The task of installing and servicing high energy neutrino detectors in the deep ocean from a surface support vessel is problematic using conventional tethered systems. An array of multiple detector strings rising 500 m from the ocean floor, and forming a grid with 50 m spacing between the strings, presents a substantial entanglement hazard for equipment cables deployed from the surface. Such tasks may be accomplished with fewer risks using a tetherless underwater remotely operated vehicle that has a local acoustic telemetry link to send control commands and sensor data between the vehicle and a stationary hydrophone suspended above or just outside the perimeter of the work site. The Phase I effort involves the development of an underwater acoustic telemetry link for vehicle control and sensor feedback, the evaluation of video compression methods for real-time acoustic transmission of video through the water, and the defining of local control routines on board the vehicle to allow it to perform certain basic maneuvering tasks autonomously, or to initiate a self-rescue if the acoustic control link should be lost. In Phase II, a prototype tetherless vehicle system will be designed and constructed to demonstrate the ability to install cable interconnections within a detector …

Alfalfa leaf meal (AML) is a critical co-product to the economics of the alfalfa biomass energy system. Research is being conducted to characterize the nutritional value of ALM in dairy, beef, and turkey diets and provide an estimate of the economic value al ALM to livestock producers.

Iron aluminide weld overlays are being investigated for corrosion and erosion protection of boiler tubes in low NOx burners. The primary objective of the research is to identify overlay compositions which can be deposited in a crack-free condition and provide corrosion protection in moderately reducing environments. In the current phase of work, Fe-Al alloy weld overlays were produced by depositing commercially pure aluminum wire on to low carbon steel substrates using Gas Tungsten Arc Welding. A systematic variation of the wire feed speed and current, two major factors affecting dilution, resulted in a variation in aluminum contents of the welds ranging from 3--42 wt% aluminum. The aluminum content was observed to increase with wire feed speed and a decrease in the current. The aluminum content was also found to affect the cracking susceptibility of the overlays. At 10wt% aluminum, few to no cracks were observed in the deposits. Above this value, cracking was prevalent throughout the weld. In addition, two types of microstructures were found correlating to different concentrations of aluminum. A homogeneous matrix with second phase particles consisting of coarse columnar grains was found for low aluminum concentrations. With higher aluminum contents, a two-phase constituent was observed to surround …

Exposure of the hands of medical personnel administering radiolabeled antibodies (RABs) was evaluated on the basis of (a) observing and photo-documenting administration techniques, and (b) experimental data on doses to thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) on fingers of phantom hands holding syringes, and on syringes, with radionuclides in the syringes in each case. Actual exposure data for I-131 and Lu-177 were obtained in field studies. Variations in handling and administration techniques were identified. Dose rates measured using TLDs on the surface of loaded syringes were adjusted for differences in electronic stopping power, absorption coefficients, and attenuation between dosimeters and tissue to estimate dose-to-skin averaged over 1 cm{sup 2} at 7 mg cm{sup {minus}2} depth for Y-90, Tc-99m, I-131, and Lu-177. Dose rate coefficients to the skin, if in contact with the syringe wall, were 89, 1.9, 3.8, and 0.41 {micro}Sv s{sup {minus}1} per 37 MBq (1 mCi) for Y-90, Tc-99m, I-131, and Lu-177, respectively. For dose reduction, when using Y-90 the importance was clearly indicated of (a) avoiding direct contact with syringes containing RABs, if practical, and (b) using a beta-particle shield on the syringe. In using a syringe for injection, doses can best be approximated for the geometry studied by (a) …

The 222-S Laboratory complex stores and uses over 400 chemicals. Many of these chemicals are used in laboratory analysis and some are used for maintenance activities. The majority of laboratory analysis chemicals are only used inside of fume hoods or glove boxes to control both chemical and radionuclide airborne concentrations. This evaluation was designed to determine the potential for laboratory analysis chemicals at the 222-S Laboratory complex to cause elevated airborne chemical concentrations under normal conditions. This was done to identify conditions and activities that should be subject to airborne chemical monitoring in accordance with the Westinghouse Hanford Company Chemical Hygiene Plan.

Authenticating and upgrading system software plays a critical role in information security, yet practical tools for assessing and installing software are lacking in today`s marketplace. The Secure Software Distribution System (SSDS) will provide automated analysis, notification, distribution, and installation of security patches and related software to network-based computer systems in a vendor-independent fashion. SSDS will assist with the authentication of software by comparing the system`s objects with the patch`s objects. SSDS will monitor vendor`s patch sites to determine when new patches are released and will upgrade system software on target systems automatically. This paper describes the design of SSDS. Motivations behind the project, the advantages of SSDS over existing tools as well as the current status of the project are also discussed. 2 figs.

