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At least 289 records · Page 16

Portable Spray Booth

Portable spray booth provides for controlled application of coating materials with high solvent contents. Includes contoured shroud and carbon filter bed limiting concentration of fumes in vicinity. Designed to substitute spraying for brush application of solvent-based adhesive prior to installing rubber waterproof seals over joints between segments of solid-fuel rocket motor. With minor adjustments and modifications, used to apply other solvent-based adhesives, paints, and like.

Hansen, Timothy D.↗

Atmospheric {sup 41}Ar Plume Tracking of the UF Training Reactor Using a Large-Volume NaI Detector

The ability to track and monitor gaseous radioactive materials is important in the event of a radioactive release such as from a nuclear power plant accident, weapons testing, or other unintended release scenarios. The International Monitoring System (IMS) is currently in place to monitor for weapons testing and has been used to monitor nuclear power plant accidents. However, only 80 radionuclide stations for the IMS exist in the world and are stationary, limiting the resolution of any radioactive plumes detected. Furthermore, the IMS radionuclide stations are designed to be sensitive specifically to atmospheric radio-xenon and no other radionuclides. Historically, monitoring radioactive releases has been limited to the detection of radio-xenon and radio-krypton, both arising as fission products from nuclear fuel. After the accident at Three Mile Island Unit 2, scientists were interested in finding the dose the public received from released radioactive material. This was achieved by analyzing radiation monitors in the exhaust stack and filters within the reactor building. furthermore, a series of 20 thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD's), 8 air sampling station positioned around Three Mile Island, and a helicopter survey which used a NaI(Tl) detector array provided data on radionuclides, specifically {sup 137}Cs, that escaped the confines of the reactor building. The TLD's and air sampling stations were stationary, and therefore limited the resolution of the radioactive release plume. The helicopter survey using the NaI detectors was limited by the technology available at the time. The NaI detector array output was compressed from 1024 channels to 256 channels, limiting the energy resolution of the spectral data. The helicopter used a microwave ranging system to establish position. Since this survey was taken in October of 1982, advancements in technology allow spectral data to be saved in its full 1024 channel format and the advent of GPS can give a more accurate account of the detector position. An updated mobile system for tracking a radioactive release would help to alleviate these issues as well as gain the ability to track a radioactive release in real-time. We investigate the feasibility of mobile tracking through study and measurement of the {sup 41}Ar plume released from the University of Florida Training Reactor (UFTR) research reactor. We use a large-volume NaI(Tl) detector placed on the roof near the reactor. This detector may also be placed and moved on a cart to survey the area surrounding the reactor. We compare the spectral data taken when the reactor is running at full power to the background to analyze the effectiveness of the detector at identifying atmospheric {sup 41}Ar. Finally we discuss the implications of these measurements with regards to validation of plume models and the capability to track releases over a localized area from the source. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

Farm Deployable Microbial Bioreactor for Fuel Ethanol Production

Research was conducted to develop a farm and field deployable microbial bioreactor for bioethanol production from biomass. Experiments were conducted to select the most efficient microorganisms for conversion of plant fiber to sugars for fermentation to ethanol. Mixtures of biomass and surface soil samples were collected from selected sites in Alabama black belt counties (Macon, Sumter, Choctaw, Dallas, Montgomery, Lowndes) and other areas within the state of Alabama. Experiments were conducted to determine the effects of culture parameters on key biomass saccharifying enzymes (cellulase, beta-glucosidase, xylanase and beta-xylosidase). A wide-scale sampling of locally-grown fruits in Central Alabama was embarked to isolate potential xylose fermenting microorganisms. Yeast isolates were evaluated for xylose fermentation. Selected microorganisms were characterized by DNA based methods. Factors affecting enzyme production and biomass saccharification were examined and optimized in the laboratory. Methods of biomass pretreatment were compared. Co-production of amylolytic enzymes with celluloytic-xylanolytic enzymes was evaluated; and co-saccharification of a combination of biomass, and starch-rich materials was examined. Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation with and without pre-saccharifcation was studied. Whole culture broth and filtered culture broth simultaneous saccahrifcation and fermentation were compared. A bioreactor system was designed and constructed to employ laboratory results for scale up of biomass saccharification.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Diagnosing low-mode (ℓ < 6) and mid-mode (6 ≤ ℓ ≤ 60) asymmetries in the post-stagnation phase of laser-direct-drive deuterium–tritium cryogenic implosions on OMEGA

