FFTF implementation of training requirments for government owned facilities

The Fst Flux Facility (FFTF) is a liquid metal cooled, fast flux reactor plant. It is owned by the Department of Energy (DOE) and is operated by the Hanford Engineering Development Laboratory (HEDL) under a DOE contract with Westinghouse Hanford Company. The FFTF is presently undergoing acceptance testing of sodium systems in preparation for initial criticality in August 1979. It will be used to test fuels and materials, to develop associated components and to gain operating experience for future LMFBR's. The FFTF Training Program is a specific example of how training guidelines provided by NRC can be implemented in principle in a DOE owned reactor. The DOE requirements for government owned facilities and the NRC requirements for commercially owned facilities are compared to components of the FFTF Training program. These components will be described, actual status provided and evaluated as to meeting requirements. Cold Plant Qualification (equivalent to NRC Col Plant Licensing) is the next major milestone for FFTF Operator training. Additional requirements or constraints such as operator time utilization, recruiting and turnover, plant availbility and startup testing greatly affect the ability to meet this milestone. These constraints and requirements and the resulting compromises will be evaluated relative to meeting DOE requirements

Predicting subsurface sonar observations with satellite-derived ocean surface data in the California Current Ecosystem

Vessel-based sonar systems that focus on the water column provide valuable information on the distribution of underwater marine organisms, but such data are expensive to collect and limited in their spatiotemporal coverage. Satellite data, however, are widely available across large regions and provide information on surface ocean conditions. If satellite data can be linked to subsurface sonar measurements, it may be possible to predict marine life over broader spatial regions with higher frequency using satellite observations. Here, we use random forest models to evaluate the potential for predicting a sonar-derived proxy for subsurface biomass as a function of satellite imagery in the California Current Ecosystem. We find that satellite data may be useful for prediction under some circumstances, but across a range of sonar frequencies and depths, overall model performance was low. Performance in spatial interpolation tasks exceeded performance in spatial and temporal extrapolation, suggesting that this approach is not yet reliable for forecasting or spatial extrapolation. We conclude with some potential limitations and extensions of this work. &nbsp;</p

Dalhart post shot investigation

The nuclear test Dalhart, U4u, was executed at a depth of 2100 ft on October 13, 1988. This test has multiple radioactive isotopes or fission products associated with it and knowledge of the distribution of these isotopes is desirable for the Nuclear Test Program. A slant post shot hole was drilled in late August 1990 to sample the geologic material from the collapsed zone or chimney above Dalhart. This 9 7/8 inch borehole was drilled at approximately 19 degrees from the vertical toward the Dalhart executive depth. This borehole started at approximately 734 ft due south of the Dalhart event. Drilling circulation was lost at a slant depth of 1030 ft (980 ft True Vertical Depth, TVD). Drilling was completed to 2280 ft (2156 ft TVD). The water level was encountered at a depth of 1063 ft (1513 ft TVD). A Halliburton 1 11/16 in diameter TracerScan gamma-ray-spectroscopy log was run inside the drill string at a speed of 10 ft/min. Spectra were obtained from TD to the surface. Radioactive material produced by the test was present from TD to 1850 ft (1746 ft TVD). Spectra were acquired at .025 ft depth intervals and averages recorded digitally every ten ft and thirty ft were displayed on the blue line log together with the total observed gamma ray and casing collar locater signal. Also a DOE high intensity gamma log was run by Atlas Wireline Services from TD to the surface. This log did not detect any radioactive activity in the hole. The gamma-ray photo peaks on the spectroscopy log were used to determine the depths for sampling with the Hunt sidewall sampling tool. Eleven samples were acquired from the depth interval 2212 ft to 1823 ft (2089 to 1721 ft TVD). None of these samples contained enough activity to be measured with normal drillback survey instruments. 7 refs., 8 figs., 3 tabs

Better Together: Early Career Aquatic Scientists Forge New Connections at Eco‐DAS XV

A sense of kuleana (personal responsibility) in caring for the land and sea. An appreciation for laulima (many hands cooperating). An understanding of aloha 'āina (love of the land). The University of Hawai'i at Manoa hosted the 2023 Ecological Dissertations in Aquatic Sciences (Eco-DAS) program, which fostered each of these intentions by bringing together a team of early career aquatic ecologists for a week of networking and collaborative, interdisciplinary project developmen