The objective of these tests was to gather data on performance of the single-tube crossflow ultrafilter unit to de-water the simulant precipitate derived from a project approved tank 241-AN-102 simulant. Upon completion of the objectives with the approved R1 simulant, the simulant specification was changed and additional work at modified precipitation conditions was requested.

Proposed carbon management technologies include geologic sequestration of CO{sub 2}. A possible, but untested, strategy is to inject CO{sub 2} into organic-rich shales of Devonian age. Devonian black shales underlie approximately two-thirds of Kentucky and are generally thicker and deeper in the Illinois and Appalachian Basin portions of Kentucky. The Devonian black shales serve as both the source and trap for large quantities of natural gas; total gas in place for the shales in Kentucky is estimated to be between 63 and 112 trillion cubic feet. Most of this natural gas is adsorbed on clay and kerogen surfaces, analogous to the way methane is stored in coal beds. In coals, it has been demonstrated that CO{sub 2} is preferentially adsorbed, displacing methane at a ratio of two to one. Black shales may similarly desorb methane in the presence of CO{sub 2}. If black shales similarly desorb methane in the presence of CO{sub 2}, the shales may be an excellent sink for CO{sub 2} with the added benefit of serving to enhance natural gas production. The concept that black, organic-rich Devonian shales could serve as a significant geologic sink for CO{sub 2} is the subject this research. To accomplish this investigation, …

This report describes a feasibility study. We are interested in calculating the angular and linear velocities of a re-entry vehicle using six acceleration signals from a distributed accelerometer inertial measurement unit (DAIMU). Earlier work showed that angular and linear velocity calculation using classic nonlinear ordinary differential equation (ODE) solvers is not practically feasible, due to mathematical and numerical difficulties. This report demonstrates the theoretical feasibility of using model-based nonlinear state estimation techniques to obtain the angular and linear velocities in this problem. Practical numerical and calibration issues require additional work to resolve. We show that the six accelerometers in the DAIMU are not sufficient to provide observability, so additional measurements of the system states are required (e.g. from a Global Positioning System (GPS) unit). Given the constraint that our system cannot use GPS, we propose using the existing on-board 3-axis magnetometer to measure angular velocity. We further show that the six nonlinear ODE's for the vehicle kinematics can be decoupled into three ODE's in the angular velocity and three ODE's in the linear velocity. This allows us to formulate a three-state Gauss-Markov system model for the angular velocities, using the magnetometer signals in the measurement model. This re-formulated model is …

The purpose of this report is to provide background for and summarize current developments in U.S. - People’s Republic of China (PRC) relations, including current and pending congressional actions involving the PRC.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Solar radiation is absorbed by the earth and is subsequently reemitted. The buildup of carbon dioxide and certain other gases in the earth's atmosphere traps some of that radiation. This is known as the greenhouse effect and is believed to contribute to a warming of the earth's climate. Concerns are growing that, in addition to carbon dioxide and other conventional greenhouse gases, certain air pollutants may affect the climate. GAO was asked to examine (1) the extent of agreement among scientists regarding the effect on the climate of three air pollutants--black carbon (soot), ground-level ozone, and sulfate aerosols--and (2) seven countries' efforts to control these pollutants, trends in these substances in these countries over the past 2 decades, and estimates for the next decade. GAO was also asked to summarize the relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution. The seven countries include four that are economically developed--Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States--and three that are developing--China, India, and Mexico. These countries were chosen because they have large economies with a high potential to emit these pollutants. The two federal agencies asked to comment …

This report is a chronological list of these proclamations for 2002 and 2003, indicating the proclamation number and its Federal Register citation.

