This document reviews results from a number of studies concerning underground migration of radionuclides from nuclear test cavities at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). Discussed are all cases known to the Department of Energy's Hydrology and Radionuclide Migration Program where radionuclides have been detected outside of the immediate vicinity of nuclear test cavities that are identifiable as the-source of the nuclides, as well as cases where radionuclides might have been expected and were intentionally sought but not fixed. There are nine locations where source-identifiable radionuclide migration has been detected, one where migration was purposely induced by pumping, and three where migration might be expected but was not found. In five of the nine cases of non-induced migration, the inferred migration mechanism is prompt fracture injection during detonation. In the other four cases, the inferred migration mechanism is water movement. In only a few of the reviewed cases can the actual migration mechanism be stated with confidence, and the attempt has been made to indicate the level of confidence for each case. References are cited where more information may be obtained. As an aid to future study, this document concludes with a brief discussion of the aspects of radionuclide migration that, …

This project revolves around understanding the fundamental processes involved in the catalytic removal of harmful oxygenated organics present in coal liquids. We are modelling the complex type of sulfided Mo catalyst proposed for these reactions with simple single crystal surfaces. These display a controlled range and number of reaction sites and can be extensively characterized by surface science techniques. We then investigate the reaction pathways for representative simple oxygenates upon these surfaces. We have successfully solved the structure of Mo(110) p(2 {times} 2)-S structure and found the S atom to reside very close to the center-hollow site of a laterally-distorted first Moo layer. Some small vertical distortions in the top two Mo layers are also present. Preliminary results from experiments carried out with substituted furans indicate that the pattern of reaction is very similar to that of furan itself. The most significant change appears to that substitution beyond the mono stage results in substantial blocking of the adsorption process.

The Waste Receiving and Processing (WRAP) Facility will store uranium and transuranic (TRU) sources and standards for certification that WRAP meets the requirements of the Quality Assurance Program Plan (QAPP) for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). In addition, WRAP must meet internal requirements for testing and validation of measuring instruments for nondestructive assay (NDA). In order to be certified for WIPP, WRAP will participate in the NDA Performance Demonstration Program (PDP). This program is a blind test of the NDA capabilities for TRU waste. It is intended to ensure that the NDA capabilities of this facility satisfy the requirements of the quality assurance program plan for the WIPP. The PDP standards have been provided by the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) for this program. These standards will be used in the WRAP facility. To internally check the accuracy and sensitivity of the NDA instruments, a further set of sources and standards will also be used by the facility. Each sealed source or standard will be referred to herein as a unit. Various combinations of these units will be placed in test drums and/or boxes which will be subject to their own limits until unloaded. There will be two sealed …

The ability to bond together two or more silicon wafers greatly expands the variety and complexity of silicon microstructures that can be designed and fabricated. At LLNL, microstructures have been used for many years as hardware in scientific experiments. The activity has recently been expanded into other areas to include microinstruments for biomedical applications and for chemical analysis. Both high temperature (1100{degrees}C) bonding techniques have been used, depending on the application. This paper discusses these applications with emphasis on the most extensive which is the fabrication of microchannel coolers for diode arrays.

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The primary objective of the study is to develop a computer model for a base line direct coal liquefaction design based on two stage direct coupled catalytic reactors. This primary objective is to be accomplished by completing the following: a base line design based on previous DOE/PETC results from Wilsonville pilot plant and other engineering evaluations; a cost estimate and economic analysis; a computer model incorporating the above two steps over a wide range of capacities and selected process alternatives; a comprehensive training program for DOE/PETC Staff to understand and use the computer model; a thorough documentation of all underlying assumptions for baseline economics; and a user manual and training material which will facilitate updating of the model in the future.

We conducted 25 separate glove fabric permeation studies during this project. The permeations were carried out in the small (1 inch) glass ASTM cell. One other permeation study was carded out with a large (two inch) modified ASTM cell for comparison with the small cell results. We also compared the LLNL procedure from both large and small cells with the standard ASTM test procedure which uses a liquid solution on the breakthrough side of the fabric (the liquid is then sampled on a periodic basis). In all comparisons we observed a close-correlation in breakthrough times between the two procedures and the two cell sizes. In the course of this study, we tested ten different glove materials. These included neoprene (original ASTM round-robin sheet stock, 16 mil thickness), Edmont Sol-Vex (nitrile), Pioneer nitrile, Pioneer Pylox (polyvinyl chloride), North Viton (trademark for fluoroelastomers), North SilverShield (Norfoil, trademark for a flexible metallized laminate), Safety 4 4H (patented plastic laminate), and QRP PolyTuff (polyurethane) 20G-2000 (5 mil), 23G-2300 (1.5 mil), and 25G-2500 (1.5 mil). Three of the glove materials, Viton and Silver Shield (North), and 4H (Safety 4), did not allow any permeation measurable by our system to either 1,2-dichloroethane or 3% diphenylmercury (in …

The Natural Gas Monthly (NGM) highlights activities, events, and analyses of interest to public and private sector organizations associated with the natural gas industry. Volume and price data are presented each month for natural gas production, distribution, consumption, and interstate pipeline activities. Producer related activities and underground storage data are also reported. From time to time, the NGM features articles designed to assist readers in using and interpreting natural gas information.

