Report that briefly discusses the legislation generally and then provides a short description of the various funding accounts as they appear in Division I, "Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2012," of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012 (P.L. 112-74).

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) Office of General Counsel (OGC) procedures do not sufficiently ensure that accredited representatives have good character and knowledge. While GAO's analysis shows that VA follows its procedures for reviewing initial accreditation applications, VA relies on limited self-reported information to determine whether applicants have a criminal history or their character could be called into question, which in turn leaves VA vulnerable to accrediting individuals who may not provide responsible assistance. For example, when GAO conducted additional checks on a non-representative sample of accredited individuals, GAO found that some individuals had histories of bankruptcies or liens, information which could help develop a more complete picture of applicants' character and prompt further inquiry by VA into their background. VA's procedures also do not ensure that representatives have adequate program knowledge. For example, VA's initial training requirements are minimal and VA does not consistently monitor whether representatives meet additional continuing education requirements. As a result, some accredited representatives may not have adequate program knowledge to effectively assist clients with their claims. After being briefed on GAO's findings in May 2013, VA's OGC announced plans …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "All seven U.S. regulatory agencies that GAO contacted reported engaging in a range of international regulatory cooperation activities to fulfill their missions. These activities include the United States and its trading partners developing and using international standards, recognizing each other's regulations as equivalent, and sharing scientific data. U.S. agency officials GAO interviewed said they cooperate with foreign counterparts because many products they regulate originate overseas and because they may gain efficiencies--for example, by sharing resources or avoiding duplicative work. Cooperation can address both existing and avoid future regulatory differences. Officials also explained how cooperative efforts enhance public health and safety, facilitate trade, and support competitiveness of U.S. businesses. Several U.S. interagency processes require or enable interagency collaboration on international cooperation activities. The Regulatory Working Group (RWG), chaired by OMB and the Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) are forums that have different responsibilities related to the regulatory and trade aspects of international regulatory cooperation. U.S. regulatory agency officials said the current processes could benefit from better information sharing among agencies on the implementation of international cooperation activities and lessons learned. Without enhancements to current forums, opportunities to …

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A solid-state optical system, invented by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), measures solar cell quantum efficiency (QE) in less than a second, enabling a suite of new capabilities for solar cell manufacturers. QE is a measurement of how cells respond to light across the solar spectrum, but traditional methods for measuring QE had been too slow, limiting its application to small samples pulled from the production line and analyzed in laboratories. NREL's technique, commercialized by Tau Science as the FlashQE(TM) system, uses a solid-state light source, synchronized electronics, and advanced mathematical analysis to parallel-process QE data in a tiny fraction of the time required by the current method, allowing its use on every solar cell passing through a production line.

Under this project, Newport Partners (as part of the BA-PIRC research team) evaluated the installation, measured performance, and cost-effectiveness of efficiency upgrade measures for a tenant-in-place DER at the Bay Ridge multifamily (MF) development in Annapolis, Maryland. The design and construction phase of the Bay Ridge project was completed in August 2012. This report summarizes system commissioning, short-term test results, utility bill data analysis, and analysis of real-time data collected over a one-year period after the retrofit was complete. The Bay Ridge project is comprised of a 'base scope' retrofit which was estimated to achieve a 30%+ savings (relative to pre-retrofit) on 186 apartments, and a 'DER scope' which was estimated to achieve 50% savings (relative to pre-retrofit) on a 12-unit building. The base scope was applied to the entire apartment complex, except for one 12-unit building which underwent the DER scope. A wide range of efficiency measures was applied to pursue this savings target for the DER building, including improvements/replacements of mechanical equipment and distribution systems, appliances, lighting and lighting controls, the building envelope, hot water conservation measures, and resident education. The results of this research build upon the current body of knowledge of multifamily retrofits. Towards this end, …

