The 242-A Evaporator is the primary waste evaporator for the Hanford Site radioactive liquid waste stored in underground double-shell tanks. Low pressure evaporation is used to remove water from the waste, thus reducing the amount of tank space required for storage. The process produces a concentrated slurry, a process condensate, and an offgas. The offgas exhausts through two stages of high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters before being discharged to the atmosphere 40 CFR 61 Subpart H requires assessment of the unfiltered exhaust to determine if continuous compliant sampling is required. Because potential (unfiltered) emissions are not measured, methods have been developed to estimate these emissions. One of the methods accepted by the Environmental Protection Agency is the measurement of the accumulation of radionuclides on the HEPA filters. Nondestructive assay (NDA) was selected for determining the accumulation on the HEPA filters. NDA was performed on the HEPA filters before and after a campaign in 1997. NDA results indicate that 2.1 E+4 becquerels of cesium-137 were accumulated on the primary HEPA 1700 filter during the campaign. The feed material processed in the campaign contained a total of 1.4 E+l6 Bq of cesium-137. The release factor for the evaporator process is 1.5 E-12. …

Waste processing and preparing waste to support waste processing relies heavily on ventilation. Ventilation is used at the Hanford Site on the waste storage tanks to provide confinement, cooling, and removal of flammable gases.

This paper summarizes an analysis of the U.S.-Russian Nuclear Material Protection, Control and Accounting (MPC&A) Program, developed on the basis of extensive discussions with U.S. laboratory participants as well as personal experience. Results of the discussions have been organized into three main areas: Technical/MPC&A Progress; Programmatic and Administrative Issues; and Professional Aspects, Implications for MPC&A effectiveness, for MPC&A sustainability, and for future relations and collaboration are derived. Suggested next steps are given.

Oil based aerosol ``Smoke`` commonly used for testing the efficiency and penetration of High Efficiency Particulate Air filters (HEPA) and HEPA systems can produce flammability hazards that may not have been previously considered. A combustion incident involving an aerosol generator has caused an investigation into the hazards of the aerosol used to test HEPA systems at Hanford.

Safety and reliability in glovebox operations can be significantly improved and waste packaging efficiencies can be increased by inserting flexible, lightweight, high capacity HEPA filters into the walls of plastic sheet barriers. This HEPA filter/barrier technology can be adapted to a wide variety of applications: disposable waste bags, protective environmental barriers for electronic equipment, single or multiple use glovebag assemblies, flexible glovebox wall elements, and room partitions. These reliable and inexpensive filtered barriers have many uses in fields such as radioactive waste processing, HVAC filter changeout, vapor or grit blasting, asbestos cleanup, pharmaceutical, medical, biological, and electronic equipment containment. The applications can result in significant cost savings, improved operational reliability and safety, and total waste volume reduction. This technology was developed at the Argonne National Laboratory-West (ANL-W) in 1993 and has been used at ANL-W since then at the TRU Waste Characterization Chamber Gloveboxes. Another 1998 AGS Conference paper titled "TRU Waste Characterization Gloveboxes", presented by Mr. David Duncan of ANL-W, describes these boxes.

Recently, an interesting class of the direct gauge mediation supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking models are proposed, in which the minimum of the potential of the SUSY breaking field is determined by the inverted hierarchy mechanism. We consider their cosmological implications. In this class of models, SUSY breaking field has a very flat potential, which may have a cosmological importance. Assuming the initial amplitude of the SUSY breaking field to be of the order of the Planck scale, it can be a source of a large entropy production. A special attention is paid to the cosmological moduli problem, and we will see the cosmological mass density of the moduli field can be significantly reduced.

This program summary book is a compendium of project summaries submitted by principal investigators in the Environmental Management Science Program and Environmental Management/Energy Research Pilot Collaborative Research Program (Wolf-Broido Program). These summaries provide information about the most recent project activities and accomplishments. All projects will be represented at the workshop poster sessions, so you will have an opportunity to meet with the researchers. The projects will be presented in the same order at the poster session as they are presented in this summary book. Detailed questions about an individual project may be directed to the investigators involved.

