We consider the energy accumulation in meta-stable clusters. This energy can be much larger than the typical chemical bond energy (~;;1 ev/atom). For example, polymeric nitrogen can accumulate 4 ev/atom in the N8 (fcc) structure, while helium can accumulate 9 ev/atom in the excited triplet state He2* . They release their energy by cluster fission: N8 -> 4N2 and He2* -> 2He. We study the locus of states in thermodynamic state space for the detonation of such meta-stable clusters. In particular, the equilibrium isentrope, starting at the Chapman-Jouguet state, and expanding down to 1 atmosphere was calculated with the Cheetah code. Large detonation pressures (3 and 16 Mbar), temperatures (12 and 34 kilo-K) and velocities (20 and 43 km/s) are a consequence of the large heats of detonation (6.6 and 50 kilo-cal/g) for nitrogen and helium clusters respectively. If such meta-stable clusters could be synthesized, they offer the potential for large increases in the energy density of materials.

This study explores the use of breathing orbital valence bond (BOVB) trial wave functions for diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC). The approach is applied to the computation of the carbon-hydrogen (C-H) bond dissociation energy (BDE) of acetylene. DMC with BOVB trial wave functions yields a C-H BDE of 132.4 {+-} 0.9 kcal/mol, which is in excellent accord with the recommended experimental value of 132.8 {+-} 0.7 kcal/mol. These values are to be compared with DMC results obtained with single determinant trial wave functions, using Hartree-Fock orbitals (137.5 {+-} 0.5 kcal/mol) and local spin density (LDA) Kohn-Sham orbitals (135.6 {+-} 0.5 kcal/mol).

With a height of more than 1,500 feet, the BREN (Bare Reactor Experiment, Nevada) Tower dominates the surrounding desert landscape of the Nevada Test Site. Associated with the nuclear research and atmospheric testing programs carried out during the 1950s and 1960s, the tower was a vital component in a series of experiments aimed at characterizing radiation fields from nuclear detonations. Research programs conducted at the tower provided the data for the baseline dosimetry studies crucial to determining the radiation dose rates received by the atomic bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Today, BREN Tower stands as a monument to early dosimetry research and one of the legacies of the Cold War.

We have successfully incorporated high surface area particles of titanate ion exchange materials (monosodium titanate and crystalline silicotitanate) with acceptable particle size distribution into porous and inert support membrane fibrils consisting of polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon{reg_sign}), polyethylene and cellulose materials. The resulting membrane sheets, under laboratory conditions, were used to evaluate the removal of surrogate radioactive materials for cesium-137 and strontium-90 from high caustic nuclear waste simulants. These membrane supports met the nominal requirement for nonchemical interaction with the embedded ion exchange materials and were porous enough to allow sufficient liquid flow. Some of this 47-mm size stamped out prototype titanium impregnated ion exchange membrane discs was found to remove more than 96% of dissolved cesium-133 and strontium-88 from a caustic nuclear waste salt simulants. Since in traditional ion exchange based column technology monosodium titanate (MST) is known to have great affinity for the sorbing of other actinides like plutonium, neptunium and even uranium, we expect that the MST-based membranes developed here, although not directly evaluated for uptake of these three actinides because of costs associated with working with actinides which do not have 'true' experimental surrogates, would also show significant affinity for these actinides in aqueous media. It was also observed …

A conceptual design is presented for a Hybrid Sulfur process for the production of hydrogen using a high-temperature nuclear heat source to split water. The process combines proton exchange membrane-based SO{sub 2}-depolarized electrolyzer technology being developed at Savannah River National Laboratory with silicon carbide bayonet decomposition reactor technology being developed at Sandia National Laboratories. Both are part of the US DOE Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative. The flowsheet otherwise uses only proven chemical process components. Electrolyzer product is concentrated from 50 wt% sulfuric acid to 75 wt% via recuperative vacuum distillation. Pinch analysis is used to predict the high-temperature heat requirement for sulfuric acid decomposition. An Aspen Plus{trademark} model of the flowsheet indicates 340.3 kJ high-temperature heat, 75.5 kJ low-temperature heat, 1.31 kJ low-pressure steam, and 120.9 kJ electric power are consumed per mole of H{sub 2} product, giving an LHV efficiency of 35.3% (41.7% HHV efficiency) if electric power is available at a conversion efficiency of 45%.

