Do you have waste disposal problems? Do you have land sitting idle because it is not quite good enough for food crops? Would you like to be in on a major new industry and help solve air pollution and global warming problems? The US. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) may have just the ticket-technology to convert cellulosic biomass such as agricultural residues and wastes to ethanol, a clean burning alternative transportation fuel.

An assessment team from the Office of Environment, Safety and Health (EH), US Department of Energy (DOE), conducted an independent assessment of the 242-A Evaporator at the Hanford Site during January 17--28, 1994. An EH team member remained on-site following the assessment to track corrective actions and resolve prestart findings. The primary objective of this assessment was independent assurance that the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM), the DOE Richland Operations Office (DOE-RL), and Westinghouse Hanford Company (WHC) can safely restart the evaporator. Another objective of the EH team was to assess EM`s Operational Readiness Evaluation (ORE) to determine if the programs, procedures, and management systems implemented for operation of the 241-A Evaporator ensure the protection of worker safety and health. The following section of this report provides background information on the 242-A Evaporator and Operational Readiness Review (ORR) activities conducted to date. The next chapter is divided into sections that address the results of discrete assessment activities. Each section includes a brief statement of conclusions for the functional area in question, descriptions of the review bases and methods, and a detailed discussion of the results. Concerns identified during the assessment are listed for the section to which they apply, …

The validation documented in this report is based on calculations that were executed during June through August 1992, and was completed in June 1993. The statistical analyses in Appendix C and Appendix D were completed in October 1993. This validation gives Portsmouth NCS personnel a basis for performing computerized KENO V.a calculations using the Martin Marietta Nuclear Criticality Safety Software. The first portion of the document outlines basic information in regard to validation of NCSS using ENDF/B-IV 27-group cross sections on the IBM 3090 at ORNL. A basic discussion of the NCSS system is provided, some discussion on the validation database and validation in general. Then follows a detailed description of the statistical analysis which was applied. The results of this validation indicate that the NCSS software may be used with confidence for criticality calculations at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. When the validation results are treated as a single group, there is 95% confidence that 99.9% of future calculations of similar critical systems will have a calculated K{sub eff} > 0.9616. Based on this result the Portsmouth Nuclear Criticality Safety Department has adopted the calculational acceptance criteria that a k{sub eff} + 2{sigma} {le} 0.95 is safety subcritical. The …

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The Melter Performance Assessment activity, a component of the Pacific Northwest Laboratory`s (PNL) Vitrification Technology Development (PVTD) effort, was designed to determine the impact of noble metals on the operational life of the reference Hanford Waste Vitrification Plant (HWVP) melter. The melter performance assessment consisted of several activities, including a literature review of all work done with noble metals in glass, gradient furnace testing to study the behavior of noble metals during the melting process, research-scale and engineering-scale melter testing to evaluate effects of noble metals on melter operation, and computer modeling that used the experimental data to predict effects of noble metals on the full-scale melter. Feed used in these tests simulated neutralized current acid waste (NCAW) feed. This report summarizes the results of the melter performance assessment and predicts the lifetime of the HWVP melter. It should be noted that this work was conducted before the recent Tri-Party Agreement changes, so the reference melter referred to here is the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) melter design.

We report progress in an effort to develop and demonstrate a refuelable zinc/air battery for fleet electric vehicle applications. A refuelable module consisting of twelve bipolar cells with internal flow system has been refueled at rates of nearly 4 cells per minute refueling time of 10 minutes for a 15 kW, 55 kWh battery. The module is refueled by entrainment of 0.5-mm particles in rapidly flowing electrolyte, which delivers the particles into hoppers above each cell in a parallel-flow hydraulic circuit. The concept of user-recovery is presented as an alternative to centralized service infrastructure during market entry.

