Photograph used for a story in the Daily Oklahoman newspaper. Caption: "Norman has a leg up on the competition whenever Scott Blanton gets ready to kick."

The most important attribute of a chemical contaminant at a hazardous-wastes site for decision makers to consider with regard to its cleanup is the potential risk associated with human exposure. For this reason we have developed a strategy for establishing a risk-based cleanup criterion for chemicals in soil. We describe this strategy by presenting a cleanup criterion for tetrachloroethylene (PCE) in soil associated with a representative California landscape. We being by discussing the environmental fate and transport model, developed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), that we used to predict the equilibrium concentration of PCE in five environmental media from a steady-state source in soil. Next, we explain the concept and application of pathway-exposure factors (PEFs), the hazard index, and cancer-potency factors (CPFs) for translating the predicted concentrations of PCE into estimated potential hazard or risk for hypothetically exposed individuals. Finally, the relationship between concentration and an allowable level of risk is defined and the societal and financial implications are discussed. 22 refs., 6 tabs.

The Advanced Light Source (ALS), now under construction at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, is a third-generation synchrotron radiation facility based on a low-emittance, 1.5-GeV electron storage ring with 10 long straight sections available for insertion devices and, initially, 24 bend-magnet ports. Undulators will provide high-brightness radiation at photon energies from below 10 eV to above 2 keV; wiggler and bend-magnet radiation will extend the spectral coverage with high fluxes to above 10 keV. Scheduled to begin operations as a US Department of Energy national user facility in the spring of 1993, the ALS will support an extensive research program in which soft x-ray and ultraviolet radiation is used to study matter in all its varied gaseous, liquid, and solid forms. Participating research teams to implement the initial scientific program have been selected. 13 refs., 3 figs., 2 tabs.

Laser-ultrasonics refers to a range of technologies involving the use of laser electrooptical systems both to generate and to detect ultrasonic signals in and on materials and structures. Such systems have been developed to permit classical ultrasonic measurements for materials characterization and defect identification and measurement. From the point of view of one concerned with practical applications of ultrasonic inspection and measurement methods, laser-ultrasonic systems offer the flexibility which, in principle, should permit remote ultrasonic measurements to be performed on objects at elevated temperatures or in hostile environments. Laser-ultrasonic systems can be designed and constructed with extremely wide and flat detection bandwidth so that ultrasonic vibrational displacements can be recorded with high fidelity. In addition, there is no mechanical loading of the surface to damp, absorb, or otherwise distort the propagating acoustic energy. This feature has been used to great advantage in performing ultrasonic measurements in thin plates and films. In spite of the great advantages offered by laser-ultrasonics, there are severe limitations which restrict its application. In fact, based upon the performance of current state-of-the-art laser-ultrasonic systems, it is almost always more advantageous to use conventional ultrasonic transduction methods, if possible for a given application, than it is to …

The Monthly Energy Review presents current data on production, consumption, stocks, imports, exports, and prices of the principal energy commodities in the United States. Also included are data on international production of crude oil, consumption of petroleum products, petroleum stocks, and production of electricity from nuclear-powered facilities.

Motivated by the recent developments in the cyclotron resonance upscattering of soft photons or CUSP model of Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) continuum spectra, we revisit a select database of GRBs with credible cyclotron absorption features. We measure the break energy of the continuum, the slope below the break and deduce the soft photon energy or the electron beam Lorentz factor cutoff. We study the correlation (or lack of) between various parameters in the context of the CUSP model. One surprise result is that there appears to be marginal correlation between the break energy and the spectral index below the break. 20 refs., 8 figs., 2 tabs.

A photoacoustic spectrometer, equipped with an 85 meter optical fiber, was used to perform absorption measurements of lanthanide and actinide samples, located in a glovebox. The spectrometer was tested using aqueous solutions of praseodymium and americium ions; the sensitivity for remote measurements was found to be similar to that achieved in the laboratory without the fiber. 14 refs., 3 figs.

