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The Department of Energy (DOE) and its predecessors have conducted research and development (R&D) in geothermal energy since 1971. To develop the technology needed to harness the Nation's vast geothermal resources, DOE's Office of Geothermal Technologies oversees a network of national laboratories, industrial contractors, universities, and their subcontractors. The goals are: (1) Double the number of States with geothermal electric power facilities to eight by 2006; (2) Reduce the levelized cost of generating geothermal power to 3-5 cents per kWh by 2007; and (3) Supply the electrical power or heat energy needs of 7 million homes and businesses in the United States by 2010. This Federal Geothermal Program Research Update reviews the specific objectives, status, and accomplishments of DOE's Geothermal Program for Federal Fiscal Year (FY) 2002. The information contained in this Research Update illustrates how the mission and goals of the Office of Geothermal Technologies are reflected in each R&D activity. The Geothermal Program, from its guiding principles to the most detailed research activities, is focused on expanding the use of geothermal energy. balanced strategy for the Geothermal Program.

This report will summarize PNNL's progress toward accomplishment of the critical outcomes, objectives and performance indicators as delineated in the FY 2002 Performance Evaluation and Fee Agreement. In addition, this report will summarize PNNL's analysis of the results of the FY2002 Peer Reviews, the implementation of PNNL's FY2002 Operational Improvement Initiatives, and the resolution of the Key Areas for Improvements.

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Institutional Plan for FY 2000-2004 sets forth the laboratory's mission, roles, technical capabilities, and laboratory strategic plan. In the plan, major initiatives also are proposed and the transitioning initiatives are discussed. The Programmatic Strategy section details our strategic intent, roles, and research thrusts in each of the U.S. Department of Energy's mission areas. The Operations/Infrastructure Strategic Plan section includes information on the laboratory's human resources; environment, safety, and health management; safeguards and security; site and facilities management; information resources management; management practices and standards; and communications and trust.

This document is an integrated monitoring plan for the groundwater project and contains: well and constituent lists for monitoring required by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and its implementing orders ("surveillance monitoring"); other, established monitoring plans by reference; and a master well/ constituent/frequency matrix for the entire Hanford Site.

In this first Institutional Plan prepared by Bechtel BWXT Idaho, LLC, for the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, the INEEL will focus it's efforts on three strategic thrusts; (1) Environmental Management stewardship for DOE-EM, (2) Nuclear reactor technology for DOE-Nuclear Energy (NE), and (3) Energy R&D, demonstration, and deployment (initial focus on biofuels and chemical from biomass). The first strategic thrust focuses on meeting DOE-EM's environmental cleanup and long-term stewardship needs in a manner that is safe, cost-effective, science-based, and approved by key stakeholders. The science base at the INEEL will be further used to address a grand challenge for the INEEL and the DOE complex - the development of a fundamental scientific understanding of the migration of subsurface contaminants. The second strategic thrust is directed at DOE-NE's needs for safe, economical, waste-minimized, and proliferation-resistant nuclear technologies. As NE lead laboratories, the INEEL and ANL will pursue specific priorities. The third strategic thrust focuses on DOE's needs for clean, efficient, and renewable energy technology. As an initial effort, the INEEL will enhance its capability in biofuels, bioprocessing, and biochemicals. The content of this Institutional Plan is designed to meet basic DOE requirements for content and structure and reflect the …

The Department of Energy's (DOE) Savannah River Site (SRS) high-level waste program is responsible for storage, treatment, and immobilization of high-level waste for disposal. The Salt Processing Program (SPP) is the salt (soluble) waste treatment portion of the SRS high-level waste effort. The overall SPP encompasses the selection, design, construction and operation of treatment technologies to prepare the salt waste feed material for the site's grout facility (Saltstone) and vitrification facility (Defense Waste Processing Facility). Major constituents that must be removed from the salt waste and sent as feed to Defense Waste Processing Facility include actinides, strontium, cesium, and entrained sludge. In fiscal year 2002 (FY02), research and development (R&D) on the actinide and strontium removal and Caustic-Side Solvent Extraction (CSSX) processes transitioned from technology development for baseline process selection to providing input for conceptual design of the Salt Waste Processing Facility. The SPP R&D focused on advancing the technical maturity, risk reduction, engineering development, and design support for DOE's engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractors for the Salt Waste Processing Facility. Thus, R&D in FY02 addressed the areas of actual waste performance, process chemistry, engineering tests of equipment, and chemical and physical properties relevant to safety. All of the …

