Understanding the transport of three fluid phases through porous media has important applications in subsurface contaminant remediation, oil and gas recovery, and geological CO₂ sequestration. Existing transport models may be improved by including physical phenomena that govern fluid flow at the pore scale. In particular, thermodynamic arguments suggest that hysteresis...
The genus Phytophthora comprises numerous plant pathogens in both natural and managed ecosystems. For Phytophthora spp. that infect roots, dispersal occurs in soil water through a combination of advection and swimming of specialized motile propagules (zoospores). Specific biological and physico-chemical processes, however, remain poorly understood, due to difficulties in studying...
This research focused on anaerobic transformation of trichloroethene (TCE), a
groundwater contaminant. The mixed anaerobic Evanite culture (EV) was studied to determine community behavior and composition responses to different electron donors and chloroethene electron acceptors. The potential toxicity from high concentrations of TCE and its daughter product cis-1,2-dichloroethene (cDCE) was...
After three decades of active research coupling hydrology and stream ecology, the connection among solute transport, metabolism and processing is still unresolved. These knowledge gaps obscure the functioning of stream ecosystems and how those ecosystems interact with other landscape processes. We must resolve these challenges to wisely manage water resources,...
Let G be a finite group, G₂ be a Sylow 2-subgroup of G, and L/K be a G-Galois extension. We study the trace form qL/K of L/K and the question of existence of a self-dual normal basis. Our main results are as follows: (1) If G₂ is not abelian and...
High temperature gas reactors (HTGR’s) have been researched and operated commercially since the inception of the nuclear industry. Newer designs, such as the General Atomics (GA) Modular HTGR, aim to lower capital costs by shifting towards smaller, more modular designs, although further cost reductions with respect to operations and maintenance...
Halogenated organic compounds have had widespread and massive applications in industry, agriculture, and private households, for example, as degreasing solvents, flame retardants and in polymer production. They are released to the environment through both anthropogenic and natural sources. The most common chlorinated solvents present as contaminants include tetrachloroethene (PCE, perchloroethene)...
The metastable isotope of technetium-99 (Tc-99m) is an important diagnostic tool used in the field of nuclear medicine due to the isotope's 6.0 hour half-life, 140.5 keV γ-decay mechanism, and multiple oxidation states [1,2]. Approximately 70% of the world’s nuclear medicine procedures involve the use of Tc-99m [3]. The conventional...
At Oregon State University the Multi-Application Small Light Water Reactor (MASLWR) integral effects testing facility is being prepared for safety analysis matrix testing in support of the NuScale Power Inc. (NSP) design certification progress. The facility will be used to simulate design basis accident performance of the reactor's safety systems....
Most operating power reactors use oxide fuel in the form of uranium oxide (UO2) which is robust against high temperatures but suffers from poor mechanical performance at high levels of burnup. Currently, the maximum average burnup in light water reactors in the US is 62.5 GWd/t, which is partially imposed...