In heated tunnels such as those designated for emplacementof radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, axial temperature gradients maycause natural convection processes that can significantly influence themoisture conditions in the tunnels and in the surrounding fractured rock.Large-scale convection cells would provide an effective mechanism foraxial vapor transport, driving moisture out of the formation away fromthe heated tunnel section into cool end sections (where no waste isemplaced). To study such processes, we have developed and applied anenhanced version of TOUGH2 (Pruess et al., 1999) adding a new module thatsolves for natural convection in open cavities. The new TOUGH2 simulatorsimultaneously handles (1) the flow and energy transport processes in thefractured rock; (2) the flow and energy transport processes in thecavity; and (3) the heat and mass exchange at the rock-cavity interface.The new module is applied to simulate the future thermal-hydrological(TH) conditions within and near a representative waste emplacement tunnelat Yucca Mountain. Particular focus is on the potential for condensationalong the emplacement section, a possible result of heat outputdifferences between individual waste packages.

This report can be divided into two parts: the first part, which is composed of sections 1, 2, and 3, is devoted to report the analyses of fission gas bubbles; the second part, which is in section 4, is allocated to describe the mechanistic model development. Swelling data of irradiated U-Mo alloy typically show that the kinetics of fission gas bubbles is composed of two different rates: lower initially and higher later. The transition corresponds to a burnup of {approx}0 at% U-235 (LEU) or a fission density of {approx}3 x 10{sup 21} fissions/cm{sup 3}. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) shows that gas bubbles appear only on the grain boundaries in the pretransition regime. At intermediate burnup where the transition begins, gas bubbles are observed to spread into the intragranular regions. At high burnup, they are uniformly distributed throughout fuel. In highly irradiated U-Mo alloy fuel large-scale gas bubbles form on some fuel particle peripheries. In some cases, these bubbles appear to be interconnected and occupy the interface region between fuel and the aluminum matrix for dispersion fuel, and fuel and cladding for monolithic fuel, respectively. This is a potential performance limit for U-Mo alloy fuel. Microscopic characterization of the evolution of …

One of the emerging computational approaches in nuclear physics is the full configuration interaction (FCI) method for solving the many-body nuclear Hamiltonian in a sufficiently large single-particle basis space to obtain exact answers - either directly or by extrapolation. The lowest eigenvalues and correspondingeigenvectors for very large, sparse and unstructured nuclear Hamiltonian matrices are obtained and used to evaluate additional experimental quantities. These matrices pose a significant challenge to the design and implementation of efficient and scalable algorithms for obtaining solutions on massively parallel computer systems. In this paper, we describe the computational strategies employed in a state-of-the-art FCI code MFDn (Many Fermion Dynamics - nuclear) as well as techniques we recently developed to enhance the computational efficiency of MFDn. We will demonstrate the current capability of MFDn and report the latest performance improvement we have achieved. We will also outline our future research directions.

Reflection of a seismic wave from a plane interface betweentwo elastic media does not depend on the frequency. If one of the mediais poroelastic and fluid-saturated, then the reflection becomesfrequency-dependent. This paper presents a low-frequency asymptoticformula for the reflection of seismic plane p-wave from a fluid-saturatedporous medium. The obtained asymptotic scaling of the frequency-dependentcomponent of the reflection coefficient shows that it is asymptoticallyproportional to the square root of the product of the reservoir fluidmobility and the frequency of the signal. The dependence of this scalingon the dynamic Darcy's law relaxation time is investigated as well.Derivation of the main equations of the theory of poroelasticity from thedynamic filtration theory reveals that this relaxation time isproportional to Biot's tortuosity parameter.

In contrast to previous analyses, we demonstrate a Bayesian approach to the estimation of the CKM phase {alpha} that is invariant to parameterization. We also show that in addition to computing the marginal posterior in a Bayesian manner, the distribution must also be interpreted from a subjective Bayesian viewpoint. Doing so gives a very natural interpretation to the distribution. We also comment on the effect of removing information about {beta}{sup 00}.

We study the Collins mechanism contribution to the single transverse spin asymmetry in inclusive hadron production in pp scattering p{up_arrow}p {yields} {pi}X from the leading jet fragmentation. The azimuthal asymmetric distribution of hadron in the jet leads to a single spin asymmetry for the produced hadron in the Lab frame. The effect is evaluated in a transverse momentum dependent model that takes into account the transverse momentum dependence in the fragmentation process. We find the asymmetry is comparable in size to the experimental observation at RHIC at {radical}s = 200GeV.

