The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) aims to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in order to ''prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system'' and promote sustainable development. The Kyoto Protocol, which was adopted in 1997 and appears likely to be ratified by 2002 despite the US withdrawing, aims to provide means to achieve this objective. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is one of three ''flexibility mechanisms'' in the Protocol, the other two being Joint Implementation (JI) and Emissions Trading (ET). These mechanisms allow flexibility for Annex I Parties (industrialized countries) to achieve reductions by extra-territorial as well as domestic activities. The underlying concept is that trade and transfer of credits will allow emissions reductions at least cost. Since the atmosphere is a global, well-mixed system, it does not matter where greenhouse gas emissions are reduced. The CDM allows Annex I Parties to meet part of their emissions reductions targets by investing in developing countries. CDM projects must also meet the sustainable development objectives of the developing country. Further criteria are that Parties must participate voluntarily, that emissions reductions are ''real, measurable and long-term'', and that they are additional to those that would have occurred anyway. …

The sensitivity of the release of radionuclides from the engineered barrier system in the proposed Yucca Mountain Repository to the solubility of uranium is investigated. Factors ranging from 0.1 up to 100 were applied to the nominal uranium solubility assumed in one of the TSPA models used in support of the site recommendation for the repository. At times earlier than about 50,000 years, the release rate of uranium is proportional to the change in the solubility. By 100,000 years, the proportionality continues to hold when the solubility is reduced, but when the solubility is increased, the release rate changes by a factor less than the factor applied to the solubility. At times beyond about 300,000 years, when the solubility is varied from 0.1 to 100 times its nominal value, the release rate changes by less than a factor of 20. Over the same range of changes in the uranium solubility, changes in the release rates of uranium decay products are less than a factor of three. Because uranium and its decay products make relatively small contributions to the dose rate, the changes in the dose rate at a well located 20 km from the repository are estimated to be less …

When evaluating waste form performance, the term ''durability'' often appears in casual discourse, but in the technical literature, the focus is often on waste form ''degradation'' in terms of mass lost per unit area per unit time. Waste form degradation plays a key role in developing models of the long-term performance in a repository environment, but other factors also influence waste form performance. These include waste form geometry; density, porosity, and cracking; the presence of cladding; in-package chemistry feedback; etc. The paper proposes a formal definition of waste form ''durability'' which accounts for these effects. Examples from simple systems as well as from complex models used in the Total System Performance Assessment of Yucca Mountain are provided. The application of ''durability'' in the selection of bounding models is also discussed.

The Seiberg-Witten map for noncommutative Yang-Mills theories is studied and methods for its explicit construction are discussed which are valid for any gauge group. In particular the use of the evolution equation is described in some detail and its relation to the cohomological approach is elucidated. Cohomological methods which are applicable to gauge theories requiring the Batalin-Vilkoviskii antifield formalism are briefly mentioned. Also, the analogy of the Weyl-Moyal star product with the star product of opestring field theory and possible ramifications of this analogy are briefly mentioned.

A second-order response matrix method is developed for solving the diffusion equation in a coarse-mesh grid. In this method, the problem domain is divided into a grid of coarse meshes (nodes) of the size of a fuel assembly. Then, by using the fact that all nodes have the same eigenvalue, an equation is developed for the node interface current to flux ratio. The fine-mesh solution in the domain is then obtained by evaluating perturbation expressions for the core eigenvalue and the flux with the node interface current to flux ratios and the precomputed Green's functions for the unique assemblies in the system. The Green's functions and the perturbation expressions for the eigenvalue and flux are based on a high-order boundary condition perturbation method developed recently. Two example problems are used to assess the accuracy of the new method.

The Seiberg-Witten map for noncommutative Yang-Mills theories is studied and methods for its explicit construction are discussed which are valid for any gauge group. In particular the use of the evolution equation is described in some detail and its relation to the cohomological approach is elucidated. Cohomological methods which are applicable to gauge theories requiring the Batalin-Vilkoviskii antifield formalism are briefly mentioned. Also, the analogy of the Weyl-Moyal star product with the star product of opestring field theory and possible ramifications of this analogy are briefly mentioned.

The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether nitrated organic compounds could be formed during operation of the Caustic-Side Solvent Extraction (CSSX) process, and whether such compounds would present a safety concern. The CSSX process was developed to remove cesium from alkaline high-level salt waste stored at the US Department of Energy Savannah River Site (SRS). The solvent is composed of the cesium extractant calix[4]arene-bis-(4-tert-octylbenzo-crown-6) (BOBCalixC6), a fluorinated alcohol phase modifier, tri-n-octylamine (TOA), and an isoparaffinic diluent (Iospar{reg_sign}). During the CSSX process, the solvent is expected to be exposed to high concentrations of nitrate and nitrite dissolved in the alkaline waste feed. The solvent will also be exposed to dilute (50 mM) nitric acid solutions containing low concentrations of nitrite during scrubbing, followed by stripping with 1 mM nitric acid. The solvent is expected to last for one year of plant operation, and the temperatures the solvent may experience during the process could range from as low as 15 C to as high as 35 C. Excursions from standard process conditions could result in the solvent experiencing higher temperatures, as well as concentrations of nitrate, nitrite, and most importantly nitric acid, that exceed normal operating conditions. Accordingly, conditions may …

