This report describes the geological component of the interdisciplinary study of the experimental aquifer at Oyster, Virginia, by the NABIR program, Department of Energy (Natural and Accelerated Bioremediation Research), between 1997 and 2003, as conducted by the Sediment dynamics group of Old Dominion University. The Geological component of the Oyster study was designed to (1) predict patterns of physical heterogeneity in sedimentary aquifers that control groundwater flow by application of geological first principles, (2) determine the geophysical imaging signatures of these patterns, and (3) relate patterns of physical heterogeneity thus sampled to observed microbial populations. The geological study began in 1997 at the North Oyster site, but in 2002, moved to the South Oyster site.

This report compares the predicted behavior of several radionuclides disposed in grouted trenches or vaults that exhibited higher aquifer concentrations than if they were disposed in shallow trenches. The general modeling approach is first presented for the vaults and the shallow trenches, then the details for the radionuclides are presented along with explanations or suggestions for the behavior.

This is the Final Technical Report describing the achievements on this DOE program. This research program was initiated with the objective of obtaining a better understanding of the flow, and especially the superplastic flow, of representative ceramics. Detailed experiments were undertaken on the yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia (Y-TZP) and on various composite materials containing Y-TZP and Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}. In addition, a comprehensive theoretical interpretation was developed which showed, for the first time, that the superplasticity of ceramic materials has very significant differences from the conventional superplastic flow in metals.

The project was completed with over 12 papers published in the final contract period in the field of atomic collisions. Also more than 12 contributed talks were given and more than 4 invited talks. The general ideas were related to how time works in quantum systems and how this can be used to control atomic and chemical reactions.

Activated metal is a special waste that requires evaluation for disposal. Contaminants in the activated metal will leach more slowly than will contaminants in generic waste. There is an inventory of activated scrap metal in the 105-L Disassembly Basin. Approximately 1,600 ft3 of the material is characterized as ''No Dose/Low Dose'' and consists mainly of activated aluminum and aluminum alloy pieces and parts and no stainless steel with a dose rate less than 200 mR per hr. Contaminants in the activated metal will leach more slowly than will contaminants in generic waste. The change in the leach rate will affect analyses for the groundwater pathway and intruder scenarios. For this evaluation, the slower leach rate from the activated metal waste will be neglected for the groundwater pathway, which is conservative because the higher leach rate used tends to produce higher groundwater concentrations and lower inventory limits. For this evaluation, the leach rate was set to zero for intruder scenarios, which is conservative for the inadvertent intruder because a slower leach rate will result in higher levels of radionuclides in the waste zone. The evaluation concludes that the existing limits are applicable to the disposal of No Dose/Low Dose activated scrap …

Organic aerosol is an important fraction of the fine particulate matter present in the atmosphere. This organic aerosol comes from a variety of sources; primary organic aerosol emitted directly from combustion process, and secondary aerosol formed in the atmosphere from condensable vapors. This secondary organic aerosol (SOA) can result from both anthropogenic and biogenic sources. In rural areas of the United States, organic aerosols can be a significant part of the aerosol load in the atmosphere. However, the extent to which gas-phase biogenic emissions contribute to this organic load is poorly understood. Such an understanding is crucial to properly apportion the effect of anthropogenic emissions in these rural areas that are sometimes dominated by biogenic sources. To help gain insight on the effect of biogenic emissions on particle concentrations in rural areas, we have been conducting a field measurement program at the University of California Blodgett Forest Research Facility. The field location includes has been used to acquire an extensive suite of measurements resulting in a rich data set, containing a combination of aerosol, organic, and nitrogenous species concentration and meteorological data with a long time record. The field location was established in 1997 by Allen Goldstein, a professor in …

