The design and implementation of cost-effective remediation strategies for subsurface contamination not only relies on descriptive models of contaminant distribution but predictive models of contaminant fate and transport. The development of such predictive models is of great importance to many government agencies including the Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Defense, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Accurate prediction of the fate and transport of environmental contaminants in the subsurface has driven development of increasingly sophisticated subsurface flow and transport models. Even without considering spatial and temporal scalability, contaminant transport at the field scale is complex, and this almost inevitably results in an especially sophisticated model being developed for a specific field site. Unfortunately, these models are not easily generalizable to other field sites or and can only be used by the model authors to generate meaningful results. Over time, this results in the existence of numerous specialized models that are not readily comparable to each other and difficult to cross-validate. There is a lack of fundamental experimental observations at the pore scale that can be used to support model development and validation at the field scale.

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On December 8 and 9, 2010, the Geochemistry, Biogeochemistry, and Subsurface Science (GBSS) Science Theme Advisory Panel (STAP) convened for a more in-depth exploration of the five Science Theme focus areas developed at a similar meeting held in 2009. The goal for the fiscal year (FY) 2011 meeting was to identify potential topical areas for science campaigns, necessary experimental development needs, and scientific members for potential research teams.

Executive SummaryThis report is the result of a workshop held in September 2011 that examined the utility of a compact x-ray light source (CXLS) in addressing many scientific challenges critical to advancing energy science and technology. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and National Academy of Sciences (NAS) have repeatedly described the need for advanced instruments that "predict, control, and design the components of energetic processes and environmental balance," most notably in biological, chemical, environmental, and materials science. In numerous DOE and NAS reports, direct molecular-scale imaging and timedependent studies are seen as a powerful means to develop an atomistic-level understanding of scientific issues associated with current and future energy and environmental needs, including energy production and storage from both fossil-based and fossil-free sources and cleanup of government and industrial sites worldwide.One of the major enabling capabilities for meeting these needs is a high-brightness x-ray light source. The DOE report, Next-Generation Photon Sources for Grand Challenges in Science and Energy, identifies "spectroscopic and structural imaging of nano-objects (or nanoscale regions of inhomogeneous materials) with nanometer spatial resolution and ultimate spectral resolution" as one of the two aspects of energy science in which current and next-generation x-ray light sources will have the deepest and broadest impact. The report further stresses the power of direct observation in understanding transformational chemical processes. The report also discusses the importance of molecular "movies" of complex reactions that show bond breaking and reforming in natural time scales, along with the intermediate states to understand the mechanisms that govern chemical transformations. Existing accelerator-based x-ray sources have greatly extended capabilities in the time and space domain for scientific investigations in many disciplines. Despite these successes, a number of scientific challenges would benefit greatly from having an x-ray resource that has much of the attractive capability of these large machines but lends itself to operating in conjunction with other characterization tools in a correlative fashion. Such an integrated multiscale and multimodal approach could fully address the fundamental needs expressed by DOE's Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) in regards to understanding how genomic information is translated with confidence to redesign microbes, plants, or ecosystems (http://science.energy.gov/).Fortunately, recent advances in laser and super-cooled linear particle accelerator, or linac, technology have enabled development of a long-promised CXLS that uses inverse Compton scattering for generating x-rays. The new CXLS holds the promise of simultaneous energy tuning-from the soft to hard x-ray regime-as well as a pulsed structure closely coupled to the laser pulse duration of pico-to femtoseconds. With a projected brilliance equal to third-generation light sourc...