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The objectives of the confirmatory activities were to provide independent contractor field data reviews and to generate independent radiological data for use by the NRC in evaluating the adequacy and accuracy of the contractor�s procedures and FSS results. ORAU reviewed ABB CE�s decommissioning plan, final status survey plan, and the applicable soil DCGLs, which were developed based on an NRC-approved radiation dose assessment. The surveys include gamma surface scans, gamma direct measurements, and soil sampling.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the High Energy Advanced Thermal Storage (HEATS) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses new system architecture for a solar-electric conversion tower as part of the "High-Efficiency Solar-Electric Conversion Power Tower" project.

This research addressed the long term goals of understanding the assembly and organization of hydrogenase enzymes, of reducing them in size and complexity, of determining structure/function relationships, including energy conservation via charge separation across membranes, and in screening for novel H2 catalysts. A key overall goal of the proposed research was to define and characterize minimal hydrogenases that are produced in high yields and are oxygen-resistant. Remarkably, in spite of decades of research carried out on hydrogenases, it is not possible to readily manipulate or design the enzyme using molecular biology approaches since a recombinant form produced in a suitable host is not available. Such resources are essential if we are to understand what constitutes a “minimal” hydrogenase and design such catalysts with certain properties, such as resistance to oxygen, extreme stability and specificity for a given electron donor. The model system for our studies is Pyrococcus furiosus, a hyperthermophile that grows optimally at 100°C, which contains three different nickel-iron [NiFe-] containing hydrogenases. Hydrogenases I and II are cytoplasmic while the other, MBH, is an integral membrane protein that functions to both evolve H2 and pump protons. Three important breakthroughs were made during the funding period with P. furiosus soluble …

A mechanical shutter which operates on demand is used to isolate a single pulse from a 120 Hz X-ray source. This is accomplished with a mechanical shutter which is triggered on demand with frequencies ranging from 0 to 10 Hz. The single pulse shutter is an iron blade that oscillates on a pivot in response to a force generated by a pair of pulsed electromagnets (current driven teeter-totter). To isolate an individual pulse from the X-ray beam, the motion of the mechanical shutter should be synchronized in such a way that it allows a single pulse to pass through the aperture and blocks the other incoming pulses. Two consecutive pulses are only {approx} 8 ms apart and the shutter is required to complete one full cycle such that no two pulses pass through the opening. Also the opening of the shutter blade needs to be at least 4 mm so that a 1 mm diameter rms Gaussian beam can pass through without modulation. However, the 4 mm opening is difficult to obtain due to blade rebound and oscillation of the blade after colliding with the electromagnet. The purpose of this project is to minimize and/or totally eliminate the rebound of …

Cool roofs, cool pavements, and urban vegetation reduce energy use in buildings, lower local air pollutant concentrations, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions from urban areas. This report summarizes the results of a detailed monitoring project in India and related simulations of meteorology and air quality in three developing countries. The field results quantified direct energy savings from installation of cool roofs on individual commercial buildings. The measured annual energy savings potential from roof-whitening of previously black roofs ranged from 20-22 kWh/m2 of roof area, corresponding to an air-conditioning energy use reduction of 14-26% in commercial buildings. The study estimated that typical annual savings of 13-14 kWh/m2 of roof area could be achieved by applying white coating to uncoated concrete roofs on commercial buildings in the Metropolitan Hyderabad region, corresponding to cooling energy savings of 10-19%. With the assumption of an annual increase of 100,000 square meters of new roof construction for the next 10 years in the Metropolitan Hyderabad region, the annual cooling energy savings due to whitening concrete roof would be 13-14 GWh of electricity in year ten alone, with cumulative 10-year cooling energy savings of 73-79 GWh for the region. The estimated savings for the entire country would …

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the Innovative Materials and Processes for Advanced Carbon Capture Technologies (IMPACCT) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses the development of a new device as part of the "A High Efficiency Inertial CO2 Extraction System" project.