Laboratory identification of radionuclides at environmental concentrations can easily be mistaken, because many energy interferences (coincident or overlapping spectral peaks) are possible. Conventional laboratory quality control measurements are typically not designed to test interferences found in real samples. In order to evaluate the occurrence of radiological false positives in environmental soil and groundwater samples collected at the Savannah River Site, instrument printouts, calibration records, and procedure manuals were examined between 1997 and 2001 at five commercial radiological laboratories. False positives of many radionuclides were found to be routinely reported at all five laboratories; causes vary. Magnitudes were generally between 0.1 and 3 pCi/g in soils, and between 2 and 40 pCi/L in groundwater, within the range of possible concern to regulators. The frequency of false positives varied, but for several nuclides listed below, nearly every detection reported in SRS environmental samples during the study period was judged to be false. Gamma spectroscopy: Low-level false positives of Mn-54, Zr-95, Eu-155, and Np-239 were reported in many soil samples from four laboratories, due to interference from naturally occurring Tl-208, Pb-212, and Ac-228. There were two causes. First, laboratories did not include low abundance (less than 2 per cent) peaks of Tl-208, Pb-212, …

OAK-B135 The major accomplishments of this project were: (1) the initial characterization of dcsA, the gene for the putative catalytic subunit of cellulose synthase in the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum; (2) the detection of a developmentally regulated event (unidentified, but perhaps a protein modification or association with a protein partner) that is required for cellulose synthase activity (i.e., the dcsA product is necessary, but not sufficient for cellulose synthesis); (3) the continued exploration of the developmental context of cellulose synthesis and DcsA; (4) the isolation of a GFP-DcsA-expressing strain (work in progress); and (5) the identification of Dictyostelium homologues for plant genes whose products play roles in cellulose biosynthesis. Although our progress was slow and many of our results negative, we did develop a number of promising avenues of investigation that can serve as the foundation for future projects.

To monitor the groundwater contamination and the effectiveness of remedial actions, over a thousand monitoring wells are in active operation (i.e., require quarterly or semi-annual sampling) at SRS. Most wells are expected to continue in operation for another 20 to 40 more years. Required sample volumes can range from a less than a liter to 10 liters. To support the long-term groundwater monitoring requirements of these wells, SRS actively seeks technologies that can maximize data acquisition and minimize costs. To meet this end, SRS has implemented the Purge Water Management System (PWMS). The key attributes of this system lie in its ability to reduce or eliminate the generation of purged groundwater, which is costly in terms of the time and management.

Development of renewable energy. Such programs have grown in number in recent years. The design features and effectiveness of these programs varies considerably, however, leading a variety of stakeholders to suggest specific marketing and program design features that might improve customer response and renewable energy sales. This report analyzes actual utility green pricing program data to provide further insight into which program features might help maximize both customer participation in green pricing programs and the amount of renewable energy purchased by customers in those programs. Statistical analysis is performed on both the residential and non-residential customer segments. Data comes from information gathered through a questionnaire completed for 66 utility green pricing programs in early 2003. The questionnaire specifically gathered data on residential and non-residential participation, amount of renewable energy sold, program length, the type of renewable supply used, program price/cost premiums, types of consumer research and program evaluation performed, different sign-up options available, program marketing efforts, and ancillary benefits offered to participants.

The BTeV Collaboration is starting to develop its C++ based offline software suite, an integral part of which is a series of tutorials. These tutorials are targeted at a diverse audience, including new graduate students, experienced physicists with little or no C++ experience, those with just enough C++ to be dangerous, and experts who need only an overview of the available tools. The tutorials must both teach C++ in general and the BTeV specific tools in particular. Finally, they must teach physicists how to find and use the detailed documentation. This report will review the status of the BTeV experiment, give an overview of the plans for and the state of the software and will then describe the plans for the tutorial suite.

F-Area is a large nuclear complex located near the center of the Department of Energy's (DOEs) Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The present closure strategy for F-Area is based on established SRS protocol for a site-specific, graded approach to deactivation and decommissioning. Uncontaminated facilities will be closed under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Facilities requiring removal or in-situ disposition of residual chemical and/or radiological inventories will be decommissioned under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). The F-Area Tank Farm, which is permitted under the Clean Water Act, will be closed in accordance with an industrial wastewater closure plan. F-Area closure will also involve the near- and long-term remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater resources. The proposed holistic F-Area closure strategy would enhance the existing project-specific SRS closure protocol by incorporating a comprehensive area-wide groundwater modeling tool, or Composite Analysis. The use of this methodology would allow for the assessment of the relative impacts of individual projects, as well as the cumulative effect of all F-Area closure actions, on area groundwater resources. Other critical elements of the proposed strategy include (i) the consistent use of site-specific Risk Assessments (RAs) and Performance Assessments (PAs), (ii) the closer …

