Activities in a program to determine the effects of neutron irradiation on A-302B steel are reported. Plans are discussed concerning performance tests on tensile, notched tensile, tube, and Charpy specimens. An irradiation capsule design was finalized. A theoretical analysis of the critical conditions arising in a tube subjected to both internal pressure and axial load is included. (J.R.D.)

The feasibility of using remote geophysical techniques to monitor the movement of injected brine has been evaluated. It was established that no single approach is likely to be identified that can be used to accurately monitor the precise location of the injected fluid. Several approaches have been considered in parallel because they add new dimensions to the existing monitoring capabilities, and are likely to cover a range of applications at a variety of geothermal sites. These include: microseismicity - a seismic net is used to record small magnitude events associated with injection; streaming potential - self potential anomalies produced by a moving fluid identify fluid flow direction; cross borehole geotomography - two-dimensional image of flow pathways is constructed using electromagnetic waves; and well pressure response to solid earth tide - changes in pore pressures are used to discriminate fracture/pore porosity and estimate fracture orientations.

This report contains TERA's estimates of capital requirements to transport natural gas, crude oil, petroleum products, and coal in the United States by 1990. The low, medium, and high world-oil-price scenarios from the EIA's Mid-range Energy Forecasting System (MEFS), as used in the 1979 Annual Report to Congress (ARC), were provided as a basis for the analysis and represent three alternative futures. TERA's approach varies by energy commodity to make best use of the information and analytical tools available. Summaries of transportation investment requirements through 1990 are given. Total investment requirements for three modes (pipelines, rails, waterways and the three energy commodities can accumulate to a $49.9 to $50.9 billion range depending on the scenario. The scenarios are distinguished primarily by the world price of oil which, given deregulation of domestic oil prices, affects US oil prices even more profoundly than in the past. The high price of oil, following the evidence of the last year, is projected to hold demand for oil below the recent past.

A Cleanup and Treatment (CAT) test was conducted in 1981 at Area 11, Nevada Test Site. Its purpose was to evaluate the effectiveness of using a large truck-mounted vacuum cleaner similar to those used to clean paved streets for cleaning radiological contamination from the surface of desert soils. We found that four passes with the vehicle removed 97% of the alpha contamination and reduced resuspension by 99.3 to 99.7%. Potential exposure to cleanup workers was slight when compared to natural background exposure. 7 refs., 1 fig., 2 tabs.

The rock mechanics testing performed at the Earth Mechanics Institute of the Colorado School of Mines for Rockwell Hanford Operations under Subcontract SA-917 is summarized. Cores were supplied from drill hole DC-8 on the Hanford Site, characterized geologically, and tested for thermal and physical properties for designing long-term underground storage of radioactive waste materials. This report presents the approved test procedures, results, and data analysis for this test series. Results indicate significantly lower strengths for drill hole DC-8 than determined for drill hole DC-6 or for the drill holes reported on in our fiscal year 1978 (FY 78) tests. Trends, however, were found to be similar between drill holes DC-6 and DC-8, and it is hoped more definitive conclusions can be found following completion of the final series of tests.

The Office of Consumer Affairs has the primary responsibility for managing and coordinating the public-participation efforts of the Department of Energy through public meetings, advisory committee participation, and other outreach mechanisms aimed at assuring all citizens an opportunity to participate in the governmental process relating to energy decisions. The Manual outlines the public-participation policy that should be followed by all offices. All offices are directed to observe the guidance in the manual in shaping and conducting public-participation activities, including the public-participation efforts required by DOE Order 2030, Procedures for the Development and Analysis of Regulations, Standards, and Guidelines. Two chapters included are: Determining Public Participation Needs and Public Participation Plan. (MCW)

We argue that a primary focus on energy efficiency may not be sufficient to slow (and ultimately reverse) the growth in total energy consumption and carbon emissions. Instead, policy makers need to return to an earlier emphasis on"conservation," with energy efficiency seen as a means rather than an end in itself. We briefly review the concept of"intensive" versus"extensive" variables (i.e., energy efficiency versus energy consumption), and why attention to both consumption and efficiency is essential for effective policy in a carbon- and oil-constrained world with increasingly brittle energy markets. To start, energy indicators and policy evaluation metrics need to reflect energy consumption as well as efficiency. We introduce the concept of"progressive efficiency," with the expected or required level of efficiency varying as a function of house size, appliance capacity, or more generally, the scale of energy services. We propose introducing progressive efficiency criteria first in consumer information programs (including appliance labeling categories) and then in voluntary rating and recognition programs such as ENERGY STAR. As acceptance grows, the concept could be extended to utility rebates, tax incentives, and ultimately to mandatory codes and standards. For these and other programs, incorporating criteria for consumption as well as efficiency offers a path …

