Several facilities at Argonne National Laboratory - West (ANL-W) generate many thousand gallons of radioactive liquid waste per year. These waste streams are sent to the AFL-W Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility (RLWTF) where they are processed through hot air evaporators. These evaporators remove the liquid portion of the waste and leave a relatively small volume of solids in a shielded container. The ANL-W sampling, characterization and tracking programs ensure that these solids ultimately meet the disposal requirements of a low-level radioactive waste landfill. One set of evaporators will process an average 25,000 gallons of radioactive liquid waste, provide shielding, and reduce it to a volume of six cubic meters (container volume) for disposal. Waste characterization of the shielded evaporators poses some challenges. The process of evaporating the liquid and reducing the volume of waste increases the concentrations of RCIU regulated metals and radionuclides in the final waste form. Also, once the liquid waste has been processed through the evaporators it is not possible to obtain sample material for characterization. The process for tracking and assessing the final radioactive waste concentrations is described in this paper, The structural components of the evaporator are an approved and integral part of the …

This papers presents the concept of long-term underground retrievable storage (URS) of spent reactor fuel in unsaturated rock. Emplacement would be incremental and the system is planned to be experimental and flexible. The rationale for retrievability is examined, and a technical basis for 300-year retrievability is presented. Maximum isolation is the rationale for underground as opposed to surface storage. Although the potential repository site at Yucca Mountain Nevada would be suitable for a URS, alternate sites are discussed. The technical issues involved in licensing a URS for 300 years are simpler than licensing a 10,000 year repository. 16 refs.

Inelastic nuclear scattering of X-rays from the 14.413 keV nuclear resonance of {sup 57}Fe was employed to measure directly the Fe-projected phonon density of states (DOS) in MBE-grown Fe/Cr(00l) superlattices on MgO(001). The Moessbauer-inactive {sup 56}Fe isotope was used in the Fe layers. A 1{angstrom} thick Moessbauer-active {sup 57}Fe-probe layer (95% enriched) was placed at different locations within the Fe layers. This procedure permits one to distinguish phonon density of states at the Fe-Cr-interface from that at the center of the Fe-film. Distinct differences have been observed in the DOS of our samples. The phonon DOS of an amorphous Tb{sub 33}Fe{sub 67} alloy film was found to be a broad and structureless hump, contrary to that of an epitaxial TbFe{sub 2} film, which exhibits characteristic features.

The authors review recent reactor- and spallation-source-based neutron scattering experiments on the magnetic fluctuations and order in a variety of doped transition metal oxides. In particular, data are shown for the NiO chain compound, Y{sub 2{minus}x}Ca{sub x}BaNiO{sub 5}, the two-dimensional cuprate superconductors La{sub 2{minus}x}Sr{sub x}CuO{sub 4} and YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3} O{sub 6+x}, and the classical three-dimensional ``Mott-Hubbard`` system V{sub 2{minus}y}O{sub 3}.

Ball lenses are important for many applications. For example, ball lenses can be used to match the mode of a laser diode (LD) to a single mode fiber (SMF), essential for low-loss, high bit rate communication systems. Modeling the propagation of LD light through a ball lens presents a challenge due to the large angular divergence of the LD field (typically > 20{degrees} HWHM) and the subsequent significant effect of spherical aberration. Accurately calculating the reflected power is also difficult, but essential, since reflections as small as {minus}30 dB can destabilize the LID. A full-wave analysis of this system using, e.g., a finite-difference time-domain method is not practical because of the size of the ball lens, typically hundreds of wavelengths in diameter. Approximate scalar methods can give good results in some cases, but fail to calculate reflected power and miss polarization effects entirely. The authors` approach exploits the fact that the scattering of an arbitrary electromagnetic beam from a sphere is an exactly solvable problem. The scattering of a plane wave from a sphere is a classical problem which was solved by Mie in 1908. More recently, various workers have considered the scattering of a Gaussian beam from a sphere …

