A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point system (HACCP) regulations for seafood, the food industry has made some progress in ensuring the safety of seafood. However, several important weaknesses compromise the overall effectiveness of the federal seafood safety system. If left uncorrected, they will continue to undermine the goal of HACCP systems--that is, controlling hazards in the production process before the product reaches the market. More importantly, U.S. consumers may remain at risk of contracting foodborne illness from contaminated domestic and imported seafood products."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Digital Millennium Copyright Act was enacted to ensure that members of actors', directors', and writers' unions were paid residuals when films were reused in television and video. GAO's analysis of motion picture industry data found that, in the three years leading up to the 1998 legislation, at most, about 2 percent of the $1.7 billion in residuals owed went unpaid. The unpaid residuals accrued when production companies did not require distributors to pay residuals upon reuse of the film. In reviewing films made under contract with an actors' union between 1996 and 1998, GAO found 771 films for which residuals had not been paid or obligations assumed. About 87 percent of these films were low-budget productions costing less than $2 million. Because these low-budget films typically generate little in the way of earnings on which residuals are based, the amount of lost residuals is relatively small. Although there has been little impact on the motion picture industry so far, the legislation could affect the profitability of low-budget films. The payment of previously unpaid residuals could increase the production and distribution costs of low-budget films, thereby …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) Carlesbad office is developing a computerized project-tracking system for its consultation and habitat conservation planning (HCP) projects. This system, if properly implemented, should improve the office's record keeping and its ability to track the status of projects and help determine why they are in that status. The new system could also improve project management by allowing office managers to determine how long an applicant has been involved in the consultation or HCP process and whether the recommended time frames for completing consultations and the targeted frames for processing HCPs have been exceeded. The Carlsbad office will still have difficulty completing its consultations and HCP projects within recommended or targeted time frames if it is unable to address its staffing problems. An inability to hire new staff and retain existing, experienced staff has made it difficult for the Carlsbad office to meet the demands of its workload. Because the Carlsbad office does not maintain its project files in accordance with federal internal control standards and FWS' guidelines, there has often been confusion between the office and its customers on what was …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed information system general controls over the financial systems that process and account for the financial activities of the District of Columbia's Highway Trust Fund. GAO identified serious computer security weaknesses that place District information at risk of deliberate or inadvertent misuse. These general control problems affected the District's ability to (1) prevent or detect unauthorized changes to sensitive data and (2) control electronic and physical access to confidential information. The District's lack of a comprehensive computer management program was the primary reason for its information system control problems."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the effects of proposed legislation--H.R. 1833--on the pay of officers at the U.S. Customs Service. The proposal would amend the 1911 Act governing Customs officers' overtime and premium pay, and it would more closely align Customs differential pay with that of other federal agencies. Should the provision be enacted, Customs officers would be limited to the amount and times for which they would be eligible for night differential pay. In addition, another section of the proposed law would remove premium pay from the calculation of the $30,000 fiscal year overtime and premium pay cap that Customs officers may not exceed. GAO's analysis of Customs data showed that had the provisions of H.R. 1833 been in effect during fiscal year 1999, many officers would have experienced significant pay decreases. Managers and supervisors asked to analyze the proposal had mixed reviews, but those not in favor of the proposal were concerned that less eligibility for night differential pay would lead to low morale and staffing problems."

The Performance Demonstration Program (PDP) for nondestructive assay (NDA) consists of a series of tests to evaluate the capability for NDA of transuranic (TRU) waste throughout the Department of Energy (DOE) complex. Each test is termed a PDP cycle. These evaluation cycles provide an objective measure of the reliability of measurements obtained from NDA systems used to characterize the radiological constituents of TRU waste. The primary documents governing the conduct of the PDP are the Waste Acceptance Criteria for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WAC; DOE 1999a) and the Quality Assurance Program Document (QAPD; DOE 1999b). The WAC requires participation in the PDP; the PDP must comply with the QAPD and the WAC. The WAC contains technical and quality requirements for acceptable NDA. This plan implements the general requirements of the QAPD and applicable requirements of the WAC for the NDA PDP for boxed waste assay systems. Measurement facilities demonstrate acceptable performance by the successful testing of simulated waste containers according to the criteria set by this PDP Plan. Comparison among DOE measurement groups and commercial assay services is achieved by comparing the results of measurements on similar simulated waste containers reported by the different measurement facilities. These tests are …