The reaction of ozone with the (100) plane of solid potassium iodide (KI) was investigated using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The reaction forming potassium iodate (KIO{sub 3}) initiates at step edges prior to reacting on the flat terraces. Small domains of KIO{sub 3}, initially 3.8 {angstrom} in height are formed on the top of step edges. Following reaction at the step edge, domains of KIO{sub 3} are formed across the terraces. With prolonged exposure to ozone, KIO{sub 3} domains nucleate further growth until the surface is evenly covered with KIO{sub 3} particles that are 4-6 nm in height, at which point the surface is passivated and the reaction terminates.

The U.S. LHC Accelerator Research Program (LARP), a collaboration between BNL, FNAL, LBNL, and SLAC, has among its major objectives the development of advanced magnet technology for an LHC luminosity upgrade. The LBNL Superconducting Magnet Group supports this program with a broad effort involving design studies, Nb{sub 3}Sn conductor development, mechanical models, and basic prototypes. This paper describes the development of a large aperture Nb{sub 3}Sn racetrack quadrupole magnet using four racetrack coils from the LBNL Subscale Magnet (SM) Program. The magnet provides a gradient of 95 T/m in a 110 mm bore, with a peak field in the conductor of 11.2 T. The coils are prestressed by a mechanical structure based on a pre-tensioned aluminum shell, and axially supported with aluminum rods. The mechanical behavior has been monitored with strain gauges and the magnetic field has been measured. Results of the test are reported and analyzed.

The development of radiological consequence lookup tables for postulated releases of radionuclides commonly used at Savannah River Site (SRS) and other Department of Energy (DOE) facilities requires the use of the MELCOR Accident Consequence Code System (MACCS)/MACCS2. MACCS2 users input site-specific data: such as stack or ground release, building wake effects, boundary distance from release source, and site-specific meteorological data. MACCS2 also allows the input of more general data such as plume rise and wet and/or dry deposition. The acceptance of such inputs gives the MACCS2 program a broad spectrum of uses at participating DOE facilities. The MACCS2 outputs are converted to an excel spreadsheet to facilitate fast and accurate results for various accident scenarios. Consequence lookup tables can be employed to determine the effects of radiological accident scenarios before they occur. The data is then used by DOE facilities to create regulations and controls to prepare for worst-case scenarios.

Nephtys longosetosa is a carnivorous polychaete worm that lives in the intertidal and subtidal zones with worldwide distribution (pleijel&rouse2001). Its mitochondrial genome has the characteristics typical of most metazoans: 37 genes; circular molecule; almost no intergenic sequence; and no significant gene rearrangements when compared to other annelid mtDNAs (booremoritz19981995). Ubiquitous features as small intergenic regions and lack of introns suggested that metazoan mtDNAs are under strong selective pressures to reduce their genome size allowing for faster replication requirements (booremoritz19981995Lynch2005). Yet, in 1996 two type I introns were found in the mtDNA of the basal metazoan Metridium senile (FigureX). Breaking a long-standing rule (absence of introns in metazoan mtDNA), this finding was later supported by the further presence of group I introns in other cnidarians. Interestingly, only the class Anthozoa within cnidarians seems to harbor such introns. Although several hundreds of triploblastic metazoan mtDNAs have been sequenced, this study is the first evidence of mitochondrial introns in triploblastic metazoans. The cox1 gene of N. longosetosa has an intron of almost 2 kbs in length. This finding represents as well the first instance of a group II intron (anthozoans harbor group I introns) in all metazoan lineages. Opposite trends are observed within …

We update a discussion of the relation between the weak phase and the rates and CP asymmetries of several K{pi} decays of B{sup +}, B{sup 0}, and B{sub s}. We emphasize the impact of measurements of B{sub s} {yields} K{pi}. Current data indicate large SU(3) breaking in the strong phases or failure of factorization (including its application to penguin amplitudes) in K{pi} modes of B{sup 0} and B{sub s}. SU(3) and factorization only remain approximately valid if the branching ratio for B{sub s} {yields} K{sup -}{pi}{sup +} exceeds its current value of (5.00 {+-} 1.25) x 10{sup -6} by at least 50%, or if a parameter {zeta} describing ratios of form factors and decay constants is shifted from its nominal value by more than twice its estimated error.

