Energy Efficiency Standards and Labels in North America: Opportunities for Harmonization (open access)

Energy Efficiency Standards and Labels in North America: Opportunities for Harmonization

To support the North American Energy Working Group's Expert Group on Energy Efficiency (NAEWG-EE), USDOE commissioned the Collaborative Labeling and Appliance Standards Program (CLASP) to prepare a resource document comparing current standards, labels, and test procedure regulations in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The resulting document reached the following conclusions: Out of 24 energy-using products for which at least one of the three countries has energy efficiency regulations, three products -- refrigerators/freezers, split system central air conditioners, and room air conditioners -- have similar or identical minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) in the three countries. These same three products, as well as three-phase motors, have similar or identical test procedures throughout the region. There are 10 products with different MEPS and test procedures, but which have the short-term potential to develop common test procedures, MEPS, and/or labels. Three other noteworthy areas where possible energy efficiency initiatives have potential for harmonization are standby losses, uniform endorsement labels, and a new standard or label on windows. This paper explains these conclusions and presents the underlying comparative data.
Date: May 16, 2002
Creator: Vanwiemcgrory, Laura; Wiel, Stephen; Van Wie McGrory, Laura & Harrington, Lloyd
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Final Technical Report, Outstanding Junior Investigator Award for De-fg02-94er40869 (open access)

Final Technical Report, Outstanding Junior Investigator Award for De-fg02-94er40869

This report summarizes the research of the Principal Investigator, his postdoctoral research associates, and his students during the period of the award. The majority of the work concerns the behavior of hadrons containing strange, charm, bottom and top quarks, with a particular focus on the extraction of Cabibbo--Kobayashi--Maskawa matrix elements from experiments performed on such systems.
Date: May 16, 2002
Creator: Falk, Adam F.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Measurement Issues for Energy Efficient Commercial Buildings: Productivity and Performance Uncertainties (open access)

Measurement Issues for Energy Efficient Commercial Buildings: Productivity and Performance Uncertainties

In previous reports, we have identified two potentially important issues, solutions to which would increase the attractiveness of DOE-developed technologies in commercial buildings energy systems. One issue concerns the fact that in addition to saving energy, many new technologies offer non-energy benefits that contribute to building productivity (firm profitability). The second issue is that new technologies are typically unproven in the eyes of decision makers and must bear risk premiums that offset cost advantages resulting from laboratory calculations. Even though a compelling case can be made for the importance of these issues, for building decision makers to incorporate them in business decisions and for DOE to use them in R&D program planning there must be robust empirical evidence of their existence and size. This paper investigates how such measurements could be made and offers recommendations as to preferred options. There is currently little systematic information on either of these concepts in the literature. Of the two there is somewhat more information on non-energy benefits, but little as regards office buildings. Office building productivity impacts can be observed casually, but must be estimated statistically, because buildings have many interacting attributes and observations based on direct behavior can easily confuse the process …
Date: May 16, 2002
Creator: Jones, D.W.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Energy Efficiency, Building Productivity and the Commercial Buildings Market (open access)

Energy Efficiency, Building Productivity and the Commercial Buildings Market

The energy-efficiency gap literature suggests that building buyers are often short-sighted in their failure to apply life-cycle costing principles to energy efficient building technologies, with the result that under investment in these advanced technology occurs. This study examines the reasons this behavior may occur, by analyzing the pressures that market forces place on purchasers of buildings. Our basic conclusion is that the fundamental manner in which the buildings sector does business creates pressures to reduce initial capital outlays and to hedge against a variety of risks, including the ability of building owners to capture benefits from energy efficiency. Starting from the position that building buyers' willingness to pay drives choices over building attributes, we examine basic market principles, the structure of the buildings market, including the role of lenders, and policies that promote penetration of energy efficient technologies. We conclude that greater attention to buyers, and to the incentives and constraints they face, would promote a better understanding of building investment choices and contribute to better policies to promote the penetration of these technologies into markets.
Date: May 16, 2002
Creator: Jones, D.W.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Electroproduction of strangeness on light nuclei. (open access)

Electroproduction of strangeness on light nuclei.

