The Electric Power Monthly (EPM) presents monthly electricity statistics. The purpose of this publication is to provide energy decisionmakers with accurate and timely information that may be used in forming various perspectives on electric issues that lie ahead. The EPM is prepared by the Survey Management Division; Office of Coal, Nuclear, Electric and Alternate Fuels, Energy Information Administration (EIA), Department of Energy. This publication provides monthly statistics at the US, Census division, and State levels for net generation, fossil fuel consumption and stocks, quantity and quality of fossil fuels, cost of fossil fuels, electricity sales, revenue, and average revenue per kilowatthour of electricity sold. Data on net generation, fuel consumption, fuel stocks, quantity and cost of fossil fuels are also displayed for the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) regions.

Heat loading analysis of the Solid Waste Disposal Facility (SWDF) waste storage configurations show the containers may exceed 90{degrees}C without any radioactive decay heat contribution. Contamination containment is primarily controlled in TRU waste packaging by using multiple bag layers of polyvinyl chloride and polyethylene. Since literature values indicate that these thermoplastic materials can begin mechanical degradation at 66{degrees}C, there was concern that the containment layers could be breached by heating. To better define the mechanical degradation temperature limits for the materials, a series of heating tests were conducted over a fifteen and thirty minute time interval. Samples of a low-density polyethylene (LDPE) bag, a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) high efficiency particulate air filter (HEPA) container, PVC bag and sealing tape were heated in a convection oven to temperatures ranging from 90 to 185{degrees}C. The following temperature limits are recommended for each of the tested materials: (1) low-density polyethylene -- 110{degrees}C; (2) polyvinyl chloride -- 130{degrees}C; (3) high-density polyethylene -- 140{degrees}C; (4) sealing tape -- 140{degrees}C. Testing with LDPE and PVC at temperatures ranging from 110 to 130{degrees}C for 60 and 120 minutes also showed no observable differences between the samples exposed at 15 and 30 minute intervals. Although these observed temperature …

The United States is emerging from the Cold War era into an exciting, but challenging future. Improving the economic competitiveness of our Nation is essential both for improving the quality of life in the United States and maintaining a strong national security. The research and technical skills used to maintain a leading edge in defense and energy now should be used to help meet the challenge of maintaining, regaining, and establishing US leadership in industrial technologies. Companies recognize that success in the world marketplace depends on products that are at the leading edge of technology, with competitive cost, quality, and performance. Los Alamos National Laboratory and its Industrial Partnership Center (IPC) has the strategic goal to make a strong contribution to the nation`s economic competitiveness by leveraging the government`s investment at the Laboratory: personnel, infrastructure, and technological expertise.

For non-reactor nuclear facilities, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) does not require that nuclear criticality safety engineers demonstrate qualification for their job. It is likely, however, that more formalism will be required in the future. Current DOE requirements for those positions which do have to demonstrate qualification indicate that qualification should be achieved by using a systematic approach such as performance based training (PBT). Assuming that PBT would be an acceptable mechanism for nuclear criticality safety engineer training in a more formal environment, a site-specific analysis of the nuclear criticality safety engineer job was performed. Based on this analysis, classes are being developed and delivered to a target audience of newer nuclear criticality safety engineers. Because current interest is in developing training for selected aspects of the nuclear criticality safety engineer job, the analysis is incompletely developed in some areas.

By a memorandum dated September 16, 1992, Office of Federal Procurement Policy OFPP requested that the DOE, Office of Inspector General, conduct a ``special`` audit of the nature and adequacy of DOE`s FFRDC sole-source renegotiation justifications developed since 1985. The OFPP request was based on a July 8, 1992 Senate Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management report entitled ``Inadequate Federal Oversight of Federally Funded Research and Development Centers,`` which detailed the need for strengthened federal controls over FFRDCs. The Office of Inspector General initiated an inspection in order to review and describe the Department`s history of designating its research laboratories as FFRDCs, and to review the Department`s compliance with the OFPP policy and procedures for establishing and renewing its FFRDCs. We also reviewed DOE`s sole-source renegotiation justifications to non-competitively extend its M&O contractors that manage DOE`s FFRDCs since September 30, 1984.