Historically, national commemorative observances were recommended by Congress through the legislative process. This practice was discontinued by the House of Representatives in January 1995, although the Senate continues to issue sense of the Senate resolutions recommending the establishment of commemoratives. It has now become standard practice for special observances to be designated by a proclamation issued by the President. This report is a chronological list of these proclamations for 1997 and 1998, indicating the proclamation number and its Federal Register citation

At present, guidelines for fuel cycle designs to prevent axial offset anomalies (AOA) in pressurized water reactor (PWR) cores are based on empirical data from several operating reactors. Although the guidelines provide an ad-hoc solution to the problem, a unified approach based on simultaneous modeling of thermal-hydraulics, chemical, and nuclear interactions with vapor generation at the fuel cladding surface does not exist. As a result, the fuel designs are overly constrained with a resulting economic penalty. The objective of present project is to develop a numerical simulation model supported by laboratory experiments that can be used for fuel cycle design with respect to thermal duty of the fuel to avoid economic penalty, as well as, AOA. At first, two-dimensional numerical simulation of the growth and departure of a bubble in pool boiling with chemical interaction is considered. A finite difference scheme is used to solve the equations governing conservation of mass, momentum, energy, and species concentration. The Level Set method is used to capture the evolving liquid-vapor interface. A dilute aqueous boron solution is considered in the simulation. From numerical simulations, the dynamic change in concentration distribution of boron during the bubble growth shows that the precipitation of boron can …

This Corrective Action Investigation Plan (CAIP) contains the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Sites Office's (NNSA/NSO's) approach to collect the data necessary to evaluate corrective action alternatives appropriate for the closure of Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 516, Septic Systems and Discharge Points, Nevada Test Site (NTS), Nevada, under the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order. CAU 516 consists of six Corrective Action Sites: 03-59-01, Building 3C-36 Septic System; 03-59-02, Building 3C-45 Septic System; 06-51-01, Sump Piping, 06-51-02, Clay Pipe and Debris; 06-51-03, Clean Out Box and Piping; and 22-19-04, Vehicle Decontamination Area. Located in Areas 3, 6, and 22 of the NTS, CAU 516 is being investigated because disposed waste may be present without appropriate controls, and hazardous and/or radioactive constituents may be present or migrating at concentrations and locations that could potentially pose a threat to human health and the environment. Existing information and process knowledge on the expected nature and extent of contamination of CAU 516 are insufficient to select preferred corrective action alternatives; therefore, additional information will be obtained by conducting a corrective action investigation. The results of this field investigation will support a defensible evaluation of corrective action alternatives in the …

We use a combination of molecular dynamics and kinetic Monte Carlo simulations to explore the role of temperature and dose rate on damage accumulation in a model system with complex kinetics. We describe the accumulation of He-vacancy (HeV) complexes as well as vacancy and interstitial clusters as a function of irradiation temperature, dose, and dose rate. We show that nucleation of stable HeV complexes (voids and bubbles) at low temperature and flux takes place at extremely low doses. We also describe the effect of temperature on the HeV complex size distribution and show that growth beyond a critical nucleation size is not possible in this system at temperatures above 300 K for dose rates smaller than 10{sup -8} dpa/s. We further demonstrate that a temperature shift of 25 K per decade of flux scales the dose rate dependence of He-vacancy complex (voids and bubbles) accumulation when irradiation is carried out to low doses (0.03-0.06 dpa) at temperatures between 150 K and 300 K and dose rates of 10{sup -6}, 10{sup -7}, 10{sup -8}, and 10{sup -9} dpa/s. The results provide an atomistic description of microstructure evolution including void nucleation and the early stages of growth, and should be useful in …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "To protect the public from harmful emissions, transportation planners in areas with poor air must show that their plans will not make it worse. Every time they update their transportation improvement program (TIP) and their 20-year plan--every 2 and 3 years respectively--federal laws and regulations require that they ensure the emissions from their plans will not exceed the mobile source emissions budget. This is known as "demonstrating conformity." Areas that fail to do so generally cannot spend federal funds on new projects until they resolve the problem. The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works asked GAO to determine (1) how many areas have failed, why, and what corrective actions they took, and (2) what issues transportation planners had with the conformity process and what solutions are possible."

This report discusses the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which is the nation's major program providing comprehensive vocational rehabilitation (VR) services to help persons with physical and mental disabilities become employable and achieve full integration into society.

