As a result of treaty agreements between Russia and the US, portions of their respective plutonium and nuclear weapons stockpiles have been declared excess. In support of the US Department of Energy's 1998 decision to pursue immobilization of a portion of the remaining Pu in a titanate-based ceramic, the authors prepared nearly 200 radiation-damage test specimens of five Pu- and {sup 238}Pu-ceramics containing 10 mass% Pu to determine the effects of irradiation from the contained Pu and U on the ceramic. The five Pu-ceramics were (1) phase-pure pyrochlore [ideally, Ca(U, Pu)Ti{sub 2}O{sub 7}], (2) pyrochlore-rich baseline, (3) pyrochlore-rich baseline with impurities, (4) phase-pure zirconolite [ideally Ca(U, Pu)Ti{sub 2}O{sub 7}], and (5) a zirconolite-rich baseline. These ceramics were prepared with either normal weapons-grade Pu, which is predominantly {sup 239}Pu, or {sup 238}Pu. The {sup 238}Pu accelerates the radiation damage relative to the {sup 239}Pu because of its much higher specific activity. The authors were unsuccessful in preparing phase-pure (Pu, U) brannerite, which is the third crystalline phase present in the baseline immobilization form. Since these materials will contain {approximately}10 mass% Pu and about 20 mass% U, radiation damage to the crystalline structure of these materials will occur overtime. As the material …

In Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE), Target Chamber Dynamics (TCD) is an integral part of the target chamber design and performance. TCD includes target output deposition of target x-rays, ions and neutrons in target chamber gases and structures, vaporization and melting of target chamber materials, radiation-hydrodynamics in target chamber vapors and gases, and chamber conditions at the time of target and beam injections. Pulsed power provides a unique environment for IFE-TCD validation experiments in two important ways: they do not require the very clean conditions which lasers need and they currently provide large x-ray and ion energies.

Meso-scale manufacturing processes are bridging the gap between silicon-based MEMS processes and conventional miniature machining. These processes can fabricate two and three-dimensional parts having micron size features in traditional materials such as stainless steels, rare earth magnets, ceramics, and glass. Meso-scale processes that are currently available include, focused ion beam sputtering, micro-milling, micro-turning, excimer laser ablation, femto-second laser ablation, and micro electro discharge machining. These meso-scale processes employ subtractive machining technologies (i.e., material removal), unlike LIGA, which is an additive meso-scale process. Meso-scale processes have different material capabilities and machining performance specifications. Machining performance specifications of interest include minimum feature size, feature tolerance, feature location accuracy, surface finish, and material removal rate. Sandia National Laboratories is developing meso-scale electro-mechanical components, which require meso-scale parts that move relative to one another. The meso-scale parts fabricated by subtractive meso-scale manufacturing processes have unique tribology issues because of the variety of materials and the surface conditions produced by the different meso-scale manufacturing processes.

The morphologies of U metal samples from deposits produced by electrorefining of Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) spent fuel were examined using scanning electron microscopy, energy- and wavelength-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and metallography. The morphologies were analyzed to find correlations with the chemistry of the samples, the ER run conditions, and the deposit performance. A rough correlation was observed between morphology and Zr concentration; samples with Zr contents greater than approximately 200 ppm showed fine-grained, polycrystalline dendritic morphologies, while samples with Zr contents less than approximately 100 ppm were comprised of agglomerations or linked chains of rhomboidal single crystals. There were few correlations found between morphology, run conditions, and deposit performance.

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The results obtained by their group in thin film fabrication and STM tunneling on superconducting borocarbides YNi{sub 2}B{sub 2}C have been be briefly reviewed. Results concerning the microwave surface impedance and the S/N planar junctions on LuNi{sub 2}B{sub 2}C thin films have been also presented and analyzed. These new data unambiguously confirm the full BCS nature of the superconducting gap in borocarbides and the absence of significant pair-breaking effects in LuNi{sub 2}B{sub 2}C.

The daily choices made as consumers affect the environment and the economy. Based on the state of today's technology and economics, Colorado consumers can include energy efficiency and renewable energy into many aspects of their lives. These choices include where they obtain electricity, how they use energy at home, and how they transport themselves from one place to another. In addition to outlining how they can use clean energy, Colorado's Clean Energy Choices gives consumers contacts and links to Web sites for where to get more information.

The authors have designed and assembled two generations of integrated micro-optical systems that deliver pump light and detect broadband laser-induced fluorescence in micro-fluidic chemical separation systems employing electrochromatography. The goal is to maintain the sensitivity attainable with larger, tabletop machines while decreasing package size and increasing throughput (by decreasing the required chemical volume). One type of micro-optical system uses vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) as the excitation source. Light from the VCSELs is relayed with four-level surface relief diffractive optical elements (DOEs) and delivered to the chemical volume through substrate-mode propagation. Indirect fluorescence from dye-quenched chemical species is collected and collimated with a high numerical aperture DOE. A filter blocks the excitation wavelength, and the resulting signal is detected as the chemical separation proceeds. Variations of this original design include changing the combination of reflective and transmissive DOEs and optimizing the high numerical aperture DOE with a rotationally symmetric iterative discrete on-axis algorithm. The authors will discuss the results of these implemented optimizations.

