The Gordon Research Conference on Photoions, Photoionization and Photodetachment was held at Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, July 8-13, 2001. The 72 conference attendees represented the spectrum of endeavor in this field, coming from academia, industry, and government laboratories, and including US and foreign scientists, senior researchers, young investigators, and students. Emphasis was placed on current unpublished research and discussion of the future target areas in this field. There was a conscious effort to stimulate discussion about the key issues in the field today. Time for formal presentations was limited. Sessions included the following topics: Vibrational structure, Time resolved studies: nuclear wavepackets, Valence photoionization, Clusters and networks, Resonance structures and decay mechanisms, Ultrafast photoionization, Threshold photoionization, Molecule fixed properties, and Collisional phenomena.

Groundwater modeling was performed in support of the Hanford Carbon Tetrachloride Innovative Treatment Remediation Demonstration (ITRD) Program. The ITRD program is facilitated by Sandia National Laboratory for the Department of Energy Office of Science and Technology. This report was prepared to document the results of the modeling effort and facilitate discussion of characterization and remediation options for the carbon tetrachloride plume among the ITRD participants. As a first step toward implementation of innovative technologies for remediation of the carbon tetrachloride (CT) plume underlying the 200-West Area, this modeling was performed to provide an indication of the potential impact of the CT source on the compliance boundary approximately 5000 m distant. The primary results of the modeling bracket the amount of CT source that will most likely result in compliance/non-compliance at the boundary and the relative influence of the various modeling parameters.

Groundwater modeling was performed in support of the Hanford Carbon Tetrachloride Innovative Treatment Remediation Demonstration (ITRD) Program. The ITRD program is facilitated by Sandia National Laboratory for the Department of Energy Office of Science and Technology. This report was prepared to document the results of the modeling effort and facilitate discussion of characterization and remediation options for the carbon tetrachloride plume among the ITRD participants. As a first step toward implementation of innovative technologies for remediation of the carbon tetrachloride (CT) plume underlying the 200-West Area, this modeling was performed to provide an indication of the potential impact of the CT source on the compliance boundary approximately 5000 m distant. The primary results of the modeling bracket the amount of CT source that will most likely result in compliance/non-compliance at the boundary and the relative influence of the various modeling parameters.

This report contains the results of the Bench Scale evaporation of a large sample of pretreated Envelope C (AN102).

Newsletter for the DOE biofuels program. This issue contains articles on the National Energy Policy Plan, national energy policy, the proposed budget for biofuels, and new faces at DOE.

A novel design for an electron beam focusing column has been developed at LBNL. The design is based on a low-energy spread multicusp plasma source which is used as a cathode for electron beam production. The focusing column is 10 mm in length. The electron beam is focused by means of electrostatic fields. The column is designed for a maximum voltage of 50 kV. Simulations of the electron trajectories have been performed by using the 2-D simulation code IGUN and EGUN. The electron temperature has also been incorporated into the simulations. The electron beam simulations, column design and fabrication will be discussed in this presentation.

The Defense High Level Waste Disposal Container System supports the confinement and isolation of waste within the Engineered Barrier System of the Monitored Geologic Repository (MGR). Disposal containers are loaded and sealed in the surface waste handling facilities, transferred to the underground through the accesses using a rail mounted transporter, and emplaced in emplacement drifts. The defense high level waste (HLW) disposal container provides long-term confinement of the commercial HLW and defense HLW (including immobilized plutonium waste forms [IPWF]) placed within disposable canisters, and withstands the loading, transfer, emplacement, and retrieval loads and environments. US Department of Energy (DOE)-owned spent nuclear fuel (SNF) in disposable canisters may also be placed in a defense HLW disposal container along with commercial HLW waste forms, which is known as co-disposal. The Defense High Level Waste Disposal Container System provides containment of waste for a designated period of time, and limits radionuclide release. The disposal container/waste package maintains the waste in a designated configuration, withstands maximum handling and rockfall loads, limits the individual canister temperatures after emplacement, resists corrosion in the expected handling and repository environments, and provides containment of waste in the event of an accident. Defense HLW disposal containers for HLW disposal …

Starting with regional geographic, geologic, hydrologic, geophysical, and meteorological data, we develop an effective continuum model to simulate subsurface flow and transport in a 4 km by 6 km by 3 km thick fractured granite rock mass overlain sedimentary layers. Individual fractures are not modeled explicitly. Rather, continuum permeability and porosity distributions are assigned stochastically, based on well-test data and fracture density measurements. Large-scale features such as lithologic layering and major fault zones are assigned deterministically. We employ the TOUGH2 simulator for the flow calculation. The model simulates the steady-state groundwater flow through the site, then streamline analysis is used to calculate travel times for particles leaving specified monitoring points to reach the boundary of the model. Model results for the head distribution compare favorably with head profiles measured in several deep boreholes and the overall groundwater flow is consistent with regional water balance data. Predicted travel times range from 1 to 25 years.