Core samples originating from Vault 4, Cell E of the Saltstone Disposal Facility (SDF) were collected in September of 2008 (Hansen and Crawford 2009, Smith 2008) and sent to SRNL to measure chemical and physical properties of the material including visual uniformity, mineralogy, microstructure, density, porosity, distribution coefficients (K{sub d}), and chemical composition. Some data from these experiments have been reported (Cozzi and Duncan 2010). In this study, leaching experiments were conducted with a single core sample under conditions that are representative of saltstone performance. In separate experiments, reducing and oxidizing environments were targeted to obtain solubility and Kd values from the measurable species identified in the solid and aqueous leachate. This study was designed to provide insight into how readily species immobilized in saltstone will leach from the saltstone under oxidizing conditions simulating the edge of a saltstone monolith and under reducing conditions, targeting conditions within the saltstone monolith. Core samples were taken from saltstone poured in December of 2007 giving a cure time of nine months in the cell and a total of thirty months before leaching experiments began in June 2010. The saltstone from Vault 4, Cell E is comprised of blast furnace slag, class F fly …

The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fuel-based lighting are substantial given the paltry levels of lighting service provided to users, leading to a great opportunity for GHG mitigation byencouraging the switch from fuel-based to rechargeable LED lighting. However, as with most new energy technology, switching to efficient lighting requires an up-front investment of energy(and GHGs) embedded in the manufacture of replacement components. We studied a population of off-grid lighting users in 2008-2009 in Kenya who were given the opportunity to adopt LEDlighting. Based on their use patterns with the LED lights and the levels of kerosene offset we observed, we found that the embodied energy of the LED lamp was"paid for" in only one month for grid charged products and two months for solar charged products. Furthermore, the energyreturn-on investment-ratio (energy produced or offset over the product's service life divided by energy embedded) for off-grid LED lighting ranges from 12 to 24, which is on par with on-gridsolar and large-scale wind energy. We also found that the energy embodied in the manufacture of a typical hurricane lantern is about one-half to one-sixth of that embodied in the particular LEDlights that we evaluated, indicating that the energy payback time would be …

At the NRC�s request, ORAU conducted confirmatory surveys of the FNR during the period of December 4 through 6, 2012. The survey activities included visual inspections and measurement and sampling activities. Confirmatory activities also included the review and assessment of UM�s project documentation and methodologies. Surface scans identified elevated activity in two areas. The first area was on a wall outside of Room 3103 and the second area was in the southwest section on the first floor. The first area was remediated to background levels. However, the second area was due to gamma shine from a neighboring source storage area. A retrospective analysis of UM�s FSS data shows that for the SUs investigated by the ORAU survey team, UM met the survey requirements set forth in the FSSP. The total mean surface activity values were directly compared with the mean total surface activity reported by UM. Mean surface activity values determined by UM were within two standard deviations of the mean determined by ORAU. Additionally, all surface activity values were less than the corresponding gross beta DCGLW. Laboratory analysis of the soil showed that COC concentrations were less than the respective DCGLW values. For the inter-lab comparison, the DER was …

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Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the Rare Earth Alternatives in Critical Technologies (REACT) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses magnets made of cerium as part of the "Novel High Energy Permanent Magnet Without Critical Elements" project.

We summarize the accomplishments over the last renewal period in a broad program of research in experimental and theoretical High Energy Physics, conducted at the University of Michigan, and supported by the U.S. Department of Energy.

This project seeks to educate state policymakers through a coordinated approach involving state legislatures, regulators, energy officials, and governors’ staffs. NCSL’s activities in this project focus on educating state legislators. Major components of this proposal include technical assistance to state legislatures, briefing papers, coordination with the National Council on Electricity Policy, information assistance, coordination and outreach, meetings, and a set of transmission-related activities.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the Rare Earth Alternatives in Critical Technologies (REACT) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses a new cost-effective exchange-spring magnet as part of the "Nanocomposite Exchange-Spring Magnets for Motor and Generator Applications" project.

