A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

New data on tank 241-C-106 were obtained from grab sampling and from compatibility testing of tank C-106 and tank AY-102 wastes. All chemistry-associated and other compatibility Information compiled in this report strongly suggests that the sluicing of the contents of tank C-106, in accord with appropriate controls, will pose no unacceptable risk to workers, public safety, or the environment. In addition, it is expected that the sluicing operation will successfully resolve the High-Heat Safety Issue for tank C-106.

The Department of Energy Record of Decision (ROD) selected alternatives for disposition of surplus, weapons grade plutonium. A major objective of this decision was to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Other concerns addressed included economic, technical, institutional, schedule, environmental, and health and safety issues. The analysis reported here was conducted in parallel with technical, environmental, and nonproliferation analyses; it uses multiattribute utility theory to combine these considerations in order to facilitate an integrated evaluation of alternatives. This analysis is intended to provide additional insight regarding alternative evaluation and to assist in understanding the rationale for the choice of alternatives recommended in the ROD. Value functions were developed for objectives of disposition, and used to rank alternatives. Sensitivity analyses indicated that the ranking of alternatives for the base case was relatively insensitive to changes in assumptions over reasonable ranges. The analyses support the recommendation of the ROD to pursue parallel development of the vitrification immobilization alternative and the use of existing light water reactors alternative. 27 refs., 109 figs., 20 tabs.

This procedure describes the formulation and make-up of Simulated Concentrated Water (SCW), a high-ionic-content water to be used for Activity E-20-50 Long-Term Corrosion Studies. This water has an ionic content which is nominally a factor of a thousand higher than that of representative waters at or near Yucca Mountain. Representative waters were chosen as J-13 well water [Harrar, 1990] and perched water at Yucca Mountain [Glassley, 1996]. J-13 well water is obtained from ground water that is in contact with the Topopah Spring tuff, which is the repository horizon rock. The perched water is located in the Topopah Spring tuff, but below the repository horizon and above the water table. A nominal thousand times higher ionic content was chosen to simulate the water that would result from the wetting of salts which have been previously deposited on a container surface.

The measurement, or metrology, of physical objects is a fundamental requirement for industrial progress. Dimensional measurement capability lies at the heart of ones ability to produce objects within the required technical specifications. Dimensional metrology systems are presently dominated by touch-probe technologies, which are mature and reliable. Due to the intricate geometries required in certain fields of manufacturing, these contract probes cannot be physically brought in proximity to the measurement surface, or lack sufficient lateral resolution to satisfactorily determine the surface profile, which can occur in the measurement of gears, splines and thread. Optical probes are viable candidates to supplement the contact probes, since light can be focused to less than one micron (40 microinches), no contact occurs that can mar highly finished surfaces, and no probes must be replaced due to wear. However, optical probes typically excel only on one type of surface: mirror-like or diffuse, and the optical stylus itself is oftentimes not as compact as its contact probe counterpart. Apeiron, Inc. has pioneered the use of optical non-contact sensors to measure machined parts, especially threads, gears and splines. The Oak Ridge Metrology Center at Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant are world-class experts in dimensional metrology. The goal of this …

The biological literature is huge and increasingly moving to electronic form. By developing a variety of new techniques, it should be possible to take advantage of this huge and growing electronic store. Computers should allow one to use the literature with greater efficiency and insight to disseminate information and to advance scientific understanding. Though there is a great deal of research and development effort focused on electronic text, e.g., the Digital Libraries initiative, little attention has been paid to the diagrammatic content of documents. However, it is common knowledge among biologists, and scientists in general, that the figures in documents are of critical importance. Little work has been done to develop principles and systems for analyzing, representing, and indexing and searching the diagrammatic content of electronic documents. This has been the main thrust of this research project. The primary work in the world on the analysis of graphics in documents has been focused on low-level issues relating to scanning legacy documents (hardcopy) and trying to discover the graphics elements in them. Graphics files, as opposed to image files, have lines, curves, polygons, text, etc., represented as discrete objects, as they are originally generated in drawing and graphing applications. This has …

The authors discuss the study of the top quark at future experiments and machines. Top`s large mass makes it a unique probe of physics at the natural electroweak scale. They emphasize measurements of the top quark`s mass, width, and couplings, as well as searches for rare or nonstandard decays, and discuss the complementary roles played by hadron and lepton colliders.

