Over the past thirty years, process control has spread from the chemical industry into the fields of mineral and coal processing. Today, process control computers, combined with improved instrumentation, are capable of effective control in many modem flotation circuits. Unfortunately, the classical methods used in most control strategies have severe limitations when used in froth flotation. For example, the nonlinear nature of the flotation process can cause single-input, single-output lines to battle each other in attempts to achieve a given objective. Other problems experienced in classical control schemes include noisy signals from sensors and the inability to measure certain process variables. For example, factors related to ore type or water chemistry, such as liberation, froth stability, and floatability, cannot be measured by conventional means. The purpose of this project is to demonstrate an advanced control system for fine coal flotation. The demonstration is being carried out at an existing coal preparation plant by a team consisting of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VPI&SU) as the prime contractor and J.A. Herbst and Associates as a subcontractor. The objectives of this work are: (1) to identify through sampling, analysis, and simulation those variables which can be manipulated to maintain grades, recoveries, …

This document presents the results of a life-cycle cost and impacts evaluation of alternatives for managing sludge that will be removed from the K Basins. The two basins are located in the 100-K Area of the Hanford Site. This evaluation was conducted by Fluor Daniel Hanford, Inc. (FDH) and its subcontractors to support decisions regarding the ultimate disposition of the sludge. The long-range plan for the Hanford Site calls for spent nuclear fuel (SNF), sludge, debris, and water to be removed from the K East (KE) and K West (KW) Basins. This activity will be conducted as a removal action under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The scope of the CERCLA action will be limited to removing the SNF, sludge, debris, and water from the basins and transferring them to authorized facilities for interim storage and/or treatment and disposal. The scope includes treating the sludge and water in the 100-K Area prior to the transfer. Alternatives for the removal action are evaluated in a CERCLA engineering evaluation/cost analysis (EE/CA) and include different methods for managing sludge from the KE Basins. The scope of the removal action does not include storing, treating, or disposing of …

This test plan specifies the requirements and conditions for the injection of tracer gases into twelve tanks. Of the twelve tanks only four have been assigned at this time.

Positron annihilation spectroscopy is a sensitive probe for studying the electronic structure of defects in solids. The high momentum part of the Doppler-broadened annihilation spectra can be used to distinguish different elements. This is achieved by using a new two-detector coincidence system and by imposing appropriate kinematic cuts to exclude background events. The new setup improves the peak to background ratio in the annihilation spectrum to {approximately}10{sup 5}. As a result, the line shape variations arising from different core electrons can be studied. The new approach adds elemental specificity to the Doppler broadening technique, and is useful in studying elemental variations around a defect site. Results from several case studies are reviewed.

'Carbon tetrachloride (CCl{sub 4}) has been used extensively within the Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons facilities. Rocky Flats was formerly the largest volume user of CCl{sub 4} in the US, with 5,000 gallons used there in 1977 alone. At the Hanford site, several hundred thousand gallons of CCl{sub 4} were discharged between 1955 and 1973 into underground cribs for storage. Levels of CCl{sub 4} in groundwater at highly contaminated sites at the Hanford. facility have exceeded the drinking water standard of 5 ppb by several orders of magnitude. High levels of CCl{sub 4} at these facilities represent a potential health hazard for workers conducting cleanup operations and for surrounding communities. The level of CCl{sub 4} cleanup required at these sites and associated costs are driven by current human health risk estimates which assume that CCl{sub 4} is a genotoxic carcinogen. The overall purpose of these studies is to improve the scientific basis for assessing the health risk associated with human exposure to CCl{sub 4}. Specifically, the authors will determine the toxicokinetics of inhaled and ingested CCl{sub 4} in F344/Crl rats, B6C3F1 mice, and Syrian hamsters. They will also evaluate species differences in the metabolism of CCl{sub 4} by rats, …

The concept to use a slab as active element, working in zig-zag geometry, and also as Fresnel rhomb, seems to be rather attractive. However, in this case different depolarization effects in active element arc of crucial importance. We have carried out the estimations of depolarization effects arising both due to mechanical loading of an active element at its fastening and due to thermooptical distortions. To check up these rigid requirements to depolarization (0.1 % - 0.01 %) careful measurements of depolarization effects and their sources are being carried out. Mechanical loading gives one of the main contributions in depolarization at fastening of active element. Using model experiments with glass Fresnel rhomb under mechanical loading we have measured depolarization effects. It is proposed to use additional glass plate to compensate beam depolarization in zig-zag slab. The received results allow to expect successful use of the slab amplifier as a Fresnel rhomb providing rather high quality of optical material of active clement.