The TRIUMF/ISAC facility, now a world leader in rare isotope production and acceleration, is constructing ISAC-II [1, 2], that will allow the acceleration of ion beams with 3 {le} A/q {le} 7 to an energy of at least 6.5 MeV/u for masses up to 150. The upgrade will include the addition of a superconducting heavy-ion linac delivering an effective voltage of 43 MV. The first order design of the new transfer lines and post-accelerator have been optimized to provide simultaneous acceleration of several charge states (multicharge). The quarter wave resonators providing the acceleration have inherent rf electric and magnetic asymmetric components that complicate multi-charge acceleration and can lead to transverse emittance growth. In particular we report the realistic field simulations of the medium beta section of the SC-DTL for multi-charge acceleration.

The technique of using a nsec prepulse to create and ionize the plasma followed by a psec pulse to heat the plasma has enabled us to achieve saturated laser output for low-Z neon-like and nickel-like ions driven by small lasers with less than ten joules of energy. In this work we model recent experiments done using the COMET laser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to illuminate slab targets of Pd up to 1.25 cm long with a 2 joule, 600 ps prepulse followed 700 psec later by a 6 joule, 6 psec drive pulse. The experiments measure the two-dimensional near-field and far-field laser patterns for the 14.7 nm Ni-like Pd x-ray laser line. This line has already demonstrated saturated output. The experiments are modeled using the LASNEX code to calculate the hydrodynamic evolution of the plasma and provide the temperatures and densities to the CRETIN code, which then does the kinetics calculations to determine the gain. Using a ray tracing code to calculate the near and far-field patterns, the simulations are then compared with experiments. We also present several new schemes that we are modeling. The first scheme is Pd-like Nd that has a promising 5d-5p laser line near 24.3 …

We have studied the non-ideal propagation of detonation waves in LX-10 and in the insensitive explosive TATB. Explosively-driven, 5.8-mm-diameter, 0.125-mm-thick aluminum flyer plates were used to initiate 38-mm-diameter, hemispherical samples of LX-10 pressed to a density of 1.86 g/cm{sup 3} and of TATB at a density of 1.80 g/cm{sup 3}. The TATB powder was a grade called ultrafine (UFTATB), having an arithmetic mean particle diameter of about 8-10 {micro}m and a specific surface area of about 4.5 m{sup 2}/g. Using PMMA as a transducer, output pressure was measured at 5 discrete points on the booster using a Fabry-Perot velocimeter. Breakout time was measured on a line across the booster with a streak camera. Each of the experimental geometries was calculated using the Ignition and Growth Reactive Flow Model, the JWL++ Model and the Programmed Burn Model. Boosters at both ambient and cold (-20 C and -54 C) temperatures have been experimentally and computationally studied. A comparison of experimental and modeling results is presented.

The principal aim of this effort is to develop models of long-term metal waste form (MWF) degradation that are credible, mechanistically based, and empirically calibrated. Utilizing new experimental data and analyses, this paper outlines an updated approach and summarizes the progress made. The current modeling approach emphasizes the analysis of constituent release data from immersion tests. A significant amount of recently obtained immersion test data is described. Test solutions included both mild (well-water), and aggressive (high-chloride and strongly acidic) environments. In addition to predominant constituents Fe, Zr, Cr,, and Ni, MWF test samples included: U, Pu, Tc, and Np. Guided by analysis of new immersion test data, a mechanistic model has been developed that describes the time dependence of MWF corrosion leading to passivation. A common functional form relates MWF degradation from different passivating solution environments via scale factors for magnitude and passivation time. Passivation is identified as the most important factor governing long-term durability, along with the long-term stability of oxide barrier layers that cause passivation. Experimental data demonstrated passivation behavior in nominal well water, concentrated well water, an aggressive high-chloride solution, but not in a strong acid. Credible bounding estimates of long-term corrosion for nominal well water solution …

Fermilab, in collaboration with LBNL and BNL, has developed a quadrupole (MQXB) for installation in the interaction region inner triplets of the LHC. This magnet is required to have an operating gradient of 215 T/m across a 70 mm coil bore, and to operate in superfluid helium at 1.9K. Two 5.5 m long MQXB magnets are combined with a dipole orbit corrector to form a single cryogenic unit (LQXB). This paper discusses the construction and test of the first full-scale production-quality LQXB.

To put the development of the X-ray laser in historic context, this paper presents some of the motivation and history of the development of the X-ray laser from the perspective of a scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where the first X-ray laser was demonstrated in the early 1980's using a nuclear device as the driver.