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Amorphous metal and ceramic thermal spray coatings have been developed that can be used to enhance the corrosion resistance of containers for the transportation, aging and disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive wastes. Iron-based amorphous metal formulations with chromium, molybdenum and tungsten have shown the corrosion resistance believed to be necessary for such applications. Rare earth additions enable very low critical cooling rates to be achieved. The boron content of these materials, and their stability at high neutron doses, enable them to serve as high efficiency neutron absorbers for criticality control. Ceramic coatings may provide even greater corrosion resistance for container applications, though the boron-containing amorphous metals are still favored for criticality control applications. These amorphous metal and ceramic materials have been produced as gas atomized powders and applied as near full density, non-porous coatings with the high-velocity oxy-fuel process. This paper summarizes the performance of these coatings as corrosion-resistant barriers, and as neutron absorbers. Relevant corrosion models are also discussed, as well as a cost model to quantify the economic benefits possible with these new materials.

This report examines the airborne laser (ABL) program and budget status. It also examines a variety of related issues, including the questionable maturity of ABL technologies, the number of ABL platforms the United States should acquire, and to what degree the United STates should invest in alternative technologies in the event that the ABL may not prove successful. This report does not provide a detailed technical assessment of the ABL program (see CRS Report RL30185, The Airborne Laser Anti-Missile Program).

This Division ES&H Self-Assessment Manual describes how the Laboratory administers a division self-assessment program that conforms to the institutional requirements promulgated in the 'LBNL Environment, Safety and Health Self-Assessment Program' (LBNL/PUB-5344, latest revision). The institutional program comprises all appraisal and reporting activities that identify environmental, safety, and health deficiencies and associated corrective actions. It is designed to meet U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) requirements for self-assessment. Self-assessment is a continuous process of information gathering and evaluation. A division selfassessment program should describe methods for gathering and documenting information, and methods to analyze these performance data to identify trends and root causes and their corrections.

Following the success of the Anole test of portable detection system, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Domestic Nuclear Detection Office organized a test and evaluation campaign for personal radiation detectors (PRDs), also known as 'Pagers'. This test, 'Bobcat', was conducted from July 17 to August 8, 2006, at the Nevada Test Site. The Bobcat test was designed to evaluate the performance of PRDs under various operational scenarios, such as pedestrian surveying, mobile surveying, cargo container screening, and pedestrian chokepoint monitoring. Under these testing scenarios, many operational characteristics of the PRDs, such as gamma and neutron sensitivities, positive detection and false alarm rates, response delay times, minimum detectable activities, and source localization errors, were analyzed. This paper will present the design, execution, and methodologies used to test this equipment for the DHS.

This report details the BRAC Commission recommendation to create the WRNMMC, and the concomitant realignment of the WRAMC. It describes the concerns raised by the community before the BRAC Commission regarding the closure of the WRAMC main post and explains each of the 13 parts of the overall recommendation.

An overview of the High-Performance Corrosion-Resistant Materials (HPCRM) Program, which was co-sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO) and the United States Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Civilian and Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM), is discussed. Programmatic investigations have included a broad range of topics: alloy design and composition; materials synthesis; thermal stability; corrosion resistance; environmental cracking; mechanical properties; damage tolerance; radiation effects; and important potential applications. Amorphous alloys identified as SAM2X5 (Fe{sub 49.7}Cr{sub 17.7}Mn{sub 1.9}Mo{sub 7.4}W{sub 1.6}B{sub 15.2}C{sub 3.8}Si{sub 2.4}) and SAM1651 (Fe{sub 48}Mo{sub 14}Cr{sub 15}Y{sub 2}C{sub 15}B{sub 6}) have been produced as melt-spun ribbons, drop-cast ingots and thermal-spray coatings. Chromium (Cr), molybdenum (Mo) and tungsten (W) additions provided corrosion resistance, while boron (B) enabled glass formation. Earlier electrochemical studies of melt-spun ribbons and ingots of these amorphous alloys demonstrated outstanding passive film stability. More recently thermal-spray coatings of these amorphous alloys have been made and subjected to long-term salt-fog and immersion tests. Good corrosion resistance has been observed during salt-fog testing. Corrosion rates were measured in situ with linear polarization, while simultaneously monitoring the open-circuit corrosion potentials. Reasonably good performance was observed. The sensitivity of these measurements to electrolyte composition and temperature …

Amorphous alloys identified as SAM2X5 (Fe{sub 49.7}Cr{sub 17.7}Mn{sub 1.9}Mo{sub 7.4}W{sub 1.6}B{sub 15.2}C{sub 3.8}Si{sub 2.4}) and SAM1651 (Fe{sub 48}Mo{sub 14}Cr{sub 15}Y{sub 2}C{sub 15}B{sub 6}) have been produced as melt-spun ribbons, drop-cast ingots and thermal-spray coatings. Chromium (Cr), molybdenum (Mo) and tungsten (W) additions provided corrosion resistance, while boron (B) enabled glass formation. Earlier electrochemical studies of melt-spun ribbons and ingots of these amorphous alloys demonstrated outstanding passive film stability. More recently thermal-spray coatings of these amorphous alloys have been made and subjected to long-term salt-fog and immersion tests. Good corrosion resistance has been observed during salt-fog testing. Corrosion rates were measured in situ with linear polarization, while simultaneously monitoring the open-circuit corrosion potentials. Reasonably good performance was observed. The sensitivity of these measurements to electrolyte composition and temperature was determined. The high boron content of SAM2X5 also made it an effective neutron absorber, and suitable for criticality control applications.

