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In a report with important implications for the future of Argonne-West, a national panel of scientists gave a thumbs-up to continued use of an Argonne technology for treating spent nuclear fuel.
The National Research Council has been reviewing the progress of the electrometallurgical treatment program for the past three years, and issued its final report April 18. The group, made up mostly of university and national laboratory scientists, concluded that Argonne has met all the criteria established for the program, and that "no technical barrier" exists to further use of the technology.
"This is a very important report for Argonne's future," said John Sackett, deputy associate laboratory director for Argonne-West.
"All the decisions about whether to use this technology to treat the remainder of our spent fuel have hinged on whether this review is favorable. Well, it is; it's very positive, and shows that the technology is successful. Now the Department of Energy can go ahead with its decision with confidence that the technical questions have been answered."
The Department of Energy is in the concluding stages of preparing an environmental impact statement to guide a decision about further use of electrometallurgical treatment technology. It has studied the environmental impacts of several options for treatment of Argonne's spent nuclear fuel, but has been waiting for the NRC report before making its final decision.
The action also is significant beyond Argonne because the Settlement Agreement between the State of Idaho and DOE requires all DOE spent fuel, including that at Argonne, to be out of the state by 2035. In the case of Argonne's fuel, treatment to stabilize it will be necessary before it can leave the state, Sackett said.
"We're very pleased with this report, but we are not surprised," said Bob Benedict (NT), who has been heading up the program. "We have been receiving quarterly reviews for the past three years, so we have had a very good understanding of the panel's questions and concerns and we have addressed them as we have gone along. Our people have done a superb job every step of the way."
Electrometallurgical treatment is a technology Argonne developed to treat a specific kind of nuclear fuel after it has been in the reactor. This is a metallic fuel and is bonded with elemental sodium, which is chemically reactive with air and water. Because of this, the fuel has to be treated to remove and neutralize the sodium before it can be disposed of in the ground.
The treatment process converts the sodium into sodium chloride, common table salt, and seals the radioactive materials in a ceramic that is impervious to air and water. The report cites the expected performance of this ceramic under repository conditions as "comparable to that of borosilicate high-level waste glass."
The panel also recommended that the Department of Energy consider this technology for expanded use beyond sodium-bonded metallic fuel, suggesting the Department "seriously consider" converting oxide fuel into a metallic form during manufacture. This would allow electrometallurgical treatment to be used as an alternative to current fuel management technologies.
-- Paul Pugmire
A new facility at Argonne-East, the Heavy-Duty Truck Engine Test Cell, is dedicated to reducing particulate emissions from diesel engines.
Executives from research partners Caterpillar, Inc. and the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Heavy Vehicle Technologies were on hand April 13 to open this new addition to the Powertrain and Emissions Research Facility.
The new test cell is equipped with state-of-the-art instruments to measure gas and particulate (soot) emissions. Researchers will use these instruments to study the effects of injecting air or oxygen-enriched air in the late stages of the combustion cycle to cut emissions.
The research is part of a three-year, $1.2 million cooperative research and development agreement between Argonne, Caterpillar and DOE. It is a part of Argonne's ongoing research to substantially cut diesel engine emissions.
Diesel engine makers and the government are eager to improve diesel engine emissions before new regulations go into effect in 2004.
"We now know that air handling is as important as fuel injection when it comes to improving diesel engine emissions," said Jim Eberhardt, director of DOE's Office of Heavy Vehicle Technologies.
"We appreciate being close to such a valuable facility and combining our talents to answer these important questions related to cleaner diesel engines," said Jim Sibley, assistant director of research at the Peoria, Ill.-based Caterpillar.
The engine research is based on earlier Argonne engine technology with patents pending. Researchers developed a control process that reduces soot emissions in diesel engines without increasing nitrogen oxide (NOx) formation. NOx is a precursor to ozone and contributes significantly to smog.
"The challenge has always been to divorce the two problems from each other. Typically when you reduce NOx, you increase particulates; and when you reduce particulates, you increase NOx," explained Harvey Drucker, associate laboratory director for Energy and Environmental Science and Technology.
Injecting air or oxygen-enriched air into the combustion chamber late in the combustion cycle promotes oxidation -- burning up -- of particles as they form. Also, NOx formation occurs early in combustion, so adding air or oxygen-enriched air afterward does not increase NOx.