With the Nation's coal-burning utilities facing the possibility of tighter controls on mercury pollutants, the U.S. Department of Energy is funding projects that could offer power plant operators better ways to reduce these emissions at much lower costs. Mercury is known to have toxic effects on the nervous system of humans and wildlife. Although it exists only in trace amounts in coal, mercury is released when coal burns and can accumulate on land and in water. In water, bacteria transform the metal into methylmercury, the most hazardous form of the metal. Methylmercury can collect in fish and marine mammals in concentrations hundreds of thousands times higher than the levels in surrounding waters. One of the goals of DOE is to develop technologies by 2005 that will be capable of cutting mercury emissions 50 to 70 percent at well under one-half of today's costs. ADA Environmental Solutions (ADA-ES) is managing a project to test mercury control technologies at full scale at four different power plants from 2000--2003. The ADA-ES project is focused on those power plants that are not equipped with wet flue gas desulfurization systems. ADA-ES has developed a portable system that will be tested at four different utility power …

This report provides an overview of the financial outlook for Social Security and Medicare programs.

This report provides the financial outlook for Social Security and Medicare programs.

This report

Planned and proposed 4th-generation x-ray sources, such as energy-recovery linacs (ERLs) and single-pass x-ray free-electron lasers (X-FELs) offer a number of potential advantages, including small source size, higher peak brightness, ultrashort pulses, and potentially temporally and transversely coherent pulses. While offering unique capabilities, such facilities will also offer several important limitations, including limited numbers of user beamlines (for FELs) and a pulse-repetition rate that may be too high for many dynamics experiments (ERLs). In addition, there are many technical challenges associated with both types of facilities. A third type of facility, exemplified by the Short Pulse Photon Source (SPPS) at SLAC [1], would support neither a large number of users simultaneously nor generate coherent pulses, but would generate very intense, short x-ray pulses. Such a facility could serve as the starting point for either an ERL or an X-FEL, or a combined, hybrid machine. For the foreseeable future, however, existing 3rd-generation light source storage rings, such as the Advanced Photon Source, will continue to play important roles in supporting scientific research utilizing high-brightness x-rays. Existing facilities offer the powerful combination of a large number of user beamlines, efficient use of electron beam energy, and established user communities, and a program …

The overall goal of the project is to determine the mechanism of irradiation assisted stress corrosion cracking (IASCC). IASCC has been linked to hardening, microstructural and microchemical changes during irradiation. Unfortunately, all of these changes occur simultaneously and at similar rates during irradiation, making attribution of IASCC to any one of these features nearly impossible to determine. The strategy set forth in this project is to develop means to separate microstructural from microchemical changes to evaluate each separately for their effect on IASCC. In the first part, post irradiation annealing (PIA) treatments are used to anneal the irradiated microstructure, leaving only radiation induced segregation (RIS) for evaluation for its contribution to IASCC. The second part of the strategy is to use low temperature irradiation to produce a radiation damage dislocation loop microstructure without radiation induced segregation in order to evaluate the effect of the dislocation microstructure alone. A radiation annealing model was developed based on the elimination of dislocation loops by vacancy absorption. Results showed that there were indeed, time-temperature annealing combinations that leave the radiation induced segregation profile largely unaltered while the dislocation microstructure is significantly reduced. Proton irradiation of 304 stainless steel irradiated with 3.2 MeV protons to …

OAK - B204 Quarterly report for January 2003 - March 2003.

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This project was initially targeted to the making of coke for blast furnaces by using proprietary technology of Calderon in a phased approach, and Phase I was successfully completed. The project was then re-directed to the making of iron units. U.S. Steel teamed up with Calderon for a joint effort which will last 30 months to produce directly reduced iron with the potential of converting it into molten iron or steel consistent with the Roadmap recommendations of 1998 prepared by the Steel Industry in cooperation with the Department of Energy.

This report discusses the results of the coupled operation of the Pilot Scale Precipitation Test Facility and Crossflow Test Facility conducted for the Hanford River Protection Project. This report deals specifically with a non-radioactive AN-107 simulant and precipitating reagents of strontium nitrate and sodium permanganate to determine reaction kinetics and operability of the process coupled with crossflow filter operation.