Low- and mid-mode perturbations are possible candidates for performance limitations in cryogenic direct-drive implosions on the OMEGA laser at the Laboratory of Laser Energetics. Simulations with a 3D hydrocode demonstrated that hotspot imagers do not show evidence of the shell breakup in the dense fuel. However, these same simulations revealed that the low- and mid-mode perturbations in the dense fuel could be diagnosed more easily in the post-stagnation phase of the implosion by analyzing the peak in the x-ray emission limb at the coronal–fuel interface than before or at the stagnation phase. In experiments, the asymmetries are inferred from gated images of the x-ray emission of the implosion by using a 16-pinhole array imager filtered to record x-ray energies >800 eV and an x-ray framing camera with 40-ps time integration and 20-μm spatial resolution. Furthermore, a modal analysis is applied to the spatial distribution of the x-ray emission from deuterium and tritium cryogenic implosions on OMEGA recorded after the bang time to diagnose the low- and mid-mode asymmetries, and to study the effect that the beam-to-target ratio (Rb/Rt) has on the shell integrity.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Enabling Lean and Stoichiometric Gasoline Direct Injection Engines through Mitigation of Nanoparticle Emissions

This project had the objective to efficiently reduce particulate mass (PM) and particulate number (PN) from lean and stoichiometric gasoline direction injection engines used in light duty vehicle applications. It also sought to use suspended particle instruments to measure the effective density, illustrating a pathway for new methods for accurately measuring soot mass at low concentration. The three-year effort took a systems level approach to evaluate fuel and lubricant impacts on GDI soot formation in lean and stoichiometric operation and to evaluate the impact of these factors on soot filtration aftertreatment in three-way catalyst-coated gasoline particulate filters (GPFs).

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Evaluation of Improved Pushback Forecasts Derived from Airline Ground Operations Data

Accurate and timely predictions of airline pushbacks can potentially lead to improved performance of automated decision-support tools for airport surface traffic, thus reducing the variability and average duration of costly airline delays. One factor which affects the realization of these benefits is the level of uncertainty inherent in the turn processes. To characterize this inherent uncertainty, three techniques are developed for predicting time-to-go until pushback as a function of available ground-time; elapsed ground-time; and the status (not-started/in-progress/completed) of individual turn processes (cleaning, fueling, etc.). These techniques are tested against a large and detailed dataset covering approximately l0(exp 4) real-world turn operations obtained through collaboration with Deutsche Lufthansa AG. Even after the dataset is filtered to obtain a sample of turn operations with minimal uncertainty, the standard deviation of forecast error for all three techniques is lower-bounded away from zero, indicating that turn operations have a significant stochastic component. This lower-bound result shows that decision-support tools must be designed to incorporate robust mechanisms for coping with pushback demand stochasticity, rather than treating the pushback demand process as a known deterministic input.

Carr, Francis↗

Apparatus and filtering systems relating to combustors in combustion turbine engines

A combustor for a combustion turbine engine, the combustor that includes: a chamber defined by an outer wall and forming a channel between windows defined through the outer wall toward a forward end of the chamber and at least one fuel injector positioned toward an aft end of the chamber; a screen; and a standoff comprising a raised area on an outer surface of the outer wall near the periphery of the windows; wherein the screen extends over the windows and is supported by the standoff in a raised position in relation to the outer surface of the outer wall and the windows.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Experimental measurements of the Space Shuttle main engine fuel and oxygen turbopump vibration characteristics

The vibration characteristics of the SSME (Space Shuttle main engine) are dealt with. The Space Shuttle engine consists of a main rocket nozzle and attached to it are high pressure fuel and oxygen pumps. Various vibration problems have been encountered with both the hydrogen and oxygen pumps. The vibration spectrum of the hydrogen and oxygen pumps has been analyzed by various techniques using synchronous tracking filters and FFT analyzers. The experimental data has been correlated to theoretical predictions of resonance frequencies.

