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This test procedure specifies instructions for acceptance testing of software for exhaust fan control under Project ESPT (Energy Savings Performance Contract). The software controls the operation of two emergency exhaust fans when there is a power failure. This report details the results of acceptance testing for the MICON software upgrades. One of the modifications is that only one of the emergency fans will operate at all times. If the operating fan shuts off or fails, the other fan will start and the operating fan will be stopped.

This brochure concentrates on the diode-pumped solid-state laser. Surrounding it on the cover are some of the primary technological developments that make it a candidate for the means by which inertial confinement fusion will create inertial fusion energy as an inexhaustible source of electric power.

The fundamental ideas of inertial fusion are described and a chronology of early work is provided.

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The U.S. Department of Energy is pursuing the development of an immobilization technology for the disposition of excess plutonium.

This project has three main goals. The first is to achieve improved understanding of the surface and interfacial properties of crude oils and their interactions with mineral surfaces. The second goal is to apply the results of surface studies to improved predictions of oil production in laboratory experiments. Finally, we aim to use the results of this research to recommend ways to improve oil recovery by waterflooding. In order to achieve these goals, the mechanisms of wetting alteration must be explained. We propose a methodology for studying those mechanisms on mineral surfaces, then applying the results to prediction and observation of wetting alteration in porous media. Improved understanding of the underlying mechanisms will show when and how wettability in the reservoir can be altered and under what circumstances that alteration would be beneficial in terms of increased production of oil. In the work reported this quarter, crude oil interactions with Berea sandstone have been used to prepare cores with mixed wettability.

When the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) begins operations, it will be capable of colliding nuclei of various sizes, from protons up to Au, at center-of-mass energies of 200 to 500 GeV per nucleon pair. Some of these collisions are expected to produce a new state of matter, the quark-gluon plasma (QGP), in which quarks are no longer confined to individual hadrons and in which chiral symmetry has been restored. Numerous predictions have been made as to how a phase transition to a QGP would affect the particle spectra produced in these collisions (see, for example, a recent review by Harris and Mueller). The PHENIX physics philosophy is to detect and systematically study the QGP via a simultaneous measurement of many different probes/signatures of the plasma, as a function of the energy density achieved in the nucleus-nucleus collision. To achieve this goal, the PHENIX detector has been designed as a multi-purpose spectrometer, capable of concurrently measuring hadrons, leptons and photons, as well as global properties of the collision, e.g. energy density, as will be detailed below.

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In an era of increasingly complex technology, some of the atmospheric quantities most difficult to measure and observe are yielding their secrets to increasingly complex instruments and combinations of instruments. For example, water vapor profiles, a long-time nemesis to detailed examination, have become measurable with the use of Raman lidar; temperature profile measurements are becoming relatively routine with radio acoustic sounding systems (RASSs) or infrared Fourier transform instrumentation such as the atmospheric emitted radiance interferometer (AERI); and radar, lidar, or combinations of the two are enabling wind profile measurements to increasing altitudes. What, then, is the role of the relatively pedestrian sodar in such an era? Because the sodar's propagation speed in the atmosphere is six orders of magnitude smaller than that of its electromagnetic counterparts (3 x 10{sup 2} vs. 3 x 10{sup 8} m/s), severely limiting its rate of interrogation, and because the sodar's signal limit frequency modulation techniques, many high-technology advances associated with enormous increases in computation speed and available memory have had relatively little direct impact on acoustic remote sensing. However, the principal elements of acoustic remote sensing continue to make it a useful, even essential, tool for obtaining a better understanding of the physics of …

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The purpose of this report is twofold. First, this report documents the technical evaluation supporting the Project Hanford Management Contract (PHMC) contractor recommendation to close the Unreviewed Safety Question (USQ) as originally evaluated in TF-94-0260, Soil Compaction Test Data Indicates Soil Density in Excess of Density Used in Tank Qualification Analysis for AP Tank Farm. Second, this report describes the status of existing structural analyses for the Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) waste storage structures and outlines the associated technical upgrades being considered by the contractor. This second feature of the report serves to communicate the distinction between the soil density issue which is the topic of the open USQ and other technical issues which are important to the contractor from a programmatic standpoint. Contractor actions to address the latter technical issues would support improvements in day-to-day operations (e.g., provide possible relaxations in soil load restrictions) but are not necessary to close the soil density USQ. Section 2.0 of this report documents the rationale for the PHMC contractor recommendation to the Department of Energy (DOE) to close the soil density USQ. Section 3.0 documents the recommended structural analyses improvements for the double-shell tanks (DSTs) which are the structures associated with …

The Base Contract program emphasized the manufacture and testing of superior sorbents for mercury removal, testing of the sorption process at a DOE site, and determination of the regeneration conditions in the laboratory. During this project, ADA Technologies, Inc. demonstrated the following key elements of a successful regenerable mercury sorption process: (1) sorbents that have a high capacity for dissolved, ionic mercury; (2) removal of ionic mercury at greater than 99% efficiency; and (3) thermal regeneration of the spent sorbent. ADA's process is based on the highly efficient and selective sorption of mercury by noble metals. Contaminated liquid flows through two packed columns that contain microporous sorbent particles on which a noble metal has been finely dispersed. A third column is held in reserve. When the sorbent is loaded with mercury to the point of breakthrough at the outlet of the second column, the first column is taken off-line and the flow of contaminated liquid is switched to the second and third columns. The spent column is regenerated by heating. A small flow of purge gas carries the desorbed mercury to a capture unit where the liquid mercury is recovered. Laboratory-scale tests with mercuric chloride solutions demonstrated the sorbents' ability …

A feasibility study was performed on a novel concept: to synergistically utilize a blend of waste coal fines with so-called E-fuel for cofiring and reburning in utility and industrial boilers. The E-fuel is produced from MSW by the patented EnerTech's slurry carbonization process. The slurry carbonization technology economically converts MSW to a uniform, low-ash, low-sulfur, and essentially chlorine-free fuel with energy content of about 14,800 Btu/lb.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

The chemistry of heavy metals in natural waters, industrial waste streams, and the environment is influenced by a number of factors including the prevailing matrix, their relative concentrations, and biologically or chemically induced transformations. Speciation, which entails the identification and quantification of all the forms of a metal or any other chemical entity present in a sample, is a necessary step in assessing the toxic and pollution effects and the overall impact of these entities on environmental systems. Analytical methods and protocols that can provide analytical data in the parts per billion concentration range and below are needed for these kinds of measurements. The thrust of this research was to develop metal speciation methods and techniques using direct current plasma (DCPAES) in combination with ion chromatography (IC), whereby the DCPAES serves as an element selective detector (ESD) for the metal species separated in the chromatographic column. While the metal speciation work carried out in this program has utilized the IC-DCPAES as the primary analytical measurement tool, other sample processing and preparation approaches have also been developed to enhance the effectiveness and capability of the chromatographic-element selective method of metal speciation. Post-column derivatization and solid phase extraction are two protocols which …

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"This report focuses on policies, programs, and benefits of interest to veterans" (p. i).