Large-scale video processing systems are needed to support human analysis of massive collections of image streams. Video, from both current small-format and future large-format camera systems, constitutes the single largest data source of the near future, dwarfing the output of all other data sources combined. A critical component to further advances in the processing and analysis of such video streams is the ability to register successive video frames into a common coordinate system at the pixel level. This capability enables further downstream processing, such as background/mover segmentation, 3D model extraction, and compression. We present here our recent work on computing these correspondences. We employ coarse-to-fine hierarchical approach, matching pixels from the domain of a source image to the domain of a target image at successively higher resolutions. Our diamond-style image hierarchy, with total pixel counts increasing by only a factor of two at each level, improves the prediction quality as we advance from level to level, and reduces potential grid artifacts in the results. We demonstrate the quality our approach on real aerial city imagery. We find that registration accuracy is generally on the order of one quarter of a pixel. We also benchmark the fundamental processing kernels on the …

The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) is a 0.15-1.5 nm wavelength free-electron laser (FEL) being constructed at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) by a multi-institution consortium, including Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). One of LLNL's responsibilities involves the design and construction of two grazing-incidence mirror systems whose primary intent is to reduce radiation levels in the experimental halls by separating the FEL beam from unwanted high-energy photons. This paper discusses one of these systems, the Soft X-ray Offset Mirror System (SOMS) that will operate in the wavelength range 0.62-1.5 nm (0.827-2.00 keV). The unusual properties of the FEL beam translate to stringent specifications in terms of stability, material choice and mirror properties. It also precludes using approaches previously developed for synchrotron light sources. This situation has led us to a unique mirror design, consisting of a reflective boron carbide layer deposited on a silicon substrate. In the first part of this paper, we discuss the basic system requirements for the SOMS and motivate the need for these novel reflective elements. In the second part of this paper, we discuss the development work we have performed, including simulation and experimental verification of the boron carbide coating properties, and the expected …

The primary objective of this study was to analyze the spatial variability of temperature and relative humidity across Kansas (KS) and Oklahoma (OK) for sparse and dense networks by comparing data from (1) the Surface Meteorological Observing System (SMOS) installations at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM; Peppler et al. 2007) Program's Southern Great Plains site and (2) the Oklahoma Mesonet (OKM; McPherson et al. 2007). Given the wealth of observations available from these networks, this study provided the unique opportunity to determine, within a quantifiable statistical limit, an optimal distance between stations deployed for observation of the climatological values of temperature and relative humidity. Average distances between a given station and its closest neighboring station for the ARM SMOS ({approx} 70 km) and the OKM ({approx} 30 km; Brotzge and Richardson 2003) networks provided an excellent framework for comparisons of sparse and dense observations (Figure 1). This study further lays groundwork for a future investigation to determine the necessary spacing between observations for initialization of gridded numerical models. The spatial variability of temperature and relative humidity was examined over KS and OK by comparing observations between station pairs located in three primary domains: (1) a sparse domain in KS, consisting …

The Tenth International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS-10) was held from September 5-10 at the University of California, Berkeley campus. The conference attracted 305 attendees from 26 countries who gave 144 platform presentations and presented a total of 170 posters. The conference opened with a special tribute to the late Roy Middleton, which was followed by a companion session on 'ion sourcery'. A plenary talk by Wally Broecker on his '53 years in the Radiocarbon Trenches', provided thought-provoking challenges to commonly accepted paradigms. A workshop on issues in the estimation of isotopic ratios and evaluations of activities from AMS measurements preceded the conference and a workshop on AMS in low-dose bioscience concluded it. Conference attendees had ample opportunity to sample local sights and mid-week excursions to the Napa Valley wine region and the Monterey Bay Aquarium were well attended. The social highlight of the conference was a dinner cruise on San Francisco Bay aboard the San Francisco Belle, which toured the bay on a clear evening and afforded spectacular views of the city front as well as the Bay and Golden Gate bridges. The proceedings of AMS-10 contain 140 peer-reviewed papers that detail recent developments in AMS technology and …

A comprehensive matrix of 60 tests was designed to explore the effect of calcium chloride vs. sodium chloride and the ratio R of nitrate concentration over chloride concentration on the repassivation potential of Alloy 22. Tests were conducted using the cyclic potentiodynamic polarization (CPP) technique at 75 C and at 90 C. Results show that at a ratio R of 0.18 and higher nitrate was able to inhibit the crevice corrosion in Alloy 22 induced by chloride. Current results fail to show in a consistent way a different effect on the repassivation potential of Alloy 22 for calcium chloride solutions than for sodium chloride solutions.