Atmospheric tests and other experiments with nuclear materials were conducted on the Frenchman Flat playa at the Nevada National Security Site, Nye County, Nevada; residual radionuclides are known to exist in Frenchman Flat playa soils. Although the playa is typically dry, extended periods of winter precipitation or large single-event rainstorms can inundate the playa. When Frenchman Flat playa is inundated, residual radionuclides on the typically dry playa surface may become submerged, allowing water-soil interactions that could provide a mechanism for transport of radionuclides away from known areas of contamination. The potential for radionuclide transport by occasional inundation of the Frenchman Flat playa was examined using geographic information systems and satellite imagery to delineate the timing and areal extent of inundation; collecting water samples during inundation and analyzing them for chemical and isotopic content; characterizing suspended/precipitated materials and archived soil samples; modeling water-soil geochemical reactions; and modeling the mobility of select radionuclides under aqueous conditions. The physical transport of radionuclides by water was not evaluated in this study. Frenchman Flat playa was inundated with precipitation during two consecutive winters in 2009-2010 and 2010-2011. Inundation allowed for collection of multiple water samples through time as the areal extent of inundation changed and …

In the search for a third generation of solar-cell technologies, a leading candidate is the use of 'quantum dots' -- tiny spheres of semiconductor material measuring only about 2-10 billionths of a meter in diameter. Quantum dots have the potential to dramatically increase the efficiency of converting sunlight into energy -- perhaps even doubling it in some devices -- because of their ability to generate more than one bound electron-hole pair, or exciton, per incoming photon. NREL has produced quantum dots using colloidal suspensions; then, using molecular self-assembly, they have been fabricated into the first-ever quantum-dot solar cells. While these devices operate with only 4.4% efficiency, they demonstrate the capability for low-cost manufacturing.

This project examines the implementation of an exterior insulation and over-clad strategy for brick masonry buildings in Chicago. The strategy was implemented at a free-standing two story two-family dwelling and a larger free-standing multifamily building. The test homes selected for this research represent predominant housing types for the Chicago area. High heating energy use typical in these buildings threaten housing affordability. Uninsulated mass masonry wall assemblies also have a strongly detrimental impact on comfort. Significant changes to the performance of masonry wall assemblies is generally beyond the reach of typical weatherization (Wx) program resources. The Community and Economic Development Association of Cook County, Inc. (CEDA) has secured a Sustainable Energy Resources for Consumers (SERC) innovation grant sponsored by the United States Department of Energy (DOE). This grant provides CEDA the opportunity to pursue a pilot implementation of innovative approaches to retrofit in masonry wall enclosures. The exterior insulation and over-clad strategy implemented through this project was designed to allow implementation by contractors active in CEDA weatherization programs and using materials and methods familiar to these contractors. The retrofit measures are evaluated in terms of feasibility, cost and performance. Through observations of the strategies implemented, the research described in this report …

Cellulosic ethanol prices depend heavily on the cost of the cellulase enzymes used to break down the biomass into fermentable sugars. To reduce these costs, NREL partnered with two leading enzyme companies, Novozymes and Genencor, to engineer new cellulase enzymes that are exceptionally good at breaking down cellulose. Genencor is now part of DuPont Industrial Biosciences.

This report described the specimen loading order and documents all pre-irradiation examination material property measurement data for the graphite specimens contained within the second Advanced Graphite Capsule (AGC-2) irradiation capsule. The AGC-2 capsule is the second in six planned irradiation capsules comprising the Advanced Graphite Creep (AGC) test series. The AGC test series is used to irradiate graphite specimens allowing quantitative data necessary for predicting the irradiation behavior and operating performance of new nuclear graphite grades to be generated which will ascertain the in-service behavior of the graphite for pebble bed and prismatic Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) designs. Similar to the AGC-1 specimen pre-irradiation examination report, material property tests were conducted on specimens from 18 nuclear graphite types but on an increased number of specimens (512) prior to loading into the AGC-2 irradiation assembly. All AGC-2 specimen testing was conducted at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) from October 2009 to August 2010. This report also details the specimen loading methodology for the graphite specimens inside the AGC-2 irradiation capsule. The AGC-2 capsule design requires “matched pair” creep specimens that have similar dose levels above and below the neutron flux profile mid-plane to provide similar specimens with and without an applied …

A game-changing Optical Cavity Furnace (OCF), developed by NREL, uses optics to heat and purify solar cells at unmatched precision, while also boosting the cells' efficiency.