The Pennsylvania State University, under contract to the U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory is performing a feasibility analysis on installing a state-of-the-art circulating fluidized bed boiler and ceramic filter emission control device at Penn State's University Park campus for cofiring multiple biofuels and other wastes with coal, and developing a test program to evaluate cofiring multiple biofuels and coal-based feedstocks. The objective of the project is being accomplished using a team that includes personnel from Penn State's Energy Institute, Office of Physical Plant, and College of Agricultural Sciences, Foster Wheeler Energy Services, Inc., Parsons Energy and Chemicals Group, Inc., and Cofiring Alternatives. During this reporting period, work focused on completing the biofuel characterization and the design of the conceptual fluidized bed system.

The objective of this project is to characterize the fluid properties and fluid-rock interactions that are needed for formation evaluation by NMR well logging. This is the first annual progress report submitted to the DOE. It reports on the work completed during the reporting period even if it may have started before this period. This project is a partnership between Professor George J. Hirasaki at Rice University and Professor Kishore Mohanty at University of Houston. In addition to the DOE, this project is supported by a consortium of oil companies and service companies. The fluid properties characterization has emphasized the departure of live oils from correlations based on dead oils. Also, asphaltic components can result in a difference between the T1 and T2 relaxation time distributions as well as reduce the hydrogen index. The fluid rock characterizations that are reported here are the effects of wettability and internal magnetic field gradients. A pore reconstruction method ha s been developed to recreate three-dimensional porous media from two-dimensional images that reproduce some of their key statistical properties. A Monte Carlo simulation technique has been developed to calculate the magnetization decay in fluid saturated porous media given their pore structure.

This semi-annual report briefly summarizes the progress since the 1st Annual Report issued September, 2000 and the next annual report. More detailed results will be in the annual reports. The main emphasis on fluid properties was on measurements of the relaxation time and self-diffusion coefficient of ethane and propane. Ethane is similar to methane while propane is more similar to the higher alkanes. The ratio of T1 and T2 is demonstrated to be a function of both viscosity and the NMR frequency. The diffusion-induced T2 in a uniform magnetic gradient was simulated in one dimension to seek improved understanding NMR diffusion in restricted geometry. Analytical solutions can be found for this system if the correct region of validity is used. Estimation of permeability of vuggy carbonates has been problematic because the pore body size does not correlate well with pore throat size. CT scans and CPMG NMR measurements were made on a set of vuggy carbonate rocks.

In evaluating a geological environment for the disposition of nuclear waste, the composition of the host rock is an important parameter in characterizing the natural system and its role as a barrier to migration of radionuclides. Emplacement drifts in a potential nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, would be constructed in the lower phenocryst-poor rhyolitic member ({approx}300 m thick) of the Topopah Spring Tuff, a felsic pyroclastic ash flow. The rhyolitic member, composed largely of microcrystalline quartz and alkali feldspar, contains localized secondary minerals including vapor-phase silica polymorphs and feldspar typically lining lithophysal cavities, and low-temperature calcite and opal in cavities and fractures. Chemical analyses of Topopah Spring Tuff samples from outcrops and from core obtained by surface-based drilling have shown that the phenocryst-poor rhyolite member at Yucca Mountain is remarkably uniform in composition both vertically and laterally. To verify this geochemical homogeneity in samples collected directly from the repository block where emplacement drifts would be constructed, major and trace elements were analyzed for core samples obtained from 20 systematically spaced drill holes in a drift constructed across the repository block. Means and standard deviations of selected oxides and elements in weight percent indicate geochemical uniformity among these samples: …

At the Hanford Site in Richland, Washington, the path to site cleanup involves vitrification of the majority of the wastes that currently reside in large underground tanks. A Joule-heated glass melter is the equipment of choice for vitrifying the high-level fraction of these wastes. Even though this technology has general national and international acceptance, opportunities may exist to improve or change the technology to reduce the enormous cost of accomplishing the mission of site cleanup. Consequently, the U.S. Department of Energy requested the staff of the Tanks Focus Area to review immobilization technologies, waste forms, and modifications to requirements for solidification of the high-level waste fraction at Hanford to determine what aspects could affect cost reductions with reasonable long-term risk. The results of this study are summarized in this report.

