Raman Spectroscopy of UH3 from the Hydrogen Corrosion of Uranium (open access)

Raman Spectroscopy of UH3 from the Hydrogen Corrosion of Uranium

Hydrogen reacts with a uranium surface to form a fine, pyrophoric metal power (UH{sub 3}). Few spectroscopic studies have been conducted to study this reaction. Advances in Raman spectroscopy permit the application of the Raman method to formally difficult areas of chemistry such as the hydrogen corrosion of uranium: availability of multiple laser excitation wavelengths; fiber optics delivery and collection systems; upgraded instrumentation and detection techniques; and development of special enclosed in situ reactor cells. UH{sub 3} vibrations are expected to occur at low frequencies due to extended U-H-U structure.
Date: May 31, 2011
Creator: Smyrl, N. R.; Stowe, A. C. & Powell, G. L.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
10 CFR 830 Major Modification Determination for the ATR Diesel Bus (E-3) and Switchgear Replacement (open access)

10 CFR 830 Major Modification Determination for the ATR Diesel Bus (E-3) and Switchgear Replacement

Near term replacement of aging and obsolescent original ATR equipment has become important to ensure ATR capability in support of NE’s long term national missions. To that end, a mission needs statement has been prepared for a non-major system acquisition which is comprised of three interdependent subprojects. The first project, subject of this determination, will replace the existent diesel-electrical bus (E-3) and associated switchgear. More specifically, INL proposes transitioning ATR to 100% commercial power with appropriate emergency backup to include: • Provide commercial power as the normal source of power to the ATR loads currently supplied by diesel-electric power. • Provide backup power to the critical ATR loads in the event of a loss of commercial power. • Replace obsolescent critical ATR power distribution equipment, e.g., switchgear, transformers, motor control centers, distribution panels. Completion of this and two other age-related projects (primary coolant pump and motor replacement and emergency firewater injection system replacement) will resolve major age related operational issues plus make a significant contribution in sustaining the ATR safety and reliability profile. The major modification criteria evaluation of the project pre-conceptual design identified several issues make the project a major modification: 1. Evaluation Criteria #2 (Footprint change). The addition …
Date: May 1, 2011
Creator: Duckwtiz, Noel
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Completion Report for Well ER-EC-15 Corrective Action Units 101 and 102: Central and Western Pahute Mesa (open access)

Completion Report for Well ER-EC-15 Corrective Action Units 101 and 102: Central and Western Pahute Mesa

Well ER-EC-15 was drilled for the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office in support of the Nevada Environmental Restoration Project at the Nevada National Security Site (formerly known as the Nevada Test Site), Nye County, Nevada. The well was drilled in October and November 2010, as part of the Pahute Mesa Phase II drilling program. The primary purpose of the well was to provide detailed hydrogeologic information in the Tertiary volcanic section in the area between Pahute Mesa and the Timber Mountain caldera complex that will help address uncertainties within the Pahute Mesa–Oasis Valley hydrostratigraphic model. In particular, the well was intended to help define the structural position and hydraulic parameters of volcanic aquifers potentially down-gradient from underground nuclear tests on Pahute Mesa. It may also be used as a long-term monitoring well.
Date: May 31, 2011
Creator: National Security Technologies, LLC
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
10MW Class Direct Drive HTS Wind Turbine: Cooperative Research and Development Final Report, CRADA Number CRD-08-00312 (open access)

10MW Class Direct Drive HTS Wind Turbine: Cooperative Research and Development Final Report, CRADA Number CRD-08-00312

This paper summarizes the work completed under the CRADA between NREL and American Superconductor (AMSC). The CRADA combined NREL and AMSC resources to benchmark high temperature superconducting direct drive (HTSDD) generator technology by integrating the technologies into a conceptual wind turbine design, and comparing the design to geared drive and permanent magnet direct drive (PMDD) wind turbine configurations. Analysis was accomplished by upgrading the NREL Wind Turbine Design Cost and Scaling Model to represent geared and PMDD turbines at machine ratings up to 10 MW and then comparing cost and mass figures of AMSC's HTSDD wind turbine designs to theoretical geared and PMDD turbine designs at 3.1, 6, and 10 MW sizes.
Date: May 1, 2011
Creator: Musial, W.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Carbon Characterization Laboratory Readiness to Receive Irradiated Graphite Samples (open access)

