Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The sorrow, loss, anger, and resolve so evident immediately following the September 11, 2001, attacks have been combined in an effort to help assure that our country will never again be caught unprepared. As the 9/11 Commission notes, we are safer today but we are not safe, and much work remains. Although in today's world we can never be 100 percent secure, and we can never do everything everywhere, we concur with the Commission's conclusion that the American people should expect their government to do its very best. GAO's mission is to help the Congress improve the performance and ensure the accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people. GAO has been actively involved in improving government's performance in the critically important homeland security area both before and after the September 11 attacks. In its request, the House Committee on Government Reform have asked GAO to address two issues: the lack of effective information sharing and analysis and the need for executive branch reorganization in response to the 9/11 Commission recommendations. Further, the Committee has asked GAO to address how to remedy problems in …

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas Senate and House of Representatives relating to granting permission to adjourn from April 20 to April 27, 2004.

The development of commercial boi-based processes and products derived from agricultural waste biomass has the potential for significant impact on the economy and security of our nation. Adding value, rather than disposing of the waste of agriculture, can solve an environmental problem and reduce our dependence on foreign sources of fossil fuel for production of chemicals, materials and fuels.

The purpose of this study was to develop the air emission projections for the maintenance operation to dissolve and flush out the scale material inside the F-Canyon Waste Header No.2. The chemical agent used for the dissolution is a concentrated nitric acid solution, so the pollutant of concern is the nitric acid vapor. Under the very conservative operating scenarios considered in this study, it was determined that the highest possible rate of nitric acid emission during the acid flush would be 0.048 lb. per hr. It turns out that this worst-case air emission projection is just below the current exemption limit of 0.05 lb. per hr. for permit applications.

This report briefly summarizes the process of amendments between the House of Representatives and the Senate, which occurs if the House and Senate approve differing versions of a measure. The House and Senate must approve an identical version of a measure before it may be presented for the President's approval or veto. If the House and Senate approve differing versions of a measure, the differences must first be resolved.

The use of lightweight and highly formable advanced materials in automobile and truck manufacturing has the potential to save fuel. Advances in tooling technology would promote the use of these materials. This report describes an energy savings analysis performed to approximate the potential fuel savings and consequential carbon-emission reductions that would be possible because of advances in tooling in the manufacturing of, in particular, non-powertrain components of passenger cars and heavy trucks. Separate energy analyses are performed for cars and heavy trucks. Heavy trucks are considered to be Class 7 and 8 trucks (trucks rated over 26,000 lbs gross vehicle weight). A critical input to the analysis is a set of estimates of the percentage reductions in weight and drag that could be achieved by the implementation of advanced materials, as a consequence of improved tooling technology, which were obtained by surveying tooling industry experts who attended a DOE Workshop, Tooling Technology for Low-Volume Vehicle Production, held in Seattle and Detroit in October and November 2003. The analysis is also based on 2001 fuel consumption totals and on energy-audit component proportions of fuel use due to drag, rolling resistance, and braking. The consumption proportions are assumed constant over time, but …

This report summarizes laboratory radiochemical analyses of sediment samples collected by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency during the DoD Savannah Survey operations of Sep 04. The analytic goal was to determine if Wassaw Sound sediment collections of 30 Sep 04 display evidence for local anthropogenic uranium, as distinct from the recognized regional background stemming from the Savannah River Site (SRS). Radiochemical methods were selected to maximize detection sensitivity for such anthropogenic uranium. Within the suite of twelve collections, there would be evidence for a localized source if individual collections were to differ from the population as a whole. If in fact non-natural uranium were observed, definitive determination of whether the source was SRS effluent or a localized release would likely involve additional field sampling. These collections were logged by the LLNL Forensics Science Center, photographed, and laboratory chain-of-custody was begun. The inventory received at LLNL is reported in Table 1. The separate collections were not assigned any relative priority among them. LLNL has separately reviewed detailed records of the item in question, and determined what materials are involved and what radiochemical assays are of value. Attempting quantitative estimates of source-item material release, transport, and collection levels would be quite uncertain. …

