The United States Forest Service-Savannah River (USFS) routinely performs prescribed fires at the Savannah River Site (SRS), a Department of Energy (DOE) facility located in southwest South Carolina. This facility covers {approx}800 square kilometers and is mainly wooded except for scattered industrial areas containing facilities used in managing nuclear materials for national defense and waste processing. Prescribed fires of forest undergrowth are necessary to reduce the risk of inadvertent wild fires which have the potential to destroy large areas and threaten nuclear facility operations. This paper discusses meteorological observations and numerical model simulations from a period in early 2002 of an incident involving an early-morning multicar accident caused by poor visibility along a major roadway on the northern border of the SRS. At the time of the accident, it was not clear if the limited visibility was due solely to fog or whether smoke from a prescribed burn conducted the previous day just to the northwest of the crash site had contributed to the visibility. Through use of available meteorological information and detailed modeling, it was determined that the primary reason for the low visibility on this night was fog induced by meteorological conditions.

Laser driven plasma accelerators promise much shorter particle accelerators but their development requires detailed simulations that challenge or exceed current capabilities. We report the first direct simulations of stages up to 1 TeV from simulations using a Lorentz boosted calculation frame resulting in a million times speedup, thanks to a frame boost as high as gamma = 1300. Effects of the hyperbolic rotation in Minkowski space resulting from the frame boost on the laser propagation in the plasma is shown to be key in the mitigation of a numerical instability that was limiting previous attempts.

The following report presents test descriptions and analysis results for multiple, stress level slug tests that were performed at selected test/depth intervals within three Operable Unit (OU) ZP-1 wells: 299-W11-43 (C4694/Well H), 299-W15-50 (C4302/Well E), and 299-W18-16 (C4303/Well D). These wells are located within south-central region of the Hanford Site 200-West Area (Figure 1.1). The test intervals were characterized as the individual boreholes were advanced to their final drill depths. The primary objective of the hydrologic tests was to provide information pertaining to the areal variability and vertical distribution of hydraulic conductivity with depth at these locations within the OU ZP-1 area. This type of characterization information is important for predicting/simulating contaminant migration (i.e., numerical flow/transport modeling) and designing proper monitor well strategies for OU and Waste Management Area locations.

The project proposed a commercial demonstration of advanced technologies that would capture and sequester CO2 emissions from an existing hydrogen production facility in an oil refinery into underground formations in combination with Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR). The project is led by Praxair, Inc., with other project participants: BP Products North America Inc., Denbury Onshore, LLC (Denbury), and Gulf Coast Carbon Center (GCCC) at the Bureau of Economic Geology of The University of Texas at Austin. The project is located at the BP Refinery at Texas City, Texas. Praxair owns and operates a large hydrogen production facility within the refinery. As part of the project, Praxair would construct a CO2 capture and compression facility. The project aimed at demonstrating a novel vacuum pressure swing adsorption (VPSA) based technology to remove CO2 from the Steam Methane Reformers (SMR) process gas. The captured CO2 would be purified using refrigerated partial condensation separation (i.e., cold box). Denbury would purchase the CO2 from the project and inject the CO2 as part of its independent commercial EOR projects. The Gulf Coast Carbon Center at the Bureau of Economic Geology, a unit of University of Texas at Austin, would manage the research monitoring, verification and accounting (MVA) …

In interstellar and interplanetary space, the size distribution and composition of dust grains play an important role. For example, dust grains determine optical and ultraviolet extinction levels in astronomical observations, dominate the cooling rate of our Galaxy, and sets the thermal balance and radiative cooling rates in molecular clouds, which are the birth place of stars. Dust grains are also a source of damage and failure to space hardware and thus present a hazard to space flight. To model the size distribution and composition of dust grains, and their effect in the above scenarios, it is vital to understand the mechanism of dust-shock interaction. We demonstrate a new experiment which employs a laser to subject dust grains to pressure spikes similar to those of colliding astrophysical dust, and which accelerates the grains to astrophysical velocities. The new method generates much larger data sets than earlier methods; we show how large quantities (thousands) of grains are accelerated at once, rather than accelerating individual grains, as is the case of earlier methods using electric fields.

