A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Congress enacted a program to compensate Department of Energy employees and contractors in the atomic weapons industry who developed work-related illnesses. Department of Labor (Labor) administers the program using estimates of workers' likely radiation exposure to decide claims. The estimates are produced by Health and Human Services' (HHS) National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and reviewed by the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health. NIOSH awarded a contract to Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) to help carry out its work. GAO examined: (1) costs and oversight of NIOSH's contracts, (2) implementation of the conflict of interest policy for NIOSH and its contractors, (3) the extent of Labor's involvement in NIOSH's activities and actions to deny benefits, and (4) challenges to advisory board independence and options to enhance it. GAO reviewed contract files, examined Labor's comments on NIOSH documents, and analyzed data on cases sent to NIOSH for rework."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As a result of the 2005 base realignment and closure (BRAC) round, the military services are required to transfer to the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) all of their supply, storage, and distribution functions at specified depot maintenance locations that are collocated with a DLA distribution depot. These transfer actions are part of a larger BRAC recommendation, commonly referred to as the Supply, Storage, and Distribution (SS&D) recommendation, that is intended to reduce both the number of supply distribution depots and related excess capacity, while providing the Department of Defense (DOD) with a logistics base that saves money and enhances the effectiveness of logistics support to operational forces. There has been disagreement among the services and DLA about whether certain personnel positions that include functions inherently involving both supply and maintenance operations at the services' industrial depots should transfer to DLA as part of this recommendation. The Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps reached agreement with DLA about these positions in January, February, and April 2007, respectively. After repeated opposition to the transfer of certain positions, in July 2007 the Army agreed to comply with direction from the Office …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Between 2001 and 2004, an average of more than 1.5 million people annually filed for personal bankruptcy protection. In April 2005, the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (Reform Act) was enacted, in part, to address certain factors viewed as contributing to an escalation in bankruptcy filings. Described as representing the most comprehensive set of reforms in more than 25 years, the Reform Act, among other things, requires those filers with the ability to pay some of their debts from future earnings to enter into repayment plans under Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code instead of liquidating their assets under Chapter 7 and granting the debtor a discharge from eligible debts. Individuals usually file for bankruptcy under one of two chapters of the Bankruptcy Code. Under Chapter 13, filers submit a repayment plan to the court agreeing to pay part or all of their debts over time, usually 3 to 5 years. Under Chapter 7, the filer's eligible assets are reduced to cash and distributed to creditors in accordance with distribution priorities and procedures set out in the Bankruptcy Code. A large majority of cases filed under …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Many recent Social Security reform proposals to improve program solvency include elements that would reduce benefits currently scheduled for future recipients. To date, debate has focused primarily on the potential impact on retirees, with less attention to the effects on other Social Security recipients, such as disabled workers and dependents. As these beneficiaries may have fewer alternative sources of income than traditional retirees, there has been interest in considering various options to protect the benefits of disabled workers and certain dependents. This report examines (1) how certain elements of Social Security reform proposals could affect disability and dependent benefits, (2) options for protecting these benefits and how they might affect disabled workers and dependents, and (3) how protecting benefits could affect the Social Security program. To conduct this study, GAO used a microsimulation model to simulate benefits under various reform scenarios. GAO also interviewed experts and reviewed various reform plans, current literature, and GAO's past work."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Electricity is vital to our daily lives, powering homes, businesses, and industries. Presently, electricity is generated largely by coal and other fossil fuels and nuclear power, with hydropower, and, to a lesser extent, renewable energy sources, such as wind. Because of electricity's importance to producers, consumers, and businesses, the federal government has undertaken a wide range of programs to develop the electricity sector, which includes fuel suppliers, electric utilities, and others in the electricity industry. These programs have sought to, among other things, develop the nation's electrical infrastructure, influence the types of fuels used to produce electricity, increase the use of renewable energy, and limit the harmful effects of electricity production. These programs are financed through federal subsidies, broadly defined as payments made or benefits provided by the federal government to encourage certain desired activities or behaviors. For example, the federal government has, for many years, funded research and development (R&D) on fossil fuels, nuclear energy, renewable energy, other energy technologies, and related efforts through the Department of Energy (DOE). In addition, the federal government has provided favorable tax treatment, such as tax credits to companies …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The United States is pursuing two paths to fusion energy--magnetic and inertial. On November 21, 2006, the United States signed an agreement with five countries and the European Union to build and operate the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in Cadarache, France, to demonstrate the feasibility of magnetic fusion energy. The United States also built and operates facilities to pursue inertial fusion energy research. This report discusses (1) U.S. contributions to ITER and the challenges, if any, in managing this international fusion program and (2) the Department of Energy's (DOE) management of alternative fusion research activities, including National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) initiatives. In performing this work, GAO analyzed budget documents, briefings, and reports that focused on research and funding priorities for the fusion program. GAO also met with officials from DOE, NNSA, and the ITER Organization in France."

