Oil field waste containing naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) is presently disposed of both on the lease site and at off-site commercial disposal facilities. The majority of NORM waste is disposed of through underground injection, most of which presently takes place at a commercial injection facility located in eastern Texas. Several companies offer the service of coming to an operator's site, grinding the NORM waste into a fine particle size, slurrying the waste, and injecting it into the operator's own disposal well. One company is developing a process whereby the radionuclides are dissolved out of the NORM wastes, leaving a nonhazardous oil field waste and a contaminated liquid stream that is injected into the operator's own injection well. Smaller quantities of NORM are disposed of through burial in landfills, encapsulation inside the casing of wells that are being plugged and abandoned, or land spreading. It is difficult to quantify the total cost for disposing of NORM waste. The cost components that must be considered, in addition to the cost of the operation, include analytical costs, transportation costs, container decontamination costs, permitting costs, and long-term liability costs. Current NORM waste disposal costs range from $15/bbl to $420/bbl.

We measured the ballistic performance of five ceramic materials (alumina, silicon carbide, boron carbide, aluminum nitride, and titanium diboride) and Pyrex, when they are backed by thick steel plates. The projectile for all tests was a right-circular cylinder of tungsten sinter-alloy W2 with length 25.4 mm and diameter 6.35 mm, fired at velocities from 1.35 to 2.65 km/s. For this threat we determined the minimum areal density of each material that is needed to keep the projectile from penetrating the backup steel. For all of the facing materials studied here, this performance measure increases approximately linearly with projectile velocity. However, the rate of increase is significantly lower for aluminum nitride than for the other materials studied. Indeed, aluminum nitride is a poor performer at the lowest velocity tested, but is clearly the best at the highest velocity. Our computer simulations show the significant influence of the backing material on ceramic performance, manifested by a transition region extending two projectile diameters upstream from the material interface. Experiments with multiple material layers show that this influence also manifests itself through a significant dependence of ballistic performance on the ordering of the material

Silver/glass mirrors have excellent optical properties but need a method of support in order to be used in concentrating solar thermal systems. In collaboration with the Cummins dish/Stirling development program, they started investigating sandwich construction as a way to integrate silver/glass mirrors into solar optical elements. In sandwich construction, membranes such as sheet metal or plastic are bonded to the front and back of a core (like a sandwich). For solar optical elements, a glass mirror is bonded to one of the membranes. This type of construction has the advantages of a high strength-to-weight ratio, and reasonable material and manufacturing cost. The inherent stiffness of sandwich construction mirror panels also facilitates large panels. This can have cost advantages for both the amount of hardware required as well as reduced installation and alignment costs. In addition, by incorporating the panels into the support structure reductions in the amount of structural support required are potentially possible.

In the past few years a cryogenic Penning trap (RETRAP) has been operational at the Electron Beam Ion Trap (EBIT) facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The combination of RETRAP and EBIT provides a unique possibility of producing and re-trapping highly charged ions and cooling them to very low temperatures. Due to the high Coulomb potentials in such an ensemble of cold highly charged ions the Coulomb coupling parameter (the ratio of Coulomb potential to the thermal energy) can easily reach values of 172 and more. To study such systems is not only of interest in astrophysics to simulate White Dwarf star interiors but opens up new possibilities in a variety of areas (e.g. laser spectroscopy), cold highly charged ion beams.

This test procedure was developed to determine if the 702AZ Tank Ventilation Facility system is Year 2000 Compliant. The procedure provides detailed instructions for performing the operations necessary and documenting the results. This verification procedure will document that the 702AZ Facility Systems are year 2000 compliant and will correctly meet the criteria established in this procedure.

This supporting document has been prepared to make the FDNW calculations for Project W-320 readily retrievable. The Equipment Removal System (ERS) has been identified by WHC as not having any safety class 1 items present in the tank pits during equipment removal activities. Documentation of this finding is provided in Letter of Instruction 3/1 Analysis Requirements for Project W-320 Equipment Removal System (REF: LOI KGS-94-013). Based on this specific direction from WHC, 3/1 analysis for any component of the Project W-320 ERS is required. No further documentation of non-safety impacting safety items is required per DOE-RL Audit finding No. 90-02, and filing of this memorandum in the W-320 project files satisfies the intent of the referenced DOE observation.

