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Marine microbes include representatives from all three kingdoms of life and collectively carry out virtually all forms of metabolisms found on the planet. Because of this metabolic and genetic diversity, these microbes mediate many of the reactions making up global biogeochemical cycles which govern the flow of energy and material in the biosphere. The goal of this conference is to bring together approaches and concepts from studies of microbial evolution, genomics, ecology, and oceanography in order to gain new insights into marine microbes and their biogeochemical functions. The integration of scales, from genes to global cycles, will result in a better understanding of marine microbes and of their contribution to the carbon cycle and other biogeochemical processes.

The 2011 Gordon Research Conference on Radiation and Climate will present cutting-edge research on outstanding issues in climate change, particularly those in which the interactions between clouds, aerosols, and precipitation play a major role. The Conference will feature a broad range of topics, including grand challenges in atmospheric radiation and climate, cloud and water vapor feedbacks, aerosol-cloud-precipitation-climate interactions across scales, new approaches for remote sensing and in-situ observations of clouds, aerosols and precipitation, and multi-scale modeling challenges. The invited speakers will present the most important recent advances and future challenges in these areas. The Conference will bring together a collection of leading investigators who are at the forefront of their field, and will provide opportunities for scientists, especially junior scientists and graduate students, to present their work in poster format and exchange ideas with leaders in the field. The collegial atmosphere of this Conference, with programmed discussion sessions as well as opportunities for informal gatherings in the afternoons and evenings, provides an avenue for scientists from different disciplines to brainstorm and promotes cross-disciplinary collaborations in the various research areas represented.

The Gordon Research Conference on BATTERIES was held at Four Points Sheraton / Holiday Inn Express, Ventura, California, March 4-9, 2012. The Conference was well-attended with 176 participants. Gordon Research Conferences does not permit publication of meeting proceedings.

This slide-show discusses weapons dismantlement and disposal, issues related to classified waste and their solutions.

This paper presents a summary of design and testing of material and composites for use in radioactive material packages. These materials provide thermal protection and provide structural integrity and energy absorption to the package during normal and hypothetical accident condition events as required by Title 10 Part 71 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Testing of packages comprising these materials is summarized.

Advancements in technology have opened many opportunities to improve upon the current infrastructure surrounding the nuclear fuel cycle. Embedded devices, very small sensors, and wireless technology can be applied to Security, Safety, and Nonproliferation of Spent Nuclear Fuel. Security, separate of current video monitoring systems, can be improved by integrating current wireless technology with a variety of sensors including motion detection, altimeter, accelerometer, and a tagging system. By continually monitoring these sensors, thresholds can be set to sense deviations from nominal values. Then alarms or notifications can be activated as needed. Safety can be improved in several ways. First, human exposure to ionizing radiation can be reduced by using a wireless sensor package on each spent fuel cask to monitor radiation, temperature, humidity, etc. Since the sensor data is monitored remotely operator stay-time is decreased and distance from the spent fuel increased, so the overall radiation exposure is reduced as compared to visual inspections. The second improvement is the ability to monitor continuously rather than periodically. If changes occur to the material, alarm thresholds could be set and notifications made to provide advanced notice of negative data trends. These sensor packages could also record data to be used for scientific …

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The growing interest in the physics of fluidic flow in nanoscale channels, as well as the possibility for high sensitive detection of ions and single molecules is driving the development of nanofluidic channels. The enrichment of charged analytes due to electric field-controlled flow and surface charge/dipole interactions along the channel can lead to enhancement of sensitivity and limits-of-detection in sensor instruments. Nuclear material processing, waste remediation, and nuclear non-proliferation applications can greatly benefit from this capability. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) provides a low-cost alternative for the machining of disposable nanochannels. The small AFM tip diameter (< 10 nm) can provide for features at scales restricted in conventional optical and electron-beam lithography. This work presents preliminary results on the fabrication of nano/microfluidic channels on polymer films deposited on quartz substrates by AFM lithography.

Presents a method to constrain average galaxy star formation rates, star formation histories, and the intracluster light as a function of halo mass.

The ITER in-vessel coil system includes Vertical Stability (VS) coils and Edge Localized Mode (ELM) coils. There are two large VS ring coils, one upper and one lower. Each has four turns which are independently connected. The VS coils are needed for successful operation of ITER for most all of its operating modes. The VS coils must be highly reliable and fault tolerant. The operating environment includes normal and disruption Lorentz forces. To parametrically address all these design conditions in a tractable analysis requires a simplified model. The VS coils are predominately axisymmetric, and this suggests that an axisymmetric model can be meaningfully used to address the variations in mechanical design, loading, material properties, and time dependency. The axisymmetric finite element analysis described in this paper includes simulations of the bolted frictional connections used for the mounting details. Radiation and elastic-plastic response are modeled particularly for the extreme faulted conditions. Thermal connectivity is varied to study the effects of partial thermal connection of the actively cooled conductor to the remaining structure.

