An airborne system designed for the detection of radioactive sources on the soil surface from an aircraft normally senses gamma rays emitted by the source. Gamma rays have the longest path length (least attenuation) through the air of any of the common radioactive emissions and will thus permit source detection at large distances. A secondary benefit from gamma rays detection if that nearly all radioactive isotopes can be identified by the spectrum of gammas emitted. Major gaseous emissions from fuel processing plants emit gammas that may be detected and identified. Some types of special nuclear material also emit neutrons which are also useful for detection at a distance.

This AGA addresses the question: ''What equipment upgrades, operational changes, and/or other actions are required relative to the DST tanks farms' ventilation systems to support retrieval, staging (including feed sampling), and delivery of tank waste to the Phase I private contractor?'' Issues and options for the various components within the ventilation subsystem affect each other. Recommended design requirements are presented and the preferred alternatives are detailed.

Development of the hot gas filtration technology has been the focus of DOE/FETC and Siemens Westinghouse Power Corporation during the past twenty years. Systems development during this time has successfully lead to the generation and implementation of high temperature Siemens Westinghouse particulate filtration systems that are currently installed and are operational at Demonstration Plant sites, and which are ready for installation at commercial plant sites. Concurrently, materials development has advanced the use of commercially available oxide- and nonoxide-based monoliths, and has fostered the manufacture and use of second generation, oxide-based, continuous fiber reinforced ceramic composites and filament wound materials. This report summarizes the material characterization results for commercially available and second generation filter materials tested in Siemens Westinghouse's advanced, high temperature, particulate removal system at the Foster Wheeler, pressurized circulating fluidized-bed combustion, pilot-scale test facility in Karhula, Finland, and subsequent extended accelerated life testing of aged elements in Siemens Westinghouse pressurized fluidized-bed combustion simulator test facility in Pittsburgh, PA. The viability of operating candle filters successfully for over 1 year of service life has been shown in these efforts. Continued testing to demonstrate the feasibility of acquiring three years of service operation on aged filter elements is recommended.

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ITN's 3-year project, titled ''Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition (APCVD) of CdTe for High-Efficiency Thin-Film Photovoltaic (PV) Devices,'' has the overall objectives of improving thin-film CdTe PV manufacturing technology and increasing CdTe PV device power conversion efficiency. CdTe deposition by APCVD employs the same reaction chemistry as has been used to deposit 16%-efficient CdTe PV films, i.e., close-spaced sublimation, but employs forced convection rather than diffusion as a mechanism of mass transport. Tasks of the APCVD program center on demonstrating APCVD of CdTe films, discovering fundamental mass-transport parameters, applying established engineering principles to the deposition of CdTe films, and verifying reactor design principles that could be used to design high-throughput, high-yield manufacturing equipment. Additional tasks relate to improved device measurement and characterization procedures that can lead to a more fundamental understanding of CdTe PV device operation, and ultimately, to higher device conversion efficiency and greater stability. Specifically, under the APCVD program, device analysis goes beyond conventional one-dimensional device characterization and analysis toward two-dimension measurements and modeling. Accomplishments of the first year of the APCVD subcontract include: selection of the Stagnant Flow Reactor design concept for the APCVD reactor, development of a detailed reactor design, performance of detailed numerical calculations simulating …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on state experiences with reserve funds for emergencies or other unpredictable funding needs and state practices that could be instructive in the emergency spending debate, particularly regarding how the federal government might budget for emergencies with surplus funds."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the extent to which businesses used: (1) Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Community program's three tax incentives; and (2) three other tax incentives that are targeted to help businesses, including those in distressed areas."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) administration of its health maintenance organization, TRICARE Prime, focusing on: (1) DOD's performance in scheduling appointments; and (2) possible reasons why Prime enrollees might not obtain appointments within the appointment timeliness goals."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Army's implementation of the recommendations made by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's study on ammunition management, focusing on the Army's: (1) progress toward reorganizing the management of conventional ammunition to address the fragmentation issues; and (2) efforts to improve business practices to enhance the operational efficiency of ammunition production and procurement."

The Delaware Basin Drilling Surveillance Program (DBDSP) is designed to monitor drilling activities in the vicinity of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). This program is based on Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements. The EPA environmental standards for the management and disposal of transuranic (TRU) radioactive waste are codified in 40 CFR Part 191 (EPA 1993). Subparts B and C of the standard address the disposal of radioactive waste. The standard requires the Department of Energy (DOE) to demonstrate the expected performance of the disposal system using a probabilistic risk assessment or performance assessment (PA). This PA must show that the expected repository performance will not release radioactive material above limits set by the EPA's standard. This assessment must include the consideration of inadvertent drilling into the repository at some future time.

