Title 44 US Code, ``Public Printing and Documents,`` regulations issued by the General Service Administration (GSA) in 41 CFR Chapter 101, Subchapter B, ``Management and Use of Information and Records,`` and regulations issued by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in 36 CFR Chapter 12, Subchapter B, ``Records Management,`` require each agency to prepare and issue a comprehensive records disposition schedule that contains the NARA approved records disposition schedules for records unique to the agency and contains the NARA`s General Records Schedules for records common to several or all agencies. The approved records disposition schedules specify the appropriate duration of retention and the final disposition for records created or maintained by the NRC. NUREG-0910, Rev. 3, contains ``NRC`s Comprehensive Records Disposition Schedule,`` and the original authorized approved citation numbers issued by NARA. Rev. 3 incorporates NARA approved changes and additions to the NRC schedules that have been implemented since the last revision dated March, 1992, reflects recent organizational changes implemented at the NRC, and includes the latest version of NARA`s General Records Schedule (dated August 1995).

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC), which is associated with NASA`s Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS), provides access to datasets used in environmental research. As a data warehouse for NASA, the ORNL DAAC archives and distributes data from NASA`s ground-based field experiments. In order to manage its large and diverse data holdings, the DAAC has mined metadata that is stored in several Sybase databases. However, the task of managing the metadata itself has become such a complicated task that the DAAC has developed a Web-based Graphical User Interface (GUI) called the DBA maintenance Tool Suite. This Web-based tool allows the DBA to maintain the DAAC`s metadata databases with the click of a mouse button. This tool greatly reduces the complexities of database maintenance and facilitates the task of data delivery to the DAAC`s user community.

The objective of the Fossil Energy Advanced Research and Technology Development (AR and TD) Materials Program is to conduct research and development on materials for longer-term fossil energy applications as well as for generic needs of various fossil fuel technologies. The research program of the Materials Response Group at Virginia Tech addresses the need for reliable and durable structural ceramic composites to perform in high temperature environments. The research effort provides an experimental and analytical basis for the transition from properties of materials to performance of actual component structures. Phases 1 and 2 of the present program focused on the development of test capabilities, initial studies of component mechanical response under various conditions and the development of a life prediction methodology. These efforts have been described in previous reports. This report summarizes the major tasks completed under Phases 3 and 4 of the project. Overall, the authors have made significant progress in a broad spectrum of tasks in this program. Their efforts have encompassed component evaluation, assessment of new SiC-based composites with improved high-temperature potential, development of oxide coating materials for SiC, and the extension and development of new models for predicting the durability of composite components under specific operating …

An increasing availability of high-performance computing and data storage media at decreasing cost is making possible the proliferation of large-scale numerical databases and data warehouses. Numeric warehousing enterprises on the order of hundreds of gigabytes to terabytes are a reality in many fields such as finance, retail sales, process systems monitoring, biomedical monitoring, surveillance and transportation. Large-scale databases are becoming more accessible to larger user communities through the internet, web-based applications and database connectivity. Consequently, most researchers now have access to a variety of massive datasets. This trend will probably only continue to grow over the next several years. Unfortunately, the availability of integrated tools to explore, analyze and understand the data warehoused in these archives is lagging far behind the ability to gain access to the same data. In particular, locating and identifying patterns of interest in numerical time series data is an increasingly important problem for which there are few available techniques. Temporal pattern recognition poses many interesting problems in classification, segmentation, prediction, diagnosis and anomaly detection. This research focuses on the problem of classification or characterization of numerical time series data. Highway vehicles and their drivers are examples of complex dynamic systems (CDS) which are being used …

This report documents the history of the major buildings in Sandia National Laboratories` Technical Area II. It was prepared in support of the Department of Energy`s compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. Technical Area II was designed and constructed in 1948 specifically for the final assembly of the non-nuclear components of nuclear weapons, and was the primary site conducting such assembly until 1952. Both the architecture and location of the oldest buildings in the area reflect their original purpose. Assembly activities continued in Area II from 1952 to 1957, but the major responsibility for this work shifted to other sites in the Atomic Energy Commission`s integrated contractor complex. Gradually, additional buildings were constructed and the original buildings were modified. After 1960, the Area`s primary purpose was the research and testing of high-explosive components for nuclear weapons. In 1994, Sandia constructed new facilities for work on high-explosive components outside of the original Area II diamond-shaped parcel. Most of the buildings in the area are vacant and Sandia has no plans to use them. They are proposed for decontamination and demolition as funding becomes available.

