The Photovoltaic Manufacturing Technology (PVMaT) project is helping the U.S. photovoltaic (PV) industry extend its world leadership role in manufacturing and stimulate the commercial development of PV modules and systems. Initiated in 1990, PVMaT is being carried out in several directed and staggered phases to support industry`s continued progress. Thirteen subcontracts awarded in FY 1996 under Phase 4A emphasize improvement and cost reduction in the manufacture of full-system PV products. Areas of work in Phase 4A included, but were not limited to, issues such as improving module-manufacturing processes; system and system-component packaging, integration, manufacturing, and assembly; product manufacturing flexibility; and balance-of-system development with the goal of product manufacturing improvements. These Phase 4A, product-driven manufacturing research and development (R&D) activities are now completing their second phase. Progress under these Phase 4A and remaining Phase 2B subcontracts from the earlier PVMaT solicitation are summarized in this paper. Evaluations of the success of this project have been carried out in FY 1995 and late FY 1996. This paper examines the 1997 cost/capacity data that have been collected from active PVMaT manufacturers.

The Jointly Sponsored Research Program emphasizes technology commercialization and continues to be highly successful and supported strongly and enthusiastically by WRI`s industrial clientele. All of the available Department of Energy (USDOE) funding for each of the first seven years has been committed to projects. This report provides a description of projects and expenditures on fossil projects and environmental monitoring.

Monthly report documenting contracts for road construction and maintentance in Texas, organized by county and district. It includes information about each project including contractor, dates, costs, and other relevant data.

The research and development supported by the DOE Hydrogen Program focuses on near-term transitional strategies involving fossil fuels, and on the exploration of long-term, high-risk, renewable and sustainable concepts.

This report serves as the technology basis of a needed national climate change technology strategy, with the confidence that a strong technology R&D program will deliver a portfolio of technologies with the potential to provide very substantial greenhouse gas emission reductions along with continued economic growth. Much more is needed to define such a strategy, including identification of complementary deployment policies and analysis to support the seeping and prioritization of R&D programs. A national strategy must be based upon governmental, industrial, and academic partnerships.

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This report includes a glossary of approximately 1,700 agriculture and related terms (e.g., food programs, conservation, forestry, environmental protection, etc.). Besides defining terms and phrases with specialized meanings for agriculture, the glossary also identifies acronyms, agencies, programs, and laws related to agriculture.

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The main objective of this research project is the formulation of processes that can be used to prepare compositionally graded alumina/mullite coatings for protection from corrosion of silicon carbide components (monolithic or composite) used or proposed to be used in coal utilization systems (e.g., combustion chamber liners, heat exchanger tubes, particulate removal filters, and turbine components) and other energy-related applications. Mullite will be employed as the inner (base) layer and the composition of the film will be continuously changed to a layer of pure alumina, which will function as the actual protective coating of the component. Chemical vapor deposition reactions of silica, alumina, and aluminosilicates (mullite) through hydrolysis of aluminum and silicon chlorides in the presence of CO{sub 2} and H{sub 2} will be employed to deposit compositionally graded films of mullite and alumina. Our studies will include the kinetic investigation of the silica, alumina, and aluminosilicate deposition processes, characterization of the composition, microstructure, surface morphology, and mechanical behavior of the prepared films, and modeling of the various deposition processes. During this six-month reporting period, we continued the work on the development and construction of the thermogravimetric chemical vapor deposition system that we intend to employ for studying the deposition …

A fundamental component of any accountability system for nuclear materials is a tank calibration equation that relates the height of liquid in a tank to its volume. Tank volume calibration equations are typically determined from pairs of height and volume measurements taken in a series of calibration runs. After raw calibration data are standardized to a fixed set of reference conditions, the calibration equation is typically fit by dividing the data into several segments--corresponding to regions in the tank--and independently fitting the data for each segment. The estimates obtained for individual segments must then be combined to obtain an estimate of the entire calibration function. This process is tedious and time-consuming. Moreover, uncertainty estimates may be misleading because it is difficult to properly model run-to-tun variability and between-segment correlation. In this paper, they describe a model whose parameters can be estimated simultaneously for all segments of the calibration data, thereby eliminating the need for segment-by-segment estimation. The essence of the proposed model is to define a suitable polynomial to fit to each segment and then extend its definition to the domain of the entire calibration function, so that it (the entire calibration function) can be expressed as the sum of …

