This was a scoping-level study to identify and characterize the design features of fixed-bed gasifiers appearing most important for a gasifier that was to be (1) potentially commercially attractive, and (2) specifically intended for us in integrated coal gasification/combined-cycle (IGCC) applications. It also performed comparative analyses on the impact or value of these design features and on performance characteristics options of the whole IGCC system since cost, efficiency, environmental traits, and operability -- on a system basis -- are what is really important. The study also reviewed and evaluated existing gasifier designs, produced a conceptual-level gasifier design, and generated a moderately advanced system configuration that was utilized as the reference framework for the comparative analyses. In addition, technical issues and knowledge gaps were defined. 70 figs., 31 tabs.

Three CIRRPC efforts were brought to completion this last year. One of this year`s highlights was the publication of the BEIR V report cited above. This report provides a comprehensive review of up-to- date risk estimations to be used in assessing potential health effects from exposure to ionizing radiation. Also completed for publication during this period was CIRRPC Science Panel Report No. 7, Planning for Human Health Effects Research in the Event of a Nuclear Accident. Efforts of the Subpanel addressing the policy implications and use of the National Institutes of Health Radioepidemiological Tables were terminated following the Subpanel`s unanimous conclusion that further effort to develop a consensus report was unnecessary because the scientific limitations upon the uses of the Tables had already been correctly described in several publications, and there were no indications of any significant instances of the Tables being misused.

This report talks about Comparative Performance Study of Heavy Ion Injector Systems for High Energy Synchrotrons

Experimental iron-, nickel-, and cobalt-base weldment materials were exposed in TVA 20-MW and Rocketdyne atmospheric fluidized bed combustors (AFBCs) at 849 degrees C for 1261 h and 871 degrees C for 1000 h, respectively. Post-exposure analyses were conducted at Argonne National Laboratory. All specimens experienced different degrees of internal oxidation/sulfidation. Among eight filler materials, Marathon 25/35R and Haynes 188 showed the least corrosion attack, i.e., less than 0.5 mm/yr. A high nickel content in the weldment was unfavorable for corrosion resistance in the AFBC environment. Differences in the coal/bed chemistry of the TVA and Rocketdyne systems yielded different corrosion behavior in the materials. Calcium sulfate deposits on the specimens significantly affected the internal oxidation/sulfidation of the alloys. The results of this study supplement the material data base, in particular that of weldment performance, and aid in materials selection for AFBC applications.

This project involves the mild gasification of coal at moderate temperatures and near atmospheric pressure to produce two marketable products. Both products are new low-sulfur fuel forms. The high heating value, low-sulfur solid is called Process Derived Fuel (PDF). The low-sulfur, heavy-hydrocarbon liquid is called Coal Derived Liquid (CDL). The process chemically modifies the feed coal to create the two new fuel forms and also removes most of the moisture and some of the sulfur, depending on the sulfur form in the feed coal. The proposed demonstration plant would be put in service by the first quarter of 1992. The plant would be designed and operated as a small commercial facility and would be expected to produce sufficient quantities of PDF and CDL to conduct full-scale test burns of the products in industrial and utility boilers. There will be no waste water or toxic solid wastes generated by the demonstration plant. Source water requirements will have a very minimal environmental impact at the site. The plant could ultimately have a very favorable impact on sulfur dioxide (SO{sub 2}) emissions in the United States if the project is successful. ENCOAL has estimated that the new fuel forms, PDF and CDL, from …

The transfer of a multiphase fluid from a high pressure vessel to one initially at lower pressure is investigated. The fluid is composed of two phases which do not undergo any change. The phases consist of an ideal gas, and solid particles (or liquid droplets) having constant density. The mixture is assumed to be stagnant and always perfectly mixed as well as at thermal equilibrium in each constant volume vessel. The fluid also remains homogeneous and at equilibrium while flowing between vessels. The transport properties of the mixture are taken to be zero. One important finding is that the expanding mixture or pseduo-fluid behaves similar to a polytropic Abel-Noble gas. The mixture thermodymanic properties, the end state in each vessel at pressure equilibrium, the critical parameters, and time dependent results are given for the adiabatic and isothermal limiting cases. The results include both initially sonic and initially subsonic transfer. No mathematical restriction is placed on the particle concentration, although some limiting results are given for small particle volume fraction. The mass transferred at adiabatic pressure equilibrium can be significantly less than that when thermal equilibrium is also reached. Furthermore, the adiabatic pressure equilibrium level may not be the same as …

