The Hanford Site has 177 underground waste tanks that store approximately 253 million liters of radioactive waste from 50 years of plutonium production. Twenty-eight tanks have a double shell and are constructed of welded ASTM A537-Class 1 (UNS K02400), ASTM A515-Grade 60 (UNS K02401), or ASTM A516-Grade 60 (UNS K02100) material. The inner tanks of the double-shell tanks (DSTS) were stress relieved following fabrication. One hundred and forty-nine tanks have a single shell, also constructed of welded mild steel, but not stress relieved following fabrication. Tank waste is in liquid, solid, and sludge forms. Tanks also contain a vapor space above the solid and liquid waste regions. The composition of the waste varies from tank to tank but generally has a high pH (>12) and contains sodium nitrate, sodium hydroxide, sodium nitrite, and other minor radioactive constituents resulting from plutonium separation processes. Leaks began to appear in the single-shell tanks shortly after the introduction of nitrate-based wastes in the 1950s. Leaks are now confirmed or suspected to be present in a significant number of single-shell tanks. The probable modes of corrosion failures are reported as nitrate stress corrosion cracking (SCC) and pitting. Previous efforts to monitor internal corrosion of waste …

This is the quarterly report of the International Power Institute for October--December 1997. The topics of the report include pre-cooperative agreement activities, a discussion of the deputy director position, the IPI brochure, exploration of collaborative arrangements, formation of the IPI advisory board, a review of the advisory board meeting, report of a meeting with African electric utility executives, report of a visit to South Africa to explore a collaborative relationship.

Periodical titled "Texas Looks to Grandfathered Facilities For Air Quality Improvements" that discusses air quality issues and regulations on emissions at the state and federal levels.

The International Power Institute (IPI) held a meeting in Washington, DC, on July 30, 1997, to plan the future strategy and activities for IPI. This meeting was attended by the staff of the IPI, the Morehouse College Provost, Department of Energy officials and energy sector representatives. There were a total of 13 people attending this meeting that focused the country/regional focus of IPI and how best to achieve private sector participation in IPI activities. Based on the discussions held, it was decided that South Africa and Mexico would be the countries of initial principal focus for IPI, given the Institute`s staff`s expertise and the attractiveness of these markets for US investors in energy sector projects. In addition, the meeting concluded that the proposed fundraising program presented during the meeting should be revised and made more product oriented and other methods for private sector financing should be explored.

This is the first phase of a project that has the objective to develop a method of spraying materials on a substrate in a controlled manner to eliminate the waste and hazardous material generation inherent in present plating processes. The project is considering plasma spraying of metal on a substrate using magneto-hydrodynamics to control the plasma/metal stream. The process being developed is considering the use of commercially available plasma torches to generate the plasma/metal stream. The plasma stream is collimated, and directed using magnetic forces to the extent required for precise control of the deposition material. The project will be completed in phases. Phase one of the project, the subject of this grant, is the development of an analytical model that can be used to determine the feasibility of the process and to design a laboratory scale demonstration unit. The contracted time is complete, and the research is still continuing. This report provides the results obtained to date. As the model and calculations are completed those results will also be provided. This report contains the results of the computer code that have been completed to date. Results from a ASMEE Benchmark problem, flow over a backward step with heat transfer, …

This report documents the results obtained during the performance of Preoperational Test POTP-007, from December 12, 1997 to March 27, 1998. The main objectives were to demonstrate the operation of the following Cross-Site Transfer System components: Booster pumps P-3125A and P-3125B interlocks and controls, both local and remote; Booster pump P-3125A and P-3125B and associated variable speed drives VSD-1 and VSD-2 performance in both manual and automatic modes; and Water filling, circulation, venting and draining of the transfer headers (supernate and slurry line). As described in reference 1, the following components of the Cross-Site Transfer System that would normally be used during an actual waste transfer, are not used in this specific test: Water Flush System; Valving and instrumentation associated with the 241-SY-A valve pit jumpers; and Valving and instrumentation associated with the 244-A lift station.

This work plan defines the process used to develop project definition for Waste Feed Delivery (WFD). Project definition provides the direction for development of definitive design media required for the ultimate implementation of operational processing hardware and software. Outlines for the major deliverables are attached as appendices. The implementation of hardware and software will accommodate requirements for safe retrieval and delivery of waste currently stored in Hanford`s underground storage tanks. Operations and maintenance ensure the availability of systems, structures, and components for current and future planned operations within the boundary of the Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) authorization basis.

This Acceptance Test Procedure (ATP) has been prepared to demonstrate that the AY-Farm Electrical Distribution System functions as required by the design criteria. This test is divided into three parts to support the planned construction schedule; Section 8 tests Mini-Power Pane AY102-PPI and the EES; Section 9 tests the SSS support systems; Section 10 tests the SSS and the Multi-Pak Group Control Panel. This test does not include the operation of end-use components (loads) supplied from the distribution system. Tests of the end-use components (loads) will be performed by other W-320 ATPs.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a U.S. Department of Energy inertial confinement laser fusion facility, currently under construction at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). NIF is a critical tool for the Department of Energy (DOE) science- based Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program. In addition, it represents a major step towards realizing inertial confinement fusion as a source of energy. The NIF will focus 192 laser beams onto spherical targets containing a mixture of deuterium and tritium, causing them to implode. This will create the high temperatures and pressures necessary for these targets to undergo fusion. The plan is for NIF to achieve ignition (i.e., self-heating of the fuel) and energy gain (i.e., more fusion energy produced than laser energy deposited) in the laboratory for the first time. A Risk Management Plan was prepared for the NIF design and construction Project. The plan was prepared in accordance with the DOE Life Cycle Asset Management Good Practice Guide. The objectives of the plan were to: (1) identify the risks to the completion of the Project in terms of meeting technical and regulatory requirements, cost, and schedule, (2) assess the risks in terms of likelihood of occurrence and their impact potential …

This past year the authors have continued the development of their 3D grid point model. The general model is nonhydrostatic, is written in nonorthogonal terrain following coordinates, and consistently incorporates either Eulerian or semi-Lagrangian differencing. The non-hydrostatic formulation will be particularly useful when the grid size is small enough to resolve nonhydrostatic processes--for example: convective instabilities, and internal gravity wave dynamics in deep sheared atmospheres. However, the authors have also found that the nonhydrostatic formulation has numerical advantages on coarser grids, such as a better conditioning of the Laplacian matrix that must be inverted. In addition, use of the nonhydrostatic equations allows consistency as the mesh is refined, or when using nested grids. The authors have used this model as a vehicle to compare the advantages of Eulerian and semi-Lagrangian methods. They have incorporated more options into different versions of the basic model. They have implemented a fairly sophisticated subgrid scale turbulence parameterization in the basic model and performed a number of LES studies of planetary boundary layers to calibrate the model. In order to further improve the efficiency of the model, they have developed a new method for treating systems with a variety of time scales. Traditional strategies, including …

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Letter opinion issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether the executive director of the Lubbock Housing Authority may serve as a member of the City of Lubbock Civil Service Commission (RQ-1022)

Letter opinion issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether a district clerk may also serve as a reserve deputy sheriff (RQ-977)

Letter opinion issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether a member of the Texas Southern University Board of Regents to serve as a volunteer, uncompensated coach (RQ-1025)

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The 104th Congress replaced the Targeted Jobs Tax Credit (TJTC, 1978-1994) with the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) in section 1201 of the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-188). This document provides basic facts about the WOTC.