Letters from Eve Harwell and Logan Knight to the BRAC Commission in response to the recommendation to realign the 186th Air Refueling Wing in Meridian, Mississippi.

Letter from Susan Nichols and Kathy Calabrese to the Base Realignment and Closure Commission regarding its recommendations towards Fort Huachuca. Nichols and Calabrese insist that BRAC has made an error in its assessments and include information to that effect.

Memorandum of meeting regarding a briefing and tour of the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA), VA.

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Senate Appropriations Committee has expressed concern about the use of military construction budget authority for projects at overseas bases that may soon be obsolete due to changes being considered by DOD military services as well as the need for a more complete picture of future requirements than is typically available in annual budget requests. Accordingly, the conference report accompanying the fiscal year 2004 military construction appropriation bill directed DOD to prepare detailed comprehensive master plans for changing infrastructure requirements for U.S. military facilities in each of the overseas regional commands. In that regard, DOD was required to provide a baseline report on these plans with yearly updates on the status of those plans and their implementation with annual military construction budget submissions through 2009. Additionally, the fiscal year 2004 Senate military construction appropriation bill report required those plans to identify precise facility requirements, the status of properties being returned to host nations, and the funding requirements as well as the division of funding responsibilities between the United States and cognizant host nations. The Senate report also directed us to monitor the master plans developed and implemented for …

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This report provides an overview of the Commission's 2002 Biennial Review from which the 2003 rules originated and the Prometheus case, and addresses the status of the Commission's regulations.

This report provides an overview of major issues facing veterans' health care during the 109th Congress. The report's primary focus is on veterans and not military retirees.

This project elucidated the function of a number of genes involved in electron transport and other important functions in Geobacter sulfurreducens.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods have been used to estimate the flow patterns for vapor space inside the Saltstone Vault No.4 under different operating scenarios. The purpose of this work is to examine the gas motions inside the vapor space under the current vault configurations. A CFD model took three-dimensional transient momentum-energy coupled approach for the vapor space domain of the vault. The modeling calculations were based on prototypic vault geometry and expected normal operating conditions as defined by Waste Solidification Engineering. The modeling analysis was focused on the air flow patterns near the ventilated corner zones of the vapor space inside the Saltstone vault. The turbulence behavior and natural convection mechanism used in the present model were benchmarked against the literature information and theoretical results. The verified model was applied to the Saltstone vault geometry for the transient assessment of the air flow patterns inside the vapor space of the vault region using the boundary conditions as provided by the customer. The present model considered two cases for the estimations of the flow patterns within the vapor space. One is the reference baseline case. The other is for the negative temperature gradient between the roof inner and top grout …

The effects of temperature and age on the times required for beta-heating-induced redistribution of a 50-50 mole percent mixture of deuterium and tritium (DT) in a spherical capsule are investigated analytically and numerically. The derivation of an analytical solution for the redistribution time in a one-dimensional binary diffusion model, which includes the capsule thermal resistance, is first described. This result shows that the redistribution time for a high conductivity capsule wall is approximately doubled after 8 days of {sup 3}He formation. In contrast, with a low thermal conductivity capsule wall (e.g., polyimide), the redistribution time would increase by less than 10%. The substantial effect of the capsule wall resistance suggested that the resistance to heat transfer from the capsule through the surrounding transfer gas to the hohlraum wall would also influence the redistribution process. This was investigated with a spherical model, which was based on accounting for energy transfer by diffusion with a conduction heat transfer approximation. This made it possible to solve for the continuous temperature distribution throughout the capsule and surrounding gas. As with the capsule the redistribution times depended on the relative values of the thermal resistances of the vapor, the capsule, and the transfer gas. With …

Work on the project primarily focused on the design and testing of different hydraulic classifier configurations. A four cell, open channel, cross flow classifier with and without weirs separating the cells was evaluated. Drawbacks to this configuration included thick sediment compression zones and relatively low throughput. The configuration was redesigned with inclined lamellae plates, to increase sedimentation area and decreased sediment compression zone thickness. This configuration resulted in greater throughput for any given product grade and enhanced product recovery. A digital model of a hydraulic classifier was also constructed based upon Stokes law and the configurations of the tests units. When calibrated with the size of the ash used in the tests, it produced a reasonable approximation of the size, yield and recovery of the actual product. The digital model will be useful to generate test data, at least on a relative basis, of conditions that are hard to generate in the laboratory or at larger scale. Test work on the dispersant adsorption capacity, settling tests and leaching test were also conducted on materials collected from the Coleman power station pond.

