The authors describe a numerical scheme to solve 3D Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) hydrodynamics on an unstructured mesh using a discontinuous Galerkin method (DGM) and an explicit Runge-Kutta time discretization. Upwinding is achieved through Roe's linearized Riemann solver with the Harten-Hyman entropy fix. For stabilization, a 3D quadratic programming generalization of van Leer's 1D minmod slope limiter is used along with a Lapidus type artificial viscosity. This DGM scheme has been tested on a variety of hydrodynamic test problems and appears to be robust making it the basis for the integrated 3D inertial confinement fusion modeling code (ICF3D). For efficient code development, they use C++ object oriented programming to easily separate the complexities of an unstructured mesh from the basic physics modules. ICF3D is fully parallelized using domain decomposition and the MPI message passing library. It is fully portable. It runs on uniprocessor workstations and massively parallel platforms with distributed and shared memory.

The Distributed Energy Resources Customer Adoption Model is used to estimate the value an Oakland nursing home, a Riverside high school, and a Sunnyvale data center would need to put on higher electricity service reliability for them to adopt a Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions Microgrid (CM) based on economics alone. A fraction of each building's load is deemed critical based on its mission, and the added cost of CM capability to meet it added to on-site generation options. The three sites are analyzed with various resources available as microgrid components. Results show that the value placed on higher reliability often does not have to be significant for CM to appear attractive, about 25 $/kWcdota and up, but the carbon footprint consequences are mixed because storage is often used to shift cheaper off-peak electricity to use during afternoon hours in competition with the solar sources.

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is developing a next generation H-bridge switch plate [1], a critical component of the SNS High Voltage Converter Modulator [2]. As part of that effort, a new IGBT gate driver has been developed. The drivers are an integral part of the switch plate, which are essential to ensuring fault-tolerant, high-performance operation of the modulator. The redesigned driver improves upon the existing gate drive in several ways. The new gate driver has improved fault detection and suppression capabilities; suppression of shoot-through and over-voltage conditions, monitoring of dI/dt and Vce(sat) for fast over-current detection and suppression, and redundant power isolation are some of the added features. In addition, triggering insertion delay is reduced by a factor of four compared to the existing driver. This paper details the design and performance of the new IGBT gate driver. A simplified schematic and description of the construction are included. The operation of the fast over-current detection circuits, active IGBT over-voltage protection circuit, shoot-through prevention circuitry, and control power isolation breakdown detection circuit are discussed.

Mineralized tissues, such as bone and tooth dentin, serve as structural materials in the human body and, as such, have evolved to resist fracture. In assessing their quantitative fracture resistance or toughness, it is important to distinguish between intrinsic toughening mechanisms which function ahead of the crack tip, such as plasticity in metals, and extrinsic mechanisms which function primarily behind the tip, such as crack bridging in ceramics. Bone and dentin derive their resistance to fracture principally from extrinsic toughening mechanisms which have their origins in the hierarchical microstructure of these mineralized tissues. Experimentally, quantification of these toughening mechanisms requires a crack-growth resistance approach, which can be achieved by measuring the crack-driving force, e.g., the stress intensity, as a function of crack extension ("R-curve approach"). Here this methodology is used to study of the effect of aging on the fracture properties of human cortical bone and human dentin in order to discern the microstructural origins of toughness in these materials.

Radioactive material packages used for transportation of plutonium-bearing materials often contain multiple O-ring seals for containment. Packages such as the Model 9975 are also being used for interim storage of Pu-bearing materials at the Savannah River Site (SRS). One of the seal materials used in such packages is Viton{reg_sign} GLT fluoroelastomer. The aging behavior of containment vessel O-rings based on Viton{reg_sign} GLT at long-term containment term storage conditions is being characterized to assess its performance in such applications. This paper summarizes the program and test results to date.

We discuss energy efficiency and renewable energy investments in Eritrea from the strategic long-term economic perspective of meeting Eritrea's sustainable development goals and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Energy efficiency and renewable energy are potentially important contributors to national productive capital accumulation, enhancement of the environment, expansion of energy services, increases in household standard of living, and improvements in health. In this study we develop a spreadsheet model for calculating some of the national benefits and costs of different levels of investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy. We then present the results of the model in terms of investment demand and investment scenario curves. These curves express the contribution that efficiency and renewable energy projects can make in terms of reduced energy sector operating expenses, and reduced carbon emissions. We provide demand and supply curves that show the rate of return, the cost of carbon emissions reductions vs. supply, and the evolution of the marginal carbon emissions per dollar of GDP for different investment levels and different fuel-type subsectors.