This volume includes the proceedings of the 1998 DOE Records Management Conference.

The first commercial production of power from geothermal energy, at The Geysers steamfield in northern California in June 1960, was a triumph for the geothermal exploration industry. Before and since, there has been a search for further sources of commercial geothermal power in The Geysers--Clear Lake geothermal area surrounding The Geysers. As with all exploration programs, these were driven by models. The models in this case were of geothermal regimes, that is, the geometric distribution of temperature and permeability at depth, and estimates of the physical conditions in subsurface fluids. Studies in microseismicity and heat flow, did yield geophysical information relevant to active geothermal systems. Studies in stable-element geochemistry found hiatuses or divides at the Stoney Creek Fault and at the Collayomi Fault. In the region between the two faults, early speculation as to the presence of steamfields was disproved from the geochemical data, and the potential existence of hot-water systems was predicted. Studies in isotope geochemistry found the region was characterized by an isotope mixing trend. The combined geochemical data have negative implications for the existence of extensive hydrothermal systems and imply that fluids of deep origin are confined to small, localized systems adjacent to faults that act as …

An essential part of Integrated Safety Management is the identification of hazards in the workplace and the assessment of possible consequences of accidents involving those hazards. The process of hazard classification suggested by the DOE orders on Safety Analysis is the formalization of this identification and assessment for hazards that might cause harm to the public or workers external to the operation. Possible injury to workers in the facility who are exposed to the hazard is not considered in the designation of the hazard classification for facilities at LLNL, although worker safety is discussed in facility Safety Basis documentation.

The United States conducted over 100 atmospheric nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site from 1951 through 1962. Some of the earliest tests caused unexpected damage, primarily broken glass and cracked plaster, in Las Vegas and other surrounding communities. To address this problem, Sandia initiated a program to monitor and predict the pressure waves around NTS. Infrasound recording systems were developed, then field for all tests beginning with Operation Buster in October 1951. Investigators soon discovered that near-surface temperature inversions and wind profiles caused the damaging pressures in Las Vegas. A typical test was recorded at about a dozen stations from the Control Point on NTS to as far away as Pasadena, CA. In addition, some tests in the South Pacific were monitored, as well as numerous chemical explosions. Strip charts recorded signals in the frequency band from 0.05 to 30 Hz, and the paper tapes were achieved at Sandia in the early 1970s. The NTS events ranged in yield from below 1 ton to 74 kilotons; source altitudes varied from near ground level (including some cratering experiments) to as high as 11 km. The resulting data contain a wealth of information on the source function, yield scaling and regional …

The Fissile Materials Disposition Program (FMDP) is investigating the use of weapons grade plutonium in mixed oxide (MOX) fuel for light-water reactors (LWR). Commercial MOX fuel has been successfully used in overseas reactors for many years; however, weapons derived fuel may differ from the previous commercial fuels because of small amounts of gallium impurities. A concern presently exists that the gallium may migrate out of the fuel, react with and weaken the clad, and thereby promote loss of fuel pin integrity. Phases 1 and 2 of the gallium task are presently underway to investigate the types of reactions that occur between gallium and clad materials. This is a Level-2 document as defined in the Fissile Materials Disposition Program Light-Water Reactor Mixed-Oxide Fuel Irradiation Test Project Plan. This Plan summarizes the projected Phase 3 Gallium-Cladding compatibility heating test and the follow-on post test examination (PTE). This work will be performed using centrally-heated surrogate pellets, to avoid unnecessary complexities and costs associated with working with plutonium and an irradiation environment. Two sets of rodlets containing pellets prepared by two different methods will be heated. Both sets will have an initial bulk gallium content of approximately 10 ppm. The major emphasis of the …

Validation of a presumably universal theory, such as quantum mechanics, requires a quantum mechanical description of systems that carry out theoretical calculations and systems that carry out experiments. The description of quantum computers is under active development. No description of systems to carry out experiments has been given. A small step in this direction is taken here by giving a description of quantum robots as mobile systems with on board quantum computers that interact with different environments. Some properties of these systems are discussed. A specific model based on the literature descriptions of quantum Turing machines is presented.