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Site-specific, long-term, continuous, and high-resolution measurements of solar irradiance are important for developing renewable resource data. These data are used for several research and development activities consistent with the NREL mission: establish a national 30-year climatological database of measured solar irradiances; provide high quality ground-truth data for satellite remote sensing validation; support development of radiative transfer models for estimating solar irradiance from available meteorological observations; provide solar resource information needed for technology deployment and operations.

Our work is focused on membraneless laminar flow fuel cells, an unconventional fuel cell technology, intended to create a system that not only avoids most typical fuel cell drawbacks, but also achieves the highest power density yet recorded for a non-H{sub 2} fuel cell. We have employed rigorous electrochemistry to characterize the high-energy- density fuel BH4-, providing important mechanistic insight for anode catalyst choice and avoiding deleterious side reactions. Numerous fuel cell oxidants, used in place of O{sub 2}, are compared in a detailed, uniform manner, and a powerful new oxidant, cerium ammonium nitrate (CAN), is described. The high-voltage BH{sub 4}{sup -}/CAN fuel/oxidant combination is employed in a membraneless, room temperature, laminar-flow fuel cell, with herringbone micromixers which provide chaotic-convective flow which, in turn, enhances both the power output and efficiency of the device. We have also been involved in the design of a scaled-up version of the membraneless laminar flow fuel cell intended to provide a 10W output.

The final report describing accomplishments in understanding phase-space processes involved in particle trapping and in developing advance numerical models of laser-plasma interactions.

In high-end computing, the collective surface area, smaller fabrication sizes, and increasing density of components have led to an increase in the number of observed bit flips. If mechanisms are not in place to detect them, such flips produce silent errors, i.e. the code returns a result that deviates from the desired solution by more than the allowed tolerance and the discrepancy cannot be distinguished from the standard numerical error associated with the algorithm. These phenomena are believed to occur more frequently in DRAM, but logic gates, arithmetic units, and other circuits are also susceptible to bit flips. Previous work has focused on algorithmic techniques for detecting and correcting bit flips in specific data structures, however, they suffer from lack of generality and often times cannot be implemented in heterogeneous computing environment. Our work takes a novel approach to this problem. We focus on quantifying the impact of a single bit flip on specific floating-point operations. We analyze the error induced by flipping specific bits in the most widely used IEEE floating-point representation in an architecture-agnostic manner, i.e., without requiring proprietary information such as bit flip rates and the vendor-specific circuit designs. We initially study dot products of vectors and …

The complex, multi-part nature of waste glass melters used in nuclear waste vitrification poses significant modeling challenges. The focus of this project has been to couple a 1D MATLAB model of the cold cap region within a melter with a 3D STAR-CCM+ model of the melter itself. The Multiphysics Integrated Coupling Environment (MICE) has been developed to create a cohesive simulation of a waste glass melter that accurately represents the cold cap. The one-dimensional mathematical model of the cold cap uses material properties, axial heat, and mass fluxes to obtain a temperature profile for the cold cap, the region where feed-to-glass conversion occurs. The results from Matlab are used to update simulation data in the three-dimensional STAR-CCM+ model so that the cold cap is appropriately incorporated into the 3D simulation. The two processes are linked through ModelCenter integration software using time steps that are specified for each process. Data is to be exchanged circularly between the two models, as the inputs and outputs of each model depend on the other.

