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The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) is a U.S. Department of Energy research and development laboratory located at the Savannah River Site (SRS) near Aiken, South Carolina. SRNL has over 50 years of experience in developing and applying hydrogen technology, both through its national defense activities as well as through its recent activities with the DOE Hydrogen Programs. The hydrogen technical staff at SRNL comprises over 90 scientists, engineers and technologists, and it is believed to be the largest such staff in the U.S. SRNL has ongoing R&D initiatives in a variety of hydrogen storage areas, including metal hydrides, complex hydrides, chemical hydrides and carbon nanotubes. SRNL has over 25 years of experience in metal hydrides and solid-state hydrogen storage research, development and demonstration. As part of its defense mission at SRS, SRNL developed, designed, demonstrated and provides ongoing technical support for the largest hydrogen processing facility in the world based on the integrated use of metal hydrides for hydrogen storage, separation, and compression. The SRNL has been active in teaming with academic and industrial partners to advance hydrogen technology. A primary focus of SRNL's R&D has been hydrogen storage using metal and complex hydrides. SRNL and its Hydrogen Technology …

Optical Coherence Tomography is explored as a method to image laser-damage sites located on the surface of large aperture fused silica optics during post-processing via CO{sub 2} laser ablation. The signal analysis for image acquisition was adapted to meet the sensitivity requirements for this application. A long-working distance geometry was employed to allow imaging through the opposite surface of the 5-cm thick optic. The experimental results demonstrate the potential of OCT for remote monitoring of transparent material processing applications.

In this LDRD, we examined in detail the pressure-induced bonding and local coordination changes leading to the molecular {yields} associated {yields} extended-solid transitions in carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}). We studied the progressive delocalization of electrons from the C=O molecular double bond at high pressures and temperatures, and determined the phase stability and physical properties of a new extended-solid CO{sub 2} phase (VI). We find that the new CO{sub 2} phase VI is based on a network of six-fold coordinated (octahedral) CO{sub 6} structures similar to the ultra-hard SiO{sub 2} phase stishovite.

The Fast Ignition (FI) concept for Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) has the potential to provide a significant advance in the technical attractiveness of Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) reactors. FI differs from conventional 'central hot spot' (CHS) target ignition by using one driver (laser, heavy ion beam or Z-pinch) to create a dense fuel and a separate ultra-short, ultra-intense laser beam to ignite the dense core. FI targets can burn with {approx} 3X lower density fuel than CHS targets, resulting in (all other things being equal) lower required compression energy, relaxed drive symmetry, relaxed target smoothness tolerances, and, importantly, higher gain. The short, intense ignition pulse that drives this process interacts with extremely high energy density plasmas; the physics that controls this interaction is only now becoming accessible in the lab, and is still not well understood. The attraction of obtaining higher gains in smaller facilities has led to a worldwide explosion of effort in the studies of FI. In particular, two new US facilities to be completed in 2009/2010, OMEGA/OMEGA EP and NIF-ARC (as well as others overseas) will include FI investigations as part of their program. These new facilities will be able to approach FI conditions much more closely …

We describe the results of an effort, funded by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program, to model, using FLASH time-dependent adaptive-mesh hydrodynamic simulations, XSTAR photoionization calculations, HULLAC atomic data, and Monte Carlo radiation transport, the radiatively-driven photoionized wind and accretion flow of high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs). In this final report, we describe the purpose, approach, and technical accomplishments of this effort, including maps of the density, temperature, velocity, ionization parameter, and emissivity distributions of the X-ray emission lines of the well-studied HMXB Vela X-1.

