A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In September 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau told Congress that it had at least $305 million in budget savings out of its $4.5 billion fiscal year 2000 no-year appropriations for the 2000 decennial census. Of the $4.5 billion appropriated to the U.S. Census Bureau in fiscal year 2000, lower-than-expected expenditures and obligations resulted in available balances of at least $415 million. A lower-than-expected support staff workload reduced salary and benefit costs by about $348 million. Enumerator workload is largely determined by the initial mail response rate for returned census questionnaires. The initial mail response of 64 percent meant that Census enumerators did not have to visit more than three million American households. However, the available balances from the higher mail response rate and the lower support staff workload were partially offset by about $100 million of higher salary and benefit costs for enumerators, including a higher workload for unanticipated recounts. According to Bureau data, enumerator productivity did not significantly affect budget variances for the 2000 decennial census. The Bureau reported the national average time to visit a household and complete a census questionnaire was about the …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Section 212 of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act requires agencies to publish compliance guides for each rule or group of related rules for which the agency is required to prepare a final regulatory flexibility analysis. GAO found that Section 212 has had little impact, and its implementation has varied across and sometimes within the agencies. None of the agencies in GAO's review provided GAO with guidance documents that met all of the statutory requirements for all of their 1999 and 2000 final rules. The agencies indicated that they tried to put their compliance guides in plain language--just as they have for all their regulatory materials. The guidance documents that the agencies gave GAO were often published on the agencies' web sites. Direct mail, electronic list servers, agency/regional offices, and workshops were also used for distribution."

It is possible to retrieve a large fraction of soluble waste from the Hanford single-shell waste tanks (SSTs) by dissolving it with water. This retrieval method will be demonstrated in Tanks U-107 and S-112 in the next few years. If saltcake dissolution proves practical and effective, many of the saltcake SSTs may be retrieved by this method. Many of the SSTs retain flammable gas that will be released into the tank headspace as the waste dissolves. This report describes the physical processes that control dissolution and gas release. Calculation results are shown and describe how the headspace hydrogen concentration evolves during dissolution. The observed spontaneous and induced gas releases from SSTs are summarized, and the dissolution of the crust layer in SY-101 is discussed as a recent example of full-scale dissolution of saltcake containing a large volume of retained gas. The report concludes that the dissolution rate is self-limiting and that gas release rates are relatively low.

It is possible to retrieve a large fraction of soluble waste from the Hanford single-shell waste tanks (SSTs) by dissolving it with water. This retrieval method will be demonstrated in Tanks U-107 and S-112 in the next few years. If saltcake dissolution proves practical and effective, many of the saltcake SSTs may be retrieved by this method. Many of the SSTs retain flammable gas that will be released into the tank headspace as the waste dissolves. This report describes the physical processes that control dissolution and gas release. Calculation results are shown and describe how the headspace hydrogen concentration evolves during dissolution. The observed spontaneous and induced gas releases from SSTs are summarized, and the dissolution of the crust layer in SY-101 is discussed as a recent example of full-scale dissolution of saltcake containing a large volume of retained gas. The report concludes that the dissolution rate is self-limiting and that gas release rates are relatively low.

New understanding, theories, and techniques for moisture flow and distribution were developed in this research on wood and wood fiber. Improved understanding of the mechanisms of flake drying has been provided. Observations of flake drying and drying rate curves revealed that rate of moisture loss consisted of two falling rate periods and no constant rate drying period was observed. Convective heat transfer controls the first period, and bound water diffusion controls the second period. Influence of lower drying temperatures on bending properties of wood flakes was investigated. Drying temperature was found to have a significant influence on bending stiffness and strength. A worksheet for calculation of the energy required to dry a single strandboard flake was developed but has not been tested in an industrial setting yet. A more complete understanding of anisotropic transverse shrinkage of wood is proposed based on test results and statistical analysis. A simplified mod el of a wood cell's cross-section was drawn for calculating differential transverse shrinkage. The model utilizes cell wall thickness and microfibrillar packing density and orientation. In spite of some phenomena of cell wall structure not yet understood completely, the results might explain anisotropic transverse shrinkage to a major extent. Boundary layer …