The majority of polyphosphazene material research has concentrated on the linear polymer configuration. However, this represents only one of three potential backbone configurations for phosphazenes. Linear polymers are formed either directly from phosphorus and nitrogen containing precursors or from the ring opening polymerization of hexachlorocyclotriphosphazene. Two other backbone structures can be formed from hexachlorocyclotriphosphazene cyclolinear and cyclomatrix. Cyclolinear are the least studied due to synthetic difficulty. Cyclomatrix polymers represent a more facile method for forming non-linear phosphazenes.

The Brookhaven Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) provides the unique opportunity to collide polarized proton beams at a center-of-mass energy of up to 500 GeV and luminosities of up to 2 x 10{sup 32} cm{sup {minus}2} s{sup {minus}1}. Such high luminosity and high energy polarized proton collisions will open up the possibility of studying spin effects in hard processes. However, the acceleration of polarized beams in circular accelerators is complicated by the numerous depolarizing spin resonances. Using a partial Siberian snake and a rf dipole that ensure stable adiabatic spin motion during acceleration has made it possible to accelerate polarized protons to 25 GeV at the Brookhaven AGS. After successful operation of RHIC with gold beams polarized protons from the AGS have been successfully injected into RHIC and accelerated using a full Siberian snakes built from four superconducting helical dipoles. A new high energy proton polarimeter was also successfully commissioned. Operation with two snakes per RHIC ring is planned for next year.

Postirradiation examinations were begun of a series of unrestrained dilute uranium alloy specimens irradiated to exposures up to 13,000 MWD/T in NaK-containing stainless steel capsules. This test, part of a program of development of uranium metal fuels for desalination and power reactors sponsored by the Division of Reactor Development and Technology, has the objective of defining the temperature and exposure limits of swelling resistance of the alloyed uranium. This paper discusses those test results.

This report described promising hydrogen (protium and tritium) stripping results obtained with a Pd/zeolite catalyst at ambient temperature. Preliminary results show 90-99+ percent tritium stripping efficiency may be obtained, with even better performance expected as bed configuration and operating conditions are optimized. These results suggest that portable units with single beds of the Pd/zeolite catalyst may be utilized as ''catalytic absorbers'' to clean up both tritium gas and tritiated water. A cart-mounted prototype stripper utilizing this catalyst has been constructed for testing. This portable stripper has potential applications in maintenance-type jobs such as tritium line breaks. This catalyst can also potentially be utilized in an emergency stripper for the Replacement Tritium Facility.

This report was an integrated study of the physics and chemistry affecting gas injection, from the pore scale to the field scale, and involved theoretical analysis, laboratory experiments and numerical simulation. Specifically, advances were made on streamline-based simulation, analytical solutions to 1D compositional displacements, and modeling and experimental measures of three-phase flow.

To extend experience with uranium metal fuels to the high exposures required for power reactor operation, the Savannah River Laboratory has conducted over several years a series of irradiation tests of small uranium specimens of various alloy compositions in NaK-containing stainless steel capsules. These tests were designed specifically to establish the limits on exposure that could be reached during irradiation of the alloys at various temperatures without swelling and to determine the metallurgical factors that promoted the stability of the alloys. This paper discusses those test results.

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The structure, study topics, straw-man muon collider parameter sets and technical challenges for ''Six-Month Study on High Energy Muon Colliders: Oct'00-Apr'0l'' have been summarized at one month from completion of the study. The extremely high constituent particle energies and luminosities of the parameter sets presented in table 1 continue to suggest that muon colliders could play a central role in exploring and extending the HEP energy frontier. The study has already resulted in encouraging progress in areas such as the final focus lattice design and cost-efficient acceleration.

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This reports summarizes the results of postirradiation examinations of a series of unrestrained dilute uranium alloy specimens irradiated to exposures up to 13,000 MWD/T in NaK-containing stainless steel capsules.

The High Level Waste (HLW) Salt Disposition Systems Engineering Team was formed on March 13, 1998, and chartered to identify options, evaluate alternatives, and recommend a selected alternative(s) for processing HLW salt to a permitted wasteform. This requirement arises because the existing In-Tank Precipitation process at the Savannah River Site, as currently configured, cannot simultaneously meet the HLW production and Authorization Basis safety requirements. This engineering study was performed in four phases. This document provides the technical bases, assumptions, and results of this engineering study.

