Science and Technology Review, March 1996
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SP ^ * i£ ^m The safe, long-term disposal of nuclear waste has been a concern of Laboratory scientists for many years. The artist's rendering on this month's cover shows one concept of a nuclear waste repository deep within the earth, complete with a remotely controlled storage and retrieval system, multiple storage chambers, and waste packaging systems to protect the environment from radioactive contamination. The article beginning on p. 6 reports on Laboratory work on the engineered barrier system at the heart of the planned repository. Dating from 1977, this work has focused on testing and selecting materials for the manmade waste package as well as on modeling the long-term interactions of the waste and the waste package with the near-field geological environment to assure the safety of human life and the environment for 10,000 years. We want to know what you think of our publication. Please use the enclosed survey form to give us your feedback. Electronic Access S&TR is available on the Internet at http://www.llnl.gov/str/str.html. As references become available on the Internet, they will be interactively linked to the footnote references at the end of each article. If you desire more detailed information about an article, click on any reference that is in color at the end of the article, and you will connect automatically with the reference. About the Review The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, operated by the University of California for the United States Department of Energy, was established in 1952 to do research on nuclear weapons and magnetic fusion energy. Science and Technology Review (formerly Energy and Technology Review) is published monthly to communicate, to a broad audience, the Laboratory's scientific and technological accomplishments, particularly in the Laboratory's core mission areas—global security, energy and the environment, and bioscience and biotechnology. The publication's goal is to help readers understand these accomplishments and appreciate their value to the individual citizen, the nation, and the world. Please address any correspondence (including name and address changes) to S&TR, Mail Stop L-664, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, California 94551, or telephone (510) 422-8961. S&TR is also available on the Internet at http://www.llnl.gov/str/str.html, and our electronic mail address is [email protected]. DISCLAIMER Portions of this document may be illegible in electronic image products. Images are produced from the best available original document S&TR Staff Science March 1996 Lawrence SCIENTIFIC EDITOR Livermore Becky Failor National Laboratory PUBLICATION EDITOR lechnolosy Dean Wheatcraft REVIEW u; WRITERS Kevin Gleason, Robert D. Kirvel, Jeff Sketchley, Dale Sprouse, 2 The Laboratory in the News Katie Walter, and Dean Wheatcraft 4 Commentary on Industrial Ecology ART DIRECTOR Ray Marazzi Features DESIGNERS 6 The Safe Disposal of Nuclear Waste George Kitrinos and Ray Marazzi A system of multiple engineered and geological barriers deep within the earth may contain the nation's accumulating stores of radioactive nuclear waste. GRAPHIC ARTISTS Treva Carey, Paul Harding, and Kathryn Tinsley 17 The Diamond Anvil Cell: Probing the Behavior of Metals under Ultrahigh Pressures COMPOSITOR The Laboratory's diamond anvil cell can compress tiny samples of weapons- Louisa Cardoza related materials to ultrahigh pressures equal to those at the center of the Earth, allowing researchers to study changes in the properties of these PROOFREADERS Jill Sprinkle and materials that can affect weapons performance. Catherine M. Williams Research Highlight 28 Getting Along without Gasoline—The Move to Hydrogen Fuel S&TR is produced by the Technical 32 Patents Information Department as a service for the Director's Office. Abstracts Printed in the United States of America Available from National Technical Information Service U.S. Department of Commerce Page 17 5285 Port Royal Road Springfield, Virginia 22161 UCRL-52000-96-3 Distribution Category UC-700 March 1996 This publication is a continuation of Page 6 Energy and Technology Review. Page 28 a n ° ***rm«i>mooeumtt UNLfMmEO MASTER 2 Detailed: design begins on NIF powerful lasers, a copper/dye laser at Livermore that is part of Detailed engineering design is now under way on the the AVLIS (Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation) facility. National Ignition Facility, a proposed 192-beam laser system Contact: Herb Friedman (510) 422-2257 ([email protected]). that President Bill Clinton and Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary have cited as a key tool for stewardship of the nation's nuclear Lab evaluates new environmental technologies weapons stockpile. When