In this paper, I discuss the principal ideas that I covered in my presentation on December 8, 1993, at the Future of Foreign Nuclear Materials Symposium held by the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. I was asked to discuss issues related to military inventories of plutonium, and I took this opportunity to describe a possible declaratory regime that could encompass military as well as civilian inventories of plutonium. The {open_quote}new{close_quotes} in the title does not imply that the regime discussed here is an original idea. Rather, the regime will be {open_quotes}new,{close_quotes} when it is adopted. The regime proposed here and in other works is one in which all stocks of nuclear weapons and materials are declared. Originally, declarations were proposed as a traditional arms control measure. Here, declarations are proposed to support the prevention of misuse of nuclear weapons and materials, including support for the nonproliferation regime. In the following, I discuss: (1) Worldwide inventories of nuclear weapons and materials, including the fact that military plutonium must be viewed as part of that worldwide inventory. (2) Life cycles of nuclear weapons and materials, including the various stages from the creation of nuclear materials for weapons through deployment and retirement …

Laser-induced damage mechanisms that can occur during high-intensity fiber transmission have been under study for a number of years. Our particular interest in laser initiation of explosives has led us to examine damage processes associated with the transmission of Q-switched, Nd:YAG pulses at 1.06 {micro}m through step-index, multimode, fused silica fiber. Laser breakdown at the fiber entrance face is often the first process to limit fiber transmission but catastrophic damage can also occur at either fiber end face, within the initial entry segment of the fiber, and at other internal sites along the fiber path. Past studies have examined how these various damage mechanisms depend upon fiber end-face preparation, fiber fixturing and routing, laser characteristics, and laser-to-fiber injection optics. In some applications of interest, however, a fiber transmission system may spend years in storage before it is used. Consequently, an important additional issue for these applications is whether or not there are aging processes that can result in lower damage thresholds over time. Fiber end-face contamination would certainly lower breakdown and damage thresholds at these surfaces, but careful design of hermetic seals in connectors and other end-face fixtures can minimize this possibility. A more subtle possibility would be a process …

I discuss the role of anomalies in the modern development of quantum field theory and their implications for physics.

Self-aligned JFETs with a carbon-doped p{sup +} region have been reported for the first time. For these JFETs, both the channel and p{sup +} region were grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and are termed epitaxial JFETs in this study. The epitaxial JFETs were compared to ion implanted JFETs of similar channel doping and threshold voltage. Both JFETs were fabricated using the same self-aligned process for doping the source and drain regions of the JFET and for eliminating excess gate capacitance of conventional JFETs. The gate turn-on voltage for the epitaxial JFETs was 1.06 V, about 0.1 V higher than for the implanted JFETs. The reverse breakdown voltage was similar for both JFETs but the reverse gate leakage current of the epitaxial JFETs was 1-3 orders of magnitude less than the implanted JFETs. The epitaxial JFETs also showed higher transconductance and lower knee voltage than the implanted JFETs.

The time-dependence of the wet oxidation of high-Al-content AlGaAs can be either linear, indicating reaction-rate limitation, or parabolic, indicating diffusion-limited rates. The transition from linear to parabolic time dependence can be explained by the increased rate of the formation of intermediate As{sub 2}O{sub 3} vs. its reduction to elemental As. A steadily increasing thickness of the As{sub 2}O{sub 3}-containing region at the oxidation front will shift the process from the linear to the parabolic regime. This shift from reaction-rate-limited (linear) to diffusion-limited (parabolic) time dependence is favored by increasing temperature or increasing Al mole fraction.

The work functions of polycrystalline metals are often used to systematize Schottky barrier height data for rectifying contacts to semiconductors. Rectifying contacts to silicon devices are predominantly formed using conductive metal silicides with work functions which are not as well characterized as metal work functions. The present work has two objectives. First, it classifies the transition metals using correlations between the metal work function and the atomic chemical potential. Second, the available data for metal silicides is collected and interpreted using an average charge transfer (ACT) model. The ACT model accounts for the electronic hardness of the component elements in addition to their chemical potentials. New trends in the behavior of silicide work functions are identified.

The status of the analysis effort for the 25% data sample taken during the Fermilab '96-'97 fixed target run for {epsilon}'/{epsilon} measurement from KTeV is presented here. Detector performance, data statistics, background subtractions, data and monte-carlo comparison for acceptance corrections, as well as the preliminary results on K{sub L}{yields}{pi}{sup 0}{gamma}{gamma} are described in more detail. Prospects for KTeV 99, in the up coming 6 months '99 fixed target run, are also discussed here.

