The 100-F-36 waste site is the location of the former 108-F Biological Laboratory. The building was closed in 1973, decontaminated, decommissioned, and eventually demolished in 1999. In accordance with this evaluation, the confirmatory sampling results support a reclassification of this site to No Action. The current site conditions achieve the remedial action objectives and the corresponding remedial action goals established in the Remaining Sites ROD. The results of confirmatory sampling show that residual contaminant concentrations do not preclude any future uses and allow for unrestricted use of shallow zone soils. The results also demonstrate that residual contaminant concentrations are protective of groundwater and the Columbia River.

Mineral dissolution rates in the field have been reported to be orders of magnitude slower than those measured in the laboratory, an unresolved discrepancy that severely limits our ability to develop scientifically defensible predictive or even interpretive models for many geochemical processes in the earth and environmental sciences. One suggestion links this discrepancy to the role of physical and chemical heterogeneities typically found in subsurface soils and aquifers in producing scale-dependent rates where concentration gradients develop. In this paper, we examine the possibility that scale-dependent mineral dissolution rates can develop even at the single pore and fracture scale, the smallest and most fundamental building block of porous media. To do so, we develop two models to analyze mineral dissolution kinetics at the single pore scale: (1) a Poiseuille Flow model that applies laboratory-measured dissolution kinetics at the pore or fracture wall and couples this to a rigorous treatment of both advective and diffusive transport, and (2) a Well-Mixed Reactor model that assumes complete mixing within the pore, while maintaining the same reactive surface area, average flow rate, and geometry as the Poiseuille Flow model. For a fracture, a 1D Plug Flow Reactor model is considered in addition to quantify the …

This Report contains the U.S. Wind Power Installation, Cost, performance trends in 2006.

The 116-F-15 waste site is the former location of the 108-F Radiation Crib that was located in the first floor of the 108-F Biological Laboratory. In accordance with this evaluation, the verification sampling results support a reclassification of this site to Interim Closed Out. The current site conditions achieve the remedial action objectives and the corresponding remedial action goals established in the Remaining Sites ROD. The results of verification sampling show that residual contaminant concentrations do not preclude any future uses and allow for unrestricted use of shallow zone soils. The results also demonstrate that residual contaminant concentrations are protective of groundwater and the Columbia River.

Prevention of corrosion is a vital goal for the Department of Defense when billions of dollars are spent every year. Corrosion resistant materials have applications in all sort of military vehicles, and more importantly in naval vessels and submarines which come in contact with the seawater. It is known that corrosion resistance property can be improved by the used of structurally designed materials in the amorphous state where the atoms are arranged in a non-periodic fashion and specific atoms, tailored to the required properties can be interjected into the matrix for specific application. The XRD techniques reported here is to demonstrate the optimal conditions for characterization of these materials. The samples, which normally contain different compositions of Fe, Cr, B, Mo, Y, Mn, Si and W, are in the form of powders, ribbons and coatings. These results will be compared for the different forms of the sample which appears to correlate to the cooling rate during sample processing. In most cases, the materials are amorphous or amorphous with very small amount of crystallinity. In the ribbon samples for different compositions we observed that the materials are essentially amorphous. In most cases, starting from an amorphous powder sample, the coatings are …

Characterization of HLW is a prerequisite for effective planning of HLW disposition and site closure performance assessment activities. Adequate characterization typically requires application of a combination of data sources, including process knowledge, theoretical relationships, and real-waste analytical data. Consistently obtaining high quality real-waste analytical data is a challenge, particularly for HLW sludge insolubles, due to the inherent complexities associated with matrix heterogeneities, sampling access limitations, radiological constraints, analyte loss mechanisms, and analyte measurement interferences. Understanding how each of these complexities affects the analytical results is the first step to developing a sampling and analysis program that provides characterization data that are both meaningful and adequate. A summary of the key elements impacting SRS HLW sludge analytical data uncertainties is presented in this paper, along with guidelines for managing each of the impacts. The particular elements addressed include: (a) sample representativeness; (b) solid/liquid phase quantification effectiveness; (c) solids dissolution effectiveness; (d) analyte cross contamination, loss, and tracking; (e) dilution requirements; (f) interference removal; (g) analyte measurement technique; and (h) analytical detection limit constraints. A primary goal of understanding these elements is to provide a basis for quantifying total propagated data uncertainty.

