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 …

Plutonium solutions stored at the Plutonium Finishing Plant must be treated to convert the plutonium to a safe, solid form for storage and to remove the americium so that radiation exposure can be reduced. Extraction chromatographic resins will be tested for separating plutonium from these solutions in the laboratory. Separation parameters will be developed during the testing for large scale processing of the solutions. Use of chromatographic resins will allow plutonium separation with minimum of chemical addition to the feed and without the need for plutonium valence adjustment. The separated plutonium will be calcined to plutonium oxide by direct solution calcination.

This report focuses on research done over the past four years under the grant with the above title. In addition, the report also includes a brief summary of work done before 1994 under grant DOE-DE-FG02-85ER13396. Finally, a complete list of publications that acknowledge support from this grant is listed at the end.

The Consolidated Incineration Facility at the Savannah River Site is designed without emergency flue gas vents. The main components of this 18 million btu/hr facility are a rotary kiln and secondary combustion chamber, each with a code allowable internal pressure of 15 psig. The facility is designed to treat mixed waste. During the early stages of design it was judged on a qualitative basis that potential eventsthat might produce damaging overpressures were not credible. When these findings were questioned during subsequent design reviews, a probabilistic risk assessment was undertaken to provide a quantitative basis for decision making. The result was identification of design conditions leading to relatively high frequencies for a few event sequences in which the allowable pressure might be exceeded. Risk assessment assumptions and results were reviewed with design engineers and relatively simple improvements were identified that collectively reduced the frequency of overpressure to an acceptable level. This experience showed that the use of formalized risk assessment techniques can provide valuable insight leading to timely and cost-effective improvements in facility design and operating procedures. In this case, the program of analysis and follow-on improvements provided justification for incinerator operation without thermal relief devices.

The Consolidated Incineration Facility at the Savannah River Site is designed without emergency flue gas vents. The main components of this 18 million btu/hr facility are a rotary kiln and secondary combustion chamber, each with a code allowable internal pressure of 15 psig. The facility is designed to treat mixed waste. During the early stages of design it was judged on a qualitative basis that potential eventsthat might produce damaging overpressures were not credible. When these findings were questioned during subsequent design reviews, a probabilistic risk assessment was undertaken to provide a quantitative basis for decision making. The result was identification of design conditions leading to relatively high frequencies for a few event sequences in which the allowable pressure might be exceeded. Risk assessment assumptions and results were reviewed with design engineers and relatively simple improvements were identified that collectively reduced the frequency of overpressure to an acceptable level. This experience showed that the use of formalized risk assessment techniques can provide valuable insight leading to timely and cost-effective improvements in facility design and operating procedures. In this case, the program of analysis and follow-on improvements provided justification for incinerator operation without thermal relief devices.

Two stirred tank slurry reactor tests of catalysts with nominal compositions 100 Fe/3Cu/4 K/2 Ca/16 SiO{sub 2} (run SB-3115) and 100 Fe/5 Cu/6 K/24 SiO{sub 2} (run SA-3155) were completed under task 5, The Effect of Source of Potassium and Basic Oxide Promoter, during the reporting period. Our assessment of the effects of addition of CaO promoter to our baseline catalysts B and C and the use of potassium silicate as the source of potassium promoter is as follows: in general, the addition of CaO promoter did not result in improved performance of the baseline catalysts; the use of CaO promoter may be best suited for operation at higher reaction pressures; the baseline procedure utilizing impregnation of Fe-Cu-SiO{sub 2} precursor with aqueous solution of KHCO{sub 3} as the source of potassium promoter is the preferred method of preparation; and the procedure which utilizes aqueous K{sub 2}SiO{sub 3} solution as the source of potassium also provides satisfactory results, and may be used as an alternative. A slurry reactor test (run SB-3425) was completed during the reporting period, following the catalyst pretreatment with H{sub 2} at 250{degrees}C for 4 h (Task 6. Pretreatment Effect Research). This pretreatment resulted in higher catalyst activity …