The purpose of this report is to provide a concise but comprehensive overview of Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility instrumentation status. The report is divided into the following five sections: (1) new instrumentation in the process of being acquired and deployed, (2) field campaigns, (3) existing instrumentation and progress on improvements or upgrades, (4) proposed future instrumentation, and (5) Small Business Innovation Research instrument development.

Samples of PUREX sludge from Tank 4 and HM sludge from Tank 12 were characterized in preparation for Sludge Batch 7 (SB7) formulation in Tank 51. SRNL analyses on Tank 4 and Tank 12 were requested in separate Technical Assistance Requests (TAR). The Tank 4 samples were pulled on January 19, 2010 following slurry operations by F-Tank Farm. The Tank 12 samples were pulled on February 9, 2010 following slurry operations by H-Tank Farm. At the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), two 200 mL dip samples of Tank 4 and two 200 mL dip samples of Tank 12 were received in the SRNL Shielded Cells. Each tank's samples were composited into clean 500 mL polyethylene storage bottles and weighed. The composited Tank 4 sample was 428.27 g and the composited Tank 12 sample was 502.15 g. As expected there are distinct compositional differences between Tank 4 and Tank 12 sludges. The Tank 12 slurry is much higher in Al, Hg, Mn, and Th, and much lower in Fe, Ni, S, and U than the Tank 4 slurry. The Tank 4 sludge definitely makes the more significant contribution of S to any sludge batch blend. This S, like that observed during …

A dipole-quadrupole electron-impact excitation model, consistent with molecular symmetry rules, is presented to fit ro-vibronic spectra of the hydrogen Fulcher-α Q-branch line emissions for passively measuring the rotational temperature of hydrogen neutral molecules in kinetic plasmas with the coronal equilibrium approximation. A quasi-rotational temperature and quadrupole contribution factor are adjustable parameters in the model. Quadrupole excitation is possible due to a violation of the 1st Born approximation for low to medium energy electrons (up to several hundred eV). The Born-Oppenheimer and Franck-Condon approximations are implicitly shown to hold. A quadrupole contribution of 10% is shown to fit experimental data at several temperatures from different experiments with electron energies from several to 100 eV. A convenient chart is produced to graphically determine the vibrational temperature of the hydrogen molecules from diagonal band intensities, if the ground state distribution is Boltzmann. Hydrogen vibrational modes are long-lived, surviving up to thousands of wall collisions, consistent with multiple other molecular dynamics computational results. The importance of inter-molecular collisions during a plasma pulse are also discussed.

Numerical simulation of some systems containing charged particles with highly relativistic directed motion can by speeded up by orders of magnitude by choice of the proper Lorentz-boosted frame. Orders of magnitude speedup has been demonstrated for simulations from first principles of laser-plasma accelerator, free electron laser, and particle beams interacting with electron clouds. Here we address the application of the Lorentz-boosted frame approach to coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR), which can be strongly present in bunch compressor chicanes. CSR is particularly relevant to the next generation of x-ray light sources and is simultaneously difficult to simulate in the lab frame because of the large ratio of scale lengths. It can increase both the incoherent and coherent longitudinal energy spread, effects that often lead to an increase in transverse emittance. We have adapted the WARP code to simulate CSR emission along a simple dipole bend. We present some scaling arguments for the possible computational speed up factor in the boosted frame and initial 3D simulation results.

The detection of radioactive contraband is a critical problem in maintaining national security for any country. Emissions from threat materials challenge both detection and measurement technologies especially when concealed by various types of shielding complicating the transport physics significantly. The development of a model-based sequential Bayesian processor that captures both the underlying transport physics including scattering offers a physics-based approach to attack this challenging problem. It is shown that this processor can be used to develop an effective detection technique.

