Ring-joint flanges were studied in thermal-cycle tests as part of the development work associated with Homogeneous Reactor Experiment No. 2 (HRE-2). The purpose of this study was to provide criteria for design, installation, and operation of joints that would remain leaktight under reactor operating temperatures and pressures. Joints ranging from 1/2 in., l500 lb to 4 in., 2500 lb and with various initial bolt loadings were cycled between room temperature and 636 deg F. It was demonstrated that when joints were made up to HRE-2 standards and specifications, leak rates of less than 0.25 x 10/sup -3/ g of water per day per inch of gasket pitch diameter could be routinely- attained. Undamaged gaskets could be reinstalled or new gaskets used with equal probability of achieving acceptable leak rates. The system installed in HRE-2 was provided with a high-pressure buffer system to ensure that the small amount of leakage to the cell would be nonradioactive. (auth)

Key findings from the Illinois Powerplant Productivity Improvement Study are: (1) the historic performance (equivalent availability) of large generating units in Illinois is below national average performance; (2) cost-effective opportunities to improve performance exist, and utilities pursue many of these; (3) there are no strong regulatory disincentives to the undertaking of productivity improvement projects, but no strong incentives either; (4) current utility practices, procedures, and management philosophy toward improved productivity are being strengthened; (5) areas in which immediate attention is warranted include application of reliability engineering tools to the analysis of powerplant availability and more vigorous pursuit of opportunities for performance improvements; (6) DOE systematic methodology for analysis of productivity improvement projects was demonstrated at three units and found to be useful; (7) the potential for improved productivity was estimated to be of the order of 2% in planned and forced outage rates; (8) if a 5% improvement were to be attained, cumulative (through 1990) constant-dollar benefits would be approximately $500 million; (9) formula regulatory incentive mechanisms are presently in a developmental or experimental phase, but adoption by the State of Illinois does not appear warranted at this time; and (10) the Illinois Commerce Commission can encourage improved productivity by …

Computer simulation of the three-dimensional temperature history in a multipass filled weldment was attempted by modifying a transient heat transfer code, HEATING5. The model includes temperature-dependent physical parameters, radiation and convection heat losses, turbulent and laminar convection in the molten pool, and variable arc velocity, intensity, and weld geometry. The model requires approximately 28 CPU min to simulate one second of welding. 15 figures, 8 tables.

This final report summarizes the effort and presents the results of a Phase II fabrication effort to build an industrial prototype of the LBL developed high energy neutral beam source. The effort was primarily concentrated on incorporating hard vacuum dielectric seals and a ceramic high voltage accelerator insulator. Several other design changes were incorporated for cost, reliability or life improvements to include: (1) accelerator grid locating dowel pins to aid final alignment, (2) plasma source to accelerator captive fasteners to aid filament replacement during source maintenance, (3) molybdenum cooling tubes on all accelerator grids, (4) additional fasteners in the plasma generator to facilitate hard seals, (5) modified suppressor grid rails and holders to simplify final grid alignment, (6) adjusting screws on exit grid rail holders to simplify final grid alignment, (7) addition of adjusting screws to the grid end pieces to simplify alignment, and (8) addition of accelerator hat shims to allow two different grid positioning locations.

Objective is to determine the fracture toughness of A533B-1 steel by computer modeling Charpy V-notch tests. A computer model of ductile fracture was developed that predicts fracture initiation. The model contains a set of material-dependent parameters obtained by computer simulations of small specimen tests. The computer calculations give detailed stress and strain histories up to the time of fracture, which are used to determine the model parameter values. The calibrated fracture model, that correctly predicts fracture initiation (and initiation energy) in the Charpy specimen, may then be used to simulate tests of accepted fracture-toughness specimens and hence obtain fracture toughness. The model parameters were calibrated to predict fracture in four different test specimens: two different notched-tension specimens, a simple tension specimen, and a precracked compact-tension specimen. The model was then used in a computer simulation of the Charpy V-notch specimen to initiate and advance a flat fracture. Results were compared with interrupted Charpy tests. Calibration of the model for two additional heat treatments of A533B-1 steel is in progress.