This paper describes an analytical technique developed to predict an order of magnitude volume of moisture accumulation in massive structures after deactivation. This work was done to support deactivation of a Department of Energy nuclear materials processing facility. The structure is a four-story, concrete building with a rectangular footprint that is approximately 250m long by 37m wide by 22m high. Its walls are 1.2m thick. The building will be supplied with unconditioned ventilation air after deactivation. The objective of the work was to provide a cost effective engineering evaluation to determine if the un-conditioned ventilation air would result in condensate accumulating inside the building under study. The analysis described is a simple representation of a complex problem. The modeling method is discussed in sufficient detail to allow its application to the study of similar structures.

In a Fermi-degenerate plasma, the electronic stopping of a slow ion is smaller than that given by the classical formula, because some transitions between the electron states are forbidden. The bremsstrahlung losses are then smaller, so that the nuclear burning of an aneutronic fuel is more efficient. Consequently, there occurs a parameter regime in which self-burning is possible. Practical obstacles in this regime that must be overcome before net energy can be realized include the compression of the fuel to an ultra dense state and the creation of a hot spot.

Aqueous radioactive wastes from Savannah River Site (SRS) separations and vitrification processes are contained in large underground carbon steel tanks. Inspections made during 2003 to evaluate these vessels and other waste handling facilities along with evaluations based on data from previous inspections are the subject of this report. The 2003 inspection program revealed that the structural integrity and waste confinement capability of the Savannah River Site waste tanks remained unchanged from 2002. A total of 4249 photographs were made, 1178 visual and video inspections were performed, and 12 helium leak tests were conducted. Ultrasonic testing was performed on five High Level Waste Tanks in accordance with approved inspection plans that met the In-Service Inspection Program requirements.

Given the range of fuel cycle goals and criteria, and the wide range of fuel cycle options, how can the set of options eventually be narrowed in a transparent and justifiable fashion? It is impractical to develop all options. We suggest an approach that starts by considering a range of goals for the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) and then posits seven questions, such as whether Cs and Sr isotopes should be separated from spent fuel and, if so, what should be done with them. For each question, we consider which of the goals may be relevant to eventually providing answers. The AFCI program has both ''outcome'' and ''process'' goals because it must address both waste already accumulating as well as completing the fuel cycle in connection with advanced nuclear power plant concepts. The outcome objectives are waste geologic repository capacity and cost, energy security and sustainability, proliferation resistance, fuel cycle economics, and safety. The process objectives are rea diness to proceed and adaptability and robustness in the face of uncertainties.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. government's framework for preventing, detecting, and prosecuting money laundering has been expanding through additional pieces of legislation since its inception in 1970 with the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). The purpose of the BSA is to prevent financial institutions from being used as intermediaries for the transfer or deposit of money derived from criminal activity and to provide a paper trail for law enforcement agencies in their investigations of possible money laundering. The most recent changes arose in October 2001 with the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act, which, among other things, extends antimoney laundering (AML) requirements to other financial service providers previously not covered under the BSA. GAO was asked to testify on its previous work and the ongoing work it is doing for the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on the depository institution regulators' BSA examination and enforcement process."

A recently developed coda magnitude methodology was applied to selected broadband stations in Turkey for the purpose of testing the coda method in a large, laterally complex region. As found in other, albeit smaller regions, coda envelope amplitude measurements are significantly less variable than distance-corrected direct wave measurements (i.e., L{sub g} and surface waves) by roughly a factor 3-to-4. Despite strong lateral crustal heterogeneity in Turkey, we found that the region could be adequately modeled assuming a simple 1-D, radially symmetric path correction for 10 narrow frequency bands ranging between 0.02 to 2.0 Hz. For higher frequencies however, 2-D path corrections will be necessary and will be the subject of a future study. After calibrating the stations ISP, ISKB, and MALT for local and regional distances, single-station moment-magnitude estimates (M{sub w}) derived from the coda spectra were in excellent agreement with those determined from multi-station waveform modeling inversions of long-period data, exhibiting a data standard deviation of 0.17. Though the calibration was validated using large events, the results of the calibration will extend M{sub w} estimates to significantly smaller events which could not otherwise be waveform modeled due to poor signal-to-noise ratio at long periods and sparse station coverage. The …

This presentation discusses applications of radioisotopes in modern life.