Vacuum insulators composed of alternating layers of metal and dielectric, known as high-gradient insulators (HGIs), have been shown to withstand higher electric fields than conventional insulators. Primary or secondary electrons (emitted from the insulator surface) can be deflected by magnetic fields from external sources, the high-current electron beam, the conduction current in the transmission line, or the displacement current in the insulator. These electrons are deflected either toward or away from the insulator surface and this affects the performance of the vacuum insulator. This paper shows the effects of displacement current from short voltage pulses on the performance of high gradient insulators. Generally, vacuum insulator failure is due to surface flashover, initiated by electrons emitted from a triple junction. These electrons strike the insulator surface thus producing secondary electrons, and can lead to a subsequent electron cascade along the surface. The displacement current in the insulator can deflect electrons either toward or away from the insulator surface, and affects the performance of the vacuum insulator when the insulator is subjected to a fast high-voltage pulse. Vacuum insulators composed of alternating layers of metal and dielectric, known as high-gradient insulators (HGIs), have been shown to withstand higher electric fields than conventional …

Mathematical tools are needed to screen out sites where Joule-Thomson cooling is a prohibitive factor for CO{sub 2} geo-sequestration and to design approaches to mitigate the effect. In this paper, a simple analytical solution is developed by invoking steady-state flow and constant thermophysical properties. The analytical solution allows fast evaluation of spatiotemporal temperature fields, resulting from constant-rate CO{sub 2} injection. The applicability of the analytical solution is demonstrated by comparison with non-isothermal simulation results from the reservoir simulator TOUGH2. Analysis confirms that for an injection rate of 3 kg s{sup -1} (0.1 MT yr{sup -1}) into moderately warm (>40 C) and permeable formations (>10{sup -14} m{sup 2} (10 mD)), JTC is unlikely to be a problem for initial reservoir pressures as low as 2 MPa (290 psi).

Unprecedented radiation hardness and environment robustness are required in the new generation of high energy density physics (HEDP) experiments and deep space exploration. National Ignition Facility (NIF) break-even shots will have a neutron yield of 1015 or higher. The Europa Jupiter System Mission (EJSM) mission instruments will be irradiated with a total fluence of 1012 protons/cm2 during the space journey. In addition, large temperature variations and mechanical shocks are expected in these applications under extreme conditions. Hefty radiation and thermal shields are required for Si and GaAs based electronics and optoelectronics devices. However, for direct illumination and imaging applications, shielding is not a viable option. It is an urgent task to search for new semiconductor technologies and to develop radiation hard and environmentally robust optoelectronic devices. We will report on our latest systematic experimental studies on radiation hardness and space qualifications of AlGaN optoelectronic devices: Deep UV Light Emitting Diodes (DUV LEDs) and solarblind UV Photodiodes (PDs). For custom designed AlGaN DUV LEDs with a central emission wavelength of 255 nm, we have demonstrated its extreme radiation hardness up to 2x1012 protons/cm2 with 63.9 MeV proton beams. We have demonstrated an operation lifetime of over 26,000 hours in a nitrogen …

Integrated performance simulation of buildings and heating, ventilation and airconditioning (HVAC) systems can help reducing energy consumption and increasing occupant comfort. However, no single building performance simulation (BPS) tool offers suffcient capabilities and flexibilities to analyze integrated building systems and to enable rapid prototyping of innovative building and system technologies. One way to alleviate this problem is to use co-simulation to integrate different BPS tools. Co-simulation approach represents a particular case of simulation scenario where at least two simulators solve coupled differential-algebraic systems of equations and exchange data that couples these equations during the time integration. This article analyzes how co-simulation influences consistency, stability and accuracy of the numerical approximation to the solution. Consistency and zero-stability are studied for a general class of the problem, while a detailed consistency and absolute stability analysis is given for a simple two-body problem. Since the accuracy of the numerical approximation to the solution is reduced in co-simulation, the article concludes by discussing ways for how to improve accuracy.

This report documents results from a variety of activities requested by the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). The activities related to caustic leaching, oxidative leaching, permeate precipitation behavior of waste as well as chromium (Cr) leaching are: • Model Input Boehmite Leaching Tests • Pretreatment Engineering Platform (PEP) Support Leaching Tests • PEP Parallel Leaching Tests • Precipitation Study Results • Cr Caustic and Oxidative Leaching Tests. Leaching test activities using the PEP simulant provided input to a boehmite dissolution model and determined the effect of temperature on mass loss during caustic leaching, the reaction rate constant for the boehmite dissolution, and the effect of aeration in enhancing the chromium dissolution during caustic leaching. Other tests were performed in parallel with the PEP tests to support the development of scaling factors for caustic and oxidative leaching. Another study determined if precipitate formed in the wash solution after the caustic leach in the PEP. Finally, the leaching characteristics of different chromium compounds under different conditions were examined to determine the best one to use in further testing.

