Title: SNS Beam Diagnostics: Ten Years After Commissioning

No abstract prepared.

The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) successfully met the primary construction project completion milestones in April 2006. An important ingredient of this successful commissioning was the development and use of software tools. With the increasing digitalization of beam diagnostics and increasing complexity of Integrated Control Systems of large accelerators, the need for high level software tools is critical for smooth commissioning. At SNS a special Java based infrastructure called XAL was prepared for beam commissioning. XAL provides a hierarchal view of the accelerator, is data base configured, and includes a physics model of the beam. This infrastructure and individual applications developmentmore » along with a historical time line of the SNS commissioning will be discussed.« less

The author believes that environmental regulators and enforcers are out of balance and in urgent need of reform. Since the Republican landslide in Congress in 1994, fundamental regulatory reforms in the environmental protection arena are still being hotly debated within the Washington D.C. power centers. Thus, businesses will possibly continue to be vulnerable to arbitrary and almost irrational enforcement in all areas of environmental regulations.

The Field Lysimeter Investigations: Low-Level Waste Data Base Development Program is obtaining information on the performance of radioactive waste forms. Ion-exchange resins from a commercial nuclear power station were solidified into waste forms using portland cement and vinyl esterstyrene. These waste forms are being tested to: (a) obtain information on performance of waste forms in typical disposal environments, (b) compare field results with bench leach studies, (c) develop a low-level waste data base for use in performance assessment source term calculations, and (d) apply the DUST computer code to compare predicted cumulative release to actual field data. The program, fundedmore » by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), includes observed radionuclide releases from waste forms in field lysimeters. The purpose of this paper is to present the experimental results of two lysimeter arrays over 10 years of operation, and to compare those results to bench test results and to DUST code predicted releases. Further analysis of soil cores taken to define the observed upward migration of radionuclides in one lysimeter is also presented.« less

We have monitored Supernova 1987A in optical/near-infrared bands from a few weeks following its birth until the present time in order to search for a pulsar remnant. We have found an apparent pattern of emission near the frequency of 467.5 Hz - a 2.14 ms pulsar candidate, first detected in data taken on the remnant at the Las Campanas Observatory (LCO) 2.5-m Dupont telescope during 14-16 Feb. 1992 UT. We detected further signals near the 2.14 ms period on numerous occasions over the next four years in data taken with a variety of telescopes, data systems and detectors, at amore » number of ground- and space-based observatories. The sequence of detections of this signal from Feb. `92 through August `93, prior to its apparent subsequent fading, is highly improbable (< 10{sup -10} for any noise source). We also find evidence for modulation of the 2.14 ms period with a {approx}1,000 s period which, when taken with the high spindown of the source (2-3 x 10{sup -10} Hz/s), is consistent with precession and spindown via gravitational radiation of a neutron star with a non- axisymmetric oblateness of {approx}10{sup -6}, and an implied gravitational luminosity exceeding that of the Crab Nebula pulsar by an order of magnitude.« less