This Design Review Report (DRR) documents the closure of all Review Cormnent Record sheets associated with the design reviews conducted for the Project W-314 Phase 1 Project Development Specification (PDS) Requirements Analysis. The DRR includes the documented comments and their respective dispositions for the W-314 PDS Requirements Analysis documents associated with Transfer Piping, Valve Pit Manifolds, Pit Leak Detection, Master Pump Shutdown, and Special Protective Coating. Acceptance of the comment dispositions and closure of the review comments is indicated by the Signatures of the participating reviewers.

The chemistry of geothermal, production, and injection fluids at the Dixie Valley Geothermal Field, Nevada, was characterized to address an ongoing scaling problem and to evaluate the effects of reinjection into the reservoir. Fluids generally followed mixing-dilution trends. Recharge to the Dixie Valley system apparently originates from local sources. The low-pressure brine and injection waters were saturated with respect to amorphous silica, which correlated with the ongoing scaling problem. Local shallow ground water contains about 15% geothermal brine mixed with regional recharge. The elevated Ca, Mg, and HCO{sub 3} content of this water suggests that carbonate precipitation may occur if shallow groundwater is reinjected. Downhole reservoir fluids are close to equilibrium with the latest vein mineral assemblage of wairakite-epidote-quartz-calcite. Reinjection of spent geothermal brine is predicted to affect the region near the wellbore differently than it does the region farther away.

The scope of this design requirements document is to identify the functions and associated requirements that must be performed to accept, transport, handle, and store immobilized low-activity waste produced by the privatized Tank Waste Remediation System treatment contractors. The functional and performance requirements in this document provide the basis for the conceptual design of the Tank Waste Remediation System Immobilized low-activity waste interim storage facility project and provides traceability from the program level requirements to the project design activity.

Work includes studies of interface and grain boundary chemistry and structure in silicon nitride matrix/silicon carbide whisker composites, and in monolithic silicon nitride and silicon carbide synthesized by several different methods. Off-stoichiometric, impurity, and sintering aid elemental distributions in these materials (and other ceramics) have been of great interest because of expected effects on properties but these distributions have proven very difficult to measure because the spatial resolution required is high. The authors made a number of these measurements for the first time, using techniques and instrumentation developed here. Interfaces between metals and SiC are the basis for important metal matrix composites and contacts for high temperature SiC-based solid state electronic devices. The authors have investigated ultrapure interfaces between Ti, Hf, Ti-Hf alloys, Pt, and Co and Si-terminated (0001) 6H SiC single crystals for the first time.

The Ferrocyanide Safety Issue at the Hanford Site was officially resolved in December 1996. This paper summarizes the key activities that led to final resolution of this safety hazard, a process that began in 1990 after it and other safety concerns were identified for the underground high-level waste storage tanks at the Hanford Site. At the time little was known about ferrocyanide-nitrate/nitrite reactions and their potential to cause offsite releases of radioactivity. The ferrocyanide hazard was a perceived problem, but it took six years of intense studies and analyses of tank samples to prove that the problem no longer exists. The issue revolved around the fact that ferrocyanide and nitrate mixtures can be made to explode violently if concentrated, dry, and heated to temperatures of at least 250 {degrees}C. The studies conducted over the last six years have shown that the combined effects of temperature, radiation, and pH during 40 or more years of storage have destroyed almost all of the ferrocyanide originally added to tanks. This was shown in laboratory experiments using simulant wastes and confirmed by actual samples taken from the ferrocyanide tanks. The tank waste sludges are now too dilute to support a sustained exothermic reaction, even …

The purpose of this report is to present test data recorded during acceptance testing of the Mobile Color Camera System (MCCS).

This data analysis is to show that weapons grade plutonium is of uniform composition to the standards set by the Waste-Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Transuranic Waste Characterization Quality Assurance Program Plan (TRUW Characterization QAPP, Rev. 2, DOE, Carlsbad Area Office, November 15, 1996). The major portion of Superblock transuranic (TRU) waste is glove-box trash contaminated with weapons grade plutonium. This waste originates in the Building 332 (B332) radioactive-materials area (RMA). Because each plutonium batch brought into the B332 RMA is well characterized with regard to nature and quantity of transuranic nuclides present, waste also will be well characterized without further analytical work, provided the batches are quite similar. A sample data set was created by examining the 41 incoming samples analyzed by Ken Raschke (using a {gamma}-ray spectrometer) for isotopic distribution and by Ted Midtaune (using a calorimeter) for mass of radionuclides. The 41 samples were from separate batches analyzed May 1993 through January 1997. All available weapons grade plutonium data in Midtaune's files were used. Alloys having greater than 50% transuranic material were included. The intention of this study is to use this sample data set to judge ''similarity.''

