Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This publication has been superseded by AIMD-00-21.2.2, Core Financial System Requirements: Checklist for Reviewing Systems Under the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act, February 2000. GAO published a guide to assist agencies and internal auditors in maintaining their financial management systems in compliance with the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996."

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO published a guide to aid federal managers in implementing an ongoing information security risk assessment process. GAO provided case studies of practical risk assessment procedures that have been successfully adopted by four organizations known for their efforts to implement good risk assessment practices."

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This publication has been superseded by AIMD-00-134, Executive Guide: Creating Value Through World-class Financial Management, April 2000. GAO published a guide on the financial management practices and improvement efforts of nine leading public and private sector finance organizations to identify the success factors, practices, and outcomes associated with world-class financial management. This executive guide is intended to assist federal agencies in achieving the objectives of the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 and subsequent related legislation by providing case studies of 11 practices critical for establishing and maintaining sound financial operations."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO provided information on establishing core competencies for accountants who work in the federal government. This document defines the context for financial management core competencies which constitute accounting professionals' primary professional knowledge and skills."

Demonstrates the application of an artificial neural network (ANN) for modeling the energy storage system of a hybrid electric vehicle.

The 980-ton MINOS near detector will be installed in the new NuMI near hall at 100m below grade at Fermilab. It will be assembled from 282 1-inch thick steel plates. The planes are made from low carbon (1006), hot rolled steel and are toroidally magnetized. Each plane will be hung by two 'ears', which are extensions of the octagonal plane structure, similar to the hanging files in a file drawer. The plates have a center-to-center spacing of 5.94 cm. This document has been prepared for the 8/99 Conceptual Design Review of the MINOS near detector coil. It's main goal is to provide a set of references to previous documents and to assemble various design drawings and engineering calculations that have not been included in previous technical memos. It also provides some background material relevant for the coil implementation. Much of the text for this document is edited from the MINOS Detectors Technical Design Report.

The MINOS far detector will be installed a half mile underground in the Soudan mine in northern Minnesota. The 5.4-kt structure is assembled from 8-m wide, 1- inch thick octagonal steel planes. The planes are made from low carbon (1006), hot rolled steel and are toroidally magnetized. The 486 steel planes are arranged as two 'supermodules' of 243 planes each, separated by a 1.5-m long gap to allow space for installation of two separate magnet coils. Each plane is hung by two 'ears', which are extensions of the octagonal plane structure, similar to the hanging files in a file drawer. The steel planes have a center-to-center spacing of 5.94 cm. This document has been prepared for the 8/99 Conceptual Design Review of the MINOS Far Detector Coils. Its main goal is to provide a set of references to previous documents and to assemble various design drawings and engineering calculations that have not been included in previous technical memos. It also provides some background material relevant for the coil implementation. Much of the text for this document is edited from the MINOS Detectors Technical Design Report.

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The cross section for elastic electron-deuteron scattering has been measured using the Hall A Facility of Jefferson Laboratory. Scattered electrons and recoiling deuterons were detected in coincidence in the two 4 GeV/c High Resolution Spectrometers (HRS) of Hall A. The deuteron elastic structure functions A(Q{sup 2}) and B(Q{sup 2}) have been extracted from these data. Results for the measurement of A(Q{sup 2}) in the range of 0.7 ≤ Q{sup 2} ≤ 6.0 (GeV/c){sup 2} are reported. Results for the magnetic structure function, B(Q{sup 2}), are presented in the range of 0.7 ≤ Q{sup 2} ≤ 1.35 (GeV/c){sup 2}. The results for both structure functions are compared to predictions of meson-nucleon based models, both with and without the inclusion of meson-exchange currents. The A(Q{sup 2}) results are compared to predictions of the dimensional scaling quark model and perturbative quantum chromodynamics. The results can provide insights into the transition from meson-nucleon to quark-gluon descriptions of the nuclear two-body system.