A previous computational study of diffracting detonations with the ignition-and-growth model demonstrated that contrary to experimental observations, the computed solution did not exhibit dead zones. For a rigidly confined explosive it was found that while diffraction past a sharp corner did lead to a temporary separation of the lead shock from the reaction zone, the detonation re-established itself in due course and no pockets of unreacted material were left behind. The present investigation continues to focus on the potential for detonation failure within the ignition-and-growth (IG) model, but now for a compliant confinement of the explosive. The aim of the present paper is two fold. First, in order to compute solutions of the governing equations for multi-material reactive flow, a numerical method of solution is developed and discussed. The method is a Godunov-type, fractional-step scheme which incorporates an energy correction to suppress numerical oscillations that would occur near the material interface separating the reactive material and the inert confiner for standard conservative schemes. The numerical method uses adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) on overlapping grids, and the accuracy of solutions is well tested using a two-dimensional rate-stick problem for both strong and weak inert confinements. The second aim of the paper …

We analyzed the carbon fluxes in the central metabolism ofGeobacter metallireducens strain GS-15 using 13C isotopomer modeling.Acetate labeled in the 1st or 2nd position was the sole carbon source,and Fe-NTA was the sole terminal electron acceptor. The measured labeledacetate uptake rate was 21 mmol/gdw/h in the exponential growth phase.The resulting isotope labeling pattern of amino acids allowed an accuratedetermination of the in vivo global metabolic reaction rates (fluxes)through the central metabolic pathways using a computational isotopomermodel. The model indicated that over 90 percent of the acetate wascompletely oxidized to CO2 via a complete tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cyclewhile reducing iron. Pyruvate carboxylase and phosphoenolpyruvatecarboxykinase were present under these conditions, but enzymes in theglyoxylate shunt and malic enzyme were absent. Gluconeogenesis and thepentose phosphate pathway were mainly employed for biosynthesis andaccounted for less than 3 percent of total carbon consumption. The modelalso indicated surprisingly high reversibility in the reaction betweenoxoglutarate and succinate. This step operates close to the thermodynamicequilibrium possibly because succinate is synthesized via a transferasereaction, and its product, acetyl-CoA, inhibits the conversion ofoxoglutarate to succinate. These findings enable a better understandingof the relationship between genome annotation and extant metabolicpathways in G. metallireducens.

Our research evaluates the hypothesis that feedback amongst thermal-chemical-mechanical processes operative in fluid-rock systems alters the fluid flow dynamics of the system which, in turn, affects chemical transport and temporal and spatial scales of equilibria, thus impacting the resultant mineral textural development of rocks. Our methods include computational experimentation and detailed analyses of fluid-infiltrated rocks from well-characterized terranes. This work focuses on metamorphic rocks and hydrothermal systems where minerals and their textures are utilized to evaluate pressure (P), temperature (T), and time (t) paths in the evolution of mountain belts and ore deposits, and to interpret tectonic events and the timing of these events. Our work on coupled processes also extends to other areas where subsurface flow and transport in porous media have consequences such as oil and gas movement, geothermal system development, transport of contaminants, nuclear waste disposal, and other systems rich in fluid-rock reactions. Fluid-rock systems are widespread in the geologic record. Correctly deciphering the products resulting from such systems is important to interpreting a number of geologic phenomena. These systems are characterized by complex interactions involving time-dependent, non-linear processes in heterogeneous materials. While many of these interactions have been studied in isolation, they are more appropriately analyzed …

Coefficients for analytic constitutive and equation of state models (EOS), which are used by many hydro codes at LLNL, are currently stored in a legacy material database (Steinberg, UCRL-MA-106349). Parameters for numerous materials are available through this database, and include Steinberg-Guinan and Steinberg-Lund constitutive models for metals, JWL equations of state for high explosives, and Mie-Gruniesen equations of state for metals. These constitutive models are used in most of the simulations done by ASC codes today at Livermore. Analytic EOSs are also still used, but have been superseded in many cases by tabular representations in LEOS (http://leos.llnl.gov). Numerous advanced constitutive models have been developed and implemented into ASC codes over the past 20 years. These newer models have more physics and better representations of material strength properties than their predecessors, and therefore more model coefficients. However, a material database of these coefficients is not readily available. Therefore incorporating these coefficients with those of the legacy models into a portable database that could be shared amongst codes would be most welcome. The goal of this paper is to describe the MatProp effort at LLNL to create such a database and associated access library that could be used by codes throughout the …

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A preliminary measurement of the branching fraction {Beta}({tau}{sup -} {yields} K{sub S}{sup 0}{pi}{sup -}{nu}{sub {tau}}) is made using 384.6 fb{sup -1} of e{sup +}e{sup -} collision data provided by the PEP-II collider, operating primarily at {radical}s = 10.58 GeV, and recorded using the BABAR detector. From this they measure: {Beta}({tau}{sup -} {yields} {bar K}{sup 0}{pi}{sup -}{nu}{sub {tau}}) = (0.840 {+-} 0.004(stat) {+-} 0.023(syst))%. This result is the most precise measurement to date and is consistent with the world average.

