Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Thos publication supersedes AIMD-21.2.8, Travel System Requirements: Checklist for Reviewing Systems Under the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act, May 2000. GAO published a guide reflecting the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program's revised Travel System Requirements to assist: (1) agencies in implementing and monitoring their travel systems; and (2) management and auditors in reviewing their travel systems to determine if they are in substantial compliance with the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Office of Information Management and Communications (OIMC) published its second annual performance report on OIMC's service to the GAO user community. This report: (1) provides a snapshot of major OIMC projects and key services; (2) highlights performance indicators OIMC has established for customer satisfaction and timeliness; and (3) identifies emerging issues requiring GAO management attention."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO published a functional requirements document for seized property and forfeited assets systems that will provide the capability for financial managers and others to control and account for seized property and forfeited assets."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO provided a listing of its reports, testimonies, correspondence and other publications issued in October 1999."

Weekly newspaper from Mannford, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

The National Transportation Program 1999 Transportation Baseline Report presents data that form a baseline to enable analysis and planning for future Department of Energy (DOE) Environmental Management (EM) waste and materials transportation. In addition, this Report provides a summary overview of DOE’s projected quantities of waste and materials for transportation. Data presented in this report were gathered as a part of the IPABS Spring 1999 update of the EM Corporate Database and are current as of July 30, 1999. These data were input and compiled using the Analysis and Visualization System (AVS) which is used to update all stream-level components of the EM Corporate Database, as well as TSD System and programmatic risk (disposition barrier) information. Project (PBS) and site-level IPABS data are being collected through the Interim Data Management System (IDMS). The data are presented in appendices to this report.

This report is one of six reports developed under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) program in Power System Integration and Reliability (PSIR). The objective of this report is to review, analyze, and evaluate critical reliability issues demonstrated by recent disturbance events in the North America power system. Eleven major disturbances are examined, most occurring in this decade. The strategic challenge is that the pattern of technical need has persisted for a long period of time. For more than a decade, anticipation of market deregulation has been a major disincentive to new investments in system capacity. It has also inspired reduced maintenance of existing assets. A massive infusion of better technology is emerging as the final option to continue reliable electrical services. If an investment in better technology will not be made in a timely manner, then North America should plan its adjustments to a very different level of electrical service. It is apparent that technical operations staff among the utilities can be very effective at marshaling their forces in the immediate aftermath of a system emergency, and that serious disturbances often lead to improved mechanisms for coordinated operation. It is not at all apparent that such efforts can be …

The Pacific Northwest Loads and Resources Study (White Book) is published annually by BPA and establishes the planning basis for supplying electricity to customers. It serves a dual purpose. First, the White Book presents projections of regional and Federal system load and resource capabilities, along with relevant definitions and explanations. Second, the White Book serves as a benchmark for annual BPA determinations made pursuant to its regional power sales contracts. Specifically, BPA uses the information in the White Book for determining the notice required when customers request to increase or decrease the amount of power purchased from BPA. The White Book will not be used in calculations for the 2002 regional power sales contract subscription process. The White Book compiles information obtained from several formalized resource planning reports and data submittals, including those from the Northwest Power Planning Council (Council) and the Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee (PNUCC). The White Book is not an operational planning guide, nor is it used for determining BPA revenues. Operation of the Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS) is based on a set of criteria different from that used for resource planning decisions. Operational planning is dependent upon real-time or near-term knowledge of system …

This report is a collection and review of system operation and failure experiences for air ventilation systems in nuclear facilities. These experiences are applicable for magnetic and inertial fusion facilities since air ventilation systems are support systems that can be considered generic to nuclear facilities. The report contains descriptions of ventilation system components, operating experiences with these systems, component failure rates, and component repair times. Since ventilation systems have a role in mitigating accident releases in nuclear facilities, these data are useful in safety analysis and risk assessment of public safety. An effort has also been given to identifying any safety issues with personnel operating or maintaining ventilation systems. Finally, the recommended failure data were compared to an independent data set to determine the accuracy of individual values. This comparison is useful for the International Energy Agency task on fusion component failure rate data collection.