This alignment technique was developed while performing heterodyne velocimetry measurements at LLNL. There are a few minor items needed, such as a white card with aperture in center, visible alignment laser, IR back reflection meter, and a microscope to view the bridge surface. The work was performed on KCP flyers that were 6 and 8 mils wide. The probes used were Oz Optics manufactured with focal distances of 42mm and 26mm. Both probes provide a spot size of approximately 80?m at 1550nm. The 42mm probes were specified to provide an internal back reflection of -35 to -40dB, and the probe back reflections were measured to be -37dB and -33dB. The 26mm probes were specified as -30dB and both measured -30.5dB. The probe is initially aligned normal to the flyer/bridge surface. This provides a very high return signal, up to -2dB, due to the bridge reflectivity. A white card with a hole in the center as an aperture can be used to check the reflected beam position relative to the probe and launch beam, and the alignment laser spot centered on the bridge, see Figure 1 and Figure 2. The IR back reflection meter is used to measure the dB return …

We demonstrate propagation and small backscatter losses of a frequency-doubled (2{omega}) laser beam interacting with inertial confinement fusion hohlraum plasmas. The electron temperature of 3.3 keV, approximately a factor of two higher than achieved in previous experiments with open geometry targets, approaches plasma conditions of high-fusion yield hohlraums. In this new temperature regime, we measure 2{omega} laser beam transmission approaching 80% with simultaneous backscattering losses of less than 10%. These findings suggests that good laser coupling into fusion hohlraums using 2{omega} light is possible.

The purpose of this paper is to provide the Technical Basis and Documentation for Field Calibrations of radiation measurement equipment for use in the MARSSIM Seeping Surveys of the BC Controlled Area (BCCA). The Be Controlled Area is bounded on tt1e north by (but does not include) the BCCribs & Trenches and is bounded on the south by Army Loop Road. Parts of the BC Controlled Area are posted as a Contamination Area and the remainder is posted as a Soil Contamination Area. The area is approximately 13 square miles and divided into three zones (Zone A , Zone B. and Zone C). A map from reference 1 which shows the 3 zones is attached. The MARSSIM Scoping Surveys are intended 10 better identify the boundaries of the three zones based on the volumetric (pCi/g) contamination levels in the soil. The MARSSIM Field Calibration. reference 2. of radiation survey instrumentation will determine the Minimum Detectable Concentration (MDC) and an algorithm for converting counts to pCi/g. The instrumentation and corresponding results are not intended for occupational radiation protection decisions or for the release of property per DOE Order 5400.5.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of River Protection’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) will process and treat radioactive waste that is stored in tanks at the Hanford Site. Piping, pumps, and mixing vessels have been selected to transport, store, and mix the high-level waste slurries in the WTP. This report addresses the analyses performed by the Rheology Working Group (RWG) and Risk Assessment Working Group composed of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Bechtel National Inc. (BNI), CH2M HILL, DOE Office of River Protection (ORP) and Yasuo Onishi Consulting, LLC staff on data obtained from documented Hanford waste analyses to determine a best-estimate of the rheology of the Hanford tank wastes and their settling behavior. The actual testing activities were performed and reported separately in referenced documentation. Because of this, many of the required topics below do not apply and are so noted.