This paper presents the statistical methods used in setting limits and discovery significances in the search for new particles in the CDF experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron. For single-channel counting experiments the collaboration employs the classical Helene formula, with Bayesian integration over systematic uncertainties in the signal acceptance and background. For more complex cases such as spectral fits and combining channels, likelihood-based methods are used. In the discoveries of the top quark and B{sub c} meson, the significance was estimated from the probability of the null hypothesis, using toy Monte Carlo methods. Lastly, in the recent SUSY/Higgs Workshop the Higgs Working Group used a method of combining channels and experiments based on the calculation of the joint likelihood for a particular experimental outcome, and averaging over all possible outcomes.

The Dynamic Information Architecture System (DIAS) is a flexible, extensible, object-based framework for developing and maintaining complex multidisciplinary simulations. The DIAS infrastructure makes it feasible to build and manipulate complex simulation scenarios in which many thousands of objects can interact via dozens to hundreds of concurrent dynamic processes. The flexibility and extensibility of the DIAS software infrastructure stem mainly from (1) the abstraction of object behaviors, (2) the encapsulation and formalization of model functionality, and (3) the mutability of domain object contents. DIAS simulation objects are inherently capable of highly flexible and heterogeneous spatial realizations. Geospatial graphical representation of DIAS simulation objects is addressed via the GeoViewer, an object-based GIS toolkit application developed at ANL. DIAS simulation capabilities have been extended by inclusion of societal process models generated by the Framework for Addressing Cooperative Extended Transactions (FACET), another object-based framework developed at Argonne National Laboratory. By using FACET models to implement societal behaviors of individuals and organizations within larger DIAS-based natural systems simulations, it has become possible to conveniently address a broad range of issues involving interaction and feedback among natural and societal processes. Example DIAS application areas discussed in this paper include a dynamic virtual oceanic environment, detailed simulation …

In this report, a method for solving this problem by treating the reaction region as a place of discontinuities in the appropriate variables, which include, for example, fluxes of heat and mass was proposed. Using a rigorous perturbation approach, similar to that used in the propagation of flames and smoldering combustion, appropriate jump conditions that relate the change in these variables across the front was derived. These conditions account for the kinetics of the reaction between the oxidant and the fuel, the changes in the morphology of the pore space and the heat and mass transfer in the reaction zone. The modeling of the problem reduces to the modeling of the dynamics of a combustion front, on the regions of either side of which transport of momentum (fluids), heat and mass, but not chemical reactions, must be considered. Properties of the two regions are coupled using the derived jump conditions. This methodology allows one to explicitly incorporate permeability heterogeneity effects in the process description, without the undue complexity of the coupled chemical reactions.

Previous research efforts for building thread migration systems have concentrated on the development of frameworks dealing with a small local environment controlled by a single user. Computational Grids provide the opportunity to utilize a large-scale environment controlled over different organizational boundaries. Using this class of large-scale computational resources as part of a thread migration system provides a significant challenge previously not addressed by this community. In this paper the authors present a framework that integrates Grid services to enhance the functionality of a thread migration system. To accommodate future Grid services, the design of the framework is both flexible and extensible. Currently, the thread migration system contains Grid services for authentication, registration, lookup, and automatic software installation. In the context of distributed applications executed on a Grid-based infrastructure, the asynchronous migration of an execution context can help solve problems such as remote execution, load balancing, and the development of mobile agents. The prototype is based on the migration of Java threads, allowing asynchronous and heterogeneous migration of the execution context of the running code.

Two types of tests, dipping tests and dip-coating tests were carried out on small steel cylinders using pure aluminum and 380 alloy to investigate the mechanism of die soldering during aluminum die casting. Optical and scanning electron microscopy were used to study the morphology and composition of the phases formed during soldering. A soldering mechanism is postulated based on experimental observations. A soldering critical temperature is postulated at which iron begins to react with aluminum to form an aluminum-rich liquid phase and solid intermetallic compounds. When the temperature at the die surface is higher than this critical temperature, the aluminum-rich phase is liquid and joins the die with the casting during the subsequent solidification. The paper discusses the mechanism of soldering for the case of pure aluminum and 380 alloy casting in a steel mold, the factors that promote soldering, and the strength of the bond formed when soldering occurs. conditions, an aluminum-rich soldering layer may also form over the intermetallic layer. Although a significant amount of research has been conducted on the nature of these intermetallics, little is known about the conditions under which soldering occurs.