This procedure describes the formulation and make-up of Simulated Dilute Water (SOW), a low-ionic-content water to be used for Activity E-20-50, Long-Term Corrosion Studies. This water has an ionic content which is nominally a factor of ten higher than that of representative waters at or near Yucca Mountain. Representative waters were chosen as J-13 well water [Harrar, 1990] and perched water at Yucca Mountain [Glassley, 1996]. J-13 well water is obtained from ground water that is in contact with the Topopah Spring tuff, which is the repository horizon rock. The perched water is located in the Topopah Spring tuff, but below the repository horizon and above the water table. A nominal times ten higher ionic content was chosen to simulate the effect of ionic concentrating due to elevated temperature water flowing through fractures where salts and minerals have been deposited due to evaporation and boiling.

The Department of Energy (Department) uses contractors to operate its facilities and compensates contractor employees based on their skills, complexity of jobs, and work performance. Thirty-one of the Department`s major contractors reported a total payroll of $4.3 billion and $4.4 billion during 1994 and 1995, respectively. The 31 contractors also reported awarding salary increases of $18 million for 1994 and $200 million for 1995. The purpose of the audit was to review the process used to determine and approve the amount of salary increases for contractor employees. The specific audit objective was to determine whether salary increases received by contractor employees were in accordance with Departmental policies and procedures. The Department of Energy Acquisition Regulation (DEAR) requires that contractor salary actions be within specific limitations, supportable, and approved prior to incurrence of costs. In addition, the Secretary of Energy imposed a 1 year salary freeze on the merit portion of management and operating contractor employee salaries for each contractor`s Fiscal Year 1994 compensation year. However, a fund for promotions and adjustments was approved but limited to 0.5 percent of payroll for the year. A review of eight major contractors showed that six complied with the Department`s policies on salary increases. …

Under this FY-96 NLUF program, the authors primarily carried out an initial search for satellite lines to forbidden transitions for localized laser-induced electric field measurements, using their flat-field grazing incidence spectrograph on the OMEGA-Upgrade facility at the University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE). In a second 1996 series of experiments carried out in September the authors were able to complete 19 shots using all 60 beams and spherical targets consisting of neon-filled microballoons with coatings of aluminum, magnesium and sodium fluoride, sometimes overcoated with a plastic (CH) layer. With cooperation from Dr. Paul Jaanimagi of LLE, they succeeded in adding a LLE streak camera for time resolution. The electric fields that they measured corresponded to laser irradiances comparable to those applied, accounting for some losses in the plasma. The details with figures are included in an attached preprint of a paper recently accepted for publication in the Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer (JQSRT) as part of the Proceedings of the November 1996 Conference on Radiative Properties of Hot Dense Matter at which the results were presented. They were also presented at the 1996 American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics Conference in Denver in November 1996.

This is a report over the Safe Schools Act as part of the 1995 rewrite of the Education Code. The report looks at the two main objects of the Legislature attempts to give administrators authority to remove disruptive students and create a safety net so expelled students are not cast into the streets.

Field investigation of the Kootenai valley-fill sandstones was begun in the first quarter. About one half of the outcrop belt was inventoried for occurrences of channel sandstone before heavy snows came to the area. Five exposures of valley-fill sandstone have been located, of these two are 15 meters (50 feet) or greater in thickness and have excellent porosity and permeability. These will be measured and studied in detail during the next field season (1997). No further field work was possible during the second and third quarters because of snow cover. Subsurface data is being collected, organized, and a digital database is being prepared for the project. Geographix petroleum software will probably be used to manage and manipulate the data. Regional subsurface cross sections are being constructed for correlation purposes. All of the four 30 X 60 geologic quadrangles, the Billings, Bridger, Hardin, and Lodge Grass, have been scanned to produce a digital surface geologic data base for the Crow Reservation. These maps are currently being proofed and edited for accuracy. A four-day oil and gas training seminar for Crow Tribal members was completed and was quite successful. The purpose was to enable tribal members and employees to understand and evaluate …