This report summarizes the 1991 calendar year activities of the fusion gamma ray diagnostics project in the Physics Department at the Colorado School of Mines. Considerable progress has been realized in the fusion gamma ray diagnostic project in the last year. Specifically we have achieved the two major goals of the project as outlined in last year`s proposed work statement to the Office of Applied Plasma Physics in the DOE Division of Magnetic Fusion Energy. The two major goals were: (1) Solution of the severe interference problem encountered during the operation of the gamma ray spectrometer concurrent with high power levels of the neutral beam injectors (NBI) and the ICRH antenae. (2) Experimental determination of the absolute detection efficiency of the gamma ray spectrometer. This detection efficiency will allow the measured yields of the gamma rays to be converted to a total reaction rate. In addition to these two major accomplishments, we have continued, as permitted by the TFTR operating schedule, the observation of high energy gamma rays from the 3He(D,{gamma})5Li reaction during deuterium NBI heating of 3He plasmas.

This report summarizes the 1991 calendar year activities of the fusion gamma ray diagnostics project in the Physics Department at the Colorado School of Mines. Considerable progress has been realized in the fusion gamma ray diagnostic project in the last year. Specifically we have achieved the two major goals of the project as outlined in last year's proposed work statement to the Office of Applied Plasma Physics in the DOE Division of Magnetic Fusion Energy. The two major goals were: (1) Solution of the severe interference problem encountered during the operation of the gamma ray spectrometer concurrent with high power levels of the neutral beam injectors (NBI) and the ICRH antenae. (2) Experimental determination of the absolute detection efficiency of the gamma ray spectrometer. This detection efficiency will allow the measured yields of the gamma rays to be converted to a total reaction rate. In addition to these two major accomplishments, we have continued, as permitted by the TFTR operating schedule, the observation of high energy gamma rays from the 3He(D,{gamma})5Li reaction during deuterium NBI heating of 3He plasmas.

None

Much of the equipment and instrumentation in the Pu-238 production facilities is more than 15 years old. Significant improvements have been made in the available instrumentation, in particular, due to the application of microprocessors and lasers. The Actinide Technology Section of SRL has selected and is in the process of evaluating several state-of-the-art instruments which have potential applications in the Pu-238 program. The ease of operation and the accuracy of the instruments have been improved and, in most cases, the cost of the instruments have decreased. 5 refs.

Los Alamos and SEMATECH have evaluated a silent discharge plasma (SDP) device for point-of-use (POU) control of specific semiconductor VOC emissions at the source. Destruction efficiencies were initially determined at the bench scale using controlled gas mixtures and system performance was measured for simulated emissions containing a variety of volatile organic compounds (including HMDS) and PFCs. Based on this work, a field-pilot unit was designed and tested at a SEMATECH member site using two slip-streams: (1) PGMEA and HMDS gas mixture from lithography tools and the, (2) acetone, PCE and methanol from a wet bench cleaning tool. Based on the pilot test data, CoO estimates for the SDP technology show annual operating expenses (including amortized capital and installation costs, maintenance, and utilities) are $8.3K for a single 250 scfm lithotrack tool. End-of-pipe (EOP) system costs are $33.3K per 1000 scfm as compared to about $22K per 1000 scfm for a typical EOP concentrator/thermal abatement system. LANL does not recommend replacing existing EOP systems with SDP. However SDP could be easily installed in {open_quotes}niche{close_quotes} circumstances for POU control of VOCs from lithotrack tools.

On May 17, 1991, the US Department of Energy (DOE) issued a directive for DOE operations to cease off-site shipments of non-radioactive hazardous waste pending further clarification and approvals. A DOE Performance Objective for Certification of Non-Radioactive Hazardous Waste was issued in November 1991. In response to these directives, the Waste Management Division of Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant, with assistance from Roy F. Weston, Inc., has developed a No Rad-Added Program to provide small programmatic guidance and a set of procedures, approved by DOE, which will permit hazardous waste to be shipped from the Y-12 Plant to commercial treatment, storage, or disposal facilities after ensuring and certifying that hazardous waste has no radioactivity added as a result of DOE operations. There are serious legal and financial consequences of shipping waste containing radioactivity to an off-site facility not licensed to receive radioactive materials. Therefore, this program is designed with well-defined responsibilities and stringent documentation requirements.

