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The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) will use Colemanite bearing concrete neutron absorber panels credited with attenuating neutron flux in the criticality design analyses. The Savannah River National Laboratory is tasked with measuring the total density, partial hydrogen density, and partial boron density of the colemanite concrete. Sample 04 May 12/Test/S1-1, S1-2, and S1-3 was received on 5/9/2012 and analyzed. The total density measure by the ASTM method C 642 was 2.00 g/cm{sup 3}, within the lower bound of 1.88 g/cm{sup 3}. The partial hydrogen density of 6.35E-02 g/cm{sup 3} as measured using method ASTM E 1311 met the lower bound of 6.04E-02 g/cm{sup 3}. The measured partial boron density of 1.88E-01 g/cm{sup 3} exceeded the lower bound of 1.65E-01 g/cm{sup 3} when the sodium peroxide fusion dissolution method was used in place of the prescribed ASTM C 1301 method.

Li(Ni{sub 0.4}Co{sub 0.15}Al{sub 0.05}Mn{sub 0.4})O{sub 2} was investigated to understand the effect of replacement of the cobalt by aluminum on the structural and electrochemical properties. In situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) was performed, utilizing a novel in situ electrochemical cell, specifically designed for long-term X-ray experiments. The cell was cycled at a moderate rate through a typical Li-ion battery operating voltage range. (1.0-4.7 V) XAS measurements were performed at different states of charge (SOC) during cycling, at the Ni, Co, and the Mn edges, revealing details about the response of the cathode to Li insertion and extraction processes. The extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) region of the spectra revealed the changes of bond distance and coordination number of Ni, Co, and Mn absorbers as a function of the SOC of the material. The oxidation states of the transition metals in the system are Ni{sup 2+}, Co{sup 3+}, and Mn{sup 4+} in the as-made material (fully discharged), while during charging the Ni{sup 2+} is oxidized to Ni{sup 4+} through an intermediate stage of Ni{sup 3+}, Co{sup 3+} is oxidized toward Co{sup 4+}, and Mn was found to be electrochemically inactive and remained as Mn{sup 4+}. The EXAFS results during cycling …

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PTRANSP, which is the predictive version of the TRANSP code, was developed in a collaborative effort involving the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, General Atomics Corporation, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Lehigh University. The PTRANSP/TRANSP suite of codes is the premier integrated tokamak modeling software in the United States. A production service for PTRANSP/TRANSP simulations is maintained at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory; the server has a simple command line client interface and is subscribed to by about 100 researchers from tokamak projects in the US, Europe, and Asia. This service produced nearly 13000 PTRANSP/TRANSP simulations in the four year period FY 2005 through FY 2008. Major archives of TRANSP results are maintained at PPPL, MIT, General Atomics, and JET. Recent utilization, counting experimental analysis simulations as well as predictive simulations, more than doubled from slightly over 2000 simulations per year in FY 2005 and FY 2006 to over 4300 simulations per year in FY 2007 and FY 2008. PTRANSP predictive simulations applied to ITER increased eight fold from 30 simulations per year in FY 2005 and FY 2006 to 240 simulations per year in FY 2007 and FY 2008, accounting for more than half of combined PTRANSP/TRANSP service CPU resource …

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The purpose of this report is to provide a concise status update for value-added products (VAP) implemented by the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility. The report is divided into the following sections: (1) new VAPs for which development has begun, (2) progress on existing VAPs, and (3) future VAPs that have been recently approved.