The A(e,e{prime} K{sup +})YX reaction has been investigated in Hall C at Jefferson Laboratory for 6 different targets. Data were taken for Q{sup 2} {approx} 0.35 and 0.5 GeV{sup 2} at a beam energy of 3.245 GeV for {sup 1}H, {sup 2}H, {sup 3}He, {sup 4}He, C and Al targets. The missing mass spectra are fitted with Monte Carlo simulations taking into account the production of {Lambda} and {Sigma}{sup 0} hyperon production off the proton, and {Sigma}{sup -} off the neutron. Models for quasifree production are compared to the data, excess yields close to threshold are attributed to FSI. Evidence for {Lambda}-hypernuclear bound states is seen for {sup 3,4}He targets.
Date: May 16, 2002
Creator: Dohrmann, F.; Abbott, D.; Ahmidouch, A.; Ambrozewicz, P.; Armstrong, C. S.; Arrington, J. et al.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Are recoil polarization measurements of G{sup P}{ovr sub E}/G{sup P}{ovr sub M} consistent with Rosenbluth separation data? (open access)

Are recoil polarization measurements of G{sup P}{ovr sub E}/G{sup P}{ovr sub M} consistent with Rosenbluth separation data?

Recent recoil polarization measurements in Hall A at Jefferson Lab show that the ratio of the electric to magnetic form factors for the proton decreases significantly with increasing Q{sup 2}. This contradicts previous Rosenbluth measurements which indicate approximate scaling of the form factors ({micro}{sub p} G{sub E}{sup p}(Q{sup 2})/G{sub M}{sup p} (Q{sup 2}) {approx} 1). The cross section measurements were reanalyzed to try and understand the source of this discrepancy. They find that the Rosenbluth measurements are consistent when normalization uncertainties are taken into account, and that the discrepancy cannot come from errors in one or two data sets. If there is a problem in the Rosenbluth data, it must be a systematic, {epsilon}-dependent uncertainty affecting several experiments.
Date: May 16, 2002
Creator: Arrington, J.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Simulation of Transport Phenomena in Aluminum Nitride Single-Crystal Growth (open access)

Simulation of Transport Phenomena in Aluminum Nitride Single-Crystal Growth

The goal of this project is to apply advanced computer-aided modeling techniques for simulating coupled radiation transfer present in the bulk growth of aluminum nitride (AlN) single-crystals. Producing and marketing high-quality single-crystals of AlN is currently the focus of Crystal IS, Inc., which is engaged in building a new generation of substrates for electronic and optical-electronic devices. Modeling and simulation of this company's proprietary innovative processing of AlN can substantially improve the understanding of physical phenomena, assist design, and reduce the cost and time of research activities. This collaborative work supported the goals of Crystal IS, Inc. in process scale-up and fundamental analysis with promising computational tools.
Date: May 16, 2002
Creator: de Almeida, VF
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Expanding the Allowable TRUPACT-II Payload (open access)

Expanding the Allowable TRUPACT-II Payload

The partnership between the Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) and the TRU and Mixed Waste Focus Area (TMFA) was rewarded when several long-term projects came to fruition. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) removed some of the conservatism in the TRUPACT-II Safety Analysis Report for Packaging (SARP) with their approval of Revision 19. The SARP strictly limits the payload constituents to ensure that hydrogen gas and other flammable volatile organic compounds (VOCs) don't build up to flammable/explosive levels while the transuranic (TRU) waste is sealed in the container during shipment. The CBFO/TMFA development program was based on laboratory experiments with surrogate waste materials, real waste experiments, and theoretical modeling that were used to justify payload expansion. Future work to expand the shipping envelope of the TRUPACT-II focuses on increasing the throughput through the waste certification process and reducing the waste operations costs by removing the need for a repack aging and/or treatment capability or reducing the size of the needed repackaging/treatment capability.
Date: May 16, 2002
Creator: St. Michel, W. (INEEL) & Lott, S. (LANL-Carlsbad Operations)
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Planning for Site Transition to Long-Term Stewardship: Identification of Requirements and Issues (open access)