operational, NTF will be able to Under an agreement between the Laboratory and the provide data on high temperature and density processes in California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA), nuclear weapons that had previously been available only through Livermore's scientists and engineers are helping the state nuclear testing. This data will be used to evaluate changes in evaluate new environmental technologies in hazardous stockpiled weapons due to aging or remanufacture and to verify waste management, site cleanup, waste minimization, and computer models that predict weapon reliability. pollution prevention. Earlier this year, the Laboratory signed a contract with Signed December 5, 1995, the Memorandum of Agreement Ralph M. Parsons, the architecture and engineering firm chosen provides the state with the services of skilled Lab personnel to work on design of the facility. Also signed was a Master and unique Lab facilities to assess new environmental Task Agreement for engineering services with four firms: technologies seeking certification under California's SAIC, TRW, Physics International, and Westinghouse. Environmental Technology Certification Program. The next milestone for NIF will come in August or early James M. Strock, California Secretary for Environmental September, with completion of the environment impact Protection, said his agency "sought the services of the assessment process and formal selection of a site for NIF. The Lab because it has highly qualified, specialized, unique, Laboratory was designated in 1994 as the preferred site for and independent expertise not available in the public or the facility. private sector." Contact: Bill Hogan (510) 422-1344 ([email protected]). In 1993, the state created the California Environmental Technology Partnership to promote research, development, Lab, French researchers team on guide star studies commercialization, and export of California-based Lab scientists collaborated with French researchers in January environmental technology, goods, and services. The to create a powerful laser guide star in the late night skies over Environmental Technology Certification Program was Livermore. The purpose of this series of experiments was to established to provide one-stop scientific and engineering refine the use of guide star technology for astronomical evaluation of new technologies to encourage their observation. development and speed their acceptance. Laser guide stars are used in conjunction with adaptive Contact: Richard Ragaini (510) 423-8877 ([email protected]). optics to counteract atmospheric distortion and give astronomers a clear view of the heavens. The laser creates an Lab scientists probe properties of iron at Earth's core artificial star in the upper atmosphere. A deformable mirror that Using the heating power of a laser and the force of a adjusts 50 times per second compensates for constantly diamond anvil, Lab scientists are studying the properties of iron changing atmospheric conditions. It is Unked by computer to the at the center of the Earth. By firing a laser beam at iron image of the guide star. When the adaptive optics system compressed in a diamond anvil cell, researchers hope to learn "focuses" the guide star to a sharp image, the other heavenly with greater precision than before how iron behaves at the bodies in the telescope's field of view can be seen clearly extremely high temperatures and pressures at the Earth's center. without atmospheric turbulence. The new method has allowed scientists for the first time to Pioneering work by Livermore scientists and others over the determine the melting curve of iron directly by x-ray last few years has generally focused on a single wavelength diffraction in situ at high pressure and temperature conditions. beam. The French experiment involved a dual-frequency beam Results of the team's experiments have potential industrial (569 and 589 nanometers) and used one of the world's most applications for the synthesis of new advanced materials, as well as implications for nuclear weapons work. Science & Technology Review March 1996 The Laboratory in the News 3 Previous estimates were based on computer models of core Aerophysics Directorate, chief of the Numerical conditions, making the melting curve of iron a "highly Aerodynamic Simulation Systems Division, and, most controversial issue," according to Choong-Shik Yoo, principal recently, director of Information Systems. investigator on the core team. "People have been studying this Shotts joined Livermore in 1974 and has held positions as for 30 to 40 years," he says, "but only now are scientists nuclear weapon designer and group, program, and division looking at crystal structures at extreme temperatures and leader. Prior to his selection as AD, he was the principal deputy pressures. This leaves open the