Safety and reliability in glovebox operations can be significantly improved and waste packaging efficiencies can be increased by inserting flexible, lightweight, high capacity HEPA filters into the walls of plastic sheet barriers. This HEPA filter/barrier technology can be adapted to a wide variety of applications: disposable waste bags, protective environmental barriers for electronic equipment, single or multiple use glovebag assemblies, flexible glovebox wall elements, and room partitions. These reliable and inexpensive filtered barriers have many uses in fields such as radioactive waste processing, HVAC filter changeout, vapor or grit blasting, asbestos cleanup, pharmaceutical, medical, biological, and electronic equipment containment. The applications can result in significant cost savings, improved operational reliability and safety, and total waste volume reduction. This technology was developed at the Argonne National Laboratory-West (ANL-W) in 1993 and has been used at ANL-W since then at the TRU Waste Characterization Chamber Gloveboxes. Another 1998 AGS Conference paper titled "TRU Waste Characterization Gloveboxes", presented by Mr. David Duncan of ANL-W, describes these boxes.

This paper summarizes the main features of an apparatus constructed at the University of Toledo for the study of various scattering processes in intermediate energy, ion - atom collisions. The main purpose of this facility is to provide experimental data which serve as benchmarks to test current scattering theories for those processes. Recent measurements of single electron detachment (SED) and double electron detachment (DED) total cross sections for 5-50 keV H{sup -} ions incident on noble gases and for 10-50 keV H{sup -} ions incident on CH{sub 4} molecules were conducted in this laboratory. As a result of an analysis of the scattered beam growth curves, information about other charge-changing cross sections in the hydrogen-atom (molecule) collision systems were obtain, as well.

Fluids are suspected to play a major role in earthquake mechanics, especially in the case of the weak San Andreas Fault (SAF). Models developed to explain the weakness of the fault are similar but rely on different fluid sources. A recent study of groundwaters associated with the SAF has provided evidence for a geopressured mantle fluid source (Kennedy et al., 1997). We present here an isotope study comparing deformation zones (gouges, breccias, fault veins, slickensides, cataclasites), and vein fillings with their hosts and the fluids associated with these materials, as sampled by fluid inclusions. We are investigating ca. 250 samples from over 20 localities along the San Andreas and adjacent faults from South San Francisco to East Los Angeles. Samples from the exhumed San Gabriel Fault, a deeper equivalent of the SAF, are included as well as samples from the Santa Ynez Fault, another former strand of the SAF embedded in Miocene limestones. All the major lithologies (granites, gneisses, sandstones, limestones, marbles and serpentinites) have been sampled for isotope analyses of C, O, H, He, Ne, Ar, Sr, Nd, and Pb.

While office equipment accounts for about 7 percent of commercial building energy use, this reflects considerable energy savings from the use of automatic power management. Most of these savings were gained through the use of low-power modes that meet the criteria of the U.S. EPA's Energy Star program. Despite this success, there are large amounts of additional savings that could be gained if all equipment capable of power management use were enabled and functioning. A considerable portion of equipment is not enabled for power management at all, enabled only partially, or is enabled but prevented from functioning. Additional savings could be gained if more equipment were turned off at night manually. We compiled results from 17 studies from the office equipment literature addressing PCs and monitors. Some factors important for annual energy use, such as power levels, have been documented elsewhere and are not covered. We review methods for estimating office equipment use patterns and energy use, and present findings on night status--power management and manual turn-off rates. In early studies, PC power management was often found to function in 25 percent or less of the Energy Star compliant units (10 percent of all PCs). However, recent assessments have found …

A comprehensive computer package, High Energy Interaction with General Heterogeneous Target Systems (HEIGHTS), has been developed to evaluate the damage incurred on plasma-facing materials during loss of plasma confinement. The HEIGHTS package consists of several integrated computer models that follow the start of a plasma disruption at the scrape-off layer (SOL) through the transport of the eroded debris and splashed target materials to nearby locations as a result of the energy deposited. The package includes new models to study turbulent plasma behavior in the SOL and predicts the plasma parameters and conditions at the divertor plate. Full two-dimensional comprehensive radiation magnetohydrodynamic models are coupled with target thermodynamics and liquid hydrodynamics to evaluate the integrated response of plasma-facing materials. A brief description of the HEIGHTS package and its capabilities are given in this work with emphasis on turbulent plasma behavior in the SOL during disruptions.