Gunter, E. J.↗

Numerical Simulations of Two-Phase Reacting Flow in a Single-Element Lean Direct Injection (LDI) Combustor Using NCC

A series of numerical simulations of Jet-A spray reacting flow in a single-element lean direct injection (LDI) combustor have been conducted by using the National Combustion Code (NCC). The simulations have been carried out using the time filtered Navier-Stokes (TFNS) approach ranging from the steady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS), unsteady RANS (URANS), to the dynamic flow structure simulation (DFS). The sub-grid model employed for turbulent mixing and combustion includes the well-mixed model, the linear eddy mixing (LEM) model, and the filtered mass density function (FDF/PDF) model. The starting condition of the injected liquid spray is specified via empirical droplet size correlation, and a five-species single-step global reduced mechanism is employed for fuel chemistry. All the calculations use the same grid whose resolution is of the RANS type. Comparisons of results from various models are presented.

Liu, Nan-Suey↗

Online characterization of primary and secondary emissions of particulate matter and acidic molecules from a modern fleet of city buses

The potential impact of transitioning from conventional fossil fuel to a non-fossil-fuel vehicle fleet was investigated by measuring primary emissions via extractive sampling of bus plumes and assessing secondary mass formation using the Gothenburg Potential Aerosol Mass (Go:PAM) reactor from 76 in-use transit buses. Online chemical characterization of gaseous and particulate emissions from these buses was conducted using chemical ionization mass spectrometry (CIMS) with acetate as the reagent ion, coupled with the Filter Inlet for Gases and AEROsols (FIGAERO). Acetate reagent ion chemistry selectively ionizes acidic compounds, including organic and inorganic acids, as well as nitrated and sulfated organics. A significant reduction (48 %–98 %) in fresh particle emissions was observed in buses utilizing compressed natural gas (CNG), biodiesels like rapeseed methyl ester (RME) and hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), and hybrid-electric HVO (HVO HEV ) compared to diesel (DSL). However, secondary particle formation from photooxidation of emissions was substantial across all the fuel types. The median ratio of particle mass emission factors of aged to fresh emissions increased in the following order: DSL buses at 4.0, HVO buses at 6.7, HVO HEV buses at 10.5, RME buses at 10.8, and CNG buses at 84. Of the compounds that can be identified by CIMS, fresh gaseous emissions from all Euro V/EEV (Enhanced Environmentally friendly Vehicle) buses, regardless of fuel type, were dominated by nitrogen-containing compounds such as nitrous acid (HONO), nitric acid (HNO 3 ), and isocyanic acid (HNCO), alongside small monoacids (C 1 –C 3 ). Notably, the emission of nitrogen-containing compounds was lower in Euro VI buses equipped with more advanced emission control technologies. Secondary gaseous organic acids correlated strongly with gaseous HNO 3 signals (R 2 =0.85–0.99) in Go:PAM, but their moderate to weak correlations with post-photooxidation secondary particle mass suggest that they are not reliable tracers of secondary organic aerosol formation from bus exhaust. Our study highlights that non-regulated compounds and secondary pollutant formation, not currently addressed in legislation, are crucial considerations in the evaluation of environmental impacts of future fuel and engine technology shifts.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Coupling field and laboratory measurements to estimate the emission factors of identified and unidentified trace gases for prescribed fires

