Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, August 2010. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on July 21, 2010). "Department of Chemistry." Includes bibliographical references (p. 217-218).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2011. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-132). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1977. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-124). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1978. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 193-197). Also available via the Internet.

No description available.

The financial and environmental costs associated with the manufacture and consumption of products may be reduced through design for efficient production, service life extension and post-consumer value recovery. In response to today’s need to design with consideration for the whole product life cycle, British Standards Institution (BSI) published BS 8887-1 (2006) Design for Manufacture, Assembly, Disassembly and End-of-life processing (MADE). Original research into the distribution and use of this first part of the MADE series is reported in this thesis. The organizations that accessed BS 8887-1 were categorised using their Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code. The results are presented graphically in multilevel charts using the hierarchical structure of the SIC system. The study found that the majority of standards users that purchased or downloaded BS 8887-1 were companies in the manufacturing sector and particularly electronics producers. Educational institutions also showed high levels of interest in the standard. For the first time, the use of BS 8887-1 in practice has been investigated. The purpose was to discover if, why and how it is being used and to identify examples of its application in design practice. This was accomplished through semi-structured interviews with design practitioners from both industry and academia, thus helping to explain the results of the earlier SIC study. The information gathered through the interviews shows how BS 8887-1 has informed the design process and how it has been used in combination with various design and management techniques e.g. Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP). These studies suggest that demand for the standard has been stimulated by the introduction of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation, especially the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive. Importantly, the use of BS 8887-1 has been found to be helpful in winning new business and reducing the costs associated with manufacture, product maintenance and waste management. Based on the result of the qualitative research, a new model of the use of standards in the New Product Development (NPD) process is presented. The research was proposed by the Chairman of the BSI technical committee responsible for the BS 8887 series. The beneficiaries are BSI, industry and academia, since the investigation has shown BS 8887-1 to be of value, and has informed the continuing development of this series of standards. The thesis concludes by arguing for BS 8887 to become the basis of an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard in order to reach a wider audience. It also identifies a need for the standard’s design requirements to be supported with additional supplementary interpretation expanding on, and adding detail to, the information in the standard itself. Influenced by this research, at the time of writing a new BSI working group was being formed to consider developing BS 8887 as an ISO standard. BSI had also begun the process of commissioning a handbook to assist designers in the practical application of BS 8887 in industrial design.

Currently, the United States is investigating methods to close the nuclear fuel cycle and increase the use of nuclear power for electricity and cogeneration applications. Congress has called for and held hearings in an attempt to determine an appropriate path forward for reprocessing of nuclear fuel. However, each current proposed method presents a different set of attributes with regards to: Complexity, safety, wastes, and proliferation risks. This thesis provides a decision analysis methodology for approaching the reprocessing issue. The presented methodology builds on the previous work done in the 1970s. Further, current reprocessing technologies which are capable of processing the oxide fuels utilized in the majority of United States reactors are evaluated across ten attributes related to reprocessing performance. A weighted total score is provided for each reprocessing method in order to separate the technological from political or emotional issues related to selection of a process. While it is not the goal of this thesis to select a particular best technology, application of this methodology results in the selection of the COmbined EXtraction (COEX) technology when equal weighting is put on the attributes as defined. It is unlikely that a decision maker will approach this decision with equal weighting; however, actual decision maker weightings are known only to the decision makers. By altering the weightings, different technologies are selected.

The reprocessing of used nuclear fuel requires the dissolution and separation of numerous radioisotopes that are present as fission products in the fuel. The leading technology option in the U.S. for reprocessing is a sequence of processing methods known as UREX+ (Uranium Extraction ). However, an industrial scale facility implementing this separation procedure will require the establishment of safeguards and security systems to ensure the protection of the separated materials. A number of technologies have been developed for meeting the measurement demands for such a facility. This project focuses on the design of a gamma detection system for taking measurements of the flow streams of such a reprocessing facility. An experimental apparatus was constructed capable of pumping water spiked with soluble radioisotopes under various flow conditions through a stainless steel coil around a sodium iodide (NaI) detector system. Experiments were conducted to characterize the impact of flow rate, pipe air voids, geometry, and radioactivity dilution level on activity measurements and gamma energy spectra. Two coil geometries were used for these experiments, using 0.5 in stainless steel pipe wound into a coil with a 6 inch diameter; the first coil was 5.5 revolutions tall and the second coil was 9.5 revolutions tall. The isotopes dissolved in the flowing water were produced at the Texas A&M Nuclear Science Center via neutron activation of chromium, gold, cerium, and ytterbium nitrate salts. After activation, the salts were dissolved in distilled water and inserted into the radioactive flow assembly for quantitative measurements. Flow rate variations from 100 to 2000 ml/min were used and activity dilution levels for the experiments conducted were between 0.02 and 1.6 μCi/liter. Detection of system transients was observed to improve with decreasing flow rate. The detection limits observed for this system were 0.02 μCi/liter over background, 0.5% total activity change in a pre-spiked system, and a dilution change of 2% of the coil volume. MCNP (Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport) models were constructed to simulate the results and were used to extend the results to other geometries and piping materials as well as simulate actual UREX stream material in the system. The stainless steel piping for the flow around the detector was found to attenuate key identifying gamma peaks on the low end of the energy spectrum. For the proposed schedule 40 stainless steel pipe for an actual reprocessing facility, gamma rays below 100 keV in energy would be reduced to less than half their initial intensities. The exact ideal detection set up is largely activity and flow stream dependant. However, the characteristics best suited for flow stream detection are: 1) minimize volume around detector, 2) low flow rate for long count times, and 3) low attenuation piping material such as glass.

No description available.

No description available.