This report describes the development of a miniature mobile microrobot device and several microsystems needed to create a miniature microsensor delivery platform. This work was funded under LDRD No.10785, entitled, ''Integrated Microsensors for Autonomous Microrobots''. The approach adopted in this project was to develop a mobile platform, to which would be attached wireless RF remote control and data acquisition in addition to various microsensors. A modular approach was used to produce a versatile microrobot platform and reduce power consumption and physical size.

In order to meet the need for protective fish screening, the Walla Walla County Conservation District (WWCCD) and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) formed a partnership to implement the WDFW Cooperative Compliance Review and Cost-Share Program. The program provides technical and financial assistance to irrigators in order to bring existing surface water diversions into compliance with state and federal juvenile fish screen criteria. The Walla Walla basin has two priority salmonid species currently listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, the Bull Trout and Mid-Columbia Basin Steelhead. Other partners in this effort include the Washington Department of Ecology, National Marine Fisheries Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Walla Walla Community College Irrigation Department. A Screening Oversight Committee of representatives from these agencies sets policy and resolves issues.

Article discussing a joint approach to detect complexity by combining the Compression Algorithm Sensitive To Regularity (CASToRe) and Complex Analysis of Sequences via Scaling AND Randomness Assessment (CASSANDRA) procedures.

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An analytical capability is being developed that can be used to predict the effect of corrosion on the performance of electrical circuits and systems. The availability of this ''toolset'' will dramatically improve our ability to influence device and circuit design, address and remediate field occurrences, and determine real limits for circuit service life. In pursuit of this objective, we have defined and adopted an iterative, statistical-based, top-down approach that will permit very formidable and real obstacles related to both the development and use of the toolset to be resolved as effectively as possible. An important component of this approach is the direct incorporation of expert opinion. Some of the complicating factors to be addressed involve the code/model complexity, the existence of large number of possible degradation processes, and an incompatibility between the length scales associated with device dimensions and the corrosion processes. Two of the key aspects of the desired predictive toolset are (1) a direct linkage of an electrical-system performance model with mechanistic-based, deterministic corrosion models, and (2) the explicit incorporation of a computational framework to quantify the effects of non-deterministic parameters (uncertainty). The selected approach and key elements of the toolset are first described in this paper. These …

This report describes a Berkeley Lab effort to model the economics and operation of small-scale (<500 kW) on-site electricity generators based on real-world installations at several example customer sites. This work builds upon the previous development of the Distributed Energy Resource Customer Adoption Model (DER-CAM), a tool designed to find the optimal combination of installed equipment, and idealized operating schedule, that would minimize the site's energy bills, given performance and cost data on available DER technologies, utility tariffs, and site electrical and thermal loads over a historic test period, usually a recent year. This study offered the first opportunity to apply DER-CAM in a real-world setting and evaluate its modeling results. DER-CAM has three possible applications: first, it can be used to guide choices of equipment at specific sites, or provide general solutions for example sites and propose good choices for sites with similar circumstances; second, it can additionally provide the basis for the operations of installed on-site generation; and third, it can be used to assess the market potential of technologies by anticipating which kinds of customers might find various technologies attractive. A list of approximately 90 DER candidate sites was compiled and each site's DER characteristics and their …

The U.S. Department of Energy and ADA Environmental Solutions are engaged in a project to develop commercial flue gas conditioning additives. The objective is to develop conditioning agents that can help improve particulate control performance of smaller or under-sized electrostatic precipitators on utility coal-fired boilers. The new chemicals will be used to control both the electrical resistivity and the adhesion or cohesivity of the fly ash. There is a need to provide cost-effective and safer alternatives to traditional flue gas conditioning with SO{sub 3} and ammonia. During this reporting quarter, two cohesivity-specific additive formulations, ADA-44C and ADA-51, were evaluated in a full-scale trial at the American Electric Power Conesville plant. Ammonia conditioning was also evaluated for comparison. ADA-51 and ammonia conditioning significantly reduced rapping and non-rapped particulate re-entrainment based on stack opacity monitor data. Based on the successful tests to date, ADA-51 will be evaluated in a long-term test.

Application of two electrical resistivity methods at the Hanford Site Mock Tank during 2002, indicate the viability of the methods as possible leak-detection tools for SST retrieval operations. Electrical Resistivity Tomography and High-Resolution Resistivity were used over a 109-day period to detect leakage of a waste simulant beneath the tank. The results of the test indicate that both of these two methods, and subset methods may be applicable to SST leak detection.