Field-rugged and field-programmable differential mobility spectrometry (DMS) networks provide highly selective, universal monitoring of vapors and aerosols at detectable levels from persons or areas involved with illicit chemical/biological/explosives (CBE) production. CBE sensor motes used in conjunction with automated fast gas chromatography with DMS detection (GC/DMS) verification instrumentation integrated into situational operations-management systems can be readily deployed and optimized for changing application scenarios. The feasibility of developing selective DMS motes for a “smart dust” sampling approach with guided, highly selective, fast GC/DMS verification analysis is a compelling approach to minimize or prevent the illegal use of explosives or chemical and biological materials. DMS is currently one of the foremost emerging technologies for field separation and detection of gas-phase chemical species. This is due to trace-level detection limits, high selectivity, and small size. Fast GC is the leading field analytical method for gas phase separation of chemical species in complex mixtures. Low-thermal-mass GC columns have led to compact, low-power field systems capable of complete analyses in 15–300 seconds. A collaborative effort optimized a handheld, fast GC/DMS, equipped with a non-rad ionization source, for peroxide-based explosive measurements.

We present here results of continued efforts to understand the performance of microchannel plate (MCP)–based, high-speed, gated, x-ray detectors. This work involves the continued improvement of a Monte Carlo simulation code to describe MCP performance coupled with experimental efforts to better characterize such detectors. Our goal is a quantitative description of MCP saturation behavior in both static and pulsed modes. A new model of charge buildup on the walls of the MCP channels is briefly described. The simulation results agree favorably with experimental data obtained with a short-pulse, high-intensity ultraviolet (UV) laser. These results indicate that a weak saturation can change the exponent of gain with voltage and that a strong saturation lead to a gain plateau. These results also demonstrate that the dynamic range of an MCP in pulsed mode has a value of between 10^2 and 10^3.

This note presents a comparison of Most-Probable-Number Rapid Viability (MPN-RV) PCR and traditional culture methods for the quantification of Bacillus anthracis Sterne spores in macrofoam swabs generated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for a multi-center validation study aimed at testing environmental swab processing methods for recovery, detection, and quantification of viable B. anthracis spores from surfaces. Results show that spore numbers provided by the MPN RV-PCR method were in statistical agreement with the CDC conventional culture method for all three levels of spores tested (10{sup 4}, 10{sup 2}, and 10 spores) even in the presence of dirt. In addition to detecting low levels of spores in environmental conditions, the MPN RV-PCR method is specific, and compatible with automated high-throughput sample processing and analysis protocols.

We have grown single crystals of novel ruthenates (Sr,Ba)(Fe,Co){sub 2+x}Ru{sub 4-x}O{sub 11} that exhibit long-range ferromagnetic order well above room temperature, accompanied by narrow-gap semiconducting properties that include a large anomalous Hall conductance, low resistivity, high carrier concentration and low coercive field, which are properties well suited to spintronic applications. X-ray diffraction, EDX, neutron diffraction and x-ray absorption measurements on single crystals firmly establish the 'R-Type' hexagonal ferrite structure (space group P6{sub 3}/mmc, No 194) and single-phase nature of all samples. The electronic structure and physical properties can be tuned by simple chemical substitution of two elements, M = Fe or Co, or by varying the relative concentration of 3d solutes and 4d Ru. Our magnetotransport, x-ray magnetic circular dichroism and magnetic moment data suggest the mechanism for FM order is quite different from that governing known dilute magnetic semiconductors.

