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The Hanford Site requested, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 10 approved, a Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (TSCA) risk-based disposal approval (RBDA) for solidifying approximately four cubic meters of waste from a specific area of one of the K East Basin: the North Loadout Pit (NLOP). The NLOP waste is a highly radioactive sludge that contained polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) regulated under TSCA. The prescribed disposal method for liquid PCB waste under TSCA regulations is either thermal treatment or decontamination. Due to the radioactive nature of the waste, however, neither thermal treatment nor decontamination was a viable option. As a result, the proposed treatment consisted of solidifying the material to comply with waste acceptance criteria at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WPP) in Carlsbad, New Mexico, or possibly the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility at the Hanford Site, depending on the resulting transuranic (TRU) content of the stabilized waste. The RBDA evaluated environmental risks associated with potential airborne PCBs. In addition, the RBDA made use of waste management controls already in place at the treatment unit. The treatment unit, the T Plant Complex, is a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA)-permitted facility used for storing and …

Diffuse {gamma}-ray emission produced by the interaction of cosmic-ray particles with matter and radiation in the Galaxy can be used to probe the distribution of cosmic rays and their sources in different regions of the Galaxy. With its large field of view and long observation time, the Milagro Gamma Ray Observatory is an ideal instrument for surveying large regions of the Northern Hemisphere sky and for detecting diffuse {gamma}-ray emission at very high energies. Here, the spatial distribution and the flux of the diffuse {gamma}-ray emission in the TeV energy range with a median energy of 15 TeV for Galactic longitudes between 30{sup o} and 110{sup o} and between 136{sup o} and 216{sup o} and for Galactic latitudes between -10{sup o} and 10{sup o} are determined. The measured fluxes are consistent with predictions of the GALPROP model everywhere except for the Cygnus region (l {element_of} [65{sup o}, 85{sup o}]). For the Cygnus region, the flux is twice the predicted value. This excess can be explained by the presence of active cosmic ray sources accelerating hadrons which interact with the local dense interstellar medium and produce gamma rays through pion decay.

Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) is a new combustion technology that may develop as an alternative to diesel engines with high efficiency and low NOx and particulate matter emissions. This paper describes the HCCI research activities being currently pursued at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and at the University of California Berkeley. Current activities include analysis as well as experimental work. On analysis, we have developed two powerful tools: a single zone model and a multi-zone model. The single zone model has proven very successful in predicting start of combustion and providing reasonable estimates for peak cylinder pressure, indicated efficiency and NOX emissions. This model is being applied to develop detailed engine performance maps and control strategies, and to analyze the problem of engine startability. The multi-zone model is capable of very accurate predictions of the combustion process, including HC and CO emissions. The multi-zone model h as applicability to the optimization of combustion chamber geometry and operating conditions to achieve controlled combustion at high efficiency and low emissions. On experimental work, we have done a thorough evaluation of operating conditions in a 4-cylinder Volkswagen TDI engine. The engine has been operated over a wide range of conditions by adjusting the …

The Department of Energy (DOE) operates many nuclear facilities on large complexes across the United States in support of national defense. The operation of these many and varied facilities and processes require meteorological support for many purposes, including: for routine operations, to respond to severe weather events, such as lightning, tornadoes and hurricanes, to support the emergency response functions in the event of a release of materials to the environment, for engineering baseline and safety documentation, as well as hazards assessments etc. This paper describes a program of meteorological support to the Savannah River Site, a DOE complex located in South Carolina.

Modern HENP experiments such as CMS and Atlas involve as many as 2000 collaborators around the world. Collaborations this large will be unable to meet often enough to support working closely together. Many of the tools currently available for collaboration focus on heavy-weight applications such as videoconferencing tools. While these are important, there is a more basic need for tools that support connecting physicists to work together on an ad hoc or continuous basis. Tools that support the day-to-day connectivity and underlying needs of a group of collaborators are important for providing light-weight, non-intrusive, and flexible ways to work collaboratively. Some example tools include messaging, file-sharing, and shared plot viewers. An important component of the environment is a scalable underlying communication framework. In this paper we will describe our current progress on building a dynamic and ad hoc collaboration environment and our vision for its evolution into a HENP collaboration environment.