The simple formula, {l_angle}P{sub r}{r_angle}=(E{sub o}{sup 2}/{eta})({lambda}{sup 2}/8{pi}), for the received power of an antenna with a matched load in an over-moded cavity actually holds for an antenna of any shape and size. This can be seen from the close connection between the correlation tensor of the cavity field at two different points and the imaginary part of the free-space dyadic Green's function.

A new method to generate chemical reaction network is proposed. The particularity of the method is that network generation and mechanism reduction are performed simultaneously using sampling techniques. Our method is tested for hydrocarbon thermal cracking. Results and theoretical arguments demonstrate that our method scales in polynomial time while other deterministic network generator scale in exponential time. This finding offers the possibility to investigate complex reacting systems such as those studied in petroleum refining and combustion.

In this paper a new time-stepping method for simulating systems of rigid bodies is given. Unlike methods which take an instantaneous point of view, the method is based on impulse-momentum equations, and so does not need to explicitly resolve impulsive forces. On the other hand, the method is distinct from previous impulsive methods in that it does not require explicit collision checking and it can handle simultaneous impacts. Numerical results are given for one planar and one three-dimensional example, which demonstrate the practicality of the method, and its convergence as the step size becomes small.

We attempt to identify a single top signal in the muon + jets data collected using the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron at a center-of-mass energy of {radical}s = 1.8 TeV from 1992-96. The data corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 103.7 pb{sup -1}. While resolving a signal has proved impossible, we are able to place an upper limit on the production cross section for single top events using these data. The cross section for production of single top via 95% p{bar p} {yields} tb and p{bar p} {yields} qtb is less than 78 pb at the 95% confidence level based on muon + jets data only.

The authors propose a model describing physical processes of solar flares based on resistive reconnection of magnetic field subject to continuous increase of magnetic shear in the arcade. The individual flaring process consists of magnetic reconnection of arcade field lines, generation of magnetic islands in the magnetic arcade, and coalescence of magnetic islands. When a magnetic arcade is sheared (either by foot point motion or by flux emergence), a current sheet is formed and magnetic reconnection can take place to form a magnetic island. A continuing increase of magnetic shear can trigger a new reconnection process and create a new island in the under lying arcade below the magnetic island. The new born island rises faster than the preceding island and merges with it to form one island. Before completing the island merging process, the new born island exhibits two phases of rising motion: a first phase with a slower rising speed and a second phase with a faster rising speed. The flare plasma heating occurs mainly due to magnetic reconnection in the current sheet under the new born island. The new born island represents the X-ray plasma ejecta which shows two phases of rising motion observed by Yohkoh [Ohyama …

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The support of the criticality safety community is allowing the production of benchmark descriptions of several assemblies from the ZPR Diagnostic Cores Program. The assemblies have high sensitivities to nuclear data for a few isotopes. This can highlight limitations in nuclear data for selected nuclides or in standard methods used to treat these data. The present work extends the use of the simplified model of the U9 benchmark assembly beyond the validation of k{sub eff}. Further simplifications have been made to produce a data testing benchmark in the style of the standard CSEWG benchmark specifications. Calculations for this data testing benchmark are compared to results obtained with more detailed models and methods to determine their biases. These biases or corrections factors can then be applied in the use of the less refined methods and models. Data testing results using Versions IV, V, and VI of the ENDF/B nuclear data are presented for k{sub eff}, f{sup 28}/f{sup 25}, c{sup 28}/f{sup 25}, and {beta}{sub eff}. These limited results demonstrate the importance of studying other integral parameters in addition to k{sub eff} in trying to improve nuclear data and methods and the importance of accounting for methods and/or modeling biases when using data …

The Fermilab electron cooling project requires low transverse electron velocities (both coherent and incoherent) in the solenoidal cooling section. One of the possible reasons for an increase of these velocities is aberrations introduced by optical elements in the axially symmetric portion of the beam channel (first of all, in the acceleration tube) preceding the cooling section. Most of these optical elements can be treated as thin lenses so that the aberrations can be characterized by an increase of an effective beam emittance as a function of the beam radius in this element. The goal of this note is to formulate a method that would allow to correctly estimate these aberrations in the presence of linear coupling and a non-zero longitudinal magnetic field at the cathode. This is of particular interest for electron beam simulation programs that are employed to optimize beam transport in the presence of a varying longitudinal magnet field.

A fully three-dimensional gyrokinetic particle code using magnetic coordinates for general geometry has been developed and applied to the investigation of zonal flows dynamics in toroidal ion-temperature-gradient turbulence. Full torus simulation results support the important conclusion that turbulence-driven zonal flows significantly reduce the turbulent transport. Linear collisionless simulations for damping of an initial poloidal flow perturbation exhibit an asymptotic residual flow. The collisional damping of this residual causes the dependence of ion thermal transport on the ion-ion collision frequency even in regimes where the instabilities are collisionless.