First-year litter decomposition was estimated for an upland-oak forest ecosystem using enrichment or dilution of the {sup 14}C-signature of the Oi-horizon. These isotopically-based mass-loss estimates were contrasted with measured mass-loss rates from past litterbag studies. Mass-loss derived from changes in the {sup 14}C-signature of the Oi-horizon suggested mean mass loss over 9 months of 45% which was higher than the corresponding 9-month rate extrapolated from litterbag studies ({approx}35%). Greater mass loss was expected from the isotopic approach because litterbags are known to limit mass loss processes driven by soil macrofauna (e.g., fragmentation and comminution). Although the {sup 14}C-isotope approach offers the advantage of being a non-invasive method, it exhibited high variability that undermined its utility as an alternative to routine litterbag mass loss methods. However, the {sup 14}C approach measures the residence time of C in the leaf litter, rather than the time it takes for leaves to disappear; hence radiocarbon measures are subject to C immobilization and recycling in the microbial pool, and do not necessarily reflect results from litterbag mass loss. The commonly applied two-compartment isotopic mixing model was appropriate for estimating decomposition from isotopic enrichment of near-background soils, but it produced divergent results for isotopic dilution of …

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Sparse systems of linear equations and eigen-equations arise at the heart of many large-scale, vital simulations in DOE. Examples include the Accelerator Science and Technology SciDAC (Omega3P code, electromagnetic problem), the Center for Extended Magnetohydrodynamic Modeling SciDAC(NIMROD and M3D-C1 codes, fusion plasma simulation). The Terascale Optimal PDE Simulations (TOPS)is providing high-performance sparse direct solvers, which have had significant impacts on these applications. Over the past several years, we have been working closely with the other SciDAC teams to solve their large, sparse matrix problems arising from discretization of the partial differential equations. Most of these systems are very ill-conditioned, resulting in extremely poor convergence deployed our direct methods techniques in these applications, which achieved significant scientific results as well as performance gains. These successes were made possible through the SciDAC model of computer scientists and application scientists working together to take full advantage of terascale computing systems and new algorithms research.

Exposure to low levels of ionizing radiation causes DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) that must be repaired for cell survival. Higher eukaryotes respond to DSBs by arresting the cell cycle, presumably to repair the DNA lesions before cell division. In mammalian cells, the nonhomologous end-joining DSB repair pathway is mediated by the 470 kDa DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs) together with the DNA-binding factors Ku70 and Ku80. Mouse knock-out models of these three proteins are all exquisitely sensitive to low doses of ionizing radiation. In the presence of DNA ends, Ku binds to the DNA and then recruits DNA-PKcs. After formation of the complex, the kinase activity associated with DNA-PKcs becomes activated. This kinase activity has been shown to be essential for repairing DNA DSBs in vivo since expression of a kinase-dead form of DNA-PKcs in a mammalian cell line that lacks DNA-PKcs fails to complement the radiosensitive phenotype. The immense size of DNA-PKcs suggests that it may also serve as a docking site for other DNA repair proteins. Since the assembly of the DNA-PK complex onto DNA is a prerequisite for DSB repair, it is critical to obtain structural information on the complex. Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and single particle …

Momentum, energy, and particle transport in DIII-D and JET ELMy H-mode plasmas is simulated with GYRO and compared with measurements analyzed using TRANSP. The simulated transport depends sensitively on the nabla(T(sub)i) turbulence drive and the nabla(E(sub)r) turbulence suppression inputs. With their nominal values indicated by measurements, the simulations over-predict the momentum and energy transport in the DIII-D plasmas, and under-predict in the JET plasmas. Reducing |nabla(T(sub)i)| and increasing |nabla(E(sub)r)| by up to 15% leads to approximate agreement (within a factor of two) for the DIII-D cases. For the JET cases, increasing |nabla(T(sub)i)| or reducing |nabla(E(sub)r)| results in approximate agreement for the energy flow, but the ratio of the simulated energy and momentum flows remains higher than measurements by a factor of 2-4.