Within the context of the Fissile Materials Disposition Program of the U.S. Department of Energy we analyzed rod removal transient experiments performed at the Kurchatov Institute in a full-scale mockup of VVER reactors, The transients were started (via water inlet) in slightly (few cents) supercritical configurations with all the control rods withdrawn. After a few minutes, control rods banks or individual control rods were f and t inserted and later withdrawn (returning to the initial state). Available experimental data include the relative time profiles of nine incore and excore detectors. Because of the mild nature of the transients (very low power and no more than 2 $ reactivities) we decided to use a quasistatic approach. The time-dependent flux is factorized into two terms: a function of phase space, given by the solution of the static equation with parametric excitation; and a function of time, given by the solution of the point kinetic equations with time-dependent kinetics para meters. Due to the nature of the experiment, cold conditions, control rods withdrawn and critical state with water level, the power distributions, measured and calculated, are quite unusual, with the inner part of the core heavily shielded. Measured power levels at the center …

Effectiveness and efficiency of software development can be greatly increased by writing modularized code using informal (styles) and formal (standards) work approaches. Software development is about connecting pieces into a coherent whole. Thus consistent work approaches provide a structure that allows individuals and teams to minimize the time and thought put into making these connections. These investments in structure return even more benefits in the maintenance phase when old code has to be examined by new programmers, or after time has passed. We present some examples of coding style for Avenue: a simplified form of Hungarian notation (notationHungarian, stringCustomerName, etc.), script naming prefixes and suffixes, and options in script headers. We demonstrate several modular, object-like utility scripts that can be used alone or combined into other utilities. These include developer tools such as a System.Echo substitute for Windows, a Window inspector, and a script for detecting and dealing with multiple display resolutions.

The Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) Problem Solving Environment (PSE) consists of the tools and libraries needed for the development of ASCI simulation codes on ASCI machines. The recently completed ASCI PSE Milepost demonstrated that this software environment is available and functional at the scale used for application mileposts on ASCI White. As part of the PSE Milepost, we performed extensive performance testing of several critical run-time based systems. In this paper, we present microbenchmark results that compare the MPI [5], Pthreads and OpenMP [7, 8] implementations on ASCI White and ASCI Blue Pacific. Our results demonstrate that these run-time systems on White have improved sufficiently to accommodate the machine's approximately four-fold increase in processing capability over Blue Pacific.

Results are presented of a study aimed at determining the feasibility of using chemical getter beds to scavenge tritium from inert gases. Two types of getter bed, fixed and fluidized, were considered, using cerium as the getter material. Mathematical-modeling results and capital-cost estimates indicate that not only is the gettering approach technically feasible, it could lead to considerable cost savings over catalytic oxidation, the tritium-removal method traditionally used.

This past decade has seen rapid growth in the size, resolution, and complexity of Grand Challenge simulation codes. Many such problems still require interactive visualization tools to make sense of multi-terabyte data stores. Visapult is a parallel volume rendering tool that employs distributed components, latency tolerant algorithms, and high performance network I/O for effective remote visualization of massive datasets. In this paper we discuss using connectionless protocols to accelerate Visapult network I/O and interfacing Visapult to the Cactus General Relativity code to enable scalable remote monitoring and steering capabilities. With these modifications, network utilization has moved from 25 percent of line-rate using tuned multi-streamed TCP to sustaining 88 percent of line rate using the new UDP-based transport protocol.

A technique based on discrete energy levels rather than energy level densities is presented for nuclear reaction calculations. The validity of the technique is demonstrated via theoretical and experimental agreement for cross sections, isomer-ratios and gamma-ray strength functions. 50 refs., 7 figs. (WRF)

Tunneling electrons in a scanning tunneling microscope were used to excite specific vibrational quantum states of adsorbed water and hydroxyl molecules on a Ru(0 0 0 1) surface. The excited molecules relaxed by transfer of energy to lower energy modes, resulting in diffusion, dissociation, desorption, and surface-tip transfer processes. Diffusion of H{sub 2}O molecules could be induced by excitation of the O-H stretch vibration mode at 445 meV. Isolated molecules required excitation of one single quantum while molecules bonded to a C atom required at least two quanta. Dissociation of single H{sub 2}O molecules into H and OH required electron energies of 1 eV or higher while dissociation of OH required at least 2 eV electrons. In contrast, water molecules forming part of a cluster could be dissociated with electron energies of 0.5 eV.