Removal and immobilization of mercury ions from industrial waste streams is a difficult and expensive problem requiring an efficient and selective extractant that is resistant to corrosive conditions. We have now developed an acid-resistant thiacrown polymer that has potential utility as a selective and cost-effective Hg²⁺ extractant. Copolymerization of a novel C-substituted thiacrown, N,N-(4-vinylbenzylmethyl)-2-aminomethyl- ,4,&l 1,14- pentathiacycloheptadecane, with DVB (80% divinylbenzene) using a radical initiator generated a highly cross-linked polymer containing pendant thiacrowns. Mercury extraction capabilities of the polymer were tested in acidic media (pH range: 1.5 to 6.2) and the extraction of Hg²⁺ was determined to be 95⁺% with a mixing time of 30 minutes. The thiacrown polymer was also determined to be selective for Hg*+, competing ions such as Pb²⁺, Cd²⁺, A1³⁺, and Fe³⁺. even in the presence of high concentrations of The bound Hg²⁺ ions can then be stripped from the polymer, allowing the polymer to be reused without significant loss of loading capacity.

A specially designed lifetime measurement instrument has been developed to characterize silicon ingots before they are subjected to expensive slicing and solar-cell processing, thereby saving needless processing costs of inferior materials in a solar-cell production line. The instrument uses the direct-current photoconductance decay (DC-PCD) method for linear detection of the transient photoconductance signal and localized probing / illumination for necessary sensitivity on low resistivity and large samples. The instrument also has a compact and high-power laser diode as the light source, data averaging capability, a pneumatic ingot transport and probe positioning mechanism, and a user-friendly graphical interface for data acquisition / lifetime calculation / data storage / hardcopy for factory-floor use with quick turnaround. A 3-dimensional finite-element analysis indicates that the as-cut surface finish is adequate for measuring the bulk lifetime on the order of 50 ms or less. Measurement repeatability and clear distinction among different grades of feedstock materials have been demonstrated.

The Detector Development Group at the University of Florida has identified the only known optically radiation hard polymer, scintillator and wavelength shifter materials. The authors summarize their findings here. They conducted an extensive study of siloxane polymers using monomers of dimethyl, diphenyl and methylphenyl siloxanes. An important finding of that study was that polymethylphenylsiloxane is a candidate polymer for use at the SSC. However, the most important result of that work was the demonstration of the existence of optical polymers with extreme resistance to radiation damage. It held out the promise that other possibly more convenient polymers with similar properties could be identified. The first high viscosity, transparent, radiation hard siloxane with high fluor solubility was processed into prototype plates. The authors propose a mechanism to account for radiation induced annealable color center formation in commercial scintillator polymers such as PS and PMMA. The authors produced analogues of these polymers with T{sub g} < room temperatures. These polymers are optically radiation hard. The University of Florida has applied for a patent on this breakthrough discovery. It was found that dye mobility for radiation hard elastomers (T{sub g} < room temperature) was unacceptable over a period of one year. Dyes would …

Particle creation in a conformally flat spacetime (e.g., FRW universe) requires a non-conformal field. The choice of state is crucial, as one may misunderstand the physics of particle creation by choosing a too restrictive vacuum for the quantum field. The authors exhibit a vacuum state in which the expectation values of the energy and pressure allow an intuitive physical interpretation. They apply this general result to the de Sitter universe.

The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at the BNL requires the AGS to provide Gold beam with the intensity of 10{sup 9} ions per bunch. Over the years, the Tandem Van de Graaff has provided steadily increasing intensity of gold ion beams to the AGS Booster. However, the gold beam injection efficiency at the Booster has been found to decrease with the rising intensity of injected beams. As the result, for Tandem beams of the highest intensity, the Booster late intensity is lower than with slightly lower intensity Tandem beam. In this article, the authors present two experiments associated with the Booster injection efficiency and beam intensity. One experiment looks at the Booster injection efficiency by adjusting the Tandem beam intensity, and another looks at the beam life time while scraping the beam in the Booster. The studies suggest that the gold beam injection efficiency at the AGS Booster is related to the beam loss in the ring, rather than the intensity of injected beam or circulating beam. A close look at the effect of the lost gold ion at the Booster injection leads to the prediction that the lost gold ion creates large number of positive ions, and even …