Several Fe-based amorphous metals were developed with good corrosion resistance. These materials have been produced as melt-spun ribbons, ingots, and thermal-spray coatings. Cyclic polarization has been conducted in several aggressive environments, at ambient temperature, as well as temperatures approaching the boiling points of the test solutions. The hypothesis that the corrosion resistance of iron-based amorphous metals can be enhanced through application of heuristic principles related to the additions of chromium, molybdenum, tungsten has been tested and found to have merit. Chromium (Cr), molybdenum (Mo) and tungsten (W) provide corrosion resistance; boron (B) enables glass formation; and rare earths such as yttrium (Y) lower critical cooling rate (CCR). The high boron content of this particular amorphous metal makes this amorphous alloy an effective neutron absorber, and suitable for criticality control applications. In general, the corrosion resistance of such iron-based amorphous metals is maintained at operating temperatures up to the glass transition temperature.

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At LLNL and UC Davis, we are developing several techniques for the real-time sampling and analysis of trace gases, aerosols and exhaled breath that could be useful for a modular, integrated system for breath analysis. Those techniques include single-particle bioaerosol mass spectrometry (BAMS) for the analysis of exhaled aerosol particles or droplets as well as breath samplers integrated with gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) or MEMS-based differential mobility spectrometry (DMS). We describe these techniques and present recent data obtained from human breath or breath condensate, in particular, addressing the question of how environmental exposure influences the composition of breath.

This report provides a condensed review of re-transmission consent and other federal rules affecting programmer- distributor negotiations.

The use of 3-D geophysical models to predict nuclear test ban monitoring observables (phase travel times, amplitudes, dispersion, etc.) is widely anticipated to provide improvements in the basic seismic monitoring functions of detection, association, location, discrimination and yield estimation. A number of questions arise when contemplating a transition from 1-D, 2-D and 2.5-D models to constructing and using 3-D models, among them: (1) Can a 3-D geophysical model or a collection of 3-D models provide measurably improved predictions of seismic monitoring observables over existing 1-D models, or 2-D and 2 1/2-D models currently under development? (2) Is a single model that can predict all observables achievable, or must separate models be devised for each observable? How should joint inversion of disparate observable data be performed, if required? (3) What are the options for model representation? Are multi-resolution models essential? How does representation affect the accuracy and speed of observable predictions? (4) How should model uncertainty be estimated, represented and how should it be used? Are stochastic models desirable? (5) What data types should be used to construct the models? What quality control regime should be established? (6) How will 3-D models be used in operations? Will significant improvements in the …

For some time there has been a growing sense of urgency to develop and deploy effective missile defenses against a range of long and short range ballistic missile threats. Although many might believe this to be relative new to U.S. national security objectives, such interest has been ongoing since the end of World War II. Many current technologies being investigated date their start to the 1980s, and earlier. This effort has been challenging technically and politically controversial. Some $110 billion has been spent since the mid-1980s; Congress appropriated $9.3 billion in FY2006. For FY2008 the Administration requested $8.9 billion for the Missile Defense Agency. This report provides a brief overview of U.S. efforts to date.

This report provides information about the Evolution of the “One China” Policy and Key Statements from Washington, Beijing, and Taipei. Policy on "one China " covers three major aspects like sovereignty, cross-strait dialogue, PRC use of force.

We discuss recent progress made studies of bulk thermodynamics of strongly interacting matter through lattice simulations of QCD with an almost physical light and strange quark mass spectrum. We present results on the QCD equation of state at vanishing and non-vanishing quark chemical potential and show first results on baryon number and strangeness fluctuations, which might be measured in event-by-event fluctuations in low energy runs at RHIC as well as at FAIR.

We discuss recent progress in studies of QCD thermodynamics with almost physical light quark masses and a physical value of the strange quark mass. We summarize results on the transition temperature in QCD and analyze the relation between deconfinement and chiral symmetry restoration.