The spent nuclear fuel dry transfer system (DTS) provides an interface between large and small casks and between storage-only and transportation casks. It permits decommissioning of reactor pools after shutdown and allows the use of large storage-only casks for temporary onsite storage of spent nuclear fuel irrespective of reactor or fuel handling limitations at a reactor site. A cold demonstration of the DTS prototype was initiated in August 1996 at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). The major components demonstrated included the fuel assembly handling subsystem, the shield plug/lid handling subsystem, the cask interface subsystem, the demonstration control subsystem, a support frame, and a closed circuit television and lighting system. The demonstration included a complete series of DTS operations from source cask receipt and opening through fuel transfer and closure of the receiving cask. The demonstration included both normal operations and recovery from off-normal events. It was designed to challenge the system to determine whether there were any activities that could be made to jeopardize the activities of another function or its safety. All known interlocks were challenged. The equipment ran smoothly and functioned as designed. A few "bugs" were corrected. Prior to completion of the demonstration testing, …

Semi-weekly newspaper from Clifton, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Semiweekly newspaper from Seminole, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

A groundwater flow model encompassing approximately 4 mi2 within C Reactor area has been developed. The objectives and goals of the C Reactor Area groundwater model are to: Provide a common hydrogeologic and groundwater flow modeling framework for C Area that can be easily updated as additional field data is collected from waste site investigations. Provide a baseline groundwater flow model for use in subsequent flow and transport simulations for remedial/feasibility studies for C Area waste sites. Provide baseline transport simulations for CBRP and CRSB that reconstruct historical contaminant distributions and simulate future plume migration from each waste unit. Provide a working groundwater flow model for particle tracking and analysis to guide subsequent field characterization activities. The model incorporates historical and current field characterization data up through spring 1999. The model simulates groundwater flow within the area bounded to the west and north by Fourmile Branch, to the south by Caster Creek, and to the east by a line between Fourmile Branch and the headwaters of Caster Creek. Vertically the model extends from ground surface to the top of the Gordon aquifer. The chosen areal grid is 14,600 by 13,200 feet with a resolution of 200 feet. The model accurately …

As the United States grapples with the issue of global climate change resulting from fossil fuel combustion, and as the U.S. Congress and individual state legislatures consider restructuring the electric utility industry, lawmakers should keep in mind the environmental preferability of renewable energy sources such as wind and the long, continuing record of public support for them. This is particularly important in view of restructuring, which will have the effect of shifting decisions about the type and quantity of new power plants to be built from utility executives to the general public. Preliminary information suggests that ''green,'' or environmentally-friendly, power sources could win a significant market share. In addition to creating new demand for clean energy sources, this development is likely to create a committed, educated political constituency for clean energy that has not existed in the past. In such an altered environment for the selection of new generation, public attitudes on the desirability of various power sources will become much more important than they have in the past. The purpose of this paper is to briefly summarize public opinion surveys on the environment in general, renewable energy in general, and wind energy in particular in that order, using data …

The growing maturity of ODBMS technology is causing many enterprises to consider migrating relational databases to ODBIMS's. While data remapping is relatively straight-forward in most cases, greater challenges lie in economically and non-invasively adapting legacy application software. We report on a genetics laboratory database migration experiment, which was facilitated by both organization of the relational data in object-like form and a C++-framework designed to insulate application code from relational artifacts. Although this experiment was largely successful, we discovered to our surprise that the framework failed to encapsulate three subtle aspects of the relational implementation, thereby ''contaminating'' application code. We analyze the underlying issues, and offer cautionary guidance to future migrators.

This document describes the Cold Vacuum Drying Facility (CVDF) Safety Class Instrumentation and Control system (SCIC). The SCIC provides safety functions and features to protect the environment, off-site and on-site personnel and equipment. The function of the SCIC is to provide automatic trip features, valve interlocks, alarms, indication and control for the cold vacuum drying process.

