Monthly newsletter discussing news and activities related to the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program, articles about weather and atmospheric phenomena, and other related topics.

Vault personnel have begun a program of radiographing plutonium metal cans. Metal that appears to be corroded will be processed through the furnaces in Glovebox HC-21C. The fire suppression system activation temperature will be deleted because it is not maintained by PFP Stabilization.

The changes in hydrogen bonding at the interface of silica-reinforced polysiloxane composites due to aging in gamma radiation environments were examined in this study. Solvent swelling was utilized to determine the individual contributions of the matrix polymer and polymer-filler interactions to the overall crosslink density. The results show how the polymer-filler hydrogen bonding dominates the overall crosslink density of the material. Air irradiated samples displayed decreased hydrogen bonding at the polymer-filler interface, while vacuum irradiation revealed the opposite effect.

An important application of seismic and acoustic unattended ground sensors (UGS) is the estimation of the three dimensional position of an emitting target. Seismic and acoustic data derived from UGS systems provide the taw information to determine these locations, but can be processed and analyzed in a number of ways using varying amounts of auxiliary information. Processing methods to improve arrival time picking for continuous wave sources and methods for determining and defining the seismic velocity model are the primary variables affecting the localization accuracy. Results using field data collected from an underground facility have shown that using an iterative time picking technique significantly improves the accuracy of the resulting derived target location. Other processing techniques show little advantage over simple crosscorrelation along in terms of accuracy, but may improve the ease with which time picks can be made. An average velocity model found through passive listening or a velocity model determined from a calibration source near the target source both result in similar location accuracies, although the use of station correction severely increases the location error.

Public Law (PL) 105-204 requires the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a plan for inclusion in the fiscal year 2000 budget for conversion of the Department's stockpile of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF{sub 6}) to a more stable form over an extended period. The conversion process into a more stable form will produce fluorine compounds (e.g., elemental fluorine or hydrofluoric acid) that need to be handled safely. This document compiles the requirements necessary to handle these materials within health and safety standards, which may apply in order to ensure protection of the environment and the safety and health of workers and the public. Fluorine is a pale-yellow gas with a pungent, irritating odor. It is the most reactive nonmetal and will react vigorously with most oxidizable substances at room temperature, frequently with ignition. Fluorine is a severe irritant of the eyes, mucous membranes, skin, and lungs. In humans, the inhalation of high concentrations causes laryngeal spasm and broncospasms, followed by the delayed onset of pulmonary edema. At sublethal levels, severe local irritation and laryngeal spasm will preclude voluntary exposure to high concentrations, unless the individual is trapped or incapacitated. A blast of fluorine gas on the shaved skin of a …

The author discusses two variations on the completeness theme in atomic modeling: missing lines as they affect the performance of spectral synthesis codes, and missing configurations as they affect the theoretical emissivities of bright lines, with emphasis on the latter. It is shown that the detrimental effects of working with incomplete atomic models can overshadow those brought about by working with less-than-perfect atomic rates. Atomic models can be brought up to an acceptable level of completeness in a fairly straightforward manner, and on a reasonably short timescale, whereas the long-term goal of comprehensive accuracy is unlikely to be reached on the timescale of the current generation of X-ray observatories. A near-term, albeit imperfect, solution is to hybridize atomic models used to synthesize spectra. A hybrid atomic model is one for which a large-scale atomic model, in which completeness is achieved at the expense of accuracy, is augmented with more accurate atomic quantities as they become available.

The rapid advancement of computational capability including speed and memory size has prompted the wide use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes to simulate complex flow systems. CFD simulations are used to study the operating problems encountered in system, to evaluate the impacts of operation/design parameters on the performance of a system, and to investigate novel design concepts. CFD codes are generally developed based on the conservation laws of mass, momentum, and energy that govern the characteristics of a flow. The governing equations are simplified and discretized for a selected computational grid system. Numerical methods are selected to simplify and calculate approximate flow properties. For turbulent, reacting, and multiphase flow systems the complex processes relating to these aspects of the flow, i.e., turbulent diffusion, combustion kinetics, interfacial drag and heat and mass transfer, etc., are described in mathematical models, based on a combination of fundamental physics and empirical data, that are incorporated into the code. CFD simulation has been applied to a large variety of practical and industrial scale flow systems.