The objectives of this project were to further develop and scale-up a novel technology for reuse of scrap tire rubber, to identify and develop end uses for the technology (products), and to characterize the technology's energy savings and environmental impact.

ITN Energy Systems is developing next-generation solar cells based on the concepts of an optical rectenna. ITN's optical rectenna consists of two key elements: (1) an optical antenna to efficiently absorb the incident solar radiation, and (2) a high-frequency metal-insulator-metal (MIM) tunneling diode that rectifies the AC field across the antenna, providing DC power to an external load. The combination of a rectifying diode at the feedpoints of a receiving antenna is often referred to as a rectenna. Rectennas were originally proposed in the 1960s for power transmission by radio waves for remote powering of aircraft for surveillance or communications platforms. Conversion efficiencies greater than 85% have been demonstrated at radio frequencies (efficiency defined as DC power generated divided by RF power incident on the device). Later, concepts were proposed to extend the rectennas into the IR and optical region of the electromagnetic spectrum for use as energy collection devices (optical rectennas).

This report gives information about the following four objectives: OBJECTIVE 1--Gather scientific baseline information for monitoring purposes and to assist in the development of management plans for Pine Creek Ranch; OBJECTIVE 2--Complete and implement management plans; OBJECTIVE 3--Protect, manage and enhance the assets and resources of Pine Creek Ranch; and OBJECTIVE 4--Deliverables.

An Acceptable Knowledge (AK)-based radiological characterization methodology is being developed for RH TRU waste generated from ANL-E hot cell operations performed on fuel elements irradiated in the EBR-II reactor. The methodology relies on AK for composition of the fresh fuel elements, their irradiation history, and the waste generation and collection processes. Radiological characterization of the waste involves the estimates of the quantities of significant fission products and transuranic isotopes in the waste. Methods based on reactor and physics principles are used to achieve these estimates. Because of the availability of AK and the robustness of the calculation methods, the AK-based characterization methodology offers a superior alternative to traditional waste assay techniques. Using this methodology, it is shown that the radiological parameters of a test batch of ANL-E waste is well within the proposed WIPP Waste Acceptance Criteria limits.

This document describes an evaluation of the baseline and two alternative disposition paths for the final disposition of the calcine wastes stored at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. The pathways are evaluated against a prescribed set of criteria and a recommendation is made for the path forward.

This project developed life-cycle costs for the major technologies and practices under development for CO{sub 2} storage and sink enhancement. The technologies evaluated included options for storing captured CO{sub 2} in active oil reservoirs, depleted oil and gas reservoirs, deep aquifers, coal beds, and oceans, as well as the enhancement of carbon sequestration in forests and croplands. The capture costs for a nominal 500 MW{sub e} integrated gasification combined cycle plant from an earlier study were combined with the storage costs from this study to allow comparison among capture and storage approaches as well as sink enhancements.

OAK-B135 A hydrogen economy will need significant new sources of hydrogen. Unless large-scale carbon sequestration can be economically implemented, use of hydrogen reduces greenhouse gases only if the hydrogen is produced with non-fossil energy sources. Nuclear energy is one of the limited options available. One of the promising approaches to produce large quantities of hydrogen from nuclear energy efficiently is the Sulfur-Iodine (S-I) thermochemical water-splitting cycle, driven by high temperature heat from a helium Gas-Cooled Reactor. They have completed a study of nuclear-driven thermochemical water-splitting processes. The final task of this study was the development of a flowsheet for a prototype S-I production plant. An important element of this effort was the evaluation of alternative flowsheets and selection of the reference design.

The questions of reservoir wettability have been approached in this project from three directions. First, we have studied the properties of crude oils that contribute to wetting alteration in a reservoir. A database of more than 150 different crude oil samples has been established to facilitate examination of the relationships between crude oil chemical and physical properties and their influence on reservoir wetting. In the course of this work an improved SARA analysis technique was developed and major advances were made in understanding asphaltene stability including development of a thermodynamic Asphaltene Solubility Model (ASM) and empirical methods for predicting the onset of instability. The CO-Wet database is a resource that will be used to guide wettability research in the future. The second approach is to study crude oil/brine/rock interactions on smooth surfaces. Contact angle measurements were made under controlled conditions on mica surfaces that had been exposed to many of the oils in the CO-Wet database. With this wealth of data, statistical tests can now be used to examine the relationships between crude oil properties and the tendencies of those oils to alter wetting. Traditionally, contact angles have been used as the primary wetting assessment tool on smooth surfaces. A …