Limited historical references indicate that bull trout Salvelinus confluentus in Oregon were once widely spread throughout at least 12 basins in the Klamath River and Columbia River systems. No bull trout have been observed in Oregon's coastal systems. A total of 69 bull trout populations in 12 basins are currently identified in Oregon. A comparison of the 1991 bull trout status (Ratliff and Howell 1992) to the revised 1996 status found that 7 populations were newly discovered and 1 population showed a positive or upgraded status while 22 populations showed a negative or downgraded status. The general downgrading of 32% of Oregon's bull trout populations appears largely due to increased survey efforts and increased survey accuracy rather than reduced numbers or distribution. However, three populations in the upper Klamath Basin, two in the Walla Walla Basin, and one in the Willamette Basin showed decreases in estimated population abundance or distribution.

A key component of the Engineered Barrier System (EBS) being designed for containment of spent-fuel and high-level waste at the proposed geological repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada is a two-layer canister. In this particular design, the inner barrier is made of a corrosion resistant material (CRM) such as Alloy 625 or C-22, while the outer barrier is made of a corrosion-allowance material (CAM) such as carbon steel or Monel 400. An integrated predictive model is being developed to account for the effects of localized environmental conditions in the CRM-CAM crevice on the initiation and propagation of pits through the CRM.

Co-precipitation is the major method proposed for synthesis of molybdenum oxide supported Fe, Fe/Co, and Fe/Cu catalysts. However, many variables may effect the particle size and surface properties of the synthesized catalysts, such as pH of molybdate solution, precipitation temperature and pH, Fe/Mo atomic ratio, pH of the washing solution, aging of the freshly prepared samples, and the length and temperature of calcination. In this period, we have been working on precipitation between iron(III) nitrate solution and ammonium para-molybdate solution under controlled pH condition, and with different Me/Fe atomic ratio. The effect of aging time on the property of the samples was also studied. The samples with the ratio of Fe/MoO{sub 3}: 6.5%, 20%, 26%, and 30% were prepared using above mentioned method. The samples with 6.5% and 26% were characterized with thermal analysis, infrared spectroscopy, magnetization, Moessbauer and X-ray diffraction before and after calcination at 400 C. FTIR was examined on precipitate, calacined and reduced samples as well as CO adsorbed and desorbed samples. Magnetization Studies were made on precipitated, calacined, and reduced samples. Their synthesis and characterization are presented in this report.

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Preliminary results are presented from the long-term corrosion test program of candidate materials for the high-level radioactive waste packages that would be emplaced in the potential repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The present waste package design is based on a multi-barrier concept having an inner container of a corrosion resistant material and an outer container of a corrosion allowance material. Test specimens have been exposed to simulated bounding environments that may credibly develop in the vicinity of the waste packages. Corrosion rates have been calculated for weight loss and crevice specimens, and U-bend specimens have been examined for evidence of stress corrosion cracking (SCC). Galvanic testing has been started recently and initial results are forthcoming. Pitting characterization of test specimens will be conducted in the coming year. This test program is expected to continue for a minimum of five years so that long-term corrosion data can be determined to support corrosion model development, performance assessment, and waste package design.