High-level waste (HLW) tank closure technology is designed to stabilize any remaining radionuclides and hazardous constituents left in a tank after bulk waste removal. Two Savannah River Site (SRS) HLW tanks were closed after cleansing and then filling each tank with three layers of grout. The first layer consists of a chemically reducing grout. The fill material has chemical properties that retard the movement of some radionuclides and chemical constituents. A layer of controlled low-strength material (CLSM), a self-leveling fill material, is placed on top of the reducing grout. CLSM provides sufficient strength to support the overbearing weight. The final layer is a free-flowing, strong grout similar to normal concrete. After the main tank cavity is filled, risers are filled with grout, and all waste transfer piping connected to the tank is isolated. The tank ventilation system is dismantled, and the remaining systems are isolated. Equipment that remains with the tank is filled with grout. The tank and ancillary systems are left in a state requiring only limited surveillance. Administrative procedures are in place to control land use and access. DOE eventually plans to remove all of its HLW storage tanks from service. These tanks are located at SRS, Hanford, …

The Grand Coulee Dam was constructed in 1939 without a fish ladder, which eliminated steelhead (Onchorhynchus mykiss), chinook salmon (O. twshwastica), coho salmon (O. kisutch) and sockeye salmon (O. nerka) from returning to approximately 1,835 km (1,140 miles) of natal streams and tributaries found in the upper Columbia River Drainage in the United States and Canada. The Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act of 1980 gave the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), the authority and responsibility to use its legal and financial resources, 'to protect, mitigate, and enhance fish and wildlife to the extent affected by the development and operation of any hydroelectric project of the Columbia River and its tributaries. This is to be done in a manner consistent with the program adopted by the Northwest Power Planning Council (NWPPC), and the purposes of the Act' (NWPPC, 1987). With the phrase 'protect, mitigate and enhance', Congress signaled its intent that the NWPPC's fish and wildlife program should do more than avoid future hydroelectric damage to the basin's fish and wildlife. The program must also counter past damage, work toward rebuilding those fish and wildlife populations that have been harmed by the hydropower system, protect the Columbia Basin's fish …

Unirradiated Mark 42 fuel tubes are to be dissolved in an upcoming campaign in F-canyon. Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC)/Chemical & Hydrogen Technology Section (CHTS) identified a flow sheet for the dissolution of these Mark 42 fuel tubes which required a more aggressive dissolver solution than previously required for irradiated Mark 42 fuel tubes. Subsequently, SRTC/MTS was requested to develop and perform a corrosion testing program to assess the impact of new flow sheets on corrosion of the dissolver wall. The two primary variables evaluated were the fluoride and aluminum concentrations of the dissolver solution. Fluoride was added as Calcium Fluoride (CaF{sub 2}) while the aluminum was added either as metallic aluminum, which was subsequently dissolved, or as the chemical aluminum nitrate (Al(NO{sub 3}){sub 3}). The dissolved aluminum metal was used to simulate the dissolution of the aluminum from the Mark 42 cladding and fuel matrix. Solution composition for the corrosion tests bracketed the flow sheet for the Mark 42. Corrosion rates of AISI Type 304 stainless steel coupons, both welded and non-welded coupons, were calculated from measured weight losses and post-test concentrations of soluble Fe, Cr and Ni. The corrosion rates, which ranged between 2.7 and 32.5 mpy, were …

A walleye mark-recapture experiment was initiated on Lake Roosevelt in 1997, with the primary objective of estimating the size of the walleye population. The project was continued in 1998 with a revised sampling regime. The primary goals during 1998 were to estimate the size of the walleye population in Lake Roosevelt, estimate the size of the spawning run in the Spokane River Arm, and describe the age structure of the population for use in managing the population and developing a kokanee bioenergetics model. Secondary objectives included: determining walleye movements, back-calculating growth rates, estimating mortality rates, determining walleye condition, and estimating walleye young-of-the-year (YOY) production in the Spokane River Arm. All walleye, {ge} 150 mm TL, were marked with individually numbered Floy{reg_sign} tags, during five passes through the reservoir. The passes occurred between April 1st and September 16th, 1998. The most unbiased estimate of walleye abundance in Lake Roosevelt, 186,482 (40,113 {le} N {le} 943,213), was obtained using the Mtb model of the CAPTURE program. The most unbiased estimate of the size of the walleye spawning run in the Spokane River Arm, 27,345 (1,535 {le} N {le} 57,519), was calculated using the Jolly-Seber model. The abundance estimates appeared reasonable, but they …