Researchers used computer simulation models in the first component of the project. "The computational fluid dynamics models show that the angle, timing and pressure of the air or oxygen-enriched air addition is critical to the performance," said Ramesh Poola (ES), the mechanical engineer who developed this engine-control regime. "They also show that the composition of the oxygen in the air is less critical than we thought," explained Doug Longman (ES), Poola's research colleague.
Argonne engineers will refine the model to explore the effects of injection angle, timing, pressure, quantity and composition of air on particulate emissions. Future simulations and research will evaluate changing the location of the injector, and extending the model to a small-bore, high-speed, compression-ignition, direct-injection engine.
-- Evelyn Brown
Guest speaker Laura Grigus Leli will ask participants to "Enjoy the Journey" at a buffet breakfast honoring Argonne's administrative professionals Wednesday, April 26.
Breakfast will begin at 8 a.m. in the Argonne-East Building 213 Cafeteria. Leli's talk will begin at 8:45 a.m.
Leli is a full professor and chairs the marketing department at Lewis University, Romeoville. She is also a corporate trainer for several global businesses, including Andersen Consulting, Franklin-Covey, Arthur Andersen and others.
Her training topics include leadership, team development, effective presentations, time management, facilitating meetings and creating balance.
Argonne's 13th annual "Science Careers in Search of Women" conference will be held Friday, May 5, bringing hundreds of high school girls to explore careers in science or technology and meet women scientists and engineers.
Mathematician Lisette G. dePillis (MCS), one of this year's winners of the Maria Goeppert Mayer Distinguished Scholar award, will be the keynote speaker. Her areas of expertise include numerical analysis and applied mathematics, and she has a great interest in applying math to real-life scientific problems.
Students will attend one of two panel discussions in the morning: "Having a Science Career and Having A Life" and "College and Beyond." Both sessions will feature Argonne employees and employees of other technological and scientific organizations.
Some employers represented include the University of Illinois at Chicago, Lucent Technologies, ABC Pediatrics, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
After the morning panel, students will group together by their area of interest and have lunch with a woman scientist in that area, providing an opportunity for one-on-one conversation. After lunch, students can tour up to 15 different laboratories or departments at Argonne-East and visit career booths in Building 402.
Maryka Bhattacharyya (BIO), Argonne's current Women in Science and Technology program initiator and coordinator of this year's conference, will provide closing remarks in an "End of Day Round-up."
Up to 50 schools have participated in previous years, and student attendance has reached 400.
The career fair is sponsored by Argonne's Office of the Director, the Division of Educational Programs, and the Educational Outreach Program of the Science and Technology Center for Superconductivity.
Auditions for the Argonne Club Variety Show have been rescheduled for Thursday, April 27, at 5 p.m. in Argonne-East's Building 362 Auditorium. For more information, contact Jessie McHenry (OPA) at ext. 2-5545.
The laboratory's retirement vendors will send representatives to Argonne-East, where they will meet one-on-one with employees to answer questions about retirement plans and retirement plan assets.
To schedule an appointment, call the number listed. Prudential appointments are for one-half hour each.
| Vendor | Day | For Appointments, call: |
| Prudential | Wednesday,
May 3, 10, and 17 |
Cheryl (847) 619-3519 |
| Fidelity | Tuesday, May 9 and 16 | Appointment Desk (800) 642-7131 |
| TIAA-CREF | Thursday, May 18,
and Friday, May 19 |
(800) 842-2005 |
"Implementing a Project at Argonne," a workshop offered by Human Resources, will help participants navigate the requirements and special regulations affecting project management at the laboratory. The workshop will also detail the project management support available at Argonne.
Through a hypothetical project, participants will learn about the lead times required for various milestones, costs and compliance requirements.
The workshop is applicable to anyone responsible for a project at Argonne, whether it's a small project involving the renovation of an existing space or a major project requiring construction.
The free, half-day workshop is scheduled for Friday, May 5, from 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. in Argonne-East's Building 212, Room A157. Course instruction is provided by employees of Plant Facilities and Services, Environment, Safety and Health, Procurement and the Office of the Chief Financial Officer.
Contact Betty Iwan (HR) at ext. 2-3410 or a division Training Management System representative to enroll.
