Chemical Engineering Division waste management programs. Quarterly report, April--June 1975

Consolidation techniques for Zircaloy fuel-cladding hulls were studied. They included (1) further work on a pyrochemical-volatility scheme for separating the zirconium as the volatile tetrachloride and (2) ignition tests and shock- ignition tests on several Zircaloy materials to further characterize the pyrophoric behavior of Zircaloy and the impact on hulls management. Quantitative results on the reaction with molten zinc chloride are presented. A series of steel-melting experiments examined the compatibility of various crucible materials with the molten steel and provided information on the behavior (distribution) of CeO$sub 2$ and UO$sub 2$ (used as stand-ins for PuO$sub 2$). Examination of existing information on deep-well injection of industrial wastes and on low-level aqueous wastes from fuel reprocessing led to the conclusions that the technology is generally available from industrial practice, that costs are of the order of 10$sup -4$ mill/kWh, that environmental effects could be insignificant in normal operation (but could include contamination of groundwater and resources and also stimulation of minor earthquakes in maloperation), that legal constraints may be the most significant barrier to adopting the practice, and that the site of such an operation would best be at a fuel reprocessing plant located at one of the U. S. sedimentary basins. The conclusions and recommendations from a study of the reliability of high-level-waste canisters are presented. (auth

Argonne National Laboratory Reports

The reliability of stainless steel type 304L canisters for the containment of solidified high-level radioactive wastes in the glass and calcine forms was studied. A reference system, drawn largely from information furnished by Battelle Northwest Laboratories and Atlantic Richfield Hanford Company is described. Operations include filling the canister with the appropriate waste form, interim storage at a reprocessing plant, shipment in water to a Retrievable Surface Storage Facility (RSSF), interim storage at the RSSF, and shipment to a final disposal facility

SPRAY FLUORINATION OF FUSED SALT AS A URANIUM RECOVERY PROCESS. A PRELIMINARY FEASIBILITY STUDY

Spray fluorination may be used to recover uranium as the volatile hexafluoride from molten fluorides by spraying the salt into a fluorine atmosphere. This dropwise liquid fused-salt fluoride volatility process applied to zirconiummatrix fuels, with the possible advantage of avoiding corrosive conditions involved in sparging. Experimental equipment was developed and tests were made for heat and mass transfer. From the data obtained, process design calculations indicated that a satisfactory equipment design is possible. (auth

Emerging technologies for sustainable irrigation: Selected papers from the 2015 ASABE and IA irrigation symposium

Citation: Lamm, F. R., Stone, K. C., Dukes, M. D., Howell, T. A., Sr., Robbins, J. W. D., Jr., & Mecham, B. Q. (2016). Emerging technologies for sustainable irrigation: Selected papers from the 2015 ASABE and IA irrigation symposium. Transactions of the Asabe, 59(1), 155-161. doi:10.13031/trans.59.11706This article is an introduction to the "Emerging Technologies in Sustainable Irrigation: A Tribute to the Career of Terry Howell, Sr." Special Collection in this issue of Transactions of the ASABE and the next issue of Applied Engineering in Agriculture, consisting of 16 articles selected from 62 papers and presentations at the joint irrigation symposium of ASABE and the Irrigation Association (IA), which was held in November 2015 in Long Beach, California. The joint cooperation on irrigation symposia between ASABE and IA can be traced back to 1970, and this time period roughly coincides with the career of Dr. Howell. The cooperative symposia have offered an important venue for discussion of emerging technologies that can lead to sustainable irrigation. This most recent symposium is another point on the continuum. The articles in this Special Collection address three major topic areas: evapotranspiration measurement and determination, irrigation systems and their associated technologies, and irrigation scheduling and water management. While these 16 articles are not inclusive of all the important advances in irrigation since 1970, they illustrate that continued progress occurs by combining a recognition of the current status with the postulation of new ideas to advance our understanding of irrigation engineering and science. The global food and water challenges will require continued progress from our portion of the scientific community. This article serves to introduce and provide a brief summary of the Special Collection. © 2016 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers

Chemical Engineering Division waste management programs. Quarterly report, January--March 1975

Development work on the study of consolidation techniques for Zircaloy fuel-cladding hulls included scouting tests on volatility schemes for separating the zirconium as the volatile tetrachloride and ignition tests on several Zircaloy materials to further characterize the pyrophoric behavior of Zircaloy. All tests were with nonirradiated metal pending acquisition of irradiated samples. Installation is nearly complete of a glovebox facility for studies on the salvage of alpha-contaminated metals by pyrochemical methods. Disposal of a major portion of fission product tritium formed in light water reactor fuels by deep- well injection of the low-level aqueous waste from plants reprocessing such fuels is being evaluated. The question of siting is a very important factor in determining the feasibility of this particular disposal option. A review is given of the status of information for U. S. sedimentary basins, the areas most likely to be generally suitable for siting of waste wells. Work on the reliability of high-level-waste canisters included an examination of creep, shot- peening, and subcooling of the filler canister below storage temperatures, as methods of relieving stresses induced in canisters due to differential contraction of canister and glass during cooling. A method was investigated for relieving stresses in calcine-filled canisters. Properties of fission product oxides were examined to elucidate possible adverse corrosive effects at the canister-waste interface. (LK

Hybridization interactions between probesets in short oligo microarrays lead to spurious correlations

BACKGROUND: Microarrays measure the binding of nucleotide sequences to a set of sequence specific probes. This information is combined with annotation specifying the relationship between probes and targets and used to make inferences about transcript- and, ultimately, gene expression. In some situations, a probe is capable of hybridizing to more than one transcript, in others, multiple probes can target a single sequence. These 'multiply targeted' probes can result in non-independence between measured expression levels. RESULTS: An analysis of these relationships for Affymetrix arrays considered both the extent and influence of exact matches between probe and transcript sequences. For the popular HGU133A array, approximately half of the probesets were found to interact in this way. Both real and simulated expression datasets were used to examine how these effects influenced the expression signal. It was found not only to lead to increased signal strength for the affected probesets, but the major effect is to significantly increase their correlation, even in situations when only a single probe from a probeset was involved. By building a network of probe-probeset-transcript relationships, it is possible to identify families of interacting probesets. More than 10% of the families contain members annotated to different genes or even different Unigene clusters. Within a family, a mixture of genuine biological and artefactual correlations can occur. CONCLUSION: Multiple targeting is not only prevalent, but also significant. The ability of probesets to hybridize to more than one gene product can lead to false positives when analysing gene expression. Comprehensive annotation describing multiple targeting is required when interpreting array data

Argonne National Laboratory Reports

Report of the Argonne National Laboratory Chemical Engineering Division on fuel-cycle studies including pyro-chemical separation of plutonium and americium oxides from contaminated materials of construction such as steel, advanced solvent extraction techniques in the development of centrifugal contactors for use in Purex processes, and a review and evaluation of the encapsulation of high-level waste in a metal matrix