The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission's Plowshare Program focused on developing the capability to use nuclear detonations for civil works projects and industrial applications. The participants envisioned canals and harbors constructed quickly and cheaply and the augmentation of natural gas, oil, and geothermal power production. The Plowshare Program began in the 1950s and ended in the 1970s. The archaeological effort to relocate and record places associated with this project has identified a unique and varied historical legacy on the landscape in the western United States and discovered that the range and types of projects considered and planned are more diverse than formerly recognized.

Carbon fiber-reinforced bisphenol-A epoxy matrix composite was evaluated for gamma radiation resistance. The composite was exposed to total gamma doses of 50, 100, and 200 Mrad. Irradiated and baseline samples were tested for tensile strength, hardness and evaluated using FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) spectroscopy and DSC (differential scanning calorimetry) for structural changes. Scanning electron microscopy was used to evaluate microstructural behavior. Mechanical testing of the composite bars revealed no apparent change in modulus, strain to failure, or fracture strength after exposures. However, testing of only the epoxy matrix revealed changes in hardness, thermal properties, and FTIR results with increasing gamma irradiation. The results suggest the epoxy within the composite can be affected by exposure to gamma irradiation.

The SciDAC Visualization and Analytics Center for Enabling Technologies (VACET) isa highly productive effort combining the forces of leading visualization researchersfrom five different institutions to solve some of the most challenging dataunderstanding problems in modern science. The VACET technology portfolio isdiverse, spanning all typical visual data analysis use models and effectivelybalancing forward-looking research with focused software architecture andengineering resulting in a production-quality software infrastructure. One of the keyelements in VACET's success is a rich set of projects that are collaborations withscience stakeholders: these efforts focus on identifying and overcoming obstacles toscientific knowledge discovery in modern, large, and complex scientific datasets.

The drift and diffusion of a cloud of ions in a fluid are distorted by an inhomogeneous electric field. If the electric field carries the center of the distribution in a straight line and the field configuration is suitably symmetric, the distortion can be calculated analytically. We examine the specific examples of fields with cylindrical and spherical symmetry in detail assuming the ion distributions to be of a generally Gaussian form. The effects of differing diffusion coefficients in the transverse and longitudinal directions are included.

Solids such as granular activated carbon, hematite and sodium phosphates, if present as sludge components in nuclear waste storage tanks, have been found to be capable of precipitating/sorbing actinides like plutonium, neptunium and uranium from nuclear waste storage tank supernatant liqueur. Thus, the potential may exists for the accumulation of fissile materials in such nuclear waste storage tanks during lengthy nuclear waste storage and processing. To evaluate the nuclear criticality safety in a typical nuclear waste storage tank, a study was initiated to measure the affinity of granular activated carbon, hematite and anhydrous sodium phosphate to sorb plutonium, neptunium and uranium from alkaline salt solutions. Tests with simulated and actual nuclear waste solutions established the affinity of the solids for plutonium, neptunium and uranium upon contact of the solutions with each of the solids. The removal of plutonium and neptunium from the synthetic salt solution by nuclear waste storage tank solids may be due largely to the presence of the granular activated carbon and transition metal oxides in these storage tank solids or sludge. Granular activated carbon and hematite also showed measurable affinity for both plutonium and neptunium. Sodium phosphate, used here as a reference sorbent for uranium, as expected, …

Plastic behavior has previously been observed in metallic interconnects undergoing high current density electromigration (EM) loading. In this study of Cu interconnects, using the synchrotron technique of white beam X-ray microdiffraction, we have further found preliminary evidence of a texture correlation. In lines with strong (111) textures, the extent of plastic deformation is found to be relatively large compared to that of weaker textures. We suggest that this strong (111) texture may lead to an extra path of mass transport in addition to the dominant interface diffusion in Cu EM. When this extra mass transport begins to affect the overall transport process, then the effective diffusivity, D{sub eff}, of the EM process is expected to deviate from that of interface diffusion only. This would have fundamental implications. We have some preliminary observations that this might be the case, and we report its implications for EM lifetime assessment in this manuscript.