Ultraviolet resonance Raman spectroscopy (UVRRS) using 244nm excitation was used to investigate the impact of aging on humandentin. The intensity of a spectroscopic feature from the peptide bondsin the collagen increases with tissue age, similar to a finding reportedpreviously for human cortical bone.

Energy use and environmental parameters were monitored in two small (14.9 m{sup 2}) non-residential buildings during the summer of 2000. The buildings were initially monitored for about 1 1/2 months to establish a base condition. The roofs of the buildings were then painted with a white coating and the monitoring was continued. The original solar reflectivities of the roofs were about 26%; after the application of roof coatings the reflectivities increased to about 72%. The monitored electricity savings were about 0.5kWh per day (33 Wh/m2 per day). The estimated annual savings are about 125kWh per year (8.4 kWh/m2); at a cost of $0.1/kWh, savings are about $0.86/m2 per year. Obviously, it costs significantly more than this amount to coat the roofs with reflective coating, particularly because of the remote locations of these buildings. However, since the prefabricated roofs are already painted green at the factory, painting them a white (reflective) color would bring no additional cost. Hence, a reflective roof saves energy at no incremental cost.

Data on materials and surface types that comprise a city, i.e. urban fabric, are needed in order to estimate the effects of light-colored surfaces (roofs and pavements) and urban vegetation (trees, grass, shrubs) on the meteorology and air quality of a city. We discuss the results of a semi-automatic statistical approach used to develop data on surface-type distribution and urban-fabric makeup using aerial color orthophotography, for four metropolitan areas of Chicago, IL, Houston, TX, Sacramento, CA, and Salt Lake City, UT. The digital high resolution (0.3 to 0.5-m) aerial photographs for each of these metropolitan areas covers representative urban areas ranging from 30 km{sup 2} to 52 km{sup 2}. Major land-use types examined included: commercial, residential, industrial, educational, and transportation. On average, for the metropolitan areas studied, vegetation covers about 29-41% of the area, roofs 19-25%, and paved surfaces 29-39%. For the most part, trees shade streets, parking lots, grass, and sidewalks. At ground level, i.e., view from below the tree canopies, vegetation covers about 20-37% of the area, roofs 20-25%, and paved surfaces 29-36%.

Modification of urban albedos reduces summertime urban temperatures, resulting in a better urban air quality and building air-conditioning savings. Furthermore, increasing urban albedos has the added benefit of reflecting some of the incoming global solar radiation and countering to some extent the effects of global warming. In many urban areas, pavements and roofs constitute over 60% of urban surfaces (roof 20-25%, pavements about 40%). Using reflective materials, both roof and the pavement albedos can be increased by about 0.25 and 0.10, respectively, resulting in a net albedo increase for urban areas of about 0.1. Many studies have demonstrated building cooling-energy savings in excess of 20% upon raising roof reflectivity from an existing 10-20% to about 60% (a U.S. potential savings in excess of $1 billion (B) per year in net annual energy bills). On a global basis, our preliminary estimate is that increasing the world-wide albedos of urban roofs and paved surfaces will induce a negative radiative forcing on the earth equivalent to removing {approx} 22-40 Gt of CO{sub 2} from the atmosphere. Since, 55% of the emitted CO{sub 2} remains in the atmosphere, removal of 22-40 Gt of CO{sub 2} from the atmosphere is equivalent to reducing global CO{sub …