The purpose of this paper is to provide the Technical Basis and Documentation for Field Calibrations of radiation measurement equipment for use in the MARSSIM Seeping Surveys of the BC Controlled Area (BCCA). The Be Controlled Area is bounded on tt1e north by (but does not include) the BCCribs & Trenches and is bounded on the south by Army Loop Road. Parts of the BC Controlled Area are posted as a Contamination Area and the remainder is posted as a Soil Contamination Area. The area is approximately 13 square miles and divided into three zones (Zone A , Zone B. and Zone C). A map from reference 1 which shows the 3 zones is attached. The MARSSIM Scoping Surveys are intended 10 better identify the boundaries of the three zones based on the volumetric (pCi/g) contamination levels in the soil. The MARSSIM Field Calibration. reference 2. of radiation survey instrumentation will determine the Minimum Detectable Concentration (MDC) and an algorithm for converting counts to pCi/g. The instrumentation and corresponding results are not intended for occupational radiation protection decisions or for the release of property per DOE Order 5400.5.

We reported previously that the homologous recombinational repair (HRR)-deficient Chinese hamster mutant cell line irs3 (deficient in the Rad51 paralog Rad51C) showed only a 50% spontaneous frequency of sister chromatid exchange (SCE) as compared to parental wild-type V79 cells. Furthermore, when irradiated with very low doses of alpha particles, SCEs were not induced in irs3 cells, as compared to a prominent bystander effect observed in V79 cells (Nagasawa et al., Radiat. Res. 164, 141-147, 2005). In the present study, we examined additional Chinese hamster cell lines deficient in the Rad51 paralogs Rad51C, Rad51D, Xrcc2, and Xrcc3 as well as another essential HRR protein, Brca2. Spontaneous SCE frequencies in non-irradiated wild-type cell lines CHO, AA8 and V79 were 0.33 SCE/chromosome, whereas two Rad51C-deficient cell lines showed only 0.16 SCE/chromosome. Spontaneous SCE frequencies in cell lines defective in Rad51D, Xrcc2, Xrcc3, and Brca2 ranged from 0.23-0.33 SCE/chromosome, 0-30% lower than wild-type cells. SCEs were induced significantly 20-50% above spontaneous levels in wild-type cells exposed to a mean dose of 1.3 mGy of alpha particles (<1% of nuclei traversed by an alpha particle). However, induction of SCEs above spontaneous levels was minimal or absent after {alpha}-particle irradiation in all of the HRR-deficient cell …

Uranium (U) is an important risk-driving contaminant at the Hanford Site. Over 200,000 kg have been released to the vadose zone over the course of site operations, and a number of vadose zone and groundwater plumes containing the uranyl cation [UO22+, U(VI)] have been identified. U is recognized to be of moderate-to-high mobility, conditions dependent. The site is currently making decisions on several of these plumes with long-lasting implications, and others are soon to come. Uranium is one of nature’s most intriguing and chemically complex elements. The fate and transport of U(VI) has been studied over the long lifetime of the Hanford Site by various contractors, along with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and its collaborators. Significant research has more recently been contributed by the national scientific community with support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science through its Environmental Remediation Sciences Division (ERSD). This report represents a first attempt to integrate these findings into a cohesive view of the subsurface geochemistry of U at the Hanford Site. The objective is to inform all interested Hanford parties about the in-ground inventory of U and its geochemical behavior. This report also comments on the prospects for the …

A discrete-time Markov process can be compactly modeled as a dynamic Bayesian network (DBN)--a graphical model with nodes representing random variables and directed edges indicating causality between variables. Each node has a probability distribution, conditional on the variables represented by the parent nodes. A DBN's graphical structure encodes fixed conditional dependencies between variables. But in real-world systems, conditional dependencies between variables may be unknown a priori or may vary over time. Model errors can result if the DBN fails to capture all possible interactions between variables. Thus, we explore the representational framework of adaptive DBNs, whose structure and parameters can change from one time step to the next: a distribution's parameters and its set of conditional variables are dynamic. This work builds on recent work in nonparametric Bayesian modeling, such as hierarchical Dirichlet processes, infinite-state hidden Markov networks and structured priors for Bayes net learning. In this paper, we will explain the motivation for our interest in adaptive DBNs, show how popular nonparametric methods are combined to formulate the foundations for adaptive DBNs, and present preliminary results.

This report discusses actions the 110th Congress is considering that affect the various uses and management of federal lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service. These actions include legislation, administrative or regulatory proposals, and litigation and judicial decisions. Issues areas include access to energy resources on federal lands, especially implementation of the Energy Policy Act of 2005; development of hardrock minerals; roadless area management and protection; management, protection, and disposal of wild horses and burros; wilderness designation and management; and wildfire management and protection. Many of these issues have been of interest to Congress and the nation for decades.