Nuclear Materials Management (NMM) of WSRC has recently installed the capability to perform both non-destructive and destructive examination of 3013 containers of Pu oxide in accordance with DOE-STD-3013. The containers will be opened and the oxide will be sampled for analysis. The remaining bulk oxide must then be safely stored in a non-3013-compliant configuration. Available processing equipment and controls cannot prevent the oxide from adsorbing moisture during this process. Subsequent radiolysis of moisture during storage may generate combustible quantities of gases while waiting final processing, and satisfying DOE Interim Safe Storage Criteria (ISSC) would require that storage containers be vented at impractical frequencies. With support from an independent National Laboratory, WSRC/NMM has demonstrated that a commercial hydrogen getter material will effectively prevent the accumulation of combustible gas concentrations. A project overview, including storage requirements and strategies, as well as getter technology, current test results, and anticipated future developments will be addressed.

Long-term sequestration of uranium at sites within the DOE complex is a significant problem that requires molecular-level information on the speciation, phase association, and spatial distribution of uranium

Retrieving ''suspect'' transuranic (TRU) waste from the Hanford Site's low-level waste burial grounds is a tall order, due to conditions that have changed as the work progresses. Project personnel developed several new methods for handling the waste that other retrieval operations may find useful. The Waste Retrieval Project is operated by Fluor Hanford, a prime contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy's Richland Operations Office since 1996.

The objective of this study was to determine detailed vertical, horizontal, intensive, and diel distributions of juvenile salmonid passage at the spillway at The Dalles Dam from April 12 to July16, 2006. These data are being applied in the Spillway Improvements Program to position release pipes for direct injury and mortality studies and to provide baseline data for assessment of the vortex suppression devices scheduled for deployment in 2007. We estimated fish distributions from hydroacoustic data collected with split-beam transducers arrayed across Bays 1 through 9 and 14. Spill at ~20 kcfs per bay was bulked at Bays 1-6, although the other bays were opened at times during the study to maintain a 40% spill percentage out of total project discharge. The vertical distribution of fish was skewed toward the surface during spring, but during summer, passage peaked at 2-3 m above the spillway ogee. Fish passage rates (number per hour) and fish densities (number per kcfs) were highest at Bay 6, followed by passage at Bay 5. This result comports with spillway horizontal distribution data from radio telemetry and hydroacoustic studies in 2004. The vertical and horizontal distribution of fish passage at bays 5 and 6 was much more …

This document provides requirements and guidelines for conducting a Lessons Learned and Best Practices Program within Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) to ensure ongoing improvement of safety and reliability, prevent the recurrence of significant adverse events/trends, and determine implementation strategies that will help LBNL successfully meet the missions and goals set forth by the Department of Energy (DOE).

In my five years as the Director of the Advanced Photon Source (APS), I have been fortunate to see major growth in the scientific impact from the APS. This year I am particularly enthusiastic about prospects for our longer-term future. Every scientific instrument must remain at the cutting edge to flourish. Our plans for the next generation of APS--an APS upgrade--got seriously in gear this year with strong encouragement from our users and sponsors. The most promising avenue that has emerged is the energy-recovery linac (ERL) (see article on page xx), for which we are beginning serious R&D. The ERL{at}APS would offer revolutionary performance, especially for x-ray imaging and ultrafast science, while not seriously disrupting the existing user base. I am very proud of our accelerator physics and engineering staff, who not only keep the current APS at the forefront, but were able to greatly impress our international Machine Advisory Committee with the quality of their work on the possible upgrade option (see page xx). As we prepare for long-term major upgrades, our plans to develop and optimize all the sectors at APS in the near future are advancing. Several new beamlines saw first light this year, including a dedicated …