Several computer programs to aid in the design of eddy-current tests and probes have been written. The programs, written in Fortran, deal in various ways with the response to defects exhibited by four types of probes: the pancake probe, the reflection probe, the circumferential boreside probe, and the circumferential encircling probe. Programs are included which calculate the impedance or voltage change in a coil due to a defect, which calculate and plot the defect sensitivity factor of a coil, and which invert calculated or experimental readings to obtain the size of a defect. The theory upon which the programs are based is the Burrows point defect theory, and thus the calculations of the programs will be more accurate for small defects. 6 refs., 21 figs.

Radioactive wastes are generated at many DOE laboratories, military facilities, fuel fabrication and enrichment plants, reactors, hospitals, and university research facilities. At all of these sites, wastes must be separated, packaged, categorized, and packed into some sort of container--usually 208-L (55-gal) drums--for shipment to waste-storage sites. Prior to shipment, the containers must be labeled, assayed, and certified; the assay value determines the ultimate disposition of the waste containers. An accurate nondestructive assay (NDA) method would identify all the radioisotopes present and provide a quantitative measurement of their activity in the drum. In this way, waste containers could be routed in the most cost-effective manner and without having to reopen them. Currently, the most common gamma-ray method used to assay nuclear waste drums is segmented gamma-ray scanning (SGS) spectrometer that crudely measures only the amount of {sup 235}U or {sup 239}Pu present in the drum. This method uses a spatially-averaged, integrated, emitted gamma-ray-intensity value. The emitted intensity value is corrected by an assumed constant-attenuation value determined by a spatially-averaged, transmission (or active) measurement. Unfortunately, this typically results in an inaccurate determination of the radioactive activities within a waste drum because this measurement technique is valid only for homogeneous-attenuation or known drum …

The Residential Construction Demonstration Project (RCDP) is designed to demonstrate new residential building techniques and product innovations which advance the stage-of-the-art in constructing energy-efficient electrically heated residences. A secondary purpose is to obtain documented cost and energy savings data from which to make accurate assessments of the cost-effectiveness of various conservation innovations. The project solicits participation of regional homebuilders by offering them financial incentives for constructing homes to the Model Conservation Standards (MCS) and including at least one innovation.'' The innovations are determined by BPA and the States prior to construction and represent construction techniques or energy saving products that might reduce the cost of building MCS homes, or expand the options available to builders in achieving MCS levels of energy efficiency in homes. Besides covering some of the additional risk for employing the innovation, the incentive payment guarantees that builders will provide certain amounts of information regarding the cost and acceptability of building the homes. In addition, an incentive is paid to homeowners for their participation in data collection efforts following construction. Several one-time'' tests were performed on the houses and homeowners were required to report energy consumption and temperature data on a weekly basis for approximately 18 months. …

Keeping pace with recent advances in construction technology is a challenge for the cost estimating engineer. Using an estimating style that simulates the actual construction process and is similar in style to the contractor's estimate will give a realistic view of underground construction costs. For a contractor-style estimate, a mining method is chosen; labor crews, plant and equipment are selected, and advance rates are calculated for the various phases of work which are used to determine the length of time necessary to complete each phase of work. The durations are multiplied by the cost or labor and equipment per unit of time and, along with the costs for materials and supplies, combine to complete the estimate. Variations in advance rates, ground support, labor crew size, or other areas are more easily analyzed for their overall effect on the cost and schedule of a project. 14 figs.

