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A imaging detector has been developed for the purpose of providing a non-destructive, real time method of determining tritium concentrations on the surface of internal TFTR vacuum vessel components. The detector employs a green phosphor screen (P31, zinc sulfide: copper) with a wave length peak of 530 nm, a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera linked to a computer, and a detection chamber for inserting components recovered from the vacuum vessel. This detector is capable of determining tritium concentrations on the surfaces. The detector provides a method of imaging tritium deposition on the surfaces in a fairly rapid fashion.

The L-Area cavitation test was designed to better define the onset of cavitation in the reactor system. The onset of gas evolution in the effluent piping and pump cavitation was measured using state-of-the-art equipment to provide data with a high confidence and low uncertainty level. The limits calculated from the new data will allow an approximate two percent increase in reactor power if the reactor is effluent temperature-limited with no compromise in reactor safety.

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This report describes the application of a vapor transportation model to fission product release data obtained for uranium/aluminum alloy fuel during early Oak Ridge fuel melt experiments. The Oak Ridge data validates the vapor transpiration model and suggests that iodine and cesium are released from the molten fuel surface in elemental form while tellurium and ruthenium are released as oxides. Cesium iodide is postulated to form in the vapor phase outside of the fuel matrix. Kinetic data indicates that cesium iodide can form from Cs atoms and diatomic iodine in the vapor phase. Temperatures lower than those capable of melting fuel are necessary in order to maintain a sufficient I2 concentration. At temperatures near the fuel melting point, cesium can react with iodine atoms to form CsI only on solid surfaces such as aerosols.

This report discusses results of the plutonium trifluoride two-stage precipitation study. A series of precipitation experiments was used to identify the significant process variables affecting precipitation performance. A mathematical model of the precipitation process was developed which is based on the formation of plutonium fluoride complexes. The precipitation model relates all process variables, in a single equation, to a single parameter which can be used to control the performance of the plutonium trifluoride precipitation process. Recommendations have been made which will optimize the FB-Line plutonium trifluoride precipitation process.

One eight-stage unit (8-pack) of centrifugal contactors was tested in both extraction and stripping modes. Efficiencies approaching 100 percent were obtained in both modes. The contactors were operated successfully at a wide range of combined flow rates, including the HEF conditions. This report discusses the results of that test.

This study investigated natural convection and boiling as a means of cooling SRP reactors in the event of a loss of circulation accident. These studies show that single phase natural convection cooling of SRP reactors in shutdown conditions with the present piping geometry is probably not feasible.

The model validation described in this document indicates that the methods described here and by Cooper (1984) for predicting the performance of the proposed L-Area cooling lake are reliable. Extensive observations from the Par Pond system show that lake surface temperatures exceeding 32.2 degrees C (90 degrees F) are attained occasionally in the summer in areas where there is little or no heating from the P-Area Reactor. Regulations which restrict lake surface temperatures to less than 32.2 degrees C should be structured to allow for these naturally-occurring thermal excursions.

Advancing accelerator designs and technology to achieve the highest energies has enabled remarkable discoveries in particle physics. This report presents the results of a design study for a new collider at Fermilab that will create exceptional opportunities for particle physics--a two-stage very large hadron collider. In its first stage, the machine provides a facility for energy-frontier particle physics research, at an affordable cost and on a reasonable time scale. In a second-stage upgrade in the same tunnel, the VLHC offers the possibility of reaching 100 times the collision energy of the Tevatron. The existing Fermilab accelerator complex serves as the injector, and the collision halls are on the Fermilab site. The Stage-1 VLHC reaches a collision energy of 40 TeV and a luminosity comparable to that of the LHC, using robust superferric magnets of elegant simplicity housed in a large-circumference tunnel. The Stage-2 VLHC, constructed after the scientific potential of the first stage has been fully realized, reaches a collision energy of at least 175 TeV with the installation of high-field magnets in the same tunnel. It makes optimal use of the infrastructure developed for the Stage-1 machine, using the Stage-1 accelerator itself as the injector. The goals of this …

The Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order was entered into by the State of Nevada, US Department of Energy, and US Department of Defense to identify sites of potential historical contamination and implement corrective actions based on public health and environmental considerations. The facilities subject to this agreement include the Nevada Test Site (NTS), parts of the Tonopah Test Range, parts to the Nellis Air Force Range, the Central Nevada Test Area, and the Project Shoal Area. Corrective Action Sites (CASs) are areas potentially requiring corrective actions and may include solid waste management units, individual disposal, or release sites. Based on geography, technical similarity, agency responsibility, or other appropriate reasons, CASs are grouped together into Corrective Action Units (CAUs) for the purpose of determining appropriate corrective actions. This report contains the Closure Verification Forms for cleanup activities that were performed at 19 CASs with in CAU 119 on the NTS. The form for each CAS provides the location, directions to the site, general description, and photographs of the site before and after cleanup activities. Activities included verification of the prior removal of both aboveground and underground gas/oil storage tanks, gas sampling tanks, pressure fuel tanks, tank stands, trailers, debris, and …

The eRHIC BNL summer meeting was held at BNL from June 26 to July 14, 2000. The meeting was very informal with only two talks a day and with ample time for discussions and collaborations. Several of the theory talks focused on the issue of saturation of parton distributions at small x--whether screening effects have already been seen at HERA, the relation of saturation to shadowing, and on the various signatures of a proposed novel state of matter--the Colored Glass Condensate--that may be observed at eRHIC. A related topic that was addressed was that of quantifying twist four effects, and on the relevance of these for studies of energy loss. Other issues addressed were coherence effects in vector meson production, anti-quark distributions in nuclei, and the relevance of saturation for heavy ion collisions. There were, also, talks on the Pomeron--the relevance of instantons and the non-perturbative gluon condensate to constructing a Pomeron. On the spin physics side, there were talks on predictions for inclusive distributions at small x. There were also talks on Skewed Parton Distributions and Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering. Though most of the talks were theory talks, there were also several important experimental contributions. A preliminary detector design …

Thermoelastic response of liquid metal targets exposed to high-volumetric-energy deposition in times shorter than the target hydrodynamic response time (i.e., sound travel time) is of interest to several research areas, including first walls of fusion reactors (especially inertially confined fusion reactors), targets for high-power accelerators such as the Spallation Neutron Source, muon collider targets, etc. Under conditions that exist in these reactors, accelerators, etc., the deposited energy is considered instant in time from the hydrodynamic point of view. Because thermal heat conduction requires a longer than instant response time for energy redistribution, only hydrodynamic phenomena should be taken into account when modeling and simulating the fragmentation of suddenly heated liquid metal jets. Sudden energy deposition causes an instant rise in temperature that leads to a corresponding rise in the thermal pressure that causes excitation of sound waves, i.e., shock waves and rarefaction waves. During this excitation of sound waves, pressure oscillates with magnitude {+-} {Delta}P that corresponds to an initial thermal pressure of tens of katm. Liquids are frequently observed to withstand significant negative pressures (hydrostatic tensile stresses). Yet, a liquid subjected to a negative pressure is metastable. The formation and behavior of cavities (empty voids) under negative pressures was …

An assessment has been made of the environmental effects that would occur from the operation of cooling towers at the SRP reactors. A more realistic numerical model of the cooling tower plume has been used to reassess the environmental impacts. The following effects were considered: (1) the occurrence of fog and ice and their impact on nearby structures, (2) drift and salt deposition from the plume, (3) the length and height of the visible plume, and (4) the possible dose from tritium.

Introduction - This procedure provides instructions for assembling the following CH packaging payload: -Drum payload assembly -Standard Waste Box (SWB) assembly -Ten-Drum Overpack (TDOP).

The authors evaluated the usefulness of nanoscale boehmite crystals as a filler for anti-wear and anti-corrosion polyphenylenesulfide (PPS) coatings exposed to a very harsh, 300 C corrosive geothermal environment. The boehmite fillers dispersed uniformly into the PPS coating, conferring two advanced properties: First, they reduced markedly the rate of blasting wear; second, they increased the PPS's glass transition temperature and thermal decomposition temperature. The wear rate of PPS surfaces was reduced three times when 5wt% boehmite was incorporated into the PPS. During exposure for 15 days at 300 C, the PPS underwent hydrothermal oxidation, leading to the substitution of sulfide linkages by the sulfite linkages. However, such molecular alteration did not significantly diminish the ability of the coating to protect carbon steel against corrosion. In fact, PPS coating filled with boehmite of {le} 5wt% adequately mitigated its corrosion in brine at 300 C. One concern in using this filler was that it absorbs brine. Thus, adding an excess amount of boehmite was detrimental to achieving the maximum protection afforded by the coatings.