Heterogeneous high-energy explosives are morphologically, mechanically and chemically complex. As such, their ab-initio modeling, in which well-characterized phenomena at the scale of the microstructure lead to a rationally homogenized description at the scale of observation, is a subject of active research but not yet a reality. An alternative approach is to construct phenomenological models, in which forms of constitutive behavior are postulated with an eye on the perceived picture of the micro-scale phenomena, and which are strongly linked to experimental calibration. Most prominent among these is the ignition-and-growth model conceived by Lee and Tarver. The model treats the explosive as a homogeneous mixture of two distinct constituents, the unreacted explosive and the products of reaction. To each constituent is assigned an equation of state, and a single reaction-rate law is prescribed for the conversion of the explosive to products. It is assumed that the two constituents are always in pressure and temperature equilibrium. The purpose of this paper is to investigate in detail the behavior of the model in situations where a detonation turns a corner and undergoes diffraction. A set of parameters appropriate for the explosive LX-17 is selected. The model is first examined analytically for steady, planar, 1-D …

Dose reconstruction for studies of the health effects of ionizing radiation have been carried out for many decades. Major studies have included Japanese bomb survivors, atomic veterans, downwinders of the Nevada Test Site and Hanford, underground uranium miners, and populations of nuclear workers. For such studies to be credible, significant effort must be put into applying the best science to reconstructing unbiased absorbed doses to tissues and organs as a function of time. In many cases, more and more sophisticated dose reconstruction methods have been developed as studies progressed. For the example of the Japanese bomb survivors, the dose surrogate “distance from the hypocenter” was replaced by slant range, and then by TD65 doses, DS86 doses, and more recently DS02 doses. Over the years, it has become increasingly clear that an equal level of effort must be expended on the quantitative assessment of uncertainty in such doses, and to reducing and managing uncertainty. In this context, this paper reviews difficulties in terminology, explores the nature of Berkson and classical uncertainties in dose reconstruction through examples, and proposes a path forward for Joint Coordinating Committee for Radiation Effects Research (JCCRER) Project 2.4 that requires a reasonably small level of effort for …

In two separate shallow field experiments, at two distancescales, we have used continuous monitoring to estimate the effect ofbarometric pressure on crosswell travel time and thereby calibrated thestress sensitivity of the rock volume between the wells. In a 3 mexperiment we found a stress sensitivity of 10-6/Pa while in a 30 mexperiment the sensitivity was 5 x 10-8 /Pa. Results from a deeper (1km), 2 month experiment at the San Andreas fault observation boreholeswill be presented if analysis is completed.

The fracture toughness properties of Type 21-6-9 stainless steel were measured for forgings in the unexposed, hydrogen-exposed, and tritium-exposed-and-aged conditions. Fracture toughness samples were cut from conventionally-forged and high-energy-rate-forged forward-extruded cylinders and mechanically tested at room temperature using ASTM fracture-toughness testing procedures. Some of the samples were exposed to either hydrogen or tritium gas (340 MPa, 623 K) prior to testing. Tritium-exposed samples were aged for up to seven years and tested periodically in order to measure the effect on fracture toughness of {sup 3}He from radioactive tritium decay. The results show that hydrogen-exposed and tritium-exposed samples had lower fracture- toughness values than unexposed samples and that fracture toughness decreased with increasing decay {sup 3}He content. Forged steels were more resistant to the embrittling effects of tritium and decay {sup 3}He than annealed steels, although their fracture-toughness properties depended on the degree of sensitization that occurred during processing. The fracture process was dominated by microvoid nucleation, growth and coalescence; however, the size and spacing of microvoids on the fracture surfaces were affected by hydrogen and tritium with the lowest-toughness samples having the smallest microvoids and finest spacing.

Petascale systems will present several new challenges to performance and correctness tools. Such machines may contain millions of cores, requiring that tools use scalable data structures and analysis algorithms to collect and to process application data. In addition, at such scales, each tool itself will become a large parallel application--already, debugging the full Blue-Gene/L (BG/L) installation at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory requires employing 1664 tool daemons. To reach such sizes and beyond, tools must use a scalable communication infrastructure and manage their own tool processes efficiently. Some system resources, such as the file system, may also become tool bottlenecks. In this paper, we present challenges to petascale tool development, using the Stack Trace Analysis Tool (STAT) as a case study. STAT is a lightweight tool that gathers and merges stack traces from a parallel application to identify process equivalence classes. We use results gathered at thousands of tasks on an Infiniband cluster and results up to 208K processes on BG/L to identify current scalability issues as well as challenges that will be faced at the petascale. We then present implemented solutions to these challenges and show the resulting performance improvements. We also discuss future plans to meet the debugging …

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) estimated the fiscal year (FY) 2004 energy, environmental, and financial benefits (i.e., metrics) of the technologies and practices in the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) former Office of Building Technology, State and Community Programs (BTS) within the DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). During the development of the estimates, EERE went through a large-scale reorganization, resulting in the reallocation of the former BTS projects (along with the other former offices) into two new Program Offices: the Office of Building Technologies Program (BT) and the Office of Weatherization and Intergovernmental Program (WIP). The remainder of this document will refer to these projects as BT/WIP for the sake of simplicity. This effort is referred to as GPRA Metrics because it stems from the requirements of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993, which mandates the reporting of performance goals and measures. The benefits developed for EERE through the GPRA Metrics effort are submitted to EERE's Office of Planning, Budget Formulation, and Analysis (PBFA) as part of EERE's budget request. The GPRA estimates are also used in the formulation of EERE's performance measures. This report includes sections that detail the approach and methodology …

The targets used in the Hot Halfraum Campaign at OMEGA create many hot electrons, which result in a large flux of hard x-rays. The hard x-rays produce a high background in the streak camera. The background was significantly reduced by wrapping the streak camera with a high-Z material; in this case, 1/8' of Pb. The large hard x-ray flux also adds noise to images from framing cameras which use CCDs.