The objective of this project is to develop a method to predict the potential reliability of software to be used in a digital system instrumentation and control system. The reliability prediction is to make use of existing measures of software reliability such as those described in IEEE Std 982 and 982.2. This prediction must be of sufficient accuracy to provide a value for uncertainty that could be used in a nuclear power plant probabilistic risk assessment (PRA). For the purposes of the project, reliability was defined to be the probability that the digital system will successfully perform its intended safety function (for the distribution of conditions under which it is expected to respond) upon demand with no unintended functions that might affect system safety. The ultimate objective is to use the identified measures to develop a method for predicting the potential quantitative reliability of a digital system. The reliability prediction models proposed in this report are conceptual in nature. That is, possible prediction techniques are proposed and trial models are built, but in order to become a useful tool for predicting reliability, the models must be tested, modified according to the results, and validated. Using methods outlined by this project, …

This note describes continued studies at Fermilab of the long term stability of a small water Cerenkov tank. Previous results are presented for studies between November, 1997 and October, 1998. The data given here continue these measurements through December, 1998, when the tank and electronics were moved to a different location, and then to November, 1999. The water tank, bag liner, water, photomultiplier tube, and data acquisition software were unchanged for the additional measurements from June to November, 1999. However, some details of the geometry of the trigger counters relative to the tank and of the electronics may have differed. The setup for the 1999 results is described in this note. The same analog-to-digital converter (ADC) was used for both time periods. Its pedestal was quite stable during the 1997--1998 measurements, but sizeable changes were observed in the more recent runs. As a result, dedicated pedestal runs were performed, and a number of additional tests were conducted.

U.S. Department of Energy Letter 98-SFD-028 requested Fluor Daniel Hanford, Inc. to provide clarifications as to compliance with ANSI 57.1, 57.2, 57.9, and 29 CFR 1910.179 (OSHA), in the form of an item-by-item compliance matrix, for the CSB. This Supporting Document contains Fluor Daniel, Inc.'s response for use by Fluor Daniel Hanford, Inc. regarding the clarifications requested by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO commented on the District of Columbia Courts' concerns regarding the proper accounting for certain payments made by the Courts for the Criminal Justice Act (CJA), the Counsel for Child Abuse and Neglect (CCAN), and the Guardianship programs, focusing on whether: (1) prior fiscal year payments made under a continuing resolution should be charged to the defender services appropriation; (2) federal payments and defender services appropriations were available to pay prior years CJA, CCAN, and Guardianship program obligations; and (3) the Courts would violate the Antideficiency Act by continuing to incur obligations for court-appointed attorneys if fiscal year 2000 appropriations are insufficient to pay all fiscal year 2000 obligations for these programs. GAO held that: (1) payments made under the continuing resolution may be properly charged to the defender services appropriation; (2) federal payments and defender services appropriations were available to pay for prior years obligations; and (3) the Courts would not violate the Antideficiency Act by incurring additional obligations after the defender services appropriation was exhausted."

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The construction of the HERS endstation was successfully completed. The resolution of the photoemission apparatus is better than 7meV. The angular resolution is +0.15 degrees. The system has a high precision sample manipulator w/ five-degrees of freedom and a temperature range from 10 - 450 degrees K. The sample transfer system allows transfer of a sample from atmosphere onto the crystal @ 5x10 in less than 2 hrs.

