Sampling and analysis were conducted on April 16-19, 2012, as specified in the Sampling and Analysis Plan for U.S. Department of Energy Office Of Legacy Management Sites (LMS/PLN/S04351, continually updated). Duplicate samples were collected from locations SA1-1-H, HMH-5R, SA3-4-H, SA1-2-H, Pond W of GZ, and SA5-4-4. One trip blank was collected during this sampling event.

Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) prepared a nominal 150 gallon batch of Next Generation Solvent (NGS) for Parsons. This material was then analyzed and tested for cesium mass transfer efficiency. The bulk of the results indicate that the solvent is qualified as acceptable for use in the upcoming pilot-scale testing at Parsons Technology Center. This report describes the analysis and testing of a batch of Next Generation Solvent (NGS) prepared in support of pilot-scale testing in the Parsons Technology Center. A total of {approx}150 gallons of NGS solvent was prepared in late November of 2011. Details for the work are contained in a controlled laboratory notebook. Analysis of the Parsons NGS solvent indicates that the material is acceptable for use. SRNL is continuing to improve the analytical method for the guanidine.

Exascale class machines will exhibit a new level of complexity: they will feature an unprecedented number of cores and threads, will most likely be heterogeneous and deeply hierarchical, and offer a range of new hardware techniques (such as speculative threading, transactional memory, programmable prefetching, and programmable accelerators), which all have to be utilized for an application to realize the full potential of the machine. Additionally, users will be faced with less memory per core, fixed total power budgets, and sharply reduced MTBFs. At the same time, it is expected that the complexity of applications will rise sharply for exascale systems, both to implement new science possible at exascale and to exploit the new hardware features necessary to achieve exascale performance. This is particularly true for many of the NNSA codes, which are large and often highly complex integrated simulation codes that push the limits of everything in the system including language features. To overcome these limitations and to enable users to reach exascale performance, users will expect a new generation of tools that address the bottlenecks of exascale machines, that work seamlessly with the (set of) programming models on the target machines, that scale with the machine, that provide automatic …

Wind is a significant source of energy; however, the human capability to produce electrical energy still has many hurdles to overcome. One of these is the unpredictability of the winds in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). The ABL is highly turbulent in both stable and unstable conditions (based on the vertical temperature profile) and the resulting fluctuations can have a dramatic impact on wind turbine operation. Any method by which these fluctuations could be observed, estimated, or predicted could provide a benefit to the wind energy industry as a whole. Based on the fundamental coupling of velocity fluctuations to pressure fluctuations in the nearly incompressible flow in the ABL, This work hypothesizes that a ground-based array of infrasonic pressure transducers could be employed to estimate the vertical wind profile over a height relevant for wind turbines. To analyze this hypothesis, experiments and field deployments were conducted. Wind tunnel experiments were performed for a thick turbulent boundary layer over a neutral or heated surface. Surface pressure and velocity probe measurements were acquired simultaneously. Two field deployments yielded surface pressure data from a 49 element array. The second deployment at the Reese Technology Center in Lubbock, TX, also included data from a …

A Saltstone waste form was prepared in the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) from a Tank 50H sample and Z-Area premix material for the third quarter of calendar year 2011 (3QCY11). After the prescribed 32 day cure, samples of the saltstone were collected, and the waste form was shown to meet the South Carolina Hazardous Waste Management Regulations (SCHWMR) R.61-79.261.24 and R.61-79.268.48(a) requirements for a nonhazardous waste form with respect to RCRA metals and underlying hazardous constituents. These analyses met all quality assurance specifications of USEPA SW-846. The Saltstone Production Facility (SPF) receives waste from Tank 50H for treatment. In the third quarter of the 2011 calendar year (3QCY11), Tank 50H accepted transfers of approximately 20 kgal from the Effluent Treatment Project (ETP), approximately 236 kgal from the Actinide Removal Process/Modular Caustic Side Solvent Extraction Unit (ARP/MCU) Decontaminated Salt Solution Hold Tank (DSS-HT), and approximately 25 kgal from other sources. The Saltstone Grout Sampling plan provides the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) with the chemical and physical characterization strategy for the salt solution which is to be disposed of in the Z-Area Solid Waste Landfill (SWLF). During operation, samples were collected from Tank 50H and grout …

Fuel cell stacks are typically hand-assembled and tested. As a result the manufacturing process is labor-intensive and time-consuming. The fluid leakage in fuel cell stacks may reduce fuel cell performance, damage fuel cell stack, or even cause fire and become a safety hazard. Leak check is a critical step in the fuel cell stack manufacturing. The fuel cell industry is in need of fuel cell leak-test processes and equipment that is automatic, robust, and high throughput. The equipment should reduce fuel cell manufacturing cost.