A low-budget surface slope measuring instrument, the Developmental Long Trace Profiler (DLTP), was recently brought into operation at the Advanced Light Source Optical Metrology Laboratory [Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 616, 212-223 (2010)]. The instrument is based on a precisely calibrated autocollimator and a movable pentaprism. The capability of the DLTP to achieve sub-microradian surface slope metrology has been verified via cross-comparison measurements with other high-performance slope measuring instruments when measuring the same high-quality test optics. In the present work, a further improvement of the DLTP is achieved by replacing the existing bulk pentaprism with a specially designed mirror based pentaprism. A mirror based pentaprism offers the possibility to eliminate systematic errors introduced by inhomogeneity of the optical material and fabrication imperfections of a bulk pentaprism. We provide the details of the mirror based pentaprism design and describe an original experimental procedure for precision mutual alignment of the mirrors. The algorithm of the alignment procedure and its efficiency are verified with rigorous ray tracing simulations. Results of measurements of a spherically curved test mirror and a flat test mirror using the original bulk pentaprism are compared with measurements using the new mirror based pentaprism, demonstrating the improved performance.

The goals of the proposed research as stated in the proposal were to: • Build a suite of one-dimensional initial models of different metallicities and central densities. • Using the improved flame capturing scheme, simulate the explosion of a white dwarf with embedded Lagrangian tracer particles, and post-process the thermal histories of the tracers to reconstruct the nucleosynthesis of the explosion. • Survey the effects of a changing progenitor metallicity on the isotopic yields. Of particular interest is 1) whether the linear relation between the mass of 56Ni synthesized and the pro- genitor metallicity is moderated by the effect of electron captures in the core; and 2) how a varying central density alters the relation between metallicity and 56Ni mass. • Using these results, examine how the observed metallicity distribution would affect the brightness distribution of SNe Ia and the isotopic ratios about the Fe-peak.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) has been completed and has made its first shots on-target. While upcoming experiments will be focused on achieving ignition, a variety of subsequent experiments are planned for the facility, including measurement of cross sections, astrophysical measurements, and investigation of hydrodynamic instability in the target capsule. In order to successfully execute several of these planned experiments, the ability to collect solid debris following a NIF capsule shot will be required. The ability to collect and analyze solid debris generated in a shot at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) will greatly expand the number of nuclear reactions studied for diagnostic purposes. Currently, reactions are limited to only those producing noble gases for cryogenic collection and counting with the Radchem Apparatus for Gas Sampling (RAGS). The radchem solid collection diagnostic has already been identified by NIF to be valuable for the determination and understanding of mix generated in the target capsule's ablation. LLNL is currently developing this solid debris collection capability at NIF, and is in the stage of testing credible designs. Some of these designs explore the use of x-ray generated aerosols to assist in collection of solid debris. However, the variety of harsh experimental conditions this …

Radiochemical diagnostic techniques such as gas-phase capsule debris analysis may prove to be successful methods for establishing the success or failure of ignition experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Samples in the gas phase offer the most direct method of collection by simply pumping out the large target chamber following a NIF shot. The target capsules will be prepared with dopants which will produce radioactive noble gas isotopes upon activation with neutrons. We have designed and constructed the Radchem Apparatus for Gas Sampling (RAGS) in order to collect post-shot gaseous samples for NIF capsule diagnostics. The design of RAGS incorporates multiple stages intended to purify, transfer, and count the radioactive decays from gaseous products synthesized in NIF experiments. At the moment the dopant of choice is {sup 124}Xe, which will undergo (n,{gamma}) and (n, 2n) reactions to produce {sup 125}Xe and {sup 123}Xe. The half-lives of each are on the order of multiple hours and are suitable for long-term gamma-counting. These isotopes and the rest of the gases evolved in a NIF shot will be drawn through the NIF turbo pumps, past the temporarily shuttered cryo pumps (to aid our collection efficiency), and towards the first main portion of …