Application of time domain reflectometry (TDR) in soil hydrology often involves the conversion of TDR-measured dielectric permittivity to water content using universal calibration equations (empirical or physically based). Deviations of soil-specific calibrations from the universal calibrations have been noted and are usually attributed to peculiar composition of soil constituents, such as high content of clay and/or organic matter. Although it is recognized that soil disturbance by TDR waveguides may have impact on measurement errors, to our knowledge, there has not been any quantification of this effect. In this paper, we introduce a method that estimates this error by combining two models: one that describes soil compaction around cylindrical objects and another that translates change in bulk density to evolution of soil water retention characteristics. Our analysis indicates that the compaction pattern depends on the mechanical properties of the soil at the time of installation. The relative error in water content measurement depends on the compaction pattern as well as the water content and water retention properties of the soil. Illustrative calculations based on measured soil mechanical and hydrologic properties from the literature indicate that the measurement errors of using a standard three-prong TDR waveguide could be up to 10%. We …

The K-25 Building at the East Tennessee Technology Park is relying on the use of Non-Destructive Assay (NDA) methods for characterizing hold-up materials in process equipment. The characterization data is used for many purposes including mass estimates for nuclear criticality safety (NCS) and waste disposition. This paper addresses the sensitivity of certain parameters in the NDA process to overall mass measurement results.

Recently, much research has been directed towards finding a replacement cathode material for LiCoO{sub 2} combining high performance with lower cost and toxicity. One promising candidate material is the mixed transition metal oxide LiNi{sub 0.4}Co{sub 0.2}Mn{sub 0.4}O{sub 2}, which delivers 180 mAh/g below 4.4 V versus Li/Li{sup +} (1, 2). However, in this material, there is 4% anti-site cation mixing, which hinders the mobility of lithium within the lattice, adversely affecting its rate performance in lithium batteries. Ongoing work in our lab has shown that partial or full substitution of cobalt with aluminum, LiNi{sub 0.4}Co{sub 0.2}Mn{sub 0.4}O{sub 2} (0 < y {le} 0.2), can lead to significant improvements in rate performance (3). In particular, LiNi{sub 0.4}Co{sub 0.2}Mn{sub 0.4}O{sub 2} shows greatly improved rate capability with almost no sacrifice in the overall capacity delivered at low rates between 2.0 and 4.3V (Figure 1). The smaller ionic radius of Al{sup 3+} in octahedral coordination (0.535 {angstrom}) compared to Li{sup +} (0.76 {angstrom}) creates a strong driving force for the formation of a more lamellar structure in the aluminum containing materials (4, 5). XRD experiments and subsequent Rietveld refinement (Figure 2) reveal a significant decrease in anti-site defect concentration upon aluminum substitution, dropping …

We study the origin of subleading soft and collinear poles of form factors and amplitudes in dimensionally-regulated massless gauge theories. In the case of form factors of fundamental fields, these poles originate from a single function of the coupling, denoted G({alpha}{sub s}), depending on both the spin and gauge quantum numbers of the field. We relate G({alpha}{sub s}) to gauge-theory matrix elements involving the gluon field strength. We then show that G({alpha}{sub s}) is the sum of three terms: a universal eikonal anomalous dimension, a universal non-eikonal contribution, given by the coefficient B{sub {delta}}({alpha}{sub s}) of {delta}(1-z) in the collinear evolution kernel, and a process-dependent short-distance coefficient function, which does not contribute to infrared poles. Using general results on the factorization of soft and collinear singularities in fixed-angle massless gauge theory amplitudes, we conclude that all such singularities are captured by the eikonal approximation, supplemented only by the knowledge of B{sub {delta}}({alpha}{sub s}). We explore the consequences of our results for conformal gauge theories, where in particular we find a simple exact relation between the form factor and the cusp anomalous dimension.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods have been used to estimate the flow patterns mainly driven by temperature gradients inside vapor space in a large-scaled Saltstone vault facility at Savannah River site (SRS). The purpose of this work is to examine the gas motions inside the vapor space under the current vault configurations by taking a three-dimensional transient momentum-energy coupled approach for the vapor space domain of the vault. The modeling calculations were based on prototypic vault geometry and expected normal operating conditions as defined by Waste Solidification Engineering. The modeling analysis was focused on the air flow patterns near the ventilated corner zones of the vapor space inside the Saltstone vault. The turbulence behavior and natural convection mechanism used in the present model were benchmarked against the literature information and theoretical results. The verified model was applied to the Saltstone vault geometry for the transient assessment of the air flow patterns inside the vapor space of the vault region using the potential operating conditions. The baseline model considered two cases for the estimations of the flow patterns within the vapor space. One is the reference nominal case. The other is for the negative temperature gradient between the roof inner and …

