Report that discusses the American International Group (AIG), which was the largest direct recipient of government financial assistance during the recent financial crisis.

This report provides an overview of selected topics that provide a broad overview of issues that are central to the telecommunications/media convergence debate.

This report focuses on funding for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). The VHA is primarily a direct service provider of primary care, specialized care, and related medical and social support services to veterans through the nation's largest integrated health care system. Eligibility for VA health care is based primarily on previous military service, disability, and income.

This report discusses the current political state of Afghanistan, as well as the Afghan government. This report also discusses Afghanistan's relationship with the United States, particularly U.S. efforts to urge President Hamid Karzai to address corruption within the Afghan government.

A key technological issue facing the success of future Concentrating Solar Thermal Power (CSP) plants is creating an economical Thermal Energy Storage (TES) system. Current TES systems use either sensible heat in fluids such as oil, or molten salts, or use thermal stratification in a dual-media consisting of a solid and a heat-transfer fluid. However, utilizing the heat of fusion in inorganic molten salt mixtures in addition to sensible heat , as in a Phase change material (PCM)-based TES, can significantly increase the energy density of storage requiring less salt and smaller containers. A major issue that is preventing the commercial use of PCM-based TES is that it is difficult to discharge the latent heat stored in the PCM melt. This is because when heat is extracted, the melt solidifies onto the heat exchanger surface decreasing the heat transfer. Even a few millimeters of thickness of solid material on heat transfer surface results in a large drop in heat transfer due to the low thermal conductivity of solid PCM. Thus, to maintain the desired heat rate, the heat exchange area must be large which increases cost. This project demonstrated that the heat transfer coefficient can be increase ten-fold by using …

Subsurface bacteria including sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) reduce soluble U(VI) to insoluble U(IV) with subsequent precipitation of UO2. We have shown that SRB reduce U(VI) to nanometer-sized UO2 particles (1-5 nm) which are both intra- and extracellular, with UO2 inside the cell likely physically shielded from subsequent oxidation processes. We evaluated the UO2 nanoparticles produced by Desulfovibrio desulfuricans G20 under growth and non-growth conditions in the presence of lactate or pyruvate and sulfate, thiosulfate, or fumarate, using ultrafiltration and HR-TEM. Results showed that a significant mass fraction of bioreduced U (35-60%) existed as a mobile phase when the initial concentration of U(VI) was 160 µM. Further experiments with different initial U(VI) concentrations (25 - 900 M) in MTM with PIPES or bicarbonate buffers indicated that aggregation of uraninite depended on the initial concentrations of U(VI) and type of buffer. It is known that under some conditions SRB-mediated UO2 nanocrystals can be reoxidized (and thus remobilized) by Fe(III)-(hydr)oxides, common constituents of soils and sediments. To elucidate the mechanism of UO2 reoxidation by Fe(III) (hydr)oxides, we studied the impact of Fe and U chelating compounds (citrate, NTA, and EDTA) on reoxidation rates. Experiments were conducted in anaerobic batch systems in PIPES buffer. …

As a part of the Actinide Removal Process (ARP)/Modular Caustic Side Solvent Extraction Unit (MCU) Life Extension Project, a next generation solvent (NGS) and a new strip acid will be deployed. The strip acid will be changed from dilute nitric acid to dilute boric acid (0.01 M). Because of these changes, experimental testing or evaluations with the next generation solvent are required to determine the impact of these changes (if any) to Chemical Process Cell (CPC) activities, glass formulation strategies, and melter operations at the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF). The introduction of the dilute (0.01M) boric acid stream into the DWPF flowsheet has a potential impact on glass formulation and frit development efforts since B2O3 is a major oxide in frits developed for DWPF. Prior knowledge of this stream can be accounted for during frit development efforts but that was not the case for Sludge Batch 8 (SB8). Frit 803 has already been recommended and procured for SB8 processing; altering the frit to account for the incoming boron from the strip effluent (SE) is not an option for SB8. Therefore, the operational robustness of Frit 803 to the introduction of SE including its compositional tolerances (i.e., up to 0.0125M …

Recent advances in technology has made possible to create matter with extremely high energy density (energy densities and pressure exceeding 1011 J/m3 and 1 Mbar respectively). The field is new and complex. The basic question for high energy density physics (HEDP) is how does matter behave under extreme conditions of temperature, pressure, density and electromagnetic radiation? The conditions for studying HEDP are normally produced using high intensity short pulse laser, x-rays, particle beams and pulsed power z-pinches. Most of these installations occupy a large laboratory floor space and require a team consisting of a large number of scientists and engineers. This limits the number of experiments that can be performed to explore and understand the complex physics. A novel way of studying HEDP is with a compact x-pinch in university scale laboratory. The x-pinch is a configuration in which a pulsed current is passed through two or more wires placed between the electrodes making the shape of the letter ‘X’. Extreme conditions of magnetic field (> 200 MGauss for less than 1 ns), temperature (1 keV) and density (~ 1022 cm-3) are produced at the cross-point, where two wires make contact. Further, supersonic jets are produced on either side of …