Technical report that analyzes estimated trends and values of land markets in Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Results indicate general market conditions and lack of information for certain panelists effects the report.

Semi-annual report documenting statistics and analysis of contracts awarded to historically underutilized business (HUBs) by Texas state agencies, including procurement goals and performances,1999-2000 semi-annual total expenditure charts.

Monthly report documenting contracts for road construction and maintentance in Texas, organized by county and district. It includes information about each project including contractor, dates, costs, and other relevant data.

The United States Government currently has an abundance of depleted uranium (DU). This surplus of about 1 billion pounds is the result of an enrichment process using gaseous diffusion to produce enriched and depleted uranium. The enriched uranium has been used primarily for either nuclear weapons for the military or nuclear fuel for the commercial power industry. Most of the depleted uranium remains at the enrichment process plants in the form of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF{sub 6}). The Department of Energy (DOE) recently began a study to identify possible commercial applications for the surplus material. One of these potential applications is to use the DU in high-density strikers/hammers in pneumatically driven tools, such as jack hammers and piledrivers to improve their impulse performance. The use of DU could potentially increase tunneling velocity and excavation into target materials with improved efficiency. This report describes the efforts undertaken to analyze the particulars of using DU in two specific striking applications: the jackhammer and chipper tool.

This project developed techniques for measuring globally distributed radionuclides that occur today in extremely low abundances (''fallout'' from the era of atmospheric nuclear testing), and then applied these techniques to better understand the mechanisms by which radionuclides migrate. The techniques employ accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), a relatively new analytical tool that permits this work to be conducted for the first time. The goal in this project was to develop AMS analytical techniques for {sup 129}I (fallout concentration: {approx} 10{sup 6} atoms/g) {sup 99}Tc ({approx} 10{sup 9} atoms/g), {sup 90}Sr ({approx}10{sup 7} atoms/gram soil), and {sup 93}Zr ({approx} 10{sup 9} atoms/g), and improved methods for {sup 36}Cl ({approx} 10{sup 9} atoms/g). As a demonstration of the analytical techniques, and as an investigation of identified problems associated with characterizing moisture and radionuclide movement in unsaturated desert soils, we developed a vadose zone research site at the Nevada Test Site. Our findings can be summarized as follows: (1) The distribution of chloride and {sup 36}Cl at the research site indicates that the widely-used ''chloride accumulation'' method for estimating moisture flux is erroneous; some mechanism for attenuation of chloride exists, violating an assumption of the accumulation method; (2) {sup 129}I is fractionated into several …

The objective of Task 1.2 has only partly been achieved as the work on Pu/U-formulations and to a significant degree on Th/U-formulations has been performed under grinding/blending conditions that did not replicate plant-like fabrication processes, particularly in the case with the small glovebox attritor. Nevertheless the results do show that actinide-rich particles, not present in specimens made via the alkoxide-route (equilibrium conditions), occur when the grinding process is not efficient enough to ensure that high-fired PuO{sub 2}, ThO{sub 2} and UO{sub 2} particles are below a critical size. Our current perception is that the critical size for specimens sintered at 1350 C for 4 hours is about 5 {micro}m in diameter. The critical size is difficult to estimate, as it is equal to the starting diameter of actinide oxides just visible within brannerite regions. Our larger scale attritor experiments as well as experience with wet and dry ball milling suggests that acceptable mineralogy and microstructure can be obtained by dry milling via attritor and ball mills. This is provided that appropriate attention is paid to the size and density of the grinding media, grinding additives that reduce caking of the powder, and in the case of attritors the grinding speed …

This report contains a summary of the results generated so far on the CaHfTi{sub 2}O{sub 7}-Gd{sub 2}Ti{sub 2}O{sub 7} System.

Calculations of the {sup 239}Pu(n,n') cross section and other relevant cross sections for incident neutron energies of up to 5 MeV are presented. Two components of the {sup 239}Pu(n,n') cross section are included. The direct contribution to the {sup 239}Pu(n,n') cross section is computed by the coupled-channel optical model. The compound component is calculated by a Hauser-Feshbach statistical treatment. Fission and {gamma}-cascade processes are considered as competing channels in the compound-decay process. Whenever possible, calculations are compared with experimental data and evaluations.

