Plan outlining how the Texas Parks and Wildlife department plans to "conserve land and water resources and to provide outdoor recreation opportunities for all Texans" (Letter to the People of Texas).

Transcript of a public hearing held by the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq & Afghanistan held March 1, 2010 in Washington, D.C. This hearing includes testimony from the U.S.Departments of Defense and State, and from the U.S. Agency for International Development on coordinating reconstruction and stabilization in Contingency Operations.

Agency strategic plan for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice describing the organization's planned services, activities, and other goals during fiscal years 2011 through 2015.

Nuclear fuel feedstock properties, such as physical, chemical, and isotopic characteristics, have a significant impact on the fuel fabrication process and, by extension, the in-reactor fuel performance. This has been demonstrated through studies with UO{sub 2} spanning greater than 50 years. The Fuel Cycle R&D Program with The Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy has initiated an effort to develop a better understanding of the relationships between oxide feedstock, fresh fuel properties, and in-reactor fuel performance for advanced mixed oxide compositions. Powder conditioning studies to enable the use of less than ideal powders for ceramic fuel pellet processing are ongoing at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and an understanding of methods to increase the green density and homogeneity of pressed pellets has been gained for certain powders. Furthermore, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is developing methods for the co-conversion of mixed oxides along with techniques to analyze the degree of mixing. Experience with the fabrication of fuel pellets using co-synthesized multi-constituent materials is limited. In instances where atomically mixed solid solutions of two or more species are needed, traditional ceramic processing methods have been employed. Solution-based processes may be considered viable synthesis options, including co-precipitation (AUPuC), direct precipitation, direct-conversion …

Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing is one of several new financial models broadening access to clean energy by addressing the barrier of initial capital cost. The majority of the PACE programs in the market today include PV as an eligible measure. PV appeals to homeowners as a way to reduce utility bills, self-generate sustainable power, increase energy independence and demonstrate a commitment to the environment. If substantial state incentives for PV exist, PV projects can be economic under PACE, especially when partnered with good net metering policies. At the same time, PV is expensive relative to other eligible measures with a return on investment horizon that might exceed program targets. This fact sheet reviews the benefits and potential challenges of including PV in PACE programs.

The commercial nuclear power industry is investing heavily in advanced fuels that can produce higher power levels with a higher safety margin and be produced at low cost. Although chemically stable and inexpensive to manufacture, the in-core performance of UO{sub 2} fuel is limited by its low thermal conductivity. There will be enormous financial benefits to any utility that can exploit a new type of fuel that is chemically stable, has a high thermal conductivity, and is inexpensive to manufacture. At reactor operating temperatures, UO{sub 2} has a very low thermal conductivity (<5 W/m {center_dot}K), which decreases with temperature and fuel burnup. This low thermal conductivity limits the rate at which energy can be removed from the fuel, thus limiting the total integrated reactor power. If the fuel thermal conductivity could be increased, nuclear reactors would be able to operate at higher powers and larger safety margins thus decreasing the overall cost of electricity by increasing the power output from existing reactors and decreasing the number of new electrical generating plants needed to meet base load demand. The objective of the work defined herein is to produce an advanced nuclear fuel based on the current UO{sub 2} fuel with superior …

The goal of the Center for Technology for Advanced Scientific Component Software is to fundamentally changing the way scientific software is developed and used by bringing component-based software development technologies to high-performance scientific and engineering computing. The role of Tech-X work in TASCS project is to provide an outreach to accelerator physics and fusion applications by introducing TASCS tools into applications, testing tools in the applications and modifying the tools to be more usable.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is conducting research and development to support the resurgence of nuclear power in the United States for both electrical power generation and production of process heat required for industrial processes such as the manufacture of hydrogen for use as a fuel in automobiles. The project is called the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) Project, which is based on a Generation IV reactor concept called the very high temperature reactor (VHTR). The VHTR will be of the prismatic or pebble bed type; the former is considered herein. The VHTR will use helium as the coolant at temperatures ranging from 250°C to perhaps 1000°C. While computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has not previously been used for the safety analysis of nuclear reactors in the United States, it is being considered for existing and future reactors. It is fully recognized that CFD simulation codes will have to be validated for flow physics reasonably close to actual fluid dynamic conditions expected in normal operational and accident situations. The “Standard Problem” is an experimental data set that represents an important physical phenomenon or phenomena, whose selection is based on a phenomena identification and ranking table (PIRT) for the reactor in …

We show that the standard expression for the neutrino oscillation length can be confirmed even in theoretical approaches that take into account entanglement between the neutrino and its interaction partners. We show this in particular for the formalism developed in arXiv:1004.1847. Finally, we shed some light on the question why plane-wave approaches to the neutrino oscillation problem can yield the correct result for the oscillation length even though they do not explicitly account for the localization of the neutrino source and the detector.