The primary objective of this research is to identify the age strengthening mechanism in gray and ductile cast iron, and to quantify the parameters that control it. It is also to contribute to a new predictive model for gray and ductile iron strength and hardness. This work shows that age strengthening occurs on a sigmoidal-logarithmic scale in gray and ductile cast irons, to a statistically significant extent. This is similar to Avrami-Johnson-Mehl kinetics for phase transformations in metals. It occurs in both cupola-melted iron and induction melted iron. However, it does not happen in all compositions. We have developed some understanding of the process. Data suggests that nitrogen and nitride-forming trace elements have a significant role in the process, but that is yet not fully characterized. Also, the time dependence of the bulk hardness and strength increase, the nano-scale precipitation evidence from neutron scattering, differential scanning calorimetry results and matrix micro-hardness increase in ferrite all indicate that age strengthening occurs by a precipitation or pre-precipitate cluster formation mechanism.

The National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) is a low aspect ratio (R/a approximately equal to 1.3) device with auxiliary heating from neutral beam injection (NBI) and high harmonic fast wave (HHFW) heating. Typical NSTX parameters are R(sub)0 = 85 cm, a = 67 cm, I(sub)p less than or equal to 1.5 MA, B(sub)T = 0.3-0.6 T. Three co-directed deuterium neutral beam sources have injected P(sub)NB less than or equal to 6.2 MW at energies E(sub)b less than or equal to 100 keV. HHFW heating has delivered up to P(sub)RF approximately equal to 6 MW to deuterium and helium plasmas.

The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether nitrated organic compounds could be formed during operation of the Caustic-Side Solvent Extraction (CSSX) process, and whether such compounds would present a safety concern. The CSSX process was developed to remove cesium from alkaline high-level salt waste stored at the US Department of Energy Savannah River Site (SRS). The solvent is composed of the cesium extractant calix[4]arene-bis-(4-tert-octylbenzo-crown-6) (BOBCalixC6), a fluorinated alcohol phase modifier, tri-n-octylamine (TOA), and an isoparaffinic diluent (Iospar{reg_sign}). During the CSSX process, the solvent is expected to be exposed to high concentrations of nitrate and nitrite dissolved in the alkaline waste feed. The solvent will also be exposed to dilute (50 mM) nitric acid solutions containing low concentrations of nitrite during scrubbing, followed by stripping with 1 mM nitric acid. The solvent is expected to last for one year of plant operation, and the temperatures the solvent may experience during the process could range from as low as 15 C to as high as 35 C. Excursions from standard process conditions could result in the solvent experiencing higher temperatures, as well as concentrations of nitrate, nitrite, and most importantly nitric acid, that exceed normal operating conditions. Accordingly, conditions may …

The Fuel Retrieval System (FRS) Process Validation Procedure (Stegen 2000) requires that a specified quantity of fuel processed through the Primary Cleaning Machine (PCM) be inspected for cleanliness during initial operational and process validation testing. Specifically these inspections are performed to confirm that the PCM adequately cleans the fuel elements of canister sludge. The results of these inspections will be used to demonstrate that residual quantities of canister particulate on fuel elements loaded into Multi-Canister Overpacks (MCOs) are within projected levels used to establish safety basis limits (Sloughter 2000). The fuel inspections performed as part of the validation process will be conducted during the Hot Operations portion of the Phased Startup Initiative (PSI) of the Fuel Retrieval and Integrated Water Treatment Systems (Pajunen 2000). Hot Operations testing constitutes Phases 3 and 4 of PSI. The fuel assemblies in all candidate canisters will be thoroughly inspected during these test phases (highly degraded fuel assemblies that qualify as scrap are exempt from inspection). During subsequent production operation of the FRS, only periodic inspections for cleanliness will be performed and documented. This document describes the specific processes and techniques that will be applied in performing the cleanliness inspections, and the methodology used to …

