The temperature of a char particle burning in an oxygen containing atmosphere is the product of a strongly coupled balance between particle size and physical properties, heat transfer from the particle, surface reactivity, CO/CO{sub 2} ratio and gas phase diffusion in the surrounding boundary layer and within the particle. CO{sub 2}/CO ratios can be strongly influenced by catalytic material in the carbon and by the char temperature. In this program we are measuring the CO{sub 2}/CO ratio for both catalyzed and uncatalyzed chars over a wide range of temperature. These results will then be used to develop predictive models for char temperature and burning rates. The electrodynamic balance has been successfully used to make such measurements for single 200{mu}m spherocarb particles. A few theoretical approaches to model a single particle oxidation have been made, but most of them assumed the infinitely thin reaction zone at the particle surface. This approach can not explain pore diffusion limitation, structural change, or reaction at low temperatures inside the particle. Too simplifying solid phase reaction may leads to wrong predictions. In this report, progress on constructing models including both solid and gas phase reaction are reported.

The Savannah River Site has areas where soil is contaminated with metals and/or radionuclides. Many of these areas are surrounded by native vegetation which is growing adjacent to the area and where the roots have penetrated into the contaminated soil of the area. In some cases vegetation has actually invaded the contaminated area. Even though the volume of contaminated vegetation is small, there are problems associated with its disposal. Vegetation decomposes quickly after burial and the volume of buried vegetation can decrease. The voids left can lead to subsidence and possible failure of the clay cap constructed over hazardous and/or radioactive waste burial grounds. An alternative to burying the wood is to burn it and bury the ash. However, burning will introduce the contamination in the vegetation into the air where there is potential for inhalation of the contaminants. A procedure is described to assess the hazard associated with inhalation of contamination from burning of vegetation growing in contaminated soil. The procedure is applied to evaluation of the consequence of burning vegetation grown adjacent to and in the SRL Seepage Basins. The results indicate that burning the vegetation during the day could introduce a level of contaminants to the atmosphere …

This report discusses the following topics: High energy photon production in a HI collision; the mechanism for the disassembly of excited {sup 16}O projectiles into four alpha particles; the disassembly of excited {sup 28}Si projectiles; large pre-fission multiplicities from temperature; dependent friction and fission barriers; multiplicity correlations; molecular beam induced fusion; dwarf ball and wall; mini wall; and computer and local data acquisition systems.

This report discusses the following topics on synchrotron accelerators: Transverse motion---betatron oscillations; machine lattice; representation of a particle beam; and longitudinal motion---synchrotron oscillations.

During this period, we focused our attention in analyzing the magnetic nature of the extensively used trimetallic catalyst system Cu-Co-Cr for the production of higher alcohols. We believe that there could be some correspondence between the catalytic and magnetic behaviors of the transition metal catalyst systems. Both the morphology and metallic charge distribution of the particles are known to govern the catalytic as well as the magnetic properties of the system.

The primary concern of the study during this period has been to examine the origin and basis of the several nonconforming NMR lines reported in our earlier study. Previous studies by earlier investigators indicate that (a) the product distribution in the conversion of synthesis gas to liquid fuels is dependant on the copper/cobalt ratio and (b) that the catalytic results reported by different groups of investigators using the IFP prescription (4) are widely divergent. These observations prompted us to make a critical examination of the effect of metal ratio and the method of preparation on the magnetic character of catalysts.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the nature and extent of workplace conflicts that underlie the rising number of discrimination cases, focusing on: (1) the statutory bases (e.g., race, sex, or disability discrimination) under which employees filed complaints; (2) the kinds of issues (e.g., nonselection for promotion, harassment) that were cited in these complaints; and (3) why the data collected and reported by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) were not helpful in answering the questions raised."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reported on the status of computer security throughout the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the general and application computer controls over key financial systems maintained and operated by the Financial Management Service (FMS), focusing on the results of GAO's fiscal year (FY) 1998 tests of the effectiveness of general and application controls that support key FMS automated financial systems and GAO's follow up on the status of FMS' corrective actions to address weaknesses identified in its FY 1997 audit."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the extent to which individuals residing in long-term care facilities are improperly included as members of food stamp households, focusing on: (1) how many individuals were included as members of food stamp households while they were residing in long-term care facilities and the estimated value of the overpayments to those households; and (2) whether computer matching is a practical means for identifying such overpayments."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO analyzed the potential budgetary and economic effects of several Social Security reform proposals."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Defense Reform Initiative (DRI), focusing on: (1) the types of performance measures used to track progress toward achieving DRI program goals; (2) opportunities to add or improve on existing performance measures; and (3) performance measurement limitations."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, focusing on: (1) the distribution of awards by company and geographic area, with special emphasis on the share of awards received by the 25 most frequent winners; (2) the extent to which federal agencies are considering commercial potential and the program's other goals in making their awards; and (3) previous evaluations of the SBIR program to identify opportunities to improve measurements of the program's outcomes."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO surveyed inspectors general (IG) to obtain: (1) information on their organizational structure, staffing, and workload; and (2) their views on current policy issues affecting them."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed and updated its previous work on airfares and service and reexamined the effect that certain barriers have had on these measures, focusing on: (1) how airfares have changed since 1990 for travel to and from 171 airports serving various U.S. communities; (2) how the quality of air service has changed since 1978 for travel to and from these airports; and (3) the extent to which certain barriers to entry--restrictive gate-leasing arrangements, controls on the number of allowable takeoffs and landings at some airports, and the limits on the distance that flights from some airports can be--influence competition at affected airports."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed how the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in conjunction with the states, ensures the cost-effectiveness of projects funded under the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, focusing on: (1) the approaches FEMA and the states use to ensure that program grants are targeted to cost-effective mitigation projects; and (2) whether the approaches ensure that the mitigation measures are cost-effective."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the potential differences in treatment patterns for health maintenance organizations (HMO) patients treated by specialists and those treated by generalist physicians, focusing on: (1) the proportion of Medicare heart attack survivors enrolled in HMOs who take cholesterol-lowering drugs, beta-blockers, and aspirin; and (2) whether Medicare heart attack survivors in HMOs regularly treated by a cardiologist are more likely to take cholesterol-lowering drugs, beta-blockers, and aspirin than those who do not have regular cardiology appointments."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) efforts to safeguard Medicare payments, focusing on: (1) how Medicare program safeguard activities have changed from fiscal years (FY) 1995 to 1999 and what changes are planned for FY 2000; (2) HCFA's actions to better manage its program safeguard activities, which respond to key findings from GAO's previous audit reports and those of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG); and (3) the initial effects of the Medicare Integrity Program (MIP) on controlling Medicare fraud and abuse, including the adequacy of HCFA's data for measuring the effectiveness of its program safeguard activities."