Planning for Site Transition to Long-Term Stewardship: Identification of Requirements and Issues

A systematic methodology is presented and applied for the identification of requirements and issues pertaining to the planning for, and transition to, long term stewardship (LTS). The method has been applied to three of the twelve identified LTS functions. The results of the application of the methodology to contaminated and uncontaminated federal real property in those three functions are presented. The issues that could be seen as impediments to the implementation of LTS are also identified for the three areas under consideration. The identified requirements are significant and in some cases complex to implement. It is clear that early and careful planning is required in all circumstances.
Date: May 16, 2002
Creator: Banaee, J.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Field testing of component-level model-based fault detection methods for mixing boxes and VAV fan systems (open access)

Field testing of component-level model-based fault detection methods for mixing boxes and VAV fan systems

An automated fault detection and diagnosis tool for HVAC systems is being developed, based on an integrated, life-cycle, approach to commissioning and performance monitoring. The tool uses component-level HVAC equipment models implemented in the SPARK equation-based simulation environment. The models are configured using design information and component manufacturers' data and then fine-tuned to match the actual performance of the equipment by using data measured during functional tests of the sort using in commissioning. This paper presents the results of field tests of mixing box and VAV fan system models in an experimental facility and a commercial office building. The models were found to be capable of representing the performance of correctly operating mixing box and VAV fan systems and detecting several types of incorrect operation.
Date: May 16, 2002
Creator: Xu, Peng & Haves, Philip
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Environmental Management Core Laboratories - A Collaborative Effort to Enhance Cleanup (open access)

The Environmental Management Core Laboratories - A Collaborative Effort to Enhance Cleanup

Acknowledging that the magnitude and diversity of the critical issues facing the DOE-EM cannot be addressed by a single institution, the Laboratory Directors established the EM Core Laboratories. This collaborative network ensures that the best available resources are addressing environmental quality issues through the introduction of critical new science and technology. Based upon the Top-to-Bottom Review, the EM program is shifting the focus of its cleanup efforts to accelerate schedules to reduce cost and the most significant risks. To facilitate this acceleration, the Office of Science and Technology has restructured their research and development program towards two new thrusts. These thrusts, Closure Site Support and Alternative Development, are aimed at the high priority needs to support the re-baselined cleanup program. The EM Core Laboratories are well positioned to ensure the successful implementation of this new direction.
Date: May 16, 2002
Creator: Birrer, S. A.; Frandsen, G. B. & Kearns, P. K.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Securing collaborative environments (open access)

Securing collaborative environments

The diverse set of organizations and software components involved in a typical collaboratory make providing a seamless security solution difficult. In addition, the users need support for a broad range of frequency and locations for access to the collaboratory. A collaboratory security solution needs to be robust enough to ensure that valid participants are not denied access because of its failure. There are many tools that can be applied to the task of securing collaborative environments and these include public key infrastructure, secure sockets layer, Kerberos, virtual and real private networks, grid security infrastructure, and username/password. A combination of these mechanisms can provide effective secure collaboration capabilities. In this paper, we discuss the requirements of typical collaboratories and some proposals for applying various security mechanisms to collaborative environments.
Date: May 16, 2002
Creator: Agarwal, Deborah; Jackson, Keith & Thompson, Mary
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
2001 Columbia River Recreation Survey -- Implications for Hanford Site Integrated Assessment (open access)