This report compares three different radiation dosimetry systems currently applied by various U.S. Federal agencies and dose estimates based on these three dosimetry systems for a set of radionuclides often identified in power reactor effluents. These dosimetry systems were developed and applied by the International Commission on Radiological Protection at different times over the past six decades. Two primary modes of intake of radionuclides are addressed: ingestion in drinking water and inhalation. Estimated doses to individual organs and to the whole body based on each dosimetry system are compared for each of four age groups: infant, child, teenager, and adult. Substantial differences between dosimetry systems in estimated dose per unit intake are found for some individual radionuclides, but differences in estimated dose per unit intake generally are modest for mixtures of radionuclides typically found in nuclear power plant effluents.

To determine the tensile properties of irradiated fuel cladding in a hot cell, a simple test was developed at ORNL and is described fully in US Patent Application 20060070455, Expanded plug method for developing circumferential mechanical properties of tubular materials. This method is designed for testing fuel rod cladding ductility in a hot cell utilizing an expandable plug to stretch a small ring of irradiated cladding material. The specimen strain is determined using the measured diametrical expansion of the ring. This method removes many complexities associated with specimen preparation and testing. The advantages are the simplicity of measuring the test component assembly in the hot cell and the direct measurement of specimen strain. It was also found that cladding strength could be determined from the test results. The basic approach of this test method is to apply an axial compressive load to a cylindrical plug of polyurethane (or other materials) fitted inside a short ring of the test material to achieve radial expansion of the specimen. The diameter increase of the specimen is used to calculate the circumferential strain accrued during the test. The other two basic measurements are total applied load and amount of plug compression (extension). A simple …

This report presents the long-term evaluation results from a hot-dry climate project that examines the room-to-room temperature conditions that exist in a high performance envelope, the performance of a simplified air distribution system, and a comparison of modeled energy performance with measured energy use. The project, a prototype house built by K. Hovnanian Homes' Ontario Group, is located in Lake Elsinore, Riverside County, California, and achieves a 50% level of whole house source energy savings with respect to the Building America (BA) Benchmark Definition 2009 (Hendron and Engebrecht 2010). Temperature measurements in three rooms indicate that the temperature difference between the measured locations and the thermostat were within recommendations 90.3% of the time in heating mode and 99.3% of the time in cooling mode. The air distribution system is operating efficiently with average delivered temperatures adequate to facilitate proper heating and cooling and only minor average temperature differences observed between the system's plenum and farthest register. Monitored energy use results for the house indicate that it is using less energy than predicted from modeling. A breakdown of energy use according to end use determined little agreement between comparable values.

A review of personnel dosimetry (external and internal) and environmental monitoring results from 1 January 2008 through 31 December 2012 performed at Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico was conducted to demonstrate that radiation protection methods used are compliant with regulatory limits and conform with the ALARA philosophy. ALARA is the philosophical approach to radiation protection by managing and controlling radiation exposures (individual and collective) to the work force and to the general public to levels that are As Low As is Reasonably Achievable taking social, technical, economic, practical, and public policy considerations into account. ALARA is not a dose limit but a process which has the objective of attaining doses as far below applicable dose limits As Low As is Reasonably Achievable.

Working with builder partners on a test homes allows for vetting of whole-house building strategies to eliminate any potential unintended consequences prior to implementing these solution packages on a production scale. To support this research, CARB partnered with Preferred Builders Inc. on a high-performance test home in Old Greenwich, CT. The philosophy and science behind the 2,700 ft2 'Performance House' was based on the premise that homes should be safe, healthy, comfortable, durable, efficient, and adapt with the homeowners. The technologies and strategies used in the 'Performance House' were not cutting-edge, but simply 'best practices practiced'. The focus was on simplicity in construction, maintenance, and operation. When seeking a 30% source energy savings targets over a comparable 2009 IECC code-built home in the cold climate zone, nearly all components of a home must be optimized. Careful planning and design are critical. To help builders and architects seeking to match the performance of this home, a step-by-step guide through the building shell components of DOE's Challenge Home are provided in a pictorial story book. The end result was a DOE Challenge Home that achieved a HERS Index Score of 20 (43 without PV, the minimum target was 55 for compliance). This …