Vibrational spectra of high-density amorphous ice (hda-ice) for H{sub 2}O and D{sub 2}O samples were measured by inelastic neutron scattering. The measured spectra of hda-ice are closer to those for high-pressure phase ice-VI, but not for low-density ice-Ih. This result suggests that similar to ice-VI the structure of hda-ice should consist of two interpenetrating hydrogen-bonded networks having no hydrogen bonds between themselves.

The time-of-flight small-angle diffractometer SAND has been serving the scientific user community since 1996. One notable feature of SAND is its capability to measure the scattered intensity in a wide Q (4{pi}sin{theta}/{lambda}, where 2{theta} is the scattering angle and {lambda} is the wavelength of the neutrons) range of 0.0035 to 0.5 {angstrom}{sup {minus}1} in a single measurement. The optical alignment system makes it easy to set up the instrument and the sample. The cryogenically cooled MgO filter reduces the fast neutrons over two orders of magnitude, while still transmitting over 70% of the cold neutrons. A drum chopper running at 15 Hz suppresses the delayed neutron background. SAND has a variety of ancillary equipment to control the sample environment. In this paper we describe the features of the SAND instrument, compare its data on a few standard samples with those measured at well established centers in the world, and display two scientific examples which take advantage of measuring data in a wide Q-range in a single measurement. With a new set of tight collimators the Q{sub min} can be lowered to 0.002 {angstrom}{sup {minus}1} and the presently installed high-angle bank of detectors will extend the Q{sub max} to 2 {angstrom}{sup …

Two realistic benchmark problems are defined and used to assess the performance of coupled thermal-hydraulic and neutronic codes used in simulating dynamic processes in VVER-1000 and RBMK reactor systems. One of the problems simulates a design basis accident involving the ejection of three control and protection system rods from a VVER-1000 reactor. The other is based on a postulated rod withdrawal from an operating RBMK reactor. Preliminary results calculated by various codes are compared. While these results show significant differences, the intercomparisons performed so far provide a basis for further evaluation of code limitations and modeling assumptions.

We have developed an x-ray fluorescence analysis technique for uranium and plutonium solutions which compensates for variations in the absorption of the exciting gamma rays and fluorescent x-rays. We use {sup 57}Co to efficiently excite the K lines of the elements, and a mixed {sup 57}Co plus {sup 153}Gd transmission source to correct for variations in absorption. The absorption correction is a unique feature of our technique which permits accurate calibration with a single solution standard and the measurement of a wide range of concentrations (up to 300 grams per liter). Without this correction procedure, up to six solution standards are required to correct for non-linearity over this concentration range. In addition, other elements present in the specimens and not present in the standards would otherwise reduce the accuracy or even invalidate the analyses. Specially designed equipment incorporates a planar intrinsic germanium detector, excitation and transmission radioisotopes, and specimen holder. The apparatus can be inserted into a rubber glove of a glovebox, keeping the apparatus outside and the solutions inside the glovebox, thereby protecting the user and the equipment from possible contamination. This technique will be tested at the Bochvar Institute of Inorganic Materials in Moscow for possible use in …

We have successfully demonstrated aluminum electrorefining from a U-Al-Si alloy that simulates spent aluminum-based reactor fuel. The aluminum product contains less than 200 ppm uranium. All the results obtained have been in agreement with predictions based on equilibrium thermodynamics. We have also demonstrated the need for adequate stirring to achieve a low-uranium product. Most of the other process steps have been demonstrated in other programs. These include uranium electrorefining, transuranic fission product scrubbing, fission product oxidation, and product consolidation by melting. Future work will focus on the extraction of active metal and rare earth fission products by a molten flux salt and scale-up of the aluminum electrorefining.

Relativistic Hamiltonian few-body dynamics [1,2] involves two unitary representations of the Poincare group on the Hilbert space H of physical states, with and without interactions. These two representations, U({Lambda}, a) and U{sub 0}({Lambda},a), coincide for a kinematic subgroup H. The ''Hamiltonians'' are the generators not in the Lie algebra of the kinematic subgroup. The kinematic subgroup of null-plane dynamics leaves the null-plane z {center_dot} x {triple_bond} x{sup 0} + x{sub 3} = 0 invariant. Few-body Hamiltonians satisfying the required commutation relations can be constructed as functions of a mass operator and kinematic quantities. For more than two particles there are nontrivial problems in satisfying cluster separability. [3] Consistency of electro-weak interactions with strong interactions also involves significant problems: Poincare covariance of current operators requires the construction of appropriate interaction currents.