The CDF muon detection system for Run 2 of the Fermilab Tevatron is described. Muon stubs are detected for |{eta}| < 1.5, and are matched to tracks in the central drift chamber at trigger level 1 for |{eta}| < 1.25. Detectors in the |{eta}| < 1 central region, built for previous runs, have been enhanced to survive the higher rate environment and closer bunch spacing (3.5 {micro}sec to 396 nsec) of Run 2. Azimuthal gaps in the central region have been filled in. New detectors have been added to extend the coverage from |{eta}| < 1 to |{eta}| < 1.5, consisting of four layers of drift chambers covered with matching scintillators for triggering. The Level 1 Extremely Fast Tracker supplies matching tracks with measured p{sub T} for the muon trigger. The system has been in operation for over 18 months. Operating experience and reconstructed data are presented.

This Technical Memorandum (TM) summarizes the accelerator and experiment operations for the period FY 2001 through FY 2003. The plan is to have an annual TM to gather such information in one place. In this case, the information concerns the startup of Run II at the Tevatron Collider and the beginning of the MiniBooNE neutrino experiment. While the focus is on the FY 2003 efforts, this document includes summaries of the earlier years where available for completeness.

The Run II physics program of CDF and D0 has just begun with the first 72 pb{sup -1} of analysis quality data collected at the center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV. The Electroweak measurements are among the first and most important benchmarks for the best understanding of the detectors and testing the Standard Model. We present measurements of the W and Z inclusive cross sections and decays asymmetries, recent results in di-boson physics and searches for new physics which make use of distinct electroweak signatures.

H-Area Operations is planning to process plutonium-contaminated (Pu-contaminated) uranium metal scrap in its efforts to de-inventory excess nuclear materials. Experimental work was performed with a piece of uranium sheet. The study had four primary objectives. First, gather reaction rate data at a range of processing conditions to compare against reaction rate data reported in earlier studies and recommend a flowsheet for H-Canyon and/or for HB-Line. Second, develop new data for calculating hydrogen and total generation rates during uranium metal dissolution. Third, the tests intend to provide data to help demonstrate that the proposed flowsheet does not pose a criticality hazard. Last, use the data to recommend a process flowsheet.

Creep and IG cracking of nickel-base alloys depend principally on two factors--the deformation behavior and the effect of the environment. We have shown that both contribute to the observed degradation in primary water. The understanding of cracking does not lie wholly within the environmental effects arena, nor can it be explained only by intrinsic mechanical behavior. Rather, both processes contribute to the observed behavior in primary water. In this project, we had three objectives: (1) to verify that grain boundaries control deformation in Ni-16Cr-9Fe at 360 C, (2) to identify the environmental effect on IGSCC, and (3) to combine CSLBs and GBCs to maximize IGSCC resistance in Ni-Cr-Fe in 360 C primary water. Experiments performed in hydrogen gas at 360 C confirm an increase in the primary creep rate in Ni-16Cr-9Fe at 360 C due to hydrogen. The creep strain transients caused by hydrogen are proposed to be due to the collapse of dislocation pile-ups, as confirmed by observations in HVEM. The observations only partially support the hydrogen-enhanced plasticity model, but also suggest a potential role of vacancies in the accelerate creep behavior in primary water. In high temperature oxidation experiments designed to examine the potential for selective internal oxidation …

To calculate committed effective dose equivalent, one needs to know the quantity of the radionuclide in all significantly irradiated organs (the organ burden) as a function of time following the intake. There are two major sources of uncertainty in an organ burden estimated from personal air sampling (PAS) data: (1) The uncertainty in going from the exposure measured with the PAS to the quantity of aerosol inhaled by the individual, and (2) The uncertainty in going from the intake to the organ burdens at any given time, taking into consideration the biological variability of the biokinetic models from person to person (interperson variability) and in one person over time (intra-person variability). We have been using biokinetic modeling methods developed by researchers at the University of Florida to explore the impact of inter-person variability on the uncertainty of organ burdens estimated from PAS data. These initial studies suggest that the uncertainties are so large that PAS might be considered to be a qualitative (rather than quantitative) technique. These results indicate that more studies should be performed to properly classify the reliability and usefulness of using PAS monitoring data to estimate organ burdens, organ dose, and ultimately CEDE.

