ANL technical support program for DOE Office of Environmental Management. Annual report, October 1994--September 1995

A program was established for the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) to evaluate factors that are anticipated to affect waste glass reaction during repository disposal, especially in an unsaturated environment typical of what may be expected for the proposed Yucca Mountain repository site. This report covers progress in FY 1995 on the following tasks: (1) Tests are ongoing to evaluate and compare the reactivity of fully radioactive glasses with that of glasses having the same compositions except for the absence of radionuclides under conditions representative of a high-level waste repository environment. Data from these tests will be used to evaluate the effect of radionuclides on the glass corrosion behavior and to determine the disposition of the radionuclides as the glass corrodes. Static dissolution tests and unsaturated tests are being conducted with several Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) and West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) glasses. (2) A series of static dissolution tests is being performed to compare the corrosion behavior of nuclear waste glasses made with SRL 131 and SRL 202 frits at different S/V ratios. The S/V ratio affects the extent to which dissolved glass species are diluted; the solution chemistry then affects continued glass dissolution. The solutions generated in tests at high S/V ratios are conducive to the formation of alteration phases that may be deleterious to the glass. After long time periods, the glass dissolution rates of both glasses increase coincidentally with the formation of analcime and other alteration phases. However, the release of radionuclides from the glasses into solution is controlled by their individual solubilities

Interstellar MHD Turbulence and Star Formation

This chapter reviews the nature of turbulence in the Galactic interstellar medium (ISM) and its connections to the star formation (SF) process. The ISM is turbulent, magnetized, self-gravitating, and is subject to heating and cooling processes that control its thermodynamic behavior. The turbulence in the warm and hot ionized components of the ISM appears to be trans- or subsonic, and thus to behave nearly incompressibly. However, the neutral warm and cold components are highly compressible, as a consequence of both thermal instability in the atomic gas and of moderately-to-strongly supersonic motions in the roughly isothermal cold atomic and molecular components. Within this context, we discuss: i) the production and statistical distribution of turbulent density fluctuations in both isothermal and polytropic media; ii) the nature of the clumps produced by thermal instability, noting that, contrary to classical ideas, they in general accrete mass from their environment; iii) the density-magnetic field correlation (or lack thereof) in turbulent density fluctuations, as a consequence of the superposition of the different wave modes in the turbulent flow; iv) the evolution of the mass-to-magnetic flux ratio (MFR) in density fluctuations as they are built up by dynamic compressions; v) the formation of cold, dense clouds aided by thermal instability; vi) the expectation that star-forming molecular clouds are likely to be undergoing global gravitational contraction, rather than being near equilibrium, and vii) the regulation of the star formation rate (SFR) in such gravitationally contracting clouds by stellar feedback which, rather than keeping the clouds from collapsing, evaporates and diperses them while they collapse.Comment: 43 pages. Invited chapter for the book "Magnetic Fields in Diffuse Media", edited by Elisabete de Gouveia dal Pino and Alex Lazarian. Revised as per referee's recommendation

The Public Repository of Xenografts enables discovery and randomized phase II-like trials in mice

More than 90% of drugs with preclinical activity fail in human trials, largely due to insufficient efficacy. We hypothesized that adequately powered trials of patient-derived xenografts (PDX) in mice could efficiently define therapeutic activity across heterogeneous tumors. To address this hypothesis, we established a large, publicly available repository of well-characterized leukemia and lymphoma PDXs that undergo orthotopic engraftment, called the Public Repository of Xenografts (PRoXe). PRoXe includes all de-identified information relevant to the primary specimens and the PDXs derived from them. Using this repository, we demonstrate that large studies of acute leukemia PDXs that mimic human randomized clinical trials can characterize drug efficacy and generate transcriptional, functional, and proteomic biomarkers in both treatment-naive and relapsed/refractory disease

