Three and four-layer backpropagation artificial neural networks have been used to predict the power output of a liquid metal reflux solar receiver. The networks were trained using on-sun test data recorded at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The preliminary results presented in this paper are a comparison of how different size networks train on this particular data. The results give encouragement that it will be possible to predict output power of a liquid metal receiver under a variety of operating conditions using artificial neural networks.

The goals of this project have evolved from an investigation of ways of preparing Li and Hall`s Cu-ZSM-5 catalyst using new methods to yield a more robust catalyst, into an investigation of modified Cu-ZSM-5 catalysts for the simultaneous reduction of NO and oxidation of SO{sub 2}. This was not a conscious effort or decision on the part of the investigators, but resulted from a natural evolution of the project. The authors have developed a zeolite synthesis and characterization capability in the group and have prepared impregnated test materials for the investigation of different catalyst precursors. They have prepared different vanadium-impregnated aluminas, for evaluation of the impregnation method, and have succeeded in reproducing the results of Li and Hall`s Cu-ZSM-5 catalyst. This report reviews the progress during the first three quarters of the year, and includes progress from the last quarter. Results are discussed for the Raman spectroscopy of precursors; infrared spectroscopy of vanadium-impregnated alumina; zeolite overlayer on cordierite; reactivity of Cu-ZSM-5; and impregnation of vanadyl acetylacetonate on alumina.

The Radiological Environment Modeling System (REMS) quantifies dose to humans in radiation environments using the IGRIP (Interactive Graphical Robot Instruction Program) and Deneb/ERGO (Ergonomics) simulation software products. These commercially available products are augmented with custom C code to provide the radiation exposure information to and collect the radiation dose information from the workcell simulations. The emphasis of this paper is on the IGRIP and Deneb/ERGO parts of REMS, since that represents the extension to existing capabilities developed by the authors. Through the use of any radiation transport code or measured data, a radiation exposure input database may be formulated. User-specified IGRIP simulations utilize these database files to compute and accumulate dose to human devices (Deneb`s ERGO human) during simulated operations around radiation sources. Timing, distances, shielding, and human activity may be modeled accurately in the simulations. The accumulated dose is recorded in output files, and the user is able to process and view this output. REMS was developed because the proposed reduction in the yearly radiation exposure limit will preclude or require changes in many of the manual operations currently being utilized in the Weapons Complex. This is particularly relevant in the area of dismantlement activities at the Pantex Plant …

A conceptual model of shallow infiltration processes at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, was developed for use in hydrologic flow models to characterize net infiltration (the penetration of the wetting front below the zone influenced by evapotranspiration). The model categorizes the surface of the site into four infiltration zones. These zones were identified as ridgetops, sideslopes, terraces, and active channels on the basis of water-content changes with depth and time. The maximum depth of measured water-content change at a specific site is a function of surface storage capacity, the timing and magnitude of precipitation, evapotranspiration, and the degree of saturation of surficial materials overlying fractured bedrock. Measured water-content profiles for the four zones indicated that the potential for net infiltration is higher when evapotranspiration is low (i.e winter, cloudy periods), where surface concentration of water is likely to occur (i.e. depressions, channels), where surface storage capacity is low, and where fractured bedrock is close to the surface.

A method is provided for obtaining DNA fingerprints using high speed detection systems, such as flow cytometry to determine unique characteristics of DNA pieces from a selected sample. In one characterization the DNA piece is fragmented at preselected sites to produce a plurality of DNA fragments. The DNA piece or the resulting DNA fragments are treated with a dye effective to stain stoichiometrically the DNA fragments. The fluorescence from the dye in the stained fragments is then examined to generate an output functionally related to the number of nucleotides in each one of the DNA fragments. In one embodiment, the intensity of the fluorescence emissions from each fragment is directly proportional to the fragment length. Additional dyes can be bound to the DNA piece and DNA fragments to provide information additional to length information. Oligonucleotide specific dyes and/or hybridization probes can be bound to the DNA fragments to provide information on oligonucleotide distribution or probe hybridization to DNA fragments of different sizes.

The Federal Internetworking Requirements Panel (FIRP) was established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to reassess Federal requirements for open systems networks and to recommend policy on the Government`s use of networking standards. The Panel was chartered to recommend actions which the Federal Government can take to address the short and long-term issues of interworking and convergence of networking protocols--particularly the Internet Protocol Suite (IPS) and Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) protocol suite and, when appropriate, proprietary protocols. The Panel was created at the request of the Office of Management and Budget in collaboration with the Federal Networking Council and the Federal Information Resources Management Policy Council. The Panel`s membership and charter are contained in an appendix to this report.