We study the dynamics of a chiral SU(2) gauge theory with a Weyl fermion in the I = 3/2 representation and of its supersymmetric generalization. In the former, we find a new and exotic mechanism of confinement, induced by topological excitations that we refer to as magnetic quintets. The supersymmetric version was examined earlier in the context of dynamical supersymmetry breaking by Intriligator, Seiberg, and Shenker, who showed that if this gauge theory confines at the origin of moduli space, one may break supersymmetry by adding a tree level superpotential. We examine the dynamics by deforming the theory on S{sup 1} x R{sup 3}, and show that the infrared behavior of this theory is an interacting CFT at small S{sup 1}. We argue that this continues to hold at large S{sup 1}, and if so, that supersymmetry must remain unbroken. Our methods also provide the microscopic origin of various superpotentials in SQCD on S{sup 1} x R{sup 3}--which were previously obtained by using symmetry and holomorphy--and resolve a long standing interpretational puzzle concerning a flux operator discovered by Affleck, Harvey, and Witten. It is generated by a topological excitation, a 'magnetic bion', whose stability is due to fermion pair exchange …

The National Ignition Facility will be the highest energy laser in the world when completed. Many small optics ({le} 14 inches in diameter) have stringent transport efficiency and some have very high laser fluence requirements. For optics to sustain high spectral efficiencies and survive high fluences for a 30-year operation, these optics have cleanliness requirements to assure optimal laser system performance. These optical components have insufficient surface areas to validate the particulate and organic contamination requirements by methods used for mechanical parts. Also, the common validation techniques require some sort of surface contact which is not compatible with handling of laser optics. This presentation describes alternate cleanliness validation methods developed for the NIF small optical components. An organic validation procedure was devised based on the spectral transmission sensitivity to contamination layers on coated and uncoated fused silica windows. Optics were scanned in the near infrared before and after an application of a specific amount of organic contamination onto the surface. Changes in transmission correlated to organic contamination levels and used to determine non-volatile organic contamination optics. A validation method for particulate contamination was demonstrated on a large window, showing that acceptable cleanliness levels could be achieved after a wet-wipe and …

The DOE's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program employs both upward- and downward-looking remote-sensing instruments to measure the horizontal and vertical distributions of clouds across its Southern Great Plains (SGP) site. No single instrument is capable of completely determining these distributions over the scales of interest to ARM's Single Column Modeling (SCM) and Instantaneous Radiative Flux (IRF) groups; these groups embody the primary strategies through which ARM expects to achieve its objectives of developing and testing cloud formation parameterizations (USDOE, 1996). Collectively, however, the data from ARM's cloud-detecting instruments offer the potential for such a three-dimensional characterization. Data intercomparisons, like the ones illustrated in this paper, are steps in this direction. Examples of some initial comparisons, involving satellite, millimeter cloud radar, whole sky imager and ceilometer data, are provided herein. that many of the lessons learned can later be adapted to cloud data at the Boundary and Extended Facilities. Principally, we are concerned about: (1) the accuracy of various estimates of cloud properties at a single point, or within a thin vertical column, above the CF over time, and (2) the accuracy of various estimates of cloud properties over the Cloud and Radiation Testbed (CART) site, which can then be reduced …

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In situ inspections were performed on tarp-covered 55-gallon drums of transuranic (TRU) waste stored underground at the Hanford Site. These inspections were part of a task to characterize TRU drums for extent of corrosion degradation and uncertainty in TRU designation (inaccuracy in earlier assay determinations may have led to drums that actually were low-level waste to be termed TRU), and to attempt to correlate accuracy of existing records with actual drum contents. Two separate storage trench sites were investigated; a total of 90 drums were inspected with ultrasonic techniques and 104 additional drums were visually inspected. A high-humidity environment in the underground storage trenches had been reported in earlier investigations and was expected to result in substantial corrosion degradation. However, corrosion was much less than expected. Only a small percentage of drums had significant corrosion (with one breach) and the maximum rate was estimated at 0.051 mm/yr (2 mils/yr). The corrosion time of underground exposure was 14 to 15 years. These inspection results should be applicable to other similar environments (this applicability should be restricted to arid climates such as the Hanford Site) where drums are stored underground but shielded from direct soil contact by a tarp or other means. …