This report was stimulated by some recent investigations of S.P.H. (Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics method). Solid dynamics computations with S.P.H. show symptoms of instabilities which are not eliminated by artificial viscosities. Both analysis and experiment indicate that conservative smoothing eliminates the instabilities in S.P.H. computations which artificial viscosities cannot. Questions were raised as to whether conservative smoothing might smear solutions more than artificial viscosity. Conservative smoothing, properly used, can produce more accurate solutions than the von Neumann-Richtmyer-Landshoff artificial viscosity which has been the standard for many years. The authors illustrate this using the vNR scheme on a test problem with known exact solution involving a shock collision in an ideal gas. They show that the norms of the errors with conservative smoothing are significantly smaller than the norms of the errors with artificial viscosity.

The Data Change Request (DCR) log is designed to promote data integrity within the Solid Waste Information and Tracking System (SWITS). It achieves this function by providing a record of all data changes performed on the database. This document contains records of those data changes from March 91 through June 94. The DCR log is also a supplement to an electronic database -- the DCR Tracking System, which provides an electronic record of all data changes preformed on the SWITS database. The records found in this document are Data Change Request forms. These forms are required for SWITS users who wish to request data changes in the database. The procedure formalizing this policy did not go into effect until September 1, 1994; therefore, some records created before that date may be incomplete.

We review B{sup +} and B{sup 0} mean lifetime measurements, including direct measurements and determination of the lifetime ratio via measurements of the ratios of branching ratios. We present world averages.

The main difficulty in extending seismic processing to anisotropic media is the recovery of anisotropic velocity fields from surface reflection data. Velocity analysis for transversely isotropic (TI) media can be done by inverting the dependence of P-wave moveout velocities on the ray parameter. P-wave NMO velocity in homogeneous TI media with a vertical symmetry axis depends just on the zero-dip value V{sub nmo} and a new effective parameter {eta} that reduces to the difference between Thomsen parameters {epsilon} and {delta} in the limit of weak anisotropy. It is possible to obtain {eta} and reconstruct the NMO velocity as a function of ray parameter using moveout velocities for two different dips. Moreover, V{sub nmo}(0) and {eta} determine not only the NMO velocity, but also also long-spread (nonhyperbollic) P-wave moveout for horizontal reflectors and time-migration impulse response. Inversion of dip-moveout information allows performance of all time-processing steps in TI media using only surface P-wave data. Isotropic time-processing methods remain entirely valid for elliptical anisotropy ({epsilon} = {delta}). Accurate time-to-depth conversion, however, requires the vertical velocity V{sub P0} be resolved independently. If I-P0 is known, then allisotropies {epsilon} and {delta} can be found by inverting two P-wave NMO velocities corresponding to a horizontal …

The baseline design for the CMS hadronic calorimeter (HCAL) calls for barrel wedges subtending an azimuthal range of 1/18 of 2 {pi}. These wedges will each have about 1 cm of inert material which is required to make a self supporting structure. Therefore, it is expected that there will be about 2 cm of inert material between active elements in the CMS calorimeter. Since the inner radius of the HCAL modules is at 1.95 m, there is about 3% of the azimuth which is inert and possibly projective. Previous studies for the SDC endcap have indicated that such a level of inert material is largely benign. However, it is necessary to examine the specific case of CMS, both in the barrel and in the endcap.

The Next Linear Collider Test Accelerator (NLCTA) being built at SLAC will integrate the new technologies of X-band accelerator structures and RF systems for the Next Linear Collider, demonstrate multibunch beam-loading energy compensation and suppression of higher-order deflecting modes, measure transverse components of the accelerating field, and measure the dark current generated by RF field emission in the accelerator Injector design and simulation results for the NLCTA injector are discussed.

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This report details the review of the Diablo Canyon Probabilistic Risk Assessment (DCPRA). The study was performed under contract from the Probabilistic Risk Analysis Branch, Office of Nuclear Reactor Research, USNRC by Brookhaven National Laboratory. The DCPRA is a full scope Level I effort and although the review touched on all aspects of the PRA, the internal events and seismic events received the vast majority of the review effort. The report includes a number of independent systems analyses sensitivity studies, importance analyses as well as conclusions on the adequacy of the DCPRA for use in the Diablo Canyon Long Term Seismic Program.