The Grande Ronde Model Watershed Program (GRMWP) is the primary entity coordinating habitat restoration on both private and public lands within the Grande Ronde Basin. The Grande Ronde Basin covers approximately 5,300 square miles, containing more than 2600 miles of fish bearing streams, in the Blue Mountains of northeast Oregon. Snake River spring chinook salmon, summer steelhead and bull trout, which are listed under the Endangered Species Act, are present in the basin. The GRMWP began coordinating restoration projects in 1994. Approximately 215 projects have been implemented through the GRMWP program as of 1998. Nine of these projects were funded in part through the Bonneville Power Administration's 1998 Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program. These nine projects used a variety of methods to enhance and restore watershed conditions. In-stream work to improve fish habitat included construction of hard structures (eg. vortex rock weirs), placement of large woody material and whole trees, gravel bar treatments, and improvements to off-channel rearing habitat; 55 miles of stream were treated. Fish passage was improved at three locations by replacing or removing culverts that blocked fish. Stream riparian conditions were enhanced with exclosure fencing, vegetation planting and thinning, noxious weed control, and floodplain enhancements; 10 …

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Environmental Management (EM) has responsibility for cleanup and disposition of nuclear wastes and excess materials that are a legacy of the nuclear arms race. In fulfilling this responsibility, EM applies a systems engineering approach to identify baseline disposition plans for the wastes and materials (storage, stabilization, treatment, and disposal), assess the path viability, and develop integration opportunities to improve the disposition viability or to combine, eliminate, and/or simplify activities, technologies, and facilities across the DOE Complex, evaluate the baseline and alternatives to make informed decisions, and implement and track selected opportunities. This paper focuses on processes used to assess the disposition path viability - the likelihood that current planning for disposition of nuclear waste and materials can be implemented.

Ultrasonic waves form a useful nondestructive evaluation (NDE) probe for determining physical, microstructural, and mechanical properties of materials and parts. Noncontacting laser ultrasonic methods are desired for remote measurements and on-line manufacture process monitoring. Researchers at the Idaho National Engineering & Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) have developed a versatile new method for detection of ultrasonic motion at surfaces. This method directly images, without the need for scanning, the surface distribution of subnanometer ultrasonic motion. By eliminating the need for scanning over large areas or complex parts, the inspection process can be greatly speeded up. Examples include measurements on parts with complex geometries through resonant ultrasound spectroscopy and of the properties of sheet materials determined through anisotropic elastic Lamb wave propagation. The operation and capabilities of the INEEL Laser Ultrasonic Camera are described along with measurement results.

This paper presents our assessment of field experience related to pressurized water reactor (PWR) primary system leaks in terms of their number of rates, how aging affects frequency of leak events, the safety significance of such leaks, industry efforts to reduce leaks, and effectiveness of current leak detection systems. We have reviewed the licensee event reports to identify the events that took place during 1985 to the third quarter of 1996, and reviewed related technical literature and visited PWR plants to analyze these events. Our assessment shows that USNRC licensees have taken effective actions to reduce the number of leak events. One main reason for this decreasing trend was the elimination or reportable leakages from valve stem packing after 1991. Our review of leak events related to vibratory fatigue reveals a statistically significant decreasing trend with age (years of operation), but not in calendar time. Our assessment of worldwide data on leakage caused by thermal fatigue cracking is that the fatigue of aging piping is a safety significant issue. Our review of leak events has identified several susceptible sites in piping having high safety significance; but the inspection of some of these sites is not required by the ASME Code. …

A noncontacting ultrasonic method has been investigated for probing the solidification front in molten titanium for the purposes of profiling the channel depth in plasma hearth re-melter. The method, known as Laser Ultrasonics, utilized a pulsed laser for generation of ultrasonic waves at the surface of a molten metal pool. The ultrasonic waves propagated into the liquid titanium reflected from the solidification front and the boundaries of the solid plug. A Fabry-Perot interferometer, driven by a second laser, demodulated the small displacements caused by the ultrasonic wave motion at the liquid surface. The method and results of measurements taken within a small research plasma melting furnace will be described. Successful results were obtained even directly beneath the plasma arc using this all optical approach.