Vegetative fuels commonly consumed in prescribed fires were collected from five locations in the southeastern and southwestern U.S. and burned in a series of 77 fires at the U.S. Forest Service Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula, Montana. The particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions were measured by gravimetric filter sampling with subsequent analysis for elemental carbon (EC), organic carbon (OC), and 38 elements. The trace gas emissions were measured with a large suite of state-of-the-art instrumentation including an open-path Fourier transform infrared (OP FTIR) spectrometer, proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS), proton-transfer ion-trap mass spectrometry (PIT-MS), negative-ion proton-transfer chemical-ionization mass spectrometry (NI-PT-CIMS), and gas chromatography with MS detection (GC-MS). 204 trace gas species (mostly non-methane organic compounds (NMOC)) were identified and quantified with the above instruments. An additional 152 significant peaks in the unit mass resolution mass spectra were quantified, but either could not be identified or most of the signal at that molecular mass was unaccounted for by identifiable species. As phase II of this study, we conducted airborne and ground-based sampling of the emissions from real prescribed fires mostly in the same land management units where the fuels for the lab fires were collected. A broad variety, but smaller number of species (21 trace gas species and PM2.5) was measured on 14 fires in chaparral and oak savanna in the southwestern US, as well as pine forest understory in the southeastern US and Sierra Nevada mountains of California. These extensive field measurements of emission factors (EF) for temperate biomass burning are useful both for modeling and to examine the representativeness of our lab fire EF. The lab/field EF ratio for the pine understory fuels was not statistically different from one, on average. However, our lab EF for “smoldering compounds” emitted by burning the semi-arid SW fuels should likely be increased by about a factor of 2.7 to better represent field fires. Based on the lab/field comparison, we present a table with emission factors for 365 pyrogenic species (including unidentified species) for 4 broad fuel types: pine understory, semi-arid shrublands, evergreen canopy, and duff. To our knowledge this is the most complete measurement of biomass burning emissions to date and it should enable improved representation of smoke in atmospheric models. The results provide important insights into the nature of smoke. For example, ~35% (range from 16-71%) of the mass of gas-phase NMOC species was attributed to the species that we could not identify. These unidentified species are likely not represented in most models, but some provision should be made for the fact that they will react in the atmosphere. In addition, the total mass of gas-phase NMOC divided by the mass of co-emitted PM2.5 averaged ~2.6 for the main fire types with a range from ~1.8-8.8. About 36-63% of the NMOC were likely semivolatile or of intermediate volatility. Thus, the gas-phase NMOC represent a large reservoir of potential precursors for secondary formation of organic aerosol. For the one fire in organic soil (Alaskan duff) about 28% of the emitted carbon was present as gas-phase NMOC in contrast to the other fuels for which NMOC accounted for only ~1-3% of emitted carbon. 71% of the mass of NMOC emitted by the smoldering duff was un-identified. The duff results highlight the need to learn more about the emissions from smoldering organic soils. The NMOC/“NOx-as-NO” ratio was consistently about ten for the main fire types when accounting for all NMOC, indicating strongly NOx-limited O3 production conditions. Finally, the fuel consumption per unit area was measured on 6 of the 14 prescribed fires and averaged 7.08 ± 2.09 (1) Mg ha-1.

Yokelson, R. J.↗

A new family of β-helix proteins with similarities to the polysaccharide lyases

Microorganisms that degrade biomass produce diverse assortments of carbohydrate-active enzymes and binding modules. Despite tremendous advances in the genomic sequencing of these organisms, many genes do not have an ascribed function owing to low sequence identity to genes that have been annotated. Consequently, biochemical and structural characterization of genes with unknown function is required to complement the rapidly growing pool of genomic sequencing data. A protein with previously unknown function (Cthe_2159) was recently isolated in a genome-wide screen using phage display to identify cellulose-binding protein domains from the biomass-degrading bacterium Clostridium thermocellum . Here, the crystal structure of Cthe_2159 is presented and it is shown that it is a unique right-handed parallel β-helix protein. Despite very low sequence identity to known β-helix or carbohydrate-active proteins, Cthe_2159 displays structural features that are very similar to those of polysaccharide lyase (PL) families 1, 3, 6 and 9. Cthe_2159 is conserved across bacteria and some archaea and is a member of the domain of unknown function family DUF4353. This suggests that Cthe_2159 is the first representative of a previously unknown family of cellulose and/or acid-sugar binding β-helix proteins that share structural similarities with PLs. More importantly, these results demonstrate how functional annotation by biochemical and structural analysis remains a critical tool in the characterization of new gene products.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Clean Indoor Air and Lower Environmental Impacts: Heat Recovery Ventilation in Cold Climates

