This paper describes an immersed boundary method (IBM) that facilitates the explicit resolution of complex terrain within the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Two different interpolation methods, trilinear and inverse distance weighting, are used at the core of the IBM algorithm. Functional aspects of the algorithm's implementation and the accuracy of results are considered. Simulations of flow over a three-dimensional hill with shallow terrain slopes are preformed with both WRF's native terrain-following coordinate and with both IB methods. Comparisons of flow fields from the three simulations show excellent agreement, indicating that both IB methods produce accurate results. However, when ease of implementation is considered, inverse distance weighting is superior. Furthermore, inverse distance weighting is shown to be more adept at handling highly complex urban terrain, where the trilinear interpolation algorithm breaks down. This capability is demonstrated by using the inverse distance weighting core of the IBM to model atmospheric flow in downtown Oklahoma City.

Decommissioning of nuclear power plants and other nuclear fuel cycle facilities has been an imperative issue lately. There exist significant experience and generally accepted recommendations on remediation of lands with residual radioactive contamination; however, there are hardly any such recommendations on remediation of cooling ponds that, in most cases, are fairly large water reservoirs. The literature only describes remediation of minor reservoirs containing radioactive silt (a complete closure followed by preservation) or small water reservoirs resulting in reestablishing natural water flows. Problems associated with remediation of river reservoirs resulting in flooding of vast agricultural areas also have been described. In addition, the severity of environmental and economic problems related to the remedial activities is shown to exceed any potential benefits of these activities. One of the large, highly contaminated water reservoirs that require either remediation or closure is Karachay Lake near the MAYAK Production Association in the Chelyabinsk Region of Russia where liquid radioactive waste had been deep well injected for a long period of time. Backfilling of Karachay Lake is currently in progress. It should be noted that secondary environmental problems associated with its closure are considered to be of less importance since sustaining Karachay Lake would have presented …

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A recently developed relatistic multireference many-body perturbation theory based on multireference configuration-interaction wavefunctions as zeroth order wavefunctions is outlined. The perturbation theory employs a general class of configuration-interaction wve functions as reference functions, and thus is applciable to multiple open valence shell systems with near degeneracy of a manifold of strongly interacting configurations. Multireference many-body perturbation calculations are reported for the ground and excited states of chlorine-like Fe X in which the near degeneracy of a manifold of strongly interacting configurations mandates a multireference treatment. Term energies of a total of 83 excited levels arising from the 3s{sup 2}3p{sup 5}, 3s3p{sup 6}, 3s{sup 2}3p{sup 4}3d, 3s3p{sup 5}3d, and 3s{sup 2}3p{sup 3}3d{sup 2} configurations of the ion are evaluated to high accuracy. Transition rates associated with E1/M1/E2/M2/E3 radiative decays and lifetimes of a number of excited levels are calculated and compared with laboratory measurements to critically evaluate recent experiments.

We extend our earlier model for Rayleigh-Taylor and Richtmyer-Meshkov instabilities to the more general class of hydrodynamic instabilities driven by a time-dependent acceleration g(t) . Explicit analytic solutions for linear as well as nonlinear amplitudes are obtained for several g(t)'s by solving a Schroedinger-like equation d{sup 2}{eta}/dt{sup 2} - g(t)kA{eta} = 0 where A is the Atwood number and k is the wavenumber of the perturbation amplitude {eta}(t). In our model a simple transformation k {yields} k{sub L} and A {yields} A{sub L} connects the linear to the nonlinear amplitudes: {eta}{sup nonlinear} (k,A) {approx} (1/k{sub L})ln{eta}{sup linear} (k{sub L}, A{sub L}). The model is found to be in very good agreement with direct numerical simulations. Bubble amplitudes for a variety of accelerations are seen to scale with s defined by s = {integral} {radical}g(t)dt, while spike amplitudes prefer scaling with displacement {Delta}x = {integral}[{integral}g(t)dt]dt.

