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This document is LBNL’s annual report of radionuclide air emissions for 2014 and meets the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) requirements for reporting.
The purposes of the Environmental Report 2016 are to record LLNL’s compliance with environmental standards and requirements, describe LLNL’s environmental protection and remediation programs, and present the results of environmental monitoring. Specifically, the report discusses LLNL’s EMS; describes significant accomplishments in pollution prevention; presents the results of air, water, vegetation, and foodstuff monitoring; reports radiological doses from LLNL operations; summarizes LLNL’s activities involving special status wildlife, plants, and habitats; and describes the progress LLNL has made in remediating groundwater contamination. Environmental monitoring at LLNL, including analysis of samples and data, is conducted according to documented standard operating procedures. Duplicate samples are collected and analytical results are reviewed and compared to internal acceptance standards. This report is prepared for DOE by LLNL’s Environmental Functional Area (EFA). Submittal of the report satisfies requirements under DOE Order 231.1B, “Environment, Safety and Health Reporting,” and DOE Order 458.1, “Radiation Protection of the Public and Environment.” The report is distributed in electronic form and is available to the public at https://saer.llnl.gov/, the website for the LLNL annual environmental report. Previous LLNL annual environmental reports beginning with 1994 are also on the website.
Summaries provided for several FY17 LDRD projects.
In support of IER 252 “Characterization of the Flattop Reactor at the NCERC”, LLNL performed ROSPEC measurements of the neutron spectrum and deployed 129 Personnel Nuclear Accident Dosimeters (PNAD) to establish the need for height corrections and verification of neutron spectrum evaluation of the fluences and dose. A very limited number of heights (typically only one or two heights) can be measured using neutron spectrometers, therefore it was important to determine if any height correction would be needed in future intercomparisons and studies. Specific measurement positions around the Flatttop reactor are provided in Figure 1. Table 1 provides run and position information for LLNL measurements. The LLNL ROSPEC (R2) was used for run numbers 1 – 7, and vi. PNADs were positioned on trees during run numbers 9, 11, and 13.
The LDRD annual report for FY2016 consists of two parts: The Overview. This section contains a broad description of the LDRD Program, highlights of recent accomplishments and awards, Program statistics, and the LDRD portfolio-management processes. Project Reports. Project reports are submitted by all principal investigators at the end of the fiscal year. The length and depth of the report depends on the project’s lifecycle. For projects that will be continuing the following year, the principal investigator submits a continuing project report, which is a brief update containing descriptions of the goals, scope, motivation, relevance (to DOE/NNSA and Livermore mission areas), and technical progress achieved in FY16, as well as a list of selected publications and presentations that resulted from the research. For projects that concluded in FY16, a more detailed final report is provided that is technical in nature and includes the background, objectives, scientific approach, accomplishments, and impacts on the Laboratory missions, as well as a list of publications and presentations that resulted from the research. Project reports are listed under their research topics and organized by year and type, such as exploratory research (ER), feasibility study (FS), laboratory-wide competition (LW), and strategic initiative (SI). Each project is assigned a unique tracking code, an identifier that consists of three elements. The first is the fiscal year in which the project began, the second represents the project type, and the third identifies the serial number of the project for that fiscal year. For example, 16-ERD-100 means the project is an exploratory research project that began in FY16. The three-digit number (100) represents the serial number for the project.
A broad description of the LDRD Program, highlights of accomplishments and awards for the year, program statistics, and the LDRD portfolio-management process.
Research in the area of nuclear structure and reactions, with an emphasis on ab initio approaches, was been conducted under base research funding (FWP SCW0498) and the Topical Collaboration (TC) “DBD: Nuclear Theory for Double-Beta Decay and Fundamental Symmetries” (FWP SCW1579). New funding under FWP SCW0498 in FY19 was $130k and, which augmented carryover from the previous year, which was primarily intended to fund an FRIB Theory Fellow. In the period covered by this review, we generated 9 publications (including a Letter, two submissions to Nature, and an invited review paper), and 3 invited talks. In the following we highlight the most important accomplishments.
This CRADA will enable cooperation between Ohio State University (OSU) and a collective led by the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), with the goal of facilitating the accelerated commercialization of OSU’s iron-based chemical looping process through advanced modeling and state-of-the-art optimization techniques. OSU will provide data for model development and validation, while NETL and collaborators through the Institute for the Design of Advanced Energy Systems (IDAES) will develop advanced high-fidelity optimization-based system models. The project will use data collected primarily from OSU’s bench scale and sub pilot scale facilities and will be supplemented by data collected from the open literature. Models representative of chemical looping combustion or gasification using either coal or natural gas as fuel are considered in scope. Specific tasks will include 1) development of physical property sub-models, 2) development of steady-state and dynamic 1 st principles models of the novel gas solid contactor technologies being developed by OSU, and 3) superstructure and parametric optimization of a full chemical looping process by leveraging the large-scale optimization capabilities being developed by IDAES. This collaboration will provide a greater fundamental understanding of the OSU chemical looping process, will help to improve the overall process economics, and will thus enable a greater probability of commercial success. It will provide IDAES with the opportunity to validate, demonstrate, and further develop its toolset through a real-world practical demonstration.