This paper discusses the improvement made to an existing four-bar linkage gripping end effector to adapt it for use in a current project. The actuating linkage was modified to yield higher jaw force overall and particularly in the critical range of jaw displacement

The objective of this calculation is to perform intact and degraded mode criticality evaluations of the Department of Energy's (DOE) N Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel codisposed in a 2-Defense High-Level Waste (2-DHLW)/2-Multi-Canister Overpack (MCO) Waste Package (WP) and emplaced in a monitored geologic repository (MGR) (see Attachment I). The scope of this calculation is limited to the determination of the effective neutron multiplication factor (k{sub eff}) for both intact and degraded mode internal configurations of the codisposal waste package. This calculation will support the analysis that will be performed to demonstrate the technical viability for disposing of U-metal (N Reactor) spent nuclear fuel in the potential MGR.

Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) measurements were taken in a confinement, bounded by two parallel walls, into which issues a row of parallel jets. Two-component measurements were taken of two mean velocity components and three Reynolds stress components. As observed in isolated three dimensional wall bounded jets, the transverse diffusion of the jets is quite large. The data indicate that this rapid mixing process is due to strong secondary flows, transport of large inlet intensities and Reynolds stress anisotropy effects.

During this phase of the project the research team concentrated on acquisition of acoustic emission data from the high porosity rock samples. The initial experiments indicated that the acoustic emission activity from high porosity Danian chalk were of a very low amplitude. Even though the sample underwent yielding and significant plastic deformation the sample did not generate significant AE activity. This was somewhat surprising. These initial results call into question the validity of attempting to locate AE activity in this weak rock type. As a result the testing program was slightly altered to include measuring the acoustic emission activity from many of the rock types listed in the research program. The preliminary experimental results indicate that AE activity in the sandstones is much higher than in the carbonate rocks (i.e., the chalks and limestones). This observation may be particularly important for planning microseismic imaging of reservoir rocks in the field environment. The preliminary results suggest that microseismic imaging of reservoir rock from acoustic emission activity generated from matrix deformation (during compaction and subsidence) would be extremely difficult to accomplish.

This research project focuses on pollutants from the combustion of mixtures of dried municipal sewage sludge (MSS) and coal. The objective is to determine the relationship between (1) fraction sludge in the sludge/coal mixture, and (2) combustion conditions on (a) NOx concentrations in the exhaust, (b) the size segregated fine and ultra-fine particle composition in the exhaust, and (c) the partitioning of toxic metals between vapor and condenses phases, within the process. To this end we shall use an existing 17kW downflow laboratory combustor, available with coal and sludge feed capabilities. The proposed study will be conducted in concert with an existing ongoing research on toxic metal partitioning mechanisms for very well characterized pulverized coals alone. Both high NOx and low NOx combustion conditions will be investigated (unstaged and staged combustion). The proposed work uses existing analytical and experimental facilities and draws on 20 years of research on NO{sub x} and fine particles that has been funded by DOE in this laboratory. Four barrels of dried sewage sludge are currently in the laboratory. Insofar as possible pertinent mechanisms will be elucidated. Tradeoffs between CO{sub 2} control, NO{sub x} control, and inorganic fine particle and toxic metal emissions will be determined. …

The conference brought together researchers working on virus structure and virus assembly in diverse systems. Information was integrated from many viral systems, including plant bacterial and eukaryotic viruses, and many techniques such as biophysical approaches of x-ray diffraction, electron microscopy and spectroscopy, along with molecular biological and molecular genetic analysis.

The carbonate fuel cell has many advantages over conventional methods of producing electricity. It converts hydrocarbon fuels directly into electricity with a high efficiency (>70% in a co-generation plant configuration) and consequently releases less carbon dioxide greenhouse gases (>30% less compared to a combined cycle gas turbine plant). Its adaptability to meet the customers' specific power requirements is ideally suited for distributed power generation. The advantages of distributed power generation include site flexibility, fuel source flexibility, less capital investment risk and elimination of transmission and distribution investments. The fuel cell becomes economically competitive if its life exceeds 40,000h. The current predicted lifetime of the central cells of a stack is 44,000h, based on electrolyte inventory considerations. Methods of extending fuel cell life even further are being sought to enhance its commercial competitiveness.