At the Hanford Site in Richland, Washington, the path to site cleanup involves vitrification of the majority of the wastes that currently reside in large underground tanks. A Joule-heated glass melter is the equipment of choice for vitrifying the high-level fraction of these wastes. Even though this technology has general national and international acceptance, opportunities may exist to improve or change the technology to reduce the enormous cost of accomplishing the mission of site cleanup. Consequently, the U.S. Department of Energy requested the staff of the Tanks Focus Area to review immobilization technologies, waste forms, and modifications to requirements for solidification of the high-level waste fraction at Hanford to determine what aspects could affect cost reductions with reasonable long-term risk. The results of this study are summarized in this report.

This Summary Report summarizes the progress of Phases 3, 3A and 4 of a waste technology Demonstration Project sponsored under a DOE Environmental Management Research and Development Program and administered by the U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory-Morgantown (DOE-NETL) for an ''Innovative Fossil Fuel Fired Vitrification Technology for Soil Remediation''. The Summary Reports for Phases 1 and 2 of the Program were previously submitted to DOE. The total scope of Phase 3 was to have included the design, construction and demonstration of Vortec's integrated waste pretreatment and vitrification process for the treatment of low level waste (LLW), TSCA/LLW and mixed low-level waste (MLLW). Due to funding limitations and delays in the project resulting from a law suit filed by an environmental activist and the extended time for DOE to complete an Environmental Assessment for the project, the scope of the project was reduced to completing the design, construction and testing of the front end of the process which consists of the Material Handling and Waste Conditioning (MH/C) Subsystem of the vitrification plant. Activities completed under Phases 3A and 4 addressed completion of the engineering, design and documentation of the Material Handling and Conditioning System such that final procurement …

The Naval Spent Nuclear Fuel Disposal Container System supports the confinement and isolation of waste within the Engineered Barrier System of the Monitored Geologic Repository (MGR). Disposal containers/waste packages are loaded and sealed in the surface waste handling facilities, transferred underground through the access drifts using a rail mounted transporter, and emplaced in emplacement drifts. The Naval Spent Nuclear Fuel Disposal Container System provides long term confinement of the naval spent nuclear fuel (SNF) placed within the disposal containers, and withstands the loading, transfer, emplacement, and retrieval operations. The Naval Spent Nuclear Fuel Disposal Container System provides containment of waste for a designated period of time and limits radionuclide release thereafter. The waste package maintains the waste in a designated configuration, withstands maximum credible handling and rockfall loads, limits the waste form temperature after emplacement, resists corrosion in the expected handling and repository environments, and provides containment of waste in the event of an accident. Each naval SNF disposal container will hold a single naval SNF canister. There will be approximately 300 naval SNF canisters, composed of long and short canisters. The disposal container will include outer and inner cylinder walls and lids. An exterior label will provide a means …

The NEOS Server 4.0 provides a general Internet-based client/server as a link between users and software applications. The administrative guide covers the fundamental principals behind the operation of the NEOS Server, installation and trouble-shooting of the Server software, and implementation details of potential interest to a NEOS Server administrator. The guide also discusses making new software applications available through the Server, including areas of concern to remote solver administrators such as maintaining security, providing usage instructions, and enforcing reasonable restrictions on jobs. The administrative guide is intended both as an introduction to the NEOS Server and as a reference for use when running the Server.