First phase was to develop a laboratory technique for evaluating the machinability of gray and ductile iron; longer term goal is to learn how to modify the foundry process to produce castings meeting all specified mechanical properties while providing improved machining behavior. Microcarbides present in the irons were found to dominate the machinability of iron. Pearlitic irons with acceptable machinability contain 8.9 to 10.5 wt% microcarbides. The weight fraction microcarbides in the iron is influenced by carbide forming element concentrations, presence of elements that retard carbon diffusion, and cooling rate from the eutectic through the eutectoid temperature range. Tool wear rate increased at higher surface machining speeds and fraction microcarbides; all irons containing above 11.5% microcarbides had poor machinability. Graphite size, shape, distribution, etc. had a lesser effect on machinability. Reducing the addition of a foundry grade Ca and Al bearing 75% FeSi inoculant from 0.5 to 0.2% increased the tool life 100%. Inoculation test castings were also poured in a class 40 gray iron; laboratory analysis is currently underway. Exploratory studies were conducted to determine if tool force could be used to predict tool life: torque and feed forces were found to correlate with machinability.

This report documents activities carried in support of the design and construction of an ultra-high precision measuring machine intended for the support of Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography development (for semiconductor fabrication). At the outset, this project was aimed at the overall fabrication of such a measuring machine. Shortly after initiation, however, the scope of activities was reduced and effort was concentrated on the key technical advances necessary to support such machine development: high accuracy surface sensing and highly linear distance interferometry.

The original intention for this work was to impart the technology that was developed in the field of computational aeronautics to the field of computational physical oceanography. This technology transfer involved grid generation techniques and solution procedures to solve the governing equations over the grids thus generated. Specifically, boundary fitting non-orthogonal grids would be generated over a sphere taking into account the topography of the ocean floor and the topography of the continents. The solution methodology to be employed involved the application of an upwind, finite volume discretization procedure that uses higher order numerical fluxes at the cell faces to discretize the governing equations and an implicit Newton relaxation technique to solve the discretized equations. This report summarizes the efforts put forth during the past three years to achieve these goals and indicates the future direction of this work as it is still an ongoing effort.

Experiments in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) have explored several novel regimes of improved tokamak confinement in deuterium-tritium (D-T) plasmas, including plasmas with reduced or reversed magnetic shear in the core and high-current plasmas with increased shear in the outer region (high-l{sub i}). New techniques have also been developed to enhance the confinement in these regimes by modifying the plasma-limiter interaction through in-situ deposition of lithium. In reversed-shear plasmas, transitions to enhanced confinement have been observed at plasma currents up to 2.2 MA (q{sub a} {approx} 4.3), accompanied by the formation of internal transport barriers, where large radial gradients develop in the temperature and density profiles. Experiments have been performed to elucidate the mechanism of the barrier formation and its relationship with the magnetic configuration and with the heating characteristics. The increased stability of high-current, high-l{sub i} plasmas produced by rapid expansion of the minor cross-section, coupled with improvement in the confinement by lithium deposition has enabled the achievement of high fusion power, up to 8.7 MW, with D-T neutral beam heating. The physics of fusion alpha-particle confinement has been investigated in these regimes, including the interactions of the alphas with endogenous plasma instabilities and externally applied waves in …

To develop integrated policies for mobilization preparedness, planners require estimates and projections of available productive capacity during national emergency conditions. This report develops projections of national emergency operating capacity (EOC) for 458 US manufacturing industries at the 4-digit Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) level. These measures are intended for use in planning models that are designed to predict the demands for detailed industry sectors that would occur under conditions such as a military mobilization or a major national disaster. This report is part of an ongoing series of studies prepared by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to support mobilization planning studies of the Federal Emergency Planning Agency/US Department of Defense (FEMA/DOD). Earlier sets of EOC estimates were developed in 1985 and 1991. This study presents estimates of EOC through 2005. As in the 1991 study, projections of capacity were based upon extrapolations of equipment capital stocks. The methodology uses time series regression models based on industry data to obtain a response function of industry capital stock to levels of industrial output. The distributed lag coefficients of these response function are then used with projected outputs to extrapolate the 1994 level of EOC. Projections of industrial outputs were taken from the intermediate-term …

Atomistic simulations are performed for the (222)MgO/Cu interface by local density functional theory (LDFT) methods, within the planewave-pseudopotential representation, and by molecular dynamics and statics. The electronic spectra obtained with LDFT calculations show a localized interface state within the bulk MgO gap, at 0.5 eV below the Fermi energy. Adhesive energy calculations, as a function of interface spacing and translations parallel to the interface, are employed to devise an interatomic potential suitable for large-scale atomistic simulation. The interface structure, obtained with molecular dynamics (and statics) calculations based on the resultant potential, exhibits a misfit dislocation network with trigonal symmetry, and no standoff dislocations.

