FY 2008 Miniature Spherical Retroreflectors – Final Report (open access)

FY 2008 Miniature Spherical Retroreflectors – Final Report

Through the duration of the NNSA Office of Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development (NA-22) Miniature Spherical Retroreflectors lifecycle project, our research team focused on developing solutions to the fabrication bottleneck that has inhibited development and deployment of wide-angle optically interrogated chemical and radiological remote sensing technology. Our team advanced the concept of step-index clad retroreflectors to approximate an optimized, but yet unrealized spherical gradient index design. An intensive numerical simulation effort was undertaken that resulted in optimized step-index optical designs for mid-infrared applications. Geometric optics ray trace modeling was performed to better understand the geometrical dependencies of the miniature spherical retroreflector application. We adopted and advanced the concept of optical cross section, a metric that provides relative performance comparisons between different retroreflector designs and our cross-section analysis demonstrated that our step-index design provided 90% of the range capacity of the ideal spherical index design.
Date: February 1, 2009
Creator: Anheier, Norman C.; Bernacki, Bruce E.; Klymyshyn, Nicholas A.; Krishnaswami, Kannan & Rodriguez, Carmen P.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Safeguards Envelope Progress FY08 (open access)

Safeguards Envelope Progress FY08

The Safeguards Envelope Project met its milestones by creating a rudimentary safeguards envelope, proving the value of the approach on a small scale, and determining the most appropriate path forward. The Idaho Chemical Processing Plant’s large cache of reprocessing process monitoring data, dubbed UBER Data, was recovered and used in the analysis. A probabilistic Z test was used on a Markov Monte Carlo simulation of expected diversion data when compared with normal operating data. The data regarding a fully transient event in a tank was used to create a simple requirement, representative of a safeguards envelope, whose impact was a decrease in operating efficiency by 1.3% but an increase in material balance period of 26%. This approach is operator, state, and international safeguards friendly and should be applied to future reprocessing plants. Future requirements include tank-to-tank correlations in reprocessing facilities, detailed operations impact studies, simulation inclusion, automated optimization, advanced statistics analysis, and multi-attribute utility analysis.
Date: September 1, 2008
Creator: Bean, Robert; Metcalf, Richard & Bevill, Aaron
System: The UNT Digital Library
FY08 VPP Program Evaluation (open access)

FY08 VPP Program Evaluation

The Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) is a recognized third-party certification of worker safety and health program excellence, based on industry best practices that focus on management leadership and employee involvement, as well as other safety and health program elements. This Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) VPP Program Evaluation is the FY-2008 report of the PNNL VPP Steering Committee regarding the status of VPP at PNNL. It is an update of the previous annual report dated January, 2007 and was completed in January 2008. An annual evaluation of the status of VPP is required of all sites that participate in the DOE-VPP. This report provides a detailed summary of the PNNL VPP Steering Committee’s evaluation of program performance and documents both strengths and improvement opportunities related to the various aspects of the VPP model.
Date: January 1, 2008
Creator: Dossett, Sharon D.
System: The UNT Digital Library
FY08 MEMBRANE CHARACTERIZATION REPORT FOR HYBRID SULFUR ELECTROLYZER (open access)