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This report address four project objectives: (1) Gradient model of Carolina bay vegetation on the SRS--The authors use ordination analyses to identify environmental and landscape factors that are correlated with vegetation composition. Significant factors can provide a framework for site-based conservation of existing diversity, and they may also be useful site predictors for potential vegetation in bay restorations. (2) Regional analysis of Carolina bay vegetation diversity--They expand the ordination analyses to assess the degree to which SRS bays encompass the range of vegetation diversity found in the regional landscape of South Carolina's western Upper Coastal Plain. Such comparisons can indicate floristic status relative to regional potentials and identify missing species or community elements that might be re-introduced or restored. (3) Classification of vegetation communities in Upper Coastal Plain bays--They use cluster analysis to identify plant community-types at the regional scale, and explore how this classification may be functional with respect to significant environmental and landscape factors. An environmentally-based classification at the whole-bay level can provide a system of templates for managing bays as individual units and for restoring bays to desired plant communities. (4) Qualitative model for bay vegetation dynamics--They analyze present-day vegetation in relation to historic land uses and …

The groundwater flow system of the Nevada Test Site and surrounding region was evaluated to estimate the highest potential current and near-term risk to the public and the environment from groundwater contamination downgradient of the underground nuclear testing areas. The highest, or greatest, potential risk is estimated by assuming that several unusually rapid transport pathways as well as public and environmental exposures all occur simultaneously. These conservative assumptions may cause risks to be significantly overestimated. However, such a deliberate, conservative approach ensures that public health and environmental risks are not underestimated and allows prioritization of future work to minimize potential risks. Historical underground nuclear testing activities, particularly detonations near or below the water table, have contaminated groundwater near testing locations with radioactive and nonradioactive constituents. Tritium was selected as the contaminant of primary concern for this phase of the project because it is abundant, highly mobile, and represents the most significant contributor to the potential radiation dose to humans for the short term. It was also assumed that the predicted risk to human health and the environment from tritium exposure would reasonably represent the risk from other, less mobile radionuclides within the same time frame. Other contaminants will be investigated …

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Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is a binary treatment modality that can selectively irradiate tumor tissue. The key to effective BNCT is the preferential accumulation of ¹⁰B in the tumor relative to the surrounding normal tissues. A screening procedure was developed under this CRADA that is an improvement over previously reported techniques. This method was used to evaluate the two compounds produced by BBI, the amino acid p-boronophenylalanine (BPA)and the sulfhydryl boroane N₂B₁₂H₁₁SH (BSH), for clinically useful accumulation in a panel of human tumor cell lines. BPA showed selective accumulation in: squamous cell carcinoma of the lung; small cell carcinoma of the lung; osteosarcoma; prostate carcinoma; and ovarian carcinoma. Of these it was decided to pursue application of BPA-based BNCT to lung tumors. BPA distribution in nude mice bearing subcutaneous human lung tumor xenografts showed very favorable results. At 3 hours post-injection, the tumor/blood boron concentration ratio was 5:1, the tumorflung ratio was 6:1. The treatment planning sofiware, already in use for the glioblastoma BNCT clinical trial underway at BNL, was used for simulation of a human lung tumor treatment using BNCT. Input data for this simulation included the nude mouse biodistribution data, human lung tumor CT geometry, and the …

The licensing requirements of 10 CFR 71 (US Code of Federal Regulations) are the primary criteria used to license proposed US Department of Energy (DOE) shipments of nuclear components. However, if a shipment cannot meet 10 CFR 71 requirements, a Transportation System Risk Assessment (TSRA) is prepared to document: (1) the degree of compliance of proposed DOE shipments of nuclear components with applicable federal regulations, and (2) the risk associated with the proposed shipments. The Nuclear Explosive Safety Division (NESD) of the Department of Energy, Albuquerque Area Office (DOE-AL) is responsible for evaluating TSRAs and for preparing Safety Evaluation Reports (SERs) to authorize the off-site transport. Hazards associated with the transport may include the presence of fissile material, chemically and radiologically toxic uranium, and ionizing radiation. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has historically considered only radiological hazards in licensing the transport of radiological material because the US Department of Transportation considers licensing requirements of nonradiological (i.e., chemically toxic) hazards. The requirements of 10 CFR 71 are based primarily on consideration of radiological hazards. For completeness, this report provides information for assessing the effects of chemical toxicity. Evaluating the degree of compliance with the requirements of 10 CFR 71 is relatively …