Fundamental metallurgical aspects of axial splitting in irradiated Zircaloy cladding have been investigated by microstructural characterization and analytical modeling, with emphasis on application of the results to understand high-burnup fuel failure under RIA situations. Optical microscopy, SEM, and TEM were conducted on BWR and PWR fuel cladding tubes that were irradiated to fluence levels of 3.3 x 10{sup 21} n cm{sup {minus}2} to 5.9 x 10{sup 21} n cm{sup {minus}2} (E > 1 MeV) and tested in hot cell at 292--325 C in Ar. The morphology, distribution, and habit planes of macroscopic and microscopic hydrides in as-irradiated and posttest cladding were determined by stereo-TEM. The type and magnitude of the residual stress produced in association with oxide-layer growth and dense hydride precipitation, and several synergistic factors that strongly influence axial-splitting behavior were analyzed. The results of the microstructural characterization and stress analyses were then correlated with axial-splitting behavior of high-burnup PWR cladding reported for simulated-RIA conditions. The effects of key test procedures and their implications for the interpretation of RIA test results are discussed.

The author begins by discussing the history of nuclear power development in the US. He discusses the challenges for nuclear power such as the proliferation of weapons material, waste management, economics, and safety. He then discusses the future for nuclear power, specifically advanced reactor development. People can all be thankful for nuclear power, for it may well be essential to the long term survival of civilization. Within the seeds of its potential for great good, are also the seeds for great harm. People must ensure that it is applied for great good. What is not in question is whether people can live without it, they cannot. United States leadership is crucial in determining how this technology is developed and applied. The size and capability of the United States technical community is decreasing, a trend that cannot be allowed to continue. It is the author's belief that in the future, the need, the vision and the confidence in nuclear power will be restored, but only if the US addresses the immediate challenges. It is a national challenge worthy of the best people this nation has to offer.

Radiation damping and quantum excitation in an electron storage ring with a laser-electron interaction region are analyzed. Two interesting regimes and their perspectives to the generation of intense x-rays and low-emittance electron beams are investigated. In the first regime, a high-average-power laser beam inside a high-finesse resonator intersects with the electron beam every pass to produce very intense, hard x-rays. Although the transverse laser cooling effect is still weak compared with the normal synchrotron radiation damping, the increased energy spread induced by the Compton scattering stabilizes the electron beam against intrabeam scattering in a compact, low-energy ring. In the second regime, a high-peak-power laser pulse confined in the optical resonator is proposed to cool the electron beam transversely for the generation of low-emittance electron beams. The authors consider some basic optical system and storage ring requirements and discuss potential demonstration experiments at the existing accelerator facilities.

Thin-film and bulk [001] tilt bicrystal grain boundaries (GBs) in YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 7} exhibit a strong dependence of critical current density, J{sub c} on misorientation angle. What was initially difficult to understand was the 30x smaller J{sub c} in bulk GBs which are microscopically more perfect. The authors review an explanation of this zero-field data, which is based on the pinning of Josephson vortices by the meandering found in thin-film GBs. In addition, there is evidence that J{sub c} of GBs does not drop as quickly with applied magnetic field as expected by simple Josephson junction models. The long-wavelength pinning potential due to meandering is less effective at high fields, but Gurevich and Cooley (GC) proposed a new mechanism for an enhanced GB J{sub c} arising from pinned Abrikosov vortices in the banks of a GB which present a static, quasiperiodic pinning potential to pin GB vortices. They find a peak in J{sub c} and an unusual hysteresis which give considerable support to the GC concept. In low fields, the GBs exhibit a larger J{sub c} for field cooling, which is opposite to the usual hysteresis but agrees with GC due to the larger Abrikosov vortex density in the …

This report summarizes results of an analysis of hydride-related degradation of commercial spent-nuclear-fuel cladding under repository conditions. Based on applicable laboratory data on critical stress intensity obtained under isothermal conditions, occurrence of delayed hydride cracking from the inner-diameter side of cladding is concluded to be extremely unlikely. The key process for potential initiation of delayed hydride cracking at the outer-diameter side is long-term microstructural evolution near the localized regions of concentrated hydrides, i.e., nucleation, growth, and cracking of hydride blisters. Such locally concentrated hydrides are, however, limited to some high-burnup cladding only, and the potential for crack initiation and propagation at the outer-diameter side is expected to be insignificant for most spent fuels. Some degree of hydride reorientation could occur in high-burnup spent-fuel cladding. However, even if hydride reorientation occurs, accompanying stress-rupture failure in spent-fuel cladding is unlikely to occur.