The traveler presented a paper at the Seventh ASTM-EURATOM Symposium on Reactor Dosimetry and co-chaired an oral session on Computer Codes and Methods. Papers of considerable interest to the NRC Surveillance Dosimetry Program involved statistically based adjustment procedures and uncertainties. The information exchange meetings with Czechoslovakia and Hungary were very enlightening. Lack of large computers have hindered their surveillance program. They depended very highly on information from their measurement programs which were somewhat limited because of the lack of sophisticated electronics. The Nuclear Research Institute at Rez had to rely on expensive mockups of power reactor configurations to test their fluence exposures. Computers, computer codes, and updated nuclear data would advance their technology rapidly, and they were not hesitant to admit this fact. Both eastern-bloc countries said that IBM is providing an IBM 3090 for educational purposes but research and development studies would have very limited access. They were very apologetic that their currencies were not convertible, and any exchange means that they could provide services or pay for US scientists in their respective countries, but funding for their scientists in the United States, or expenses that involved payment in dollars, must come from us.

Letter opinion issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Jim Mattox, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification.

Photograph used for a story in the Daily Oklahoman newspaper. Caption: "The Sycamore Square apartment complex, 601 Robert S. Kerr, was purchased Friday by Ed Fretwell of Fretwell Enterprises for $1.45 million."

An effort to assess the criticality risks of {sup 239}Pu in TRU Burial Ground Culverts has been underway for several years. The concern arose from discrepancies in two types of monitors that have been used to assay the {sup 239}Pu waste prior to storage in 55-gallon drums that are placed in the culverts. One type is the solid waste monitor (SWM), which is based on gamma-ray measurements; the other is the neutron coincidence monitor, which is based on neutron measurements. The NCC was put into routine service after 1985 and has generally yielded higher 239 Pu assays than the SWM. Culverts with pre-1986 waste only had SWM assays of {sup 239}Pu; thus, it was questioned whether their actual {sup 239}Pu loadings could be high enough to pose criticality concerns. Studies to characterize the culvert criticality potential have included appraisal of NCC vs SWM, neutron measurements atop the culverts, gamma-ray measurements atop the culverts, and probabilistic risk analyses. Overall, these studies have implied that the culverts are critically safe; however, their results have not been examined collectively. The present report uses the collective information of the preceding studies to arrive at a more complete assessment of the culvert criticality aspects. A …

ANORM is a reliable, portable Fortran function program, written in the style of the SPECFUN package for computing the normal probability distribution to full machine precision on most contemporary computers. The main computation evaluates near-minimax approximations that are theoretically accurate to at least 18 significant decimal digitals. Special care has been taken in implementation to minimize error contamination in the crucial computations of the exponential and to provide full accuracy in the computation with large negative arguments. ANORM returns 0.0 for arguments smaller than the machine-dependent constant XLOW and returns 1.0 for arguments greater than the machine-dependent constant XUPPR.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

B-roll video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

B-roll video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

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

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

Photograph used for a story in the Daily Oklahoman newspaper. Caption: "Steven Myers, vice president, gas sales - Clinton Gas Transmission, Inc., Okla. City, Okla.."

Photograph used for a story in the Daily Oklahoman newspaper. Caption: "Jack Parker, retired University of Oklahoma education professor, was superintendent of OKC public schools in 1961 when the desegregation lawsuit still before the U. S. Supreme Court was filed. He says he believed at the time, and still believes, in integrated schools. (Desegregation move included busing students to achieve racial balance.)"

Photograph used for a newspaper owned by the Oklahoma Publishing Company. Caption: "Bill Nugen, Fred Sellers, Jim McKinney, Gary Bond"

Photograph used for a story in the Daily Oklahoman newspaper. Caption: "Tony Say, President of Clinton Gas Transmission Inc., an Oklahoma City based gas marketing firm."

Photograph used for a story in the Daily Oklahoman newspaper. Caption: "Data Times president Allen Paschal oversees a data retrieval service that now links four continents and 640 publications around the globe."

Weekly student newspaper published in Hurst, Texas serving the Tarrant County Junior College District that includes school news and information along with advertising.