Concurrent progress is being made in all key areas, namely, separation, characterization and market assessment. The market area, not one of our traditionally strong areas, has been going better than expected. We believe this is due mainly to the emerging interest in new and unconventional materials. The characterization work has been progressing solidly with the fundamental Z-BASIC correlations providing information not heretofore available in the chemical literature. Our agreement with Hewlett-Packard regarding the purchase of equipment at a reduced price is complete and the gc-ms will be ordered shortly. The separation work has progressed satisfactorily although an unexpected amount of time has been required for ``facilities`` and ``equipment`` related issues. Some of these issues have dealt with safety and regulatory compliance when storing larger quantities of samples. These now seem to be solved. We have a lot of direct experience in shale oil separations dating back to the OXY project and before. Also, we will streamline our work by going to prepacked micro-separation tools for some of our separation characterization work. This will allow us to stay on schedule. Overall, we are on schedule with the project. All administration requirements are in place and the accounting and financial records are …

Corrosion kinetics of SiC were investigated from 950 to 1100C at 0.63 vol% alkali vapor concentration. Corrosion rate in alkali is 10{sup 4} to 10{sup 5} times faster than oxidation rate of SiC in air. Activation energy of the alkali corrosion is 406 kj/mol, indicating a high sensitivity to temperature changes. Overall reaction appears to be controlled by the oxidation of SiC. The alkali corrosion kinetics of Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} from 950 to 1050{degrees}C were also examined in the same atmosphere (0.63 vol% alkali vapors). Reaction thickness of Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} appears to vary linearly with reaction time from 950 to 1050C, suggesting that the alkali corrosion process is controlled by the oxidation of Si{sub 3}N{sub 4}. At 1050{degrees}C, the alkali-enhanced oxidation of Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} is approximately 10{sup 7} times faster than the oxidation of Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} in dry oxygen. Compared to SiC corroded in the same alkali atmosphere, Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} seems to be less alkali-resistant than SiC. Phase relations of the Na{sub 2}O-Al{sub 2}TiO{sub 5} vertical section from 5--40 wt% Na{sub 2}O and 840-1100C were studied. Phase analysis indicates that this section is not a true binary system. A tentative phase diagram for the Na{sub 2}O-Al{sub …

This Charter provides the basis for a cooperative, interagency effort to conduct Phase III of the ``Analysis of Offsite Emergency Planning Zones (EPZs) for the Rocky Flats Plant`` Project. The purpose of this Charter is to define the Project and establish an Oversight Committee management structure together with responsibilities and commitments. This Charter establishes a commitment on the part of the signing agencies to participate in a Phase III EPZ analysis to refine existing EPZs for the Rocky Flats Plant. These agencies agree to commit resources to this Project to fulfill their identified roles. The specific types and levels of resources committed by each agency will be determined as part of the Project planning process. This Charter does not commit any agency to any specific level of effort or resources. It does, however, commit these agencies to support the Phase III analysis to completion.

Reducing the complexity and cost of producing deep-submicrometer integrated circuits (ICs) will soon be possible using a revolutionary approach being developed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Resistless Projection Doping (RPD) will eliminate the need for photoresist processing during the impurity doping step. This single innovation will reduce the doping sequence from 13 steps to 1 and eliminate the need for five pieces of capital equipment costing more than $5 million. The overall cost of high-volume wafer fabrication will be reduced by more than 10 percent. In addition, the LLNL RPD machine is compact and modular, minimizing facilities costs when compared to today`s industry-standard doping equipment. These physical characteristics of the machine also allow the RPD process to be easily incorporated into single-wafer, ``cluster`` processing tools. When integrated with existing deposition, etching, and annealing steps and developing lithography techniques, the LLNL doping process completes the technology set required to produce a flexible fabrication facility of the future. At one-fifth the cost of current mega-fabrication facilities, the availability of these compact, low-volume, smart factories will give US manufacturers a substantial competitive advantage in the world-wide marketplace for high-value custom and semi-custom integrated circuits.

We will explore a variant of resonant two-photon ionization (R2PI). Development of the IR + UV R2PI experiment is underway. We have used optical R2PI and pulsed field ionization detection to obtain vibrational spectra of the benzyl and phenylsilane cations. In benzyl, we have learned about the vibronic coupling in the mixed 1{sup 2}A{sub 2}-2{sup 2}B{sub 2} system near 450 nm by projecting the mixed states onto the manifold of cation vibrational states. In phenylsilane{sup +}, we find that the sixfold barrier to internal rotation of the silyl group is small (V{sub 6}= +19 cm{sup {minus}1}). We are beginning to understand the mechanisms of coupling of torsional states with vibrations, overall rotation, and other electronic states, and we are developing a model of internal rotation in aromatic compounds based on Weinhold`s natural resonance theory. 1 tab, 14 refs.

For a smooth boundary, hypersingular integrals can be defined as a limit from the interior, the approach direction being taken, for convenience, normal to the surface. At a boundary corner, the limit process, with a necessarily non-normal approach direction, provides a valid definition of the hypersingular equation, as long as the direction is employed for all integrations. The terms which are potentially singular in the limit are shown to cancel, provided the function approximations at the corner are consistent. The analytical formulas for the singular integrals are more complicated than for a smooth surface, but are easily obtained using symbolic computation. These techniques have been employed to accurately solve the ``L-shaped domain`` potential problem considered by Jaswon and Symm.

