A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "To suppress enemy air defenses, U.S. armed forces use specialized aircraft designed to neutralize, destroy, or temporarily degrade enemy air defense systems through either physical attack or electronic warfare. Concerns have been raised that the Air Force's decision to retire EF-111 and F-4G suppression aircraft, combined with a growing threat from increasingly sophisticated enemy air defenses, has created a gap between the services' suppression capabilities and their needs. GAO (1) examined the steps that the military has taken since 1996 to improve its ability to suppress enemy air defenses and (2) evaluated the services' plans to eliminate any gap between their suppression capabilities and needs. GAO found that the services have improved their suppression capabilities, such as increasing the size of their fleets of F-16CJ and EA-6B suppression aircraft, improving the electronic warfare and missile systems on these aircraft, studying cost-effective alternatives for suppression in the future, and reviewing electronic warfare programs to determine if these programs are adequately managed, prioritized, and funded. However, GAO also found that current suppression capabilities are not adequate and that no comprehensive, cross-service strategy exists for achieving the suppression mission."

The Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) canister production rate must be increased to meet canister production goals. Although a number of factors exist that could potentially increase melt rate, this study focused on two: (1) changes in frit composition and (2) changes to the feed preparation process to alter the redox of the melter feed. These two factors were investigated for Macrobatch 2 (sludge batch 1B) utilizing crucible studies and a specially designed ''melt rate'' furnace. Other potential factors that could increase melt rate include: mechanical mixing via stirring or the use of bubblers, changing the power skewing to redistribute the power input to the melter, and elimination of heat loss (e.g. air in leakage). The melt rate testing in FY00 demonstrated that melt rate can be improved by adding a different frit or producing a much more reducing glass by the addition of sugar as a reductant. The frit that melted the fastest in the melt rate testing was Frit 165. A paper stud y was performed using the Product Composition Control System (PCCS) to determine the impact on predicted glass viscosity, liquidus, durability, and operating window if the frit was changed from Frit 200 to Frit 165. PCCS …

We provide direct experimental evidence for a non-random distribution of atomic constituents in Zr-based multi-component bulk metallic glasses using positron annihilation spectroscopy. The Ti content around the open-volume regions is significantly enhanced at the expense of Cu and Ni, indicating that Cu and Ni occupy most of the volume bounded by their neighboring atoms while Ti and Zr are less closely packed and more likely to be associated with open-volume regions. Temperature-dependent measurements indicate the presence of at least two different characteristic sizes for the open volume regions. Measurements on hydrogen-charged samples show that the larger open-volume regions can be filled by hydrogen up to a critical density. Beyond this critical density, local atomic-scale open-volume damage is created in the sample to accommodate additional hydrogen. The onset of this local damage in positron annihilation data coincides with the onset of volume expansion in X-ray diffraction data.

None

Access America E-Gov E-Zine tells the stories of how federal employees are using information technology to deliver services to the American people and to improve their own productivity. Their work captures the vision of Vice President Al Gore in his book, Access America: Reengineering Through Information Technology.

In order to meet the requirements of the Tank 8 Waste Removal Schedule, samples (approximately 80 mL/each) of Tank 8 sludge slurry were taken and transported to the Savannah River Technology Center's (SRTC) Shielded Cells Facility for analysis. This report discusses the rheological measurements completed on the first set of Tank 8 samples received at SRTC.

The mission of the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) is to extend the understanding of toroidal physics to low aspect ratio (R/a approximately equal to 1.25) in low collisionality regimes. NSTX is designed to operate with up to 6 MW of High Harmonic Fast Wave (HHFW) heating and current drive, 5 MW of Neutral Beam Injection (NBI) and Co-Axial Helicity Injection (CHI) for non-inductive startup. Initial experiments focused on establishing conditions that will allow NSTX to achieve its aims of simultaneous high-bt and high-bootstrap current fraction, and to develop methods for non-inductive operation, which will be necessary for Spherical Torus power plants. Ohmic discharges with plasma currents up to 1 MA and with a range of shapes and configurations were produced. Density limits in deuterium and helium reached 80% and 120% of the Greenwald limit respectively. Significant electron heating was observed with up to 2.3 MW of HHFW. Up to 270 kA of toroidal current for up to 200 msec was produced noninductively using CHI. Initial NBI experiments were carried out with up to two beam sources (3.2 MW). Plasmas with stored energies of up to 140 kJ and bt =21% were produced.

This manual documents a recommended methodology for determining the ingestion pathway consequences of hypothetical accidental airborne radiological releases from facilities at the Savannah River Site. Both particulate and tritiated radioactive contaminants are addressed. Other approaches should be applied for evaluation of routine releases.

Compilation of monthly reports from departments in the city of San Antonio, Texas providing statistics, project updates, and other information about services and activities.

Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Agriculture.

Congressional Research Service (CRS) report entailing information about technology challenges programs in the elementary and secondary education act. Topics include, the technology literacy challenge fund, technology innovation challenge grant, program impact and evaluation, etc..

This report focuses on the R&D programs. It divides the programs into four categories: energy resources R&D, science, national security R&D, and environmental management R&D. Those categories, which approximate the way DOE has divided up its programs, are set up to keep similar research activities together.1 This arrangement is somewhat different from the way the R&D budget is approached by the congressional appropriations committees. This report gives a description of the programs within each category including their research objectives and the activities where significant budget changes were requested for FY2001. It then describes the request and congressional actions on the request.

None

On December 4, 1991, President George Bush signed into law the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) to counter illicit drug production and trade in Latin America. For ten years, it has provided preferential, mostly duty-free, treatment of selected U.S. imports from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. The goal of ATPA is to encourage increased exports, thereby promoting development and providing an incentive for Andean farmers and other workers to pursue economic alternatives to the drug trade. This report discusses the ATPA, its background, and issues regarding its potential reauthorization.