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.

Twenty one hundred metric tons of spent nuclear fuel are stored in two concrete pools on the Hanford Site, known as the K Basins, near the Columbia River. The deteriorating conditions of the fuel and the basins provide engineering and management challenges to assure safe current and future storage. DE and S Hanford, Inc., part of the Fluor Daniel Hanford, Inc. lead team on the Project Hanford Management Contract, is constructing facilities and systems to move the fuel from current wet pool storage to a dry interim storage facility away from the Columbia River, and to treat and dispose of K Basins sludge, debris and water. The process starts in the K Basins where fuel elements will be removed from existing canisters, washed, and separated from sludge and scrap fuel pieces. Fuel elements will be placed in baskets and loaded into Multi-Canister Overpacks (MCOs) and into transportation casks. The MCO and cask will be transported into the Cold Vacuum Drying Facility, where free water within the MCO will be removed under vacuum at slightly elevated temperatures. The MCOs will be sealed and transported via the transport cask to the Canister Storage Building (CSB) in the 200 Area for staging prior …

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.

Field harmonics offer a powerful tool to examine the mechanical structure of accelerator magnets. A large deviation from the nominal values suggests a mechanical defect. Magnets with such defects are likely to have a poor quench performance. Similarly, a trend suggests a wear in tooling or a gradual change in the magnet assem-bly or in the size of a component. This paper presents the use of the field quality as a tool to monitor the magnet production of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Several examples are briefly described. Field quality analysis can also rule out a suspected geometric error if it can not be supported by the symmetry and the magnitude of the measured harmonics.

Large quantities of radioactive wastes have been generated at the Hanford Site over its operating life. The wastes with the highest activities are stored underground in 177 large (mostly one million gallon volume) concrete tanks with steel liners. The wastes contain processing chemicals, cladding chemicals, fission products, and actinides that were neutralized to a basic pH before addition to the tanks to prevent corrosion of the steel liners. Because the mission of the Hanford Site was to provide plutonium for defense purposes, the amount of plutonium lost to the wastes was relatively small. The best estimate of the amount of plutonium lost to all the waste tanks is about 500 kg. Given uncertainties in the measurements, some estimates are as high as 1,000 kg (Roetman et al. 1994). The wastes generally consist of (1) a sludge layer generated by precipitation of dissolved metals from aqueous wastes solutions during neutralization with sodium hydroxide, (2) a salt cake layer formed by crystallization of salts after evaporation of the supernate solution, and (3) an aqueous supernate solution that exists as a separate layer or as liquid contained in cavities between sludge or salt cake particles. The identity of chemical species of plutonium in …

The properties of an ion-optical device consisting of twelve long parallel rods placed equidistantly on a circle are briefly reviewed. The use of this device in its dodecapole configuration to deflect ions in a plane perpendicular to the axis of the dodecapole is discussed. Results of trajectory computations made with the SIMION ion-optics computer program demonstrate that the device works remarkably well in separating the constituents of a multiply-charged ion beam. The use of this device to merge an ion beam with an optical beam is proposed.

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We have measured the flavor ratio of ratios (R) in atmospheric neutrino interactions using a 1.52 kton-year exposure of Soudan 2. We find R = 0.67 {+-} 0.15{sub {minus}0.06}{sup +0.04}. This value is about 2{sigma} from the expected value of 1.0 and is consistent with the anomalous ratios measured by the Kamiokande and IMB experiments. We note that since our acceptance matrix is different from those of the water Cherenkov experiments we would not expect to measure the same value of R, unless R=1.

Developing portable and scalable software for the solution of large-scale optimization problems presents many challenges that traditional libraries do not adequately meet. Using object-oriented design in conjunction with other innovative techniques, they address these issues within the SNES (Scalable Nonlinear Equation Solvers) and SUMS (Scalable Unconstrained Minimization Solvers) packages, which are part of the multilevel PETSCs (Portable, Extensible Tools for Scientific computation) library. This paper focuses on the authors design philosophy and its benefits in providing a uniform and versatile framework for developing optimization software and solving large-scale nonlinear problems. They also consider a three-dimensional anisotropic Ginzburg-Landau model as a representative application that exploits the packages' flexible interface with user-specified data structures and customized routines for function evaluation and preconditioning.