This report characterizes, as far as possible, the solid radioactive wastes generated by Babcock and Wilcox`s Park Township Plutonium Facility near Leechburg, Pennsylvania that were sent to retrievable storage at the Hanford Site. Solid waste as defined in this document is any containerized or self-contained material that has been declared waste. The objective is a description of characteristics of solid wastes that are or will be managed by the Restoration and Upgrades Program; gaseous or liquid effluents are discussed only at a summary level This characterization is of particular interest in the planning of transuranic (TRU) waste retrieval operations, including the Waste Receiving and Processing (WRAP) Facility, because Babcock and Wilcox generated greater than 2.5 percent of the total volume of TRU waste currently stored at the Hanford Site.

The ORLaND (Oak Ridge Large Neutrino Detector) collaboration proposes to construct a large neutrino detector in an underground experimental hall adjacent to the first target station of the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The main mission of a large (2000 ton) Scintillation-Cherenkov detector is to measure {bar {nu}}{sub {mu}} {r_arrow} {bar {nu}}{sub e} neutrino oscillation parameters more accurately than they can be determined in other experiments, or significantly extending the covered parameter space below (sin'20 {le} 10{sup {minus}4}). In addition to the neutrino oscillation measurements, ORLaND would be capable of making precise measurements of sin{sup 2} {theta}{sub W}, search for the magnetic moment of the muon neutrino, and investigate the anomaly in the KARMEN time spectrum, which has been attributed to a new neutral particle. With the same facility an extensive program of measurements of neutrino nucleus cross sections is also planned to support nuclear astrophysics.

The E{sub I} model and this program were developed to assist the Office of Munitions (OM) in planning and coordination of conventional munitions programs at the macro level. OM`s primary responsibilities include (1) development of an overall munitions acquisition strategy and (2) oversight of all DoD programs for conventional munitions Research and Development (R&D) and Procurement, as well as existing munitions inventories. In this role, OM faces the challenge of integrating Service budgets and priorities within the framework of overall DoD policy and objectives. OM must have a firm, quantitative basis for making acquisition decision and stockpile disposition recommendations. To do this, OM needs a rigorous but simple means for conducting top-level analyses of the overall conventional munitions program. This analysis must be founded on a consistent, quantitative process that allows for an assessment of the existing program, as well as the capability to compare and contrast alternative resource allocation recommendations. The E{sub I} model provides a means for quickly conducting a multitude of assessments across target classes, contingency areas, and for different planning scenarios. It is neither data intensive no is it a complex combat simulation. Its goal is to allow for rapid tradeoff analyses of competing munitions alternatives, …

This paper addresses the issue of what is an open architecture robot controllers. Three different classifications are defined along with the various advantages and shortcomings of each approach. Knowledge from past research and new technology has been included in this analysis. The conclusions recommend a communication-based hybrid approach with well defined interfaces between modules.

As part of the plutonium stabilization operations in the 234-5Z Building, several runs of 26-inch (26 inches of Hg) process vacuum header, along with associated smaller piping is to be cut into sections and disposed of. This criticality safety evaluation report (CSER) requested by Nirider (1996) addresses the removal of several hundred feet of abandoned 3 and 4 inch nominal diameter vacuum header and associated smaller diameter piping runs located in the duct level of the 234-5Z Building in rooms 262, 263, and 264 as shown in the two attached drawings.

On February 6, 1992, approximately 35 SRS personnel from DOE, WSRC, and Dames and Moore attended a very informative talk given by Dr. E.L. Albenesius who discussed the operation of the SRS Burial Ground from an historical perspective. Dr. Albenesius, a Du Point retiree, formerly served as research manager of SRL`s Environmental Effects and Solid Waste Management Technology Divisions among other assignments. One notable point Dr. Albenesius made was in answer to a question concerning what was the most important thing that could be done to reduce the hazard to man from buried waste. His response was to remove as much plutonium as practical prior to closure. In order to preserve this valuable information for the record, the program was audiotaped from which a point-by-point chronological transcription, with minor editing, was prepared.

In 1990 the U.S. Department of Energy declared an unreviewed safety question as a result of the behavior of tank 241-SY-101. This tank exhibited episodic releases of flammable gases that on a couple of occasions exceeded the lower flammability limit of hydrogen in air. Over the past six years a considerable amount of knowledge has been gained about the chemical and physical processes that govern the behavior of tank 241-SY-101 and the other tanks associated with a potential flammable gas hazard. This paper presents an overview of the current understanding of gas generation, retention, and release and covers the results of direct sampling of the tanks to determine the gas composition and the amount of stored gas.

