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Daily newspaper from Altus, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

To assay the degradation of high explosives (HE) by a material-loss mechanism, prompt gamma activation analysis (PGAA), using a miniature neutron accelerator developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) is proposed. Whereas the PGAA signatures from carbon and nitrogen in the chemical matrices are relatively low, fast neutrons may be used due to the higher cross sections for interaction. By using the upgraded PGAA database developed by the Isotope Projects Group at LBNL in collaboration with new PGAA data obtained at the Institute of Isotope and Surface Chemistry in Budapest, Hungary, it should be possible to observe and potentially to quantify a macroscopic loss of mass in HE.

A variety of animal agriculture issues, including prices, the impact of consolidation in the meat production/packing industry, trade, and the environmental impacts of large feedlots, continue to generate interest in Congress. This issue brief discusses these issues, as well as the 2002 farm bill, which contains several provisions affecting animal agriculture, including protections for contract growers, disaster assistance, country-of-origin labeling, and increased funding for conservation purposes.

Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress considers each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittees.

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Semiweekly newspaper from Boerne, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

This report outlines U.S. military operations in Bosnia and discusses issues such as U.S. and Allied Participation in Bosnia Peacekeeping (IFOR/SFOR), duration, cost, arms control and military assistance. This report also includes most recent development, background analysis, and legislation.

Semiweekly newspaper from Brady, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

This is a select chronology of, and a finding guide for information on, congressional and presidential actions and documents related to major budget events in calendar year 2001, covering the FY2002 budget. Brief information is provided for the President’s budget, congressional budget resolutions, appropriations measures (regular, continuing, supplementals, and rescissions), budget reconciliation, House and Senate votes, line-item vetoes, publications, testimony, charts, and tables.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed efforts by the Interagency Security Committee (ISC) to protect critical federal infrastructure since the committee was created in 1995. ISC is chaired by the General Services Administration (GSA) and comprises 14 department-level agencies and other executive agencies and officials. ISC's primary responsibilities are to (1) establish policies for security in and protection of federal facilities; (2) develop and evaluate security standards for federal facilities, develop a strategy for ensuring compliance with such standards, and oversee the implementation of appropriate security measures in federal facilities; and (3) take the steps necessary to enhance the quality and effectiveness of security and protection of federal facilities. ISC has carried out some of its responsibilities, but it has made little progress on others. During the past 7 years, ISC has developed and issued security design criteria and minimum standards for building access procedures; disseminated information to member agencies, for their consideration and implementation, on entry security technology for buildings needing the highest security levels; and through its meetings and 13 working groups, provided a forum for federal agencies to discuss security issues and share information and ideas. ISC …

This paper summarizes the inspections and inspection results in conjunction with the corrosion experience of aluminum-clad SNF in basin storage.

Aluminum-based spent nuclear fuel from foreign and domestic research reactors is being consolidated at the Savannah River Site (SRS) for ultimate disposal in the Monitored Geologic Repository. The melt-dilute treatment technology has been developed to consolidate fuel assemblies by a melting/casting process in which depleted uranium is added to reduce enrichment below 20 percent 235-U. The melt-dilute product is essentially a binary uranium-aluminum alloy to which neutron absorber materials may be readily added.

When shocks impinge on a surface separating fluids of two different densities, one observes the development and growth of various vortical structures. The flow induced by this Richtmyer-Meshkov (RM) instability depends on a variety of factors such as the shock strength, the density ratio of the fluids and the exact form of the surface perturbation. The most common way to model the form of the surface perturbation is through Fourier analysis which is suitable for large-scale sinusoidal structures and is straightforward mathematically. In surfaces of practical interest, however, to a wide range of application, there may also be a broad spectrum of high frequency modes in addition to the lower frequency modes described by Fourier methods. We propose here that these high frequency modes can be efficiently quantified in terms of wavelet analysis. From a numerical point of view, the scale that the roughness occurs at is far to small to numerically resolve and thus we propose that our new methodology can be used to model the subgrid scale generation of vorticity. Thus the combination of wavelet analysis and Fourier analysis will be used to model the generation of vorticity for the RM instability.

The Convention provides the most extensive and intrusive verification regime of any arms control treaty, extending its coverage to not only governmental but also civilian facilities. The Convention also requires export controls and reporting requirements on chemicals that can be used as warfare agents and their precursors. The CWC establishes the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to oversee the Convention's implementation. Chemical Weapons Convention implementing legislation, as S. 610, passed the Senate unanimously on May 23, 1997. This legislation, which was an amendment in the nature of a substitute reported from the Judiciary Committee, provides the statutory authority for domestic compliance with the Convention's provisions. It sets criminal and civil penalties for the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, transfer, possession, or use of chemical weapons.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Vaccine shortages began to appear in November 2000, when supplies of the tetanus and diptheria booster fell short. By October 2001, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported shortages of five vaccines that protect against eight childhood diseases. In addition to diptheria and tetanus vaccines, vaccines to protect against pertussis, invasive pneumococcal disease, measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella were in short supply. In July 2002, updated CDC data indicated supplies were returning to normal for most vaccines. However, the shortage of vaccine to protect against invasive pneumococcal disease was expected to continue through at least late 2002. Shortages have prompted federal authorities to recommend deferring some vaccinations and have caused most states to reduce or suspend immunization requirements for school and day care programs so that children who have not received all mandatory immunizations can enroll. States are concerned that failure to be vaccinated at a later date may reduce the share of the population protected and increase the potential for disease to spread; however, data are not currently available to measure these effects. Many factors, including production problems and unanticipated demand for new vaccines, contributed …