2001 Columbia River Recreation Survey -- Implications for Hanford Site Integrated Assessment

This report presents the results from the Columbia River Recreation Survey conducted in the summer of 2001. The survey combined on-site personal interviews with parties engaged in river recreation with on-site field observations to develop a picture of summer river recreation on the Columbia. The study area stretched from just below Priest Rapids Dam in the north to McNary Dam in the south, and was divided into four "Areas" that correspond to the river areas used by the Groundwater/Vadose Zone Integration Project. This study is part of the Groundwater/Vadose Zone Integration Project and was commissioned specifically to document the current recreation use levels in these areas of the river, and to elicit recreation-related expenditure information from visitors. This information informs economic and environmental models used to measure the economic risk posed by possible, but unlikely, releases of contaminants from the Hanford site into the Columbia River. During the study period, researchers collected 256 survey responses and 396 field observations from recreation sites up and down both shores of the river in the study area. Results presented include analysis of trip duration by river activity, trip frequency, and visitor place of origin. Economics-related results include trip expenditure profiles by activity and …
Date: May 16, 2002
Creator: Anderson, Dave M.; Scott, Michael J.; Bunn, Amoret L.; Fowler, Richard A.; Prendergast, Ellen L.; Miley, Terri B. et al.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Opportunities for Catalysis in The 21st Century. A report from the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (open access)

Opportunities for Catalysis in The 21st Century. A report from the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee

Chemical catalysis affects our lives in myriad ways. Catalysis provides a means of changing the rates at which chemical bonds are formed and broken and of controlling the yields of chemical reactions to increase the amounts of desirable products from these reactions and reduce the amounts of undesirable ones. Thus, it lies at the heart of our quality of life: The reduced emissions of modern cars, the abundance of fresh food at our stores, and the new pharmaceuticals that improve our health are made possible by chemical reactions controlled by catalysts. Catalysis is also essential to a healthy economy: The petroleum, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries, contributors of $500 billion to the gross national product of the United States, rely on catalysts to produce everything from fuels to ''wonder drugs'' to paints to cosmetics. Today, our Nation faces a variety of challenges in creating alternative fuels, reducing harmful by-products in manufacturing, cleaning up the environment and preventing future pollution, dealing with the causes of global warming, protecting citizens from the release of toxic substances and infectious agents, and creating safe pharmaceuticals. Catalysts are needed to meet these challenges, but their complexity and diversity demand a revolution in the way catalysts are …
Date: May 16, 2002
Creator: White, J. M. & Bercaw, J.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Improving exchange-spring magnets with interfacial modification. (open access)

Improving exchange-spring magnets with interfacial modification.

Using magnetic thin film multilayers as model exchange-spring systems proves to be the promising intellectual path that helps generate the mechanistic and materials insights needed to create high-performance permanent magnet materials. We demonstrate a new route to improve exchange-spring magnets whereby the hard/soft interface in epitaxial Sm-Co/Fe and Sm-Co/Co bilayer thin film structures is modified via thermal processing. The effect of thermal processing is modeled with a graded interfacial region across which the material parameters vary linearly. We discuss the mechanism for improved exchange-spring behavior and the implication on magnet processing toward realizing the full potential of the exchange-spring principle.
Date: May 16, 2002
Creator: Jiang, J. S.; Pearson, J. E.; Bader, S. D. & Liu, J. P.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Increased Efficiencies in the INEEL SAR/TSR/USQ Process (open access)

Increased Efficiencies in the INEEL SAR/TSR/USQ Process

The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) has implemented a number of efficiencies to reduce the time and cost of preparing safety basis documents. The INEEL is continuing to look at other aspects of the safety basis process to identify other efficiencies that can be implemented and remain in compliance with Title 10 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 830. A six-sigma approach is used to identify areas to improve efficiencies and develop the action plan for implementation of the new process, as applicable. Three improvement processes have been implemented: The first was the development of standardized Documented Safety Analysis (DSA) and technical safety requirement (TSR) documents that all nuclear facilities use, by adding facility-specific details. The second is a material procurement process, which is based on safety systems specified in the individual safety basis documents. The third is a restructuring of the entire safety basis preparation and approval process. Significant savings in time to prepare safety basis document, cost of materials, and total cost of the documents are currently being realized.
Date: May 16, 2002
Creator: Cole, N.E.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Making Energy-Efficiency and Productivity Investments in Commercial Buildings: Choice of Investment Models (open access)