Fact sheet describing NREL CSP Program capabilities in the area of advanced reflector and absorber materials: evaluating performance, determining degradation rates and lifetime, and developing new coatings.

The readsorption of ferrous ions produced by the abiotic and microbially-mediated reductive dissolution of iron oxy-hydroxides drives a series of transformations of the host minerals. To further understand the mechanisms by which these transformations occur and their kinetics within a microporous flow environment, flow-through experiments were conducted in which capillary tubes packed with ferrihydrite-coated glass spheres were injected with inorganic Fe(II) solutions under circumneutral pH conditions at 25 C. Synchrotron X-ray diffraction was used to identify the secondary phase(s) formed and to provide data for quantitative kinetic analysis. At concentrations at and above 1.8 mM Fe(II) in the injection solution, magnetite was the only secondary phase formed (no intermediates were detected), with complete transformation following a nonlinear rate law requiring 28 hours and 150 hours of reaction at 18 and 1.8 mM Fe(II), respectively. However, when the injection solution consisted of 0.36 mM Fe(II), goethite was the predominant reaction product and formed much more slowly according to a linear rate law, while only minor magnetite was formed. When the rates are normalized based on the time to react half of the ferrihydrite on a reduced time plot, it is apparent that the 1.8 mM and 18 mM input Fe(II) experiments …

Developing quantum chemistry programs on the coming generation of exascale computers will be a difficult task. The programs will need to be fault-tolerant and minimize the use of global operations. This work explores the use a task-based model that uses a data-centric approach to allocate work to different processes as it applies to quantum chemistry. After introducing the key problems that appear when trying to parallelize a complicated quantum chemistry method such as coupled-cluster theory, we discuss the implications of that model as it pertains to the computational kernel of a coupled-cluster program - matrix multiplication. Also, we discuss the extensions that would required to build a full coupled-cluster program using the task-based model. Current programming models for high-performance computing are fault-intolerant and use global operations. Those properties are unsustainable as computers scale to millions of CPUs; instead one must recognize that these systems will be hierarchical in structure, prone to constant faults, and global operations will be infeasible. The FAST-OS HARE project is introducing a scale-free computing model to address these issues. This model is hierarchical and fault-tolerant by design, allows for the clean overlap of computation and communication, reducing the network load, does not require checkpointing, and avoids …

DOE/EERE Solar Energy Technologies Program Fact Sheet - Advancing Clean Energy Technology, May 2010.

Data collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory through 31 August 2007 showed evidence for anisotropy in the arrival directions of cosmic rays above the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin energy threshold, 6 x 10{sup 19} eV. The anisotropy was measured by the fraction of arrival directions that are less than 3.1{sup o} from the position of an active galactic nucleus within 75 Mpc (using the Veron-Cetty and Veron 12th catalog). An updated measurement of this fraction is reported here using the arrival directions of cosmic rays recorded above the same energy threshold through 31 December 2009. The number of arrival directions has increased from 27 to 69, allowing a more precise measurement. The correlating fraction is (38{sub -6}{sup +7})%, compared with 21% expected for isotropic cosmic rays. This is down from the early estimate of (69{sub -13}{sup +11})%. The enlarged set of arrival directions is examined also in relation to other populations of nearby extragalactic objects: galaxies in the 2 Microns All Sky Survey and active galactic nuclei detected in hard X-rays by the Swift Burst Alert Telescope. A celestial region around the position of the radiogalaxy Cen A has the largest excess of arrival directions relative to isotropic expectations. The 2-point autocorrelation function …

Thermal decomposition of poly dimethyl siloxane compounds, Sylgard{reg_sign} 184 and 186, were examined using thermal desorption coupled gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (TD/GC-MS) and multivariate analysis. This work describes a method of producing multiway data using a stepped thermal desorption. The technique involves sequentially heating a sample of the material of interest with subsequent analysis in a commercial GC/MS system. The decomposition chromatograms were analyzed using multivariate analysis tools including principal component analysis (PCA), factor rotation employing the varimax criterion, and multivariate curve resolution. The results of the analysis show seven components related to offgassing of various fractions of siloxanes that vary as a function of temperature. Thermal desorption coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (TD/GC-MS) is a powerful analytical technique for analyzing chemical mixtures. It has great potential in numerous analytic areas including materials analysis, sports medicine, in the detection of designer drugs; and biological research for metabolomics. Data analysis is complicated, far from automated and can result in high false positive or false negative rates. We have demonstrated a step-wise TD/GC-MS technique that removes more volatile compounds from a sample before extracting the less volatile compounds. This creates an additional dimension of separation before the GC column, while simultaneously generating three-way …

The fact sheet summarizes the goals and activities of the DOE Solar Energy Technologies Program efforts within its market acceleration subprogram.