To address the implications of changes for future roles of conventional forces and to assess the technology implications of future strategies, force requirements, and conventional arms control agreements, the Center for National Security Studies in cooperation with the Defense Research and Applications Directorate of the Los Alamos National Laboratory held a conference on Conventional Forces and Arms Control: Technology and Strategy in a Changing World'' at Los Alamos from September 25--27, 1989. The distinguished participants from government, industry, and academia in the United States and Western Europe addressed such issues as: What are the implications of geopolitical and technological trends for international security and stability How will these global changes affect US and allied strategies and force structure, especially the requirements for conventional, nonnuclear forces What will be the role of and rationale for conventional forces in the context of current and prospective allied security requirements How can the West assure it will have the forces necessary for its security How will technological developments influence the structure of tomorrow's conventional forces What impacts will arms reductions have on future systems and force structures What are the prospects for the development and deployment in weapon systems of future conventional military technologies, …

This report outlines a framework for discussion of what aspects of biotechnical information might be good candidates for guidelines or standards, what existing data exchange standards might be appropriate building blocks upon which to build, and what procedural mechanisms might be appropriate for adoption of such guidelines or standards. It builds on experience from other scientific communities which have already benefitted from development of discipline-specific data exchange standards. 33 refs.

The first section of this Volume will discuss the ''Conventional Drilling System''. Today's complex arrangement of numerous interacting systems has slowly evolved from the very simple cable tool rigs used in the late 1800s. Improvements to the conventional drilling rig have varied in size and impact over the years, but the majority of them have been evolutionary modifications. Each individual change or improvement of this type does not have significant impact on drilling efficiency and economics. However, the change is almost certain to succeed, and over time--as the number of evolutionary changes to the system begin to add up--improvements in efficiency and economics can be seen. Some modifications, defined and described in this Volume as Advanced Modifications, have more than just an evolutionary effect on the conventional drilling system. Although the distinction is subtle, there are several examples of incorporated advancements that have had significantly more impact on drilling procedures than would a truly evolutionary improvement. An example of an advanced modification occurred in the late 1970s with the introduction of Polycrystalline Diamond Compact (PDC) drill bits. PDC bits resulted in a fundamental advancement in drilling procedures that could not have been accomplished by an evolutionary improvement in materials metallurgy, …

This project is aimed at decreasing the costs and increasing the efficiency of drilling gas wells in excess of 15,000 feet. This volume presents a summary of an evaluation of various drilling techniques. Drilling solutions were compared quantitatively against typical penetration rates derived from conventional systems. A qualitative analysis measured the impact of a proposed system on the drilling industry. The evaluations determined that the best candidates f o r improving the speed and efficiency of drilling deep gas wells include: PDC/TSD bits, slim-hole drilling, roller-cone bits, downhole motors, top-driven systems, and coiled-tubing drilling.

Following the installation of modules, cables and other equipment into the DO central cryostat (CC cryostat) the small clearance between the cryostat head and internal equipment caused concern that the head would make contact with the equipment when the cryostat was put under vacuum for leak checking. This finite element analysis was requested by George Mulholland to determine the amount of deflection in the head due to vacuum loads.

Many sedimentary basins throughout the world contain sealed fault blocks in which the pore fluids are at higher pressures and temperatures than normal as a consequence of their depositional environment. The U.S. Department of Energy has drilled, completed, and tested four deep research wells in selected geopressured geothermal prospects in the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast region to evaluate the recoverability of the thermal, hydraulic, and chemical (methane) energy in this potential energy resource. The wells are expensive and the specific energy of the fluids is relatively small, but the total recoverable energy from a single well can be extremely large. Long-term testing of the Gladys McCall No. 1 research well, located in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, U.S.A., has defined an impressively large geopressured geothermal reservoir. In this paper an integrated analysis of the test data is presented, and a numerical model is constructed that matches the available data for the 6.5-year test history of the well.