Carbon Characterization Laboratory Readiness to Receive Irradiated Graphite Samples

The Carbon Characterization Laboratory (CCL) is located in Labs C19 and C20 of the Idaho National Laboratory Research Center. The CCL was established under the Next Generation Nuclear Plant Project to support graphite and ceramic composite research and development activities. The research conducted in this laboratory will support the Advanced Graphite Creep experiments—a major series of material irradiation experiments within the Next Generation Nuclear Plant Graphite program. The CCL is designed to characterize and test low activated irradiated materials such as high purity graphite, carbon-carbon composites, silicon-carbide composite, and ceramic materials. The laboratory is fully capable of characterizing material properties for both irradiated and nonirradiated materials. Major infrastructural modifications were undertaken to support this new radiological facility at Idaho National Laboratory. Facility modifications are complete, equipment has been installed, radiological controls and operating procedures have been established and work management documents have been created to place the CCL in readiness to receive irradiated graphite samples.
Date: May 1, 2011
Creator: Moore, Karen A.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Proposed Plan for the Amendment of the Record of Decision for Interim Actions in Zone 1, East Tennessee Technology Park, Oak Ridge, Tennessee (open access)

Proposed Plan for the Amendment of the Record of Decision for Interim Actions in Zone 1, East Tennessee Technology Park, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

None
Date: May 1, 2011
Creator: United States. Department of Energy.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Density Functional Theory in Surface Chemistry and Catalysis (open access)

Density Functional Theory in Surface Chemistry and Catalysis

Recent advances in the understanding of reactivity trends for chemistry at transition metal surfaces have enabled in silico design of heterogeneous catalysts in a few cases. Current status of the field is discussed with an emphasis on the role of coupling between theory and experiment and future challenges.
Date: May 19, 2011
Creator: Norskov, Jens
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
OECD MCCI project Melt Eruption Test (MET) design report, Rev. 2. April 15, 2003. (open access)

OECD MCCI project Melt Eruption Test (MET) design report, Rev. 2. April 15, 2003.

The Melt Attack and Coolability Experiments (MACE) program at Argonne National Laboratory addressed the issue of the ability of water to cool and thermally stabilize a molten core-concrete interaction when the reactants are flooded from above. These tests provided data regarding the nature of corium interactions with concrete, the heat transfer rates from the melt to the overlying water pool, and the role of noncondensable gases in the mixing processes that contribute to melt quenching. The Melt Coolability and Concrete Interaction (MCCI) program is pursuing separate effect tests to examine the viability of the melt coolability mechanisms identified as part of the MACE program. These mechanisms include bulk cooling, water ingression, volcanic eruptions, and crust breach. At the second PRG meeting held at ANL on 22-23 October 2002, a preliminary design1 for a separate effects test to investigate the melt eruption cooling mechanism was presented for PRG review. At this meeting, NUPEC made several recommendations on the experiment approach aimed at optimizing the chances of achieving a floating crust boundary condition in this test. The principal recommendation was to incorporate a mortar sidewall liner into the test design, since data from the COTELS experiment program indicates that corium does not …
Date: May 23, 2011
Creator: Farmer, M. T.; Lomperski, S.; Kilsdonk, D. J.; Aeschlimann, R. W. & Basu, S.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Monte Carlo Simulation of a Coded Aperture Thermal Neutron Camera (open access)

Monte Carlo Simulation of a Coded Aperture Thermal Neutron Camera

N/A
Date: May 8, 2011
Creator: I., Dioszegi; Salwen, C. & and Forman, I.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Data Package of Samples Collected for Hydrogeologic and Geochemical Characterization: 300 Area RI/FS Sediment Cores (open access)