The Diagnostic X (D-X) beamlines will transport the DARHT-II beam from the end of the accelerator to the Diagnostic X firing point providing four lines of sight for x-ray radiography. The design goal for the Diagnostic X beamline is to deliver four x-ray pulses with the DARHT-II dose format and time integrated spot size on each line of sight. The D-X beamline's final focus should be compatible with a range of first conjugates from 1 m-5 m. Furthermore, the D-X beamline operational parameters and the beamline layout should not preclude a possible upgrade to additional lines of sight. The DARHT-II accelerator is designed to deliver beams at a rate of 1 pulse per minute or less. Tuning the D-X beamline with several hundred optical elements would be time consuming. Therefore, minimizing the required number of tuning shots for the D-X beamline is also an important design goal. Many different beamline configurations may be able to accomplish these design objectives, and high beam quality (i.e., high current and low emittance) must be maintained throughout the chosen beamline configuration in order to achieve the DARHT-II x-ray dose format. In general, the longer the distance a beam travels, the harder it is to …

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) was founded in 1952 and has been managed since its inception by the University of California (UC) for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Because of this long association with UC, the Laboratory has been able to recruit a world-class workforce, establish an atmosphere of intellectual freedom and innovation, and achieve recognition in relevant fields of knowledge as a scientific and technological leader. This environment and reputation are essential for sustained scientific and technical excellence. As a DOE national laboratory with about 7,000 employees, LLNL has an essential and compelling primary mission to ensure that the nation's nuclear weapons remain safe, secure, and reliable and to prevent the spread and use of nuclear weapons worldwide. The Laboratory receives funding from the DOE Assistant Secretary for Defense Programs, whose focus is stewardship of our nuclear weapons stockpile. Funding is also provided by the Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, many Department of Defense sponsors, other federal agencies, and the private sector. As a multidisciplinary laboratory, LLNL has applied its considerable skills in high-performance computing, advanced engineering, and the management of large research and development projects to become the science and technology leader in those areas …

Two large chemical explosions were detonated in the Dead Sea in order to calibrate seismic travel times and improve location accuracy for the International Monitoring System (IMS) to monitor a Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). These explosions provided calibration data for regional seismic networks in the Middle East. In this paper we report analysis of seismic data from these shots as recorded by two seismic networks run by King Saud University (KSU) and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) in Saudi Arabia. The shots were well observed in the distance range 180-480 km mostly to the south of the Dead Sea in the Gulf of Aqaba region of northwestern Saudi Arabia. An average one-dimensional velocity model for the paths was inferred from the travel times of the regional phases Pn, Pg and Sg. Short-period Sn phases were not observed. The velocity model features a thin crust (crustal thickness 26-30 km) and low velocities (average P-wave velocity 5.8-6.0 km/s), consistent with the extensional tectonics of the region and previous studies.

To investigate the long-term alteration behavior of brannerite, we have undertaken a study of 13 natural samples from various geological environments, including granites, granitic pegmatites, quartz veins, and placer deposits. Literature data and U-Th-Pb chemical dating carried out in this work indicate that the samples range in age from approximately 20 Ma to 1580 Ma. Where independent age data or estimates are available for comparison, the U-Th-Pb chemical ages are in reasonable agreement for the younger samples, but the older samples tend to show evidence for Pb loss (up to about 80%), a common feature of metamict Nb, Ta, and Ti oxide minerals. Our results show that many of the samples exhibit only minor alteration, usually within small patches, microfractures, or around the rims of the brannerite crystals. Other samples consist of variable amounts of unaltered and altered brannerite. Heavily altered samples may contain anatase and thorite as fine-grained alteration products. Certain samples exhibited fracturing of the associated rock matrix or mineral phase in the immediate vicinity of the brannerite grains. These fractures contain U bearing material and indicate that some U migrated locally from the source brannerite.

Tomographic reconstruction of explosive events require time resolved multipal lines of sight. Considered here is a four (or eight) line of sight beam layout for a nominal 20 MeV 2000 Ampere 2 microsecond electron beam for generation of x-rays 0.9 to 5 meters from a given point, the ''firing point''. The requirement of a millimeter spatial x-ray source requires that the electron beam be delivered to the converter targets with sub-millimeter precision independent of small variations in beam energy and initial conditions. The 2 usec electron beam pulse allows for four bursts in each line, separated in time by about 500 microseconds. Each burst is divided by a electro-magnetic kicker into four (or eight) pulses, one for each beamline. The arrival time of the four (or eight) beam pulses at the x-ray target can be adjusted by the kicker timing and the sequence that the beams of each burst are switched into the different beamlines. There exists a simple conceptual path from a four beamline to a eight beamline upgrade. The eight line beamline is built up from seven unique types of sub-systems or ''blocks''. The beamline consists of 22 of these functional blocks and contains a total of 455 …

None

None

In entering the 21st century, we in industry and government who have labored to develop PV and bring it into the marketplace can be proud. World demand for PV is increasing faster than supply. The NCPV Program Review Meeting will a provide a forum for exploring how to implement strategies and recommendations for achieving critical goals and foster creative thinking on combining laboratory and industry talents to achieve the goals. The oral sessions focus on both strategic and tactical issues relating to the overall advance of the PV industry and the poster sessions provide an opportunity for more detailed discussions relating to particular tasks.