This report describes batch laboratory experiments performed to determine the relative amounts of uranium incorporated in aluminosilicate structures during synthesis. The findings summarized here are based on laboratory experiments, which involved the synthesis of sodium aluminosilicates (NAS) structures, amorphous, zeolites A and sodalite phases in the presence of depleted uranium and the analytical search for incorporated uranium in NAS internal structures after synthesis. These studies will support the basis for continued operation of evaporators at the Savannah River Site (SRS).

This report describes the rheological results obtained from samples of the sludge slurry, the Sludge Receipt and Adjustment Tank (SRAT) product, and the Slurry Mix Evaporator (SME) product from the Sludge Batch 2 demonstration. This report also presents the weight percent solids measurements density determinations, and pH results.

This item constitutes the final report on ''Visionics: An integrated approach to analysis and design of intelligent machines.'' The report discusses dynamical systems approach to problems in robust control of possibly time-varying linear systems, problems in vision and visually guided control, and, finally, applications of these control techniques to intelligent navigation with a mobile platform. Robust design of a controller for a time-varying system essentially deals with the problem of synthesizing a controller that can adapt to sudden changes in the parameters of the plant and can maintain stability. The approach presented is to design a compensator that simultaneously stabilizes each and every possible mode of the plant as the parameters undergo sudden and unexpected changes. Such changes can in fact be detected by a visual sensor and, hence, visually guided control problems are studied as a natural consequence. The problem here is to detect parameters of the plant and maintain st ability in the closed loop using a ccd camera as a sensor. The main result discussed in the report is the role of perspective systems theory that was developed in order to analyze such a detection and control problem. The robust control algorithms and the visually guided control …

The objective of this project is two-fold. It will demonstrate use of nitrogen as a widely available, cost-effective and environmentally superior injectant for miscible floods. It will also demonstrate the effectiveness of horizontal wellbores in reducing gas breakthrough and cycling. It is expected that the demonstration will lead to implementation of nitrogen injection projects in areas without readily available carbon dioxide sources. Technology transfer will occur throughout the project.

This report has been prepared to provide low-income advocates and other stakeholders information on the energy burden faced by low-income customers and programs designed to alleviate that burden in various states. The report describes programs designed to lower payments, manage arrearages, weatherize and provide other energy efficiency measures, educate consumers, increase outreach to the target It discusses the costs and benefits of the population, and evaluate the programs. various options--to the degree this information is available--and describes attempts to quantify benefits that have heretofore not been quantified. The purpose of this report is to enable the low-income advocates and others to assess the options and design program most suitable for the citizens of their states or jurisdictions. It is not the authors' intent to recommend a particular course of action but, based on our broad experience in the field, to provide the information necessary for others to do so. We would be happy to answer any questions or provide further documentation on any of the material presented herein. The original edition of this report was prepared for the Utah Committee on Consumer Services, pursuant to a contract with the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), to provide information to the Utah …

This study performs an integrated assessment of new technology adoption in the steel industry. New coke, iron, and steel production technologies are discussed, and their economic and environmental characteristics are compared. Based upon detailed plant level data on cost and physical input-output relations by process, this study develops a simple mathematical optimization model of steel process choice. This model is then expanded to a life cycle context, accounting for environmental emissions generated during the production and transportation of energy and material inputs into steelmaking. This life-cycle optimization model provides a basis for evaluating the environmental impacts of existing and new iron and steel technologies. Five different plant configurations are examined, from conventional integrated steel production to completely scrap-based operations. Two cost criteria are used to evaluate technology choice: private and social cost, with the latter including the environmental damages associated with emissions. While scrap-based technologies clearly generate lower emissions in mass terms, their emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are significantly higher. Using conventional damage cost estimates reported in the literature suggests that the social costs associated with scrap-based steel production are slightly higher than with integrated steel production. This suggests that adopting a life-cycle viewpoint can substantially affect …

The Pennsylvania State University, utilizing funds furnished by the U.S. Department of Energy's Biomass Power Program, investigated the installation of a state-of-the-art circulating fluidized bed boiler at Penn State's University Park campus for cofiring multiple biofuels and other wastes with coal, and developing a test program to evaluate cofiring biofuels and coal-based feedstocks. The study was performed using a team that included personnel from Penn State's Energy Institute, Office of Physical Plant, and College of Agricultural Sciences; Foster Wheeler Energy Services, Inc.; Foster Wheeler Energy Corporation; Parsons Energy and Chemicals Group, Inc.; and Cofiring Alternatives. The activities included assessing potential feedstocks at the University Park campus and surrounding region with an emphasis on biomass materials, collecting and analyzing potential feedstocks, assessing agglomeration, deposition, and corrosion tendencies, identifying the optimum location for the boiler system through an internal site selection process, performing a three circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boiler design and a 15-year boiler plant transition plan, determining the costs associated with installing the boiler system, developing a preliminary test program, determining the associated costs for the test program, and exploring potential emissions credits when using the biomass CFB boiler.