These proceedings contain papers prepared for the Monitoring Research Review 2010: Ground-Based Nuclear Explosion Monitoring Technologies, held 21-23 September, 2010 in Orlando, Florida,. These papers represent the combined research related to ground-based nuclear explosion monitoring funded by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), US Army Space and Missile Defense Command, National Science Foundation (NSF), Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), and other invited sponsors. The scientific objectives of the research are to improve the United States capability to detect, locate, and identify nuclear explosions. The purpose of the meeting is to provide the sponsoring agencies, as well as potential users, an opportunity to review research accomplished during the preceding year and to discuss areas of investigation for the coming year. For the researchers, it provides a forum for the exchange of scientific information toward achieving program goals, and an opportunity to discuss results and future plans. Paper topics include: seismic regionalization and calibration; detection and location of sources; wave propagation from source to receiver; the nature of seismic sources, including mining practices; hydroacoustic, infrasound, and radionuclide methods; on-site inspection; and data processing.

High-level nuclear waste produced from fuel reprocessing operations at the Savannah River Site (SRS) requires pretreatment to remove {sup 134,137}Cs, {sup 90}Sr, and alpha-emitting radionuclides (i.e., actinides) prior to disposal onsite as low level waste. An inorganic sorbent, monosodium titanate (MST), is currently used to remove {sup 90}Sr and alpha-emitting radionuclides, while a caustic-side solvent extraction process is used for removing {sup 134,137}Cs. A new peroxotitanate material, modified MST, or mMST, has recently been developed and has shown increased removal kinetics and capacity for {sup 90}Sr and alpha-emitting radionuclides compared to the current baseline material, MST. This paper describes recent results focused on further characterization of this material.

Delineation of the mechanisms that establish and maintain the polarity of epithelial tissues is essential to understanding morphogenesis, tissue specificity and cancer. Three-dimensional culture assays provide a useful platform for dissecting these processes but, as discussed in a recent study in BMC Biology on the culture of mammary gland epithelial cells, multiple parameters that influence the model must be taken into account.

The advantage of using mid-infrared (IR) 4.6 {micro}m lasers, versus far-infrared 10.6 {micro}m lasers, for mitigating damage growth on fused silica is investigated. In contrast to fused silica's high absorption at 10.6 {micro}m, silica absorption at 4.6 {micro}m is two orders of magnitude less. The much reduced absorption at 4.6 {micro}m enables deep heat penetration into fused silica when it is heated using the mid-IR laser, which in turn leads to more effective mitigation of damage sites with deep cracks. The advantage of using mid-IR versus far-IR laser for damage growth mitigation under non-evaporative condition is quantified by defining a figure of merit (FOM) that relates the crack healing depth to laser power required. Based on our FOM, we show that for damage cracks up to at least 500 {micro}m in depth, mitigation using a 4.6 {micro}m mid-IR laser is more efficient than mitigation using a 10.6 {micro}m far-IR laser.

A new method of mitigating (arresting) the growth of large (>200 m diameter and depth) laser induced surface damage on fused silica has been developed that successfully addresses several issues encountered with our previously-reported large site mitigation technique. As in the previous work, a tightly-focused 10.6 {micro}m CO{sub 2} laser spot is scanned over the damage site by galvanometer steering mirrors. In contrast to the previous work, the laser is pulsed instead of CW, with the pulse length and repetition frequency chosen to allow substantial cooling between pulses. This cooling has the important effect of reducing the heat-affected zone capable of supporting thermo-capillary flow from scale lengths on the order of the overall scan pattern to scale lengths on the order of the focused laser spot, thus preventing the formation of a raised rim around the final mitigation site and its consequent down-stream intensification. Other advantages of the new method include lower residual stresses, and improved damage threshold associated with reduced amounts of redeposited material. The raster patterns can be designed to produce specific shapes of the mitigation pit including cones and pyramids. Details of the new technique and its comparison with the previous technique will be presented.