In this paper we report on a high-order fast method to numerically calculate convolution integral with smooth non-periodic kernel. This method is based on the Newton-Cotes quadrature rule for the integral approximation and an FFT method for discrete summation. The method can have an arbitrarily high-order accuracy in principle depending on the number of points used in the integral approximation and a computational cost of O(Nlog(N)), where N is the number of grid points. For a three-point Simpson rule approximation, the method has an accuracy of O(h{sup 4}), where h is the size of the computational grid. Applications of the Simpson rule based algorithm to the calculation of a one-dimensional continuous Gauss transform and to the calculation of a two-dimensional electric field from a charged beam are also presented.

To ensure safe storage, plutonium-bearing oxides are stabilized at 950 C for at least two hours in an oxidizing atmosphere. Stabilization conditions are expected to decompose organic impurities, convert metals to oxides, and result in moisture content below 0.5 wt%. During stabilization, the specific surface area is reduced, which minimizes readsorption of water onto the oxide surface. Plutonium oxides stabilized according to these criteria were sampled and analyzed to determine moisture content and surface area. In addition, samples were leached in water to identify water-soluble chloride impurity content. Results of these analyses for seven samples showed that the stabilization process produced low moisture materials (< 0.2 wt %) with low surface area ({le} 1 m{sup 2}/g). For relatively pure materials, the amount of water per unit surface area corresponded to 1.5 to 3.5 molecular layers of water. For materials with chloride content > 360 ppm, the calculated amount of water per unit surface area increased with chloride content, indicating hydration of hygroscopic salts present in the impure PuO{sub 2}-containing materials. The low moisture, low surface area materials in this study did not generate detectable hydrogen during storage of four or more years.

We present the first results from a long (496 ks) Chandra High Energy Transmission Grating observation of the intermediate polar EX Hydrae. In addition to the narrow emission lines from the cooling post-shock gas, for the first time we have detected a broad component in some of the X-ray emission lines, namely O VIII {lambda}18.97, Mg XII {lambda}8.42, Si XIV {lambda}6.18, and Fe XVII {lambda}16.78. The broad and narrow components have widths of {approx} 1600 km s{sup -1} and {approx} 150 km s{sup -1}, respectively. We also find that the flux of the broad component is modulated at the white dwarf spin period, constraining the region where the gas is formed. We propose a scenario where the broad component is formed in the pre-shock flow photoionized by radiation from the post-shock flow. Because the photoionized region has to be close to the radiation source in order to produce strong photoionized emission lines from ions like O VIII, Mg XII, and Si XIV, our photoionization model constrains the height of the standing shock above the white dwarf surface.

Short period (14.5mm) hybrid undulator arrays composed of Praseodymium Iron Boron (Pr{sub 2}Fe{sub 14}B) magnets (CR53, NEOMAX, Inc.) and vanadium permendur poles have been fabricated at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Unlike Neodymium Iron Boron (Nd{sub 2}Fe{sub 14}B) magnets which exhibit spin reorientation at temperatures below 150K, PrFeB arrays monotonically increase performance with lower operating temperature. It opens up the posibility for use in operating a cryo-permanent magnet undulator (CPMU) in the range of 40K to 60K where very efficient cryocoolers are available. Magnetic flux density profiles were measured at various temperature ranges from room temperature down to liquid helium (LHe) using the Vertical Testing Facility (VTF) at the National Snchrotron Light Source-II (NSLS-II). Temperature variations of phase error have been characterized. In addition, we examined the use of textured Dysprosium (Dy) poles to replace permendur poles to obtain further improvement in performance.