Data Package of Samples Collected for Hydrogeologic and Geochemical Characterization: 300 Area RI/FS Sediment Cores

This is a data package for sediment samples received from the 300 FF 5 OU. This report was prepared for CHPRC. Between August 16, 2010 and April 25, 2011 sediment samples were received from 300-FF-5 for geochemical studies. The analyses for this project were performed at the 331 building located in the 300 Area of the Hanford Site. The analyses were performed according to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) approved procedures and/or nationally recognized test procedures. The data sets include the sample identification numbers, analytical results, estimated quantification limits (EQL), and quality control data. The preparatory and analytical quality control requirements, calibration requirements, acceptance criteria, and failure actions are defined in the on-line QA plan 'Conducting Analytical Work in Support of Regulatory Programs' (CAW). This QA plan implements the Hanford Analytical Services Quality Assurance Requirements Documents (HASQARD) for PNNL.
Date: May 1, 2011
Creator: Lindberg, Michael J.; Bjornstad, Bruce N.; Lanigan, David C. & Williams, Benjamin D.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Retrocausal Effects as a Consequence of Quantum Mechanics Refined to Accommodate the Principle of Sufficient Reason (open access)

Retrocausal Effects as a Consequence of Quantum Mechanics Refined to Accommodate the Principle of Sufficient Reason

The principle of sufficient reason asserts that anything that happens does so for a reason: no definite state of affairs can come into being unless there is a sufficient reason why that particular thing should happen. This principle is usually attributed to Leibniz, although the first recorded Western philosopher to use it was Anaximander of Miletus. The demand that nature be rational, in the sense that it be compatible with the principle of sufficient reason, conflicts with a basic feature of contemporary orthodox physical theory, namely the notion that nature's response to the probing action of an observer is determined by pure chance, and hence on the basis of absolutely no reason at all. This appeal to pure chance can be deemed to have no rational fundamental place in reason-based Western science. It is argued here, on the basis of the other basic principles of quantum physics, that in a world that conforms to the principle of sufficient reason, the usual quantum statistical rules will naturally emerge at the pragmatic level, in cases where the reason behind nature's choice of response is unknown, but that the usual statistics can become biased in an empirically manifest way when the reason for …
Date: May 10, 2011
Creator: Stapp, Henry P.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
OECD MCCI project enhancing instrumentation for reactor materials experiments, Rev. 0 September 3, 2002. (open access)

OECD MCCI project enhancing instrumentation for reactor materials experiments, Rev. 0 September 3, 2002.

Reactor safety experiments for studying the reactions of a molten core (corium) with water and/or concrete involve materials at extremely high temperature. Such high temperature severely restricts the types of sensors that can be employed to measure characteristics of the corium itself. Yet there is great interest in improving instrumentation so that the state of the melt can be established with more precision. In particular, it would be beneficial to increase both the upper range limit and accuracy of temperature measurements. The poor durability of thermocouples at high temperature is also an important issue. For experiments involving a water-quenched melt, direct measurements of the growth rate of the crust separating the melt and water would be of great interest. This is a key element in determining the nature of heat transfer between the melt and coolant. Despite its importance, no one has been able to directly measure the crust thickness during such tests. This paper considers three specialized sensors that could be introduced to enhance melt characterization: (1) A commercially fabricated, single point infrared temperature measurement with the footprint of a thermowell. A lens assembly and fiber optic cable linked to a receiver and amplifier measures the temperature at the …
Date: May 23, 2011
Creator: Lomperski, S. & Basu, S.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Allowable pillar to diameter ratio for strategic petroleum reserve caverns. (open access)

Allowable pillar to diameter ratio for strategic petroleum reserve caverns.

