This report provides background information on the negotiations over North Korea's nuclear weapons program that began in the early 1990s under the Clinton Administration. As U.S. policy toward Pyongyang evolved through the George W. Bush and Obama presidencies, the negotiations moved from mostly bilateral to the multilateral Six-Party Talks (made up of China, Japan, Russia, North Korea, South Korea, and the United States).

This report begins with an explanation of the various Ticket to Work provisions and provides an analysis of program performance and return-to-work barriers encountered by ticket holders and ENs. The report concludes with a discussion of program-related issues that may be of interest to Congress.

This report describes chemical weapons and toxic industrial chemicals which cause a variety of symptoms in their victims. The report discusses the potential for terrorist use of chemical agents.

This report discusses the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA, P.L. 111-148) and the Reconciliation Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-152) that impose a fee on certain for-profit health insurers, starting in 2014.

This report summarizes direct federal funding identified as climate change-related from FY2008 enacted funding through FY2013 and the FY2014 request (as well as a less consistent series beginning with FY2001). It reports the Administration's estimates of tax revenues not received due to energy tax provisions that may reduce GHG emissions. The report briefly identifies the programs and funding levels, as well as some qualifications and observations on reporting of federal funding. It further offers some issues that Members may wish to consider in deliberating on U.S. climate change strategies.

Report regarding the slower than normal pace of the ongoing economic recovery and the likely role in that of weak consumer spending forced by a sharp loss of household net worth during the recession and the subsequent need to rebuild that lost wealth.

This report is divided into five sections that cover the following: major economic concepts underlying consumer food behavior; descriptions how U.S. food price inflation rates have evolved since 1915, when federal price data collection for inflation-measuring purposes began; information on recent history and projections for U.S. food expenditure shares relative to total household budget; an examination of retail food price inflation; and a discussion on the impact that rapid food price inflation can have on government food programs and the more vulnerable consumer groups.

This report examines options concerning the future of the GSEs and the future government role in residential mortgage markets. Other CRS reports address related issues such as conservatorship, the GSEs' financial condition, residential mortgage markets in other nations, and affordable housing.

This report provides a brief history of U.S. policy towards Burma and the development of U.S. sanctions, a topical summary of those sanctions, and an overview of actions taken to waive or ease those sanctions by the Obama Administration. The report concludes with a discussion of actions taken by the 112th Congress and options for the 113th Congress.

This report discusses the Energy and Water Development bill, which includes funding for civil works projects of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), the Department of the Interior's Central Utah Project (CUP) and Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), the Department of Energy (DOE), and a number of independent agencies, including the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC).

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federal statutes and regulations under the purview of the Department of Labor (Labor) and the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) allow employers who sponsor private pension plans to furnish all pension disclosures to participants electronically:"

This report discusses the current political and economic conditions in Russia, focusing on the impact of Vladimir Putin's leadership and the leadership of his successor/protégé, Dmitriy Medvedev, both of which have steered Russia away from progress toward democratization. The report also discusses the state of the economy since the Soviet collapse in 1999, how the recent global economic downturn has affected Russia, the state of Russia's military, and the current relationship between Russia and the United States.

Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) prepared two drums (50 gallons each in �Drum#2� and �Drum#4�) of NGS-MCU (Next Generation Solvent-Modular CSSX Unit) concentrate for future use at MCU in downblending the BOBCalixC6 based solvent to produce NGS-MCU solvent. Samples of each drum were sent for analysis. The results of all the analyses indicate that the blend concentrate is of the correct composition and should produce a blended solvent at MCU of the desired formulation.