Understanding the fate of environmental contaminants is of fundamental importance in the development and evaluation of effective remediation strategies. Among the factors influencing the transport of these contaminants are the chemical speciation of the sample and the chemical and physical attributes of the surrounding medium. Characterization of the spatial distribution and chemical speciation at micron and submicron resolution is essential for studying the microscopic physical, geological, chemical, and biological interfaces that play a crucial role in determining contaminant fate and mobility. Hard X-ray spectroscopy and imaging are powerful techniques for the element-specific investigation of complex environmental samples at the needed micron and submicron resolution. An important advantage of these techniques results from the large penetration depth of hard X-rays in water. This minimizes the requirements for sample preparation and allows the detailed study of hydrated samples. This paper discusses some current problems in environmental science that can be addressed by using synchrotron-based X-ray imaging and spectroscopy. These concepts are illustrated by the results of recent X-ray microscopy studies at the Advanced Photon Source.

Every detector has limitations in terms of solid angle, particular technologies chosen, cracks due to mechanical structure, etc. If all of the presently planned parts of STAR [Solenoidal Tracker At RHIC] were in place, these factors would not seriously limit our ability to exploit the spin physics possible in RHIC. What is of greater concern at the moment is the construction schedule for components such as the Electromagnetic Calorimeters, and the limited funding for various levels of triggers.

In early 1993. Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) initiated a major R and D effort to develop bipolar Li-Al/LiCl-LiBr-KBr/FeS{sub 2} batteries for electric vehicles, targeting the USABC Long-Term Goals. Significant advancements were achieved in the areas of (i) chemical purity, (ii) electrode and electrolyte additives, and (iii) peripheral seals. It was determined that key chemical constituents contained undesirable impurities. ANL developed new chemical processes for preparing Li{sub 2}S, FeS, and CoS{sub 2} that were >98.5% pure. We evaluated a large variety of electrode and electrolyte additives for reducing cell area specific impedance (ASI). Candidate positive electrode additives offered increased electronic conductivity, enhanced reaction kinetics, and/or improved porous electrode morphology. CoS{sub 2}, CuFeS{sub 2}, MgO, and graphite (fibers) were identified as the most beneficial impedance-reducing positive electrode additives. Although electronically conductive carbon and graphite additives produced measurable ASI reductions in the negative electrode, they degraded its structural integrity and were deemed impractical. Lil and LiF were identified as beneficial electrolyte additives, that enhance positive electrode kinetics. ANL refined its baseline metal/ceramic peripheral seal and increased its strength by a factor of three (achieving a safety factor >10). In parallel, ANL developed a high-strength advanced metal/ceramic seal that offers appreciable cost reductions.

In anticipation of processing irradiated EBR-II depleted uranium blanket subassemblies in the Fuel Conditioning Facility (FCF) at ANL-West, it has been possible to obtain a limited set of destructive chemical analyses of samples from a single EBR-II blanket subassembly. Comparison of calculated values with these measurements is being used to validate a depletion methodology based on a limited number of generic models of EBR-II to simulate the irradiation history of these subassemblies. Initial comparisons indicate these methods are adequate to meet the operations and material control and accountancy (MC and A) requirements for the FCF, but also indicate several shortcomings which may be corrected or improved.

The authors have performed the reaction {sup 248}Cm({sup 4}He, {sup 3}He) using 98.5-MeV alpha particles from the IUCF cyclotron to populate high-j states in {sup 249}Cm. A tentative assignment of the K{sub 17/2} component of the 1/2{sup +}[880] Nilsson state has been made.

A generic vibratory response-modeling program has been developed as a tool for designing high-precision optical positioning systems. The systems are modeled as rigid-body structures connected by linear non-rigid elements such as complex actuators and bearings. The full dynamic properties of each non-rigid element are determined experimentally or theoretically, then integrated into the program as inertial and stiffness matrices. Thus, it is possible to have a suite of standardize structural elements for modeling many different positioning systems that use standardized components. This paper will present the application of this program to a double-multi-layer monochromator positioning system that utilizes standardized components. Calculated results are compared to experimental modal analysis results.