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The explicit UA program objective is to develop low melting point (LMP) molten salt thermal energy storage media with high thermal energy storage density for sensible heat storage systems. The novel Low Melting Point (LMP) molten salts are targeted to have the following characteristics: 1. Lower melting point (MP) compared to current salts (<222ºC) 2. Higher energy density compared to current salts (>300 MJ/m3) 3. Lower power generation cost compared to current salt In terms of lower power costs, the program target the DOE's Solar Energy Technologies Program year 2020 goal to create systems that have the potential to reduce the cost of Thermal Energy Storage (TES) to less than $15/kWh-th and achieve round trip efficiencies greater than 93%. The project has completed the experimental investigations to determine the thermo-physical, long term thermal stability properties of the LMP molten salts and also corrosion studies of stainless steel in the candidate LMP molten salts. Heat transfer and fluid dynamics modeling have been conducted to identify heat transfer geometry and relative costs for TES systems that would utilize the primary LMP molten salt candidates. The project also proposes heat transfer geometry with relevant modifications to suit the usage of our molten salts …

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The objective of this project was to discover the protein complexes and control mechanisms that determine the location of actin filament roadways in plant cells. Our work provided the first molecular description of protein complexes that are converted from inactive complexes to active actin filament nucleators in the cell. These discoveries provided a conceptual framework to control to roadways in plant cells that determine the location and delivery of plant metabolites and storage molecules that are relevant to the bioenergy economy.

The I2B coal seam in the Charqueadas coal field has been evaluated as a target for enhanced coal bed methane production and CO{sub 2} sequestration. The samples were low rank coals (high volatile bituminous and sub-bituminous) obtained from the I2B seam as �3� cores. Such properties as sorption capacity, internal structure of the samples, porosity and permeability were of primary interest in this characterization study.

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Second generation (2G) technologies to fabricate high-performance superconducting wires developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) were transferred to American Superconductor via this CRADA. In addition, co-development of technologies for over a decade was done to enable fabrication of commercial high-temperature superconducting (HTS) wires with high performance. The massive success of this CRADA has allowed American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC) to become a global leader in the fabrication of HTS wire and the technology is fully based on the Rolling Assisted Biaxially Textured Substrates (RABiTS) technology invented and developed at ORNL.

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In this paper, we discuss the design of a compact gamma camera for high-resolution prostate cancer imaging using Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CdZnTe or CZT) radiation detectors. Prostate cancer is a common disease in men. Nowadays, a blood test measuring the level of prostate specific antigen (PSA) is widely used for screening for the disease in males over 50, followed by (ultrasound) imaging-guided biopsy. However, PSA tests have a high false-positive rate and ultrasound-guided biopsy has a high likelihood of missing small cancerous tissues. Commercial methods of nuclear medical imaging, e.g. PET and SPECT, can functionally image the organs, and potentially find cancer tissues at early stages, but their applications in diagnosing prostate cancer has been limited by the smallness of the prostate gland and the long working distance between the organ and the detectors comprising these imaging systems. CZT is a semiconductor material with wide band-gap and relatively high electron mobility, and thus can operate at room temperature without additional cooling. CZT detectors are photon-electron direct-conversion devices, thus offering high energy-resolution in detecting gamma rays, enabling energy-resolved imaging, and reducing the background of Compton-scattering events. In addition, CZT material has high stopping power for gamma rays; for medical imaging, a …