We discuss the role of localized high electric fields in the modification of Au surfaces with a W probe using the Interfacial Force Microscope. Upon bringing a probe close to a Au surface, we measure both the interfacial force and the field emission current as a function of separation with a constant potential of 100 V between tip and sample. The current initially increases exponentially as the separation decreases. However, at a distance of less than {approximately} 500{angstrom} the current rises sharply as the surface begins to distort and rapidly close the gap. Retraction of the tip before contact is made reveals the formation of a mound on the surface. We propose a simple model, in which the localized high electric field under the tip assists the production of mobile Au adatoms by detachment from surface steps, and a radial field gradient causes a net flux of atoms toward the tip by surface diffusion. These processes give rise to an unstable surface deformation which, if left unchecked, results in a destructive mechanical contact. We discuss our findings with respect to earlier work using voltage pulses in the STM as a means of nanofabrication.

For the past few years, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has been conducting a comprehensive research program on the application of non-thermal plasmas for air pollution control and abatement. This program combines an extensive modeling effort with an experimental facility and test program. We believe that there are two major issues to be addressed in order to apply non-thermal plasma processing to air pollution control; these are electrical energy consumption and byproduct identification. The thrust of our work has been to understand the scalability of the non-thermal process by focusing on the energy efficiency of the non-thermal process and to identify the byproducts to ensure that effluent gases from a non-thermal processor are benign. We have compared different types of electrical discharge reactors both theoretically and experimentally. Our interests in the application of non-thermal plasmas vary from the destruction of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to NO{sub x} reduction for mobile applications. This paper will discuss the processing of both NO{sub x} and VOCs by non-thermal plasmas at LLNL.

We first present recent CDF results on the top quark, covering the measurement of the t{anti t} production cross section and the top quark mass, the observation of hadronic W decays in top events, the measurement of V{sub tb}, the search for flavor changing neutral current decays, and kinematical properties of t{anti t} production. Then we present one topic from CDF exotic physics results, i.e., the search for first-generation leptoquarks, and one topic from CDF B physics results, i.e., the measurement of time-dependent B{sup 0}-{anti B}{sup 0} mixing. Finally we conclude by briefly mentioning the prospects for Run II.

The morphologies of U metal samples from deposits produced by electrorefining of Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) spent fuel were examined using scanning electron microscopy, energy- and wavelength-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and metallography. The morphologies were analyzed to find correlations with the chemistry of the samples, the ER run conditions, and the deposit performance. A rough correlation was observed between morphology and Zr concentration; samples with Zr contents greater than approximately 200 ppm showed fine-grained, polycrystalline dendritic morphologies, while samples with Zr contents less than approximately 100 ppm were comprised of agglomerations or linked chains of rhomboidal single crystals. There were few correlations found between morphology, run conditions, and deposit performance.

In this paper a new time-stepping method for simulating systems of rigid bodies is given. Unlike methods which take an instantaneous point of view, the method is based on impulse-momentum equations, and so does not need to explicitly resolve impulsive forces. On the other hand, the method is distinct from previous impulsive methods in that it does not require explicit collision checking and it can handle simultaneous impacts. Numerical results are given for one planar and one three-dimensional example, which demonstrate the practicality of the method, and its convergence as the step size becomes small.

The support of the criticality safety community is allowing the production of benchmark descriptions of several assemblies from the ZPR Diagnostic Cores Program. The assemblies have high sensitivities to nuclear data for a few isotopes. This can highlight limitations in nuclear data for selected nuclides or in standard methods used to treat these data. The present work extends the use of the simplified model of the U9 benchmark assembly beyond the validation of k{sub eff}. Further simplifications have been made to produce a data testing benchmark in the style of the standard CSEWG benchmark specifications. Calculations for this data testing benchmark are compared to results obtained with more detailed models and methods to determine their biases. These biases or corrections factors can then be applied in the use of the less refined methods and models. Data testing results using Versions IV, V, and VI of the ENDF/B nuclear data are presented for k{sub eff}, f{sup 28}/f{sup 25}, c{sup 28}/f{sup 25}, and {beta}{sub eff}. These limited results demonstrate the importance of studying other integral parameters in addition to k{sub eff} in trying to improve nuclear data and methods and the importance of accounting for methods and/or modeling biases when using data …

This paper formally introduces several stability characterizations of fixtured three-dimensional rigid bodies initially at rest and in unilateral contact with Coulomb friction. These characterizations, weak stability and strong stability, arise naturally from the dynamic model of the system, formulated as a complementarity problem. Using the tools of complementarity theory, these characterizations are studied in detail to understand their properties and to develop techniques to identify the stability classifications of general systems subjected to known external loads.