'The Hanford Site has been used to produce nuclear materials for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its predecessors. A large inventory of radioactive and mixed waste, largely generated during Pu production, exists in 177 underground single- and double-shell tanks. These wastes are to be retrieved and separated into low-activity waste (LAW) and high-level waste (HLW) fractions. The DOE is proceeding with an approach to privatize the treatment and immobilization of Handord''s LAW and HLW.'

We propose a fuser that projects different function estimators in different regions of the input space based on the lower envelope of the error curves of the individual estimators. This fuser is shown to be optimal among projective fusers and also to perform at least as well as the best individual estimator. By incorporating an optimal linear fuser as another estimator, this fuser performs at least as well as the optimal linear combination. We illustrate the fuser by combining neural networks trained using different parameters for the network and/or for learning algorithms.

A project to recover economic amounts of oil from a very mature oil field is being conducted by Laguna Petroleum Corporation of Midland, Texas, with partial funding from a U. S. Department of Energy grant to study shallow carbonate rock reservoirs. The objectives of the project are to use modern engineering methods to optimize oil field management and to use geological and geophysical data to recover untapped potential within the petroleum reservoirs. The integration of data and techniques from these disciplines has yielded results greater than those achievable without their cooperation. The cost of successfully accomplishing these goals is to be low enough for even small independent operators to afford. This article is a report describing accomplishments for the fiscal year 1997-1998.

This overview presents current research at Sandia National Laboratories in the Virtual Reality and Intelligent Simulation Lab. Into an existing distributed VR environment which we have been developing, and which provides shared immersion for multiple users, we are adding virtual actor support. The virtual actor support we are adding to this environment is intended to provide semi-autonomous actors, with oversight and high-level guiding control by a director/user, and to allow the overall action to be driven by a scenario. We present an overview of the environment into which our virtual actors will be added in Section 3, and discuss the direction of the Virtual Actor research itself in Section 4. We will briefly review related work in Section 2. First however we need to place the research in the context of what motivates it. The motivation for our construction of this environment, and the line of research associated with it, is based on a long-term program of providing support, through simulation, for situational training, by which we mean a type of training in which students learn to handle multiple situations or scenarios. In these situations, the student may encounter events ranging from the routine occurance to the rare emergency. Indeed, …

The FRS process validation procedure is focused upon cleaning N-Reactor Spent Fuel of corrosion products using a statistical process control approach to cleaning parameters.

The major goals of Enhanced Design Alternative (EDA) V are to keep the temperature of the cladding on the spent nuclear fuel (SNF) within the waste package below 350 C (Section 4.2.3), the temperature of the emplacement drift walls below 225 C (Section 4.2.3), and to keep the emplacement drifts dry for several thousand years. In addition, the design would produce relatively consistent heat output from waste package to waste package and ensure that waste package thermal outputs are spread more evenly across the repository. The design would also provide defense in depth (Section 5.3). The goals of this design would be achieved by the combination of design features described below. This EDA would have an areal mass loading (AML) of 150 metric tons of uranium equivalent (MTU) per acre (Section 4.1.16) as opposed to the 85 MTU/acre in the Viability Assessment (VA) reference design. To achieve this loading and the elements necessary to the EDA's overall goals, the design would require approximately 420 acres of emplacement area, within the lower repository block (Appendix A, Section A.2). A conceptual layout was developed for EDA V (Section 5.4.3). The layout, as shown in Figure 2, contains openings that are sized and …

The chemical carryover of impurities and treatment chemicals from the boiler to the steam phase, and ultimately to the low-pressure turbine and condenser, can be quantified based on laboratory experiments preformed over ranges of temperature, pH, and composition. The two major assumptions are that thermodynamic equilibrium is maintained and no deposition, adsorption or decomposition occurs. The most recent results on acetic, formic and phosphoric acids are presented with consideration of the effects of hydrolysis and dimerization reactions. Complications arising from thermal decomposition of the organic acids are discussed. The partitioning constants for these acids and other solutes measured in this program have been incorporated into a simple thermodynamic computer code that calculates the effect of chemical and mechanical carryover on the composition of the condensate formed to varying extents in the water/steam cycle.

The purpose of this report is to document fault tree analyses which have been completed for the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) safety analysis. Logic models for equipment failures and human error combinations that could lead to flammable gas explosions in various process tanks, or failure of critical support systems were developed for internal initiating events and for earthquakes. These fault trees provide frequency estimates for support systems failures and accidents that could lead to radioactive and hazardous chemical releases both on-site and off-site. Top event frequency results from these fault trees will be used in further APET analyses to calculate accident risk associated with DWPF facility operations. This report lists and explains important underlying assumptions, provides references for failure data sources, and briefly describes the fault tree method used. Specific commitments from DWPF to provide new procedural/administrative controls or system design changes are listed in the ''Facility Commitments'' section. The purpose of the ''Assumptions'' section is to clarify the basis for fault tree modeling, and is not necessarily a list of items required to be protected by Technical Safety Requirements (TSRs).