The authors present the observation of the decay B{sup 0} {yields} {chi}{sub c0}K*{sup 0} as well as evidence of B{sup +} {yields} {chi}{sub c0}K*{sup +}, with an 8.9 and a 3.6 standard deviation significance, respectively, using a data sample of 454 million {Upsilon}(4S) {yields} B{bar B} decays collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II B meson factory located at the Standard Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). The measured branching fractions are: {Beta}(B{sup 0} {yields} {chi}{sub c0}K*{sup 0}) = (1.7 {+-} 0.3 {+-} 0.2) x 10{sup -4} and {Beta}(B{sup +} {yields} {chi}{sub c0}K*{sup +}) = (1.4 {+-} 0.5 {+-} 0.2) x 10{sup -4}, where the first quoted errors are statistical and the second are systematic. They obtain a branching fraction upper limit of {Beta}(B{sup +} {yields} {chi}{sub c0}K*{sup +}) < 2.1 x 10{sup -4} at the 90% confidence level.

This report summarizes the results of a three-year collaboration between Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) to identify and quantify the performance of innovative design features in metallic-fueled, sodium-cooled fast reactor designs. The objective of the work was to establish the reliability and safety margin enhancements provided by design innovations offering significant potential for construction, maintenance, and operating cost reductions. The project goal was accomplished with a combination of advanced model development (Task 1), analysis of innovative design and safety features (Tasks 2 and 3), and planning of key safety experiments (Task 4). Task 1--Computational Methods for Analysis of Passive Safety Design Features: An advanced three-dimensional subassembly thermal-hydraulic model was developed jointly and implemented in ANL and KAERI computer codes. The objective of the model development effort was to provide a high-accuracy capability to predict fuel, cladding, coolant, and structural temperatures in reactor fuel subassemblies, and thereby reduce the uncertainties associated with lower fidelity models previously used for safety and design analysis. The project included model formulation, implementation, and verification by application to available reactor tests performed at EBR-II. Task 2--Comparative Analysis and Evaluation of Innovative Design Features: Integrated safety assessments of innovative liquid …

Results are presented of a fully ab initio calculation of impact ionization rates in GaAs within the density functional theory framework, using a screened-exchange formalism and the highly precise all-electron full-potential linearized augmented plane wave method. The calculated impact ionization rates show a marked orientation dependence in k space, indicating the strong restrictions imposed by the conservation of energy and momentum. This anisotropy diminishes as the impacting electron energy increases. A Keldysh type fit performed on the energy-dependent rate shows a rather soft edge and a threshold energy greater than the direct band gap. The consistency with available Monte Carlo and empirical pseudopotential calculations shows the reliability of our approach and paves the way to ab initio calculations of pair production rates in new and more complex materials.

A new method for projecting discretized electromagnetic fields on one unstructured grid to another grid is presented in this paper. Two examples are used for studying the errors of different projection methods. The analysis shows that the new method is very effective on balancing both the error of the electric field and that of the magnetic field (or curl of the electric field).

This paper compares HVAC simulations between EnergyPlus and DOE-2.2 for data centers. The HVAC systems studied in the paper are packaged direct expansion air-cooled single zone systems with and without air economizer. Four climate zones are chosen for the study - San Francisco, Miami, Chicago, and Phoenix. EnergyPlus version 2.1 and DOE-2.2 version 45 are used in the annual energy simulations. The annual cooling electric consumption calculated by EnergyPlus and DOE-2.2 are reasonablely matched within a range of -0.4percent to 8.6percent. The paper also discusses sources of differences beween EnergyPlus and DOE-2.2 runs including cooling coil algorithm, performance curves, and important energy model inputs.

The LLL Evaluated Nuclear Data Library (ENDL-78) was tested for validity by comparing calculated and experimental values of k/sub eff/ for 67 critical assemblies and emission neutron spectra for 22 spheres that were pulsed with 14-MeV neutrons. 22 figures, 5 tables.