The scaling behavior of large-p{sub {perpendicular}} hadron production in hadronic collisions is investigated. A significant deviation from the NLO QCD predictions is reported, especially at high values of x{sub {perpendicular}} = 2p{sub {perpendicular}}/{radical}s. In contrast, the prompt photon and jet production data prove in agreement with leading-twist expectations. These results are interpreted as coming from a non-negligible contribution of higher-twist processes, where the hadron is produced directly in the hard subprocess. Predictions for scaling exponents at RHIC are successfully compared to PHENIX preliminary measurements. We suggest to trigger on isolated large-p{sub {perpendicular}} hadron production to enhance higher-twist processes, and point that the use of isolated hadrons as a signal for new physics at colliders can be affected by the presence of direct hadron production processes.

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We believe the mathematical research community is facing a great challenge to re-evaluate the role of proof in light of recent developments. On one hand, the growing power of current computer systems, of modern mathematical computing packages, and of the growing capacity to data-mine on the Internet, has provided marvelous resources to the research mathematician. On the other hand, the enormous complexity of many modern capstone results such as the Poincare conjecture, Fermat's last theorem, and the classification of finite simple groups has raised questions as to how we can better ensure the integrity of modern mathematics. Yet as the need and prospects for inductive mathematics blossom, the requirement to ensure the role of proof is properly founded remains undiminished.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the Rare Earth Alternatives in Critical Technologies (REACT) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses a new type of traction motor for electric vehicles as part of the "Rare Earth-Free Traction Motor for Electric Vehicle Applications" project.

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PEP-X, a next generation, ring-based light source is designed to run with beams of high current and low emittance. Important parameters are: energy 4.5 GeV, circumference 2.2 km, beam current 1.5 A, and horizontal and vertical emittances, 185 pm by 8 pm. In such a machine it is important that impedance driven instabilities not degrade the beam quality. In this report they study the strength of the impedance and its effects in PEP-X. For the present, lacking a detailed knowledge of the vacuum chamber shape, they create a straw man design comprising important vacuum chamber objects to be found in the ring, for which they then compute the wake functions. From the wake functions they generate an impedance budget and a pseudo-Green function wake representing the entire ring, which they, in turn, use for performing microwave instability calculations. In this report they, in addition, consider in PEP-X the transverse mode-coupling, multi-bunch transverse, and beam-ion instabilities.

In accelerator design, there is often a need to evaluate the threshold to the (longitudinal) microwave instability for a bunched beam in an electron storage ring. Several computational tools are available that allow them, once given the wakefield representing a ring, to numerically find the threshold current and to simulate the development of the instability. In this work, they present results of coputer simulations using two codes recently developed at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory: a Vlasov-Fokker-Planck (VFP) solver based on an algorithm by Warnock and Ellison, and a program that find the threshold from the linearized Vlasov equation. They apply the programs to find the instability threshold for three models of ring impedances: that of a Q = 1 resonator, of shielded coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR), and of a resistive wall. The first example is wel-bheaved, but the other two are singular wakes that need special care. Note that similar numerical studies of the threshold of a Q = 1 resonantor wake have been performed by Oide and Yokova, and others. They compare the results of the two programs and discuss their respective capabilities and limitations. In this report they assume the slippage factor {eta} is always positive. They …

The earthquake and tsunami that hit the nuclear power plants at the Fukushima Daiichi site in March 2011 led to extensive fuel damage, including possible fuel melting, slumping, and relocation at the affected reactors. A so-called feed-and-bleed mode of reactor cooling was initially established to remove decay heat. The plan was to eventually switch over to a recirculation cooling system. Failure of feed and bleed was a possibility during the interim period. Furthermore, even if recirculation was established, there was a possibility of its subsequent failure. Decay heat has to be sufficiently removed to prevent further core degradation. To understand the possible evolution of the accident conditions and to have a tool for potential future hypothetical evaluations of accidents at other nuclear facilities, a Markov model of the state of the reactors was constructed in the immediate aftermath of the accident and was executed under different assumptions of potential future challenges. This work was performed at the request of the U.S. Department of Energy to explore 'what-if' scenarios in the immediate aftermath of the accident. The work began in mid-March and continued until mid-May 2011. The analysis had the following goals: (1) To provide an overall framework for describing possible …