Conventionally, sequential analysis of time-dependent observation data follows a simple First-in/ First-out (FIFO) scheme. Under a FIFO scheme, the oldest data point in the system is first chosen for subsequent analysis, such as for computing population mean and sequential probability ratio test (SPRT). Once the analysis is completed or the decision is made, the oldest data point is dropped out of the system and a new sample is drawn. The intrinsic disadvantage of a FIFO scheme is its delayed response. At the time a new sample is drawn, the analysis either cannot tell immediately about the sample, or makes an incorrect statement about the sample. In our research, we adopted a Last-In/ First-Elected/ Last-Out (LIFELO) scheme for realtime sequential analysis of continuous spatial survey data. In this scheme, the most recent data point from a given spatial location in the sequence is first selected for starting the subsequent analysis. If needed, the next youngest data point is chosen to join the analysis. This process is continued until a conclusion is made about the most recent location or data point. LIFELO scheme offers a reduced response time and spatial errors for decision-making for time-and-spatial critical environmental contamination surveys. In terms of …

We report on dilepton measurements for central Pb on Au collisions at the top CERN SPS energy with the upgraded CERES experiment. The dilepton mass spectrum of 2000 data with improved mass resolution shows an enhancement over the expectation from hadron decays that is well described by a model including a strong broadening of the {rho} spectral function. The measured excess yield excludes the dropping mass scenario. We also report on the {phi} meson measured simultaneously both in the K{sup +}K{sup -} and in the dilepton decay channel for the first time in high energy heavy-ion collisions. An excellent agreement is found between the rapidity densities and the shape of the measured transverse momentum spectrum. The data rule out a possible enhancement of the {phi} yield in the leptonic over hadronic channel by a factor larger than 1.6 at 95% CL. CERES results are in agreement with NA49 results.

CERES is a dilepton experiment at the CERN SPS, known for its observation of enhanced production of low mass efe- pairs in collisions between heavy nuclei [1]. The upgrade of CERES in 1997-1998 by a radial Time Projection Chamber (TPC) [2] allowed to improve the momentum resolution and the particle identification capability while retaining the cylindrical symmetry. The upgraded experiment is shown in Fig. 1. The upgrade also extended the sensitivity of CERES to hadrons and made possible results like those described below. The measurement of central Pb+Au collisions at the maximum SPS energy of 158 GeV per nucleon in the fall of 2000 was the first run of the fully upgraded CERES and at the same time the last run of this experiment. About 30 million Pb+Au collision events at 158 GeV per nucleon were collected, most of them with centrality within the top 7% of the geometrical cross section {sigma}{sub G} = 6.94 b. Small samples of the 20% and the minimum bias collisions, as well as a short run at 80 AGeV, were recorded in addition. The dilepton mass spectra from this experiment were published in [3]. In this talk I present two particular results of hadron …

In today's world, the use of parallel programming and architectures is essential for simulating practical problems in engineering and related disciplines. Remarkable progress in CPU architecture (multi- and many-core, SMT, transactional memory, virtualization support, etc.), system scalability, and interconnect technology continues to provide new opportunities, as well as new challenges for both system architects and software developers. These trends are paralleled by progress in parallel algorithms, simulation techniques, and software integration from multiple disciplines. In its 6th year ParSim continues to build a bridge between computer science and the application disciplines and to help with fostering cooperations between the different fields. In contrast to traditional conferences, emphasis is put on the presentation of up-to-date results with a shorter turn-around time. This offers the unique opportunity to present new aspects in this dynamic field and discuss them with a wide, interdisciplinary audience. The EuroPVM/MPI conference series, as one of the prime events in parallel computation, serves as an ideal surrounding for ParSim. This combination enables the participants to present and discuss their work within the scope of both the session and the host conference. This year, ten papers with authors in ten countries were submitted to ParSim, and after a quick …

Recent measurements of the quantity R, the ratio of annihilation {sigma}, including those following Initial State Radiation, are discussed in the context of the hadronic part of {mu}, the muon magnetic dipole moment. The data indicate that more precise theoretical and experimental values of {mu} are needed to establish whether new physics has been observed in the measurement of {mu}.

Repeating earthquakes (REs) are sequences of events that have nearly identical waveforms and are interpreted to represent fault asperities driven to failure by loading from aseismic creep on the surrounding fault surface at depth. We investigate the occurrence of these REs along faults in central California to determine which faults exhibit creep and the spatio-temporal distribution of this creep. At the juncture of the San Andreas and southern Calaveras-Paicines faults, both faults as well as a smaller secondary fault, the Quien Sabe fault, are observed to produce REs over the observation period of March 1984-May 2005. REs in this area reflect a heterogeneous creep distribution along the fault plane with significant variations in time. Cumulative slip over the observation period at individual sequence locations is determined to range from 5.5-58.2 cm on the San Andreas fault, 4.8-14.1 cm on the southern Calaveras-Paicines fault, and 4.9-24.8 cm on the Quien Sabe fault. Creep at depth appears to mimic the behaviors seen of creep on the surface in that evidence of steady slip, triggered slip, and episodic slip phenomena are also observed in the RE sequences. For comparison, we investigate the occurrence of REs west of the San Andreas fault within the …