Incineration of applicable Department of Energy (DOE) mixed wastes has produced a secondary waste stream of radioactive and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous fly ash that also requires treatment before land disposal. Unlike bottom ash, fly ash usually contains constituents making efficient stabilization difficult. For example, fly ash from the DOE Waste Experimental Reduction Facility (WERF) incinerator at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) contains volatile metals, metal salts, high concentrations of zinc, and unburned organic residues. All of these constituents can effect the stabilization process. The Department of Energy, and in particular the Mixed Waste Focus Area (MWFA) of EM-50, has stated the need for improved stabilization methods would accept a higher ash waste loading while meeting waste form disposal criteria. These alternative stabilization technologies should include delivery systems to minimize worker exposure and minimize secondary waste generation, while maximizing operational flexibility and radionuclide containment. Currently, the standard practice for stabilizing ash is mixing with Portland cement at room temperature. This standard practice produces a significant increase of waste material volume or has difficulty in adequately stabilizing the components in the fly ash to ensure regulatory requirements are consistently satisfied. To address these fly ash …

The Science Application International Corporation (SAIC) RadStar{trademark} wireless remote radiation monitoring system (WRRMS) is designed to provide real-time monitoring of the radiation dose to workers as they perform work in radiologically contaminated areas. WRRMS can also monitor dose rates in a room or area. The system uses radio-frequency communications to transmit dose readings from the wireless dosimeters worn by workers to a remote monitoring station that can be located out of the contaminated area. Each base station can monitor up to 16 workers simultaneously. The WRRMS can be preset to trigger both audible and visual alarms at certain dose rates. The alarms are provided to the worker as well as the base station operator. This system is particularly useful when workers are wearing personal protective clothing or respirators that make visual observation of their self-reading dosimeters (SRDs), which are typically used to monitor workers, more difficult. The base station is an IBM-compatible personal computer that updates and records information on individual workers every ten seconds. Although the equipment costs for this improved technology are higher than the SRDs (amortized at $2.54/hr versus $1.02/hr), total operational costs are actually less ($639/day versus $851/day). This is because the WRRMS requires fewer workers …

Mechanisms that control the response of MOS and bipolar devices to ionizing radiation in the natural space environment are briefly reviewed. Standard tests based on room-temperature irradiation and elevated temperature annealing are described for MOS devices to bound the effects of oxide and interface-trap charge in space. For bipolar devices that exhibit enhanced low-dose-rate sensitivity, a standard test equivalent to that developed for MOS devices is not available. However, screening techniques based on room temperature and/or elevated temperature irradiations are described which can minimize the risk to spacecraft and satellite electronics from this phenomenon.

In 1997, the US public and private sectors invested $205.7 billion in R and D. Private sector investments in R&D increased 34% between 1990 and 1997; over the same period the federal government decreased its expenditures by 15% in real terms. Projections of outyear federal budgets indicate the federal government will continue to reduce its investments in R&D for the foreseeable future. Defense R&D continues to be the largest area of concentration for federal government's R&D investments, with defense R&D accounting for 54% of all federal R&D outlays in 1998. Defense R&D is funded at a level which is three times higher than health R&D. Health R&D has experienced the largest inflation-adjusted increases of any federal R&D program, up 21% in real terms since 1990. US national (i.e., public and private) investments in energy R and D currently stand at a 23-year low of $4.4 billion in 1996. Federal support for energy R&D has declined 22% in real terms between 1990 and 1996. Federal energy R&D investments are also undergoing changes in priority. Fossil energy R&D programs are at the beginning of a potentially significant change away from''clean coal'' technology development programs and towards more fundamental research on ways to …

Four flex circuits were tested. They are categorized as: (1) Litchfield narrow; (2) Litchfield wide; (3) Cirexx wide; and (4) Speedy Circuit green. The cross sectional area of copper was calculated from trace resistance measurements. All the flex circuits had an acceptable amount of copper cross section. about 6 e-8 m{sup 2} for all except the Cirexx flex which had 4.5 e-8 m{sup 2}. The thickness of the ribbons was 0.006-inch for the Litchfield and about 0.004-inch for the Cirexx and Speed circuit. The room temperature resistivity ratio (RRR) was measured to be 15 for all the circuits. This was expected and means that the trace material resistivity at helium temperatures is 1/15th of what it is at room temperature. This is good from the standpoint of thermal heat load. Purer copper, with an RRR > 30 would result in an unacceptable heat load. The cryogenic cycling and bending tests to liquid nitrogen proved that both the Cirexx wide and Speedy circuit green were made of acceptable materials. Both Litchfield flex circuits had significant cracking of the coverlay when bent at cold temperatures and are not acceptable. The Litchfield narrow was in bad physical condition to start with and got …

No abstract is available for this document at this time.

No abstract is available for this document at this time.

