This report details about the Chile nation's Political and Economic situation, and the U.S - Chile relations.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Legacy Management conducted annual sampling at the Rulison, Colorado, Site for the Long-Term Hydrologic Monitoring Program (LTHMP) on May 10 and 11, 2010. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Radiation and Indoor Environments National Laboratory in Las Vegas, Nevada, analyzed the samples. Samples were analyzed for gamma-emitting radionuclides by high-resolution gamma spectroscopy and for tritium using the conventional and enriched methods.

Although promoted cobalt and iron catalysts for Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis of gasoline feedstock were first developed more than three decades ago, a major technical problem still limiting the commercial use of these catalysts today is carbon deactivation. This report describes recent progress in a fundamental, three-year investigation of carbon formation and its effects on the activity and selectivity of promoted iron catalysts for FT synthesis, the objectives of which are to: determine rates and mechanisms of carbon deactivation of unsupported Fe and Fe/K catalysts during CO hydrogenation over a range of CO concentrations, CO:H{sub 2} ratios, and temperatures; and model the rates of deactivation of the same catalysts in fixed-bed reactors. To accomplish the above objectives, the project is divided into the following tasks: (1) determine the kinetics of reaction and of carbon deactivation during CO hydrogenation on Fe and Fe/K catalysts coated on monolith bodies. (2) Determine the reactivities and types of carbon deposited during reaction on the same catalysts from temperature-programmed-surface-reaction spectroscopy (TPSR) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Determine the types of iron carbides formed at various temperatures and H{sub 2}/CO ratios using x-ray diffraction and Moessbauer spectroscopy. (3) Develop mathematical deactivation models which include heat and mass …