Range clearance operations at munitions testing grounds must discriminate Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) from clutter items and distinguish UXO filled with High Explosives (HE) from those with inert fillers. Non-destructive technologies are thus necessary for the cost-effective disposal of UXO during remediation of such sites. The only technique showing promise so far for the non-destructive elemental characterization of UXO fillers utilizes neutron interactions with the material to detect carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and oxygen (O) which have unique ratios in HE. However, several unresolved issues hinder the wide application of this potentially very suitable technique. The most important one is that neutrons interact with all surrounding matter in addition to the interrogated material, leading to a very high gamma-ray background in the detector. Systems requiring bulky shielding and having poor signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) for measuring elements are unsuitable for field deployment. The inadequacies of conventional neutron interrogation methods are overcome by using the tagged-neutron approach, and the availability of compact sealed neutron generators exploiting this technique offers field deployment of non-intrusive measurement systems for detecting threat materials, like explosives and drugs. By accelerating deuterium ions into a tritium target, the subsequent fusion reaction generates nearly back-to-back emissions of neutrons and alpha …

Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CdZnTe or CZT) is a very attractive material for room-temperature semiconductor detectors because of its wide band-gap and high atomic number. Despite these advantages, CZT still presents some material limitations and poor hole mobility. In the past decade most of the developing CZT detectors focused on designing different electrode configurations, mainly to minimize the deleterious effect due to the poor hole mobility. A few different electrode geometries were designed and fabricated, such as pixelated anodes and Frisch-grid detectors developed at Brookhaven National Lab (BNL). However, crystal defects in CZT materials still limit the yield of detector-grade crystals, and, in general, dominate the detector's performance. In the past few years, our group's research extended to characterizing the CZT materials at the micro-scale, and to correlating crystal defects with the detector's performance. We built a set of unique tools for this purpose, including infrared (IR) transmission microscopy, X-ray micro-scale mapping using synchrotron light source, X-ray transmission- and reflection-topography, current deep level transient spectroscopy (I-DLTS), and photoluminescence measurements. Our most recent work on CZT detectors was directed towards detailing various crystal defects, studying the internal electrical field, and delineating the effects of thermal annealing on improving the material properties. In …

Ion Exchange column loading and elution of cesium from spherical resorcinol-formaldehyde resin have been conducted for two potential non-acid eluants -(NH{sub 4}){sub 2}CO{sub 3} and CH{sub 3}COONH{sub 4}. The results revealed encouraging cesium elution performance. 100% elution was achieved in at most 22 hours ({approx}28 bed volumes) of elution. Elution performance was fairly high at 6 hours ({approx}8 bed volumes) of elution for some of the eluants and also practically comparable to the benchmark acid eluant (HNO{sub 3}). Hence, it is quite possible 100% percent elution will be closer to the 6th hour than the 22nd hour. Elution is generally enhanced by increasing the concentration and pH of the eluants, and combining the eluants.

The Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) is the keystone for cleanup of high-level radioactive waste from our nation's nuclear defense program. The WTP will process high-level waste from the Hanford tanks and produce immobilized high-level waste glass for disposal at a national repository, low activity waste (LAW) glass, and liquid effluent from the vitrification off-gas scrubbers. The liquid effluent will be stabilized into a secondary waste form (e.g. grout-like material) and disposed on the Hanford site in the Integrated Disposal Facility (IDF) along with the low-activity waste glass. The major long-term environmental impact at Hanford results from technetium that volatilizes from the WTP melters and finally resides in the secondary waste. Laboratory studies have indicated that pertechnetate ({sup 99}TcO{sub 4}{sup -}) can be reduced and captured into a solid solution of {alpha}-FeOOH, goethite (Um 2010). Goethite is a stable mineral and can significantly retard the release of technetium to the environment from the IDF. The laboratory studies were conducted using reaction times of many days, which is typical of environmental subsurface reactions that were the genesis of this new process. This study was the first step in considering adaptation of the slow laboratory steps to a larger-scale and …

Thermoelectric materials have generated interest as a means of increasing the efficiency of power generation through the scavenging of waste heat. Materials containing nanometer-sized structural and compositional features can exhibit enhanced thermoelectric performance due to the decoupling of certain electrical and thermal properties, but the extent to which these features can be controlled is often limited. Here we report a simple synthesis of M{sub 2}O{sub 3}(ZnO){sub n} (M = In, Ga, Fe) nanowires with controllable polytypoid structures, where the nanostructured features are tuned by adjusting the amount of metal precursor. After the introduction of nanometer-scale features (individual atomic layers and alloying), thermal and electrical measurements on single In{sub 2-x}Ga{sub x}O3(ZnO){sub n} nanowires reveal a simultaneous improvement in all contributing factors to the thermoelectric figure of merit, indicating successful modification of the nanowire transport properties.

