A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO examined the type and extent of consumer education that occurred since the revised children's sleepwear safety standard went into effect in January 1997, focusing on three voluntary point-of-sale practices that the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and others recognize as important for informing consumers about the new standard."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed research on the effectiveness of various welfare-to-work approaches, focusing on: (1) the effectiveness of a rapid employment approach, an education-based approach, and a combination of these two approaches in improving employment-related outcomes for welfare recipients and other low-income women with children; and (2) the effect of welfare recipients' educational attainment, including postsecondary education, on the educational attainment of their children."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO determined the potential cost of equipping and maintaining the capability of cities to respond to a terrorist incident involving a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear device (CBRN), focusing on the: (1) views of federal, state, and local officials on equipment they believed would provide various levels of capability to respond to a CBRN incident; and (2) potential procurement and sustainment costs of these items."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the level of enrollment in the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB) program and the Specified Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary (SLMB) program, focusing on: (1) the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of: (a) Medicare beneficiaries who enroll as a QMB or SLMB; and (b) Medicare beneficiaries who qualify for QMB or SLMB but do not enroll; (2) reasons why eligible beneficiaries are not enrolled; and (3) strategies to increase enrollment."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO followed up on its report on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) fiscal year (FY) 1998 financial statements."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the District of Columbia's compliance with Public Law 105-100, focusing on whether: (1) any District employees were authorized, as of September 1998, to take home official vehicles; and (2) these employees were aware of the statutory restriction on using District government vehicles for other than official business, including home-to-work transportation."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Postal Service's acceptance controls for business mail, focusing on whether the Service had made the changes GAO recommended previously and whether those changes were working."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Acquisition Internet Service (NAIS), focusing on: (1) whether NAIS is an effective mechanism for disseminating procurement information to industry, including small businesses; and (2) the status of efforts to develop a governmentwide electronic procurement information system similar to NAIS."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Federal Reserve System's (FRS) efforts to remedy the year 2000 problem for its internal computer systems."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO assessed the impact that delays in relocating utilities are having on the delivery and cost of federal-aid highway and bridge projects, focusing on the: (1) extent to which states are experiencing such delays and the causes and impacts of the delays; (2) number of states that are compensating construction contractors for the added costs incurred on their projects because of untimely relocations by utility companies; (3) available technologies, such as subsurface utility engineering; and (4) mitigation methods that states are using, such as incentives, penalties, and litigation, to encourage or compel cooperation by utility companies that are relocating utilities on federal-aid highway and bridge projects."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO followed up on its report on Amtrak's financial performance, focusing on: (1) Amtrak's overall financial performance in fiscal year (FY) 1998; (2) the prospects for Amtrak to meet its financial goals for operating self-sufficiency outlined in its most recent strategic business plan; and (3) the extent to which current and anticipated federal funding and recently enacted legislative reforms aimed at helping Amtrak better control its costs are likely to help improve its financial condition."

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This memo explores the assumptions in Mark P. Mills' report titled 'The Internet Begins with Coal' that relate to current electricity use 'associated with the Internet'. We find that Mills has significantly overestimated electricity use, in some cases by more than an order of magnitude. We adjust his estimates to reflect measured data and more accurate assumptions, which reduces Mills' overall estimate of total Internet-related electricity use by about a factor of eight.

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This report discusses the provisions expanding a court's authority to award attorney's fees and costs in certain cases and permitting a taxpayer to collect damages for negligent collection actions by IRS agents.

The purpose of this calculation is to document the WAPDEG version 3.09 (CRWMS M&O 1998b). Software Routine Report for WAPDEG (Version 3.09) simulations used to analyze waste package degradation and failure under the repository exposure conditions characterized by a two-tier thermal loading repository design. Also documented is the post-processing of these results into tables of waste-package-degradation-time histories suitable for use as input into the Integrated Probabilistic Simulator for Environmental Systems (RIP) version 5.19.01 (Golder Associates 1998) computer program. Specifically, the WAPDEG simulations discussed in this calculation correspond to waste package emplacement conditions (repository environment and design) as defined in the Total System Performance Assessment-Viability Assessment (CRWMS M&O 1998a). Total System Performance Assessment-Viability Assessment (TSPA-VA) Analyses Technical Basis Document--Chapter 5, Waste Package Degradation Modeling And Abstraction, pp. 5-27 to 5-29, with the exception that a two-tier thermal loading design feature as specified in the License Application Design Selection (LADS) study was analyzed. The particular design feature evaluated in this report is a modification of the repository horizon elevation and layout within the Topopah Springs Member of Yucca Mountain. Specifically, the modification consists of adding a second level, 50-m above the base case repository layout. Two options were considered, representing two variations …

This development project addressed the need for a faster, less expensive method of transmission ultrasound. It utilized the principle of frustrated total internal reflection to transduce acoustic pressure into optical modulation. These data were acquired an entire 2D plane at a time. This report described the modeling and verification of a final sensor design.