Fracture-mechanics crack growth tests were conducted on 25.4-mm-thick compact tension specimens of Types 304L and 316L Stainless steel and Incoloy 825 at 93{degrees}C and 1 atmosphere of pressure in simulated J-13 well water, which is representative of the groundwater at the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada that is proposed for a high-level nuclear waste repository. Crack growth rates were measured under various load conditions: load ratios of 0.2--1.0, frequencies of 2 {times} 10{sup {minus}4}{minus}1 Hz, rise times of 1--5000 s, and peak stress intensities of 25--40 MPa{center_dot}m{sup {1/2}}. The measured crack growthrates are bounded by the predicted rates from the current ASME Section 11 correlation for fatigue crack growth rates of austenitic stainless steel in air. Environmentally accelerated crack growth was not evident in any of the three materials under the test conditions investigated.

Reaction-bonded silicon carbide ({alpha}-SiC) armor tiles were annealed at 2100{degree}C using microwave radiation at 2.45 GHz. Ultrasonic velocity measurements showed that the longitudinal and shear velocities, acoustic impedances, and acoustic moduli of the post-annealed tiles were statistically higher than for the unannealed tiles. However, the exposed surfaces of the annealed tiles experienced slight degradation, which was attributed to the high annealing temperatures.

This project focuses on the DNA polymerase (gene 5 protein) of phage T7 for use in DNA sequence analysis. Gene 5 protein interacts with accessory proteins to acquire properties essential for DNA replication. One goal is to understand these interactions in order to modify the proteins for use in DNA sequencing. E. coli thioredoxin, binds to gene 5 protein and clamps it to a primer-template. They have analyzed the binding of gene 5 protein-thioredoxin to primer-templates and have defined the optimal conditions to form an extremely stable complex with a dNTP in the polymerase catalytic site. The spatial proximity of these components has been determined using fluorescence emission anisotropy. The T7 DNA binding protein, the gene 2.5 protein, interacts with gene 5 protein and gene 4 protein to increase processivity and primer synthesis, respectively. Mutant gene 2.5 proteins have been isolated that do not interact with T7 DNA polymerase and can not support T7 growth. The nucleotide binding site of the T7 helicase has been identified and mutations affecting the site provide information on how the hydrolysis of NTPs fuel its unidirectional translocation. The sequence, GTC, has been shown to be necessary and sufficient for recognition by the T7 primase. …

This invention is comprised of a high speed door assembly, comprising an actuator cylinder and piston rods, a pressure supply cylinder and fittings, an electrically detonated explosive bolt, a honeycomb structured door, a honeycomb structured decelerator, and a structural steel frame encasing the assembly to close over a 3 foot diameter opening within 50 milliseconds of actuation, to contain hazardous materials and vapors within a test fixture.

Scaling laser systems to large sizes for power beaming and other applications can sometimes be simplified by combing a number of smaller lasers. However, to fully utilize this scaling, coherent beam combination is necessary. This requires measuring and controlling each beam`s pointing and phase relative to adjacent beams using an adaptive optical system. We have built a sub-scale brass-board to evaluate various methods for beam-combining. It includes a segmented adaptive optic and several different specialized wavefront sensors that are fabricated using diffractive optics methods. We have evaluated a number of different phasing algorithms, including hierarchical and matrix methods, and have demonstrated phasing of several elements. The system is currently extended to a large number of segments to evaluate various scaling methodologies.

This document is a proposal to continue the authors work on the Environmental, Safety and Economic (ESE) aspects of fusion reactors under DOE contract DE-FR03-89ER52514. The grant objectives continue those from the previous grant: (1) completion of first-generation Environmental, Safety and Economic (ESE) computer modules suitable as integral components of tokamak systems codes. (2) continuation of work on special topics, in support of the above and in response to OFE requests. The proposal also highlights progress on the contract in the twelve months since April, 1992. This has included work with the ARIES and ITER design teams, work on tritium management, studies on materials activation, and calculation of radioactive inventories in fusion reactors.