The extraction from nitric acid of Am, Eu, Ce, Cm(III) tracers by 15-crown-5 (15C5), 18-crown-6 (18C6), dicyclohexano-18-crown-6 (DCH18C6) as well as mixtures of crown ethers and chlorinated cobalt dicarbollide (ChCoD) in nitrobenzene solutions has been investigated. It was revealed that 18C6 is selective for Ce, Am and Cm compared with Eu. The addition of 18C6 to a solution of ChCoD allows Am and Cm to be separated from lanthanides by using this extractant more efficiently. The separation factors of Ce, Am, Cm and Eu are increased as a function of the ionic strength of the aqueous phase for extraction by mixtures of 18C6 and ChCoD and of DCH18C6 and ChCoD.

The 308 Building located on the Hanford Site near Richland, Washington, is currently in transition to shutdown status. After this transition is complete, the facility will be maintained/surveilled and given to the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Facility Transition and Management (EM-60) for utilization, remedial action, or decontamination and decommissioning (D&D). This may require that the facility be maintained in the shutdown status for as long as 30 yrs. To date, all of the special nuclear material (SNM) has been removed, potential fuel supply equipment preserved, surplus materials and equipment excessed, and enclosure cleanup and stabilization completed. A major activity in support of the 308 Building shutdown was the cleanup and stabilization of the enclosures and surface contamination areas. This document discusses the specific designs, processes, and methods used to stabilize and confine the radiological material within the enclosure and exhaust ducts to allow the shutdown of the active support systems. The process and designs employed were effective, yet simple, and maximized the use of current technologies and commercial products.

The digface characterization concept has been under development at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) since fiscal year (FY) 1992 through the support of the Buried Waste Integrated Demonstration Program. A digface characterization system conducts continuous subsurface characterization simultaneously with retrieval of hazardous and radioactive waste from buried waste sites. The system deploys multiple sensors at the retrieval operation digface and collects data that provide a basis for detecting, locating, and classifying buried materials and hazardous conditions before they are disturbed by the retrieval equipment. This test plan describes ongoing efforts to test the digface characterization concept at the INEL`s Cold Test Pit using a simplified prototype deployment apparatus and off-the-shelf sensors. FY-94 field experiments will explore problems in object detection and classification. Detection and classification of objects are fundamental to three of the four primary functions of digface characterization during overburden removal. This test plan establishes procedures for collecting and validating the digface characterization data sets. Analysis of these data will focus on testing and further developing analysis methods for object detection and classification during overburden removal.

This long-term surveillance plan (LTSP) for the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project Collins Ranch disposal site, Lakeview, Oregon, describes the surveillance activities for the disposal cell. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will carry out these activities to ensure that the disposal cell continues to function as designed. This final LTSP was prepared as a requirement for acceptance under the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) general license for custody and long-term care of residual radioactive materials. This LTSP documents whether the land and interests are owned by the United States and details how long-term care of the disposal site will be carried out. It is based on the DOE`s Guidance for Implementing the UMTRA Project Long-term Surveillance Program (DOE, 1992a).

On January 24, 1992, while pressure testing saltwell line SL-119 in the 241-S Tank Farm, water was observed spraying out of heat trace enclosure. The SL-115, SL-116, SN-215, and SN-216 saltwell lines also recently failed pressure testing because of leaks. This study documents the pertinent facts about the SL-119 line and discusses the cause of the failures. The inspection of the SL-119 failure revealed two through-the-wall holes in the top center of the pipeline. The inspection also strongly suggests that the heat tracing system is directly responsible for causing the SL-119 failure. Poor design of the heat tracing system allowed water to enter, condense, and collect in the electric metallic tubing (EMT) carbon steel conduits. Water flowed to the bottom of the elbow of the conduit and corroded out the elbow. The design also allowed drifting desert sand to enter into the conduit and fall to the bottom (elbow) of the conduit. The sand became wet and aided in the corrosion of the elbow of the conduit. After the EMT conduits corroded though, the water dripped from the corroded ends of the EMT conduits onto the top of the saltwell pipe, corroding the two holes into the top of the …