Project X Energy Station Workshop Report Report by the Organizers and Co-Conveners of the Project X Energy Station Workshop

Yrast states in 34P were investigated using the 18O(18O,pn) reaction at energies of 20, 24, 25, 30, and 44 MeV at Florida State University and at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The level scheme was expanded, ray angular distributions were measured, and lifetimes were inferred with the Doppler-shift attenuation method by detecting decay protons in coincidence with one or more rays. The results provide a clearer picture of the evolution of structure approaching the 'Island of Inversion', particularly how the 1 and 2 particle-hole (ph) states fall in energy with increasing neutro number approaching inversion. However, the agreement of the lowest few states with pure sd shell model predictions shows that the level scheme of 34P is not itself inverted. Rather, the accumulated evidence indicates that the 1-ph states start at 2.3 MeV. A good candidate for the lowest 2-ph state lies at 6236 keV, just below the neutron separation energy of 6291 keV. Shell model calculations made using a small modification of the WBP interaction reproduce the negative-parity, 1-ph states rather well.

Photodetector readout for next generation high event rate particle identification and single-photon detection requires a digitizer capable of integrated recording of dense arrays of sensor elements with high analog bandwidth (precision timing) and large record depth, in a cost-effective, compact and low-power way. Simply stated, one cannot do better than having a high-fidelity 'oscilloscope on a chip' for every sensor channel. A firs version of the Buffered Large Analog Bandwidth (BLAB1) ASIC has been designed based upon the lessons learned from the development of the Large Analog Bandwidth Recorder and Digitizer with Ordered Readout (LABRADOR) ASIC. While this LABRADOR ASIC has been very successful and forms the readout basis of a generation of new, large-scale radio neutrino detectors, its limited sampling depth is a major drawback. To address this shortcoming, a prototype intended for photodetector readout has been designed and fabricated with 64k deep sampling at multi-GSa/s operation. An evaluation system has been constructed for instrumentation of Time-Of-Propagation (TOP) and focusing DIRC prototypes and test results will be reported.

In a recent report Navratil et al. evaluated the angle-integrated cross section and the angular distribution for 14-MeV n+T elastic scattering by inferring these cross sections from accurately measured p+3He angular distributions. This evaluation used a combination of two theoretical treatments, based on the no-core shell model and resonating-group method (NCSM/RGM) and on the R-matrix formalism, to connect the two charge-symmetric reactions n+T and p+{sup 3}He. In this report we extend this treatment to cover the neutron incident energy range 6-14 MeV. To do this, we evaluate angle-dependent correction factors for the NCSM/RGM calculations so that they agree with the p+{sup 3}He data near 6 MeV, and using the results found earlier near 14 MeV we interpolate these correction factors to obtain correction factors throughout the 6-14 MeV energy range. The agreement between the corrected NCSM/RGM and R-Matrix values for the integral elastic cross sections is excellent ({+-}1%), and these are in very good agreement with total cross section experiments. This result can be attributed to the nearly constant correction factors at forward angles, and to the evidently satisfactory physics content of the two calculations. The difference in angular shape, obtained by comparing values of the scattering probability distribution P({mu}) …

The Small Gram Quantity (SGQ) concept is based on the understanding that small amounts of hazardous materials, in this case radioactive materials (RAM), are significantly less hazardous than large amounts of the same materials. This paper describes a methodology designed to estimate an SGQ for several neutron and gamma emitting isotopes that can be shipped in a package in compliance with 10 CFR Part 71 external radiation level limits regulations. The neutron and photon sources were calculated using both ORIGEN-S and RASTA. The response from a unit source in each neutron and photon group was calculated using MCNP5 with each unshielded and shielded container configuration. Effects of self-shielding on both neutron and photon response were evaluated by including either plutonium oxide or iron in the source region for the case with no shielded container. For the cases of actinides mixed with light elements, beryllium is the bounding light element. The added beryllium (10 to 90 percent of the actinide mass) in the cases studied represents between 9 and 47 percent concentration of the total mixture mass. For beryllium concentrations larger than 50 percent, the increase in the neutron source term and dose rate tend to increase at a much lower …

We propose selection cuts on the LHC t{bar t} production sample which should enhance the sensitivity to New Physics signals in the study of the t{bar t} invariant mass distribution. We show that selecting events in which the t{bar t} object has little transverse and large longitudinal momentum enlarges the quark-fusion fraction of the sample and therefore increases its sensitivity to New Physics which couples to quarks and not to gluons. We find that systematic error bars play a fundamental role and assume a simple model for them. We check how a non-visible new particle would become visible after the selection cuts enhance its resonance bump. A final realistic analysis should be done by the experimental groups with a correct evaluation of the systematic error bars.