For the research program reported here, different methods of drying are being investigated to determine if drying can be accomplished without destroying coal reactivity toward liquefaction. In an effort to understand the mechanism of water for enhancing coal liquefaction yield, the reactions of D{sub 2}O with the molecular constituents of coal during coal liquefaction are being investigated. This study involves the use of solution-state deuterium NMR, as well as, conventional solution-state {sup 1}H and {sup 13}C NMR analyses of the coal, and the coal liquids and residue from a coal liquefaction process. These D{sub 2}O transfer reactions will be conducted on coals which have been dried by various methods and rehydrated using D{sub 2}O and by successive exchange of H{sub 2}O associated with the coals with D{sub 2}O. The drying methods include thermal, microwave, and chemical dehydration of the coal. The overall objectives of this study are to develop a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) method for measuring the water in coal, to measure the changes in coal structure that occur during coal drying, to determine what effect water has on retrograde/condensation reactions, to determine the mechanism by which water may impact coal reactivity toward liquefaction, and to conduct D{sub 2}O …

The Class 2 Project at West Welch was designed to demonstrate the use of advanced technologies to enhance the economics of improved oil recovery (IOR) projects in lower quality Shallow Shelf Carbonate (SSC) reservoirs, resulting in recovery of additional oil that would otherwise be left in the reservoir at project abandonment. Accurate reservoir description is critical to the effective evaluation and efficient design of IOR projects in the heterogeneous SSC reservoirs. Therefore, the majority of Budget Period 1 was devoted to reservoir characterization. Technologies being demonstrated include: 1.Advanced petrophysics 2.Three-dimensional (3-D) seismic 3.Cross-well bore tomography 4.Advanced reservoir simulation 5.Carbon dioxide (CO2) stimulation treatments 6.Hydraulic fracturing design and monitoring 7.Mobility control agents

The Department of Energy generates and stores a significant quantity of low level, high level, and mixed wastes. As some of the DOE facilities are decontaminated and decommissioned, additional and possibly different forms of wastes will be generated. A significant portion of these wastes are aqueous streams containing acids, bases, and salts, or are wet solids containing inorganic salts. Some of these wastes are quite dilute solutions, whereas others contain large quantities of nitrates either in the form of dissolved salts or acids. Many of the wastes are also contaminated with heavy metals, radioactive products, or organics. Some of these wastes are in storage because a satisfactory treatment and disposal processes have not been developed. This report describes the process of electrodialysis-ion exchange (EDIX) for treating aqueous wastes streams consisting of nitrates, sodium, organics, heavy metals, and radioactive species.

We have made progress in characterizing a Cu-exchanged ZSM-5 for NO decomposition activity. Additionally, we are pursuing the impregnation of alumina with vanadium and copper and studying the adsorption and reaction of SO{sub 2} on these catalysts.

Work continued on the study of copolymers for the enhanced recovery of petroleum. This report describes dilute polymer solution extensional flow in porous media.

The performance of waste packages containing high-level nuclear wastes at underground repositories such as the potential repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, depends, in part, on the thermodynamic environment immediately surrounding the buried waste packages. For example, degradation of the waste packages can be caused by corrosive and microbial processes, which are influenced by both the relative humidity and temperature within the emplacement drifts. In this paper, the effects of conduction, convection, and radiation are investigated for a heat-generating waste package in an empty-drift. Simulations explicitly modeling radiation from the waste package to the drift wall are compared simulations using only conduction. Temperatures, relative humidities, and vapor mass fractions are compared at various locations within the drift. In addition, the effects of convection on relative humidity and moisture distribution within the drift are presented.

A Fossil Energy natural-gas topic has been a part of the DOE Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program since 1988. To date, 50 Phase SBIR natural-gas applications have been funded. Of these 50, 24 were successful in obtaining Phase II SBIR funding. The current Phase II natural-gas research projects awarded under the SBIR program and managed by METC are presented by award year. The presented information on these 2-year projects includes project title, awardee, and a project summary. The 1992 Phase II projects are: landfill gas recovery for vehicular natural gas and food grade carbon dioxide; brine disposal process for coalbed gas production; spontaneous natural as oxidative dimerization across mixed conducting ceramic membranes; low-cost offshore drilling system for natural gas hydrates; motorless directional drill for oil and gas wells; and development of a multiple fracture creation process for stimulation of horizontally drilled wells.The 1993 Phase II projects include: process for sweetening sour gas by direct thermolysis of hydrogen sulfide; remote leak survey capability for natural gas transport storage and distribution systems; reinterpretation of existing wellbore log data using neural-based patter recognition processes; and advanced liquid membrane system for natural gas purification.