This report compiles 3-D finite element analyses performed to evaluate the stability of Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) caverns over multiple leach cycles. When oil is withdrawn from a cavern in salt using freshwater, the cavern enlarges. As a result, the pillar separating caverns in the SPR fields is reduced over time due to usage of the reserve. The enlarged cavern diameters and smaller pillars reduce underground stability. Advances in geomechanics modeling enable the allowable pillar to diameter ratio (P/D) to be defined. Prior to such modeling capabilities, the allowable P/D was established as 1.78 based on some very limited experience in other cavern fields. While appropriate for 1980, the ratio conservatively limits the allowable number of oil drawdowns and hence limits the overall utility and life of the SPR cavern field. Analyses from all four cavern fields are evaluated along with operating experience gained over the past 30 years to define a new P/D for the reserve. A new ratio of 1.0 is recommended. This ratio is applicable only to existing SPR caverns.
Date: May 1, 2011
Creator: Ehgartner, Brian L. & Park, Byoung Yoon
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
TANK48 CFD MODELING ANALYSIS (open access)

TANK48 CFD MODELING ANALYSIS

The process of recovering the waste in storage tanks at the Savannah River Site (SRS) typically requires mixing the contents of the tank to ensure uniformity of the discharge stream. Mixing is accomplished with one to four dual-nozzle slurry pumps located within the tank liquid. For the work, a Tank 48 simulation model with a maximum of four slurry pumps in operation has been developed to estimate flow patterns for efficient solid mixing. The modeling calculations were performed by using two modeling approaches. One approach is a single-phase Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model to evaluate the flow patterns and qualitative mixing behaviors for a range of different modeling conditions since the model was previously benchmarked against the test results. The other is a two-phase CFD model to estimate solid concentrations in a quantitative way by solving the Eulerian governing equations for the continuous fluid and discrete solid phases over the entire fluid domain of Tank 48. The two-phase results should be considered as the preliminary scoping calculations since the model was not validated against the test results yet. A series of sensitivity calculations for different numbers of pumps and operating conditions has been performed to provide operational guidance for solids …
Date: May 17, 2011
Creator: Lee, S.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Electric Market and Utility Operation Terminology (Fact Sheet) (open access)

Electric Market and Utility Operation Terminology (Fact Sheet)

This fact sheet is a list of electric market and utility operation terminology for a series of three electricity fact sheets.
Date: May 1, 2011
Creator: unknown
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library

Electric Vehicle Grid Integration for Sustainable Military Installations

This presentation discusses electric vehicle grid integration for sustainable military installations. Fort Carson Military Reservation in Colorado Springs is used as a case study.
Date: May 5, 2011
Creator: Simpson, M.
Object Type: Presentation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Assessment of Unabated Facility Emission Potentials for Evaluating Airborne Radionuclide Monitoring Requirements at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory - 2010 (open access)

Assessment of Unabated Facility Emission Potentials for Evaluating Airborne Radionuclide Monitoring Requirements at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory - 2010

Assessments were performed to evaluate compliance with the airborne radionuclide emission monitoring requirements in the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants ([NESHAP]; U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 40, Part 61, Subpart H) and Washington Administrative Code 246-247: Radiation Protection - Air Emissions. In these NESHAP assessments, potential unabated off-site doses were evaluated for emission locations at buildings that are part of the consolidated laboratory campus of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. This report describes the inventory-based methods and provides the results for the NESHAP assessment performed in 2010.
Date: May 13, 2011
Creator: Ballinger, Marcel Y.; Gervais, Todd L. & Barnett, J. M.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Final Report: Laboratory Studies of Spontaneous Reconnection and Intermittent Plasma Objects (open access)

Final Report: Laboratory Studies of Spontaneous Reconnection and Intermittent Plasma Objects