An edge-emitting buried-oxide waveguide (BOW) laser structure employing lateral selective oxidation of AlGaAs layers above and below the active region for waveguiding and current confinement is presented. This laser configuration has the potential for very small lateral optical mode size and high current confinement and is well suited for integrated optics applications where threshold current and overall efficiency are paramount. Optimization of the waveguide design, oxide layer placement, and bi-parabolic grading of the heterointerfaces on both sides of the AlGaAs oxidation layers has yielded 95% external differential quantum efficiency and 40% wall-plug efficiency from a laser that is very simple to fabricate and does not require epitaxial regrowth of any kind.

A two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystal is an attractive alternative and complimentary to its 3D counterpart, due to fabrication simplicity. A 2D crystal, however, confines light only in the 2D plane, but not in the third direction, the z-direction. Earlier experiments show that such a 2D system can exist, providing that the boundary effect in z-direction is negligible and that light is collimated in the 2D plane. Nonetheless, the usefulness of such 2D crystals is limited because they are incapable of guiding light in z-direction, which leads to diffraction loss. This drawback presents a major obstacle for realizing low-loss 2D crystal waveguides, bends and thresholdless lasers. A recent theoretical calculation, though, suggests a novel way to eliminate such a loss with a 2D photonic crystal slab. The concept of a lightcone is introduced as a criterion for fully guiding and controlling light. Although the leaky modes of a crystal slab have been studied, there have until now no experimental reports on probing its guided modes and band gaps. In this paper, a waveguide-coupled 2D photonic crystal slab is successfully fabricated from a GaAs/Al{sub x}O{sub y} material system and its intrinsic transmission properties are studied. The crystal slab is shown to have …

Quantum robots are described as mobile quantum computers and ancillary systems that move in and interact with arbitrary environments. Their dynamics is given as tasks which consist of sequences of alternating computation and action phases. A task example is considered in which a quantum robot searches a space region to find the location of a system. The possibility that the search can be more efficient than a classical search is examined by considering use of Grover's Algorithm to process the search results. This is problematic for two reasons. One is the removal of entanglements generated by the (reversible) search process. The other is that (ignoring the entanglement problem), the search process in 2 dimensional space regions is no more efficient than a classical search. However quantum searches of higher dimensional space regions are more efficient than classical searches. Reasons why quantum robots are interesting independent of these results are briefly summarized.

The ultimate limitation in obtainable resolution and sensitivity for space-based imaging systems is the size of the optical collecting aperture. Large collecting apertures are at odds with maintaining low launch costs and with current launch vehicle configurations. Development of a deployable mirror is one approach being considered to satisfy these conflicting requirements. The focus of this research is to develop fundamental technology toward the realization of deployable electron-gun-controlled piezoelectric thin films mirrors as shown below. A bimorph layer of film will bend in response to an applied electric field and can therefore be deformed into desirable shapes using a scanning electron gun. Surface curvature measurements govern the electron gun scanning strategy, yielding distributed shape corrections.

An automated gas chromatography was used to analyze water samples contaminated with trace (parts-per-billion) concentrations of organic analytes. A custom interface introduced the liquid sample to the chromatography. This was followed by rapid chromatographic analysis. Characteristics of the analysis include response times less than one minute and automated data processing. Analytes were chosen based on their known presence in the recycle water streams of semiconductor manufacturers and their potential to reduce process yield. These include acetone, isopropanol, butyl acetate, ethyl benzene, p-xylene, methyl ethyl ketone and 2-ethoxy ethyl acetate. Detection limits below 20 ppb were demonstrated for all analytes and quantitative analysis with limited speciation was shown for multianalyte mixtures. Results are discussed with respect to the potential for on-line liquid process monitoring by this method.