This treatability test plan supports a new, integrated strategy to accelerate cleanup of chromium in the 100 Areas at the Hanford Site. This plan includes performing a field-scale treatability test for bioreduction of chromate, nitrate, and dissolved oxygen. In addition to remediating a portion of the plume and demonstrating reduction of electron acceptors in the plume, the data from this test will be valuable for designing a full-scale bioremediation system to apply at this and other chromium plumes at the Hanford Site.

In order to confirm benefits of a deep sub-micron FD-SOI and to identify possible issues concerning front-end circuits with the FD-SOI, we have submitted a small design to Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. via the multi-chip project service of VDEC, the University of Tokyo. The initial test results and future plans for development are presented.

This project’s mission was to achieve significant advances in the practical application of bulk high-temperature superconductor (HTS) materials to energy-storage systems. The ultimate product was planned as an operational prototype of a flywheel system on an HTS suspension. While the final prototype flywheel did not complete the final offsite demonstration phase of the program, invaluable lessons learned were captured on the laboratory demonstration units that will lead to the successful deployment of a future HTS-stabilized, composite-flywheel energy-storage system (FESS).

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The Georgia Institute of Technology’s Industrial Assessment Center (GT IAC) has a long history working on the IAC program with over 30 years of experience in meeting the IAC program’s goals in a very effective manner since beginning participation in the IAC program’s predecessor, the EADC, in 1977. During the last four year contract period, October 1, 2002 through September 31, 2006, the GT IAC continued this work with the assessments of eighty nine (89) industrial facilities. These assessments resulted in the reported implemented savings of forty eight thousand (48,000,000) kWh of electricity and seven hundred and fifty thousand (750,000) MMBtu of natural gas. The total calculated cost savings from the recommendations implemented was five and a half million dollars ($5,500,000). These savings reoccur annually. However, this cost savings is the total of various recommendations that were calculated during 2002 to 2006. During this time period, energy prices were almost always lower than current energy prices. If you adjust the cost savings number to account for current energy prices, the cost savings would exceed nine million dollars ($9,000,000) reoccurring annually. Beyond the reduction of industrial energy consumption and the cost savings benefit, education has also been an important element of …

Executive Summary The document contains Final Technical Report on the Industrial Assessment Center Program at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, covering the contract period of 9/1/2002 to 11/30/2006, under the contract DE-FC36-02GO 12073. The Report describes six required program tasks, as follows: TASK 1 is a summary of the assessments performed over the life of the award: 77 assessments were performed, 595 AR were recommended, covering a very broad range of manufacturing plants. TASK 2 is a description of the efforts to promote and increase the adoption of assessment recommendations and employ innovative methods to assist in accomplishing these goals. The LMU IAC has been very successful in accomplishing the program goals, including implemented savings of $5,141,895 in energy, $10,045,411 in productivity and $30,719 in waste, for a total of $15,218,025. This represents 44% of the recommended savings of $34,896,392. TASK 3 is a description of the efforts promoting the IAC Program and enhancing recruitment efforts for new clients and expanded geographic coverage. LMU IAC has been very successful recruiting new clients covering Southern California. Every year, the intended number of clients was recruited. TASK 4 describes the educational opportunities, training, and other related activities for IAC students. A …

A wide spectrum of laboratory owners, ranging from universities to federal agencies, have explicit goals for energy efficiency in their facilities. For example, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT 2005) requires all new federal buildings to exceed ASHRAE 90.1-2004 1 by at least 30 percent. The University of California Regents Policy requires all new construction to exceed California Title 24 2 by at least 20 percent. A new laboratory is much more likely to meet energy efficiency goals if quantitative metrics and targets are explicitly specified in programming documents and tracked during the course of the delivery process. If efficiency targets are not explicitly and properly defined, any additional capital costs or design time associated with attaining higher efficiencies can be difficult to justify. The purpose of this guide is to provide guidance on how to specify and compute energy efficiency metrics and benchmarks for laboratories, at the whole building as well as the system level. The information in this guide can be used to incorporate quantitative metrics and targets into the programming of new laboratory facilities. Many of these metrics can also be applied to evaluate existing facilities. For information on strategies and technologies to achieve energy efficiency, …

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