Washability analysis is the basis for nearly all coal preparation plant separations. Unfortunately, there are no on-line techniques for determining this most fundamental of all coal cleaning information. In light of recent successes at the University of Utah, it now appears possible to determine coal washability on-line through the use of x-ray computed tomography (CT) analysis. The successful development of such a device is critical to the establishment of process control and automated coal blending systems. In this regard, Virginia Tech, Terra Tek Inc., and several eastern coal companies have joined with the University of Utah and agreed to undertake the development of a x-ray CT-based on-line coal washability analyzer with financial assistance from DOE. The three-year project will cost $594,571, of which 33% ($194,575) will be cost-shared by the participants. The project involves development of appropriate software and extensive testing/evaluation of well-characterized coal samples from operating coal preparation plants. Each project participant brings special expertise to the project which is expected to create a new dimension in coal cleaning technology. Finally, it should be noted that the analyzer may prove to be a universal analyzer capable of providing not only washability analysis, but also particle size distribution analysis, ash …

Bulk structures of unstabilized ZrO{sub 2-x}, with x in the range of 0 {<=} x {<=} 0.44, at ambient pressure have been found to exist in three different structures. (monoclinic, tetragonal and cubic.). At ambient temperature and elevated pressures above 3.5 GPa, unstabilized zirconia at these same compositions is found as a fourth phase, the orthorhombic phase. Work done in this project has demonstrated that nanoscale zirconia particles containing the orthorhombic phase in addition to amorphous material can be produced through solgel methods. Extensive characterization of this material including recent high temperature x-ray diffraction work has indicated that the structure of the synthesized zirconia appears to be linked to the oxygen vacancy population in the material, and that water appears to be a critical factor in determining the type of material formed during synthesis. These results suggest that surface energy alone is not the controlling factor in determining crystal phase.

DETOX is a catalyzed wet oxidation process that destroys organic materials in an acidic water solution of iron at 373 to 473 K. The solution can be used repeatedly to destroy great amounts of organic materials. Since the process is conducted in a contained vessel, air emissions from the process can be well controlled. The solution is also capable of dissolving and concentrating many heavy and radioactive metals for eventual stabilization and disposal. The Phase III effort for this project is fabrication, assembly, and installation of the DETOX demonstration unit, preparation of documentation and training to meet site requirements for operation, followed by system run-in and shakedown testing of the unit prior to demonstration testing. The Title III design was completed and the unit was fabricated according to standards set forth by OSHA, EPA, the American Petroleum Institute (i.e., chemical and petroleum industry standards), and the ASME B-313 Piping Code requirements as agreed to in preliminary design meetings with primary stakeholders. The unit was assembled in three modules and two trailers and then shipped to the TNX facility at the Savannah River Site in September and october of 1996. On-going site integration tasks were address while delays in installation arose …

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A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on employer compliance with the white-collar exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), focusing on: (1) how many employees are covered by the white-collar exemptions and how the demographic characteristics of these employees have changed in recent years; (2) how the statutory and regulatory requirements have changed since the enactment of FLSA; (3) the major concerns of employers regarding the white-collar exemptions; (4) the major concerns of employees regarding the white-collar exemptions; and (5) the possible solutions to the issues of concern raised by employers and employees."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on 10 major Department of Education programs for (FY) 1996, focusing on: (1) the percentage of federal funding spent at the federal level and the uses of these funds; (2) the percentage of federal funding spent at the state level and the uses of these funds; and (3) the amount of time school personnel in a small number of school districts spent fulfilling federal administrative requirements for those programs for which the districts received funds."

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The model specifies the composition and functionality of Legion's core objects - those objects that cooperate to create, locate, manage, and remove objects from the legion project. In particular, the object model facilitates a flexible extensible implementation, provides a single persistent name space, grants site autonomy to participating organizations, and scales to millions of sites and trillions of objects. Further, it offers a framework that is well suited to providing mechanisms for high performance, security, fault tolerance and commerce.

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A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO audited the expenditures of eight independent counsels for the 6 months ended March 31, 1999."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Agency for International Development's (AID) Initiative for Southern Africa program, focusing on the: (1) specific activities AID's Regional Center for Southern Africa conducted to implement the Initiative; (2) extent to which this regional program complements AID's bilateral programs in the region; and (3) challenges the Regional Center faces in implementing the Initiative."

The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) demonstration of the diamond wire cutting technology on the surrogate of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR), Figure 1, was performed from August 23-September 3, 1999. The plated diamond wire, Figure 2, was successful in cutting through all components of the TFTR surrogate including stainless steel, inconel and graphite. The demonstration tested three different void fill materials (mortar with sand, Rheocell-15, and foam) and three cooling systems (water, air, and liquid nitrogen). The optimum combination was determined to be the use of the low-density concrete void fill, Rheocell-15 with an average density of 52 lbs/ft{sup 3}, using a water coolant. However, the liquid nitrogen performed better than expected with only minor problems and was considered to be a successful demonstration of the Bluegrass Concrete Cutting, Inc. proprietary liquid-nitrogen coolant system. Data from the demonstration is being calculated and a summary of the technology demonstration will be included in the October monthly report. An ITSR will be written comparing the diamond wire saw to the plasma arc (baseline) technology. The MTR Chemical Protective Suit, a proprietary new suit from Kimberly Clark, was evaluated from 8/9/99 to 8/12/99 at Beaver, WV. This particular suit was tested …

The Low-Activity Waste Process Technology Program at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC) anticipates that large volumes of low-level/low-activity wastes will need to be grouted prior to near-surface disposal. During fiscal year 1999, grout formulations were studied for transuranic waste derived from INTEC liquid sodium-bearing waste and for projected newly generated low-level liquid waste. Additional studies were completed on radionuclide leaching, microbial degradation, waste neutralization, and a small mockup for grouting the INTEC underground storage tank residual heels.

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