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Free radicals, elemental and van der Waals clusters and transition state species for bimolecular chemical reactions are investigated using anion photoelectron spectroscopy. Several low-lying electronic states of ozone have been identified via photoelectron spectroscopy of O{sub 3}{sup {minus}}. A characterization of these states is important to models for atmospheric ozone reaction kinetics. The fluoroformyloxyl radical, FCO{sub 2}, has been investigated, providing vibrational frequencies and energies for two electronic states. The technique has also been employed to make the first direct observation and characterization of the NNO{sub 2} molecule. Several electronic states are observed for this species which is believed to play a role as a reactive intermediate in the N + NO{sub 2} reaction. The experimental results for all three of these radicals are supplemented by ab initio investigations of their molecular properties. The clusters investigations include studies of elemental carbon clusters (C{sub 2}{sup {minus}} {minus} C{sub 11}{sup {minus}}), and van der Waals clusters (X{sup {minus}}(CO{sub 2}){sub n}, X = I, Br, Cl; n {le} 13 and I{sup {minus}} (N{sub 2}O){sub n=1--11}). Primarily linear clusters are observed for the smaller carbon clusters, while the spectra of the larger clusters contain contribution from cyclic anion photodetachment. Very interesting ion-solvent interactions are …

This test plan describes the activities associated with the High Gradient Magnetic Filtration (HGMF) of plutonium-bearing solutions (10-L). The 10-L solutions were received from Argonne National Laboratories in 1972, are highly acidic, and are considered unstable. The purpose of the testing is to show that HGMF is an applicable method of removing plutonium precipitates from solution. The plutonium then can be stored safely in a solid form.

For many years there has been an active ICF program in the US concentrating on x-ray drive. X-ray drive is produced by focusing laser beams into a high Z hohlraum. Conceptually, the radiation field comes close to thermodynamic equilibrium, that is it becomes isotropic and Planckian. These properties lead to the benefits of x-ray drive--it is relatively easy to obtain drive symmetry on a capsule with no small scalelengths drive perturbations. Other advantages of x-ray drive is the higher mass ablation rate, leading to lower growth rates for hydrodynamic instabilities. X-ray drive has disadvantages, principally the loss of energy to the walls of the hohlraum. This report is divided into the following sections: (1) review of blackbody radiation; (2) laser absorption and conversion to x-rays; (3) x-ray absorption coefficient in matter and Rosseland mean free path; (4) Marshak waves in high Z material; (5) x-ray albedo; and (6) power balance and hohlraum temperature.

The 222-S Laboratory Complex, in the southeast corner of the 200 West Area, consists of the 222-S Laboratory, the 222-SA Standards Laboratory, and several ancillary facilities. Currently, 222-S Laboratory activities are in supporting efforts to characterize the waste stored in the 200 Areas single shell and double shell tanks. Besides this work, the laboratory also provides analytical services for waste-management processing plants, Tank Farms, B Plant, 242-A Evaporator Facility, Plutonium-Uranium Extraction Plant, Plutonium Finishing Plant, Uranium-Oxide Plant, Waste Encapsulation Storage Facility, environmental monitoring and surveillance programs, and activities involving essential materials and research and development. One part of the 222-SA Laboratory prepares nonradioactive standards for the 200 Area laboratories. The other section of the laboratory is used for cold (nonradioactive) process development work and standards preparation. The 219-S Waste Handling Facility has three storage tanks in which liquid acid waste from 222-S can be received, stored temporarily, and neutralized. From this facility, neutralized waste, containing radionuclides, is transferred to the Tank Farms. A 700-gallon sodium-hydroxide supply tank is also located in this facility. This plan provides the methods used to meet the acceptance criteria required by the 204-AR Waste Receiving Facility.