SUPPLEMENTAL COLUMBIA RIVER PROTECTION ACTIVITIES AT THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY HANFORD SITE 2008 TECHNICAL REVIEW

Beginning in 2006, the US Department of Energy (DOE) supported nine applied research projects to improve the protection of the Columbia River and mitigate the impacts of Hanford Site groundwater. These projects were funded through a supplemental Congressional budget allocation, and are now in various stages of completion in accordance with the research plans. The DOE Office of Environmental Management Groundwater and Soil Cleanup Technologies (EM-22) sponsored a technical peer review meeting for these projects in Richland WA, July 28-31, 2008. The overall objective of the peer review is to provide information to support DOE decisions about the status and potential future application of the various technologies. The charge for the peer review panel was to develop recommendations for each of the nine 'technologies'. Team members for the July 2008 review were Brian Looney, Gene LeBoeuf, Dawn Kaback, Karen Skubal, Joe Rossabi, Paul Deutsch, and David Cocke. Previous project reviews were held in May 2007 and March-May of 2006. The team used the following four rating categories for projects: (a) Incorporate the technology/strategy in ongoing and future EM activities; (b) Finish existing scope of applied research and determine potential for EM activities when research program is finished; (c) Discontinue current development activities and do not incorporate technology/strategy into ongoing and future EM activities unless a significant and compelling change in potential viability is documented; and (d) Supplement original funded work to obtain the data needed to support a DOE decision to incorporate the technology into ongoing and future EM activities. The supplemental funding portfolio included two projects that addressed strontium, five projects that addressed chromium, one project that addressed uranium and one project that addressed carbon tetrachloride. The projects ranged from in situ treatment methods for immobilizing contaminants using chemical-based methods such as phosphate addition, to innovative surface treatment technologies such as electrocoagulation. Total funding for the nine projects was $9,900,000 in fiscal year (FY) 2006 and$2,000,000 in FY 2007. At the Richland meeting, the peer reviewers provided a generally neutral assessment of the projects and overall progress, and a generally positive assessment with regard to the principal investigators meeting their stated research objectives and performing the planned laboratory research and limited field work. Only one project, the Electrocoagulation Treatability Test, received a rating of 'discontinue' from the team because the project goals had not been met. Because this particular project has already ended, no action with respect to funding withdrawal is necessary. All other projects were recommended to be finished and/or incorporated into field efforts at Hanford. Specific technical comments and recommendations were provided by the team for each project

Coherent electronic wave packet motion in c60 controlled by the waveform and polarization of few-cycle laser fields

Strong laser fields can be used to trigger an ultrafast molecular response that involves electronic excitation and ionization dynamics. Here, we report on the experimental control of the spatial localization of the electronic excitation in the C60 fullerene exerted by an intense few-cycle (4 fs) pulse at 720 nm. The control is achieved by tailoring the carrier-envelope phase and the polarization of the laser pulse. We find that the maxima and minima of the photoemission-asymmetry parameter along the laser-polarization axis are synchronized with the localization of the coherent electronic wave packet at around the time of ionization