During the first five years of its contract with the Department of Energy, Westinghouse Savannah River Company was paid over $130 million in fees to manage and operate the Savannah River Site. Fees paid to Westinghouse steadily increased over the five year period. For example, fees paid for the last six months of this five year period were over three times as large as fees paid for the first six months. The purpose of this inspection was to review the Department`s annual negotiation of total available fees with Westinghouse, and to examine the reasons for the growth in fees over this five year period. The review disclosed that, after Fiscal Year 1989, the Department used an increasing number of fee bases in calculating Westinghouse Savannah River Company`s fixed-fee-equivalents from the maximum fee schedules within the Department of Energy Acquisition Regulation. The authors found that the Department had significantly increased the percentage of the dollar value of subcontracts being placed in Westinghouse`s fee bases for fee calculation purposes. They found that the Department had effectively increased Westinghouse`s fixed-fee-equivalents by approximately $3 million in both Fiscal Year 1993 and 1994 to, in large part, fund an unallowable employee incentive compensation program. They …

DOE`s downsizing goals were achieved at Oak Ridge without resorting to involuntary terminations; voluntary separations and worker transfers negated the need for layoffs and associated worker assistance programs. Nevertheless, Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, Inc., established training programs and an outplacement center which was felt by IG to provide little benefit to displaced workers or the Oak Ridge region, because DOE was not adequately involved in preparing the restructuring plans and did not curtail training/outplacement funding when expected layoffs did not materialize. Thus, DOE unnecessarily spent $8.2 M in FYs 1993 and 1994. In addition, substantial lobbying activity was found under a grant to an Oak Ridge advocacy group. Management did not concur with the above findings.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has identified a need to improve the management of wastewater resulting from high explosives (HE) research and development work at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). LANL`s current methods off managing HE-contaminated wastewater cannot ensure that discharged HE wastewater would consistently meet the Environmental Protection Agency`s (EPA`s) standards for wastewater discharge. The DOE needs to enhance He wastewater management to e able to meet both present and future regulatory standards for wastewater discharge. The DOE also proposes to incorporate major pollution prevention and waste reduction features into LANL`s existing HE production facilities. Currently, wastewater from HE processing buildings at four Technical Areas (TAs) accumulates in sumps where particulate HE settles out and barium is precipitated. Wastewater is then released from the sumps to the environment at 15 permitted outfalls without treatment. The released water may contain suspended and dissolved contaminants, such as HE and solvents. This Environmental Assessment (EA) analyzes two alternatives, the Proposed Action and the Alternative Action, that would meet the purpose and need for agency action. Both alternatives would treat all HE process wastewater using sand filters to remove HE particulates and activated carbon to adsorb organic solvents and dissolved HE. Under either …

This is the fourth Technical Progress Report for DOE Contract No. DE-AC02-94CE50389 awarded to Ford Motor Company on July 1, 1994. The overall objective of this contract is to advance the Proton-Exchange-Membrane (PEM) fuel cell technology for automotive applications. Specifically, the objectives resulting from this contract are to: (1) Develop and demonstrate on a laboratory propulsion system within 2-1/2 years a fully functional PEM Fuel Cell Power System (including fuel cell peripherals, peak power augmentation and controls). This propulsion system will achieve, or will be shown to have the growth potential to achieve, the weights, volumes, and production costs which are competitive with those same attributes of equivalently performing internal combustion engine propulsion systems; (2) Select and demonstrate a baseline onboard hydrogen storage method with acceptable weight, volume, cost, and safety features and analyze future alternatives; and (3) Analyze the hydrogen infrastructure components to ensure that hydrogen can be safely supplied to vehicles at geographically widespread convenient sites and at prices which are less than current gasoline prices per vehicle-mile; (4) Identify any future R&D needs for a fully integrated vehicle and for achieving the system cost and performance goals.

The United States and Japan are closely tied economically. Japan ranks second only to Canada as the largest U.S. export market. Japan is the leading market for American agricultural exports, such as corn and meat; for U.S. crude materials such as wood; and for U.S.-produced aircraft. Japan is also the second largest supplier of U.S. imports. These include cars, consumer electronics, telecommunications equipment, and computers. The United States ranks as Japan's number one export market and import supplier.

Measured in dollars, Japan's global trade surplus stands at a record level. Also in recent months the Japanese yen has appreciated markedly against the dollar. The two events seem to foster a sizable degree of concern among many Americans, perhaps, taken to be evidence of Japan's economic success and the United States' economic failure. Things need not be as they seem, however.

In order to study combustion performance under conditions similar to that in the AFBC system, the authors conducted a series of experiments at a heating rate of 100 C/min using the TGA/FTIR/MS system. Results indicate that more hydrocarbons are evolved at the faster heating rate, owing to incomplete combustion of the fuel. Chlorinated organic compounds can be formed at high heating rates. Certain oxidation products such as organic acids and alcohols are obtained at the slow heating rate. To simulate the conditions used in the atmospheric fluidized bed combustor (AFBC) at Western Kentucky University, studies were also conducted using a quartz tube in a tube furnace. The temperature conditions were kept identical to those of the combustor. The products evolved from the combustion of coal, PVC, and mixtures of the two were trapped in suitable solvents at different temperatures, and analyzed using the Shimadzu GC/MS system. The detection limits and the GC/MS analytical parameters were also established. The experiments were conducted keeping in mind the broader perspective; that of studying conditions conducive to the formation of chlorinated organic compounds from the combustion of coal/MSW blends. 32 figs., 16 tabs.