The study of the collisionless magnetic reconnection constituted the primary work carried out under this grant. The investigations utilized two magnetic configurations with distinct boundary conditions. Both configurations were based upon the Versatile Toroidal Facility (VTF) at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center and the MIT Physics Department. The NSF/DOE award No. 0613734, supported two graduate students (now Drs. W. Fox and N. Katz) and material expenses. The grant enabled these students to operate the VTF basic plasma physics experiment on magnetic reconnection. The first configuration was characterized by open boundary conditions where the magnetic field lines interface directly with the vacuum vessel walls. The reconnection dynamics for this configuration has been methodically characterized and it has been shown that kinetic effects related to trapped electron trajectories are responsible for the high rates of reconnection observed. This type of reconnection has not been investigated before. Nevertheless, the results are directly relevant to observations by the Wind spacecraft of fast reconnection deep in the Earth magnetotail. The second configuration was developed to be relevant to specifically to numerical simulations of magnetic reconnection, allowing the magnetic field-lines to be contained inside the device. The configuration is compatible with the presence of …
Date: May 31, 2011
Creator: Egedal-Pedersen, Jan & Porkolab, Miklos
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
A study of extraterrestrial antineutrino sources with the KamLAND detector (open access)

A study of extraterrestrial antineutrino sources with the KamLAND detector

We present the results of a search for extraterrestrial electron antineutrinos ({bar {nu}}{sub e}'s) in the energy range 8.3 MeV < E{sub {bar {nu}}}{sub e} < 30.8 MeV using the KamLAND detector. In an exposure of 4.53 kton-year, we identify 25 candidate events. All of the candidate events can be attributed to background, most importantly neutral current atmospheric neutrino interactions, setting an upper limit on the probability of {sup 8}B solar {nu}{sub e}'s converting into {bar {nu}}{sub e}'s at 5.3 x 10{sup -5} (90% C.L.). The present data also allows us to set more stringent limits on the diffuse supernova neutrino flux and on the annihilation rates for light dark matter particles.
Date: May 18, 2011
Creator: Collaboration, The KamLAND; Gando, A.; Gando, Y.; Ichimura, K.; Ikeda, H.; Inoue, K. et al.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Studies of the structure and function of Mms6, a bacterial protein that promotes the formation of magnetic nanoparticles (open access)

Studies of the structure and function of Mms6, a bacterial protein that promotes the formation of magnetic nanoparticles

Here we report structural and functional studies of Mms6, a biomineralization protein that can promote the formation in vitro of magnetic nanoparticles with sizes and morphologies similar to the magnetites synthesized by magnetotactic bacteria. We found the binding pattern of Mms6 to ferric ion to be two-phase and multivalent. We quantatively determined that Mms6 binds one Fe{sup 3+} with a very high affinity (K{sub d} = 10{sup -16} M). The second phase of iron binding is multivalent and cooperative with respect to iron with a K{sub d} in the {mu}M range and a stoichiometry of about 20 ferric ion per protein molecule. We found that Mms6 exists in large particles of two sizes, one consisting of 20-40 monomeric units and the other of 200 units. From proteolytic digestion, ultracentrifugation and liposome fusion studies, we found that Mms6 forms a large micellar quaternary structure with the N-terminal domain self-assembling into a uniformly sized micelle and the C-terminal domain on the surface. The two-phase iron-binding pattern may be relevant to iron crystal formation. We propose that the first high affinity phase may stabilize a new conformation of the C-terminal domain that allows interaction with other C-terminal domains leading to a structural change …
Date: May 15, 2011
Creator: Wang, Lijun
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Influence of Wetting and Mass Transfer Properties of Organic Chemical Mixtures in Vadose Zone Materials on Groundwater Contamination by Nonaqueous Phase Liquids (open access)

Influence of Wetting and Mass Transfer Properties of Organic Chemical Mixtures in Vadose Zone Materials on Groundwater Contamination by Nonaqueous Phase Liquids

