In this Phase I SBIR, the contractor demonstrated a number of capabilities of model-based sensors such as MWM sensors and MWM-Arrays. The key results include (1) porosity/microstructure characterization for anodes, (2) potential for cathode material characterization, (3) stress measurements in nickel and cobalt, and (4) potential for stress measurements in non-magnetic materials with a ferromagnetic layer. In addition, potential applications for manufacturing quality control of nonconductive layers using interdigitated electrode dielectrometers have been identified. The results indicate that JENTEK's MWM technology can be used to significantly reduce solid oxide fuel cell production and operating costs in a number of ways. Preliminary investigations of solid oxide fuel cell health monitoring and scale-up issues to address industry needs have also been performed.

We compare the performance of two methods of digital filtering to detect a radioactive source moving past a gamma-ray sensor. The first method is the box-car filter, which is a standard method used in the detection of a moving radioactive source. The second method is the matched filter, which takes into account the variation in the number of photons absorbed in a gamma-ray sensor as a source moves past the sensor. We optimize both methods to detect a source moving at 5, 10, 15 and 20 mph, and the receiver-operator characteristics of the two techniques are plotted for comparison. The improvement of the matched filter over the box car filter is 27% at 5 mph and 22% at 10 mph for a 90% probability of detection and an average hours between false alarms equal to 10.

The Pennsylvania State University, under contract to the U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory will establish, promote, and manage a national industry-driven Stripper Well Consortium (SWC) that will be focused on improving the production performance of domestic petroleum and/or natural gas stripper wells. The consortium creates a partnership with the U.S. petroleum and natural gas industries and trade associations, state funding agencies, academia, and the National Energy Technology Laboratory. This report serves as the sixteenth quarterly technical progress report for the SWC. Key activities for this reporting period include: (1) exhibit and participate in the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Regional Meeting in Charleston West Virginia, (2) finalize the organization of the two fall Technology Transfer meetings and (3) initiate the revision of the SWC By-laws.

The Pennsylvania State University, under contract to the U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory will establish, promote, and manage a national industry-driven Stripper Well Consortium (SWC) that will be focused on improving the production performance of domestic petroleum and/or natural gas stripper wells. The consortium creates a partnership with the U.S. petroleum and natural gas industries and trade associations, state funding agencies, academia, and the National Energy Technology Laboratory. This report serves as the first quarterly technical progress report for the SWC. Key activities for this reporting period include: (1) hosting the SWC spring proposal meeting in Golden Colorado, (2) planning of the upcoming SWC fall technology transfer meetings, and (3) recruiting the SWC base membership.

When ions of sufficient electronic energy loss traverse a dielectric film or foil, they alter the chemical bonding along their nominally straight path within the material. A suitable etchant can quickly dissolve these so-called latent tracks leaving holes of small diameter ({approx}10nm) but long length - several microns. Continuing the etching process gradually increases the diameter reproducibly and uniformly. The trackable medium can be applied as a uniform film onto large substrates. The small, monodisperse holes produced by this track etching can be used in conjunction with additional thin film processing to create functional structures attached to the substrate. For example, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Candescent Technologies Corporation (CTC) co-developed a process to make arrays of gated field emitters ({approx}100nm diameter electron guns) for CTC's ThinCRT{trademark} displays, which have been fabricated to diagonal dimensions > 13. Additional technological applications of ion tracking lithography will be briefly covered.

Knowing the amount of biomass across a landscape is becoming increasingly important to fire managers as new fuel and fire management decision support systems come on line. Fire managers rarely have the time or funding available to sample fuels operationally and often depend upon mean values for critical variables whose variation is often associated with simple stand characteristics such as age, forest type, time since last burn, stocking, or site, and other easily measured variables. This report outlines a study to collect and analyze litter and duff bulk density samples for developing a simple predictive tool to estimate forest floor fuel loading based on simple stand characteristics.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP) has funded research on iron phosphate glasses at the University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR) for the period from September 15, 1996 to September 30, 2004 (DE-FG07-96ER45618). The final report for the initial period from September 15, 1996 to September 14, 2000 (project number 55110) has been submitted previously and can be found at www.osti.gov/em52/final{_}reports/55110.pdf. This final report mainly describes the research conducted during the period from September 15, 2000 to September 30, 2004 (project number 73976)

