Two repositories in the same country, yet Congress and the DOE manage them differently. While Congress encumbers WIPP with unanticipated oversight and inappropriate regulations, Congress streamlines the commercial repository program and promises improved regulations for Yucca Mountain. While DOE encouraged science at the expense of the WIPP infrastructure, DOE postponed its scientific investigations at Yucca Mountain and constructed an infrastructure, large enough to support an ambitious program that was never realized. Somewhere between WIPP and Yucca Mountain lies an ideal repository program. A program where consistent national policy promotes progress; where lucid regulations inspire confidence; where science and infrastructure are balanced; and where oversight groups do not become the tail that wags the dog. Neither WIPP nor Yucca Mountain are ideal programs, but each has its advantages that approach the ideal. Consistent national policy would steer the ideal repository program in a predictable direction. Here Yucca Mountain has the advantage. Successive legislation has streamlined the siting process and promises better regulations. From the beginning, the ideal program would know its regulators and regulations. Again, Yucca Mountain has the advantage. More familiar with regulators and regulations, the Yucca Mountain program had the foresight not to declare HLW to be hazardous and …

Fatigue and environmentally assisted cracking of piping, pressure vessel cladding, and core components in light water reactors are potential concerns to the nuclear industry and regulatory agencies. The degradation processes include intergranular stress corrosion cracking of austenitic stainless steel (SS) piping in boiling water reactors (BWRs), and propagation of fatigue or stress corrosion cracks (which initiate in sensitized SS cladding) into low-alloy ferritic steels in BWR pressure vessels. Crack growth data for wrought and cast austenitic SSs in simulated BWR water, developed at Argonne National Laboratory under US Nuclear Regulatory Commission sponsorship over the past 10 years, have been compiled into a data base along with similar data obtained from the open literature. The data were analyzed to develop corrosion-fatigue curves for austenitic SSs in aqueous environments corresponding to normal BWR water chemistries, for BWRs that add hydrogen to the feedwater, and for pressurized water reactor primary-system-coolant chemistry. The corrosion-fatigue data and curves in water were compared with the air line in Section XI of the ASME Code.

Tritium behavior in ceramic breeder blankets is a key design issue for this class of blanket because of its impact on safety and fuel self-sufficiency. Over the past 10-15 years, substantial theoretical and experimental efforts have been dedicated world-wide to develop a better understanding of tritium transport in ceramic breeders. Models that are available today seem to cover reasonably well all the key physical transport and trapping mechanisms. They have allowed for reasonable interpretation and reproduction of experimental data and have helped in pointing out deficiencies in material property data base, in providing guidance for future experiments, and in analyzing blanket tritium behavior. This paper highlights the progress in tritium modeling over the last decade. Key tritium transport mechanisms are briefly described along with the more recent and sophisticated models developed to help understand them. Recent experimental data are highlighted and model calibration and validation discussed. Finally, example applications to blanket cases are shown as illustration of progress in the prediction of ceramic breeder blanket tritium inventory.

Manganese K-edge X-ray absorption spectra are used to examine the average oxidation state and local structure of new synthetic manganese oxide photocatalysts, including the materials known as octahedral molecular sieves. The structures of these materials are compared to the natural minerals cryptomelane and todorokite.

The 128-H-1 burn pit is located in the northeast corner of 100-H Area. The objective of the survey was to delineate subsurface features in the 128-H-1 burn pit that may affect the emplacement of soil-gas probes. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and electromagnetic induction (EMI) were the two techniques used in the investigation. The methods were selected because they are non-intrusive, relatively fast, economical, and have been used successfully in other geophysical investigations on the Hanford Site. The GPR system used for this work utilized a 300-MHz antenna to transmit the Em energy into the ground. The transmitted energy is reflected back to a receiving antenna where variations in the return signal are recorded. Common reflectors include natural geologic conditions such as bedding, cementation, moisture, and clay, or man-made objects such as pipes, barrels, foundations, and buried wires. The studied depth, which varies from site to site, was 0--11 ft for this survey. The method is limited in depth by transmit power, receiver sensitivity, and attenuation of the transmitted energy. Depth of investigation is influenced by highly conductive material, such as metal drums, which reflect all the energy back to the receiver. Therefore, the method cannot ``see`` below such objects.

XAMath is a graphics-based interactive package written with the Mathematica{reg_sign} system for the analysis of XAFS data. Mathematica{reg_sign} offers the advantage of use on several computer platforms, including Unix, IBM Windows, and Macintosh, without any modification of the program. The portability and flexibility of this software has some cost in speed of execution.

Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) sprays are being used to remove the high explosive (HE) from nuclear weapons in the process of their dismantlement. A boxed 50 cfm HEPA filter with an integral prefilter was exposed to DMSO vapor and aerosols that were generated by a spray nozzle to simulate conditions expected in the HE dissolution operation. After 198 hours of operation, the pressure drop of the filter had increased from 1.15 inches to 2.85 inches, and the efficiency for 0.3 {mu}m dioctyl sebacate (DOS) aerosols decreased from 99.992% to 98.6%. Most of the DMSO aerosols had collected as a liquid pool inside the boxed HEPA. The liquid was blown out of the filter exit with 100 cfm air flow at the end of the test. Since the filter still met the minimum allowed efficiency of 99.97% after 166 hours of exposure, we recommend replacing the filter every 160 hours of operation or sooner if the pressure drop increases by 50%. Examination of the filter showed that visible cracks appeared at the joints of the wooden frame and a portion of the sealant had pulled away from the frame. Since all of the DMSO will be trapped in the first HEPA filter, …

High Consequence System Surety is an ongoing project at Sandia National Laboratories. This project pulls together a multi- disciplinary team to integrate the elements of surety into an encompassing process. The surety process will be augmented and validated by applying it to an automated system handling a critical nuclear weapon component at the Mason & Hanger Pantex Plant. This paper presents the development to date of an integrated, high consequence surety process.

This report examines the economics of wetland creation, restoration, and enhancement projects, especially as they are used within the context of mitigation for unavoidable wetland losses. Complete engineering-cost-accounting profiles of over 90 wetland projects were developed in collaboration with leading wetland restoration and creation practitioners around the country to develop a primary source database. Data on the costs of over 1,000 wetland projects were gathered from published sources and other available databases to develop a secondary source database. Cases in both databases were carefully analyzed and a set of baseline cost per acre estimates were developed for wetland creation, restoration, and enhancement. Observations of costs varied widely, ranging from $5 per acre to $1.5 million per acre. Differences in cost were related to the target wetland type, and to site-specific and project-specific factors that affected the preconstruction, construction, and post-construction tasks necessary to carry out each particular project. Project-specific and site-specific factors had a much larger effect on project costs than wetland type for non-agricultural projects. Costs of wetland creation and restoration were also shown to differ by region, but not by as much as expected, and in response to the regulatory context. The costs of wetland creation, restoration, and …

Newsletter focusing on pecan disease and pest control in Texas, including prevention, identification, treatment, and educational opportunities.