GaAs based negative electron affinity photocathodes activated with Cs and NF{sub 3} are used as polarized electron sources for linear accelerators. It is generally believed that the activation layer consists of CsF. The activation layers of Cs-NF{sub 3} on GaAs photocathodes are herein investigated using synchrotron radiation photoelectron spectroscopy (SR-PES). F1s, N1s and other core levels are recorded at photon energies ranging from 70eV to 820eV. Surprisingly, a significant amount of nitrogen is observed in the activation layers. Two distinct species of nitrogen are observed, one of which decreases along with the Fluorine signal as the yield of the photocathode decays with time.

Recently a large scale study of points in the MSSM parameter space which are problematic at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has been performed. This work was carried out in part to determine whether the proposed International Linear Collider (ILC) could be used to solve the LHC inverse problem. The results suggest that while the ILC will be a valuable tool, an energy upgrade may be crucial to its success, and that, in general, precision studies of the MSSM are more difficult at the ILC than has generally been believed.

BioTiger{trademark} is a unique microbial consortia that resulted from over 8 years of extensive microbiology screening and characterization of samples collected from a century-old Polish waste lagoon. BioTiger{trademark} shows rapid and complete degradation of aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, produces novel surfactants, is tolerant of both chemical and metal toxicity and shows good activity at temperature and pH extremes. Although originally developed and used by the U.S. Department of Energy for bioremediation of oil-contaminated soils, recent efforts have proven that BioTiger{trademark} can also be used to increase hydrocarbon recovery from oil sands. This enhanced ex situ oil recovery process utilizes BioTiger{trademark} to optimize bitumen separation. A floatation test protocol with oil sands from Ft. McMurray, Canada was used for the BioTiger{trademark} evaluation. A comparison of hot water extraction/floatation test of the oil sands performed with BioTiger{trademark} demonstrated a 50% improvement in separation as measured by gravimetric analysis in 4 h and a five-fold increase at 25 hr. Since BioTiger{trademark} performs well at high temperatures and process engineering can enhance and sustain metabolic activity, it can be applied to enhance recovery of hydrocarbons from oil sands or other complex recalcitrant matrices.

The Organization of Midwest ISO States (OMS) launched the Midwest Demand Resource Initiative (MWDRI) in 2007 to identify barriers to deploying demand response (DR) resources in the Midwest Independent System Operator (MISO) region and develop policies to overcome them. The MWDRI stakeholders decided that a useful initial activity would be to develop more detailed information on existing retail DR programs and dynamic pricing tariffs, program rules, and utility operating practices. This additional detail could then be used to assess any"seams issues" affecting coordination and integration of retail DR resources with MISO's wholesale markets. Working with state regulatory agencies, we conducted a detailed survey of existing DR programs, dynamic pricing tariffs, and their features in MISO states. Utilities were asked to provide information on advance notice requirements to customers, operational triggers used to call events (e.g. system emergencies, market conditions, local emergencies), use of these DR resources to meet planning reserves requirements, DR resource availability (e.g., seasonal, annual), participant incentive structures, and monitoring and verification (M&V) protocols. This report describes the results of this comprehensive survey and discusses policy implications for integrating legacy retail DR programs and dynamic pricing tariffs into organized wholesale markets. Survey responses from 37 MISO members and …