Single crystal, high purity synthetic diamond is used as photoabsorption and carrier transport medium in x-ray photodiodes. While the thermal / mechanical robustness and high x-ray transmission of diamond make such devices attractive for synchrotron instrumentation, state-of-the-art quality material and electrical interfaces further make such detectors feasible. The present work develops methodology for attaining calculable responsivity (photocurrent yield) over a wide range of photon energies (0.2 to 28 keV) to within 5% accuracy. These methods achieve linear response for up to 0.2 W absorbed x-ray power and response time as low as 1 ns. Details of contact formation / robustness and bias configuration are explored.

We present particle-in-cell simulations, using the VORPAL framework, of 10 GeV laser plasma wakefield accelerator stages. Scaling of the physical parameters with the plasma density allows us to perform these simulations at reasonable cost and to design high performance stages. In particular we show that, by choosing to operate in the quasi-linear regime, we can use higher order laser modes to tailor the focusing forces. This makes it possible to increase the matched electron beam radius and hence the total charge in the bunch while preserving the low bunch emittance required for applications.

The self-assembly of nanocrystals enables new classes of materials whose properties are controlled by the periodicities of the assembly, as well as by the size, shape and composition of the nanocrystals. While self-assembly of spherical nanoparticles has advanced significantly in the last decade, assembly of rod-shaped nanocrystals has seen limited progress due to the requirement of orientational order. Here, the parameters critically relevant to self-assembly are systematically quantified using a combination of diffraction and theoretical modeling; these highlight the importance of kinetics on orientational order. Through drying-mediated self-assembly we achieve unprecedented control over orientational order (up to 96percent vertically oriented rods on 1cm2 areas) on a wide range of substrates (ITO, PEDOT:PSS, Si3N4). This opens new avenues for nanocrystal-based devices competitive with thin film devices, as problems of granularity can be tackled through crystallographic orientational control over macroscopic areas.

A number of technical requirements and performance criteria can drive stellarator costs, e.g., tight tolerances, accurate coil positioning, low aspect ratio (compactness), choice of assembly strategy, metrology, and complexity of the stellarator coil geometry. With the completion of a seven-year design and construction effort of the National Compact Stellarator Experiment (NCSX) it is useful to interject the NCSX experience along with the collective experiences of the NCSX stellarator community to improving the stellarator configuration. Can improvements in maintenance be achieved by altering the stellarator magnet configuration with changes in the coil shape or with the combination of trim coils? Can a mechanical configuration be identified that incorporates a partial set of shaped fixed stellarator coils along with some removable coil set to enhance the overall machine maintenance? Are there other approaches that will simplify the concepts, improve access for maintenance, reduce overall cost and improve the reliability of a stellarator based power plant? Using ARIES-CS and NCSX as reference cases, alternative approaches have been studied and developed to show how these modifications would favorably impact the stellarator power plant and experimental projects. The current status of the alternate stellarator configurations being developed will be described and a comparison made to …

By November of 1997, Fluor Hanford (Fluor) had been the site manager of the Hanford nuclear reservation for a year. The Hanford site had been established as part of the Manhattan Project in the 1940s that gave birth to the atomic bomb. Hanford produced two thirds of U.S. plutonium during the Cold War period. The Hanford site was half the size of Rhode Island and occupied 586 square miles in southeastern Washington State. The production of plutonium for more than 40 years left a huge legacy of chemical and radiological contamination: 80 square miles of contaminated groundwater; 2,300 tons of spent nuclear fuel stored in underwater basins; 20 tons of plutonium-laced contaminated materials; and 500 contaminated facilities. The cleanup involved a challenging combination of radioactive material handling within an infrastructure constructed in the 1940s and 1950s. The cleanup that began in 1988 was expected to take 30 years or more. Improving safety at Hanford had already proven to be a significant challenge. As the new site manager at Hanford, Fluor Hanford inherited lower- and mid-level managers and thousands of unionized employees, many of whom were second or third generation Hanford employees. These employees had seen many contractors come and go …