FY08 MEMBRANE CHARACTERIZATION REPORT FOR HYBRID SULFUR ELECTROLYZER

This report summarizes results from all of the membrane testing completed to date at the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) for the sulfur dioxide-depolarized electrolyzer (SDE). Several types of commercially-available membranes have been analyzed for ionic resistance and sulfur dioxide transport including perfluorinated sulfonic acid (PFSA), sulfonated polyether-ketone-ketone (SPEKK), and polybenzimidazole membranes (PBI). Of these membrane types, the poly-benzimidazole membrane, Celtec-L, exhibited the best combination of characteristics for use in an SDE. Several experimental membranes have also been analyzed including hydrated sulfonated Diels-Alder polyphenylenes (SDAPP) membranes from Sandia National Laboratory, perfluorosulfonimide (PFSI) and sulfonated perfluorocyclobutyl aromatic ether (S-PFCB) prepared by Clemson University, hydrated platinum-treated PFSA prepared by Giner Electrochemical Systems (GES) and Pt-Nafion{reg_sign} 115 composites prepared at SRNL. The chemical stability, SO{sub 2} transport and ionic conductivity characteristics have been measured for several commercially available and experimental proton-conducting membranes. Commercially available PFSA membranes such as the Nafion{reg_sign} series exhibited excellent chemical stability and ionic conductivity in sulfur dioxide saturated sulfuric acid solutions. Sulfur dioxide transport in the Nafion{reg_sign} membranes varied proportionally with the thickness and equivalent weight of the membrane. Although the SO{sub 2} transport in the Nafion{reg_sign} membranes is higher than desired, the excellent chemical stability and conductivity makes …
Date: September 1, 2008
Creator: Hobbs, D; Hector Colon-Mercado, H & Elvington, Mark C.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Calibration of an interfacial force microscope for MEMS metrology : FY08-09 activities. (open access)

Calibration of an interfacial force microscope for MEMS metrology : FY08-09 activities.

Progress in MEMS fabrication has enabled a wide variety of force and displacement sensing devices to be constructed. One device under intense development at Sandia is a passive shock switch, described elsewhere (Mitchell 2008). A goal of all MEMS devices, including the shock switch, is to achieve a high degree of reliability. This, in turn, requires systematic methods for validating device performance during each iteration of design. Once a design is finalized, suitable tools are needed to provide quality assurance for manufactured devices. To ensure device performance, measurements on these devices must be traceable to NIST standards. In addition, accurate metrology of MEMS components is needed to validate mechanical models that are used to design devices to accelerate development and meet emerging needs. Progress towards a NIST-traceable calibration method is described for a next-generation, 2D Interfacial Force Microscope (IFM) for applications in MEMS metrology and qualification. Discussed are the results of screening several suitable calibration methods and the known sources of uncertainty in each method.
Date: October 1, 2009
Creator: Houston, Jack E.; Baker, Michael Sean; Crowson, Douglas A.; Mitchell, John Anthony & Moore, Nathan W.
System: The UNT Digital Library
FY08 Annual Report: Amorphous Semiconductors for Gamma Radiation Detection (ASGRAD) (open access)

FY08 Annual Report: Amorphous Semiconductors for Gamma Radiation Detection (ASGRAD)

This is the annual report for an old project funded by NA22. The purpose of the project was to develop amorphous semiconductors for use as radiation detectors. The annual report contains information about the progress made in synthesizing, characterizing, and radiation response testing of these new materials.
Date: February 1, 2009
Creator: Johnson, Bradley R.; Riley, Brian J.; Crum, Jarrod V.; Ryan, Joseph V.; Sundaram, S. K.; McCloy, John S. et al.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Department of Justice (DOJ) Appropriations for FY2008 and FY2009 (open access)

Department of Justice (DOJ) Appropriations for FY2008 and FY2009

This report provides coverage of the FY2009 appropriations cycle for the Department of Justice (DOJ), including FY2008 supplemental appropriations.
Date: August 1, 2008
Creator: Krouse, William J.; Franco, Celinda & James, Nathan
System: The UNT Digital Library
Agriculture and Related Agencies: FY2008 Appropriations (open access)

Agriculture and Related Agencies: FY2008 Appropriations

This report considers the Agriculture and Related Agencies appropriations bill. The report compares and contrasts the Senate and House versions of the bill in terms of budgeting. Both bills provide 7.5 billion dollars less than FY2007.
Date: February 1, 2008
Creator: Monke, Jim
System: The UNT Digital Library
Design Study for a Low-Enriched Uranium Core for the High Flux Isotope Reactor, Annual Report for FY 2008 (open access)

Design Study for a Low-Enriched Uranium Core for the High Flux Isotope Reactor, Annual Report for FY 2008