Optical properties of near-surface kidney tissue were monitored in order to assess response during reperfusion to long (20 minutes) versus prolonged (150 minutes) ischemia in an in vivo rat model. Specifically, autofluorescence images of the exposed surfaces of both the normal and the ischemic kidneys were acquired during both injury and reperfusion alternately under 355 nm and 266 nm excitations. The temporal profile of the emission of the injured kidney during the reperfusion phase under 355 nm excitation was normalized to that under 266 nm as a means to account for changes in tissue optical properties independent of ischemia as well as changes in the illumination/collection geometrical parameters in future clinical implementation of this technique using a hand-held probe. The scattered excitation light signal was also evaluated as a reference signal and found to be inadequate. Characteristic time constants were extracted using fit to a relaxation model and found to have larger mean values following 150 minutes of injury. The mean values were then compared with the outcome of a chronic survival study where the control kidney had been removed. Rat kidneys exhibiting longer time constants were much more likely to fail. This may lead to a method to assess …

The methodological development and computational implementation of linear scaling quantum chemistry methods for the accurate calculation of electronic structure and properties of periodic systems (solids, surfaces, and polymers) and their application to chemical problems of DOE relevance.

An in situ method for studying the role of laser energy on the microstructural evolution of polycrystalline Si is presented. By monitoring both laser energy and microstructural evolution simultaneously in the dynamic transmission electron microscope, information on grain size and defect concentration can be correlated directly with processing conditions. This proof of principle study provides fundamental scientific information on the crystallization process that has technological importance for the development of thin film transistors. In conclusion, we successfully developed a method for studying UV laser processing of Si films in situ on nanosecond time scales, with ultimate implications for TFT application improvements. In addition to grain size distribution as a function of laser energy density, we found that grain size scaled with laser energy in general. We showed that nanosecond time resolution allowed us to see the nucleation and growth front during processing, which will help further the understanding of microstructural evolution of poly-Si films for electronic applications. Future studies, coupled with high resolution TEM, will be performed to study grain boundary migration, intergranular defects, and grain size distribution with respect to laser energy and adsorption depth.

The growth of Fe upon GaAs(001) has been studied with Spin-Resolved Photoelectron Spectroscopy (SRPES), Photoelectron Spectroscopy (PES) and X-ray Magnetic Linear Dichroism (XMLD) in PES. Despite evidence of atomic level disorder such as intermixing, an over-layer with the spectroscopic signature of {alpha}-Fe(001), with a bcc real space ordering, is obtained. The results will be discussed in light of the possibility of using such films as a spin polarized source in device applications.

A detailed chemical kinetic reaction mechanism has been developed for a group of four small alkyl ester fuels, consisting of methyl formate, methyl acetate, ethyl formate and ethyl acetate. This mechanism is validated by comparisons between computed results and recently measured intermediate species mole fractions in fuel-rich, low pressure, premixed laminar flames. The model development employs a principle of similarity of functional groups in constraining the H atom abstraction and unimolecular decomposition reactions in each of these fuels. As a result, the reaction mechanism and formalism for mechanism development are suitable for extension to larger oxygenated hydrocarbon fuels, together with an improved kinetic understanding of the structure and chemical kinetics of alkyl ester fuels that can be extended to biodiesel fuels. Variations in concentrations of intermediate species levels in these flames are traced to differences in the molecular structure of the fuel molecules.

Semantic graphs have become key components in analyzing complex systems such as the Internet, or biological and social networks. These types of graphs generally consist of sparsely connected clusters or 'communities' whose nodes are more densely connected to each other than to other nodes in the graph. The identification of these communities is invaluable in facilitating the visualization, understanding, and analysis of large graphs by producing subgraphs of related data whose interrelationships can be readily characterized. Unfortunately, the ability of LLNL to effectively analyze the terabytes of multisource data at its disposal has remained elusive, since existing decomposition algorithms become computationally prohibitive for graphs of this size. We have addressed this limitation by developing more efficient algorithms for discerning community structure that can effectively process massive graphs. Current algorithms for detecting community structure, such as the high quality algorithm developed by Girvan and Newman [1], are only capable of processing relatively small graphs. The cubic complexity of Girvan and Newman, for example, makes it impractical for graphs with more than approximately 10{sup 4} nodes. Our goal for this project was to develop methodologies and corresponding algorithms capable of effectively processing graphs with up to 10{sup 9} nodes. From a practical …