In order to provide more accurate and precise estimates of individual dose (and thus more precise estimates of radiation risk) for the members of the ETRC, a new dosimetric calculation system, the Techa River Dosimetry System-2009 (TRDS-2009) has been prepared. The deterministic version of the improved dosimetry system TRDS-2009D was basically completed in April 2009. Recent developments in evaluation of dose-response models in light of uncertain dose have highlighted the importance of different types of uncertainties in the development of individual dose estimates. These include uncertain parameters that may be either shared or unshared within the dosimetric cohort, and also the nature of the type of uncertainty as aleatory or epistemic and either classical or Berkson. This report identifies the nature of the various input parameters and calculational methods incorporated in the Techa River Dosimetry System (based on the TRDS-2009D implementation), with the intention of preparing a stochastic version to estimate the uncertainties in the dose estimates. This report reviews the equations, databases, and input parameters, and then identifies the author’s interpretations of their general nature. It presents the approach selected so that the stochastic, Monte-Carlo, implementation of the dosimetry System - TRDS-2009MC - will provide useful information regarding the …

This best practices guide is the ninth in a series of guides for builders produced by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America Program. This guide book is a resource to help builders design and construct homes that are among the most energy-efficient available, while addressing issues such as building durability, indoor air quality, and occupant health, safety, and comfort. With the measures described in this guide, builders in the hot-dry and mixed-dry climates can achieve homes that have whole house energy savings of 40% over the Building America benchmark (a home built to mid-1990s building practices roughly equivalent to the 1993 Model Energy Code) with no added overall costs for consumers. These best practices are based on the results of research and demonstration projects conducted by Building America’s research teams. The guide includes information for managers, designers, marketers, site supervisors, and subcontractors, as well as case studies of builders who are successfully building homes that cut energy use by 40% in the hot-dry and mixed-dry climates.

Radiation portal monitors used for interdiction of illicit materials at borders include highly sensitive neutron detection systems. The main reason for having neutron detection capability is to detect fission neutrons from plutonium. The currently deployed radiation portal monitors (RPMs) from Ludlum and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) use neutron detectors based upon 3He-filled gas proportional counters, which are the most common large neutron detector. There is a declining supply of 3He in the world, and thus, methods to reduce the use of this gas in RPMs with minimal changes to the current system designs and sensitivity to cargo-borne neutrons are being investigated. Reported here are the results of tests of the 6Li/ZnS(Ag)-coated non-scintillating plastic fibers option. This testing measured the required performance for neutron detection efficiency and gamma ray rejection capabilities of a system manufactured by Innovative American Technology (IAT).

This is the concluding Progress Report for Project 1.1 of the U.S./Russia Joint Coordinating Committee on Radiation Effects Research (JCCRER). An overwhelming majority of our work this period has been to complete our primary obligation of providing a new version of the Techa River Dosimetry System (TRDS), which we call TRDS-2009D; the D denotes deterministic. This system provides estimates of individual doses to members of the Extended Techa River Cohort (ETRC) and post-natal doses to members of the Techa River Offspring Cohort (TROC). The latter doses were calculated with use of the TRDS-2009D. The doses for the members of the ETRC have been made available to the American and Russian epidemiologists in September for their studies in deriving radiogenic risk factors. Doses for members of the TROC are being provided to European and Russian epidemiologists, as partial input for studies of risk in this population. Two of our original goals for the completion of this nine-year phase of Project 1.1 were not completed. These are completion of TRDS-2009MC, which was to be a Monte Carlo version of TRDS-2009 that could be used for more explicit analysis of the impact of uncertainty in doses on uncertainty in radiogenic risk factors. The …