Magnetically confined hollow electron beams for controlled halo removal in high-energy colliders such as the Tevatron or the LHC may extend traditional collimation systems beyond the intensity limits imposed by tolerable material damage. They may also improve collimation performance by suppressing loss spikes due to beam jitter and by increasing capture efficiency. A hollow electron gun was designed and built. Its performance and stability were measured at the Fermilab test stand. The gun will be installed in one of the existing Tevatron electron lenses for preliminary tests of the hollow-beam collimator concept, addressing critical issues such as alignment and instabilities of the overlapping proton and electron beams.

We present a measurement of the WW + WZ production cross section observed in a final state consisting of an identified electron or muon, two jets, and missing transverse energy. The measurement is carried out in a data sample corresponding to up to 4.6 fb{sup -1} of integrated luminosity at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV collected by the CDF II detector. Matrix element calculations are used to separate the diboson signal from the large backgrounds. The WW + WZ cross section is measured to be 17.4 {+-} 3.3 pb, in agreement with standard model predictions. A fit to the dijet invariant mass spectrum yields a compatible cross section measurement.

The shadowing of cosmic ray primaries by the the moon and sun was observed by the MINOS far detector at a depth of 2070 mwe using 83.54 million cosmic ray muons accumulated over 1857.91 live-days. The shadow of the moon was detected at the 5.6 {sigma} level and the shadow of the sun at the 3.8 {sigma} level using a log-likelihood search in celestial coordinates. The moon shadow was used to quantify the absolute astrophysical pointing of the detector to be 0.17 {+-} 0.12{sup o}. Hints of Interplanetary Magnetic Field effects were observed in both the sun and moon shadow.

As part of the program to demonstrate TRISO-coated fuel for the Next Generation Nuclear Plant, a series of irradiation tests of Advanced Gas Reactor (AGR) fuel are being performed in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at the Idaho National Laboratory. In the first test, called “AGR-1,” graphite compacts containing approximately 300,000 coated particles were irradiated from December 2006 until November 2009. Development of AGR-1 fuel sought to replicate the properties of German TRISO-coated particles. No particle failures were seen in the nearly 3-year irradiation to a burn up of 19%. The AGR-1 particles were coated in a two-inch diameter coater. Following fabrication of AGR-1 fuel, process improvements and changes were made in each of the fabrication processes. Changes in the kernel fabrication process included replacing the carbon black powder feed with a surface-modified carbon slurry and shortening the sintering schedule. AGR-2 TRISO particles were produced in a six-inch diameter coater using a change size about twenty-one times that of the two-inch diameter coater used to coat AGR-1 particles. Changes were also made in the compacting process, including increasing the temperature and pressure of pressing and using a different type of press. Irradiation of AGR-2 fuel began in late spring 2010. …

Climate change is a global problem with local climatic and economic impacts. Mitigation policies can be applied on large geographic scales, such as a carbon cap-and-trade program for the entire U.S., on medium geographic scales, such as the NOx program for the northeastern U.S., or on smaller scales, such as statewide renewable portfolio standards and local gasoline taxes. To enable study of the environmental benefits, transition costs, capitalization effects, and other consequences of mitigation policies, we are developing dynamic general equilibrium models capable of incorporating important climate impacts. This report describes the economic framework we have developed and the current Community Integrated Model of Economic and Resource Trajectories for Humankind (CIM-EARTH) instance.

This English/Chinese international tip sheet provides information for optimizing efficiency of industrial process heating systems and includes measurements in metric units.

Experimental studies of soft Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) at Tevatron are reported in this note. Results on inclusive inelastic interactions, underlying events, double parton interaction and exclusive diffractive production and their implications to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) physics are discussed.

This report assesses current public domain cyber security practices with respect to cyber indications and warnings. It describes cybersecurity industry and government activities, including cybersecurity tools, methods, practices, and international and government-wide initiatives known to be impacting current practice. Of particular note are the U.S. Government's Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) and 'Einstein' programs, which are serving to consolidate the Government's internet access points and to provide some capability to monitor and mitigate cyber attacks. Next, this report catalogs activities undertaken by various industry and government entities. In addition, it assesses the benchmarks of HPC capability and other HPC attributes that may lend themselves to assist in the solution of this problem. This report draws few conclusions, as it is intended to assess current practice in preparation for future work, however, no explicit references to HPC usage for the purpose of analyzing cyber infrastructure in near-real-time were found in the current practice. This report and a related SAND2010-4766 National Cyber Defense High Performance Computing and Analysis: Concepts, Planning and Roadmap report are intended to provoke discussion throughout a broad audience about developing a cohesive HPC centric solution to wide-area cybersecurity problems.