1 --The Bureau of Customs and Border Protection has the task of interdicting illicit radioactive material at ports of entry. Items of concern include radiation dispersal devices (RDD), nuclear warheads, and special nuclear material (SNM). The preferred survey method screens all vehicles in primary and diverts questionable vehicles to secondary. This requires high detection probability in primary while not overwhelming secondary with alarms, which could include naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) found in acceptable cargo and radionuclides used in medical procedures. Sensitive alarm algorithms must accommodate the baseline depression observed whenever a vehicle enters the portal. Energybased algorithms can effectively use the crude energy information available from a plastic scintillator to distinguish NORM from SNM. Whenever NORM cargo limits the alarm threshold, energy-based algorithms produce significantly better detection probabilities for small SNM sources than gross-count algorithms. Algorithms can be best evaluated using a large empirical data set to 1) calculate false alarm probabilities, 2) select sigma-level thresholds for operationally acceptable false alarm rates, and 3) determine detection probabilities for marginally detectable pseudo sources of SNM.

The objective of the Majorana Experiment is to study neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) with an effective Majorana-neutrino mass sensitivity below 50 meV in order to characterize the Majorana nature of the neutrino, the Majorana mass spectrum, and the absolute mass scale. An experimental study of the neutrino mass scale implied by neutrino oscillation results is now technically within our grasp. This exciting physics goal is best pursued using the well-established technique of searching for 0νββ of 76 Ge, augmented with recent advances in signal processing and detector design. The Majorana Experiment will consist of a large mass of 76 Ge in the form of high-resolution intrinsic germanium detectors located deep underground within a low-background shielding environment. Observation of a sharp peak at the ββ endpoint will quantify the 0νββ half-life and thus the effective Majorana mass of the electron neutrino. In addition to the modest R&D program, we present here an overview of the entire project in order to help put in perspective the scope, the low level of technical risk, and the readiness of the Collaboration to immediately begin the undertaking.

We have identified several high-K four-and six-quasiparticle states between 2 0 5 and 5 MeV excitation in 176 Hf, which are well described by the collective model with axial symmetry,, Isomers with K n = 14", 19 + , and 22" form traps at or near the yrast line. The yrast structure changes from the ground band to a K v = 16 + band at J = 16 and again to a K n =22" state at 7 = 22, providing the first demonstration that intrinsic excitations of a heavy deformed nucleus can become yrast.An etch parameter almost unnoticed previously, etch induction time, has been measured in Kodak Pathe cellulose nitrate track detector films using 4 He, 6 Li, 12 C, 14 N, and le O ions of known low energy per unit mass for calibration. The etch induction time appears to vary with the parameter (dE/dx) w< im /Z* where Z* is the effective ion charge and (dE/ dx) w< 1000 is the restricted energy loss, calculated for a S-ray cutoff energy of 1000 eV.