The discipline of materials science and engineering often involves understanding and controlling properties of interfaces. The authors address the challenge of educating students about properties of interfaces, particularly dynamic properties and effects of unstable interfaces. A series of simple, inexpensive, hands-on activities about fluid interfaces provides students with a testbed to develop intuition about interface dynamics. The experiments highlight the essential role of initial interfacial perturbations in determining the dynamic response of the interface. The experiments produce dramatic, unexpected effects when initial perturbations are controlled and inhibited. These activities help students to develop insight about unstable interfaces that can be applied to analogous problems in materials science and engineering. The lessons examine ``Rayleigh-Taylor instability,`` an interfacial instability that occurs when a higher-density fluid is above a lower-density fluid.

In 1996, a study was initiated to assess seasonal habitat use and movement patterns of Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) using global positioning system (GPS) radio collars. As part of this study, the authors attempted to assess the accuracies of GPS (non-differentially corrected) positions under various vegetation canopies and terrain conditions with the use of a GPS ``test`` collar. The test collar was activated every twenty minutes to obtain a position location and continuously uplinked to Argos satellites to transfer position data files. They used a Telonics, Inc. uplink receiver to intercept the transmission and view the results of the collar in real time. They placed the collar on a stand equivalent to the neck height of an adult elk and then placed the stand within three different treatment categories: (1) topographical influence (canyon and mesa tops), (2) canopy influence (open and closed canopy), and (3) vegetation type influence (ponderosa pine and pinion pine-juniper). The collar was kept at each location for one hour (usually obtaining three fixes). In addition, the authors used a hand-held GPS to obtain a position of the test collar at the same time and location.

This thesis presents a design for a 10,000 ton liquid scintillator neutrino detector being considered for the MINOS project at Fermilab. Details of designing, manufacturing, and assembling the active detector components are presented. The detector consists of 1080 magnetized steel absorber planes alternating with 1080 active detector planes. Each active plane is made up of plastic extrusions divided into nearly 400 cells for positional resolution. Life tests on the plastic extrusions determine their feasibility for containing the scintillator. The extrusions are sealed at the bottom, filled with liquid scintillator, and have an optical fiber running the entire length of each cell. The fibers terminate at the top of each extrusion in a manifold. An optical-fiber-light-guide connects the fibers in each manifold to a photo-detector. The photo-detector converts the light signals from the scintillator and optical fibers into electrical impulses for computer analysis.

We provide in this report a methodology to estimate bounds on the changes in fracture permeability due to thermal-mechanical processes associated with excavation of drifts and emplacement of waste. This report is the first milestone associated with Task A of the LLNL initiative to evaluate available methods for estimating chamges in fracture permeability surrounding drifts in the Exploratory Studies Facility (ESF) and the potential repository at Yucca Mountain in response to (1) construction-induced stress changes and (2) subsequent thermal pulse effects due to waste emplacement. These results are needed for modeling changes in repository-level moisture movement and seepage.

We have been developing a workstation for the removal of high explosive (HE) from nuclear warheads using hot sprays of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) to dissolve the HE> An important component of the workstation is the air cleaning system tat is used to contain DMSO aerosols and vapor and radioactive aerosols. The air cleaning system consists of a condenser to liquefy the hot DMSO vapor, a demister pad to remove most of the DMSO aerosol, a HEPA filter, an activated carbon filter and a final HEPA filter to meet the redundancy requirement for HEPA filters in radioactive applications. The demister pad of a 4 inch thick mat of glass and steel fibers and was selected by comparative evaluations. After all the components were assembled, we ran a series of performance tests on the components and system to determine the particle capture efficiency as a function of size for dioctyl sebacate and DMSO aerosols using laser particle counters and filter samples. The pad had an efficiency greater than 99% for 0.1 micron DMSO particles. Test results on the prototype carbon filter showed only 70% efficiency, instead of the 99.9% in small laboratory tests.