This document describes some of the more significant accomplishments in the reactor restart program and details the magnitude and extent of the work completed to bring K-Reactor to a state of restart readiness. The discussion of restart achievements is organized into the three major categories of personnel, programs, and plant. Also presented is information on the scope and extent of internal and external oversight of the efforts, as well as some details on the startup plan.

This analysis is prepared by the Mined Geologic Disposal System (MGDS) Waste Package Development (WPD) department with the objective of providing a comprehensive, conservative estimate of the consequences of the criticality which could possibly occur as the result of commercial spent nuclear fuel emplaced in the underground repository at Yucca Mountain. The consequences of criticality are measured principally in terms of the resulting changes in radionuclide inventory as a function of the power level and duration of the criticality. The purpose of this analysis is to extend the prior estimates of increased radionuclide inventory (Refs. 5.52 and 5.54), for both internal and external criticality. This analysis, and similar estimates and refinements to be completed before the end of fiscal year 1997, will be provided as input to Total System Performance Assessment-Viability Assessment (TSPA-VA) to demonstrate compliance with the repository performance objectives.

Research activity has included continued mechanistic investigations of the nucleophilic activation of carbon monoxide such as homogeneous catalysis of the water gas shift and key steps in the relevant catalytic cycles. Other investigations of related processes included the application of fast reaction techniques to prepare and to investigate quantitatively reactive organometallic intermediates relevant to the activation of hydrocarbons toward carbonylation and other functionalizations. 8 refs.

The traveler was given beam time at the ILL to continue neutron scattering work on high-temperature superconductivity. The unique facilities at the ILL for both high-energy and low-energy neutron instrumentation made the experiments possible. The measurements consisted of two basic types. The first of these is the study of the nature of spin fluctuations in high-{Tc} materials. This work is fundamental to the mechanism that is responsible for the high-transition temperatures. The second consisted of experiments on the flux lattice in high-temperature superconductors. The flux lattice has interesting physics in its own right and is important in understanding the current-carrying capability of superconductors.

The Table of Tables' application system captures in a set of SYBASE tables the basic design specification for a database schema. Specification of tables, columns (including the related defaults and rules for the stored values) and keys is provided. The feature which makes this application specifically useful for SYBASE is the ability to automatically generate SYBASE triggers. A description field is provided for each database object. Based on the data stored, SQL scripts for creating complete schema including the tables, their defaults and rules, their indexes, and their SYBASE triggers, are written by TOT. Insert, update and delete triggers are generated from TOT to guarantee integrity of data relations when tables are connected by single column foreign keys. The application is written in SYBASE's APT-SQL and includes a forms based data entry system. Using the features of TOT we can create a complete database schema for which the data integrity specified by our design is guaranteed by the SYBASE triggers generated by TOT. 3 refs.

The travelers attended meetings in Dubna and in Zelenograd. Discussions in Dubna centered on (1) obtaining information on USSR capabilities in silicon detector manufacture and testing and on (2) strategy regarding the development of an industrial process and the manufacture of a large quantity of silicon detectors for the SSC L* collaboration. The ELMA plant in Zelenograd was inspected, and discussions were held on production process development and on a possible detector supply time line. In addition, J. Walter participated in technical and cost estimate forecast discussions with representatives of Wacker-Chemitronic Factory (Germany) about silicon crystals for possible use in the SSC.