Presents a new algorithm for identifying dark matter halos, substructure, and tidal features.

Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) is the Hanford tank operations contractor, charged with managing one of the most challenging environmental cleanup projects in the nation. The U.S. Department of Energy hired WRPS to manage 56 million gallons of high-level radioactive waste stored in 177 underground tanks. The waste is the legacy of 45 years of plutonium production for the U. S. nuclear arsenal. WRPS mission is three-fold: safely manage the waste until it can be processed and immobilized; develop the tools and techniques to retrieve the waste from the tanks, and build the infrastructure needed to deliver the waste to the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) when it begins operating. WTP will 'vitrify' the waste by mixing it with silica and other materials and heating it in an electric melter. Vitrification turns the waste into a sturdy glass that will isolate the radioactivity from the environment. It will take more than 20 years to process all the tank waste. The tank waste is a complex highly radioactive mixture of liquid, sludge and solids. The radioactivity, chemical composition of the waste and the limited access to the underground storage tanks makes retrieval a challenge. Waste is being retrieved from aging single-shell tanks …

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the Plants Engineered to Replace Oil (PETRO) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses the bioengineering of sorghum plants as part of the "Plant-based Sesquiterpene Biofuels" project.

Existence of the natural diffusive spread of charge carriers on the course of their drift towards collecting electrodes in planar, segmented detectors results in a division of the original cloud of carriers between neighboring channels. This paper presents the analysis of algorithms, implementable with reasonable circuit resources, whose task is to prevent degradation of the detective quantum efficiency in highly granular, digital pixel detectors. The immediate motivation of the work is a photon science application requesting simultaneous timing spectroscopy and 2D position sensitivity. Leading edge discrimination, provided it can be freed from uncertainties associated with the charge sharing, is used for timing the events. Analyzed solutions can naturally be extended to the amplitude spectroscopy with pixel detectors.

A health monitoring approach is investigated for hydrokinetic turbine blade applications. In-service monitoring is critical due to the difficult environment for blade inspection and the cost of inspection downtime. Composite blade designs have advantages that include long life in marine environments and great control over mechanical properties. Experimental strain characteristics are determined for static loads and free-vibration loads. These experiments are designed to simulate the dynamic characteristics of hydrokinetic turbine blades. Carbon/epoxy symmetric composite laminates are manufactured using an autoclave process. Four-layer composite beams, eight-layer composite beams, and two-dimensional eight-layer composite blades are instrumented for strain. Experimental results for strain measurements from electrical resistance gages are validated with theoretical characteristics obtained from in-house finite-element analysis for all sample cases. These preliminary tests on the composite samples show good correlation between experimental and finite-element strain results. A health monitoring system is proposed in which damage to a composite structure, e.g. delamination and fiber breakage, causes changes in the strain signature behavior. The system is based on embedded strain sensors and embedded motes in which strain information is demodulated for wireless transmission. In-service monitoring is critical due to the difficult environment for blade inspection and the cost of inspection downtime. Composite blade …

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the Grid-Scale Rampable Intermittent Dispatchable Storage (GRIDS) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses advanced flow battery electrodes as part of the "Low-Cost, High-Performance 50-Year Electrode" project.

Contained in the following report are data for radioactivity in the environment collected and analyzed by Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory’s Princeton Environmental, Analytical, and Radiological Laboratory (PEARL). The PEARL is located on‐site and is certified for analyzing radiological and non‐radiological parameters through the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Laboratory Certification Program, Certification Number 12471. Non‐radiological surface and ground water samples are analyzed by NJDEP certified subcontractor laboratories – QC, Inc. and Accutest Laboratory. To the best of our knowledge, these data, as contained in the “Annual Site Environmental Report for 2011,” are documented and certified to be correct.

Results for the first measurement of the inclusive branching and CP asymmetry of the charmless 3-body decay B{sup +} {yields} K{sup +}{pi}{sup 0}{pi}{sup 0} are presented. The analysis uses a data sample with an integrated luminosity of 429.0 fb{sup -1}, recorded by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric B Factory. This sample corresponds to 470.9 {+-} 2.8 million B{bar B} pairs. Measurements of the branching fractions (B) and CP asymmetries (A{sub CP}) of some of the intermediate resonances in the K{sup +}{pi}{sup 0}{pi}{sup 0} Dalitz plot are also presented.

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The H-Canyon facility will be used to dissolve Pu metal for subsequent purification and conversion to plutonium dioxide (PuO{sub 2}) using Phase II of HB-Line. To support the new mission, the development of a Pu metal dissolution flowsheet which utilizes concentrated (8-10 M) nitric acid (HNO{sub 3}) solutions containing potassium fluoride (KF) is required. Dissolution of Pu metal in concentrated HNO{sub 3} is desired to eliminate the need to adjust the solution acidity prior to purification by anion exchange. The preferred flowsheet would use 8-10 M HNO{sub 3}, 0.015-0.07 M KF, and 0.5-1.0 g/L Gd to dissolve the Pu up to 6.75 g/L. An alternate flowsheet would use 8-10 M HNO{sub 3}, 0.1-0.2 M KF, and 1-2 g/L B to dissolve the Pu. The targeted average Pu metal dissolution rate is 20 mg/min-cm{sup 2}, which is sufficient to dissolve a 'standard' 2250-g Pu metal button in 24 h. Plutonium metal dissolution rate measurements showed that if Gd is used as the nuclear poison, the optimum dissolution conditions occur in 10 M HNO{sub 3}, 0.04-0.05 M KF, and 0.5-1.0 g/L Gd at 112 to 116 C (boiling). These conditions will result in an estimated Pu metal dissolution rate of {approx}11-15 mg/min-cm{sup …