The San Joaquin kit fox (Vulpes macrotis mutica) historically occupied a large range in the San Joaquin Valley, California; however, their populations and habitat have since been significantly reduced by human impacts. More than 95% of the potential habitat for kit foxes on the San Joaquin Valley floor has been converted to irrigated agriculture, urbanized, or industrialized. The San Joaquin kit fox was listed as endangered by the USFWS in 1967 and as threatened by the State of California in 1971. In 2018, Working Dogs for Conservation (WD4C) was contracted by LLNS to provide professional conservation detection dog teams to survey for scats of San Joaquin kit fox on Site 300 and the neighboring California Department of Fish and Wildlife's Corral Hollow Ecological Reserve. The purpose of the surveys was to obtain updated information on kit fox presence on these properties.
Project 1: Our previous work demonstrated that the CES biomarker can be an approximate measure for the levels of chromosomal instability (CIN) in cancer, and that the CES (for Centromere and kinetochore gene Expression Score) biomarker effectively predicts which cancer patients benefit from adjuvant chemotherapies in lung and other cancer types. Such a utility can potentially reduce overtreatment that is common in lung cancer treatment. We determined performance of the multiplex Quantigene RNA assay platform for measuring mRNA levels of CES genes using clinical tumor samples. These experiments determined sensitivity, specificity and detection limit of 12 CES genes and 5 control genes using clinical tumor samples with paired normal tissue samples. We determined how sample concentration and storage conditions affect measurement sensitivity and specificity, and whether sample storage over time affects result reproducibility. Importantly, we confirmed that early stage lung cancer CES values are significantly higher than those of paired normal tissues in all cases. This result greatly extended our bioinformatic data mining by confirming that we can measure CES values directly from patient tumor tissue, and that tumors have higher CES values than normal tissues. Unfortunately, our CRADA partner in China did not finish measuring CES expression levels for a larger group of ~100 tumor samples, due to the long period time required for human subject review in China. This delay prevented us from generating enough additional data to generate a significant statistical model. We finished analyzing all the data acquired during the CRADA, and are trying to work collaboratively with the Shanghai University Lung Cancer Hospital to complete the analysis of more tumor samples. Although no publications have resulted from this research, the findings are crucial for ongoing efforts to obtain funding to develop the technology to address problems in deciding on appropriate treatment regimens for individual patients, in clinical settings. Project 2: The overarching milestones of CRADA Project 2 were to investigate the role of FAM83 family members in cancer progression. Two publications resulted from this work which are highlighted below. The first major goal of the CRADA was to broadly assess the role of FAM83 family oncogenes in human cancer using a multi-omic bioinformatic approach (Snijders et al 2017 Mol. Oncol 11). The second major goal was to specifically assess the role of FAM83D in a cancer progression and metastasis (Yin et al 2019 Cell Oncol; in revision). Role of FAM83 family oncogenes in human cancers Recent studies from our laboratory as well as other groups have demonstrated that FAM83 family members have oncogenic properties and have significantly elevated expression levels in multiple human tumor types, including breast cancers (BC). We performed an integrative multi-omics bio-informatic analysis of the role of FAM83 family oncogenes in human cancers. Our findings were published in the journal Molecular Oncology (Snijders et al; Mol Oncol. 2017 Feb;11(2):167-179). Highlights from this manuscript are: • Transcriptional levels of FAM83 family members are frequently and dramatically elevated across tumor types in human • DNA copy number increase appears to be a potential mechanism for increased expression of FAM83 genes • FAM83 family gene signature is associated with poor survival across human tumor types • FAM83 gene alterations are significantly correlated with TP53, PIK3CA and Ecadherin mutations. In conclusion, this analysis of FAM83 family members opened up a new horizon for further understanding the significance of FAM83 genes in cancer and clinical applications in diagnosis, prognosis and therapy. Role of FAM83D in human non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) metastasis and its impact on chemotherapy. Lung cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors in the world and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for 80~85% of all diagnosed lung cancer cases, one of the deadliest cancers worldwide. FAM83D has been proposed as an oncoprotein in several types of human cancer, yet its role and molecular mechanism in human non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) metastasis and its impact on chemotherapy are poorly understood. We evaluated the expression of FAM83D in NSCLC cells and cancerous tissues and its prognostic significance, then investigated the effect of FAM83D on tumorigenic phenotypes such as cell proliferation, EMT and invasive capability, and finally assessed impact of FAM83D on NSCLC chemo-drug resistance. The results of this study are currently in revision at the journal Cellular Oncology. Highlights from this manuscript are: • FAM83D expression is elevated in NSCLC cells and tissues and associated with poor prognosis • FAM83D promotes NSCLC cell proliferation • FAM83D induces EMT in NSCLC cells • FAM83D promotes NSCLC cell migration and invasion • FAM83D promotes EMT and invasive capability of NSCLC cells by regulating AKT/mTOR pathway • FAM83D silencing increases cisplatin sensitivity of NSCLC cells In summary, this second study demonstrated for the first time that FAM83D promoted EMT and metastasis of NSCLC cells through AKT/mTOR signal pathway as well as increased the sensitivity of NSCLC to cisplatin. This study may provide potential targets for advanced NSCLC treatment and personalized therapy.