Vitrification of nuclear waste in a glass is currently the preferred process for waste disposal. DOE currently approves only borosilicate (BS) type glasses for such purposes. However, many nuclear wastes, presently awaiting disposal, have complex and diverse chemical compositions, and often contain components that are poorly soluble or chemically incompatible in BS glasses. Such problematic wastes can be pre-processed and/or diluted to compensate for their incompatibility with a BS glass matrix, but both of these solutions increases the wasteform volume and the overall cost for vitrification. Direct vitrification using alternative glasses that utilize the major components already present in the waste is preferable, since it avoids pre-treating or diluting the waste, and, thus, minimizes the wasteform volume and overall cost.

This paper presents a method for evaluation of investments in small-scale wind power under uncertainty. It is assumed that the price of electricity is uncertain and that an owner of a property with wind resources has a deferrable opportunity to invest in one wind power turbine within a capacity range. The model evaluates investment in a set of projects with different capacity. It is assumed that the owner substitutes own electricity load with electricity from the wind mill and sells excess electricity back to the grid on an hourly basis. The problem for the owner is to find the price levels at which it is optimal to invest, and in which capacity to invest. The results suggests it is optimal to wait for significantly higher prices than the net present value break-even. Optimal scale and timing depend on the expected price growth rate and the uncertainty in the future prices.

Integrated scenario simulations are done for NSTX [National Spherical Torus Experiment] that address four primary milestones for developing advanced ST configurations: high {beta} and high {beta}{sub N} inductive discharges to study all aspects of ST physics in the high-beta regime; non-inductively sustained discharges for flattop times greater than the skin time to study the various current-drive techniques; non-inductively sustained discharges at high {beta} for flattop times much greater than a skin time which provides the integrated advanced ST target for NSTX; and non-solenoidal start-up and plasma current ramp-up. The simulations done here use the Tokamak Simulation Code (TSC) and are based on a discharge 109070. TRANSP analysis of the discharge provided the thermal diffusivities for electrons and ions, the neutral-beam (NB) deposition profile, and other characteristics. CURRAY is used to calculate the High Harmonic Fast Wave (HHFW) heating depositions and current drive. GENRAY/CQL3D is used to establish the heating and CD [current drive] deposition profiles for electron Bernstein waves (EBW). Analysis of the ideal-MHD stability is done with JSOLVER, BALMSC, and PEST2. The simulations indicate that the integrated advanced ST plasma is reachable, obtaining stable plasmas with {beta} {approx} 40% at {beta}{sub N}'s of 7.7-9, I{sub P} = 1.0 MA, …

During the period of this grant, we significantly advanced the understanding of stable surface amorphous films (SAFs), the existence of which was first postulated and then demonstrated under this program. SAFs are nanometer-thick amorphous films which are characterized by a self-selecting thickness, and a composition and structure distinct from the bulk phases with which they coexist. Importantly, they are present as an equilibrium, disordered phase below bulk solidus temperatures where all other phases in the system are crystalline. They are true surface phases which coexist in thermodynamic equilibrium with the bulk phases. We have shown that SAFs form in a number of binary oxide systems, and that they play an important role in the processing of materials (e.g., solid-state activated sintering in ZnO-Bi2O3) and in forming surface-active layers in supported catalyst systems. These experimental results as well as a theoretical model for the stability of SAFs have now been published. We believe that SAFs can be controlled and manipulated in a wide range of systems, with potential applications in nanotechnology, MEMS, microelectronics, adhesion, and colloidal crystals.

NCSX [National Compact Stellarator Experiment] is the first of a new class of stellarators called compact stellarators which hold the promise of retaining the steady state feature of the stellarator but at a much lower aspect ratio and using a quasi-axisymmetric magnetic field to obtain tokamak-like performance. Although much of NCSX is conventional in design and construction, the vacuum vessel and modular coils provide significant engineering challenges due to their complex shapes, need for high dimensional accuracy, and the high current density required in the modular coils due space constraints. Consequently, a three-phase development program has been undertaken. In the first phase, laboratory/industrial studies were performed during the development of the conceptual design to permit advances in manufacturing technology to be incorporated into NCSX's plans. In the second phase, full-scale prototype modular coil winding forms, compacted cable conductors, and 20 degree sectors of the vacuum vessel were fabricated in industry. In parallel, the NCSX project team undertook R&D studies that focused on the windings. The third (production) phase began in September 2004. First plasma is scheduled for January 2008.