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The purpose of this work is to identify and characterize candidate conservative organic tracers for use as hydrologic tracers for experiments to be conducted at the Yucca Mountain C-well complex. During this quarter the main effort was directed towards rewriting the quality assurance program in preparation for a review and audit by the USGS. However, due to budget constraints the review and audit were not carried out. The tracer QA plan and standard operating procedures (SOPs) were revised and copies are included in the report. Instrumental problems were encountered and corrected with the addition of new integration and sample control software. In the sampling, there was an unexplained peak in the chromatograms of the tracers being tested in the light tuff. This was not correctable and these experiments will be repeated in the next quarter.

This report contains the following discussions: Introduction: Use of filters and windows in the front end designs; An interactive code for 3D graphic viewing of absorbed power in filters/windows and a new heat load generation algorithm for the finite element analysis; Failure criteria and analysis methods for the filter and window assembly; Comparison with test data and existing devices in HASYLAB; Cooling the filter: Radiation cooling or conduction cooling?; Consideration of window and filter thickness: Thicker or thinner?; Material selection criteria for filters/windows; Photon transmission through filters/windows; Window and filter design for APS undulators; Window and filter design for APS wigglers; and Window design for APS bending magnet front ends.

The overall objective of our DOE-Ocean Margins Programs grant is to develop a pCO[sub 2] sensor for long-term monitoring of pCO[sub 2] in the ocean margins and to establish a proving ground for the development of other chemical sensors for characterizing the carbon cycle in these regions. We have succeeded in keeping with the approximate timeline outlined in the original proposal, which, for year 1 included the following objectives: Continue sensor optimization, test response characteristics (reagent and sample flow rates, temperature), introduce position sensitive photodiode and photodiode array spectrophotometers and evaluate, develop reliable and reproducible fabrication techniques, develop sensor based on preliminary studies optimized for field measurements (minimize size and power requirements), test long-term stability of the sensor in the laboratory, determine susceptibility to fouling and corrosion. This work is summarized below along with a brief review of the sensor's operating principle.

This invention is comprised of an imaging Fourier transform spectrometer having a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer providing a series of images to a focal plane array camera. The focal plane array camera is clocked to a multiple of zero crossing occurrences as caused by a moving mirror of the Fourier transform infrared spectrometer and as detected by a laser detector such that the frame capture rate of the focal plane array camera corresponds to a multiple of the zero crossing rate of the Fourier transform infrared spectrometer. The images are transmitted to a computer for processing such that representations of the images as viewed in the light of an arbitrary spectral ``fingerprint`` pattern can be displayed on a monitor or otherwise stored and manipulated by the computer.

Review of NMP-NCS-930087, {open_quotes}Nuclear Criticality Safety Evaluation 93-04 Enriched Uranium Receipt (U), July 30, 1993, {close_quotes} was requested of SRTC (Savannah River Technology Center) Applied Physics Group. The NCSE is a criticality assessment to determine the mass limit for Engineered Low Level Trench (ELLT) waste uranium burial. The intent is to bury uranium in pits that would be separated by a specified amount of undisturbed soil. The scope of the technical review, documented in this report, consisted of (1) an independent check of the methods and models employed, (2) independent HRXN/KENO-V.a calculations of alternate configurations, (3) application of ANSI/ANS 8.1, and (4) verification of WSRC Nuclear Criticality Safety Manual procedures. The NCSE under review concludes that a 500 gram limit per burial position is acceptable to ensure the burial site remains in a critically safe configuration for all normal and single credible abnormal conditions. This reviewer agrees with that conclusion.

The Computer Incident Advisory Capability (CIAC) creates public information documents for the Dept. of Energy (DOE) related to computer security. These documents, known as the CIAC-2300 Series documents, are primarily concerned with information on security threats and methods for protecting systems from those threats. This document is a compilation of the abstracts of these documents.

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