BS>Some of the fundamental relationships in a nuclear rocket engine are discussed. The equations required to calculate the performance of the rocket are presented. The problems associated with these calculations are also pointed out. (auth)

The Environmental Science Division at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory has in use a system of absolute Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA). Basically, absolute INAA is dependent upon the absolute measurement of the disintegration rates of the nuclides produced by neutron capture. From such disintegration rate data, the amount of the target element present in the irradiated sample is calculated by dividing the observed disintegration rate for each nuclide by the expected value for the disintegration rate per microgram of the target element that produced the nuclide. In absolute INAA, the expected value for disintegration rate per microgram is calculated from nuclear parameters and from measured values of both thermal and epithermal neutron fluxes which were present during irradiation. Absolute INAA does not depend on the concurrent irradiation of elemental standards but does depend on the values for thermal and epithermal neutron capture cross-sections for the target nuclides. A description of the analytical method is presented.

A fast beam damper system is currently being built for the Tevatron. The system is similar to the Super Damper system in the main ring with increased bandwidth and a pulsed high power mode for injection errors. The purpose of this writeup is to describe the basics of the system, and some of the reasoning behind its design. Calculations of expected performance are also included.

Ion-plated aluminum films on uranium will not provide adequate protection for 25 years. Magnetron-plated aluminum films on uranium are much better than ion-plated ones. Kel-F 800 films on uranium can provide adequate protection for 25 years. Their use in production must be delayed until the following factors are sorted out: water permeability in Kel-F 800 must be determined between 30 and 60/sup 0/C; the effect of UF/sub 3/, at the Kel-F/metal interface, on the permeability of water must be assessed; and the effect of crystallinity on water permeability must be evaluated. Applying Kel-F films on aluminum ion-plated uranium provides a good interim solution for long term storage.

We report the results of a first-principles study of dissociative electron attachment (DEA) to H{sub 2}O. The cross sections were obtained from nuclear dynamics calculations carried out in full dimensionality within the local complex potential model by using the multi-configuration time-dependent Hartree method. The calculations employ our previously obtained global, complex-valued, potential energy surfaces for the three ({sup 2}B{sub 1}, {sup 2}A{sub 1}, and {sup 2}B{sub 2}) electronic Feshbach resonances involved in this process. These three metastable states of H{sub 2}O{sup -} undergo several degeneracies, and we incorporate both the Renner-Teller coupling between the {sup 2}B{sub 1} and {sup 2}A{sub 1} states, as well as the conical intersection between the {sup 2}A{sub 1} and {sup 2}B{sub 2} states, into our treatment. The nuclear dynamics are inherently multi-dimensional and involve branching between different final product arrangements as well as extensive excitation of the diatomic fragment. Our results successfully mirror the qualitative features of the major fragment channels observed, but are less successful in reproducing the available results for some of the minor channels. We comment on the applicability of the local complex potential model to such a complicated resonant system.

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This report documents salient features of version 3.3 of the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM3.3) and of three climate simulations in which the resolution of its latitude-longitude grid was systematically increased. For all these simulations of global atmospheric climate during the period 1980-1999, observed monthly ocean surface temperatures and sea ice extents were prescribed according to standard Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP) values. These CAM3.3 resolution experiments served as control runs for subsequent simulations of the climatic effects of agricultural irrigation, the focus of a Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project. The CAM3.3 model was able to replicate basic features of the historical climate, although biases in a number of atmospheric variables were evident. Increasing horizontal resolution also generally failed to ameliorate the large-scale errors in most of the climate variables that could be compared with observations. A notable exception was the simulation of precipitation, which incrementally improved with increasing resolution, especially in regions where orography plays a central role in determining the local hydroclimate.

SLAC Archives and History Office (AHO) backlog of unprocessed material is over 3,000 cubic feet and growing. Because much of this material was directly transferred to off-site storage, the provenance and contents are a mystery. The costs of off-site storage, lack of knowledge of the contents, and the impending federal regulations in 2009 concerning storage facilities all suggest the need for a long-term plan for the backlog. AHO presents these options to SLAC management: (1) Continue with the status quo, adding new accessions to OffSite Records Management, LLC (hereinafter referred to as OffSite) storage; (2) Pull the backlog back a segment at a time for box-level processing, determine what is in each box, get rid of extraneous material, and return what is left to OffSite storage; (3) Gradually retrieve the backlog for thorough, folder-level processing and then transfer to the Federal Records Center in San Bruno (hereinafter referred to as FRC) or the Archives side of the operations at the National Archives and Records Administration in San Bruno (hereinafter referred to as NARA); and (4) Gradually retrieve the backlog for a combination of box-level processing with return to OffSite storage and thorough folder-level processing with transfer to FRC or NARA.