Previous studies have found that organic acids, organic bases, and detergent-like chemicals change surface wettability. The wastewater and NAPL mixtures discharged at the Hanford site contain such chemicals, and their proportions likely change over time due to reaction-facilitated aging. The specific objectives of this work were to (1) determine the effect of organic chemical mixtures on surface wettability, (2) determine the effect of organic chemical mixtures on CCl4 volatilization rates from NAPL, and (3) accurately determine the migration, entrapment, and volatilization of organic chemical mixtures. Five tasks were proposed to achieve the project objectives. These are to (1) prepare representative batches of fresh and aged NAPL-wastewater mixtures, (2) to measure interfacial tension, contact angle, and capillary pressure-saturation profiles for the same mixtures, (3) to measure interphase mass transfer rates for the same mixtures using micromodels, (4) to measure multiphase flow and interphase mass transfer in large flow cell experiments, all using the same mixtures, and (5) to modify the multiphase flow simulator STOMP in order to account for updated P-S and interphase mass transfer relationships, and to simulate the impact of CCl4 in the vadose zone on groundwater contamination. Results and findings from these tasks and summarized in the attached …
Date: May 21, 2011
Creator: Werth, Charles J & Albert J Valocchi, Hongkyu Yoon
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Characterization of Fish Passage Conditions through a Francis Turbine and Regulating Outlet at Cougar Dam, Oregon, Using Sensor Fish, 2009–2010 (open access)

Characterization of Fish Passage Conditions through a Francis Turbine and Regulating Outlet at Cougar Dam, Oregon, Using Sensor Fish, 2009–2010

Fish passage conditions through a Francis turbine and a regulating outlet (RO) at Cougar Dam on the south fork of the McKenzie River in Oregon were evaluated by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District, using Sensor Fish devices. The objective of the study was to describe and compare passage exposure conditions, identifying potential fish injury regions encountered during passage via specific routes. The RO investigation was performed in December 2009 and the turbine evaluation in January 2010, concurrent with HI-Z balloon-tag studies by Normandeau Associates, Inc. Sensor Fish data were analyzed to estimate 1) exposure conditions, particularly exposure to severe collision, strike, and shear events by passage route sub-regions; 2) differences in passage conditions between passage routes; and 3) relationships to live-fish injury and mortality data estimates. Comparison of the three passage routes evaluated at Cougar Dam indicates that the RO passage route through the 3.7-ft gate opening was relatively the safest route for fish passage under the operating conditions tested; turbine passage was the most deleterious. These observations were supported also by the survival and malady estimates obtained from live-fish testing. Injury rates were highest for turbine passage. Compared to mainstem Columbia …
Date: May 23, 2011
Creator: Duncan, Joanne P.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Analysis of nuclear proliferation resistance reprocessing and recycling technologies (open access)

Analysis of nuclear proliferation resistance reprocessing and recycling technologies

The PUREX process has been progressively and continuously improved during the past three decades, and these improvements account for successful commercialization of reprocessing in a few countries. The renewed interest in nuclear energy and the international growth of nuclear electricity generation do not equate – and should not be equated -with increasing proliferation risks. Indeed, the nuclear renaissance presents a unique opportunity to enhance the culture of non-proliferation. With the recent revival of interest in nuclear technology, technical methods for prevention of nuclear proliferation are being revisited. Robust strategies to develop new advanced separation technologies are emerging worldwide for sustainability and advancement of nuclear energy with enhanced proliferation resistance. On the other hand, at this moment, there are no proliferation resistance advanced technologies. . Until now proliferation resistance as it applies to reprocessing has been focused on not separating a pure stream of weapons-usable plutonium. France, as an example, has proposed a variant of the PUREX process, the COEX TM process, which does not result on a pure plutonium product stream. A further step is to implement a process based on group extraction of actinides and fission products associated with a homogeneous recycling strategy (UNEX process in the US, GANEX …
Date: May 1, 2011
Creator: Paviet-Hartmann, Patricia; Cerefice, Gary; Stacey, Marcela & Bakhtiar, Steven
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Iterative Algorithms for Ptychographic Phase Retrieval (open access)

Iterative Algorithms for Ptychographic Phase Retrieval

Ptychography promises diffraction limited resolution without the need for high resolution lenses. To achieve high resolution one has to solve the phase problem for many partially overlapping frames. Here we review some of the existing methods for solving ptychographic phase retrieval problem from a numerical analysis point of view, and propose alternative methods based on numerical optimization.
Date: May 3, 2011
Creator: Yang, Chao; Qian, Jianliang; Schirotzek, Andre; Maia, Filipe & Marchesini, Stefano
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library