In February 1997, the U.S. Department of Energy, Nevada Operations Office issued the Mitigation Action Plan which addressed potential impacts described in the ''Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Nevada Test Site and Off-Site Locations in the State of Nevada'' (DOE/EIS 0243). The U.S. Department of Energy, Nevada Operations Office committed to several actions, including the preparation of an annual report, which summarizes waste shipments to and from the Nevada Test Site (NTS) Radioactive Waste Management Sites (RWMSs) at Area 3 and Area 5. This document satisfies requirements with regard to low-level radioactive waste (LLW) and mixed low-level radioactive waste (MLLW) transported to or from the NTS during fiscal year (FY) 2002.

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This final report details the operations and results of a 3-year Seepline Phytoremediation Project performed adjacent to Tims Branch, which is located in the Southern Sector of the Savannah River Site (SRS) A/M Area. Phytoremediation is a process where interactions between vegetation, associated microorganisms, and the host substrate combine to effectively degrade contaminated soils, sediments, and groundwater. Phytoremediation is a rapidly developing technology that shows promise for the effective and safe cleanup of certain hazardous wastes. It has the potential to remediate numerous volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Extensive characterization work has demonstrated that two VOCs, tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE) are the major components of the VOC-contaminated groundwater that is migrating through the Southern Sector and Tims Branch seepline area (WSRC, 1999). The PCE and TCE are chlorinated ethenes (CE), and have been detected in seepline soils and ground water adjacent to the ecologically-sensitive Tims Branch seepline area.

A study performed in FY01 recommended that the Defense Waste Process Facility (DWPF) replace Frit 200 with Frit 320 for the processing of sludge batch 2 (SB2) to improve melt rate (Lambent et al., 2001) contingent upon additional testing which included slurry feeding. The FY02 melt rate program was developed to support this recommendation as well as to investigate alternative methods of improving melt rate above and beyond a change in frit composition. The integrated program was primarily based on a sound testing methodology from which the frit change was recommended. In addition, the program included the development of additional tools to provide further insight into melt rate enhancements. The overall strategy of the FY02 testing program was to design suites of melt rate tests based on recommendations from previous work that provided insight into other methods of improving melt rate for the DWPF. The objectives of the FY02 testing program included how melt rate might be influenced by increases in waste loading, differences in frit particle size, the use of batch chemicals rather than a pre-fabricated frit, and the impact of uranium. This report summarizes the equipment development and setup, procedures, and results of this testing, and includes recommendations …

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Sandia National Laboratories has developed a portfolio of programs to address the critical skills needs of the DP labs, as identified by the 1999 Chiles Commission Report. The goals are to attract and retain the best and the brightest students and transition them into Sandia--and DP Complex--employees. The US Department of Energy/Defense Programs University Partnerships funded seven laboratory critical skills development programs in FY02. This report provides a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of these programs and their status.

OAK B202 THE GENERAL ATOMICS FUSION THEORY PROGRAM ANNUAL REPORT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2002. The dual objective of the fusion theory program at General Atomics (GA) is to significantly advance the scientific understanding of the physics of fusion plasmas and to support the DIII-D and other tokamak experiments. The program plan is aimed at contributing significantly to the Fusion Energy Science and the Tokamak Concept Improvement goals of the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (OFES).

This report provides the results of detailed hydrologic characterization tests conducted within newly constructed Hanford Site wells during FY 2002. Results from the tests provide hydrologic information that supports the needs of RCRA waste management characterization and sitewide groundwater monitoring and modeling programs and reduces the uncertainty of groundwater flow conditions at selected Hanford locations.