Daily newspaper from Perry, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC) developed the melt-dilute process for treating spent fuel. Using laboratory concepts, SRTC designed and constructed a pilot-scale facility for processing radioactive fuel. Start-up testing of the facility confirmed cell operations and remote handling of fuel assemblies. In early 2002, the DOE decided to shut down the L-Area facility at SRS prior to melting any irradiated fuel. The modular facility is now in cold stand-by. This paper discusses the design and testing of the pilot-scale facility.

A number basic sorbents based on CaO were synthesized, characterized with novel techniques and tested for sorption of CO{sub 2} and selected gas mixtures simulating flue gas from coal fired boilers. Our studies resulted in highly promising sorbents which demonstrated zero affinity for N{sub 2}, O{sub 2}, SO{sub 2}, and NO very low affinity for water, ultrahigh CO{sub 2} sorption capacities, and rapid sorption characteristics, CO{sub 2} sorption at a very wide temperature range, durability, and low synthesis cost. One of the 'key' characteristics of the proposed materials is the fact that we can control very accurately their basicity (optimum number of basic sites of the appropriate strength) which allows for the selective chemisorption of CO{sub 2} at a wide range of temperatures. These unique characteristics of this family of sorbents offer high promise for development of advanced industrial sorbents for the effective CO{sub 2} removal.

The Intense Pulse Neutron Source (IPNS) 50-MeV Drift-Tube Linac uses a single-gap, single-harmonic buncher cavity to increase transmission efficiency. However, it is also the case that the linac output beam longitudinal and transverse emittance is dependent on buncher amplitude and phase as well as with the input beam energy and emittance. The linac is the injector for a Rapid Cycling Synchrotron (RCS) that increases the beam energy to 450 MeV and shortens the pulse to the 100 ns region. The RCS is operated loss-limited, and its operating current is strongly dependent on the properties (emittance, and its variation during the pulse) of the beam from the linac. A new amplifier has been installed allowing for better amplitude and phase control of buncher rf. This new amplifier gives independent control of amplitude and phase, permitting more systematic studies of the relation between linac and RCS performance. This paper presents the results of recent studies where we characterize beam properties that lead to high efficiency operation in both linac and RCS, and compare them with simulation calculations.

The Economic Development Administration (EDA), targeted for elimination or major “reinvention” early in the 104th Congress, gained a new lease on life in the waning days of the 105th. Having been kept alive via appropriations bills since its last authorizing legislation expired in 1982, P.L. 105-393 reauthorized the EDA and its programs for 5 years. On October 27, Congress approved a conference agreement recommending $286.7 million for EDAP and $28 million for S&E, for a totalFY2001 appropriation of$411.9 million for EDA. It became part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 4942, P.L. 106-553) signed into law on December 21, 2000.

To assess the effects of long-term, low-dose-rate neutron exposure on mechanical strength and ductility, tensile properties were measured on 12% and 20% cold-worked Type 316 stainless steel. Samples were prepared from reactor core components retrieved from the EBR-II reactor following final shutdown. Sample locations were chosen to cover a dose range of 1-56 dpa at temperatures from 371-440 C and dose rates from 0.5-5.8 x10{sup -7} dpa/s. These dose rates are approximately an order of magnitude lower than those of typical EBR-II test sample locations. The tensile tests for the 12% CW material were performed at 380 C and 430 C while those for the 20% CW samples were performed at 370 C. In each case, the tensile test temperature approximately matched the irradiation temperature. To help understand the tensile properties, microstructural samples with similar irradiation history were also examined. The strength and loss of work hardening increase the fastest as a function of irradiation dose for the 12% CW material irradiated at lower temperature. The decrease in ductility with increasing dose occurs more rapidly for the 12% CW material irradiated at lower temperature and the 20% cold-worked material. Post-tensile test fractography indicates that at higher dose, the 20% CW …

Ionizing radiation from spent nuclear fuel (SNF) can cause radiolytic decomposition of water and generation of hydrogen. Factors affecting hydrogen production include the type of radiation (alpha, gamma, and neutron), the radiation (alpha, gamma, and neutron), the linear energy transfer (LET) rates from the radiation, the water chemistry and dissolved gases, and physical conditions such as temperature and pressure. A review of the mechanisms for the radiolytic generation of hydrogen applicable to breached SNF has been performed. A qualitative evaluation of the potential for generation of hydrogen in the pure water used in water-filled shipping casks at the Savannah River Site (SRS) is made.

Daily newspaper from Chickasha, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.