Environmental fate and transport of the toxic air pollutant mercury (Hg) is currently a high-priority regional concern for the INEEL, and national and global concern for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). At the INEEL’s Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC), significant quantities (est. 40 kg/year) of Hg may have been released over 37 years of Environmental Management’s (EM) High-Level Waste (HLW) treatment operations. The EPA is very concerned about the continued global buildup of Hg in the atmosphere and aquatic ecosystems, and has recently invested heavily in Hg research to better understand its complex environmental cycling.1,2 The Environmental Sampling work began in FY99 as a joint INEEL/U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) field research effort to (a) better understand the fate and potential impacts of Hg emissions from the INEEL’s HLW treatment operations (operational component) and (b) contribute at a national level to the scientific understanding of local, regional, and global Hg fate and transport (research component). The USGS contributed snow sampling support in the field (Water Resources Division, Salt Lake City) and laboratory analysis of all samples (Wisconsin District Mercury Research Laboratory).

This report covers the work performed in the first year of a three-year project funded by the USDOE's Subsurface Contaminant Focus Area (SCFA). The objectives of this project are to develop, demonstrate and evaluate, at appropriate field sites, the utility of high frequency seismic imaging methods to detect and characterize non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) contamination in sedimentary and fractured rock aquifers. Field tests consist of crosswell seismic tomography acquired before, during and after any remediation action that would potentially affect fluid distributions. Where feasible, other characterization data is obtained, such as crosswell radar, borehole conductivity and cone penetration testing (CPT). Crosswell data are processed to obtain tomographic images, or two-dimensional distributions, of velocity and attenuation. The interpretation of the tomograms utilizes all available site characterization data to relate the geophysical attributes to lithology and fluid phase heterogeneities. Interpretations are validated by evaluation and testing of field cores. Laboratory tests on core retrieved from surveyed locations are performed to determine the relationships between geophysical parameters and solid and fluid phase composition. In the case of sedimentary aquifers, proof of principle has been demonstrated previously in homogeneous sand-packs at the centimeter and half-meter scale (Geller and Myer, 1995; Geller et al., 2000). …

The purpose of this collaborative Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project is to investigate the suitability of lead or lead-bismuth cooled fast reactors for producing low-cost electricity as well as for actinide burning. The goal is to identify and analyze the key technical issues in core neutronics, materials, thermal-hydraulics, fuels, and economics associated with the development of this reactor concept. Work has been accomplished in four major areas of research: core neutronic design, plant engineering, material compatibility studies, and coolant activation. The publications derived from work on this project (since project inception) are listed in Appendix A.

This report provides an update to the Sodium Bearing Waste (SBW) Technology Development Roadmap generated a year ago. It outlines progress made to date and near-term plans for the technology development work necessary to support processing SBW. In addition, it serves as a transition document to the Risk Management Plan (RMP) required by the Project per DOE Order 413.3, “Program and Project Management for the Acquisition of Capital Assets.” Technical uncertainties have been identified as design basis elements (DBEs) and captured in a technical baseline database. As the risks are discovered, assessed, and mitigated, the status of the DBEs in the database will be updated and tracked to closure.

The Environmental Systems Research Candidates (ESRC) Program ran from April 2000 through September 2001 as part of the Environmental Systems Research and Analysis (ESRA) Program at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). ESRA provides key science and technology to meet the cleanup mission of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (EM), and performs research and development that will help solve current legacy problems and enhance the INEEL’s scientific and technical capability for solving longer-term challenges. This report documents the accomplishments of the ESRC Program. The ESRC Program consisted of 25 tasks subdivided within four research areas.

This report contains a summary of the R&D activities at LBNL on RF cavities for the NLC damping rings during fiscal years 2000/2001. This work is a continuation of the NLC RF system R&D of the previous year [1]. These activities include the further optimization and fine tuning of the RF cavity design for both efficiency and damping of higher-order modes (HOMs). The cavity wall surface heating and stresses were reduced at the same time as the HOM damping was improved over previous designs. Final frequency tuning was performed using the high frequency electromagnetic analysis capability in ANSYS. The mechanical design and fabrication methods have been developed with the goals of lower stresses, fewer parts and simpler assembly compared to previous designs. This should result in substantial cost savings. The cavity ancillary components including the RF window, coupling box, HOM loads, and tuners have been studied in more detail. Other cavity options are discussed which might be desirable to either further lower the HOM impedance or increase the stored energy for reduced transient response. Superconducting designs and the use of external ''energy storage'' cavities are discussed. A section is included in which the calculation method is summarized and its accuracy …

No abstract is available for this document at this time.