An analysis was performed of the safety-related performance of the reactor protection system (RPS) at U. S. General Electric commercial reactors during the period 1984 through 1995. RPS operational data were collected from the Nuclear Plant Reliability Data System and Licensee Event Reports. A risk-based analysis was performed on the data to estimate the observed unavailability of the RPS, based on a fault tree model of the system. Results were compared with existing unavailability estimates from Individual Plant Examinations and other reports.

The Simplified Risk Model Version II (SRM-II) is a quantitative tool for efficiently evaluating the risk from Department of Energy waste management activities. Risks evaluated include human safety and health and environmental impact. Both accidents and normal, incident-free operation are considered. The risk models are simplifications of more detailed risk analyses, such as those found in environmental impact statements, safety analysis reports, and performance assessments. However, wherever possible, conservatisms in such models have been removed to obtain best estimate results. The SRM-II is used to support DOE complex-wide environmental management integration studies. Typically such activities involve risk predictions including such activities as initial storage, handling, treatment, interim storage, transportation, and final disposal.

This preliminary design report describes a model for heat transfer in a corium-metal stratified pool. It was decided to make use of the existing COUPLE model. Currently available correlations for natural convection heat transfer in a pool with and without internal heat generation were obtained. The appropriate correlations will be incorporated in the existing COUPLE model. Heat conduction and solidification modeling will be done with existing algorithms in the COUPLE. Assessment of the new model will be done by simple energy conservation problems.

Fate and transport model results are presented for the Texarkana Wood Preserving Company (TWPC)superfund site. The conceptual model assumes two sources of contamination, specifically, the areas around the old and new process areas. Recent data show the presence of non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPL) in the aquifer that are also sources of dissolved contamination in the aquifer. A flow model was constructed and calibrated against measured hydraulic heads at permanent monitoring wells. Good matches were obtained between model simulated heads and most measured heads. An unexplained exception occurs at monitoring well MW-13 down gradient of the site beyond the measured contaminant plume where the model predicts heads that are more than 2 ft. lower than reported field measurements. Adjusting hydraulic parameters in the model could not account for this anomaly and still preserve the head matches at other wells. There is likely a moderate deficiency in the conceptual model or perhaps a data error. Other information such as substantial amounts of infiltrating surface water in the area or a correction in surveyed elevation would improve the flow model. A particle tracking model calculated a travel time from the new process area to the Day’s Creek discharge location on the order of …

A high integrity can (HIC), designed to meet the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code (Section III, Div.3, static conditions) is proposed for the interim storage and repository disposal of Department of Energy (DOE) spent nuclear fuel. The HIC will be approximately 5 3/8 inches (134.38mm) in outside diameter with 1/4 inch (6.35mm) thick walls, and have a removable lid with a metallic seal that is capable of being welded shut. The opening of the can is approximately 4 3/8 inches (111.13mm). The HIC is primarily designed to contain items in the DOE SNF inventory that do not meet acceptance standards for direct disposal in a geologic repository. This includes fuel in the form of particulate dusts, sectioned pieces of fuel, core rubble, melted or degraded (non-intact) fuel elements, unclad uranium alloys, metallurgical specimens, and chemically reactive fuel components. The HIC is intended to act as a substitute cladding for the spent nuclear fuel, further isolate problematic materials, provide a long-term corrosion barrier, and add an extra internal pressure barrier to the waste package. The HIC will also delay potential fission product release and maintain geometry control for extended periods of time. For the entire disposal package to be licensed …

The optimized assured isolation facility (AIF) consists of waste shipping containers being placed inside steel-reinforced concrete overpacks, which are, in turn, placed in steel-reinforced concrete vaults without an earthen cover system. The concrete vaults are designed to remain in service for hundreds of years, with the aid of ongoing active maintenance. This will be required since the facility will remain under license as long as waste is present in the facility. The estimated present value of life-cycle costs total about $318 million. Of this amount, over 30 percent is attributable to the need to accumulate the financial assurance fund which allows future management options to be implemented. The charge for waste received at the AIF in order to recover all costs and ensure proper facility function following the waste acceptance period was calculated for each year of AIF operation, considering annual variations in the volume received and the costs that must be recovered. The present value of the AID unit charges range for $84 to $420 per cubic foot with a life-cycle average of about $177 per cubic foot. When making decisions on cost factors and comparing alternatives, the lifetime average of $177 per cubic foot is most meaningful.