This document summarizes existing criticality safety evaluations and identifies design features that are considered to be one of the two contingencies required to prevent exceeding the criticality limit of 0.95 k eff in the Plutonium Finishing Plant.

The SDD documents the Structures, Systems, and Components that establish the facility Safety Envelope for the Cementation of SS&C.

This document estimates the temperature of the sludge inventory projected to be stored in the K East Basin Weasel Pit during the Spent Nuclear Fuel Project. Hydrogen generation rates are also estimated. Since many of the needed sludge properties are not well known, the analysis considered a range values to show the sensitivity of the results.

This effort has focused on the development of new systems for the catalytic formation of organosilicon monomers and polymers. Several new classes of ruthenium phosphine complexes containing one, two, or three silicon ligands have been prepared, and which exhibit unique catalytic reactivity for (1) the dehydrogenative coupling of tertiary alkyl silanes to polycarbonsilanes, (2) dehydrogenative coupling of secondary and primary alkyl and aryl silanes to polysilanes, and (3) the dehydrogenative heterocoupling of silanes with substituted arenes to yield aryl silanes. In addition, germanium analogs of the ruthenium silyl complexes have been found to be effective catalysts for the unprecedented demethanative coupling of alkyl germanes to high molecular weight polygermanes. For each of these new reactions, key mechanistic features of the catalytic processes have been elucidated, and the complexes have been extensively studied in terms of relevant stoichiometric reactivity and structural features.

The purpose of the Enhanced Nonthermal Treatment Systems (ENTS) study is to evaluate alternative configurations of one of the five systems evaluated in the Integrated Nonthermal Treatment Systems (INTS) study. Five alternative configurations are evaluated. Each is designed to enhance the final waste form performance by replacing grout with improved stabilization technologies, or to improve system performance by improving the destruction efficiency for organic contaminants. AU enhanced systems are alternative configurations of System NT-5, which has the following characteristics: Nonthermal System NT-5: (1) catalytic wet oxidation (CWO) to treat organic material including organic liquids, sludges, and soft (or combustible) debris, (2) thermal desorption of inorganic sludge and process residue, (3) washing of soil and inorganic debris with treatment by CWO of removed organic material, (4) metal decontamination by abrasive blasting, (5) stabilization of treated sludge, soil, debris, and untreated debris with entrained contamination in grout, and (6) stabilization of inorganic sludge, salts and secondary waste in polymer. System NT-5 was chosen because it was designed to treat combustible debris thereby minimizing the final waste form volume, and because it uses grout for primary stabilization. The enhanced nonthermal systems were studied to determine the cost and performance impact of replacing grout …

The time and motion study was developed to look at time-related aspects of the technologies and systems studied in the Integrated Thermal Treatment Systems (ITTS) and Integrated Nonthermal Treatment Systems (INTS) studies. The INTS and ITTS studies combined technologies into systems and subsystems for evaluation. The system approach provides DOE a method of measuring advantages and disadvantages of the many technologies currently being researched. For example, technologies which are more likely to create secondary waste or require extensive pretreatment handling may be less desirable than technologies which require less support from other processes. The time and motion study was designed to address the time element in the INTS and ITTS systems studies. Previous studies have focused on material balance, cost, technical effectiveness, regulatory issues, community acceptance, and operability. This study looks at system dynamics by estimating the treatment time required for a unit of waste, from receipt to certification for shipping. Labor estimates are also developed, based on the time required to do each task for each process. This focus on time highlights critical path processes and potential bottlenecks in the INTS and ITTS systems.

This program was aimed at understanding refrigerant/lubricant circulation issues, developing test data and approximate models that can predict operating regimes where good oil management can be assured. A dynamic test facility was constructed and used to examine oil return under varying system operating conditions. The development of industry guidelines for system reliability in using the new refrigerant blends was a goal of this program. To validate the guidelines, techniques and predictions, this dynamic test facility was used to obtain data to compare to the analytical predictions. The overall program approach undertaken to meet this objective was: (1) to identify poor oil return scenarios and, therefore, the worst case oil return parameters for conventional residential HVAC systems using HCFC-22 and mineral oils, in terms of compressor, suction and exhaust line vapor velocity, and refrigerant viscosity requirements; (2) design and instrument a test apparatus that simulates such conditions, as well as those that might be achieved with HFC and POE mixtures and HFCs and mineral oils; (3) conduct tests with the range of baseline refrigerants and lubricant mixtures to provide experimental data; and (4) prepare, present and interpret the test data to provide an expanded understanding of the phenomena required for good …