on the Cloud to deliver digital content quickly and efficiently. Recovery Act funding from the Department of Energy has helped SeaMicro's technologies enhance the total cost of operation, performance and energy efficiency in large data center and Cloud environments. SeaMicro's innovative supercomputer fabric connects thousands of processor cores, memory, storage and input/output traffic. The company's fabric supports multiple processor instruction sets. Current systems featuring SeaMicro technology typically use one quarter the power and take one sixth the space of traditional servers with the same compute performance, yet deliver up to 12 times the bandwidth per core. Mozilla and eHarmony are two customers successfully using SeaMicro's technology. Numerous non-public customers have been successfully using the SeaMicro product in test and production facilities. As a result of the Recovery Act funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, more than 50 direct jobs were created at SeaMicro. To date, they primarily have been high-value, engineering jobs. Hardware, software and manufacturing engineering positions have been created, as well as sales and sales engineering. The positions have allowed SeaMicro to …

During the past decades, considerable theoretical efforts have been devoted to studying the electronic and geometric structures and related properties of surfaces. Such efforts are particularly important for systems like the actinides for which experimental work is relatively difficult to perform due to material problems and toxicity. The actinides are characterized by a gradual filling of the 5f-electron shell with the degree of localization increasing with the atomic number Z along the last series of the periodic table. The open shell of the 5f electrons determines the atomic, molecular, and solid state properties of the actinide elements and their compounds and understanding the quantum mechanics of the 5f electrons is the defining issue in the chemistry and physics of actinide elements. These elements are also characterized by the increasing prominence of relativistic effects and their studies can, in fact, help us understand the role of relativity throughout the periodic table. However, the electronic and geometric structures of the actinides, specifically the trans-uranium actinides and the roles of the 5f electrons in chemical bonding are still not well understood. This is crucial not only for our understanding of the actinides but also for the fact that the actinides constitute 'the missing …

This grant was for four years, and the work was designed to look at the mechanisms of extracellular electron transfer by the dissimilatory iron reducing bacteria Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, and other closely related Shewanella strains and species. During this work, we defined many of the basic physiological and biochemical properties of the Shewanella group, Much of which was summarized in review articles. We also finished and published the genome sequence of strain MR-1, the first of the shewanellae to have its genome sequenced. Control at the transcriptional and translational level was studied in collaboration with colleagues at PNNL and ANL. We utilized synchrotron X-ray radiation to image both the bacteria and the metal oxide particles via a technique called STXM, synchrotron X-ray absorption (ref. No.9), and X-ray microbeam analysis. We purified several of the cytochromes involved with metal reduction, and improved gene annotation of the MR-1 genome. The conductive appendages (nanowires) of MR-1 were described and characterized. Comparative genomics and biochemistry revealed that the pathway for the utilization of N-acetyl glucosamine in the various strains of Shewanella exhibited great variability, and had a number of previously unknown genes.

In this project, we are developing a high speed digital spectrometer that a) captures detector waveforms at rates up to 500 MSPS b) has upgraded event data acquisition with additional data buffers for zero dead time operation c) moves energy calculations to the FPGA to increase spectrometer throughput in fast scintillator applications d) uses a streamlined architecture and high speed data interface for even faster readout to the host PC These features are in addition to the standard functions in our existing spectrometers such as digitization, programmable trigger and energy filters, pileup inspection, data acquisition with energy and time stamps, MCA histograms, and run statistics. In Phase I, we upgraded one of our existing spectrometer designs to demonstrate the key principle of fast waveform capture using a 500 MSPS, 12 bit ADC and a Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGA. This upgraded spectrometer, named P500, performed well in initial tests of energy resolution, pulse shape analysis, and timing measurements, thus achieving item (a) above. In Phase II, we are revising the P500 to build a commercial prototype with the improvements listed in items (b)-(d). As described in the previous report, two devices were built to pursue this goal, named the Pixie-500 and the …

HB-Line will begin processing Pu solutions during FY2012 that will involve the recovery of Pu using oxalate precipitation and filtration. After the precipitation and filtration processes, the filtrate solution will be transferred from HB-Line to H-Canyon. The presence of excess oxalate and unfiltered Pu oxalate solids in these solutions create a criticality safety issue if they are sent to H-Canyon without controls in H-Canyon. One approach involves H-Canyon receiving the filtrate solution into a tank that is poisoned with soluble gadolinium (Gd). Decomposition of the oxalate will occur within a subsequent H-Canyon vessel. The receipt of excess oxalate into the H-Canyon receipt tanks has the potential to precipitate a portion of the Gd poison in the receipt tanks. Because the amount of Gd in solution determines the maximum amount of Pu solids that H-Canyon can receive, H-Canyon Engineering requested that SRNL determine the solubility of Gd in aqueous solutions of 4-10 M nitric acid (HNO{sub 3}), 4-12 g/L Gd, and 0.15-0.25 M oxalic acid (H{sub 2}C{sub 2}O{sub 4}) at 25 C. The target soluble Gd concentration is 6 g/L. The data indicate that the target can be achieved above 6 M HNO{sub 3} and below 0.25 M H{sub 2}C{sub 2}O{sub …

The originally proposed and funded research activities followed two major areas of study: semileptonic probes of the hadronic neutral current and charm production. The charm production work revolved around the Jefferson Lab experiment E03-008, 'Sub-threshold J/psi Photoprouction', which ran in late 2004. The PI was a co-spokesperson for the experiment. For the three year renewal proposal starting in 2007, the scope and size of the research project changed and increased. In addition to the parity violating studies, the PI had well defined lead roles in a series experiments nucleon spin-structure functions.

This tool provides a one-page technical report that assesses the comparability of a PM₂₅ continuous monitor when collocated with an FRM Sampler.