Over half of Alaska homes are at risk of poor indoor air quality, which increases the risk of respiratory and other illnesses for people and animals. Heat recovery ventilators (HRVs) provide warm, fresh air to a building interior while minimizing energy use. They can be programmed to provide varying amounts of fresh air to ensure adequate ventilation for occupants and can be configured to filter air during wildfires or other events. In addition to improving the safety of indoor air and extending the life of a building, HRVs can improve surrounding outdoor air because they reduce the amount of fossil fuels needed to heat a building. Recent research by CCHRC has focused on lowering barriers to using HRVs in cold climates through laboratory evaluations and homeowner education. This poster will cover data on indoor air quality in Alaska, results of CCHRC research, and future research questions.

buildings↗

MELCOR Modeling of Accident Scenarios at a Facility for Aqueous Reprocessing of Spent Nuclear Fuel

The work presented in this report applies the MELCOR code to evaluate potential accidents in non-reactor nuclear facilities, focusing on Design Basis Accidents. Ten accident scenarios were modeled using NRC's best-estimate severe accident analysis code, MELCOR 2.2. The accident scenarios simulated a range of explosions and/or fires related to a nuclear fuel reprocessing facility. The objective was to evaluate the radionuclide source term to the environment following initiating explosion and/or fire events. The simulations were performed using a MELCOR model of the Barnwell Nuclear Fuel Plant, which was decommissioned before beginning reprocessing operations. Five of the accident scenarios were based on the Class 5 Design Basis Accidents from the Final Safety Analysis Report. Three of the remaining accident scenarios include sensitivity studies on smaller solvent fires. The final two accidents included an induced fire from an initial explosion. The radionuclide inventory was developed from ORIGEN calculations of spent PWR fuel with an initial enrichment of 4.5% U-235 by weight. The fuel aged for five years after a final 500-day irradiation cycle. The burn-up was conservatively increased to 60 GWd/MTU to bound current US operations. The results are characterized in terms of activity release to the environment and the building decontamination factor, which is related the leak path factor used in Department of Energy safety analyses. The MELCOR 2.2 results consider adverse consequences to the filters, ventilation system, and structures as a result of the explosions and fires. The calculations also include best-estimate models for aerosol transport, agglomeration, and deposition. The new calculations illustrate best-estimate approaches for predicting the source term from a reprocessing facility accident.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

System and Method for Dynamic Aeroelastic Control

The present invention proposes a hardware and software architecture for dynamic modal structural monitoring that uses a robust modal filter to monitor a potentially very large-scale array of sensors in real time, and tolerant of asymmetric sensor noise and sensor failures, to achieve aircraft performance optimization such as minimizing aircraft flutter, drag and maximizing fuel efficiency.