None

During the last few years, new technologies have been introduced for real-time continuous measurement of the flow rates of outdoor air (OA) into HVAC systems; however, an evaluation of these measurements technologies has not previously been published. This document describes a test system and protocols developed for a controlled evaluation of these measurement technologies. The results of tests of three commercially available measurement technologies are also summarized. The test system and protocol were judged practical and very useful. The three commercially available measurement technologies should provide reasonably, e.g., 20%, accurate measurements of OA flow rates as long as air velocities are maintained high enough to produce accurately measurable pressure signals. In HVAC systems with economizer controls, to maintain the required air velocities the OA intake will need to be divided into two sections in parallel, each with a separate OA damper. All of the measurement devices had pressure drops that are likely to be judged acceptable. The influence of wind on the accuracy of these measurement technologies still needs to be evaluated.

This is the first year progress report for our grant starting Feb. 1 2004. It describes experimental and theoretical achievements during the first year, lists the articles published during this period, as well as the progress of the graduate students supported by this grant. The timeline for the future is outlined; the current results convince us that the work will be done on time and within the budget.

New global non-perturbative hybrid code, NOVA-KN, and simulations of resonant type modes in JET [Joint European Torus] plasmas driven by energetic H-minority ions are presented. The NOVA-KN code employs the ideal-MHD description for the background plasma and treats non-perturbatively the fast particle kinetic response, which includes the fast ion finite orbit width (FOW) effect. In particular, the n = 1 fishbone mode, which is in precession drift resonance with fast ions, is studied. The NOVA-KN code is applied to model an n = 1 (f = 50-80kHz) MHD activity observed recently in JET low density plasma discharges with high fast ion (H-minority) energy content generated during the ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH). This n = 1 MHD activity is interpreted as the instability of the n = 1 precession drift frequency fishbone modes.

High-confinement mode (H-mode) operation plays a crucial role in NSTX [National Spherical Torus Experiment] research, allowing higher beta limits due to reduced plasma pressure peaking, and long-pulse operation due to high bootstrap current fraction. Here, new results are presented in the areas of edge localized modes (ELMs), H-mode pedestal physics, L-H turbulence, and power threshold studies. ELMs of several other types (as observed in conventional aspect ratio tokamaks) are often observed: (1) large, Type I ELMs, (2) ''medium'' Type II/III ELMs, and (3) giant ELMs which can reduce stored energy by up to 30% in certain conditions. In addition, many high-performance discharges in NSTX have tiny ELMs (newly termed Type V), which have some differences as compared with ELM types in the published literature. The H-mode pedestal typically contains between 25-33% of the total stored energy, and the NSTX pedestal energy agrees reasonably well with a recent international multi-machine scaling. We find that the L-H transition occurs on a {approx}100 {micro}sec timescale as viewed by a gas puff imaging diagnostic, and that intermittent quiescent periods precede the final transition. A power threshold identity experiment between NSTX and MAST shows comparable loss power at the L-H transition in balanced double-null discharges. …

It is often useful to simulate radiographic images in order to optimize imaging trade-offs and to test tomographic techniques. HADES is a code that simulates radiography using ray tracing techniques. Although originally developed to simulate X-Ray transmission radiography, HADES has grown to simulate neutron radiography over a wide range of energy, proton radiography in the 1 MeV to 100 GeV range, and recently phase contrast radiography using X-Rays in the keV energy range. HADES can simulate parallel-ray or cone-beam radiography through a variety of mesh types, as well as through collections of geometric objects. HADES was originally developed for nondestructive evaluation (NDE) applications, but could be a useful tool for simulation of portal imaging, proton therapy imaging, and synchrotron studies of tissue. In this paper we describe HADES' current capabilities and discuss plans for a major revision of the code.

This report describes the development of release models for key contaminants that are present in residual sludge remaining after closure of Hanford Tanks 241-C-203 (C-203) and 241-C-204 (C-204). The release models were developed from data generated by laboratory characterization and testing of samples from these two tanks. Key results from this work are (1) future releases from the tanks of the primary contaminants of concern (99Tc and 238U) can be represented by relatively simple solubility relationships between infiltrating water and solid phases containing the contaminants; and (2) high percentages of technetium-99 in the sludges (20 wt% in C-203 and 75 wt% in C-204) are not readily water leachable, and, in fact, are very recalcitrant. This is similar to results found in related studies of sludges from Tank AY-102. These release models are being developed to support the tank closure risk assessments performed by CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy.

Recent experiments in the Current Drive Experiment-Upgrade provide a first-ever test of large area liquid lithium surfaces as a tokamak first wall, to gain engineering experience with a liquid metal first wall, and to investigate whether very low recycling plasma regimes can be accessed with lithium walls. The CDX-U is a compact (R = 34 cm, a = 22 cm, B{sub toroidal} = 2 kG, I{sub P} = 100 kA, T{sub e}(0) = 100 eV, n{sub e}(0) {approx} 5 x 10{sup 19} m{sup -3}) spherical torus at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. A toroidal liquid lithium tray limiter with an area of 2000 cm{sup 2} (half the total plasma limiting surface) has been installed in CDX-U. Tokamak discharges which used the liquid lithium limiter required a fourfold lower loop voltage to sustain the plasma current, and a factor of 5-8 increase in gas fueling to achieve a comparable density, indicating that recycling is strongly reduced. Modeling of the discharges demonstrated that the lithium-limited discharges are consistent with Z{sub effective} < 1.2 (compared to 2.4 for the pre-lithium discharges), a broadened current channel, and a 25% increase in the core electron temperature. Spectroscopic measurements indicate that edge oxygen and carbon radiation …

We report observations of asymmetric optical pumping of argon ions accelerating in a magnetic field gradient. The signature is a difference in the laser-induced-fluorescence (LIF) emission amplitude from a pair of Zeeman-split states. A model that reproduces the dependence of the asymmetry on magnetic-field and ion-velocity gradients is described. With the model, the fluorescence intensity ratio provides a new method of measuring ion collisionality. This phenomenon has implications for interpreting stellar plasma spectroscopy data which often exhibit unequal Zeeman state intensities.

We introduce a method (MONKEY) to identify conserved transcription-factor binding sites in multispecies alignments. MONKEY employs probabilistic models of factor specificity and binding site evolution, on which basis we compute the likelihood that putative sites are conserved and assign statistical significance to each hit. Using genomes from the genus Saccharomyces, we illustrate how the significance of real sites increases with evolutionary distance and explore the relationship between conservation and function.

Recently, laser activity has been achieved in the low phonon energy, moisture-resistant bromide host crystals, neodymium-doped potassium lead bromide (Nd{sup 3+}:KPb{sub 2}Br{sub 5}) and rubidium lead bromide (Nd{sup 3+}:RbPb{sub 2}Br{sub 5}). Laser activity at 1.07 {micro}m was observed for both crystalline materials. Laser operation at the new wavelengths 1.18 {micro}m and 0.97 {micro}m resulting from the {sup 4}F{sub 5/2}+{sup 2}H{sub 9/2} {yields} {sup 4}I{sub J} transitions (J=13/2 and 11/2) in Nd:RPB was achieved for the first time in a solid state laser material. In this paper we present cw pump-probe spectra in order to discuss excited state absorption, reabsorption processes due to the long lived lower laser levels as well as possible depopulation mechanisms feasible for more efficient laser operation in these crystals. The bromides will be compared with potassium lead chloride (Nd{sup 3+}:KPb{sub 2}Cl{sub 5}).

This project was initially targeted to the making of coke for blast furnaces by using proprietary technology of Calderon in a phased approach, and Phase I was successfully completed. The project was then re-directed to the making of iron units. In 2000, U.S. Steel teamed up with Calderon for a joint effort which will last 42 months to produce directly reduced iron with the potential of converting it into molten iron or steel consistent with the Roadmap recommendations of 1998 prepared by the Steel Industry in cooperation with the Department of Energy by using iron ore concentrate and coal as raw materials, both materials being appreciably lower in cost than using iron pellets and coke.