The Materials Consultation Group of SRTC has completed a review of existing literature and data regarding the useable service life of Viton{reg_sign} GLT fluoroelastomer O-rings currently used in the Model 9975 packaging assemblies. Although the shipping and transportation period is normally limited to 2 years, it is anticipated that these packages will be used for longer-term storage of Pu-bearing materials in KAMS (K-Area Materials Storage) prior to processing or disposition in the APSF (Actinide Packaging and Storage Facility). Based on the service conditions and review of available literature, Materials Consultation concludes that there is sufficient existing data to establish the technical basis for storage of Pu-bearing materials using Parker Seals O-ring compound V835-75 (or equivalent) for up to 10 years following the 2-year shipping period. Although significant physical deterioration of the O-rings and release of product is not expected, definite changes in physical properties will occur. However, due to the complex relationship between elastomer formulation, seal properties, and competing degradation mechanisms, the actual degree of property variation and impact upon seal performance is difficult to predict. Therefore, accelerated aging and/or surveillance programs are recommended to validate the assumptions outlined in this report and to assess the long-term performance of O-ring …

The purpose of this study is to identify candidate Monitored Geologic Repository (MGR) surface waste handling equipment for development testing. This study will also identify strategies for performing the development tests. Development testing shall be implemented to support detail design and reduce design risks. Development testing shall be conducted to confirm design concepts, evaluate alternative design concepts, show the availability of needed technology, and provide design documentation. The candidate equipment will be selected from MGR surface waste handling equipment that is the responsibility of the Management and Operating Contractor (M&O) Surface Design Department. The equipment identified in this study is based on Viability Assessment (VA) design. The ''Monitored Geologic Repository Test and Evaluation Plan'' (MGR T&EP), Reference 5.1, was used as a basis for this study. The MGR T&EP reflects the extent of test planning and analysis that can be conducted, given the current status of the MGR requirements and latest VA design information. The MGR T&EP supports the appropriate sections in the license application (LA) in accordance with 10 CFR 60.2 1(c)(14). The MGR T&EP describes the following test activities: site characterization to confirm, by test and analysis, the suitability of the Yucca Mountain site for housing a geologic …

Electroless deposition of palladium thin-films on a surface of microporous ceramic substrate has been used to develop a new class of perm-selective inorganic membrane. In the last report, we presented a numerical method to analyze the stability in single-stage gas permeation. In this reporting period, we present our modeling work on dehydrogenation of cyclohexane in Pd-Ceramic membrane reactor. A model for studying dehydrogenation of cyclohexane in a membrane reactor is developed. Radial diffusion is considered to account for the concentration gradient in radial direction due permeation through the membrane. The model equations are derived for systems with reaction and without reaction. In the non-reaction case, a mixture of argon, benzene, cyclohexane, and hydrogen is used in the reaction side and argon is used as sweep gas in the separation side. Currently, we are working on the details of numerical solution of the model equations.

This volume contains the report of the RIKEN BNL Research Center workshop on ''Event Generator for RHIC Spin Physics'' held on September 21-23, 1998 at Brookhaven National Laboratory. A major objective of the workshop was to establish a firm collaboration to develop suitable event generators for the spin physics program at RHIC. With the completion of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) as a polarized collider a completely new domain of high-energy spin physics will be opened. The planned studies address the spin structure of the nucleon, tests of the standard model, and transverse spin effects in initial and final states. RHIC offers the unique opportunity to pursue these studies because of its high and variable energy, 50 {le} {radical}s {le} 500 GeV, high polarization, 70%, and high luminosity, 2 x 10{sup 32} cm{sup -2} sec{sup -1} or more at 500 GeV. To maximize the output from the spin program at RHIC, the understanding of both experimental and theoretical systematic errors is crucial. It will require full-fledged event generators, to simulate the processes of interest in great detail. The history of event generators shows that their development and improvement are ongoing processes taking place in parallel to the physics analysis …

Building on recent work by N. Arkani-Hamed and the present authors, we construct realistic models that break supersymmetry dynamically and give rise to composite quarks and leptons, all in a single strongly-coupled sector. The most important improvement compared to earlier models is that the second-generation composite states correspond to dimension-2 ''meson'' operators in the ultraviolet. This leads to a higher scale for flavor physics, and gives a completely natural suppression of flavor-changing neutral currents. We also construct models in which the hierarchy of Yukawa couplings is explained by the dimensionality of composite states. These models provide an interesting and viable alternative to gravity- and gauge-mediated models. The generic signatures are unification of scalar masses with different quantum numbers at the compositeness scale, and lighter gaugino, Higgsino, and third-generation squark and slepton masses. We also analyze large classes of models that give rise to both compositeness and supersymmetry breaking, based on gauge theories with confining, fixed-point, or free-magnetic dynamics.

According to one of Maldacena's dualities, type IIB string theory on AdS{sub 3} x S{sup 3} x K3 is equivalent to a certain N = (4, 4) superconformal field theory. In this note we compute the elliptic genus of the boundary theory in the supergravity approximation. A finite quantity is obtained once we introduce a particular exclusion principle. In the regime where the supergravity approximation is reliable, we find exact agreement with the elliptic genus of a sigma model with target space K3{sup N}/S{sub N}.