An updated deterministic version of the Techa River Dosimetry System (TRDS-2009D) has been developed to estimate individual doses from external exposure and intake of radionuclides for residents living on the Techa River contaminated as a result of radioactive releases from the Mayak plutonium facility in 1949–1956. The TRDS-2009D is designed as a flexible system that uses, depending on the input data for an individual, various elements of system databases to provide the dosimetric variables requested by the user. Several phases are included in the computation schedule. The first phase includes calculations with use of a common protocol for all cohort members based on village-average-intake functions and external dose rates; individual data on age, gender and history of residence are included in the first phase. This phase results in dose estimates similar to those obtained with system TRDS-2000 used previously to derive risks of health effects in the Techa River Cohort. The second phase includes refinement of individual internal doses for those persons who have had body-burden measurements or exposure parameters specific to the household where he/she lived on the Techa River. The third phase includes summation of individual doses from environmental exposure and from radiological examinations. The results of TRDS-2009D …

A search for muon neutrinos from Kaluza-Klein dark matter annihilations in the Sun has been performed with the 22-string configuration of the IceCube neutrino detector using data collected in 104.3 days of live-time in 2007. No excess over the expected atmospheric background has been observed. Upper limits have been obtained on the annihilation rate of captured lightest Kaluza-Klein particle (LKP) WIMPs in the Sun and converted to limits on the LKP-proton cross-sections for LKP masses in the range 250 - 3000 GeV. These results are the most stringent limits to date on LKP annihilation in the Sun.

The Mayak Production Association (MPA) was established in the late 1940s in accordance with a special Decree of the USSR Government for the production of nuclear weapons. In early years of MPA operation, due to the lack of experience and absence of effective methods of RW management, the enterprise had extensive routine (designed) and non-routine (accidental) releases of gaseous radioactive wastes to the atmosphere. These practices resulted in additional technogenic radiation exposure of residents inhabiting populated areas near the MPA. The primary objective of ongoing studies under JCCRER Project 1.4 is to estimate doses to the residents of Ozersk due to releases of radioactive substances from the stacks of MPA. Preliminary scoping studies have demonstrated that releases of radioactive iodine (131I) from the stacks of the Mayak Radiochemical Plant represented the major contribution to the dose to residents of Ozersk and of other nearby populated areas. The behavior of 131I in the environment and of 131I migration through biological food chains (vegetation-cows-milk-humans) indicated a need for use of special mathematical models to perform the estimation of radiation doses to the population. The goal of this work is to select an appropriate model of the iodine migration in biological food chains …

This brief report documents the selection of parameters needed to support individual-dose calculations from 131I released into the environment with gaseous effluents from the Mayak Production Association.

The results of mid-rapidity (0 &lt; y &lt; 0.8) neutral pion spectra over an extended transverse momentum range (1 &lt; p{sub T} &lt; 12 GeV/c) in {radical}s{sub NN} = 200 GeV Au+Au collisions, measured by the STAR experiment, are presented. The neutral pions are reconstructed from photons measured either by the STAR Barrel Electro-Magnetic Calorimeter (BEMC) or by the Time Projection Chamber (TPC) via tracking of conversion electron-positron pairs. Our measurements are compared to previously published {pi}{sup {+-}} and {pi}{sup 0} results. The nuclear modification factors R{sub CP} and R{sub AA} of {pi}{sup 0} are also presented as a function of p{sub T}. In the most central Au+Au collisions, the binary collision scaled {pi}{sup 0} yield at high p{sub T} is suppressed by a factor of about 5 compared to the expectation from the yield of p+p collisions. Such a large suppression is in agreement with previous observations for light quark mesons and is consistent with the scenario that partons suffer considerable energy loss in the dense medium formed in central nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC.