Coal Gasification and Wyoming's Role. CHRISTIE LARSEN (Brigham Young university Idaho Rexburg, ID 83440) RICHARD BOARDMAN (Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID, 83415)

The world's natural resources are quickly diminishing. As individual countries run out of natural resources they begin to depend on other nations for energy. When one studies the location of fossil fuel resources and calculates the remaining reserves, it is evident that a change in energy production must soon occur. According to the current reserves-to-production ratio (R/P), the world will be completely void of oil in 39 years and natural gas in 65 years. Despite the depletion of petroleum resources, coal is still quite abundant. For example, Wyoming contains a significant amount of coal which could be used to provide large amounts of electricity. This could aide the state's economy which, according to the 2000 Census is struggling. Traditionally, coal burning plants have emitted a considerable amount of pollutants, including Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) and Sulfur Dioxide (SO2). Today's modern plant is a gasification plant versus the older coal pulverization plant. Even though this is an improvement, some Wyoming residents do not want to lose their pristine views and unscathed beauty to pollution, even though better paying jobs would assist the economy. The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is supporting the development of Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) Plants by presenting the benefits of gasification to potential energy production companies, educating the people of Wyoming. Another goal is to improve gasification technology. These plants can also be engineered to produce hydrogen, synfuels, and chemicals in order to reduce our reliance on petroleum. IGCC plants have the potential to create a sizeable amount of energy through the use of the hydrogen they produce. Wyoming coal has a hydrogen to carbon ratio that is close to 1:1, which reduces the amount of CO2 released when burned. Another advantage is Wyoming's location to California and other large energy consumers. When comparing pollutant emissions from IGCC plants and Pulverized Coal (PC) plants, it is clear that IGCC plants release relatively fewer pollutants. The gasification of Wyoming coal would provide the United States with cleaner energy and an opportunity to reduce its dependence on foreign sources of energy. Consequently, Wyoming's economy would benefit from higher paying jobs.

Diversity of Ammonia Monooxygenase (amoA) Genes in Groundwater Treated with Urea to Promote Calcite Precipitation. STEPHANIE FREEMAN (University of Arizona Tucson, AZ 85721) YOSHIKO FUJITA (Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID, 83415)

The diversity of the ammonia monooxygenase (amoA) gene found in DNA isolated from groundwater was characterized by amplification of amoA DNA using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP), and sequencing. The amoA gene is characteristic to nitrosifying bacteria, such as ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB). The DNA extracts were derived from an experiment where dilute molasses and urea were sequentially inserted through a well into the Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer (ESRPA) to examine whether such amendments could stimulate enhanced ureolytic activity. The hydrolysis of urea into ammonium and carbonate serves as the basis for a potential remediation technique for trace metals and radionuclide contaminants that co-precipitate in calcite. The ammonium ion resulting from ureolysis can promote the growth of AOB. The goal of this work was to investigate the effectiveness of primers designed for quantitative PCR and to evaluate the effect of urea additions upon the population diversity of groundwater AOB. PCR primers designed to target a portion of the amoA gene were used to amplify amoA gene sequences in the groundwater DNA extracts. Following PCR, amplified gene products were cloned into vectors and then transformed into competent Escherichia coli cells, after which, colonies containing unique gene sequences were isolated. Sequences were analyzed by RFLP, a DNA restriction technique that can distinguish different DNA sequences, to gauge the initial diversity and unique clones were subjected to DNA sequencing. Initial sequencing results suggest that the primers were successful at specific detection of amoA sequences and the RFLP analyses suggested that the diversity of amoA sequences in the ESRPA decreased with the additions of molasses and urea.

Goodness Glacious: Demonstrating Glacial Mass Balance and Flow in the Classroom. JENA DAVIS (Brigham Young university Idaho Rexburg, ID 83440) MITCH PLUMMER (Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID, 83415)

Glaciers are a dramatic display of nature's forces and are increasingly a world wide indicator of global warming. To illustrate not only how glaciers help to carve and shape mountains, but also how they function and respond to climate, we have developed an inquiry-based learning unit which includes three recently developed hands-on activities and computer animations which describe the mechanics of glaciers. The first of these is simulating a glacier by making plaster flow in an open channel. The principal goal of this exercise is to illustrate how plaster flow acts to produce a variety of common glacial features, like crevasses, moraines, and piedmont lobes. One of the shortcomings of such a presentation however, is that it gives a misleading sense of glacier mechanics. In our second demonstration, we focus on the mass balance of glaciers, how and why they respond to climate change and how they can reach a steady-state condition. This includes a hands-on demonstration of the steady state process in which students are the accumulators and ablators of a mountain basin and "ice" blocks are the flowing ice. By changing the rates at which students add or remove "ice" blocks from their position in the valley, we illustrate how the ice mass can reach steady state and respond to climate change. Finally, we relate the concepts presented in the classroom to research on past and present glaciers using a series of animations of digitally simulated glaciers using a 2-D glacial model that simulates the advance and recession of glaciers to climate change. Simulations include growth of the last maximum glacial surge in the Tetons, the Sierra Nevada and the Wind River Ranges. Simulations also include illustrating advance or recession of modern glaciers in the Tetons and in the Mount Saint Helens crater. With these new hands-on activities and animations, students will better understand the physics and mechanics of glaciers while being able to recognize glacial structures and consequences in the world around them.

PREDICTIONS OF THE GROWTH AND STEADY-STATE FORM OF THE MOUNT ST. HELENS CRATER GLACIER USING A 2-D GLACIER MODEL. MELANIE MCCANDLESS (Tufts University Medford, MA 02155) MITCHELL PLUMMER (Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID, 83415)

Since the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, a glacier has been growing around the lava dome in the volcano's crater. Informally known as the Crater Glacier, the ice mass averages approximately 100 meters in thickness and is reportedly the fastest growing glacier in the continental United States. In 2004, the glacier contained about 120 million cubic meters of snow and ice, a volume roughly equivalent to that of all the glaciers that existed on the mountain prior to the 1980 eruption. The size that this glacier may eventually reach, as it grows toward a steady-state condition, is of considerable interest because the storage of water in the crater increases the risk of mudslides that could result from even minor eruptions - increased activity in the crater during 2004 lifted and cracked the glacier and pierced it in at least two places. To estimate how this glacier may develop in the future and what size it might eventually obtain, we are modeling glacier development in the crater using a general purpose 2-D glacier simulator designed to examine the climatic sensitivity of alpine glaciers. The simulator includes a detailed treatment of effects high-relief topography on net radiation, a physically-based treatment of the other components of the surface energy balance and a transient solution to a set of non-linear equations describing 2-D ice flow. Using this model, whose inputs are primarily a digital elevation model (DEM) and pseudo-vertical lapse rates and precipitation gradients, we calibrate to the observed Crater Glacier development by adjustments to uncertain energy balance parameters, like albedo. With the calibrated model, we predict what the glacier might look like in the future, and describe the primary uncertainties involved in predicting its evolution. Results should be useful as a means of improving risk analysis associated with the geologic hazards that the volcano represents.