The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, RHIC, is two counter-rotating rings with six interaction points. The RF Beam Control system for each ring will control two 28 MHz cavities for acceleration, and five 197 MHz cavities for preserving the 5 ns bunch length during 10 hour beam stores. Digital technology is used extensively in: Direct Digital Synthesis of rf signals and Digital Signal Processing for, the realization of state-variable feedback loops, real-time calculation of rf frequency, and bunch-by-bunch phase measurement of the 120 bunches. DSP technology enables programming the parameters of the feedback loops in order to obtain closed-loop dynamics that are independent of synchrotron frequency.

One of performance requirements of the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) is to keep the uncontrolled beam loss in the storage ring to less than 2 x 10{sup {minus}4} per pulse. For 2 MW SNS, the maximum beam intensity is N = 2 x 10{sup 14} protons per ring. Since the bunch lengthening has impact on both the extraction beam loss and the lowering of e-p instability threshold, the longitudinal space charge effect requires attentions. Such a space charge effect has been studied both analytically and using computer simulations. The longitudinal space charge effect, which is a defocusing force below transition, is a plausible source of the bunch leakage. In this article, the total RF potential, which takes into account the space charge effect together with the RF power, is used to provide analytical predictions for the bunch lengthening. The prediction is confirmed by the computer simulation. It is found that for 2 MW SNS storage ring, the longitudinal space charge induced bunch leakage into the interbunch gap is not significant. Therefore, corrections to the longitudinal space charge impedance, such as the proposed ferrite insertion in the PSR ring, are probably not necessary. Applying an RF voltage ramping from 20 KV …

A reliable metric is required to describe the damage resistance of large aperture 3{omega} transmissive optics for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser. The trend from single site testing to the more statistically valid Gaussian scanning test requires a well modeled experimental procedure, accurate monitoring of the test parameters, and careful interpretation of the resulting volumes of data. The methods described here provide reliable quality assurance data, as well as intrinsic damage concentration information used to predict the performance expected under use conditions. This paper describes the equipment, test procedure, and data analysis used to evaluate large aperture 3{omega} optics for the NIF laser.

As part of an international effort, the Los Alamos National Laboratory has been asked to (1) determine if there is a set of dominant precursors that are common to all fissionable isotopes and all incident neutron energies, (2) expand the existing experimentally-measured few-group models commonly used in the nuclear industry into their 8-group equivalent using a consistent set of decay constants corresponding to these dominant precursors, and (3) formulate new group spectra for the equivalent 8-group model. In response to this request, LANL has calculated the theoretical delayed neutron yield for 14 different isotopes using three different incident neutron spectra (i.e., thermal, fast, and 14.1 MeV) using the current fission-yield and emission probability data found in ENDF-VI. An example of these results is shown in a figure in which the theoretical delayed neutron yields for the 271 precursors produced during thermal fission of {sup 235}U are plotted against the half-lives of the precursors. By comparing the results of all 14 isotopes, a preliminary set of precursors has been identified that are dominant within the various half-life regimes of the delayed neutron precursors. Also plotted on a figure are the group yields of the 8-group equivalent model of Keepin`s 6-group model. …

An ability to lift off or separate the thin-film polycrystalline CdTe from the CdS, without the use of chemical etches, has enabled direct electrical characterization of the as-processed CdTe near the CdTe/CdS heterointerface. We use this ability to understand how a back-contact, nitric-phosphoric (NP) etch affects the grain boundaries throughout the film. Quantitative determination of the grain-boundary barrier potentials and estimates of doping density near the grain perimeter are determined from theoretical fits to measurements of the current vs. temperature. Estimates of the bulk doping are determined from high-frequency resistivity measurements. Also, a variable doping density within the grains of non-etched material has been determined. These results allow a semi-quantitative grain-boundary band diagram to be drawn that should aid in determining more-accurate two-dimensional models for polycrystalline CdTe solar cells.