Making Energy-Efficiency and Productivity Investments in Commercial Buildings: Choice of Investment Models

This study examines the decision to invest in buildings and the types of investment decision rules that may be employed to inform the ''go--no go'' decision. There is a range of decision making tools available to help in investment choices, which range from simple rules of thumb such as payback periods, to life-cycle analysis, to decision theoretic approaches. Payback period analysis tends to point toward lower first costs, whereas life-cycle analysis tends to minimize uncertainties over future events that can affect profitability. We conclude that investment models that integrate uncertainty offer better explanations for the behavior that is observed, i.e., people tend to delay investments in technologies that life-cycle analysis finds cost-effective, and these models also lead to an alternative set of policies targeted at reducing of managing uncertainty.
Date: May 16, 2002
Creator: Jones, D.W.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Long-Term Stewardship Science and Technology Requirements (open access)

Long-Term Stewardship Science and Technology Requirements

To ensure technology developed for long-term stewardship will meet existing requirements, a review of requirements was performed. In addition to identifying existing science and technology related requirements, gaps and conflicts of requirements were identified.
Date: May 16, 2002
Creator: McDonald, J. K. & Nickelson, R. A.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Monte Carlo Evaluation of the Improvements in Nuclear Materials Identification System (NMIS) Resulting From a DT Neutron Generator (open access)

Monte Carlo Evaluation of the Improvements in Nuclear Materials Identification System (NMIS) Resulting From a DT Neutron Generator

Nuclear safeguards active measurements that rely on the time correlation between fast neutrons and gamma rays from the same fission are a promising technique. Previous studies have shown the feasibility of this method, in conjunction with the use of artificial neural networks, to estimate the mass and enrichment of fissile samples enclosed in special, sealed containers. This paper evaluates the use of the associated particle sealed tube neutron generator (APSTNG) as the interrogation source in correlation measurements. The results show that its use is of particular importance when floor reflections are present. The Nuclear Materials Identification System (NMIS) presently uses {sup 252}Cf ionization chambers as interrogation sources for the time-dependent coincidence measurements. Because triggers from this source are associated with neutrons emitted in any direction, adjacent materials such as the floor and nearby containers could affect the measurements and should be accounted for. Conversely, the APSTNG, together with an alpha particle detector, defines a cone of neutrons that can be aimed at the item under verification, thus removing the effects of nearby materials from the time-dependent coincidence distributions. Monte Carlo calculations were performed using MCNP-POLIMI, a modified version of the standard MCNP code. The code attempts to calculate more correctly …
Date: May 16, 2002
Creator: Pozzi, S. A. & Mihalczo, J. T.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
High Temperature Materials Laboratory Fourteenth Annual Report: October 2000 through September 2001 (open access)

High Temperature Materials Laboratory Fourteenth Annual Report: October 2000 through September 2001

The HTML User Program continued to work with industrial, academic, and governmental users this year, accepting 92 new projects and developing 48 new user agreements. Table 1 presents the breakdown of these statistics. Figure 1 depicts the continued growth in user agreements and user projects. You will note that the total number of HTML proposals has now exceeded 1000. Also, the large number of new agreements bodes well for the future. At the end of the report, we present a list of proposals to the HTML and a list of agreements between HTML and universities and industries, broken down by state. Program highlights this year included several outstanding user projects (some of which are highlighted in later sections), the annual meeting of the HTML Programs Senior Advisory Committee, and approval by ORNL for the construction of a building to house our new aberration-corrected electron microscope (ACEM) and several other sensitive electron and optical instruments.
Date: May 16, 2002
Creator: Pasto, A.E.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library