The creation of a new Community Earth System Model (CESM) working group, combining science-driven research with user-driven requirements, will further broaden the CESM user base and will considerably enrich the project by building formal links to sectoral scientists and decision makers. The first step in this process is a small (~25 person) workshop to identify the goals and objectives of the new working group, to discuss how it will interact with existing CESM working groups, and to identify a few, initial pilot projects to explore how to use climate information to manage climate risk more effectively. This proposal is to support the travel costs of non-NCAR participants in this planning workshop.

In this project we focused on several aspects of technology development that advances the formation of an integrated biorefinery. These focus areas include: [1] establishment of pyrolysis processing systems and characterization of the product oils for fuel applications, including engine testing of a preferred product and its pro forma economic analysis; [2] extraction of sugars through a novel hotwater extaction process, and the development of levoglucosan (a pyrolysis BioOil intermediate); [3] identification and testing of the use of biochar, the coproduct from pyrolysis, for soil applications; [4] developments in methods of atomic layer epitaxy (for efficient development of coatings as in fuel cells); [5] advancement in fermentation of lignocellulosics, [6] development of algal biomass as a potential substrate for the biorefinery, and [7] development of catalysts from coproducts. These advancements are intended to provide a diverse set of product choices within the biorefinery, thus improving the cost effectiveness of the system. Technical effectiveness was demonstrated in the pyrolysis biooil based diesel fuel supplement, sugar extraction from lignocelluose, use of biochar, production of algal biomass in wastewaters, and the development of catalysts. Economic feasibility of algal biomass production systems seems attractive, relative to the other options. However, further optimization in all …

The Phase I work reported here responds to DoE'ss stated need "...to develop improved accelerator designs that can provide very high gradient (>200 MV/m for electrons...) acceleration of intense bunches of particles." Omega-P'™s approach to this goal is through use of a ramped train of annular electron bunches to drive a coaxial dielectric wakefield accelerator (CDWA) structure. This approach is a direct extension of the CDWA concept from acceleration in wake fields caused by a single drive bunch, to the more efficient acceleration that we predict can be realized from a tailored (or ramped) train of several drive bunches. This is possible because of a much higher transformer ratio for the latter. The CDWA structure itself has a number of unique features, including: a high accelerating gradient G, potentially with G > 1 GeV/m; continuous energy coupling from drive to test bunches without transfer structures; inherent transverse focusing forces for particles in the accelerated bunch; highly stable motion of high charge annular drive bunches; acceptable alignment tolerances for a multi-section system. What is new in the present approach is that the coaxial dielectric structure is now to be energized by-not one-”but by a short train of ramped annular-shaped drive bunches …

The Omega-P SBIR project described in this Report has as its goal the development, test, and evaluation of a fast electrically-controlled L-band tuner for BNL Energy Recovery Linac (ERL) in the Electron Ion Collider (EIC) upgrade of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). The tuner, that employs an electrically-controlled ferroelectric component, is to allow fast compensation to cavity resonance changes. In ERLs, there are several factors which significantly affect the amount of power required from the wall-plug to provide the RF-power level necessary for the operation. When beam loading is small, the power requirements are determined by (i) ohmic losses in cavity walls, (ii) fluctuations in amplitude and/or phase for beam currents, and (iii) microphonics. These factors typically require a substantial change in the coupling between the cavity and the feeding line, which results in an intentional broadening of the cavity bandwidth, which in turn demands a significant amount of additional RF power. If beam loading is not small, there is a variety of beam-drive phase instabilities to be managed, and microphonics will still remain an issue, so there remain requirements for additional power. Moreover ERL performance is sensitive to changes in beam arrival time, …