Some conclusions from this report are: (1) A UO{sub 2}/Al dispersion target can be successfully dissolved in alkaline peroxide solutions; (2) after destruction of the peroxide recovery of the {sup 99}Mo would be nearly identical to existing processes using basic dissolution; (3) a low-enriched UO{sub 2}/Al dispersion targets could potentially be used for the production of {sup 99}Mo; and (4) punched cores from a UO{sub 2}/Al dispersion target will be irradiated to low-level burnup and effects of this LEU target on the recovery of {sup 99}Mo will be investigated. A commercial partner will be sought for full scale demonstrations.

Several authors have presented models for neutrino production from Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) that allow for the possibility of AGN neutrinos outnumbering the atmospheric neutrino flux for energies in excess of 30 TeV. The authors present preliminary results from a search for high energy neutrinos from AGN using the underground Soudan 2 Detector.

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A spectral and temperature investigation of fast-grown KDP crystals under high fluence, 355 nm laser irradiation is discussed. Pump-and-probe Raman spectroscopy indicate transient changes of the vibrational spectrum. Photothermal deflection experiments provide information on the temporal behavior of the temperature change. The presence of emission in the visible and NIR spectral regions is attributed to the presence of impurities and/or defects in the crystal.

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The pressure dependence of the laminar burn rate of gun propellants plays a role in the design and behavior of high-performance guns. We have begun a program to investigate the effects of processing variables on the laminar burn rates, using our high-pressure strand burner to measure these rates at pressures exceeding 700 MPa. We have burned JA2 and M43 propellant samples, provided by Dr. Arpad Juhasz, ARL, from propellant lots previously used in round-robin tests. Our results at room temperature are in accord with other measurements. In addition, we present results measured for propellant that has been preheated to 50 C before burning. We used our thermochemical equilibrium code, CHEETAH, to help interpret the simultaneous pressure and temperature measurements taken during the testing, and show examples of its use. It has been modified to provide performance measures and equations of state for the products that are familiar to the gun-propellant community users of BLAKE.

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This paper discusses a search for nuclei containing two strange quarks performed at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The goals and approach of experiment E885 are reviewed. Preliminary missing mass spectra for a subset of the data are presented, showing sensitivity for {Xi} hypernuclei and H particle searches. Existence of an angular correlation between pions in the sequential decay of {Lambda}{Lambda} hypernuclei is suggested on theoretical grounds.

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Titanate-based ceramics are being developed as possible candidates for immobilizing excess plutonium from dismantled nuclear weapons. Evidence from testing of similar ceramics and natural analogues suggests that this material is very resistant to aqueous corrosion. The purpose of this work is to describe the phase(s) present in these ceramics. In particular the authors are interested in the disposition of important elements such as Pu and Gd (to be incorporated into the wasteform as a neutron absorber). In concert with data from corrosion tests, this characterization will allow one to describe the release behaviors of important elements from this type of ceramic. This is particularly difficult and important due to the heterogeneous nature of the material.

Extraction chromatography provides a simple and effective method for the analytical and preparative-scale separation of a variety of metal ions. Recent advances in extractant design, particularly the development of extractants capable of metal ion recognition or of strong complex formation in highly acidic media, have significantly improved the utility of the technique. Advances in support design, most notably the introduction of functionalized supports to enhance metal ion retention, promise to yield further improvements. Column instability remains a significant obstacle, however, to the process-scale application of extraction chromatography. 79 refs.

Two prototype nonlinear multipole magnets have been designed for use in the 800-MeV beam test of the APT beam-expansion concept at LANSCE. The iron-dominated magnets each consist of three independent coils, two for producing a predominantly octupole field with a tunable duodecapole component, and one for canceling the residual quadrupole field. Two such magnets, one for shaping each transverse plane, are required to produce a rectangular, uniform beam current density distribution with sharp edges on the APT target. This report will describe the magnetic design of these magnets, along with field measurements, and a comparison to the magnetic design.