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The IBM ASCI Blue-Pacific System is a scalable, distributed/shared memory architecture designed to reach multi-teraflop performance. The IBM SP pieces together a large number of nodes, each having a modest number of processors. The system is designed to accommodate a mixed programming model as well as a pure message-passing paradigm. We examine a number of applications on this architecture and evaluate their performance and scalability.

This paper reviews work on flashlamp-pumped solid state lasers and discusses diode-pumped solid state lasers, the Mercury laser in particular. It also discusses ICF lasers beyond Mercury.

The ability to calibrate seismic stations to improve the monitoring of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty is partially limited by the availability of seismic events with known locations and source properties. To confidently extrapolate from these events to aseismic regions, and to properly account for discontinuities in seismic properties requires accurate geophysical models. This paper lays out a preliminary, first-order, regionalization of the Middle East and North African (MENA) region. The model specifies boundaries and velocity structures based on the geology and tectonics of the region, previously published studies, and empirical data observations by the LLNL group. This model is a starting point and is expected to be improved and refined by comparisons with ongoing tomography efforts and the collection of new data. We anticipate that this model and its successors will prove useful as a background model in the process of forming station calibration maps based on intelligent interpolation techniques such as kriging. We also hope the model, as it improves and demonstrates some predictive power, will provide a reference model for broader CTBT research efforts in detection, location and discrimination as well as other aspects of earth science.

A statistics-based model is being developed to predict the laser-damage-limited lifetime of UV optical components on the NIF laser. In order to provide data for the model, laser damage experiments were performed on the Beamlet laser system at LLNL (aperture: 34 cm x 34 cm). Three prototype NIF focus lenses were exposed to 351 nm pulses (1.5 ns or 3 ns) during four experimental campaigns, each consisting of 23 to 38 pulses at NIF relevant fluences. Each lens was sol-gel AR coated and all laser exposures were performed in a vacuum environment. Through inspections of the lens before, during and after the campaigns, pulse-to-pulse damage growth rates were measured for damage initiating both on the surfaces and at bulk inclusions. Radial growth rates measured for rear surface damage was typically 10x higher than that measured in the bulk or at the front surface. No significant correlation of growth rate to precursor type was indicated. For 5 J/cm², 3 ns pulses the typical radial growth rate was nominally 20 µm/pulse. Average growth rates measured on three lenses made by two manufacturers were in good agreement. While the growth rate clearly increased with fluence, the data obtained was insufficient to quantify the …

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In California, leaking underground fuel tank (LUFT) legislation was conceived because of concern that ''time bomb plumes'' would ultimately impact a significant portion of the state's ground and surface water resources. However, it has been found that fuel hydrocarbons (FHC) plumes are stable at relatively short distances from the source in areas of shallow groundwater. In urban areas, these shallow aquifers are not even recommended for use because they are subject to contamination from sewers, storm drains, septic fields and a variety of other sources. After the FHC source has been removed, risk to human health or the environment is insignificant in most cases. For this reason, cleanup to maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) will not significantly reduce the social damages associated with current or near-term human health or ecological risk. Based on these findings, California would be able to save significant resources that had been allocated for LUFT-site cleanup. Non-convexities in the rate of decay function and non-differentiability in the cleanup and social damage functions appear to limit the usefulness of models, such as Caputo and Wilen's (1995), that attempt to characterize the optimal cleanup path using marginal analyses. Furthermore, the effect of active remediation efforts on the natural rate …

The authors studied diets of nestling red-cockaded woodpeckers for two years on three sites in South Carolina and Georgia. Cameras recorded 33 different types of prey. Wood roaches were the most common, amounting to 50% of the prey. In addition, blueberries and saw fly larvae were collected by birds. Snail shells were also collected. Morista's index of diet overlap ranged from 0.94 to 0.99 for breeding males and females. We conclude that nestling diets are similar across the region.

The N* program at CEBAF is reviewed, and some preliminary experimental results are presented to illustrate the quality and capabilities of the CLAS detector.

This proceedings is the compilation of all papers presented at the 11th PV Performance and Reliability Workshop held at the Doubletree Hotel in Cocoa Beach, Florida, on November 3-5, 1998. The workshop was hosted by the Florida Solar Energy Center. This year's workshop included presentations from 29 speakers and had 110 attendees.

During the fourth contract year, the authors continued to develop Ballistic technology of shell formation. A new upgraded version of Ballistic Furnace with longer hot zone (1.56m) and cooling one (1.2m) had been finally assembled, and a lot of shell formation experiments had been carried out. The change of the Ballistic Furnace configuration has led to significant changing in operational conditions suitable for shells production. They had found optimal operational conditions for some grades of initial granules giving them high yield of good shells. Serious attention was paid on initial granules preparation. In the experiments some unexpected results were obtained--first of all it was a strong influence of temperature profile, an initial granule velocity and a trajectory angle on good quality shells yield. Those observations made them consider some additional physical phenomena (initial granule defragmentation and gas convection inside hot zone) to explain good shell formation. Appropriate estimations of the velocity of possible convectional gas currents in the hot zone, strength of formed shells, thermal stress in an initial granule caused by its fast heating in the ballistic furnace etc. were made. Good quality shells up to 2mm in diameters with high yield were produced. Although a production of good …