Mechanically alloyed oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) Fe-Cr-Al alloy thin walled tubes and sheets, produced via powder processing and consolidation methodologies, are promising materials for eventual use at temperatures up to 1200 C in the power generation industry, far above the temperature capabilities of conventional alloys. Target end-uses range from gas turbine combustor liners to high aspect ratio (L/D) heat exchanger tubes. Grain boundary creep processes at service temperatures, particularly those acting in the hoop direction, are the dominant failure mechanisms for such components. The processed microstructure of ODS alloys consists of high aspect ratio grains aligned parallel to the tube axis, a result of dominant axial metal flow which aligns the dispersoid particles and other impurities in the longitudinal direction. The dispersion distribution is unaltered on a micro scale by recrystallization thermal treatments, but the high aspect ratio grain shape typically obtained limits transverse grain spacing and consequently the hoop creep response. Improving hoop creep in ODS-alloy components will require understanding and manipulating the factors that control the recrystallization behavior, and represents a critical materials design and development challenge that must be overcome in order to fully exploit the potential of ODS alloys. The objectives of this program are to …

Air pollution arising from the emission of nitrogen oxides as a result of combustion taking place in boilers, furnaces and engines, has increasingly been recognized as a problem. New methods to remove NO{sub x} emissions significantly and economically must be developed. The current technology for post-combustion removal of NO is the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NO by ammonia or possibly by a hydrocarbon such as methane. The catalytic decomposition of NO to give N{sub 2} will be preferable to the SCR process because it will eliminate the costs and operating problems associated with the use of an external reducing species. The most promising decomposition catalysts are transition metal (especially copper)-exchanged zeolites, perovskites, and noble metals supported on metal oxides such as alumina, silica, and ceria. The main shortcoming of the noble metal reducible oxide (NMRO) catalysts is that they are prone to deactivation by oxygen. It has been reported that catalysts containing tin oxide show oxygen adsorption behavior that may involve hydroxyl groups attached to the tin oxide. This is different than that observed with other noble metal-metal oxide combinations, which have the oxygen adsorbing on the noble metal and subsequently spilling over to the metal oxide. This observation …

Zeolites are extremely versatile. They can adsorb liquids and gases and serve as cation exchange media. They occur in nature as well cemented deposits. The ancient Romans used blocks of zeolitized tuff as a building material. Using zeolites for the management of radioactive waste is not a new idea, but a process by which the zeolites can be made to act as a cementing agent is. Zeolitic materials are relatively easy to synthesize from a wide range of both natural and man-made substances. The process under study is derived from a well known method in which metakaolin (an impure thermally dehydroxylated kaolinite heated to {approx}700 C containing traces of quartz and mica) is mixed with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and reacted in slurry form (for a day or two) at mildly elevated temperatures. The zeolites form as finely divided powders containing micrometer ({micro}m) sized crystals. However, if the process is changed slightly and only just enough concentrated sodium hydroxide solution is added to the metakaolinite to make a thick crumbly paste and then the paste is compacted and cured under mild hydrothermal conditions (60-200 C), the mixture will form a hard ceramic-like material containing distinct crystalline tectosilicate minerals (zeolites and feldspathoids) …

Extensive studies to date of edge localized modes (ELMs) have sought their origin inside the separatrix, i.e., MHD instability from steep gradients in the plasma edge, and examined their consequences outside the separatrix, i.e., transport of heat and particles in the scrape-off-layer (SOL) and divertors. Recent measurement by a high-speed scrape-off-layer current (SOLC) diagnostic may indicate that the ELM trigger process lies, in part, in the SOL. Thermoelectrically driven SOLC precedes, or co-evolves with, other parameters of the ELM process, and thus can potentially play a causal role: error field generated by non-axisymmetric SOLC, flowing in the immediate vicinity (approximately 1 cm) of the plasma edge, may contribute toward destabilizing MHD modes. The SOLC, observed concurrently with MHD activity, including ELMs, has been reported elsewhere.

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