Purpose: Provide data from a water run of the LLNL tissue digestor to confirm operational status for possible extension of Medical Waste permit, since the annual recertification maintenance and testing could not take place due to the shelter-in-place of the tissue digester vendor who is located outside of California. This is a unique medical waste device and the vendor who certifies our other medical waste equipment (permitted autoclaves), does not service the tissue digester.
Purpose: Provide data from a water run of the LLNL tissue digester to confirm operational status for possible extension of Medical Waste permit, since the annual recertification maintenance and testing could not take place due to the shelter-in-place of the tissue digester vendor who is located outside of California. This is a unique medical waste device and the vendor who certifies our other medical waste equipment (permitted autoclaves), does not service the tissue digester.
Purpose: Provide data from a water run of the LLNL tissue digester to confirm operational status for possible extension of Medical Waste permit, since the annual recertification maintenance and testing could not take place due to the shelter-in-place of the tissue digester vendor who is located outside of California. This is a unique medical waste device and the vendor who certifies our other medical waste equipment (permitted autoclaves), does not service the tissue digester.
Purpose: Provide data from a water run of the LLNL tissue digester to confirm operational status for possible extension of Medical Waste permit, since the annual recertification maintenance and testing could not take place due to the shelter-in-place of the tissue digester vendor who is located outside of California. This is a unique medical waste device and the vendor who certifies our other medical waste equipment (permitted autoclaves), does not service the tissue digester.
Abstract not provided.
The San Joaquin kit fox (Vulpes macrotis mutica) historically occupied an extensive range in the San Joaquin Valley, California; however, their populations and habitat have since been significantly reduced by human impacts (United States Fish and Wildlife Service [USFWS] 1998). More than 95% of the potential habitat for kit foxes on the San Joaquin Valley floor has been converted to irrigated agriculture, urbanized, or industrialized lands. The San Joaquin kit fox was listed as endangered by the USFWS in 1967 and as threatened by the State of California in 1971. Records from local surveys, research projects, and incidental sightings indicate the present distribution of kit foxes extends from 1) southern Kern County north to Contra Costa, Alameda, and San Joaquin counties on the west side of the valley and to Stanislaus County on the east side; 2) into some of the larger, uncultivated valley-floor land parcels in Kern, Tulare, Kings, Fresno, Madera, and Merced counties; and 3) westward within 5 counties in the interior coastal range (USFWS 1998). Kit foxes have been denoted to occur in 3 geographically distinct core and several satellite populations in a heavily fragmented landscape, with the largest extant populations concentrated in the southern part of the range and smaller populations and isolated sightings in the central and northern portions (USFWS 1998, 2010).
This document meets the reporting requirements of LLNL’s California Endangered Species Act Scientific, Educational, or Management Permit (No. 2081 (a)-15-005-RP) for 2018. Section A describes monitoring and field activities conducted by LLNL biologists at the Site 300 native and experimental populations and the Carnegie Canyon native population of the federally-endangered plant, Amsinckia grandiflora (the large-flowered fiddleneck), between January 2018 and December 2018. In addition, monitoring and field activities conducted by LLNL biologists at the Site 300 native populations of the rare plants Eschscholzia rhombipetala (the diamond-petaled California poppy) and Blepharizonia plumosa (the big tarplant) between January 2018 and December 2018 are described in Sections B and C, respectively. Both plants have a California Rare Plant Rank (CRPR) of 1B, which includes species that are rare or endangered throughout their range. California macrophylla (the round-leaved filaree), formerly had a CRPR of 1B, but was downgraded to CBR (Considered But Rejected) in December 2017, as the species was “too common statewide: counties that contain small, localized populations under severe threat should track C. macrophylla as a species of local concern” (California Native Plant Society, 2018). As C. macrophylla is widespread at Site 300 (Carlsen and Paterson, 2018), 2018 will be the final year of monitoring C. macrophylla at Site 300, the results of which are described in Section D. Monitoring of the Navarretia nigelliformis ssp. radians (adobe navarretia), a CRPR 1B species, is planned, and results will be included in future reports.
The purpose of this report is to document several use cases of the Ultra-Fast Closure Valve System (UCVS) at the Joint Actinide Shock Physics Experimental Research (JASPER) facility. The goal is to clearly identify the use cases so that an explosive hazard classification may be assigned.