This is the second Quarterly Technical Report for DOE Cooperative Agreement No: DE-FC26-00NT40753. The goal of the project is to develop cost effective analysis tools and techniques for demonstrating and evaluating low NOx control strategies and their possible impact on boiler performance for firing US coals. The focus of our efforts during the last three months have been on: (1) Completion of a long term field test for Rich Reagent Injection (RRI) at the Conectiv BL England Station Unit No.1, a 130 MW Cyclone fired boiler; (2) Extending our Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) based NOx model to accommodate the chemistry for RRI in PC fired boilers; (3) Design improvements and calibration tests of the corrosion probe; and (4) Investigations on ammonia adsorption mechanisms and removal processes for Fly Ash.

The microhardness, and tensile and fracture-toughness properties of drop-cast and directionally-solidified Cr-9.25 at.% (atomic percent) Ta alloys have been investigated. Directional solidification was found to soften the alloy, which could be related to the development of equilibrium and aligned microstructures. It was observed that the tensile properties of the Cr-Ta alloys at room and elevated temperatures could be improved by obtaining aligned microstructures. The directionally-solidified alloy also showed increased fracture toughness at room temperature. This trend is mainly associated with crack deflection and the formation of shear ribs in the samples with aligned microstructures. The sample with better-aligned lamellar exhibits greater fracture toughness.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Although the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has the authority to regulate aftermarket crash parts, the agency has not developed safety standards for them because it has not determined that any aftermarket crash parts contain safety-related defects. NHTSA has more limited authority to regulate the use of recycled air bags. NHTSA could elect to develop safety standards for occupant restraint systems under the used vehicle provision of the Motor Vehicle Safety Act. NHTSA has not developed such standards because it has not identified significant problems with occupant restraint systems that could be addressed by state motor vehicle inspection programs. The limitations of NHTSA's complaint system may hamper NHTSA's ability to detect safety-related trends through broad key-word searches of its complaint database and make it unlikely that NHTSA can identify all unsafe parts. In addition, the ability to recall unsafe aftermarket crash parts is limited because some parts are not stamped with the manufacturer's name and there is no trail leading from the manufacturer to the ultimate user of the part. Two studies on the safety of recycled airbags concluded that they can be a potentially …

This report gives an overview of key technology policy issues of the internet affecting its use and growth.

None

This document contains the characterization methodology for sludge-contaminated waste generated from the H-Area Tank Farm, based on process knowledge and available analytical data. In addition, this document contains an evaluation for consolidation of sludge-contaminated waste from multiple HLW tanks in the H-Area Tank Farm. The scaling factors developed in this document supercede those presented in References 1 and 2, and any other previously developed radionuclide characterizations for H-Area Tank Farm sludge-contaminated waste.

This document, Hazardous Waste Code Determination for the First/Second-Stage Sludge Waste Stream, summarizes the efforts performed at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) to make a hazardous waste code determination on Item Description Codes (IDCs) 001, 002, and 800 drums. This characterization effort included a thorough review of acceptable knowledge (AK), physical characterization, waste form sampling, chemical analyses, and headspace gas data. This effort included an assessment of pre-Waste Analysis Plan (WAP) solidified sampling and analysis data (referred to as preliminary data). Seventy-five First/Second-Stage Sludge Drums, provided in Table 1-1, have been subjected to core sampling and analysis using the requirements defined in the Quality Assurance Program Plan (QAPP). Based on WAP defined statistical reduction, of preliminary data, a sample size of five was calculated. That is, five additional drums should be core sampled and analyzed. A total of seven drums were sampled, analyzed, and validated in compliance with the WAP criteria. The pre-WAP data (taken under the QAPP) correlated very well with the WAP compliant drum data. As a result, no additional sampling is required. Based upon the information summarized in this document, an accurate hazardous waste determination has been made for the First/Second-Stage Sludge Waste Stream.

The high efficiency of the BGO detectors makes them very attractive candidates to replace NaI(T1) detectors, which are widely used in studies of body composition. In this work, the response functions of the BGO and NaI(T1) detectors were determined at 0.662,4.4, and 10.0 MeV using three different Monte Carlo codes: EGS4, MCNP, and PHOTON. These codes differ in their input files and transport calculations, and were used to verify the internal consistency of the setup and of the input data. The energy range of 0.662 to 10 MeV was chosen to cover energies of interest in body composition-studies. The superior efficiency of the BGO-detectors has to be weighed-against their inferior resolution, and their higher price than that of the NaI detectors. Because the price of the BGO detectors strongly depends on the size of the crystal, its optimization is an important component in the design of the entire system.

None

None

None