This report by the SIOP observes the effects of recent hardware and software changes for parallel I/O performance to the GPFS parallel file system. The IBM SP machine (frost) has been upgraded from Mohonk with GPFS 1.3 to Mohonk2 with GPFS 1.4. In addition, the Colony switch adapters have been upgraded from Single/Single to Double/Single. The tests discussed here were performed on frost using 60 compute nodes and the GPFS file system using 2 dedicated I/O nodes (servers). The tests performed utilize the POSIX and MPI-IO interfaces to GPFS. The noted system changes to frost have improved both POSIX and MPI-IO peak read performance and have not diminished peak write performance. We note that as the bandwidth of mounted disks is near fully utilized, there was no expectation of significant performance improvement. For POSIX, the best write rates did not change from 550 MB/sec. The read rates improved from 500 MB/sec to 600 MB/sec, however. For MPI-IO, the best write rates did not change from 550 MB/sec. The read rates improved from 470 MB/sec to 570 MB/sec, in line with the improvements observed. The MPI-IO discontiguous test results show that improvement is significant (nearly a factor of 2 beyond 40 …

X-ray photoemission and x-ray photoabsorption were used to study the composition and the electronic structure of ytterbium doped strontium fluoroapatite (Yb:S-FAP). High resolution photoemission measurements on the valence band electronic structure was used to evaluate the density of occupied states of this fluoroapatite. Element specific density of unoccupied electronic states in Yb:S-FAP were probed by x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) at the Yb 4d (N{sub 4,5}-edge), Sr 3d (M{sub 4,5}-edge), P 2p (L{sub 2,3}-edge), F 1s and O 1s (K-edges) absorption edges. These results provide the first measurements of the electronic structure and surface chemistry of this material.

For Department of Energy (DOE) facilities, clear regulatory guidance exists for structuring radiological air emissions monitoring programs. However, there are no parallel regulations for radiological liquid effluent monitoring programs. In order to bridge this gap and to technically justify liquid effluent monitoring decisions at DOE's Savannah River Site, a graded, risk-basked approach has been established to determine the monitoring and sampling criteria to be applied at each liquid discharge point.

Ultrathin (< 5 nm) hard carbon films are of great interest to the magnetic storage industry as the areal density approaches 100 Gbit/in{sup 2}. These films are used as overcoats to protect the magnetic layers on disk media and the active elements of the read-write slider. Tetrahedral amorphous carbon films can be produced by filtered cathodic arc deposition, but the films will only be accepted by the storage industry only if the ''macroparticle'' issue has been solved. Better plasma filters have been developed over recent years. Emphasis is put on the promising twist filter system - a compact, open structure that operates with pulsed arcs and high magnetic field. Based on corrosion tests it is shown that the macroparticle reduction by the twist filter is satisfactory for this demanding application, while plasma throughput is very high. Ultrathin hard carbon films have been synthesized using S-filter and twist filter systems. Film properties such as hardness, elastic modulus, wear, and corrosion resistance have been tested.

The Uncanistered Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) Disposal Container System supports the confinement and isolation of waste within the Engineered Barrier System of the Monitored Geologic Repository (MGR). Disposal containers are loaded with intact uncanistered assemblies and/or individually canistered SNF assemblies and sealed in the surface waste handling facilities, transferred to the underground through the access drifts, and emplaced in emplacement drifts. The Uncanistered SNF Disposal Container provides long-term confinement of the commercial SNF placed inside, and withstands the loading, transfer, emplacement, and retrieval loads and environments. The Uncanistered SNF Disposal Container System provides containment of waste for a designated period of time, and limits radionuclide release. The disposal container maintains the waste in a designated configuration, withstands maximum handling and rockfall loads, limits the individual SNF assembly temperatures after emplacement, limits the introduction of moderator into the disposal container during the criticality control period, resists corrosion in the expected handling and repository environments, and provides containment of waste in the event of an accident.

Numerical modeling of air flow and pollutant dispersion around buildings in the urban environment is a challenging task due to the geometrical variations of buildings and the extremely complex flow created by such surface-mounted obstacles. Building-scale air flows inevitably involve flow impingement, stagnation, separation, a multiple vortex system, and jetting effects in street canyons. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) have developed two complementary, robust computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models, FEM3MP by LLNL and HIGRAD by LANL, for such purposes. Our primary goal is to support emergency response planning, vulnerability analysis, and development of mitigation strategies for chem-bio agents released in the urban environment. Model validation is vitally important in establishing the credibility of CFD models. We have, in the past, performed model validation studies involving simpler geometries, such as flow and dispersion past a cubical building [1] and flow around a 2-D building array [2]. In this study, wind tunnel data for a 7 x 11 array of cubical buildings [3] are used to further validate our models.