For the calendar year 1990, the Southern Great Basin seismic network (SGBSN) recorded about 1050 earthquakes in the SGB, as compared to 1190 in 1989. Local magnitudes, M{sub L}, ranged from 0.0 for various earthquakes to 3.2 for an earthquake on April 3, 1990 5:47:58 UTC, 37.368{degrees} North, 117.358{degrees} West, Mud Lake, Nevada quadrangle. 95% of those earthquakes have the property, M{sub L} {le} 2.4. Within a 10 km radius of the center of Yucca Mountain, the site of a potential national, high-level nuclear waste repository, one earthquake with M{sub L} = 0.6 was recorded at 40-Mile Wash. The estimated depth of focus of this earthquake is 3.8 km below sea level. Other, smaller events may have also occurred in the immediate vicinity of Yucca Mountain, but would have been below the detection threshold (M{sub L}{approx}0.0 at Yucca Mountain). Focal mechanisms are computed for seventeen earthquakes in the Nevada Test Site (NTS) and in the SGB west of the NTS for the year 1990. Solutions are mostly strike-slip, although normal slip is observed for a hypocenter at Stonewall Flat, Nevada, and reverse slip is observed for a hypocenter at Tucki Mountain, California. The average direction of the focal mechanism P-axes …

Advective and diffusive migration experiments (within the Dynamic Transport Column Experiments and Diffusion Studies of the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project) involve utilizing crushed material, intact, and fractured tuff in order to test and improve (if necessary) transport models by experimentally observing the migration of sorbing and non-sorbing radionuclides on a laboratory scale. Performing a validation of the sorption data obtained with batch techniques (within the Batch Sorption Study) is an integral part of the mission of the Dynamic Transport Column Experiments and Diffusion Studies. In this paper the work scope of the radionuclide migration laboratory experiments (as they apply to validation of batch sorption data) is reviewed.

Previously, adsorption and desorption behaviors of tetradecyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (TTAC) and pentadecylethoxylated nonyl phenol (NP-15) mixtures have been reported. It was observed that there was either synergistic or competitive adsorption between these two surfactants depending on the mixture ratios and the concentrations studied and that their adsorption/desorption behaviors were also rather complex. To better elucidate the mechanisms involved in these adsorption and desorption processes it is important to the understand the exact nature of the physico-chemical interactions between various components in mixtures and, how this in turn, controls the performance of the surfactant systems. Recently we have adapted the ultrafiltration technique to determine monomer concentrations in surfactant mixtures and to study the aggregation phenomenon between TTAC and NP-15. During the current report period, monomer concentrations of TTAC and NP-15 were measured for different mixing ratios at a constant ionic strength of 0.03 M NaCl and after adsorption for 4:1 TTAC:NP-15 mixture system. Possible behaviors of mixed micellization processes in solution are proposed and the relationship between monomer concentration and adsorption density is discussed.

In August 1988, two years after the Chernobyle accident, the United States and the Soviet Union signed an agreement to sponsor a Joint coordinating Committee on Civilian Nuclear Reactor Safety, (JCCCNRS). The Soviet Union agreed to provide some information on late effects of radiation exposures and to attempt to add some new insights into low dose and low dose rate radiation consequences. At that time, it had just been revealed that significant radiation exposures had occurred in the South Ural Mountains, associated with the early years of operation of the MAYAK nuclear complex. The need to be able to better predict the long term consequences of overexposures, such as occurred with the Chernobyl accident, was a major factor in organizing this workshop. We decided to invite a small number of experts from the Soviet Union, who had direct knowledge of the situation. A small group of American experts was invited to help in a discussion of the state of knowledge of continual low level exposure. The experts and expertise included: Aspects of bask theoretical radiobiological models, studies on experimental animals exposed to chronic or fractionated external or internal radiation, studies on populations exposed to chronic intake and continual exposures, workers …

Work was done in three tasks during the first quarter. In Task 1, a new SCR reactor system has been built, complete with on-line GC and MS analyses. The GC is used to monitor the N{sub 2} product so the NO{sub x} > N{sub 2} conversion can be calculated. The MS is used to analyze the N{sub 2}0 concentration. In addition, a wet analytical technique has been established for SO{sub 3} analysis. The new SCR system and the SO{sub 3} analytical technique have been subjected to shakedown tests with success. Along with the existing SCR reactor system, there are now two systems that are being run independently. In Task 2, a procedure for the synthesis of stable Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} Pillared clay has been established. Inductive coupled plasma spectrometric analysis (ICP) has been used to analyze the chemical composition of the Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} Pillared clay. Preliminary results for the SCR activities of the Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} pillared clay are obtained in Task 3. The results show that the activities are near that of the commercial V{sub 2}O{sub 5}/TiO{sub 2} catalysts. However, the SO{sub 2}-to-SO{sub 3} conversion is substantially lower with the pillared clay catalyst, which could be an important …