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For the Laboratory and staff, 2006 was a year of outstanding achievements. As our many accomplishments in this annual report illustrate, the Laboratory's focus on important problems that affect our nation's security and our researchers breakthroughs in science and technology have led to major successes. As a national laboratory that is part of the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA), Livermore is a key contributor to the Stockpile Stewardship Program for maintaining the safety, security, and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile. The program has been highly successful, and our annual report features some of the Laboratory's significant stockpile stewardship accomplishments in 2006. A notable example is a long-term study with Los Alamos National Laboratory, which found that weapon pit performance will not sharply degrade from the aging effects on plutonium. The conclusion was based on a wide range of nonnuclear experiments, detailed simulations, theoretical advances, and thorough analyses of the results of past nuclear tests. The study was a superb scientific effort. The continuing success of stockpile stewardship enabled NNSA in 2006 to lay out Complex 2030, a vision for a transformed nuclear weapons complex that is more responsive, cost efficient, and highly secure. One of …

For nearly 11 years, Fluor Hanford has been busy cleaning up the legacy of nuclear weapons production at one of the Department of Energy's (DOE'S) major sites in the United States. As prime nuclear waste cleanup contractor at the vast Hanford Site in southeastern Washington state, Fluor Hanford has changed the face of cleanup. Fluor beginning on October 1, 1996, Hanford Site cleanup was primarily a ''paper exercise.'' The Tri-Party Agreement, officially called the Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order - the edict governing cleanup among the DOE, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Washington state - was just seven years old. Milestones mandated in the agreement up until then had required mainly waste characterization, reporting, and planning, with actual waste remediation activities off in the future. Real work, accessing waste ''in the field'' - or more literally in huge underground tanks, decaying spent fuel POO{approx}{approx}S, groundwater, hundreds of contaminated facilities, solid waste burial grounds, and liquid waste disposal sites -began in earnest under Fluor Hanford. The fruits of labors initiated, completed and/or underway by Fluor Hanford can today be seen across the site. Spent nuclear fuel is buttoned up in secure, dry containers stored away from regional water …

We review different routes for the generation of nanoporous metallic foams and films exhibiting well-defined pore size and short-range order. Dealloying and templating allows the generation of both two- and three-dimensional structures which promise a well defined plasmonic response determined by material constituents and porosity. Viewed in the context of metamaterials, the ease of fabrication of samples covering macroscopic dimensions is highly promising, and suggests more in-depth investigations of the plasmonic and photonic properties of this material system for photonic applications.

This CRADA was developed to enable ORNL to assist American Electronics, Inc. test a new technology--BioSAR. BioSAR is a an airborne, low frequency (80-120 MHz {approx} FM radio frequencies) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology which was designed and built for NASA by ZAI-Amelex under Patrick Johnson's direction. At these frequencies, leaves and small branches are nearly transparent and the majority of the energy reflected from the forest and returned to the radar is from the tree trunks. By measuring the magnitude of the back scatter, the volume of the tree trunk and therefore the biomass of the trunks can be inferred. The instrument was successfully tested on tropical rain forests in Panama. Patrick Johnson, with American Electronics, Inc received a Phase II SBIR grant from DOE Office of Climate Change to further test and refine the instrument. Mr Johnson sought ORNL expertise in measuring forest biomass in order for him to further validate his instrument. ORNL provided ground truth measurements of forest biomass at three locations--the Oak Ridge Reservation, Weyerhaeuser Co. commercial pine plantations in North Carolina, and American Energy and Power (AEP) Co. hardwood forests in southern Ohio, and facilitated flights over these forests. After Mr. Johnson processed the …