Cell-based fluorescence imaging assays have the potential to generate massive amount of data, which requires detailed quantitative analysis. Often, as a result of fixation, labeled nuclei overlap and create a clump of cells. However, it is important to quantify phenotypic read out on a cell-by-cell basis. In this paper, we propose a novel method for decomposing clumps of nuclei using high-level geometric constraints that are derived from low-level features of maximum curvature computed along the contour of each clump. Points of maximum curvature are used as vertices for Delaunay triangulation (DT), which provides a setof edge hypotheses for decomposing a clump of nuclei. Each hypothesis is subsequently tested against a constraint satisfaction network for a near optimum decomposition. The proposed method is compared with other traditional techniques such as the watershed method with/without markers. The experimental results show that our approach can overcome the deficiencies of the traditional methods and is very effective in separating severely touching nuclei.

We have developed cermet membranes that nongalvanically separate hydrogen from gas mixtures. The highest measured hydrogen flux was 20.0 cm{sup 3} (STP)/min-cm{sup 2} for an ANL-3a membrane at 900 C. For ANL-3 membranes with thickness of 40-500 {micro}m, hydrogen permeation is limited by the bulk diffusion of hydrogen through the metal phase. The effect of hydrogen partial pressure on permeation rate confirmed this conclusion, suggesting that higher permeation rates may be obtained by decreasing the membrane thickness. Permeation rate in a syngas atmosphere for times up to 190 h showed no degradation in performance, which indicates that ANL-3 membranes may be suitable for long-term, practical hydrogen separation.

The use of magnetic flux compression to isentropically compress matter is summarized. Details of the process used to extract boundary data from the flash radiographs and the design criteria for the containment of very compressible material are discussed. Finally, suggestions for improvement of the next generation of experiments are made.

A new, very high magnetic field superconducting ECR ion source, VENUS, is under construction at the LBNL 88-Inch Cyclotron [1,2]. The paper describes the VENUS extraction system and discusses the ion beam formation in the strong axial magnetic field (3 T) of the ECR ion source. Emittance values as expected from theory, which assumes a uniform plasma density across the plasma outlet hole, are compared with actual measurements from the AECR-U ion source. Results indicate that highly charged heavier ions are concentrated on the source axis. They are extracted from an ''effective'' plasma outlet hole, whose smaller radius must be included in ion optics simulations.

SLAC is developing a 10 MW, 5 Hz, 1.6 ms, L-band (1.3 GHz) Sheet-Beam Klystron as a less expensive and more compact alternative to the ILC baseline Multiple-Beam Klystron. The Klystron is intended as a plug-compatible device of the same beam current and operating voltage as existing Multiple-Beam Klystrons. At this time, a beam tester has been constructed and currently is in test. The beam tester includes an intercepting cup for making beam quality measurements of the 130 A, 40-to-1 aspect ratio beam. Measurements will be made of the electrostatic beam and of the beam after transporting through a drift tube and magnetic focusing system. General theory of operation, design trade-offs, and manufacturing considerations of both the beam tester and klystron will be discussed.

We present scaled demonstrations of backlighter sources, emitting Bremsstrahlung x-rays with photon energies above 75 keV, that we will use to record x-ray Compton radiographic snapshots of cold dense DT fuel in inertial confinement fusion implosions at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). In experiments performed at the Titan laser facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, we measured the source size and the Bremsstrahlung spectrum as a function of laser intensity and pulse length, from solid targets irradiated at 2e17-5e18 W/cm{sup 2} using 2-40 ps pulses. Using Au planar foils we achieved source sizes down to 5.5 {micro}m, and conversion efficiencies of about 1e-3 J/J into x-ray photons with energies in the 75-100 keV spectral range. We can now use these results to design NIF backlighter targets and shielding, and to predict Compton radiography performance as a function of the NIF implosion yield and associated background.