A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Data sharing among federal agencies that run federal benefit and loan programs is important for determining the eligibility of applicants and beneficiaries. A GAO symposium on data sharing highlighted various issues facing federal agencies in their efforts to prevent abuse of federal programs. Symposium speakers focused on the number of program dollars saved by interagency data exchanges. Agencies using computer matching have detected undisclosed income and welfare recipients who receive benefits from more than one state. Improved technologies offer agencies the opportunity to expand their data sharing efforts. Such technologies include computer systems that can communicate directly with other systems and computer networks that can obtain information directly from financial institutions. Symposium speakers agreed that applicants' privacy should be protected when personal information is shared among agencies, but they disagreed about the extent to which data sharing threatens it. Privacy laws and security-related technology provide individuals with some protection against the possible misuse of personal information, but symposium participants differed on whether these protections are adequate."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Through the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), Congress has sought to improve federal management and instill a greater focus on results. Congress and the executive branch recognize, however, that performance improvements do not take place merely because a set of management requirements has been put in place. In 1997 and 2000, GAO surveyed agencies' progress towards establishing a focus on results. GAO found that progress has been uneven in building the organizational cultures to create and sustain a focus on results governmentwide. A significantly higher percentage of managers in 2000 than in 1997 reported that their agencies had provided, arranged, or paid for training that would help them accomplish two results-oriented management-related tasks: setting performance goals and implementing the requirements of GPRA. Overall, the survey results show that, in some keys areas, agencies may be losing ground in their efforts towards building organizational cultures that support a focus on results. In GAO's view, the Senate confirmation process must ensure that political nominees have the appropriate management and leadership skills needed to continue to transform federal agencies into high-performing organizations."

This report summarizes work on the development of a process to produce LNG (liquefied methane) for heavy vehicle use from landfill gas (LFG) using Acrion's CO{sub 2} wash process for contaminant removal and CO{sub 2} recovery.

This report summarizes work on the development of a process to produce LNG (liquefied methane) for heavy vehicle use from landfill gas (LFG) using Acrion's CO{sub 2} wash process for contaminant removal and CO{sub 2} recovery. Work was done in the following areas: (1) production of natural gas pipeline methane for liquefaction at an existing LNG facility, (2) production of LNG from sewage digester gas, (3) the use of mixed refrigerants for process cooling in the production of LNG, liquid CO{sub 2} and pipeline methane, (4) cost estimates for an LNG production facility at the Arden Landfill in Washington PA.

The purpose of this section of the welding manual is to: (1) Provide a general description of the major responsibilities of the organizations involved with welding. (2) Provide general guidance concerning the application of codes related to welding. This manual contains requirements for welding for all Fluor Hanford (FH) welding operators working on the W460 Project, in the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) at the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) Hanford facilities. These procedures and any additional requirements for these joining processes can be used by all FH welding operators that are qualified. The Welding Procedure Specifications (WPS) found in this document were established from Procedure Qualification Records (PQR) qualified by FH specifically for the W460 Project. PQRs are permanent records of the initial testing and qualification program and are used to backup, and support, the WPS. The identification numbers of the supporting PQR(s) are recorded on each WPS. All PQRs are permanently stored under the supervision of the Fluor Hanford Welding Engineer (FHWE). New PQRs and WPSs will continue to be developed as necessary. The qualification of welders, welding operators and welding procedures will be performed for FH under supervision and concurrent of the FHWE. All new welding procedures …

This study identifies the applicable requirements for procurement and installation of a coating intended for tank farm valve and pump pit interior surfaces. These requirements are intended to be incorporated into project specification documents and design media. This study also evaluates previously recommended coatings and identifies requirement-compliant coating products.

At the WRAP facility, there are two identical imaging passive/active neutron (IPAN) assay systems and two identical gamma energy assay (GEA) systems. Currently, only the GEA systems are used to characterize waste, therefore, only the GEA systems are addressed in this document. This document contains the limiting factors relating to the waste drum analysis for shipments destined for WIPP. The TMU document provides the uncertainty basis in the NDA analysis of waste containers at the WRAP facility. The defined limitations for the current analysis scheme are as follows: (1) The WRAP waste stream debris is from the Hanford Plutonium Finishing Plant's process lines, primarily combustible materials. (2) Plutonium analysis range is from the minimum detectable concentration (MDC), Reference 6, to 200 grams (g). (3) The GEA system calibration density ranges from 0.013 g/cc to 1.6 g/cc. (4) PDP Plutonium drum densities were evaluated from 0.065 g/cc to 0.305 g/cc. (5) PDP Plutonium source weights ranged from 0.030 g to 318 g, in both empty and combustibles matrix drums. (6) The GEA system design density correction mass absorption coefficient table (MAC) is Lucite, a material representative of combustible waste. (7) Drums with material not fitting the debris waste criteria are targeted …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed several amendments to its 1993 Corrective Action Management Unit (CAMU) rule. The CAMU rule currently allows agencies to set aside part of their hazardous waste site to deposit wastes without triggering the requirements of the Recovery Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). EPA's action is in response to a lawsuit alleging that the CAMU rule would allow for the management of wastes in violation of RCRA's land disposal restrictions. The 1993 rule and recently proposed rules governing the treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste onsite in CAMUs differ primarily in the requirements for waste treatment and facility design. According to EPA, the proposed rules will increase the time and the costs of site cleanups using CAMUs because it is less flexible than the 1993 rule and adds technical and process requirements. Several state representatives expressed concern that the proposed requirements could be applied to cleanups done under their programs, regardless of whether they were using CAMUs, thereby deterring the progress states have been making in cleaning up sites."

POLIDENT (POint LIbraries of Data from ENDF/B Tapes) is an AMPX module that accesses the resonance parameters from File 2 of an ENDF/B library and constructs the continuous-energy cross sections in the resonance energy region. The cross sections in the resonance range are subsequently combined with the File 3 background data to construct the cross-section representation over the complete energy range. POLIDENT has the capability to process all resonance reactions that are identified in File 2 of the ENDF/B library. In addition, the code has the capability to process the single- and multi-level Breit-Wigner, Reich-Moore and Adler-Adler resonance formalisms that are identified in File 2. POLIDENT uses a robust energy-mesh-generation scheme that determines the minimum, maximum and points of inflection in the cross-section function in the resolved-resonance region. Furthermore, POLIDENT processes all continuous-energy cross-section reactions that are identified in File 3 of the ENDF/B library and outputs all reactions in an ENDF/B TAB1 format that can be accessed by other AMPX modules.