Two formulations of EPDM elastomer, one substituting a UV stabilizer for the normal antioxidant in this polymer, and the other the normal formulation, were synthesized and samples of each were exposed to gamma irradiation in initially pure deuterium gas to compare their radiation stability. Stainless steel containers having rupture disks were designed for this task. After 130 MRad dose of cobalt-60 radiation in the SRNL Gamma Irradiation Facility, a significant amount of gas was created by radiolysis; however the composition indicated by mass spectroscopy indicated an unexpected increase in the total amount deuterium in both formulations. The irradiated samples retained their ductility in a bend test. No change of sample weight, dimensions, or density was observed. No change of the glass transition temperature as measured by dynamic mechanical analysis was observed, and most of the other dynamic mechanical properties remained unchanged. There appeared to be an increase in the storage modulus of the irradiated samples containing the UV stabilizer above the glass transition, which may indicate hardening of the material by radiation damage. Revision 1 adds a comparison with results of a study of tritium exposed EPDM. The amount of gas produced by the gamma irradiation was found to be …

The UREX+1 process is under consideration for the separation of transuranic elements from spent nuclear fuel. The first steps of this process extract the fission product technicium-99 ({sup 99}Tc) into an organic phase containing tributylphosphate together with uranium. Treatment of this stream requires the separation of Tc from U and placement into a suitable waste storage form. A potential candidate waste form involves immobilizing the Tc as an alloy with either excess metallic zirconium or stainless steel. Although Tc-Zr alloys seem to be promising waste forms, alternative materials must be investigated. Innovative studies related to the synthesis and behavior of a different class of Tc materials will increase the scientific knowledge related to development of Tc waste forms. These studies will also provide a better understanding of the behavior of {sup 99}Tc in repository conditions. A literature survey has selected promising alternative waste forms for further study: technetium metallic alloys, nitrides, oxides, sulfides, and pertechnetate salts. The goals of this project are to 1) synthesize and structurally characterize relevant technetium materials that may be considered as waste forms, 2) investigate material behavior in solution under different conditions of temperature, electrochemical potential, and radiation, and 3) predict the long-term behavior of …

Daily newspaper from Ennis, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Brownwood, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with advertising.

This research project will address some of the principal technology issues related to sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFR), primarily the development and demonstration of ultrasonic measurement diagnostics linked to effective thermal convective sensing under normatl and off-normal conditions. Sodium is well-suited as a heat transfer medium for the SFR. However, because it is chemically reactive and optically opaque, it presents engineering accessibility constraints relative to operations and maintenance (O&M) and in-service inspection (ISI) technologies that are currently used for light water reactors. Thus, there are limited sensing options for conducting thermohydraulic measurements under normal conditions and off-normal events (maintenance, unanticipated events). Acoustic methods, primarily ultrasonics, are a key measurement technology with applications in non-destructive testing, component imaging, thermometry, and velocimetry. THis project would have yielded a better quantitative and qualitative understanding of the thermohydraulic condition of solium under varied flow conditions. THe scope of work will evaluate and demonstrate ultrasonic technologies and define instrumentation options for the SFR.

This article discusses the process of depositing CeO₂ with a preferred crystalline orientation.

Ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV–Visible) and time-resolved laser fluorescence spectroscopy (TRLFS) optical techniques can permit on-line analysis of actinide elements in a solvent extraction process in real time. These techniques have been used for measuring actinide speciation and concentration under laboratory conditions and are easily adaptable to multiple sampling geometries, such as dip probes, fiber-optic sample cells, and flow-through cell geometries. To fully exploit these techniques, researchers must determine the fundamental speciation of target actinides and the resulting influence on spectroscopic properties. Detection limits, process conditions, and speciation of key actinide components can be established and utilized in a range of areas, particularly those related to materials accountability and process control. Through this project, researchers will develop tools and spectroscopic techniques to evaluate solution extraction conditions and concentrations of U, Pu, and Cm in extraction processes, addressing areas of process control and materials accountability. The team will evaluate UV– Visible and TRLFS for use in solvent extraction-based separations. Ongoing research is examining efficacy of UV-Visible spectroscopy to evaluate uranium and plutonium speciation under conditions found in the UREX process and using TRLFS to evaluate Cm speciation and concentration in the TALSPEAK process. A uranyl and plutonium nitrate UV–Visible spectroscopy study met with …

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Webpage from McKinney TXSSAR website containing photographs from the Celina Balloon Festival on September 13, 2013.

Daily newspaper from Altus, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.