The Belle and Babar experiments have measured the branching fractions for B{sup +} {yields} {tau}{sup +}{nu} and D{sub s}{sup +} {yields} {mu}{sup +}{nu} decays. From these measurements one can extract the B{sup +} and D{sub s}{sup +} decay constants, which can be compared to lattice QCD calculations. For the D{sub s}{sup +} decay constant, there is currently a 2.1 {sigma} difference between the calculated value and the measured value.

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Nanostructured uranium oxides have been prepared in ionic liquids as templating agents. Using the ionic liquids as reaction media for inorganic nanomaterials takes advantage of the pre-organized structure of the ionic liquids which in turn controls the morphology of the inorganic nanomaterials. Variation of ionic liquid cation structure was investigated to determine the impact on the uranium oxide morphologies. For two ionic liquid cations, increasing the alkyl chain length increases the aspect ratio of the resulting nanostructured oxides. Understanding the resulting metal oxide morphologies could enhance fuel stability and design.

Plutonium-238 is used in Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) to generate electrical power and in Radioisotope Heater Units (RHUs) to produce heat for electronics and environmental control for deep space missions. The domestic supply of Pu-238 consists of scrap material from previous mission production or material purchased from Russia. Currently, the United States has no significant production scale operational capability to produce and separate new Pu-238 from irradiated neptunium-237 targets. The Department of Energy - Nuclear Energy is currently evaluating and developing plans to reconstitute the United States capability to produce Pu-238 from irradiated Np-237 targets. The Savannah River Site had previously produced and/or processed all the Pu-238 utilized in Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) for deep space missions up to and including the majority of the plutonium for the Cassini Mission. The previous full production cycle capabilities included: Np-237 target fabrication, target irradiation, target dissolution and Np-237 and Pu-238 separation and purification, conversion of Np-237 and Pu-238 to oxide, scrap recovery, and Pu-238 encapsulation. The capability and equipment still exist and could be revitalized or put back into service to recover and purify Pu-238/Np-237 or broken General Purpose Heat Source (GPHS) pellets utilizing existing process equipment in HB-Line Scrap Recovery, and …

The Accelerator Test Facility 2 (ATF2) in KEK, Japan, is a prototype scaled demonstrator system for the final focus required for a future high energy lepton linear collider. The ATF2 beam-line is instrumented with a total of 38 C and S band resonant cavity beam position monitors (CBPM) with associated mixer electronics and digitizers. The current status of the BPM system is described, with a focus on operational techniques and performance. The ATF2 C-band system is performing well, with individual CBPM resolution approaching or at the design resolution of 50 nm. The changes in the CBPM calibration observed over three weeks can probably be attributed to thermal effects on the mixer electronics systems. The CW calibration tone power will be upgraded to monitor changes in the electronics gain and phase. The four S-band CBPMs are still to be investigated, the main problem associated with these cavities is a large cross coupling between the x and y ports. This combined with the large design dispersion in that degion makes the digital signal processing difficult, although various techniques exist to determine the cavity parameters and use these coupled signals for beam position determination.

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We discuss the results of SEM and TEM measurements with the BPRML test samples fabricated from a BPRML (WSi2/Si with fundamental layer thickness of 3 nm) with a Dual Beam FIB (focused ion beam)/SEM technique. In particular, we demonstrate that significant information about the metrological reliability of the TEM measurements can be extracted even when the fundamental frequency of the BPRML sample is smaller than the Nyquist frequency of the measurements. The measurements demonstrate a number of problems related to the interpretation of the SEM and TEM data. Note that similar BPRML test samples can be used to characterize x-ray microscopes. Corresponding work with x-ray microscopes is in progress.

SPEAR3 is a third-generation synchrotron light source storage ring. The beam stability requirements are {approx}10% of the beam size, which is about 1 micron in the vertical plane. Hydrostatic level system (HLS) measurements show that the height of the SPEAR3 tunnel floor varies by tens of microns daily. We present analysis of the HLS data, including accounting for common-mode tidal motion. We discuss the results of experiments done to determine the primary driving source of ground motion. We painted the accelerator tunnel walls white; we temporarily installed Mylar over the asphalt in the center of the accelerator; and we put Mylar over a section of the tunnel walls.

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Organic hydrogen getters are utilized to minimize hydrogen accumulation in sealed systems where such build up could produce either a safety problem from pressure build up or corrosion problem due the hydriding of metals contained in the sealed vessel. DEB (1,4 bis (phenyl ethynyl) benzene) is a hydrogen getter that is based on the palladium catalyzed hydrogenation of triple bonds to single bonds in aromatic aryl compound. DEB is a getter mixed with 25% carbon and 1% Pd and pressed into pellets with some porosity. The reaction mechanisms are complex involving solid state reactions with a heterogeneous catalyst leading to the many intermediates.