This report documents progress made during FY 2008 in studies of converting the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) from highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel to low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. Conversion from HEU to LEU will require a change in fuel form from uranium oxide to a uranium-molybdenum alloy. With axial and radial grading of the fuel foil and an increase in reactor power to 100 MW, calculations indicate that the HFIR can be operated with LEU fuel with no degradation in reactor performance from the current level. Results of selected benchmark studies imply that calculations of LEU performance are accurate. Scoping experiments with various manufacturing methods for forming the LEU alloy profile are presented.
Date: March 1, 2009
Creator: Primm, Trent; Chandler, David; Ilas, Germina; Miller, James Henry; Sease, John D & Jolly, Brian C
System: The UNT Digital Library
Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2008 Appropriations (open access)

Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2008 Appropriations

This report is a guide to one of the regular appropriations bills that Congress considers each year.
Date: February 1, 2008
Creator: Smith, Pamela W.; Mayer, Gerald & Skinner, Rebecca R.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Texas Transportation Program Expenditures: 2008 (open access)

Texas Transportation Program Expenditures: 2008

Annual report detailing expenditures by the Texas Department of Transportation during 2008, including the unified transportation program (UTP), turnpike and toll road projects, and some rail facilities, as well as the amount of bonds, public securities, and other funds used for transportation projects.
Date: December 1, 2008
Creator: Texas. Department of Transportation.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Texas Health Professions Council Annual Report: 2008 (open access)

Texas Health Professions Council Annual Report: 2008

Report on the activities of the Health Professions Council for fiscal year 2008, highlighting the organization's accomplishments and budget.
Date: February 1, 2009
Creator: Texas. Health Professions Council.
System: The Portal to Texas History
The Sandia MEMS passive shock sensor : FY08 design summary. (open access)

The Sandia MEMS passive shock sensor : FY08 design summary.

This report summarizes design and modeling activities for the MEMS passive shock sensor. It provides a description of past design revisions, including the purposes and major differences between design revisions but with a focus on Revisions 4 through 7 and the work performed in fiscal year 2008 (FY08). This report is a reference for comparing different designs; it summarizes design parameters and analysis results, and identifies test structures. It also highlights some of the changes and or additions to models previously documented [Mitchell et al. 2006, Mitchell et al. 2008] such as the way uncertainty thresholds are analyzed and reported. It also includes dynamic simulation results used to investigate how positioning of hard stops may reduce vibration sensitivity.
Date: November 1, 2008
Creator: Walraven, Jeremy Allen; Baker, Michael Sean; Clemens, Rebecca C.; Mitchell, John Anthony; Brake, Matthew Robert; Epp, David S. et al.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Sandia MEMS Passive Shock Sensor : FY08 failure analysis activities. (open access)

The Sandia MEMS Passive Shock Sensor : FY08 failure analysis activities.

None
Date: August 1, 2008
Creator: Walraven, Jeremy Allen; Baker, Michael Sean; Clemens, Rebecca C.; Mitchell, John Anthony; Brake, Matthew Robert; Epp, David S. et al.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Sandia MEMS Passive Shock Sensor : FY08 testing for functionality, model validation, and technology readiness. (open access)

The Sandia MEMS Passive Shock Sensor : FY08 testing for functionality, model validation, and technology readiness.

This report summarizes the functional, model validation, and technology readiness testing of the Sandia MEMS Passive Shock Sensor in FY08. Functional testing of a large number of revision 4 parts showed robust and consistent performance. Model validation testing helped tune the models to match data well and identified several areas for future investigation related to high frequency sensitivity and thermal effects. Finally, technology readiness testing demonstrated the integrated elements of the sensor under realistic environments.
Date: October 1, 2008
Creator: Walraven, Jeremy Allen; Blecke, Jill; Baker, Michael Sean; Clemens, Rebecca C.; Mitchell, John Anthony; Brake, Matthew Robert et al.
System: The UNT Digital Library