An important upgrade to the STAR detector at the Brookhaven National Laboratory RHIC accelerator will be an electromagnetic calorimeter. One design being considered for this calorimeter involves cast lead modules covering {Delta}{phi} = 6{degree} and 0 {le} {vert_bar}{eta}{vert_bar} {le} 1. These modules would consist of alternating layers of lead and sheets of plastic scintillator. The gaps for scintillator between the layers of lead would be created by parallel aluminum plates of thickness {approx_equal}6.6 mm = 0.260in. in the mold for the modules. These plates would need to be machined or ground to be reasonably flat, perhaps to {plus_minus}0.003in., and of uniform thickness from plate to plate. These requirements are imposed by the need to remove the plates from the casting after cooling, and to have good uniformity of the lead layer thickness, which gives good performance for the modules as a calorimeter. Aluminum was chosen for the plates because of its high coefficient of thermal expansion. An important cost in this calorimeter design is associated with the machining or grinding of the plates to proper thickness and flatness. In most cost estimates, it has been assumed that the mold parts could be used many times. This note describes a simple …

The goal of this project is to obtain the time history of impacts on the moon, with emphasis on recent impacts. In particular, the project could prove (or disprove) the existence of comet sores and provide the dates when they occurred.

Spectral broadening of single-frequency laser pulses by optical cross-phase modulation (XPM) with chaotic laser pulses in birefringent single-mode optical fibers is investigated numerically and results are compared with experiments. By this process we have generated laser pulses of variable bandwidth (1--25 {Angstrom}) at the fundamental wavelength (1053 nm) for amplification in high power solid-state Nd:glass lasers used for inertial confinement fusion research. Simulations indicate that a temporally smooth XPM pulse can be generated with intensity fluctuations of less than 10% and spectral width greater than 50 {Angstrom} using a short length ({approximately}5 m) of special low dispersion and low birefringence fiber, e.g. D = 10 ps/nm-km (normal dispersion) and {Delta}n = 2 {times} 10{sup {minus}5}. Readily available fibers of similar length, with parameters of D = 40 ps/nm-km and {Delta}n = 6 {times} 10{sup {minus}5}, can give spectral widths exceeding 25 {Angstrom}, but the noise will range from 25 to 60%. Broadband laser pulses generated by XPM are now routinely used at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for active smoothing of the laser irradiance on targets by the technique of smoothing-by-spectral dispersion.

Intense x-ray transition radiation can be generated when relativistic electrons pass through a multiple-foil target. When the foil spacing is periodic, the transition radiation can be spatially coherent with respect to the target period. The spatial coherence can be evident in the spectra and angular distributions of transition radiation from such targets. A series of experiments has measured coherent transition radiation distributions from multiple-foil targets (up to six foils) with spacings of 50 {mu}m and 100 {mu}m. The electron energy was about 75 MeV and the photon energies were about 200 eV. Agreement between calculation and experimental data is excellent.

The purpose of this plan is to determine hydraulic conditions at Well 399-1-16C (16C) and to present a remediation plan. The objectives are to restore hydraulic isolation of the confined aquifer (water level returning to approximately 370 ft) and to prevent chemical contamination between the unconfined and confined aquifers. This work scope is an extension of Task 4d of the Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study Work Plan for the 300-FF-5 Operable Unit, Hanford Site, Richland, Washington, DOE/RL 89-14 (1990), and is a result of discussions held with the regulators and documented this plan was presented to the regulators at the January 1993 unit managers meeting and is documented in the minutes from that meeting.

This is the ``seventh`` and final Quarterly Report under the scope of work for cooperative agreement between the Western Interstate Energy Board and the US Department of Energy. The report covers the period January--March 1993. The cooperative agreement was to expire in June 1992, but DOE granted an extension through March 24, 1993. Since this is the last Quarterly Report under the expired cooperative agreement, most tasks are noted as being completed. Two final items, however, will soon be sent to DOE -- final minutes from the March 9--11 High- Level Radioactive Waste Committee meeting, and the Year-End Technical Report. Some highlights from the quarter: The Committee decided on a preferred format for the revised Spent Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste Transportation Primer. The document would be 100- 200 pages, accompanied by a series of white papers on key transportation elements. A 25--30 page handbook for educating western state elected officials would also be prepared. On March 24, the Committee sent a letter to DOE commenting on the Near-Site Transportation Infrastructure report findings. The Committee is concerned that infrastructure limitations may limit the rail shipping option in many instances, even after upgrades have been implemented. The NSTI findings may also …

The Natural Gas Monthly (NGM) is prepared in the Data Operations Branch of the Reserves and Natural Gas Division, Office of Oil and Gas, Energy Information Administration (EIA), US Department of Energy (DOE). The NGM highhghts activities, events, and analyses of interest to public and private sector organizations associated with the natural gas industry. Volume and price data are presented each month for natural gas production, distribution, consumption, and interstate pipeline activities. Producer-related activities and underground storage data are also reported. From time to time, the NGM features articles designed to assist readers in using and interpreting natural gas information.

The goal of this research is to develop and study an inorganic catalytic membrane reactor which will allow the oxidative coupling of methane to C{sub 2} hydrocarbons at near 100% selectivity and relatively higher conversion, by control of the oxygen supply through the membrane. The reactor setup has been completed. Repairs and purchase of new mass flow control equipment have been undertaken to enable accurate quantitative analysis of gas mixtures using the GC-MS. A four point sub miniature thermocouple assembly has been installed which allows temperature gaskets and seals have been tried to achieve good sealing at reaction temperatures. Gas permeability data have been obtained to monitor the change in porosity of a 20 nm pore size {alpha}-alumina membrane with increasing number of perovskite depositions.