Washability analysis is the basis for nearly all coal preparation plant separations. Unfortunately, there are no on- line techniques for determining this most fundamental of all coal cleaning information. In light of recent successes at the University of Utah, it now appears possible to determine coal washability on-line through the use of x-ray computed tomography (CT) analysis. The successful development of such a device is critical to the establishment of process control and automated coal blending systems. In this regard, Virginia Tech, Terra Tek Inc., and U.S. coal producers have joined with the University of Utah and to undertake the development of an X-ray CT-based on- line coal washability analyzer with financial assistance from DOE. Each project participant brought special expertise to the project in order to create a new dimension in coal cleaning technology. The project involves development of appropriate software and extensive testing/evaluation of well-characterized coal samples from operating coal preparation plants. Data collected to date suggest that this new technology is capable of serving as a universal analyzer that can not only provide washability analysis, but also particle size distribution analysis, ash analysis, and perhaps pyritic sulfur analysis.

This report reviews all potentially available Yucca Mountain Project (YMP) data in the Technical Data Management System and compiles all relevant qualified data, including data qualified by this report, on elastic properties, Poisson's ratio and Young's modulus, into a single summary Data Tracking Number (DTN) MO0304DQRIRPPR.002. Since DTN MO0304DQRIRPPR.002 was compiled from both qualified and unqualified sources, this report qualifies the DTN in accordance with AP-SIII.2Q. This report also summarizes the individual test results in MO0304DQRIRPPR.002 and provides summary values using descriptive statistics for Poisson's ratio and Young's modulus in a Reference Information Base Data Item. This report found that test conditions such as temperature, saturation, and sample size could influence test results. The largest influence, however, is the lithologic variation within the tuffs themselves. Even though the summary DTN divided the results by lithostratigrahic units within each formation, there was still substantial variation in elastic properties within individual units. This variation was attributed primarily to the presence or absence of lithophysae, fractures, alteration, pumice fragments, and other lithic clasts within the test specimens as well as changes in porosity within the units. As a secondary cause, substantial variations can also be attributed to test conditions such as the type …

The primary objective of the Monitored Geologic Repository Project Description Document (PDD) is to allocate the functions, requirements, and assumptions to the systems at Level 5 of the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management System (CRWMS) architecture identified in Section 4. It provides traceability of the requirements to those contained in Section 3 of the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project Requirements Document (YMP RD) (YMP 2001a) and other higher-level requirements documents. In addition, the PDD allocates design related assumptions to work products of non-design organizations. The document provides Monitored Geologic Repository (MGR) technical requirements in support of design and performance assessment in preparing for the Site Recommendation (SR) and License Application (LA) milestones. The technical requirements documented in the PDD are to be captured in the System Description Documents (SDDs) which address each of the systems at Level 5 of the CRWMS architecture. The design engineers obtain the technical requirements from the SDDs and by reference from the SDDs to the PDD. The design organizations and other organizations will obtain design related assumptions directly from the PDD. These organizations may establish additional assumptions for their individual activities, but such assumptions are not to conflict with the assumptions in the PDD. The PDD …

In this semi-annual progress report, we describe research results from an ongoing study of fossil hydrogen energy systems with CO{sub 2} sequestration. This work was performed under NETL Award No. DE-FC26-02NT41623, during the six-month period September 2002 through March 2003. The primary objective of the study is to better understand system design issues and economics for a large-scale fossil energy system co-producing H{sub 2} and electricity with CO{sub 2} sequestration. This is accomplished by developing analytic and simulation methods for studying the entire system in an integrated way. We examine the relationships among the different parts of a hydrogen energy system, and attempt to identify which variables are the most important in determining both the disposal cost of CO{sub 2} and the delivered cost of H{sub 2}. A second objective is to examine possible transition strategies from today's energy system toward one based on fossil-derived H{sub 2} and electricity with CO{sub 2} sequestration. We are carrying out a geographically specific case study of development of a fossil H{sub 2} system with CO{sub 2} sequestration, for the Midwestern United States, where there is presently substantial coal conversion capacity in place, coal resources are plentiful and potential sequestration sites in deep saline …