This document serves as the 45-day report deliverable for tank 241-SX-113 auger samples collected on May 9 and 10, 1995. The samples were extruded, and analyzed by the 222-S Laboratory. Laboratory procedures completed include: differential scanning calorimetry; thermogravimetric analysis; and total alpha analysis. This report incudes the primary safety screening results obtained from the analyses. As the final report, the following are also included: chains of custody; the extrusion logbook; sample preparation data; and total alpha analysis raw data.

'The Hanford Site has been used to produce nuclear materials for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its predecessors. A large inventory of radioactive and mixed waste, largely generated during Pu production, exists in 177 underground single- and double-shell tanks. These wastes are to be retrieved and separated into low-activity waste (LAW) and high-level waste (HLW) fractions. The DOE is proceeding with an approach to privatize the treatment and immobilization of Handord''s LAW and HLW.'

A method combining ({alpha},p) NRA and ellipsometry has been developed for measuring the Boron and Phosphorus content of borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG) used for interlevel dielectrics in integrated circuits. Yields from the {sup 31}P({alpha},p{sub 0}){sup 34}S (Q = 0.63 MeV) and {sup 10}B({alpha},p{sub 0}) {sup 13}C (Q = 4.06 MeV) reactions are coupled with ellipsometry thickness measurements to calculate the average atomic percent of B and P in the film. Due to the relatively low Q value of the {sup 31}P({alpha},p{sub 0}){sup 34}S reaction and the thickness range of the glass films ({le} 1.2 micrometers) they analyze, fairly high energy alpha particles, and Mylar range foils on the detector are required. Alpha energy, detector angle and range foil thickness were determined by reaction yields and the need to separate the yield peaks of interest from competing ({alpha},p) reactions and backscattered alphas. They have determined that 6.0 MeV incident alphas with a detector angle of 135{degree} and about 100 micrometers of Mylar range foil are optimum for the system. The yield for the {sup 10}B({alpha},p{sub 0}) {sup 13}C reaction is quite constant in the energy range of interest ({approximately} 5.8 to 6 MeV) but the yield for the {sup 31}P({alpha},p{sub 0}){sup 34}S …

This report discusses the biologic, environmental, economic, and operational issues associated with growing wood crops in managed plantations. Information on plantation productivity, environmental issues and impacts, and costs is drawn from DOE`s Biofuels Feedstock Development as well as commercial operations in the US and elsewhere. The particular experiences of three countries--Brazil, the Philippines, and Hawaii (US)--are discussed in considerable detail.

This conference covers four main topics: (1) Southeastern Labor Market and its Impact on Corporate/Industry Development; (2) New Issues for Science and Technology in the Year 2000 and Beyond; (3) The Role of Academia in Developing the Labor Force of the Southeast; and (4) K-12 Education: Challenges for the 21st Century.

The Soudan 2 detector is used to search for evidence of nucleon decay. Particular emphasis is put on searches for modes with multiple-charged particles in the final state, and for modes suggested by super-symmetric theories.

Mixed-conducting (electronic and ionic conducting) dense ceramics are used in many applications, including fuel cells, gas separation membranes, batteries, sensors, and electrocatalysis. This paper describes mixed-conducting ceramic membranes that are being developed to selectively remove oxygen and hydrogen from gas streams in a nongalvanic mode of operation (i.e., with no electrodes or external power supply). Ceramic membranes made of Sr-Fe-Co oxide (SFC), which exhibits high combined electronic and oxygen ionic conductivities, can be used for high-purity oxygen separation and/or partial oxidation of methane to synthesis gas (syngas, a mixture of CO and H{sub 2}). The electronic and ionic conductivities of SFC were found to be comparable in magnitude. Steady-state oxygen permeability of SFC has been measured as a function of oxygen-partial-pressure gradient and temperature. For an {approx}3-mm-thick membrane, the oxygen permeability was {approx}2.5 scc{center_dot}cm{sup {minus}2}{center_dot}min{sup {minus}1} at 900 C. Oxygen permeation increases as membrane thickness decreases. Tubular SFC membranes have been fabricated and operated at 900 C for {approx}1000 h in converting methane into syngas. The oxygen permeated through the membrane reacted with methane in the presence of a catalyst and produced syngas. We also studied the transport properties of yttria-doped BaCeO{sub 3{minus}{delta}} (BCY) by impedance spectroscopy and open-cell voltage …

The primary objective of the study is to develop a computer model for a base line direct coal liquefaction design based on two stage direct coupled catalytic reactors. This primary objective is to be accomplished by completing the following: a base line design based on previous DOE/PETC results from Wilsonville pilot plant and other engineering evaluations; a cost estimate and economic analysis; a computer model incorporating the above two steps over a wide range of capacities and selected process alternatives; a comprehensive training program for DOE/PETC Staff to understand and use the computer model; a thorough documentation of all underlying assumptions for baseline economics; and a user manual and training material which will facilitate updating of the model in the future.