The Department of Energy (DOE) and the DOE Natural Phenomena Hazards Panel have developed uniform design and evaluation guidelines for protection against natural phenomena hazards at DOE sites throughout the United States. The goal of the guidelines is to assure that DOE facilities can withstand the effects of natural phenomena such as earthquakes, extreme winds, tornadoes, and flooding. The guidelines apply to both new facilities (design) and existing facilities (evaluation, modification, and upgrading). The intended audience is primarily the civil/structural or mechanical engineers conducting the design or evaluation of DOE facilities. The likelihood of occurrence of natural phenomena hazards at each DOE site has been evaluated by the DOE Natural Phenomena Hazard Program. Probabilistic hazard models are available for earthquake, extreme wind/tornado, and flood. Alternatively, site organizations are encouraged to develop site-specific hazard models utilizing the most recent information and techniques available. In this document, performance goals and natural hazard levels are expressed in probabilistic terms, and design and evaluation procedures are presented in deterministic terms. Design/evaluation procedures conform closely to common standard practices so that the procedures will be easily understood by most engineers. Performance goals are expressed in terms of structure or equipment damage to the extent that: …

This report summarizes the design of field injection experiments that constitute one task in the larger project described in the report Experiments Using Natural Organics.'' In the experiment, we plan to inject a large volume of colloidal organic matter (COM) into a sandy, unconsolidated coastal aquifer and observe the migration of COM into the groundwater flow system. The report provides a brief overview of the research project, including hypotheses to be tested; describes the purpose of the field injection experiments; summarizes the site characterization preliminary to the experiments; and explains the design of the experiments. 11 figs., 5 tabs.

The corrosion of aluminum alloy 6061 is being studied in a special test loop facility under the range of thermal-hydraulic conditions appropriate for fuel plate operation in the Advanced Neutron Source (ANS) reactor core. Experimental measurements describing the growth of the boehmite (Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}H{sub 2}O) films on the exposed aluminum surfaces are now available for a range of coolant conditions and heat fluxes, and these results have been analyzed to demonstrate the influence of several important experimental variables. A subset of our data base particularly appropriate to the ANS conditions presently anticipated was used to develop a preliminary correlation based on an empirical oxidation model.

An aluminum piston tank has been developed for applications requiring lightweight, low cost, low pressure, positive-expulsion liquid storage. The 3 liter (183 in{sup 3}) vessel is made primarily from aluminum sheet, using production forming and joining operations. The development process relied mainly on pressurizing prototype parts and assemblies to failure, as the primary source of decision making information for driving the tank design toward its optimum minimum-mass configuration. Critical issues addressed by development testing included piston operation, strength of thin-walled formed shells, alloy choice, and joining the end cap to the seamless deep drawn can. 9 refs., 8 figs.

The objective of proposed research is development of catalysts with enhanced slurry phase activity and better selectivity to fuel range products, through a more detailed understanding and systematic studies of the effects of pretreatment procedures and promoters/binders (silica) on catalyst performance.

The objective of proposed research is development of catalysts with enhanced slurry phase activity and better selectivity to fuel range products, through a more detailed understanding and systematic studies of the effects of pretreatment procedures and promoters/binders (silica) on catalyst performance.

DIPSI (Direct Implicit Plasma Surface Interactions) is a one-dimensional, bounded particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation code designed to investigate the interaction of plasma with a solid surface, such as a limiter or divertor plate in a tokamak fusion device. Plasma confinement and transport may be studied in a system which includes an applied magnetic field (oriented normal to the solid surface) and/or a self-consistent electrostatic potential. The PIC code DIPSI is an offshoot of the PIC code TESS (Tandem Experiment Simulation Studies) which was developed to study plasma confinement in mirror devices. The codes DIPSI and TESS are direct descendants of the PIC code ES1 that was created by A. B. Langdon. This document provides the user with a brief description of the methods used in the code and a tutorial on the use of the code. 11 refs., 2 tabs.

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) funded two 4-year research projects to develop recommendations for improving the sport fishery on Dworshak Reservoir. Research began during 1987 as a cooperative effort between the Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) and the Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho. The Nez Perce Tribe examined smallmouth bass and rainbow trout fisheries. The IDFG evaluated kokanee population dynamics and documented changes in reservoir productivity. 12 refs., 12 figs.