After a five year upgrade period, the Fermilab experiments CDF and D0 are taking high quality data in Run II of the Tevatron Collider. We report on the start-up of both detectors and present a selection of first B physics results from the Tevatron. We also compare different B hadron producers such as the {Upsilon}(4S) with the hadron collider environment and discuss general features of B physics at a hadron collider.

As part of the program to provide waste characterization and pretreatment data to support the Waste Treatment Plant WTP mission to treat Hanford tank waste, an approximate 3.8L sample of waste from Hanford Tank 241-AY-102/C-106 was received at the Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC). The waste sample was characterized to provide feed for pretreatment testing. The characterization data provides a basis for rational development of pretreatment processes, determination of reagent requirements, and development of physical design parameters for the pretreatment plant.

The authors describe the current status of the research within the Muon Collaboration towards realizing a Neutrino Factory. The authors describe briefly the physics motivation behind the neutrino factory approach to studying neutrino oscillations and the longer term goal of building the Muon Collider. The benefits of a step by step staged approach of building a proton driver, collecting and cooling muons followed by the acceleration and storage of cooled muons are emphasized. Several usages of cooled muons open up at each new stage in such an approach and new physics opportunities are realized at the completion of each stage.

The Savannah River Site uses sophisticated glovebox facilities to process and analyze material that is radiologically contaminated or that must be protected from contamination by atmospheric gases. The analysis can be visual, non destructive measurement, or destructive measurement, and allows for the gathering of information that would otherwise not be obtainable. Macro and Micro systems that cover a range of 2X to 400X magnifications with a robust system compatible with the harsh glovebox environment were installed. Remote video inspection systems were developed and deployed in Savannah River Site glovebox facilities that provide high quality or mega-pixel quality remote views, for remote inspections. The specialized video systems that are the subject of this report exhibited specialized field application of remote video/viewing techniques by expanding remote viewing to high and very high quality viewing in gloveboxes. This technological enhancement will allow the gathering of precision information that is otherwise not available.

This paper discusses the successful remote visual inspection of a contaminated air exhaust tunnel running beneath the Savannah River Site's H-Canyon nuclear material separations facility. The air exhaust tunnel has been in operation since the 1950's, and the portion of the tunnel inspected has not been seen or accessed since startup. Numerous challenges were overcome in the deployment of the vehicle, including an initial 10-ft drop, travelling a long distance through harsh environmental conditions, surviving and recovering from a second vertical drop, turning 90 degrees, and subsequently travelling further. Video of the entire inspection was transmitted back to a control station, and the vehicle was abandoned in place for possible future use.

This document is the collaborative effort of the members of an ad hoc subcommittee of the Underground Test Area Project Technical Working Group. This subcommittee was to answer questions and concerns raised by the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection to the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office, regarding Pahute Mesa Corrective Action Units (CAUs) 101 and 102. The document attempts to synthesize the combined comments made by each member of this subcommittee into insights made in the role of dispersion in radionuclide transport data and modeling. Dispersion is one of many processes that control the concentration of radionuclides in groundwater beneath the Nevada Test Site where CAUs 101 and 102 are located. In order to understand the role of dispersion in radionuclide transport, there is a critical need for CAU- or site-specific data related to transport parameters which is currently lacking, particularly in the case of Western a nd Central Pahute Mesa. The purpose of this technical basis document is to: (1) define dispersion and its role in contaminant transport, (2) present a synopsis of field-scale dispersion measurements, (3) provide a literature review of theories to explain field-scale dispersion, (4) suggest approaches to account for …