One year into the Hanford contract, Fluor had learned a number of hard lessons very quickly. Although the Hanford remediation contract was in many ways a new endeavor for Fluor and a different kind of contract, the organization moved quickly to increase communication with all employees, attack head-on what it considered unsafe and inappropriate safety practices, and strongly inject its own corporate cultural beliefs into the Hanford organization. It wasn't easy, and it didn't happen overnight. From the beginning, Fluor established processes and programs to drive down injury rates. For example, whereas the previous contractor's approach to injuries had been passive, Fluor took a much more aggressive approach to worker injuries. The previous contractor had established a practice of sending injured workers home with the basic directive 'to come back when you are well'. Instead of using outsourced medical assessment, Fluor internalized it and evaluated all claims aggressively. Legitimate claims were quickly settled, and management moved to identify 'repeat offenders' when it came to reportable safety incidents. In the first year of Fluor's management, reportable injuries dropped from 5.37 to 2.99 per 200,000 man-hours. Despite the drop in injury rates, the safety record at Fluor Hanford was not at a …

Uncertainties in aerosol forcings, especially those associated with clouds, contribute to a large extent to uncertainties in the total anthropogenic forcing. The interaction of aerosols with clouds and radiation introduces feedbacks which can affect the rate of rain formation. Traditionally these feedbacks were not included in estimates of total aerosol forcing. Here we argue that they should be included because these feedbacks act quickly compared with the time scale of global warming. We show that for different forcing agents (aerosols and greenhouse gases) the radiative forcings as traditionally defined agree rather well with estimates from a method, here referred to as radiative flux perturbations (RFP), that takes these fast feedbacks and interactions into account. Thus we propose replacing the direct and indirect aerosol forcing in the IPCC forcing chart with RFP estimates. This implies that it is better to evaluate the total anthropogenic aerosol effect as a whole.

Since the beginning of the National Spherical Torus Experiment's (NSTX) research activities in 1999, open-source and collaborative software have been used extensively for experimental operations. The software included Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) and the Model Data System plus (MDSplus). This paper will begin with a retrospective of ten years of integrated computing, control, and data analysis on NSTX. A variety of practical issues will be reviewed such as: system reliability, availability, and maintainability; using open source software with commercialoff- the-shelf (COTS) hardware; obsolescence and remaining current. Recent improvements, current status, and emerging issues will be presented. Numerous proposals for NSTX upgrades have been made that will extend the performance and operating lifetime of NSTX. In light of this, a collective strategy for improving NSTX's collaborative software model for a new decade of operations will be examined.

In support of the National Compact Stellerator Experiment (NCSX), stellerator assembly activities continued this past year at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) in partnership with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The construction program saw the completion of the first two Half Field-Period Assemblies (HPA), each consisting of three modular coils. The full machine includes six such sub-assemblies. A single HPA consists of three of the NCSX modular coils wound and assembled at PPPL. These geometrically-complex threedimensional coils were wound using computer-aided metrology and CAD models to tolerances within +/- 0.5mm. The assembly of these coils required similar accuracy on a larger scale with the added complexity of more individual parts and fewer degrees of freedom for correction. Several new potential positioning issues developed for which measurement and control techniques were developed. To accomplish this, CAD coordinate-based computer metrology equipment and software similar to the solutions employed for winding the modular coils was used. Given the size of the assemblies, the primary tools were both interferometeraided and Absolute Distance Measurement (ADM)-only based laser trackers. In addition, portable Coordinate Measurement Machine (CMM) arms and some novel indirect measurement techniques were employed. This paper will detail both the use of CAD …

The purpose of the NSTX Center Stack Upgrade project is to expand the NSTX operational space and thereby the physics basis for next-step ST facilities. The plasma aspect ratio (ratio of plasma major to minor radius) of the upgrade is increased to 1.5 from the original value of 1.26, which increases the cross sectional area of the center stack by a factor of ~ 3 and makes possible higher levels of performance and pulse duration.

