The determination of the polarized gluon distribution is a central goal of the RHIC spin program. Recent achievements in polarization and luminosity of the proton beams in RHIC, has enabled the RHIC experiments to acquire substantial amounts of high quality data with polarized proton beams at 200 and 62.4 GeV center of mass energy, allowing a first glimpse of the polarized gluon distribution at RHIC. Short test operation at 500 GeV center of mass energy has also been successful, indicating absence of any fundamental roadblocks for measurements of polarized quark and anti-quark distributions planned at that energy in a couple of years. With this background, it has now become high time to consider how all these data sets may be employed most effectively to determine the polarized parton distributions in the nucleon, in general, and the polarized gluon distribution, in particular. A global analysis of the polarized DIS data from the past and present fixed target experiments jointly with the present and anticipated RHIC Spin data is needed.

Experiments are described in which a 1mJ, 1ps, 1200 nm seed laser beam is amplified by interaction with an intersecting 350 J, 1ns, 1054 nm pump beam in a low density (1 x 10{sup 19}/cm{sup 3}) plasma. The transmission of the seed beam is observed to be enhanced by > {approx} 25 x when the plasma is near the resonant density for stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), compared to measured transmissions at wavelengths just below the resonant value. The amplification is observed to increase rapidly with increases in both pump intensity and plasma density.

Young plants of Stackhousia tryonii Bailey were exposed to 34 mM Ni kg-1 in the form of NiSO4- 6H2O solution and grown under controlled glasshouse conditions for a period of 20 days. Fresh leaf, stem and root samples were analysed in vivo by micro x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) at the Ni-K edge.Both x-ray absorption near edge structure and extended x-ray absorption fine structure spectra were analysed, and theresulting spectra were compared with spectra obtained from nine biologically important Ni-containing model compounds. The results revealed that themajority of leaf, stem and root Ni in the hyperaccumulator was chelated by citrate.Our results also suggest that in leavesNi is complexed by phosphate and histidine, and in stems and roots, phytate and histidine. The XAS results provide an important physiological insightinto transport, detoxification and storage of Ni in S. tryonii plants.

The Savannah River Site (SRS) will disperse or dissolve precipitated metal oxides as part of radioactive waste tank closure operations. Previously SRS used oxalic acid to accomplish this task. To better understand the conditions of oxalic acid cleaning of the carbon steel waste tanks, laboratory simulations of the process were conducted to determine the corrosion rate of carbon steel and the generation of gases such as hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Open circuit potential measurements, linear polarization measurements, and coupon immersion tests were performed in-situ to determine the corrosion behavior of carbon steel during the demonstration. Vapor samples were analyzed continuously to determine the constituents of the phase. The combined results from these measurements indicated that in aerated environments, such as the tank, that the corrosion rates are manageable for short contact times and will facilitate prediction and control of the hydrogen generation rate during operations.

The Savannah River Site (SRS) will disperse or dissolve precipitated metal oxides as part of radioactive waste tank closure operations. Previously SRS has utilized oxalic acid to accomplish this task. Since the waste tanks are constructed of carbon steel, a significant amount of corrosion may occur. Although the total amount of corrosion may be insignificant for a short contact time, a significant amount of hydrogen may be generated due to the corrosion reaction. Linear polarization resistance and anodic/cathodic polarization tests were performed to investigate the corrosion behavior during the process. The effect of process variables such as temperature, agitation, aeration, sample orientation, light as well as surface finish on the corrosion behavior were evaluated. The results of the tests provided insight into the corrosion mechanism for the iron-oxalic acid system.