The nitrogen fixing bacterium azotobacter paspali was first isolated from the roots of the sub-tropical grass, palpium notatum, and added to the clenus in 1996, by Dr. J. Dobereiner (Brazil). It is mentioned that this root association bacteria shows remarkable signs of host-plant specificity to one eco-type of this grass. This specificity is rare in non-symbiotic plant microbe interactions so far identified.

The three boxes being reviewed all operate at a pressure of less than 15 psig. Since they are relieved at 13 psig, they fall outside the scopes of the ASME Pressure Vessel Code, Fermilab Engineering Standard SD-37B, and Chapter 5031 of the Fermilab Safety Manual, therefore a Pressure Vessel Engineering Note showing compliance with SD-37B is not required. In calculating the design stresses, only the largest of the three boxes, the signal board feed-thru box, was analyzed. This box had the largest spans and areas and would experience the largest pressure-related forces. The thinnest walls of each box were found to be in the top plates and they were also the side of the box which exposed the largest amount of area to internal pressure. The signal board feed-thru box top plate had at least twice the pressure area than either the instrumentation or hi-voltage boxes' top plates. This large disparity overshadows the slight difference in top plate thicknesses between the three boxes (0.56-inch vs. 0.25-inch and 0.3125-inch, respectively). Therefore, we felt the analysis of the larger signal board feedthru box would justify the design of the smaller instrumentation and hi-voltage boxes. Appended to the end of this engineering note …

The US Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a rule which would mandate that 30% of the oxygen content of reformulated gasoline be provided by renewable oxygenates. The rule would essentially require that biomass-based ethanol, or ETBE derived from ethanol, be used to supply 30% of the oxygen in reformulated gasoline. This short statement addresses the very narrow question, ``Would this rule result in a net decrease in greenhouse gas emissions?`` The challenge then is to determine how much greenhouse gas is emitted during the ethanol fuel cycle, a fuel cycle that is much less mature and less well documented than the petroleum fuel cycle. In the petroleum fuel cycle, most of the greenhouse gas emissions come from fuel combustion. In the ethanol fuel cycle most of the greenhouse gas emissions come from the fuel production processes. Details of corn productivity, fertilizer use, process efficiency, fuel source, etc. become very important. It is also important that the ethanol fuel cycle produces additional products and the greenhouse gas emissions have somehow to be allocated among the respective products. With so many variables in the ethanol fuel cycle, the concern is actually with ethanol-based additives which will be produced in response to the …

Tests were conducted at New York State Gas & Electric`s (NYSEG`s) Kintigh Station to evaluate options for achieving high sulfur dioxide (SO{sub 2}) removal efficiency in the wet limestone flue gas desulfurization (FGD) system. This test program was one of six conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy to evaluate low-capital-cost upgrades to existing FGD systems as a means for utilities to comply with the requirements of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. The upgrade option tested at Kintigh was sodium formate additive. Results from the tests were used to calibrate the Electric Power Research Institute`s (EPRI) FGD PRocess Integration and Simulation Model (FGDPRISM) to the Kintigh scrubber configuration. FGDPRISM was then used to predict system performance for evaluating conditions other than those tested. An economic evaluation was then done to determine the cost effectiveness of various high-efficiency upgrade options. These costs can be compared with the estimated market value of SO{sub 2} allowance or the expected costs of allowances generated by other means, such as fuel switching or new scrubbers, to arrive at the most cost-effective strategy for Clean Air Act compliance.

A diode-side-pumped ZnSe:Cr{sup 2+} laser was operated with a 75 - Watt peak power 1.65 {micro}m InGaAsP/InP pump array. The laser was configured with a ``single-bounce`` architecture to maximize its round-trip gain. Peak output powers of {approx}0.3 Watt were obtained with a 10% - transmitting output coupler and a lightly-doped crystal. The estimated ``mode fill`` of {approx}0.06 will increase with Cr{sup 2+} concentration, raising the output power and extraction efficiency. With a grating tuner and MgF{sub 2}:Co{sup 2+} laser pumping, the laser tuned throughout the 2134 - 2799 nm range.