LSST Dark Energy Science Final Report (open access)

LSST Dark Energy Science Final Report

Three decadal surveys recommend a large-aperture synoptic survey telescope (LSST) to allow time-domain and cosmological studies of distant objects. LLNL designed the optical system and also is expected to play a significant role in the engineering associated with the camera. Precision cosmology from ground-based instruments is in a sense terra incognita. Numerous systematic effects occur that would be minimal or absent in their space-based counterparts. We proposed developing some basic tools and techniques for investigating ''dark sector'' cosmological science with such next-generation, large-aperture, real-time telescopes. The critical research involved determining whether systematic effects might dominate the extremely small distortions (''shears'') in images of faint background galaxies. To address these issues we carried out a comprehensive data campaign and developed detailed computer simulations.
Date: February 15, 2007
Creator: Asztalos, S
System: The UNT Digital Library
Molecular Markers of Lung Cancer in MAYAK Workers (open access)

Molecular Markers of Lung Cancer in MAYAK Workers

The molecular mechanisms that result in the elevated risk for lung cancer associated with exposure to radiation have not been well characterized. Workers from the MAYAK nuclear enterprise are an ideal cohort in which to study the molecular epidemiology of cancer associated with radiation exposure and to identify the genes targeted for inactivation that in turn affect individual risk for radiation-induced lung cancer. Epidemiology studies of the MAYAK cohort indicate a significantly higher frequency for adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in workers than in a control population and a strong correlation between these tumor types and plutonium exposure. Two hypotheses will be evaluated through the proposed studies. First, radiation exposure targets specific genes for inactivation by promoter methylation. This hypothesis is supported by our recent studies with the MAYAK population that demonstrated the targeting of the p16 gene for inactivation by promoter methylation in adenocarcinomas from workers (1). Second, genes inactivated in tumors can serve as biomarkers for lung cancer risk in a cancer-free population of workers exposed to plutonium. Support for this hypothesis is based on exciting preliminary results of our nested, case-control study of persons from the Colorado cohort. In that study, a panel of methylation markers …
Date: February 15, 2007
Creator: Belinsky, Steven A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Magnetic Dynamos and Stars (open access)

Magnetic Dynamos and Stars

Djehuty is a code that has been developed over the last five years by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), from earlier code designed for programmatic efforts. Operating in a massively parallel environment, Djehuty is able to model entire stars in 3D. The object of this proposal was to continue the effort to introduce magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD) into Djehuty, and investigate new classes of inherently 3D problems involving the structure, evolution and interaction of stars and planets. However, towards the end of the second year we discovered an unexpected physical process of great importance in the evolution of stars. Consequently for the third year we changed direction and concentrated on this process rather than on magnetic fields. Our new process was discovered while testing the code on red-giant stars, at the 'helium flash'. We found that a thin layer was regularly formed which contained a molecular-weight inversion, and which led therefore to Rayleigh-Taylor instability. This in turn led to some deeper-than-expected mixing, which has the property that (a) much {sup 3}He is consumed, and (b) some {sup 13}C is produced. These two properties are closely in accord with what has been observed over the last thirty years in red giants, whereas …
Date: February 15, 2007
Creator: Eggleton, P P
System: The UNT Digital Library
Recommendations for Remedial Action at Everest, Kansas. (open access)

Recommendations for Remedial Action at Everest, Kansas.

On September 7, 2005, the Commodity Credit Corporation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (CCC/USDA) presented a Scoping Memo (Argonne 2005) for preliminary consideration by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). This document suggested possible remedial options for the carbon tetrachloride contamination in groundwater at Everest, Kansas. The suggested approaches were discussed by representatives of the KDHE, the CCC/USDA, and Argonne at the KDHE office in Topeka on September 8-9, 2005, along with other technical and logistic issues related to the Everest site. In response to these discussions, the KDHE recommended (KDHE 2005) evaluation of several remedial processes, either alone or in combination, as part of a Corrective Action Study (CAS) for Everest. The primary remedial processes suggested by the KDHE included the following: (1) Hydraulic control by groundwater extraction with aboveground treatment; (2) Air sparging-soil vapor extraction (SVE) in large-diameter boreholes; and (3) Phytoremediation. As a further outcome of the 2005 meeting and as a precursor to the proposed CAS, the CCC/USDA completed the following supplemental investigations at Everest to address several specific technical concerns discussed with the KDHE: (1) Construction of interpretive cross sections at strategic locations selected by the KDHE along the main plume migration …
Date: February 15, 2007
Creator: LaFreniere, L. M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Ultrafast, In Situ Probing of Shocked Solids at the Mesoscale and Beyond: A New Paradigm for Materials Dynamics (open access)

Ultrafast, In Situ Probing of Shocked Solids at the Mesoscale and Beyond: A New Paradigm for Materials Dynamics

Understanding material response under dynamic conditions and extreme pressures at the lattice level is important for being able to generate predictive models of material response. Despite many decades of study, material behavior is primarily inferred from bulk measurements on dynamically loaded samples or the microstructure from recovery experiments and not determined from lattice level measurements made in-situ at the relevant length scale of the governing physics. In the work described here, we report on progress made in advancing this frontier with research conducted under LDRD 04-ERD-071. Specifically, we present advances in, and applications of, dynamic x-ray diffraction, Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure and dynamic transmission electron microscopy.
Date: February 15, 2007
Creator: Lorenzana, Hector; Belak, James; Campbell, Geoffrey; King, Wayne; Nikkel, Daniel; Bradley, Keith et al.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Sampling and Analysis Instruction for Evaluation of Residual Chromium Contamination in the Subsurface Soil at 100-C-7 (open access)

Sampling and Analysis Instruction for Evaluation of Residual Chromium Contamination in the Subsurface Soil at 100-C-7

This sampling and analysis instruction (SAI) provides the requirements for sample collection and laboratory analysis to evaluate the extent of hexavalent chromium contamination present in the soil below the 100-C-7 and 100-C-7:1 remedial action waste site excavations.
Date: February 15, 2007
Creator: Thompson, W. S.
System: The UNT Digital Library
CH-TRU Waste Content Codes (CH-TRUCON) (open access)

CH-TRU Waste Content Codes (CH-TRUCON)

The CH-TRU Waste Content Codes (CH-TRUCON) document describes the inventory of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) CH-TRU waste within the transportation parameters specified by the Contact-Handled Transuranic Waste Authorized Methods for Payload Control (CH-TRAMPAC). The CH-TRAMPAC defines the allowable payload for the Transuranic Package Transporter-II (TRUPACT-II) and HalfPACT packagings. This document is a catalog of TRUPACT-II and HalfPACT authorized contents and a description of the methods utilized to demonstrate compliance with the CH-TRAMPAC. A summary of currently approved content codes by site is presented in Table 1. The CH-TRAMPAC describes "shipping categories" that are assigned to each payload container. Multiple shipping categories may be assigned to a single content code. A summary of approved content codes and corresponding shipping categories is provided in Table 2, which consists of Tables 2A, 2B, and 2C. Table 2A provides a summary of approved content codes and corresponding shipping categories for the "General Case," which reflects the assumption of a 60-day shipping period as described in the CH-TRAMPAC and Appendix 3.4 of the CH-TRU Payload Appendices. For shipments to be completed within an approximately 1,000-mile radius, a shorter shipping period of 20 days is applicable as described in the CH-TRAMPAC and Appendix 3.5 …
Date: February 15, 2007
Creator: Westinghouse TRU Solutions LLC
System: The UNT Digital Library