The primary goal of the Heavy-Section Steel Irradiation (HSSI) Program is to provide a thorough, quantitative assessment of the effects of neutron irradiation on the material behavior, and in particular the fracture toughness properties, of typical pressure vessel steels as they relate to light-water reactor pressure vessel (RPV) integrity. The program includes studies of the effects of irradiation on the degradation of mechanical and fracture properties of vessel materials augmented by enhanced examinations and modeling of the accompanying microstructural changes. Effects of specimen size; material chemistry; product form and microstructure; irradiation fluence, flux, temperature, and spectrum; and post-irradiation mitigation are being examined on a wide range of fracture properties. This program will also maintain and upgrade computerized databases, calculational procedures, and standards relating to RPV fluence-spectra determinations and embrittlement assessments. Results from the HSSI studies will be incorporated into codes and standards directly applicable to resolving major regulatory issues that involve RPV irradiation embrittlement such as pressurized-thermal shock, operating pressure-temperature limits, low-temperature overpressurization, and the specialized problems associated with low upper-shelf welds. Six technical tasks and one for program management are now contained in the HSSI Program.

We have discovered a novel two-step sintering method that opened up a low temperature processing window within which fully dense nanocrystalline yttrium oxide was obtained with no concurrent grain growth during final-stage sintering. We have developed a new method of processing laminate ceramics using deformation processing in the green state. We have lastly developed a colloidal processing technique to encapsulate biomolecules at ambient, neutral-pH, aqueous conditions.

This document reports advances made on the Penn DOE project focused on using scanning probe measurements at individual interfaces to relate nanometer scale property variation to behavior in ceramic systems. The report body summarizes annual technical accomplishments. (The details are provided in papers referenced in the appendix.) Related collaborative interactions are described, after which the project productivity is reported in terms of human resource development and publications.

Characterization and performance testing of a prototype DWPF Melter No.2 Dome Heater Bus Bar are described. The prototype bus bar was designed to address the design features of the existing system which may have contributed to water leaks on Melter No.1. Performance testing of the prototype revealed significant improvement over the existing design in reduction of both bus bar and heater connection maximum temperature, while characterization revealed a few minor design and manufacturing flaws in the bar. The prototype is recommended as an improvement over the existing design. Recommendations are also made in the area of quality control to ensure that critical design requirements are met.

The homogeneity constraint is currently used by the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) to discriminate compositions that are likely to result in glasses containing glass-in-glass amorphous phase separation from compositions that are likely to be homogeneous. The durability of glasses containing amorphous phase separation can be unpredictable so a phase separation discriminator was developed and implemented as part of the Product Composition Control System (PCCS) to avoid processing unacceptable phase separated glasses in the DWPF. However, implementation of the homogeneity constraint (i.e., the amorphous phase separation discriminator) has resulted in an overly restrictive operating region for the DWPF (i.e., it has limited processing in regions that would have resulted in acceptable glasses being produced). Therefore, studies were initiated to determine if the homogeneity constraint could be eliminated while still allowing processing flexibility for DWPF during sludge-only processing. At the same time, the alternative constraint must not compromise product quality.

Throughout the country the long standing administratively based regulatory structure for determining the cost and service parameters for electric utilities is changing. More and more market elements are coming into the structure. There is a push by many players to eliminate much of the current regulation. For the production side of electricity at least, these players argue that a market approach will do a better n job of pricing power and making it available to customers. However, the electricity industry currently has a large base of investment in power production equipment, some of which may have difficulty competing in a market-based system. What to do about this potentially uneconomic existing investment is an important question receiving a great deal of attention at the policy discussion level. Some argue that if the investment in existing facilities is uneconomic in a new market based system, that is too bad for the owners of the above-market cost facilities, and customers should bear no responsibility to help make those owners whole. Others argue that the owners of above-market cost facilities invested in those facilities in good faith and should not be made to bear the cost of a changing underlying industry structure. The arguments …