On January 20-22, 1998, ''AA Fest. A Symposium on General Circulation Model Development: Past, Present, and Future'' was held at the North West Campus Auditorium of University of California, Los Angeles, in honor of Professor Ako Arawaka. The symposium consisted of two-and-a-half-day technical presentations, along with a banquet in the opening evening and a reception during the poster session of the second evening.

DOE has launched a major initiative -- the Atmospheric Radiation Measurements (ARM) Program -- directed at improving the parameterization of the physics governing cloud and radiative processes in general circulation models (GCMs). One specific goal of ARM is to improve the treatment of radiative transfer in GCMs under clear-sky, general overcast and broken cloud conditions. In 1990, the authors proposed to contribute to this goal by attacking major problems connected with one of the dominant radiation components of the problem -- longwave radiation. In particular, their long-term research goals are to: develop an optimum longwave radiation model for use in GCMs that has been calibrated with state-of-the-art observations, assess the impact of the longwave radiative forcing in a GCM, determine the sensitivity of a GCM to the radiative model used in it, and determine how the longwave radiative forcing contributes relatively when compared to shortwave radiative forcing, sensible heating, thermal advection and expansion.

Existing climate data sources can be used in two general types of analysis for the detection of urban heat islands. Historical analyses use long-term data records-preferentially from several locations in and around an urban area-to trace the gradual influence of urban development on its climate. Primary sources of such data include the cooperative network, first-order National Weather Service stations, and military weather stations. Analyses of short-term data use information from a dense urban weather station network to discern the location, extent, and magnitude of urban heat islands. Such analyses may use the aforementioned national networks or regional networks such as agricultural, air quality monitoring, or utility networks. We demonstrate the use of existing data sources with a historical analysis of temperature trends in Los Angeles, California, and an analysis of short-term data of the urban temperature profile for Phoenix, Arizona. The Los Angeles climate was examined with eleven long-term data records from the cooperative network. Statistically significant trends of rising temperature were detected at Los Angeles Civic Center and other stations over some parts of the year, although timing of the increase varied from station to station. Observed increases in temperatures maybe due to long-term climate changes, microclimate influences, or …

for the purpose of this paper, the authors have used the term functional requirement to indicate a required task rather than the recommended method for accomplishing this task. The creation of effective information barrier technology will proceed as a series of steps: (1) IB conceptual Description; (2) IB Functional Requirements (this document--ongoing); (3) IB hardware and software specification; (4) IB hardware and software construction; and (5) IB implementation. This functional requirements document is not intended to supplant or supersede the conceptual description; rather, these functional requirements are intended to be used along with the earlier description to help generate hardware and software requirements.

This is the final report of a one-year, Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The ion micromilling process, while already successful, can be enhanced by ion beam sensitization to wet or dry anisotropic chemical etch reactions. The ion beam sensitization to wet or dry anisotropic chemical etch reactions. The ion beam sensitization is unique from conventional lithography in that many levels of feature depth are potentially available (depending on the local spatial ion dose) and that no organic or inorganic resist is required. This process is applicable to the production of both digital and human-readable grey-scale data on archival media, such as silicon or other single crystals or amorphous coatings. Furthermore, it has been shown that a suitable micromachined data medium having an appropriate format can be read by (1) a phase-sensitive interference microscope, (2) a laser intensity feedback microscope, or (3) a conventional scanning electron microscope. 5 refs., 4 figs.

This report summarizes the results of the Gallium-Clad interactions Phase 3 and 4 tasks. Both tasks were to involve examining the out-of-pile stability of residual gallium in short fuel rods with an imposed thermal gradient. The thermal environment was to be created by an electrical heater in the center of the fuel rod and coolant flow on the rod outer cladding. Both tasks were canceled due to difficulties with fuel pellet fabrication, delays in the preparation of the test apparatus, and changes in the Fissile Materials Disposition program budget.

In experimental physics, data is archived from a wide variety of sources and used for a wide variety of purposes. In each of these environments, trade-offs are made between data storage rate, data availability, and retrieval rate. This paper presents archive alternatives in EPICS, the overall archiver design and details on the data collection and retrieval requirements, performance studies, design choices, design alternatives, and measurements made on the beta version of the archiver.