The next generation of 2-D and 3-D weapon-simulation codes will require marked advances in the spatial and temporal resolution of the various diagnostics to verify the complex physics predicted from these calculations. This is particularly true for the complicated physics of high-explosive (HE) detonation and burn, of which a detailed understanding is crucial to nuclear weapons performance and integrity. The processes involved in the detonation of HEs occur very rapidly and lead to extremely high pressures (several GPa) and temperatures (several thousand Kelvin). A key diagnostic that has so far eluded experimentalists is a temperature diagnostic for burning HE. Temperature is a basic thermodynamic property that enables a fundamental understanding of important HE physics such as the chemical processes involved in the shock-to-detonation transition, and to assess the thermal part of the equation-of-state of the detonation products. Accurate, spatially localized temperature measurements with high temporal resolution are thus crucial, but are unfortunately lacking. Our work address this important problem.

It is not widely acknowledged or appreciated that conventional, two-stage light-gas launchers do not efficiently apply their high breech pressures to the design intent: accelerating the projectile. Our objective in this project was to carry out the analysis, design, construction, and testing of a new class of launchers that will address this limitation. Our particular application is to expand the pressure range of the conventional, two-stage gas launcher to overlap and validate the pressure regimes previously attainable only with shock waves generated by nuclear explosions, lasers, or multistage conventional explosions. That is, these launchers would have the capability to conduct--in a laboratory setting--high-velocity-impact, equation-of-state (EOS) measurements at up to 2-TPa (20 Mbar) pressure levels in high-Z materials. Our design entailed a new class of distributed-injection, gas-dynamic launchers that are designed to use a boat-tail projectile to overcome the fundamental gas-expansion phenomena known as escape velocity (the Riemann limit). Our program included analytical, numerical, and experimental studies of the fast gas release flow technique that is central to the success of our approach. The analyses led us to believe that, in a typical configuration, the pressure will be effectively applied to the projectile in a time short relative to its few-microsecond …

This report contains a summary of the results generated for Task 3.4: Non-destructive Evaluation (a subtask of Task 3: Immobilization Process/Equipment Testing). The aim of this task was to carry out X-ray diffraction (XRD) on selected samples from previous Task 1: Form Development work. These XRD results were to be compared to the results obtained using quantitative scanning electron microscopy.

Tank 241-SY-101 is a double-shell radioactive waste storage tank containing waste that, before recent transfer and water back-dilution operations, was capable of retaining gas and producing flammable buoyant displacement gas release events (BD GREs). A BD GRE occurs when a portion of the nonconvective layer waste retains enough gas to become buoyant, rises to the waste surface, breaks up, and releases some of the stored gas. Installing the mixer pump in 1993 successfully mitigated gas retention in the settled solids layer in SY-101 and has prevented BD GREs. Gas retention in the floating drust layer and the corresponding accelerated waste level growth made it necessary to begin waste removal and back-dilution with water in December 1999. During these operations, some of the SY-101 mixed slurry layer is removed and transferred into Tank 241-SY-102. There was some concern that adding the SY-101 waste into SY-102 could create a waste configuration in SY-102 capable of BD GREs. This report updates and extends earlier assessments of the potential for BD GRE conditions in SY-102 after waste is transferred from SY-101. We determined that, under the given assumptions, no possibility of BD GREs exists in SY-102 from the SY-101 waste being added during from …

Hanford Site Groundwater Monitoring: Setting, Sources, and Methods

At the current time the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) prototype for the Automated Radioxenon Sampler/Analyzer (ARSA) automatically transmits, on a daily basis, a subset of all state-of-health (SOH) data in an e-mail data file to a limited distribution of participants.

Final report of the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce describing their activities and findings regarding the development of electronic commerce and its impact on the U.S. economy. The report includes sections on the background of electronic commerce, domestic tax issues, and international tax issues.

The following report provides the findings of a 1998 field study over the Hawaiian monk seal in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. These studies evaluate the status and trends of monk seal populations, natural history traits (survival, reproduction, growth, behavior, and feeding habits), and the success of various activities designed to facilitate population growth.