Physical Processes in Star Formation

© 2020 Springer-Verlag. The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-020-00693-8.Star formation is a complex multi-scale phenomenon that is of significant importance for astrophysics in general. Stars and star formation are key pillars in observational astronomy from local star forming regions in the Milky Way up to high-redshift galaxies. From a theoretical perspective, star formation and feedback processes (radiation, winds, and supernovae) play a pivotal role in advancing our understanding of the physical processes at work, both individually and of their interactions. In this review we will give an overview of the main processes that are important for the understanding of star formation. We start with an observationally motivated view on star formation from a global perspective and outline the general paradigm of the life-cycle of molecular clouds, in which star formation is the key process to close the cycle. After that we focus on the thermal and chemical aspects in star forming regions, discuss turbulence and magnetic fields as well as gravitational forces. Finally, we review the most important stellar feedback mechanisms.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

The reaction of SRL 202 glass in J-13 and DIW

Static leach tests were performed in both 304L stainless steel and Teflon vessels using a synthetic high-level waste glass with either deionized water (DIW) or a tuff groundwater solution as the leachant to assess the effects of the vessel and the initial leachant composition on the extent and nature of the glass reaction. The tests were performed using monolith samples at 340 m{sup {minus}1} and crushed samplesat 2000 m{sup {minus}1} for times up to 1 year. The results show less silicon is released from the glass into the groundwater solution than into DIW at both high and low glass surface area/leachant volume ratios (SAN), but the alkali metal and boron releases are not affected by the leachant used. Tests performed in a stainless steel vessel resulted in slightly lower leachate pH values, but similar reaction rates to those performed in a Teflon vessel, as measured by the boron release. Blank tests with DIW or EJ-13 in the vessels showed the Teflon vessels to release small amounts of fluoride (1 to 2 ppm) and to acidify the DIW slightly (4.0 < pH < 5.6). The pH values of blank tests with EJ- 1 3 increased from 8.2 to about 8.6 in steel and to about 9.2 in Teflon vessels. The slightly higher pH values attained in Teflon vessels are attributed to outgassing of CO{sub 2} during the test

Accelerated glass reaction under PCT conditions

Static leach tests similar to PCT (Product Consistency Test) were performed for up to 2 years to assess long-term reaction behavior of high-level nuclear waste glasses similar to those at Defense Waste Processing Facility. These tests show the reaction rate to decrease with the reaction time from an initially high rate to a low rate, but then to accelerate to a higher rate after reaction times of about 1 year, depending on glass surface area/leachant volume ratio used. Solution concentrations of soluble glass components increase as the reaction is accelerated, while release of other glass components into solution is controlled by secondary phases. Net result is that transformation of glass to stable phases is accelerated while the solution becomes enriched in soluble components not effectively contained in secondary phases. Rate becomes linear in time after the acceleration and may be similar to the initial forward rate. A current model of glass reaction predicts that the glass reaction will be accelerated upon the formation of secondary phases which lower the silicic acid solution concentration. These tests show total Si concentration to increase upon reaction acceleration, however, which may be due to the slightly higher pH attained with the acceleration. The sudden change in the reaction rate is likely due to secondary phase formation. 17 refs, 2 tabs, 3 figs

Disposition of Actinides Released From High-Level Waste Glass

A series of static leach tests was conducted using glasses developed for vitrifying tank wastes at the Savannah River Site to monitor the disposition of actinide elements upon corrosion of the glasses. In these tests, glasses produced from SRL 131 and SRL 202 frits were corroded at 90{degrees}C in a tuff groundwater. Tests were conducted using crushed glass at different glass surface area-to-solution volume (S/V) ratios to assess the effect of the S/V on the solution chemistry, the corrosion of the glass, and the disposition of actinide elements. Observations regarding the effects of the S/V on the solution chemistry and the corrosion of the glass matrix have been reported previously. This paper highlights the solution analyses performed to assess how the S/V used in a static leach test affects the disposition of actinide elements between fractions that are suspended or dissolved in the solution, and retained by the altered glass or other materials