The purpose of the project was to develop, implement, and market value-added services through the Computing Resource Center in an effort to streamline computing-related procurement processes across the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The power of the project was in focusing attention on and value of centralizing the delivery of computer related products and services to the institution. The project required a plan and marketing strategy that would drive attention to the facility's value-added offerings and services. A significant outcome of the project has been the change in the CRC internal organization. The realignment of internal policies and practices, together with additions to its product and service offerings has brought an increased focus to the facility. This movement from a small, fractious organization into one that is still small yet well organized and focused on its mission and goals has been a significant transition. Indicative of this turnaround was the sharing of information. One-on-one and small group meetings, together with statistics showing work activity was invaluable in gaining support for more equitable workload distribution, and the removal of blame and finger pointing. Sharing monthly reports on sales and operating costs also had a positive impact.

The Young's modulus, hardness, and fracture toughness of barium titanate dielectric ceramics in three commercially available multilayer capacitors (MLCs) were measured in-situ using indentation and a mechanical properties microprobe. The three MLCs were equivalent in size (0805), capacitance (0.1 uF) and dielectric type (X7R). The Young's modulus and hardness of the dielectric ceramics in the three MLCs were similar, while there were statistically significant differences in their fracture toughnesses. The results provide insight into the assessment of MLC mechanical reliability, and show that equivalent electrical MLC rating is not necessarily a guarantee that the dielectric ceramics in them will exhibit equivalent mechanical performance.

Many scientific applications have large I/O requirements, in terms of both the size of data and the number of files or data sets. Management, storage, efficient access, and analysis of this data present an extremely challenging task. Traditionally, two different solutions are used for this problem: file I/O or databases. File I/O can provide high performance but is tedious to use with large numbers of files and large and complex data sets. Databases can be convenient, exible, and powerful but do not perform and scale well for parallel supercomputing applications. The authors have developed a software system, called Scientific Data Manager (SDM), that combines the good features of both file I/O and databases. SDM provides a thin layer of database-like functionality on top of a high-performance, parallel file-I/O interface (MPI-IO). As a result, users can access data with the convenience of databases and the performance of MPI-IO, without having to bother with the details of either. In t his paper, they describe the design and implementation of SDM. With the help of two parallel application templates, ASTRO3D and an Euler solver, they illustrate how some of the design criteria affect performance.

Front-end sampling or preconcentration is an important analytical technique and will be crucial to the success of many microanalytical detector systems. This paper describes a microfabricated planar preconcentrator ideal for integration with microanalytical systems. The device incorporates a surfactant templated sol gel adsorbent layer deposited on a microhotplate to achieve efficient analyte collection, and rapid, efficient thermal desorption. Concentration factors of 100--500 for dimethyl methyl phosphonate (DMMP) have been achieved with this device, while selectivities to interfering compounds greater than a factor of 25 have been demonstrated. Device performance will be compared with conventional preconcentrators, and the effects of system flow rate, flow channel geometry and collection time will be presented. A physical model of adsorption/desorption from the device will be reviewed and compared with experiment, while numerical simulation of flow over the device will be described.

This is the sixth annual catalogue listing documents produced by NREL during the last fiscal year. Each year the catalogue is mailed to state energy offices, DOE support offices, and to anyone looking to find out more information about NREL's activities and publications.

This document comprises the Operational Test Report for the 241-AZ-101 Suspended Solids Profiler. This document presents the results of Operational Testing of the 241-AZ-101 Suspended Solids Profiler (SSP). Testing of the SSP was performed in accordance with OTP-260-005, ''SUSPENDED SOLIDS PROFILER OPERATIONAL TEST PROCEDURE''. The objective of the testing was to verify that all equipment and components functioned as designed, following construction completion and turnover to operations.