HB-Line will begin processing Pu solutions during FY2012 that will involve the recovery of Pu using oxalate precipitation and filtration. After the precipitation and filtration processes, the filtrate solution will be transferred from HB-Line to H-Canyon. The presence of excess oxalate and unfiltered Pu oxalate solids in these solutions create a criticality safety issue if they are sent to H-Canyon without controls in H-Canyon. One approach involves H-Canyon receiving the filtrate solution into a tank that is poisoned with soluble gadolinium (Gd). Decomposition of the oxalate will occur within a subsequent H-Canyon vessel. The receipt of excess oxalate into the H-Canyon receipt tanks has the potential to precipitate a portion of the Gd poison in the receipt tanks. Because the amount of Gd in solution determines the maximum amount of Pu solids that H-Canyon can receive, H-Canyon Engineering requested that SRNL determine the solubility of Gd in aqueous solutions of 4-10 M nitric acid (HNO{sub 3}), 4-12 g/L Gd, and 0.15-0.25 M oxalic acid (H{sub 2}C{sub 2}O{sub 4}) at 25 °C. The target soluble Gd concentration is 6 g/L. The data indicate that the target can be achieved above 6 M HNO{sub 3} and below 0.25 M H{sub 2}C{sub 2}O{sub …

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This Phase I SBIR program addressed the need for an improved manufacturing process for electropolishing niobium RF superconducting cavities for the International Linear Collider (ILC). The ILC is a proposed particle accelerator that will be used to gain a deeper understanding of the forces of energy and matter by colliding beams of electrons and positrons at nearly the speed of light. The energy required for this to happen will be achieved through the use of advanced superconducting technology, specifically ~16,000 RF superconducting cavities operating at near absolute zero. The RF superconductor cavities will be fabricated from highly pure Nb, which has an extremely low surface resistance at 2 Kelvin when compared to other materials. To take full advantage of the superconducting properties of the Nb cavities, the inner surface must be a) polished to a microscale roughness < 0.1 µm with removal of at least 100 µm of material, and b) cleaned to be free of impurities that would degrade performance of the ILC. State-of-the-art polishing uses either chemical polishing or electropolishing, both of which require hydrofluoric acid to achieve breakdown of the strong passive film on the surface. In this Phase I program, Faraday worked with its collaborators at …

The Site Environmental Report for 2011 summarizes Berkeley Lab’s environmental management performance, presents environmental monitoring results, and describes significant programs for calendar year (CY) 2011. Throughout this report, “Berkeley Lab” or “LBNL” refers both to (1) the multiprogram scientific facility the UC manages and operates on the 202-acre university-owned site located in the hills above the UC Berkeley campus, and the site itself, and (2) the UC as managing and operating contractor for Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The report is separated into two volumes. Volume I is organized into an executive summary followed by six chapters that include an overview of LBNL, a discussion of its Environmental Management System (EMS), the status of environmental programs, summarized results from surveillance and monitoring activities, and quality assurance (QA) measures. Volume II contains individual data results from surveillance and monitoring activities.

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Under funding from the U.S. Dept. of Energy, in conjunction with a funded NASA 2008 ROSES proposal, with internal support from Battelle Pacific Northwest Division (PNWD), and in collaboration with NASA Ames Research Center, we successfully integrated the Spectrometer for Sky-Scanning, Sun-Tracking Atmospheric Research (4STAR-Air) instrument for flight operation aboard Battelle’s G-1 aircraft and conducted a series of airborne and ground-based intensive measurement campaigns (hereafter referred to as “intensives”) for the purpose of maturing the initial 4STAR-Ground prototype to a flight-ready science-ready configuration.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is in the process of developing a radiological air monitoring program for the PNNL Site that is distinct from that of the nearby Hanford Site. The original DQO (PNNL-19427) considered radiological emissions at the PNNL Site from Physical Sciences Facility (PSF) major emissions units. This first revision considers PNNL Site changes subsequent to the implementation of the original DQO. A team was established to determine how the PNNL Site changes would continue to meet federal regulations and address guidelines developed to monitor air emissions and estimate offsite impacts of radioactive material operations. The result is an updated program to monitor the impact to the public from the PNNL Site. The team used the emission unit operation parameters and local meteorological data as well as information from the PSF Potential-to-Emit documentation and Notices of Construction submitted to the Washington State Department of Health (WDOH). The locations where environmental monitoring stations would most successfully characterize the maximum offsite impacts of PNNL Site emissions from the three PSF buildings with major emission units were determined from these data. Three monitoring station locations were determined during the original revision of this document. This first revision considers expanded Department of …