Despite recent intensive experimental effort, the electronic structure of Pu, particularly {delta}-Pu, remains ill defined. An evaluation of our previous synchrotron-radiation-based investigation of {alpha}-Pu and {delta}-Pu has lead to a new paradigm for the interpretation of photoemission spectra of U, Np, {alpha}-Pu, {delta}-Pu and Am. This approach is founded upon a model in which spin and spin-orbit splittings are included in the picture of the 5f states and upon the observation of chiral/spin-dependent effects in non-magnetic systems. By extending a quantitative model developed for the interpretation of core level spectroscopy in magnetic systems, it is possible to predict the contributions of the individual component states within the 5-f manifold. This has lead to a remarkable agreement between the results of the model and the previously collected spectra of U, Np, Pu and Am, particularly {delta}-Pu, and to a prediction of what we might expect to see in future spin-resolving experiments.

This report is a summary of the larger report, ''Hanford Site Groundwater Monitoring for Fiscal Year 2002.'' The report provides highlights of monitoring groundwater, vadose zone activities, and information about specific contaminant plumes.

This Institutional Plan for FY 2002-2006 is the principal annual planning document submitted to the Department of Energy's Office of Science by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington. This plan describes the Laboratory's mission, roles, and technical capabilities in support of Department of Energy priorities, missions, and plans. It also describes the Laboratory strategic plan, key planning assumptions, major research initiatives, and program strategy for fundamental science, energy resources, environmental quality, and national security.

The primary objective of the Vadose Zone Transport Field Study is to obtain hydrologic, geophysical, and geochemical data from controlled field studies to reduce the uncertainty in vadose-zone conceptual models and to facilitate the calibration of numerical models for water flow and contaminant transport through Hanford's heterogeneous vadose zone. A secondary objective is to evaluate advanced, cost-effective characterization methods with the potential to assess changing conditions in the vadose zone, particularly as surrogates of currently undetectable high-risk contaminants. The study is designed to assure the measurement of flow-and-transport properties in the same soil volume, a pre-requisite for developing techniques for extrapolating parameters derived from investigations at clean representative sites to contaminated sites with minimal characterization.

This report presents the results of groundwater and vadose zone monitoring and remediation for fiscal year 2002 on the U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford Site in Washington State. This report is written to meet the requirements in CERCLA, RCRA, the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, and Washington State Administrative Code.

This report summarizes the science and technology research and development efforts in Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Engineering Directorate for FY2002, and exemplifies Engineering's 50-year history of developing the technologies needed to support the Laboratory's missions. Engineering has been a partner in every major program and project at the Laboratory throughout its existence and has prepared for this role with a skilled workforce and the technical resources developed through venues like the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program (LDRD). This accomplishment is well summarized by Engineering's mission: ''To make programs succeed today and to ensure the vitality of the Laboratory tomorrow.'' Engineering's investment in new technologies is carried out through two programs, the ''Tech Base'' program (Volume I) and the LDRD program (Volume II). This report summarizes the LDRD portion of Engineering's Technology Program. LDRD is the vehicle for researching and developing those technologies and competencies that are cutting edge, or that require a significant level of research, or contain some unknown that needs to be fully understood. Tech Base is used to apply those technologies, or adapt them to a Laboratory need. The term commonly used for Tech Base projects is ''reduction to practice.'' Therefore, the LDRD report covered here …

This multiyear program plan (MYPP) reflects the TFA's plan for the next five fiscal years (FY00-FY04). Most of the planning emphasis is on FY00 and FY01.

A series of studies by the Air Force, the National Reconnaissance Office and NASA have identified the critical role played by large optics in fulfilling many of the space related missions of these agencies. Whether it is the Next Generation Space Telescope for NASA, high resolution imaging systems for NRO, or beam weaponry for the Air Force, the diameter of the primary optic is central to achieving high resolution (imaging) or a small spot size on target (lethality). While the detailed requirements differ for each application (high resolution imaging over the visible and near-infrared for earth observation, high damage threshold but single-wavelength operation for directed energy), the challenges of a large, lightweight primary optic which is space compatible and operates with high efficiency are the same. The advantage of such large optics to national surveillance applications is that it permits these observations to be carried-out with much greater effectiveness than with smaller optics. For laser weapons, the advantage is that it permits more tightly focused beams which can be leveraged into either greater effective range, reduced laser power, and/or smaller on-target spot-sizes; weapon systems can be made either much more effective or much less expensive. This application requires only single-wavelength …