The Moses Lake Project (project No. 199502800) was first funded during FY 99 and field studies commenced October 2000. Later review of the proposal by the ISRP revealed perceived shortcomings. Immediately following the ISRP review Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) personnel were in contact with the Northwest Power Planning Council (NWPPC) regarding further options. The NWPPC allowed WDFW to re-submit the first proposal revision that was followed in June 2001 by a second negative review by the ISRP. In August 2001, the NWPPC authorized a third and final submission of the proposal and limited funding extension. Therefore, proposal revisions and resubmissions limited progress in data collection and analysis. This report covers work conducted within the submitted scope of work (FY 2000, September 27, 2000--September 26, 2001) and incorporation of the suggested modifications to the proposal. The bulk of the work covered by this report concentrated on data collection.

Sandia National Laboratories has developed a portfolio of programs to address the critical skills needs of the DP labs, as identified by the 1999 Chiles Commission Report. The goals are to attract and retain the best and the brightest students and transition them into Sandia--and DP Complex--employees. The US Department of Energy/Defense Programs University Partnerships funded seven laboratory critical skills development programs in FY02. This report provides a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of these programs and their status.

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

The aim of this training grant was to educate students of Plant Science in the disciplines of Biochemistry and Chemistry, in addition to the more traditional courses in Plant Biology. Annual retreats were held which involved a day-long meeting and included lectures from Penn faculty as well as famous national and international scientists. Programs for two of these retreats are included. In addition to lecture courses, students performed research within the Departments of Biology, Chemistry, and Biochemistry and Biophysics; a publications list is given.

The Advanced Technology Development Program is currently evaluating the performance of the second generation of Lithium-ion cells (i.e., Gen 2 cells). The 18650-size Gen 2 cells consist of a baseline chemistry and one variant chemistry. These cells were distributed over a matrix consisting of three states-of-charge (SOC) (60, 80, and 100% SOC), four temperatures (25, 35, 45, and 55°C), and three life tests (calendar-, cycle-, and accelerated-life). The calendar-life cells are clamped at an opencircuit voltage corresponding to 60% SOC and undergo a once-per-day pulse profile. The cycle-life cells are continuously pulsed using a profile that is centered around 60% SOC. The accelerated-life cells are following the calendar-life test procedures, but using the cycle-life pulse profile. Life testing is interrupted every four weeks for reference performance tests (RPTs), which are used to quantify changes in capacity, resistance, and power. The RPTs consist of a C1/1 and C1/25 static capacity tests, a low-current hybrid pulse power characterization test, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy at 60% SOC. Capacity-, power-, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy-based performance results are reported.

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Visible light-photocatalysis could provide a cost-effective route to recycle CO{sub 2} to useful chemicals or fuels. Research is planned to study the reactivity of adsorbates, their role in the photosynthesis reaction, and their relation to the nature of surface sites during photosynthesis of methanol and hydrocarbons from CO{sub 2}/H{sub 2}O over four types of MCM-41/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}-supported TiO{sub 2} and CdS catalysts: (1) ion-exchanged metal cations, (2) highly dispersed cations, (3) monolayer sites, and (4) modified monolayer catalysts. TiO{sub 2} was selected since it has exhibited higher activity than other oxide catalysts; CdS was selected for its photocatalytic activity in the visible light region. Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} provides excellent hydrothermal stability. MCM-41 offers high surface area (more than 800 m{sup 2}/g), providing a platform for preparing and depositing a large number of active sites per gram catalyst. The unique structure of these ion exchange cations, highly dispersed cations, and monolayer sites provides an opportunity to tailor their chemical/coordination environments for enhancing visible-light photocatalytic activity and deactivation resistance. The year one research tasks include (1) setting up experimental system, (2) preparing ion-exchanged metal cations, highly dispersed cations, monolayer sites of TiO{sub 2} and CdS, and (3) determination of the dependence of …

We summarize some modifications to the usual closure approximations for statistical models of turbulence that are necessary for use with compressible fluids at all Mach numbers. We concentrate here on the gradient-flu approximation for the turbulent heat flux, on the buoyancy production of turbulence kinetic energy, and on a modification of the Smagorinsky model to include buoyancy. In all cases, there are pressure gradient terms that do not appear in the incompressible models and are usually omitted in compressible-flow models. Omission of these terms allows unphysical rates of entropy change.