We present a mini-review on charm spectroscopy at the BABAR experiment. We first report on the c{bar s} meson spectrum, and present precise measurements of the D{sub s1}(2536) meson as well as the properties of the many new states discovered since 2003 (D*{sub s0}(2317), D{sub s1}(2460), D*{sub sJ}(2860), and D{sub sJ}(2700) mesons). We then discuss about charmed baryons observed recently in the BABAR experiment: {Omega}{sub c}{sup 0} and {Omega}*{sub c}{sup 0} css baryons, {Lambda}{sub c}(2940){sup +} udc baryon and the {Xi}{sub c} usc/dsc baryons.

Contamination in groundwater at Canada, Kansas, was discovered in 1997, during limited private well sampling near former grain storage facilities of the Commodity Credit Corporation, U.S. Department of Agriculture (CCC/USDA). Subsequent investigations by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) confirmed carbon tetrachloride and nitrate concentrations in groundwater above the respective maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) of 5.0 {micro}g/L and 10.0 mg/L. The KDHE investigations identified both the former CCC/USDA grain storage facility and a private grain storage facility as likely sources for the carbon tetrachloride contamination. The CCC/USDA funded extension of a rural water district line to provide a permanent alternate water supply, and the KDHE has conducted long-term monitoring under the State Water Plan. This document presents an analysis of the available information for the Canada site, acquired in previous investigations and the long-term KDHE monitoring. This analysis forms the technical justification for a request to reclassify the former CCC/USDA grain storage facility at Canada as a site requiring no further action under the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) between the KDHE and the USDA's Farm Service Agency. The KDHE's long-term water level monitoring results indicate a consistent groundwater flow direction to the east-southeast. Consequently, the wells with the highest …

To date, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy has been successful in identifying energy scales of the many-body interactions in correlated materials, focused on binding energies of up to a few hundred meV below the Fermi energy. Here, at higher energy scale, we present improved experimental data from four families of high-T{sub c} superconductors over a wide doping range that reveal a hierarchy of many-body interaction scales focused on: the low energy anomaly ('kink') of 0.03-0.09eV, a high energy anomaly of 0.3-0.5eV, and an anomalous enhancement of the width of the LDA-based CuO{sub 2} band extending to energies of {approx} 2 eV. Besides their universal behavior over the families, we find that all of these three dispersion anomalies also show clear doping dependence over the doping range presented.

The relationship between pullback velocity and impact velocity is studied for different microstructures in Cu. A size distribution of potential nucleation sites is derived under the conditions of an applied stochastic stress field. The size distribution depends on flow stress leading to a connection between the plastic flow appropriate to a given microstructure and nucleation rate. The pullback velocity in turn depends on the nucleation rate resulting in a prediction for the relationship between pullback velocity and flow stress. The theory is compared to observations of Cu on Cu gas-gun experiments (10-50 GPa) for a diverse set of microstructures. The scaling law is incorporated into a 1D finite difference code and is shown to reproduce the experimental data with one adjustable parameter that depends only on a nucleation exponent, {Lambda}.

We present the results of applying new object classification techniques to the supernova search of the Nearby Supernova Factory. In comparison to simple threshold cuts, more sophisticated methods such as boosted decision trees, random forests, and support vector machines provide dramatically better object discrimination: we reduced the number of nonsupernova candidates by a factor of 10 while increasing our supernova identification efficiency. Methods such as these will be crucial for maintaining a reasonable false positive rate in the automated transient alert pipelines of upcoming large optical surveys.