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This engineering note documents the integration of Dzero Heat Pump 1 through Heat Pump 15 into the cryo/gas process control system commonly referred to as the cryo control system. Heat pumps 1 through 15 control the ambient air temperature on the 3rd, 5th, and 6th floor office areas at Dzero. The entire Johnson HVAC control system was replaced with a Siemens control system in 1999 leaving behind the 15 heat pumps with stand-alone Johnson controllers. Now, these 15 heat pump Johnson controllers are being replaced with small stand alone Beckhoff BC9000 controllers. The Beckhoff BC9000 controllers are network able into the existing Intellution control system. The Beckhoff BC9000 controllers use the cryo private Ethernet network and an OPC driver to get data into the Intellution SCADA node databases. The BC9000 is also programmed over this same Ethernet network.

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Executive Summary The materials science understanding of high rate low cost processes for Coated Conductor will benefit the application to power utilities for low loss energy transportation and power generation as well for DOD applications. The research in this program investigated several materials processing approaches that are new and original, and are not being investigated elsewhere. This work added to the understanding of the material science of high rate PVD growth of HTSC YBCO assisted by a liquid phase. A new process discovered uses amorphous glassy precursors which can be made at high rate under flexible conditions of temperature and oxygen, and later brought to conditions of oxygen partial pressure and temperature for rapid conversion to YBCO superconductor. Good critical current densities were found, but further effort is needed to optimize the vortex pinning using known artificial inclusions. A new discovery of the physics and materials science of vortex pinning in the HTSC system using Sm in place of Y came at growth at unusually low oxygen pressure resulting in clusters of a low or non superconducting phase within the nominal high temperature phase. The driving force for this during growth is new physics, perhaps due to the low oxygen. …

During the contract period, absolute cross sections for projectile ionization, and in some cases for target ionization, were measured for energetic (MeV/u) low-charge-state heavy ions interacting with gases typically found in high and ultra-high vacuum environments. This information is of interest to high-energy-density research projects as inelastic interactions with background gases can lead to serious detrimental effects when intense ion beams are accelerated to high energies, transported and possibly confined in storage rings. Thus this research impacts research and design parameters associated with projects such as the Heavy Ion Fusion Project, the High Current and Integrated Beam Experiments in the USA and the accelerator upgrade at GSI-Darmstadt, Germany. Via collaborative studies performed at GSI-Darmstadt, at the University of East Carolina, and Texas A&M University, absolute cross sections were measured for a series of collision systems using MeV/u heavy ions possessing most, or nearly all, of their bound electrons, e.g., 1.4 MeV/u Ar{sup +}, Xe{sup 3+}, and U{sup 4,6,10+}. Interactions involving such low-charge-state heavy ions at such high energies had never been previously explored. Using these, and data taken from the literature, an empirical model was developed for extrapolation to much higher energies. In order to extend our measurements to much …

The USFWS Mid-Columbia River Fishery Resource Office (MCRFRO) operated two rotary screw traps on the Entiat River as part of the Integrated Status and Effectiveness Monitoring Program from March through November of 2008. Along with the smolt traps, juvenile emigrants were also captured at remote locations throughout the Entiat watershed and its major tributary, the Mad River. A total of 16,782 wild salmonids were PIT tagged during the study period. Of this, 3,961(23.6%) were wild Oncorhynchus mykiss, 6,987 (41.6%) were wild spring run O. tshawytscha, and 5,591 (33.3%) were identified as wild O. tshawytscha of unknown run. Rotary screw trap efficiencies averaged 40.3% at the upper (Rkm 11.0) trap and 7.8% for the lower (Rkm 2.0) trap. These efficiencies were pooled for emigrant O. tshawytscha and O. mykiss. The MCRFRO conducted effectiveness monitoring snorkel surveys at 24 sites during the winter period and 30 sites during the summer and fall periods of 2008 as part of the Integrated Status and Effectiveness Monitoring Program in the Entiat River. The 2008 steelhead spawning grounds surveys were conducted weekly in the main Entiat River from rkm 1.1 to 44.2. A total of 222 steelhead redds were identified over the period from February 28 …