Abstract: Recent results on charm physics from Belle and BaBar are reported. These include studies of charm mixing, CP violation in the charm sector and properties of charmed meson decay. Measurements of the Ds pseudoscalar purely leptonic decay branching fractions are also reported, which allow for experimental comparisons with the lattice calculation of the ƒDs decay constant.

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Adsorbed water films commonly coat mineral surfaces in unsaturated soils and rocks, reducing flow and transport rates. Therefore, it is important to understand how adsorbed film thickness depends on matric potential, surface chemistry, and solution chemistry. Here, the problem of adsorbed water film thickness is examined through combining capillary scaling with the Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory. Novel aspects of this analysis include determining capillary influences on film thicknesses, and incorporating solution chemistry-dependent electrostatic potential at air-water interfaces. Capillary analysis of monodisperse packings of spherical grains provided estimated ranges of matric potentials where adsorbed films are stable, and showed that pendular rings within drained porous media retain most of the 'residual' water except under very low matric potentials. Within drained pores, capillary contributions to thinning of adsorbed films on spherical grains are shown to be small, such that DLVO calculations for flat surfaces are suitable approximations. Hamaker constants of common soil minerals were obtained to determine ranges of the dispersion component to matric potential-dependent film thickness. The pressure component associated with electrical double layer forces was estimated using the compression and linear superposition approximations. The pH-dependent electrical double layer pressure component is the dominant contribution to film thicknesses at intermediate values of …

This grant resulted in three distinct scientific advances, the most important being the discovery of a inhomogeneous superconducting state first predicted over 40 years ago. Two graduate students received PhDs as a result of this grant, and a major US high magnetic field facility was rebuilt.

The focus of this project was an overall process improvement through the enhancement of the co-product streams. The enhancement of the process operations and co-products will increase both ethanol production and the value of other process outputs and reduces the amount of waste byproducts. This leads to a more economical and environmentally sound alternative to landfill disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW). These enhancements can greatly increase the commercial potential for the production of ethanol from MSW by the Masada CES OxyNol process. Both technological and economical issues were considered for steps throughout the conversion process. The research efforts of this project are varied but synergistic. The project investigated many of the operations involved in the Masada process with the overall goal of process improvements. The general goal of the testing was to improve co-product quality, improve conversions efficiencies, minimize process losses, increase energy efficiency, and mitigate process and commercialization risks. The project was divided into 16 subtasks as described in general terms below. All these tasks are interrelated but not necessarily interdependent.

Future large scale sciences are anticipated to use massive amount of data in their experiments. DOE’s ESnet (Energy Science Network) is developing a 100 Gbps backbone based on this state-of-the-art 100 Gigabit Ethernet standard. ESnet will serve thousands of DOE and non-DOE scientists with its high bandwidth backbone, and connect several national laboratories. Current Ethernet test and debug solutions, such as network traffic capturer/analyzer tools, support up to 10 Gbps speed, and the very few capable of handling 100 Gbps are extremely costly. Such tools are essential in the development of high speed devices and routers, and ultimately the success of 100 Gigabit Ethernet.

Over the past 18 months, BNL has moved a large percentage of its Linux-based servers and services into a Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) environment. This presentation will address our approach to virtualization, critical decision points, and a discussion of our implementation. Specific topics will include an overview of hardware and software requirements, networking, and storage; discussion of the decision of Red Hat solution over competing products (VMWare, Xen, etc); details on some of the features of RHEV - both current and on their roadmap; Review of performance and reliability gains since deployment completion; path forward for RHEV at BNL and caveats and potential problems.