The FY06 Defense Appropriation contains funding for the 'Development of Advanced, Sophisticated, Discrimination Technologies for UXO Cleanup' in the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program. In 2003, the Defense Science Board observed: 'The problem is that instruments that can detect the buried UXOs also detect numerous scrap metal objects and other artifacts, which leads to an enormous amount of expensive digging. Typically 100 holes may be dug before a real UXO is unearthed! The Task Force assessment is that much of this wasteful digging can be eliminated by the use of more advanced technology instruments that exploit modern digital processing and advanced multi-mode sensors to achieve an improved level of discrimination of scrap from UXOs.' Significant progress has been made in discrimination technology. To date, testing of these approaches has been primarily limited to test sites with only limited application at live sites. Acceptance of discrimination technologies requires demonstration of system capabilities at real UXO sites under real world conditions. Any attempt to declare detected anomalies to be harmless and requiring no further investigation require demonstration to regulators of not only individual technologies, but of an entire decision making process. This discrimination study was be the first phase in what is …

Geochemical tests provide evidence for the transit of a plume of caustic waste solution through the sediment column at the Hanford 241-B and -BX Tank Farms. Direct-push samples recovered from boreholes surrounding Tanks 241-B-110 and 241-BX-102 and related waste transfer lines and diversion boxes included sediments typical of those previously recovered from other localities on the Hanford Site. The Hanford formation sediments are dominantly quartzo-feldspathic sands strewn with lithic fragments, displaying a range of particle size distributions and sorting characteristics. Some moderately well-sorted, fine-grained lithologies are interpreted as lenticular bodies irregularly dispersed in coarser-grained, more poorly sorted sediments. Tier I tests conducted on the vadose zone sediments revealed an inverse correlation between moisture content and sediment size fraction (i.e., there is greater moisture content in finer-grained sediments). The Tier I tests also showed that the pore water solutions were likely sodium-rich, moderately saline, and possessed higher pH values than background (untainted) sediments. These data are characteristic of sediments that have encountered sodium-rich, saline, caustic waste solution, as documented in other reports at other suspect contamination sites around Hanford. Analyses of solutions from 1:1 water extracts reveal relatively balanced cation and anion concentrations, indicating that most of the geochemical species have …

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is unsurpassed in its ability to non-destructively probe chemical identity. Portable, low-cost NMR sensors would enable on-site identification of potentially hazardous substances, as well as the study of samples in a variety of industrial applications. Recent developments in RF microcoil construction (i.e. coils much smaller than the standard 5 mm NMR RF coils), have dramatically increased NMR sensitivity and decreased the limits-of-detection (LOD). We are using advances in laser pantographic microfabrication techniques, unique to LLNL, to produce RF microcoils for field deployable, high sensitivity NMR-based detectors. This same fabrication technique can be used to produce imaging coils for MRI as well as for standard hardware shimming or 'ex-situ' shimming of field inhomogeneities typically associated with inexpensive magnets. This paper describes a portable NMR system based on a laser-fabricated microcoil and homebuilt probe design. For testing this probe, we used a hand-held 2 kg Halbach magnet that can fit into the palm of a hand, and an RF probe with laser-fabricated microcoils. The focus of the paper is on the evaluation of the microcoils, RF probe, and first generation gradient coils. The setup of this system, initial results, sensitivity measurements, and future plans are discussed. The results, …

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Finite Element Analysis of Plastic Deformation and Fracture in Reactor Components

This document summarizes the performance of the groundwater restoration systems installed by the Commodity Credit Corporation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (CCC/USDA) at the former CCC/USDA grain storage facility in Utica, Nebraska, during the second year of system operation, from December 1, 2005, until November 31, 2006. In the project at Utica, the CCC/USDA is cooperating with multiple state and federal agencies to remove carbon tetrachloride contamination from a shallow aquifer underlying the town and to provide supplemental treated groundwater for use in the restoration of a nearby wetlands area. Argonne National Laboratory has assisted the CCC/USDA by providing technical oversight for the aquifer restoration effort and facilities during this review period. This document presents overviews of the aquifer restoration facilities (Section 2) and system operations (Section 3), then describes groundwater production results (Section 4), groundwater treatment results (Section 5), and associated groundwater monitoring, system modifications, and costs during the review period (Section 6). Section 7 summarizes the present year of operation.