The Quick Urban & Industrial Complex (QUIC) Dispersion Modeling System has been developed to rapidly compute the transport and dispersion of toxic agent releases in the vicinity of buildings. It is composed of a wind solver, an 'urbanized' Lagrangian random-walk model, and a graphical user interface. QUIC has two different wind models: (a) The QUIC-URB wind solver, an empirically-based diagnostic wind model and (b) The QUIC-CFD (RANS) solver, based on the 3D Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations. In this paper, we discuss the effect of different wind models on dispersion patterns in dense built-up areas. The model-computed wind from the two urban wind models- QUIC-URB and QUIC-CFD are used to drive the dispersion model. The concentration fields are then compared to measurements from the Oklahoma City Joint Urban 2003 field experiment. QUIC produces high-resolution 3-D mean wind and concentration fields around buildings, in addition to deposition on the ground and building surfaces. It has options for different release types, including point, moving point, line, area, and volumetric sources, as well as dense gas, explosive buoyant rise, multi-particle size, bioslurry, and two-phase releases. Other features include indoor infiltration, a pressure solver, outer grid simulations, vegetative canopies, and population exposure calculations. It has …

Aqueous radioactive wastes from Savannah River Site (SRS) separations and vitrification processes are contained in large underground carbon steel tanks. Inspections made during 2011 to evaluate these vessels and other waste handling facilities along with evaluations based on data from previous inspections are the subject of this report. The 2011 inspection program revealed that the structural integrity and waste confinement capability of the Savannah River Site waste tanks were maintained. All inspections scheduled per SRR-LWE-2011-00026, HLW Tank Farm Inspection Plan for 2011, were completed. Ultrasonic measurements (UT) performed in 2011 met the requirements of C-ESR-G-00006, In-Service Inspection Program for High Level Waste Tanks, Rev. 3, and WSRC-TR-2002-00061, Rev.6. UT inspections were performed on Tanks 25, 26 and 34 and the findings are documented in SRNL-STI-2011-00495, Tank Inspection NDE Results for Fiscal Year 2011, Waste Tanks 25, 26, 34 and 41. A total of 5813 photographs were made and 835 visual and video inspections were performed during 2011. A potential leaksite was discovered at Tank 4 during routine annual inspections performed in 2011. The new crack, which is above the allowable fill level, resulted in no release to the environment or tank annulus. The location of the crack is documented in …

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These presentation visuals introduce the National Center for Nuclear Security. Its chartered mission is to enhance the Nation’s verification and detection capabilities in support of nuclear arms control and nonproliferation through R&D activities at the NNSS. It has three focus areas: Treaty Verification Technologies, Nonproliferation Technologies, and Technical Nuclear Forensics. The objectives of nuclear forensics are to reduce uncertainty in the nuclear forensics process & improve the scientific defensibility of nuclear forensics conclusions when applied to nearsurface nuclear detonations. Research is in four key areas: Nuclear Physics, Debris collection and analysis, Prompt diagnostics, and Radiochemistry.

Monosodium titanate (MST) for use in the Actinide Removal Process (ARP) must be qualified and verified in advance. A single qualification sample for each batch of material is sent to SRNL for analysis, as well as a statistical sampling of verification samples. The Harrell Industries Lot No.120111 qualification and the first 12 verification samples met all the requirements in the specification indicating the material is acceptable for use in the process. Analyses of Pail 125 verification sample fails the criteria for solids content and has measurably lower pH, density, and total bottle weight. The verification sample for Pail 125 was retested for weight percent solids after checking that all of the solids had been suspended. The sample again failed to meet acceptance criteria. SRNL recommends accepting Pails 1 through 120. Pails 121 through 125 should be rejected and returned to the vendor.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the Plants Engineered to Replace Oil (PETRO) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses a project to make plants more efficient at capturing energy through an alternative biochemical pathway as part of the "Energy Plant: High Efficiency Photosynthetic Organisms" project.

ORAU conducted confirmatory surveys of the Hematite site during the period of June 12 through June 13, 2012. The survey activities included in-process inspections, document review, walkover surveys, sampling activities, and laboratory analysis of split samples. WEC was forthcoming with information relating to practices, procedures, and surface scan results. Scans performed by the WEC technician were extremely thorough and methodical. The WEC and ORAU technicians identified the same areas of elevated activity with comparable detector responses. WEC sampling of re-use soils, waste soils, sediments, and groundwater were conducted under ORAU observation. The sampling efforts observed by ORAU were performed in accordance with site-specific procedures and in a manner sufficient to provide quality supporting data. Three observations were made during groundwater sampling activities. First, the water level indicator was re-used without submitting rinse blank. Second, bubbles created during tubing extraction could indicate the presence of volatilized organic compounds. Third, samplers did not use a photo ionization detector prior to sample collection to indicate the presence of volatile organic vapors. Results of split samples indicated a high level of comparability between the WEC and ORAU/ORISE radiological laboratories. Analytical practices and procedures appear to be sufficient in providing quality radiochemical data. All concentrations …

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This report begins with a brief overview of FHA's current role in the mortgage market. It also describes the financial status of the insurance fund that finances FHA-insured single-family mortgages, known as the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, including its treatment in the federal budget and measures of its actuarial soundness.

This report discusses the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), 18 U.S.C. 1030, outlaws conduct that victimizes computer system. It also points out about Computer Trespassing in a government computer.

This report discusses the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), 18 U.S.C. 1030, outlaws conduct that victiizes computer system.

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This report examines the extent of the security problems in Central America, the efforts undertaken by Central government to address them, and U.S. support for Central American efforts through the Central America Regional Security Initiative.