NSTX at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) requires sophisticated plasma positioning control system for stable plasma operation. TF magnetic coils and PF magnetic coils provide electromagnetic fields to position and shape the plasma vertically and horizontally respectively. NSTX utilizes twenty six coil power supplies to establish and initiate electromagnetic fields through the coil system for plasma control. A power protection and interlock system is utilized to detect power system faults and protect the TF coils and PF coils against excessive electromechanical forces, overheating, and over current. Upon detecting any fault condition the power system is restricted, and it is either prevented from initializing or suppressed to de-energize coil power during pulsing. Power fault status is immediately reported to the computer system. This paper describes the design and operation of NSTX's protection and interlocking system and possible future expansion.

ELM mitigation is of particular importance in ITER in order to prevent rapid erosion or melting of the divertor surface, with the consequent risk of water leaks, increased plasma impurity content and disruptivity. Exploitable "natural" small or no ELM regimes might yet be found which extrapolate to ITER but this cannot be depended upon. Resonant Magnetic Perturbation has been added to pellet pacing as a tool for ITER to mitigate ELMs. Both are required, since neither method is fully developed and much work remains to be done. In addition, in-vessel coils enable vertical stabilization and RWM control. For these reasons, in-vessel coils (IVCs) are being designed for ITER to provide control of Edge Localized Modes (ELMs) in addition to providing control of moderately unstable resistive wall modes (RWMs) and the vertical stability (VS) of the plasma.

Solid-state electrochemical sensors using two different sensing electrode compositions, gold and strontium-doped lanthanum manganite (LSM), were evaluated for gas phase sensing of NO{sub x} (NO and NO{sub 2}) using an impedance-metric technique. An asymmetric cell design utilizing porous YSZ electrolyte exposed both electrodes to the test gas (i.e., no reference gas). Sensitivity to less than 5 ppm NO and response/recovery times (10-90%) less than 10 s were demonstrated. Using an LSM sensing electrode, virtual identical sensitivity towards NO and NO{sub 2} was obtained, indicating that the equilibrium gas concentration was measured by the sensing electrode. In contrast, for cells employing a gold sensing electrode the NO{sub x} sensitivity varied depending on the cell design: increasing the amount of porous YSZ electrolyte on the sensor surface produced higher NO{sub 2} sensitivity compared to NO. In order to achieve comparable sensitivity for both NO and NO{sub 2}, the cell with the LSM sensing electrode required operation at a lower temperature (575 C) than the cell with the gold sensing electrode (650 C). The role of surface reactions are proposed to explain the differences in NO and NO{sub 2} selectivity using the two different electrode materials.

We introduce a coarsening algorithm for algebraic multigrid (AMG) based on the concept of compatible relaxation (CR). The algorithm is significantly different from standard methods, most notably because it does not rely on any notion of strength of connection. We study its behavior on a number of model problems, and evaluate the performance of an AMG algorithm that incorporates the coarsening approach. Lastly, we introduce a variant of CR that provides a sharper metric of coarse-grid quality and demonstrate its potential with two simple examples.

It has been shown that post detonation energetic helium ions can drastically reduce the useful life of the (dry) first wall of an IFE reactor due to the accumulation of implanted helium. For the purpose of attenuating energetic helium ions from interacting with first wall components in the Fusion Test Facility (FTF) target chamber, several concepts have been advanced. These include magnetic intervention (MI), deployment of a dynamically moving first wall, use of a sacrificial shroud, designing the target chamber large enough to mitigate the damage caused by He ions on the target chamber wall, and the use of a low pressure noble gas resident in the target chamber during pulse power operations. It is proposed that employing a low-pressure (~ 1 torr equivalent) noble gas in the target chamber will thermalize energetic helium ions prior to interaction with the wall. The principle benefit of this concept is the simplicity of the design and the utilization of (modified) existing technologies for pumping and processing the noble ambient gas. Although the gas load in the system would be increased over other proposed methods, the use of a "gas shield" may provide a cost effective method of greatly extending the first wall …