Suh, Peter M.↗

NIR Dataset and Models (Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Calibration Dataset for Butanediol Fermentation and Multivariate Calibration Models) [SWR-22-60]

2,3-butanediol (2,3-BDO) is an economically important platform chemical that can be used in a variety of chemical feedstocks, liquid fuels, and biosynthetic building blocks. While 2,3-BDO can be efficiently produced by fermentation, the fermentation requires continuous monitoring and control to maximize 2,3-BDO yields and minimize inhibitory coproducts. Because of the time required for sampling and at-line measurement of fermentation samples with high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC), the ability for operators to perform real-time modification to fermentation conditions is limited. To overcome this challenge, researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have developed a calibration model which can predict the concentration of several analytes in real-time using near-infrared (NIR) spectra of the filtered fermentation broth. While significantly reducing the need for off-line sampling, NREL expects this technology to play a critical role in maximizing 2,3-BDO production. 2,3-butanediol (2,3-BDO) is a useful chemical platform that can be used to create a variety of products. For instance, 2,3-BDO can be (1) dehydrated and converted into methyl ethyl ketone, a liquid fuel additive or (2) deoxydehydrated into 1,3-butadiene for synthetic rubber, which can also be oligomerized in high yields to gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. In order to maximize 2,3-BDO production, frequent measurement of fermentation samples is needed, as small changes in oxygen concentration can drive the fermentation to undesired products. For example, oxygen-deficient conditions result in glycerol production, while excess oxygen concentrations result in acetoin production. This results in the need for measuring dissolved oxygen, glucose, and xylose concentrations in order to optimize the aeration rate of the fermentation. Traditional monitoring methods occurs off-line and can take up to 30 minutes per sample. With multiple fermenters and high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) injectors, resulting in the need for multiple samples, the sampling process can take hours to complete. NREL’s calibration model can predict the glucose, xylose, 2,3-BDO, acetoin, and glycerol concentrations from NIR spectra of filtered fermentation liquor samples. Using a partial least-squares (PLS) calibration model, NREL’s model can monitor the concentration of these analytes during subsequent fermentations at bench- and pilot-scale, demonstrating the utility of NIR spectroscopy combined with chemometrics for real-time, at-line monitoring of 2,3-BDO fermentations.

Wolfrum, Edward↗

LIBS Spectral Data for a Mixed Actinide Fuel Pellet Containing Uranium, Plutonium, Neptunium and Americium (V.1)

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was used to analyze a mixed actinide fuel pellet containing 75% UO 2 /20% PuO 2 /3% AmO 2 /2% NpO 2 . The preliminary data shown here is the first report of LIBS analysis of a mixed actinide fuel pellet, to the authors knowledge. The LIBS spectral data was acquired in a plutonium facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory where the sample was contained within a glove box. The initial installation of the glove box was not intended for complete ultraviolet (UV), visible (VIS) and near infrared (NIR) transmission, therefore the LIBS spectrum is truncated in the UV and NIR regions due to the optical transmission of the window port and filters that were installed. The optical collection of the emission from the LIBS plasma will be optimized in the future. However, the preliminary LIBS data acquired is worth reporting due to the uniqueness of the sample and spectral data. The analysis of several actinides in the presence of each other is an important feature of this analysis since traditional methods must chemically separate uranium, plutonium, neptunium, and americium prior to analysis. Due to the historic nature of the sample fuel pellet analyzed, the provided sample composition of 75% UO 2 /20% PuO 2 /3% AmO 2 /2% NpO 2 cannot be confirm without further analytical processing. Uranium, plutonium, and americium emission lines were abundant and easily assigned while neptunium was more difficult to identify. There may be several reasons for this observation, other than knowing the exact sample composition of the fuel pellet. First, the atomic emission wavelength resources for neptunium are limited and such techniques as hollow cathode discharge lamp have different dynamics than the plasma used in LIBS which results in different emission spectra. Secondly, due to the complex sample of four actinide elements, which all have very dense electronic energy levels, there may be reactions and interactions occurring within the plasma, such as collisional energy transfer, that might be a factor in the reduction in neptunium emission lines. Neptunium has to be analyzed alone using LIBS to further understand the dynamics that may be occurring in the plasma of the mixed actinide fuel pellet sample. The LIBS data suggests that the emission spectrum for the mixed actinide fuel pellet is not simply the sum of the emission spectra of the pure samples but is dependent on the species present in the plasma and the interactions and reactions that occur within the plasma. Finally, many of the neptunium lines are in the near infrared region which is drastically reduced in intensity by the current optical setup and possibly the sensitivity of the emission detector in the spectral region. Once the optics are replaced and the optical collection system is modified and optimized, the probability of observing emission lines for neptunium might be increased significantly. The mixed actinide fuel pellet was analyzed under the experimental conditions listed in Table 1. The LIBS spectra of the fuel pellet are shown in Figures 1-49. The spectra are labeled with the observed wavelength and atomic species (both neutral (I) and ionic (II)). Table 2 is a complete list of the observed and literature based emission wavelengths. The literature wavelengths have references including NIST Atomic Spectra Database (NIST), B.A. Palmer et al. 'An Atlas of Uranium Emission Intensities in a Hollow Cathode Discharge' taken at the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), R.L. Kurucz 1995 Atomic Line Data from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), J. Blaise et al. 'The Atomic Spectrum of Plutonium' from Argonne National Laboratory (BFG), and M. Fred and F.S. Tomkins, 'Preliminary Term Analysis of Am I and Am II Spectra' (FT). The dash (-) shown under Ionic State indicates that the ionic state of the transition was not available. In the spectra, the dash (-) is replaced with a question mark (?). Peaks that are not assigned are most likely real features and not noise but cannot be confidently assigned to a transition without further investigation. Several peaks have multiple assignments due to limited resolution of the spectrometer used (20,000, $\lambda$/$\Delta$$\lambda$) and without the availability, at this point in time, of pure PuO 2 , AmO 2 , and NpO 2 to confirm the identity of the peaks. A different spectrometer was used in the plutonium facility to collect the mixed actinide fuel pellet data (Echelle 3000) than the DUO 2 , ThO 2 and uranium ore previously reported (Echelle 4000) which accounts for the slight shift in the observed wavelength of the uranium emission lines.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