Subsurface radionuclide and metal contaminants throughout the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) complex pose one of DOE’s greatest challenges for long-term stewardship. One promising stabilization mechanism for divalent ions, such as the short-lived radionuclide 90Sr, is co-precipitation in calcite. We have previously found that that nutrient addition can stimulate microbial ureolytic activity that this activity accelerates calcite precipitation and co-precipitation of Sr, and that higher calcite precipitation rates can result in increased Sr partitioning. We have conducted integrated field, laboratory, and computational research to evaluate the relationships between ureolysis and calcite precipitation rates and trace metal partitioning under environmentally relevant conditions, and investigated the coupling between flow/flux manipulations and precipitate distribution. A field experimental campaign conducted at the Integrated Field Research Challenge (IFRC) site located at Rifle, CO was based on a continuous recirculation design; water extracted from a down-gradient well was amended with urea and molasses (a carbon and electron donor) and re-injected into an up-gradient well. The goal of the recirculation design and simultaneous injection of urea and molasses was to uniformly accelerate the hydrolysis of urea and calcite precipitation over the entire inter-wellbore zone. The urea-molasses recirculation phase lasted, with brief interruptions for geophysical surveys, for 12 …

A novel pathway for the high efficiency production of metal from metal oxide means of electrolysis in ionic liquids at low temperature was investigated. The main emphasis was to eliminate the use of carbon and high temperature application in the reduction of metal oxides to metals. The emphasis of this research was to produce metals such as Zn, and Pb that are normally produced by the application of very high temperatures. The reduction of zinc oxide to zinc and lead oxide to lead were investigated. This study involved three steps in accomplishing the final goal of reduction of metal oxide to metal using ionic liquids: 1) Dissolution of metal oxide in an ionic liquid, 2) Determination of reduction potential using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and 3) Reduction of the dissolved metal oxide. Ionic liquids provide additional advantage by offering a wide potential range for the deposition. In each and every step of the process, more than one process variable has been examined. Experimental results for electrochemical extraction of Zn from ZnO and Pb from PbO using eutectic mixtures of Urea ((NH2)2CO) and Choline chloride (HOC2H4N(CH3)3+Cl-) or (ChCl) in a molar ratio 2:1, varying voltage and temperatures were carried out. Fourier Transform …

In this project we studied both natural photosynthetic antenna complexes and various artificial systems (e.g. chlorophyll (Chl) trefoils) using high resolution hole-burning (HB) spectroscopy and excitonic calculations. Results obtained provided more insight into the electronic (excitonic) structure, inhomogeneity, electron-phonon coupling strength, vibrational frequencies, and excitation energy (or electron) transfer (EET) processes in several antennas and reaction centers. For example, our recent work provided important constraints and parameters for more advanced excitonic calculations of CP43, CP47, and PSII core complexes. Improved theoretical description of HB spectra for various model systems offers new insight into the excitonic structure and composition of low-energy absorption traps in very several antenna protein complexes and reaction centers. We anticipate that better understanding of HB spectra obtained for various photosynthetic complexes and their simultaneous fits with other optical spectra (i.e. absorption, emission, and circular dichroism spectra) provides more insight into the underlying electronic structures of these important biological systems. Our recent progress provides a necessary framework for probing the electronic structure of these systems via Hole Burning Spectroscopy. For example, we have shown that the theoretical description of non-resonant holes is more restrictive (in terms of possible site energies) than those of absorption and emission spectra. We …

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The High Efficiency Nanostructured III-V Photovoltaics for Solar Concentrators project seeks to provide new photovoltaic cells for Concentrator Photovoltaics (CPV) Systems with higher cell efficiency, more favorable temperature coefficients and less sensitivity to changes in spectral distribution. The main objective of this project is to provide high efficiency III-V solar cells that will reduce the overall cost per Watt for power generation using CPV systems.This work is focused both on a potential near term application, namely the use of indium arsenide (InAs) QDs to spectrally "tune" the middle (GaAs) cell of a SOA triple junction device to a more favorable effective bandgap, as well as the long term goal of demonstrating intermediate band solar cell effects. The QDs are confined within a high electric field i-region of a standard GaAs solar cell. The extended absorption spectrum (and thus enhanced short circuit current) of the QD solar cell results from the increase in the sub GaAs bandgap spectral response that is achievable as quantum dot layers are introduced into the i-region. We have grown InAs quantum dots by OMVPE technique and optimized the QD growth conditions. Arrays of up to 40 layers of strain balanced quantum dots have been experimentally demonstrated …