Gas storage wells are prone to continued deliverability loss at a reported average rate of 5% per annum (in the U.S.). This is a result of formation damage due to the introduction of foreign materials during gas injection, scale deposition and/or fines mobilization during gas withdrawal, and even the formation and growth of bacteria. As a means to bypass this damage and sustain/enhance well deliverability, several new and novel fracture stimulation technologies were tested in gas storage fields across the U.S. as part of a joint U.S. Department of Energy and Gas Research Institute R&D program. These new technologies include tip-screenout fracturing, hydraulic fracturing with liquid CO{sub 2} and proppant, extreme overbalance fracturing, and high-energy gas fracturing. Each of these technologies in some way address concerns with fracturing on the part of gas storage operators, such as fracture height growth, high permeability formations, and fluid sensitivity. Given the historical operator concerns over hydraulic fracturing in gas storage wells, plus the many other unique characteristics and resulting stimulation requirements of gas storage reservoirs (which are described later), the specific objective of this project was to identify new and novel fracture stimulation technologies that directly address these concerns and requirements, and to …

The University of North Dakota Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC), in partnership with United Technologies Research Center (UTRC) under a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) contract, has designed, constructed, and operated a 3.0-million Btu/hr (3.2 x 10{sup 6} kJ/hr) slagging furnace system (SFS). Successful operation has demonstrated that the SFS meets design objectives and is well suited for testing very high-temperature heat exchanger concepts. Test results have shown that a high-temperature radiant air heater (RAH) panel designed and constructed by UTRC and used in the SFS can produce a 2000 F (1094 C) process air stream. To support the pilot-scale work, the EERC has also constructed laboratory- and bench-scale equipment which was used to determine the corrosion resistance of refractory and structural materials and develop methods to improve corrosion resistance. DOE projects that from 1995 to 2015, worldwide use of electricity will double to approach 20 trillion kilowatt hours. This growth comes during a time of concern over global warming, thought by many policy makers to be caused primarily by increases from coal-fired boilers in carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) emissions through the use of fossil fuels. Assuming limits on CO{sub 2} emissions from coal-fired boilers are imposed in the …

During FY99, the Petroleum Technology Transfer Council (PTTC) continued pursuing its mission of helping U.S. independent oil and gas producers make timely, informed technology decisions. PTfC's national organization has active grassroots programs that connect with independents through its 10 Regional Lead Organizations (RLOs). These activities--including technology workshops, resource centers, websites, newsletters, and other outreach efforts--are guided by regional Producer Advisory Groups (PAGs). The role of the national headquarters (HQ) staff includes planning and managing the PTTC program, conducting nation-wide technology transfer activities, and implementing a comprehensive communications effort. This technical progress report summarizes PTTC's accomplishments during FY99, which lay the groundwork for further growth in the future.

The modeling and analysis of the complex interactions between genes and metabolites during development require computational approaches. However, existing methods cannot efficiently account for the large number of interacting players, the nonlinear nature of the interactions, or the disparate scales involved. The latter represents a challenge in modeling developmental systems since reaction rates and diffusion times can vary by several orders of magnitude (depending on the molecular system). Modeling processes of this type results in the pathology of stiffness. Numerically, stiffness occurs when, in order to prevent large amplification of errors, typical (non-stiff) algorithms require a step size much smaller than the scale at which the solution in changing. In this work, a new method to solve large stiff systems of equations in the non-linear power law form was developed. The power-law formatism is a proven powerful tool for biological systems modeling, and has many advantages over other formalisms used for this purpose. The advantages include the fact that it is canonical, and that it is an accurate local approximation to any type of interaction. Representative results are presented.

Two single-volute, multi-stage centrifugal pumps are installed at a nuclear waste transfer station operated by the Department of Energy in Hanford, WA. The two parallel 100% pumps are Variable Frequency Drive operated and designed to transport waste etc.

The purpose of this waste analysis plan (WAP) is to document the waste acceptance process, sampling methodologies, analytical techniques, and overall processes that are undertaken for waste accepted for storage at the Central Waste Complex (CWC), which is located in the 200 West Area of the Hanford Facility, Richland, Washington. Because dangerous waste does not include the source, special nuclear, and by-product material components of mixed waste, radionuclides are not within the scope of this documentation. The information on radionuclides is provided only for general knowledge.

A thermodynamically consistent strength and failure model for granite under dynamic loading has been developed and evaluated. The model agrees with static strength measurements and describes the effects of pressure hardening, bulking, shear-enhanced compaction, porous dilation, tensile failure, and failure under compression due to distortional deformations. This paper briefly describes the model and the sensitivity of the simulated response to variations in the model parameters and in the inelastic deformation processes used in different simulations. Numerical simulations of an underground explosion in granite are used in the sensitivity study.

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