The development of detailed, regional wind-resource distributions and other pertinent wind resource characteristics (e.g., assessment maps and reliable estimates of seasonal, diurnal, and directional) is an important step in planning and accelerating the deployment of wind energy systems. This paper summarizes the approach and methods being used to conduct a wind energy resource assessment of Mongolia. The primary goals of this project are to develop a comprehensive wind energy resource atlas of Mongolia and to establish a wind measurement program in specific regions of Mongolia to identify prospective sites for wind energy projects and to help validate some of the wind resource estimates. The Mongolian wind resource atlas will include detailed, computerized wind power maps and other valuable wind resource characteristic information for the different regions of Mongolia.

Use of nature`s laboratory for scientific analysis of complex systems is a largely untapped resource for understanding long-term disposal of hazardous materials. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in the US is a facility designed and approved for storage of transuranic waste in a salt medium. Isolation from the biosphere must be ensured for 10,000 years. Natural analogs provide a means to interpret the evolution of the underground disposal setting. Investigations of ancient sites where manmade materials have experienced mechanical and chemical processes over millennia provide scientific information unattainable by conventional laboratory methods. This paper presents examples of these pertinent natural analogs, provides examples of features relating to the WIPP application, and identifies potential avenues of future investigations. This paper cites examples of analogical information pertaining to the Hallstatt salt mine in Austria and Wieliczka salt mine in Poland. This paper intends to develop an appreciation for the applicability of natural analogs to the science and engineering of a long-term disposal facility in geomedia.

OAK-B135 AA Fest. General Circulation Model Development: Past, Present and Future. A Symposium in Honor of Professor Akio Arakawa

Large-scale computer simulations, a hallmark of computing at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), often take days to run and can produce massive amounts of output. The typical environment of many LLNL scientists includes multiple hardware platforms, a large collection of eclectic software applications, data stored on many devices in many formats, and little standard metadata, which is accessible documentation about the data. The exploration of simulation results typically proceeds as a laborious process requiring knowledge of this complex environment and many application programs. We have addressed this problem by developing a web-based approach for exploring simulation results via the automatic generation of metadata summaries which provide convenient access to the data sets and associated analysis tools. In this paper we will describe the SimTracker tool for automatically generating metadata that serves as a quick overview and index to the archived results of simulations. The SimTracker application consists of two parts - a generation component and a viewing component. The generation component captures and generates calculation metadata from a simulation. These metadata include graphical snapshots from various stages of the run, pointers to the input and output files from the simulation, and assorted annotations describing the run. SimTracker generation can be …

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission`s (NRC) strategic plan [NUREG-1614, Vol. 1, September 1997] establishes a strategic framework that will guide future decision-making and will help the NRC continue to meet its responsibility for protecting public health and safety, promoting the common defense and security, and protecting the environment. This performance plan complements the agency`s strategic plan by setting annual goals with measurable target levels of performance for FY 1999, as required by the Government Performance and Results Act. No significant contribution was made to the preparation of the performance plan by any non-Federal entity. However, a contractor was used to help facilitate discussions and resolution of issues. Within six months after the close of FY 1999, the NRC will submit to the President and the Congress a report on program performance for FY 1999. This performance report will review the success of the agency in achieving the performance goals established for FY 1999. Where those goals have been achieved, the underlying assumptions and strategies will be examined to ensure that continued applicability is warranted in the future. If any of the FY 1999 performance goals are not met, the agency will conduct a thorough analysis of why it did not meet …

Using modern technology, minute quantities of low-molecular-weight-proteins (LMWP), prostanoids, growth factors, and intrarenal and extrarenal enzymes can be measured in urine. Excretory patterns that are characteristic for the site and mechanism of renal injury often can be found. It is possible to recognize urinary biomarker patterns that suggest the putative environmental nephrotoxin. This fingerprinting approach has become an effective tool in recent years as urine from cohorts with known occupational nephrotoxin exposures has been analyzed for patterns of specific constituents in European cooperative studies. The authors' studies performed on subjects with occupational and environmental exposures in New Jersey confirm the pattern specificity and threshold effects for chromium, mercury and lead. In addition, they have been able to show that increased N-acetylglucosaminidase excretion following lead exposure correlates with current (blood lead) but not with cumulative (bone lead) exposure. The success of recent cooperative efforts has been in part due to the absence of clinical renal failure in study subjects. Urinary biomarkers indicate early renal injury. As renal failure progresses, excretory patterns become nonspecific. Moreover, renal injury that results in tubular proteinuria may not progress to renal failure. Nevertheless, biomarkers of renal injury can help establish acceptable exposure levels and identify the …