The evaporation of a range of synthetic pore water solutions representative of the potential high-level-nuclear-waste repository at Yucca Mountain, NV is being investigated. The motivation of this work is to understand and predict the range of brine compositions that may contact the waste containers from evaporation of pore waters, because these brines could form corrosive thin films on the containers and impact their long-term integrity. A relatively complex synthetic Topopah Spring Tuff pore water was progressively concentrated by evaporation in a closed vessel, heated to 95 C in a series of sequential experiments. Periodic samples of the evaporating solution were taken to determine the evolving water chemistry. According to chemical divide theory at 25 C and 95 C our starting solution should evolve towards a high pH carbonate brine. Results at 95 C show that this solution evolves towards a complex brine that contains about 99 mol% Na{sup +} for the cations, and 71 mol% Cl{sup -}, 18 mol% {Sigma}CO{sub 2}(aq), 9 mol% SO{sub 4}{sup 2-} for the anions. Initial modeling of the evaporating solution indicates precipitation of aragonite, halite, silica, sulfate and fluoride phases. The experiments have been used to benchmark the use of the EQ3/6 geochemical code in …

Planetary objects have preserved various amounts of oxygen issued from isotopically different oxygen reservoirs reflecting their origin and physico-chemical history. An {sup 16}O-rich component is preserved in refractory inclusions (CAIs) whereas meteorites matrices are enriched in an {sup 16}O-poor component. The origin of these components is still unclear. The most recent models are based on isotope selective photodissociation of CO in a {sup 16}O-rich nebula/presolr cloud resulting in a {sup 16}O-poor gas in the outer part of the nebula. However because most meteorite components are thought to be formed in the inner 3AU of the solar nebula, the precise isotopic composition of outer solar system components is yet unknown. In that respect, the oxygen isotopic composition of cometary dust is a key to understand the origin of the solar system. The Stardust mission will bring back to the Earth dust samples from comet Wild2, a short period comet from the Jupiter family. A precise determination of the oxygen isotope composition of Wild2 dust grains is essential to decipher the oxygen reservoirs of the outer solar system. However, Stardust samples may be extremely fragmented upon impact in the collector. In addition, interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) collected in the stratosphere are likely …

This article discusses the solubility of budesonide, hydrocortisone, and prednisolone in ethanol and water mixtures at 298.2 K.

The second stage of the FERMI FEL, named FEL-2, is based on the principle of high-gain harmonic generation and relies on a double-seeded cascade. Recent developments stimulated a revision of the original setup, which was designed to cover the spectral range between 40 and 10 nm. The numerical simulations we present here show that the nominal (expected) electron-beam performance allows extension of the FEL spectral range down to 4 nm. A significant amount of third harmonic power can be also expected. We also show that the proposed setup is flexible enough for exploiting future developments of new seed sources, e.g., high harmonic generation in gases.

Temperature dependent extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectra were measured for a 3.3 at. % Ga stabilized Pu alloy over the range T= 20 - 300 K. EXAFS data were acquired at both the Ga K-edge and the Pu L{sub III} edge. Curve-fits were performed to the first shell interactions to obtain pair-distance distribution widths, {sigma}, as a function of temperature. The temperature dependence of {sigma}(T) was accurately modeled using a correlated-Debye model for the lattice vibrational properties, suggesting Debye-like behavior in this material. Using this formalism, we obtain pair-specific correlated-Debye temperatures, {Theta}{sub cD}, of 110.7 {+-} 1.7 K and 202.6 {+-} 3.7 K, for the Pu-Pu and Ga-Pu pairs, respectively. The result for the Pu-{Theta}{sub cD} value compares well with previous vibrational studies on {delta}-Pu. In addition, our results represent the first unambiguous determination of Ga-specific vibrational properties in Pu-Ga alloys, i.e, {Theta}{sub cD} for the Ga-Pu pair. Because the Debye temperature can be related to a measure of the lattice stiffness, these results indicate the Ga-Pu bonds are significantly stronger than the Pu-Pu bonds. This effect has important implications for lattice stabilization mechanisms in these alloys.

This letter describes how to perform model-independent searches for new pair-produced color octet particles that each subsequently decay into two jets plus missing energy at the Tevatron. Current searches are not sensitive to all regions of parameter space because they employ CMSSM-motivated cuts. Optimizing the H{sub T} and E{sub T} cuts expands the sensitivity of searches for all kinematically allowed decays.

The Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center of Sandia National laboratories has an ongoing research program in advanced user interfaces. As part of this research, promising new transduction devices, particularly hands-free devices, are being explored for the control of mobile and floor-mounted robotic systems. Brainwave control has been successfully demonstrated by other researchers in a variety of fields. In the research described here, Sandia developed and demonstrated a proof-of-concept brainwave-controlled mobile robot system. Preliminary results were encouraging. Additional work required to turn this into a reliable. fieldable system for mobile robotic control is identified. Used in conjunction with other controls, brainwave control could be an effective control method in certain circumstances.

The coplanar-grid (CPG) and other electron only detection techniques have made possible the use of CdZnTe-based detectors for gamma-ray spectroscopy when high efficiency, good energy resolution, and near room temperature operation are required. Despite the demonstrated potential of the technologies, widespread use remains hampered in part by the limited availability of the highly uniform CdZnTe material required for high-resolution spectroscopy. However, it has been recently shown that mild cooling of CdZnTe CPG detectors can result in a significant improvement in the energy resolution of the detectors thereby allowing a wider range of material to be used for high-resolution applications. In this paper, we show that improved spectroscopic performance can consistently be achieved through a combination of detector cooling and increased detector bias. Energy resolutions of about 1 % FWHM at 662 keV for detector volumes up to 2.3 cm{sup 3} have been obtained at -20 C. With the electronic noise subtracted, this amounts to an intrinsic resolution of 0.76 %. We also show that further cooling of the detectors to -30 C leads to field polarization and a loss of spectroscopic performance.

Plasma immersion techniques of surface modification are known under a myriad of names. The family of techniques reaches from pure plasma ion implantation, to ion implantation and deposition hybrid modes, to modes that are essentially plasma film deposition with substrate bias. In the most general sense, all plasma immersion techniques have in common that the surface of a substrate (target) is exposed to plasma and that relatively high substrate bias is applied. The bias is usually pulsed. In this review, the roots of immersion techniques are explored, some going back to the 1800s, followed by a discussion of the groundbreaking works of Adler and Conrad in the 1980s. In the 1990s, plasma immersion techniques matured in theoretical understanding, scaling, and the range of applications. First commercial facilities are now operational. Various immersion concepts are compiled and explained in this review. While gas (often nitrogen) ion implantation dominated the early years, film-forming immersion techniques and semiconductor processing gained importance. In the 1980s and 1990s we have seen exponential growth of the field but signs of slowdown are clear since 1998. Nevertheless, plasma immersion techniques have found, and will continue to have, an important place among surface modification techniques.

An extended structure zone diagram is proposed that includes energetic deposition, characterized by a large flux of ions typical for deposition by filtered cathodic arcs and high power impulse magnetron sputtering. The axes are comprised of a generalized homologous temperature, the normalized kinetic energy flux, and the net film thickness, which can be negative due to ion etching. It is stressed that the number of primary physical parameters affecting growth by far exceeds the number of available axes in such a diagram and therefore it can only provide an approximate and simplified illustration of the growth condition?structure relationships.

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It is known that filtered cathodic-arc-deposited ta-C films have outstanding properties even within the family of diamondlike materials. However, filtering of macroparticles is usually incomplete or accompanied by significant plasma losses. Ongoing research effort is directed towards the following goals: (1) complete elimination of macro- and nanoparticles from the vacuum arc plasma, (2) increase of plasma utilization in the cathodic-arc and macroparticle-filter system, (3) precise control and reproducibility of film deposition, and (4) synthesis of ultrathin films (< 5 nm) that meet requirements of the magnetic storage industry. The development of new filters, in particular the ''Twist Filter'', enables cathodic arc plasma deposition to synthesize ultrathin ta-C films of 3 nm on heads that pass corrosion and other relevant tests. We describe the Twist Filter system and report about recent ta-C tests results. In light of these results, even thinner films seem to be possible.

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