This report, ''Summary Report of Laboratory Critical Experiment Analyses Performed for the Disposal Criticality Analysis Methodology'', contains a summary of the laboratory critical experiment (LCE) analyses used to support the validation of the disposal criticality analysis methodology. The objective of this report is to present a summary of the LCE analyses' results. These results demonstrate the ability of MCNP to accurately predict the critical multiplication factor (keff) for fuel with different configurations. Results from the LCE evaluations will support the development and validation of the criticality models used in the disposal criticality analysis methodology. These models and their validation have been discussed in the ''Disposal Criticality Analysis Methodology Topical Report'' (CRWMS M&O 1998a).

The purpose of the next version of the Hanford Immobilized Low-Activity Tank Waste (ILAW) Performance Assessment (ILAW PA) is to provide an updated estimate of the long-term human health and environmental impact of the disposal of ILAW and to compare these estimates against performance objectives displayed in Tables 1,2, and 3 (Mann 1999a). Such a radiological performance assessment is required by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Orders on radioactive waste management (DOE 1988a and DOE 1999a). This document defines the scenarios that will be used for the next update of the PA that is scheduled to be issued in 2001. Since the previous performance assessment (Mann 1998) was issued, considerable additional data on waste form behavior and site-specific soil geotechnical properties have been collected. In addition, the 2001 ILAW PA will benefit from improved computer models and the experience gained from the previous performance assessment. However, the scenarios (that is, the features, events, and processes analyzed in the Performance assessment) for the next PA are very similar to the ones in the 1998 PA.

Before low-level waste may be disposed of, a performance assessment must be written and then approved by the DOE (DOE 1988a DOE 1999a). The performance assessment is to determine whether ''reasonable assurance'' exists that the performance objectives of the disposal facility will be met. The DOE requirements for waste disposal (DOE 1988a DOE 1999a) require the protection of public health and safety; and the protection of the environment. Although quantitative limits are sometimes stated (for example, the all-pathways exposure limit is 25 mrem/year), usually the requirements are stated in a general nature. Quantitative limits were established by: investigating all potentially applicable regulations as well as interpretations of the review panels which DOE has established to review performance assessments, interacting with program management to establish the additional requirements of the program, and interacting with the public (i.e., the Hanford Advisory Board members; as well as affected Tribal Governments) to understand the values of residents in the Pacific Northwest. Because of space considerations, not all radionuclides and dangerous chemicals are listed in this document. The radionuclides listed here are those which were explicitly treated in the ILAW PA (Mann 1998). The dangerous chemicals listed here are those most often detected in Hanford …

The Respond and Pump in Days (RAPID) project was initiated to pump part of the contents of tank 241-SY-101 into tank 241-SY-102. This is the Master Equipment List (MEL) for this project document.

The Transuranic Waste Characterization Quality Assurance Program Plan required each US Department of Energy (DOE) site that characterizes transuranic waste to be sent the Waste Isolation Pilot Plan that addresses applicable requirements specified in the QAPP.

In 1997, the US public and private sectors invested $205.7 billion in R&D. Private sector investments in R&D increased 34% between 1990 and 1997; over the same period the federal government decreased its expenditures by 15% in real terms. Projections of outyear federal budgets indicate the federal government will continue to reduce its investments in R&D for the foreseeable future. Defense R&D continues to be the largest area of concentration for federal government's R&D investments, with defense R&D accounting for 54% of all federal R&D outlays in 1998. Defense R&D is funded at a level which is there times higher than health R&D. Health R&D has experienced the largest inflation-adjusted increases of any federal R&D program, up 21% in real terms since 1990. US national (i.e., public and private) investments in energy R&D currently stand at a 23-year low of $4.4 billion in 1996. Federal support for energy R&D has declined 22% in real terms between 1990 and 1996. Federal energy R&D investments are also undergoing changes in priority. Fossil energy R&D programs are at the beginning of a potentially significant change away from ''clean coal'' technology development programs and towards more fundamental research on ways to decarbonize fossil fuels …