NASA Tech Briefs, January 2009

Tech Briefs are short announcements of innovations originating from research and development activities of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. They emphasize information considered likely to be transferable across industrial, regional, or disciplinary lines and are issued to encourage commercial application. Topics covered include: The Radio Frequency Health Node Wireless Sensor System; Effects of Temperature on Polymer/Carbon Chemical Sensors; Small CO2 Sensors Operate at Lower Temperature; Tele-Supervised Adaptive Ocean Sensor Fleet; Synthesis of Submillimeter Radiation for Spectroscopy; 100-GHz Phase Switch/Mixer Containing a Slot-Line Transition; Generating Ka-Band Signals Using an X-Band Vector Modulator; SiC Optically Modulated Field-Effect Transistor; Submillimeter-Wave Amplifier Module with Integrated Waveguide Transitions; Metrology System for a Large, Somewhat Flexible Telescope; Economical Implementation of a Filter Engine in an FPGA; Improved Joining of Metal Components to Composite Structures; Machined Titanium Heat-Pipe Wick Structure; Gadolinia-Doped Ceria Cathodes for Electrolysis of CO2; Utilizing Ocean Thermal Energy in a Submarine Robot; Fuel-Cell Power Systems Incorporating Mg-Based H2 Generators; Alternative OTEC Scheme for a Submarine Robot; Sensitive, Rapid Detection of Bacterial Spores; Adenosine Monophosphate-Based Detection of Bacterial Spores; Silicon Microleaks for Inlets of Mass Spectrometers; CGH Figure Testing of Aspherical Mirrors in Cold Vacuums; Series-Coupled Pairs of Silica Microresonators; Precise Stabilization of the Optical Frequency of WGMRs; Formation Flying of Components of a Large Space Telescope; Laser Metrology Heterodyne Phase-Locked Loop; Spatial Modulation Improves Performance in CTIS; High-Performance Algorithm for Solving the Diagnosis Problem; Truncation Depth Rule-of-Thumb for Convolutional Codes; Efficient Method for Optimizing Placement of Sensors.

Source record↗