This safety evaluation for packaging (SEP) document was developed to provide safety evaluations necessary to approve the transfer of the 222-S Cargo Tank from the 222-S Lab to the 204-AR Transfer Station. The SEP demonstrates that the onsite transfer will provide an equivalent degree of safety as would be provided by a package meeting the U.S. Department of Transportation requirements. This fulfills the onsite transportation safety requirements implemented in WHC-CM-2-14, Hazardous Material Packaging and Shipping.

This document summarizes the information on the historical uses, present status, and the sampling and analysis results of waste stored in Tank 241-A-101. This tank has been listed on the Hydrogen Watch List. This report supports the requirements of the Tri-Party Agreement Milestone M-44-10.

The release of {sup 99}Tc can be used as a reliable marker for the extent of spent oxide fuel reaction under unsaturated high-drip-rate conditions at 90{degrees}C. Evidence from leachate data and from scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM) examination of reacted fuel samples is presented for radionuclide release, potential reaction pathways, and the formation of alteration products. In the ATM-103 fuel, 0.03 of the total inventory of {sup 99}Tc is released in 3.7 years under unsaturated and oxidizing conditions. Two reaction pathways that have been identified from SEM are (1) through-grain dissolution with subsequent formation of uranyl alteration products, and (2) grain-boundary dissolution. The major alteration product identified by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and SEM, is Na-boltwoodite, Na[(UO{sub 2})(SiO{sub 3}OH)]{lg_bullet}H{sub 2}O, which is formed from sodium and silicon in the water leachant.

Developing portable and scalable software for the solution of large-scale optimization problems presents many challenges that traditional libraries do not adequately meet. Using object-oriented design in conjunction with other innovative techniques, they address these issues within the SNES (Scalable Nonlinear Equation Solvers) and SUMS (Scalable Unconstrained Minimization Solvers) packages, which are part of the multilevel PETSCs (Portable, Extensible Tools for Scientific computation) library. This paper focuses on the authors design philosophy and its benefits in providing a uniform and versatile framework for developing optimization software and solving large-scale nonlinear problems. They also consider a three-dimensional anisotropic Ginzburg-Landau model as a representative application that exploits the packages' flexible interface with user-specified data structures and customized routines for function evaluation and preconditioning.

A number of X-ray astronomy satellites are scheduled for launch in the next few years. The Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) is scheduled for launch in 1998, and the X-Ray Multi-mirror Mission (XMM) and Astro-E in 1999. These satellites will carry spectrometers with resolving powers in the Fe L-shell emission region over an order of magnitude greater than the spectrometers aboard A CA. Interpreting AXAF, XMM, Astro-E spectra will require atomic data at an accuracy significantly greater than the data presently used in the standard emission codes. To address some of the existing and upcoming needs of X-ray astrophysics, we have continued our studies of Fe XXIV line emission. In this work, we measured Fe XXIV 3{yields}2 line emission at energies around threshold, using EBIT to examine the resonance contributions to the line emissivity. Here we present relative cross sections, at electron energies between 700 and 1500 eV, for producing line emission at wavelength A = 11.18 of the Fe XXIV 3d{sub 5/2}{yields}2P{sub 3} transition. Various processes can contribute to line emission observed from a collisional plasma. Direct excitation (DE) is the most important one at energies above the EIE threshold. Below threshold, Dielectronic recombination (DR) produces high n satellites …

'A new concept for a chemical sensor that demonstrates three modes of selectivity (electrochemistry, spectroscopy, and selective partitioning) is being developed. The spectroelectrochemical sensor consists of an optically transparent electrode (OTE) coated with a selective film. Sensing is based on the change in optical signal of light passing through the OTE that accompanies an electrochemical reaction of the analyte at the electrode surface. Thus, for an analyte to be detected, it must partition into the selective coating, be electrolyzed at the potential applied to the electrode, and either the analyte or its electrolysis product must absorb light at the wavelength chosen. Selectivity for the analyte relative to other solution components is obtained by choice of coating material, electrolysis potential, and wavelength for optical monitoring. The purpose of this new sensor is to significantly broaden the applicability of sensors to real samples by improving selectivity. This high level of selectivity is to be achieved without any fragile biocomponent. The concept is to be demonstrated with a sensor for ferrocyanide.'

Radiological and toxicological consequences of spray leak accidents in Hanford liquid waste tank farm pits were previously estimated and reported in WHC-SD- WM-CN-048 Rev 1, Calculation Notes in Support of TWRS FSAR Spray Leak Accident Analysis (Hall 1996a) in support of the Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR). The present document contains revised analyses incorporating more realistic assumptions and accident models than the previous document. In addition, several refinements in the analysis models suggested during the review of WHC-SD-CN-048 were investigated. Refinements which proved to have a significant effect on the results were included in the present analysis.

The spheromak is a Magnetic Fusion Energy (MFE) configuration, which is a leading alternative to the tokamak. It has a simple geometry which offers an opportunity to achieve the promise of fusion energy if the physics of confinement, current drive, and pressure holding capability extrapolate favorably to a reactor. Recent changes in the US MFE program, taken in response to budget constraints and programmatic directions from Congress, include a revitalization of an experimental alternative concept effort. Detailed studies of the spheromak were consequently undertaken to examine the major physics issues which need to be resolved to advance it as a fusion plasma, the optimum configuration for an advanced experiment, and its potential as a reactor. As a result of this study, we conclude that it is important to evaluate several physics issues experimentally. Such an experiment might be appropriately be named the Sustained Spheromak Physics Experiment (SSPX). It would address several critical issues, the solution to which will provide the physics basis to enable an advanced experiment. The specific scientific goals of SSPX would be to: * Demonstrate that electron and ion temperatures of a few hundred electron volts can be achieved in a steady-state spheromak plasma sustained by a …

The authors report the results of an inelastic neutron scattering experiment on nearly-percolating Heisenberg antiferromagnets (RbMn{sub c}Mg{sub 1{minus}o}F{sub 3}), in which the Mn concentrations (C = 0.31, 0.34 and 0.39) are very close to the percolation threshold (c{sub p} = 0.312). A broad peak superimposed on Ising-cluster excitations was observed throughout the Brillouin zone. The intensity of a broad peak increased on approaching the percolation threshold. The origin of this broad peak is attributed to the excitation of fractons in a percolating network.

A study was undertaken to evaluate a variety of materials and coatings for the DWPF pour spout bellows liner. The intent was to identify materials that would minimize or eliminate adherence of glass on the bellows liner wall and help minimize possible pluggage during glass pouring operations in DWPF. Glass has been observed adhering to the current bellow`s liner, which is made of 304L stainless steel. Materials were identified which successfully allowed molten glass to hit these surfaces and not adhere. Results of this study suggest that if these materials are used in the pouring system glass could still fall into the canister without appreciable plugging, even if an unstable glass stream is produced. The materials should next be evaluated under the most realistic DWPF conditions possible. Other findings of this study include the following: (1) increasing coupon thickness produced a favorable increase in the glass sticking temperature; (2) highly polished surfaces, with the exception of the oxygen-free copper coupon coated with Armoloy dense chromium, did not produce a significant improvement in the glass sticking temperature, increasing angle of contact of the coupon to the falling glass did not yield a significant performance improvement; (3) electroplating with gold and silver …

Soil waste is generated from Tank Farms and associated Tank Farms facilities operations. The soil is a mixed waste because it is an environmental media which contains tank waste, a listed mixed waste. The soil is designated with the listed waste codes (FOO1 through F005) which have been applied to all tank wastes. The scope of this report includes Tank Farms soil managed under the Backlog program. The Backlog Tank Farm soil in storage consists of drums and 5 boxes (originally 828 drums). The Backlog Waste Program dealt with 2276 containers of solid waste generated by Tank Farms operations during the time period from 1989 through early 1993. The containers were mismanaged by being left in the field for an extended period of time without being placed into permitted storage. As a corrective action for this situation, these containers were placed in interim storage at the Central Waste Complex (CWC) pending additional characterization. The Backlog Waste Analysis Plan (BWAP) (RL 1993) was written to define how Backlog wastes would be evaluated for proper designation and storage. The BWAP was approved in August 1993 and all work required by the BWAP was completed by July 1994. This document presents results of …