The muon g-2 experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory has constructed a 7.112m radius superconducting magnet. The design and construction of the storage ring magnet are described.

Advanced, coal-based power plants will require durable and reliable hot gas filtration systems to remove particulate contaminants from the gas streams to protect downstream components such as turbine blades from erosion damage. It is expected that the filter elements in these systems will have to be made of ceramic materials to withstand goal service temperatures of 1600 F or higher. Recent demonstration projects and pilot plant tests have indicated that the current generation of ceramic hot gas filters (cross-flow and candle configurations) are failing prematurely. Two of the most promising materials that have been extensively evaluated are clay-bonded silicon carbide and alumina-mullite porous monoliths. These candidates, however, have been found to suffer progressive thermal shock fatigue damage, as a result of rapid cooling/heating cycles. Such temperature changes occur when the hot filters are back-pulsed with cooler gas to clean them, or in process upset conditions, where even larger gas temperature changes may occur quickly and unpredictably. In addition, the clay-bonded silicon carbide materials are susceptible to chemical attack of the glassy binder phase that holds the SiC particles together, resulting in softening, strength loss, creep, and eventual failure.

This project deals with the demonstration of a coking process using proprietary technology of Calderon, with the following objectives geared to facilitating commercialization: (1) making coke of such quality as to be suitable for use in hard-driving, large blast furnaces; (2) providing proof that such process is continuous and environmentally closed to prevent emissions; (3) demonstrating that high-coking-pressure (non-traditional) coal blends which cannot be safely charged into conventional by-product coke ovens can be used in the Calderon process; and (4) demonstrating that coke can be produced economically, at a level competitive with coke imports. The activities of the past quarter were focused on three main activities: Continuation of design of the coking reactor; Raising funds from the private sector; and Detailed analysis of the tests conducted in Alliance, Ohio. The design of the reactor work centered on the provision for the capability to inspect and maintain the internals of the reactor. The activities relating to raising funds from the steel industry have been fruitful. Bethlehem Steel has agreed to contribute funds. The collected data from the tests at Alliance were analyzed and a detailed report was completed and presented to the International Iron & Steel Institute by invitation.

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A method for integrating liquid metal magnetohydrodynamic power generation with fusion blanket technology to produce electrical power from a thermonuclear fusion reactor located within a confining magnetic field and within a toroidal structure. A hot liquid metal flows from a liquid metal blanket region into a pump duct of an electromagnetic pump which moves the liquid metal to a mixer where a gas of predetermined pressure is mixed with the pressurized liquid metal to form a Froth mixture. Electrical power is generated by flowing the Froth mixture between electrodes in a generator duct. When the Froth mixture exits the generator the gas is separated from the liquid metal and both are recycled.

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A cryogenic pumping system is provided, comprising a vacuum environment, an aerogel sorbent formed from a carbon aerogel disposed within the vacuum environment, and cooling means for cooling the aerogel sorbent sufficiently to adsorb molecules from the vacuum environment onto the aerogel sorbent. Embodiments of the invention include a liquid refrigerant cryosorption pump, a compressed helium cryogenic pump, a cryopanel and a Meissner coil, each of which uses carbon aerogel as a sorbent material.

The purpose of this research was to test the commercial viability and feasibility of Dymalloy, a composite material to measure thermal conductivity. Dymalloy was developed as part of a CRADA with Sun Microsystems. Sun Microsystems was a potential end user of Dymalloy as a substrate for MCMS. Sun had no desire to be involved in the manufacture of this material. The goal of this small business CRADA with Spectra Mat was to establish the high volume commercial manufacturing industry source for Dymalloy required by an end-user such as Sun Microsystems. The difference between the fabrication technique developed during the CRADA and this proposed work related to the mechanical technique of coating the diamond powder. Mechanical parts for the high-volume diamond powder coating process existed; however, they needed to be installed in an existing coating system for evaluation. Sputtering systems similar to the one required for this project were available at LLNL. Once the diamond powder was coated, both LLNL and Spectra Mat could make and test the Dymalloy composites. Spectra Mat manufactured Dymalloy composites in order to evaluate and establish a reasonable cost estimate on their existing processing capabilities. This information was used by Spectra Mat to define the market …