A report of an archaeological survey of a drainage within the proposed 600 acre Crandall Development Site in Kaufman County.

This report is an update regarding Armenia's experience of domestic political turmoil since independence.

This report presents the issues considered by the 108th Congress related to the civil works program of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps). The Corps plans, constructs, and operates water resources facilities primarily for flood control, navigation, and environmental purposes.

The mobilization of arsenic was examined in a system where the deposition of iron and arsenic have been substantially modified by large-scale manipulations. This engineering practice was designed to decrease arsenic concentrations in water supplied to the City of Los Angeles. Accomplishing this objective, however, has resulted in significant accumulation of arsenic and iron in the sediments of a reservoir on the Los Angeles Aqueduct. Arsenic and iron are released into the porewater at depth in the sediment, consistent with reductive dissolution of iron(III) oxyhydroxides. Factors influencing the possible re-sorption of arsenic onto residual iron(III) oxyhydroxides solids have been examined. Reduction of As(V) to As(III) alone cannot account for arsenic mobilization since arsenic occurs in the solid phase as As(III) well above the depth at which it is released into the porewater. Competition from other porewater constituents could suppress re-sorption of arsenic released by reductive dissolution.

The objective of this report is to establish a ''single point'' sulfate solubility limit or constraint for the Frit 418 - Sludge Batch 2/3 (SB2/3) system. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that the glass limit in the Product Composition Control System (PCCS) for the Frit 418 - SB2/3 system be set at 0.60 wt%. The new limit has been set based solely on sealed crucible scale data and does not take credit or account for potential volatilization that may occur in the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) melter. Although the limit is established based on sealed crucible scale tests, supplementary testing using the Slurry-Fed Melt Rate Furnace (SMRF) provides a measure of confidence that applying the 0.6 wt% limit in PCCS will prevent the formation of a salt layer in the melter. The critical data point that was used to define the solubility limit for this system was from a ''spiked'' 30% waste loading (WL) glass targeting 0.65 wt%. The measured content in this glass was 0.62 wt%. Applying the Savannah River Technology Center - Mobile Laboratory (SRTCML) inductively coupled plasma (ICP) atomic emission spectroscopy (AES) uncertainties to establish a solubility limit for the Frit …

We calculate the atmospheric structure of an accretion disk around a Kerr black hole and obtain its X-ray spectrum, which exhibits prominent atomic transitions under certain circumstances. The gravitational and Doppler (red)shifts of the C V, C VI, O VII, O VIII, and Fe I-XXVI emission lines are observable in active galaxies. We quantify the line emissivities as a function of radius, to identify the effects of atmospheric structure, and to determine the usefulness of these lines for probing the disk energetics. The line emissivities do not always scale linearly with the incident radiative energy, as in the case of Fe XXV and Fe XXVI. Our model incorporates photoionization and thermal balance for the plasma, the hydrostatic approximation perpendicular to the plane of the disk, and general relativistic tidal forces. We include radiative recombination rates, fluorescence yields, Compton scattering, and photoelectric opacities for the most abundant elements.

The Material Control and Accountability (MC and A) Group has developed an electronic scan system to acknowledge issuance and returns of Tamper Indicating Device (TID) seals. Important MC and A features of the system are: 1. The system requires the issuer identification and the identification of applicators to be entered, thereby ensuring that at least two qualified issuers and applicators possess the seals. Also, Operations is prompted to ensure the Two Person Rule is met during issuance and application of the seals. 2. All input is date and time stamped to ease resolution of anomalies. 3. The system requires all information to be input before allowing the user to logoff, thereby eliminating the problem of incomplete information in the records. 4. The input is immediately available to FBL MC and A personnel outside the facility who then know to expect completed procedures and forms regarding these transactions. The paper will describe the application of these features in routine operations as well as the development effort and final configuration of the system.

The Analytical Development Section of Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC) was requested to determine the holdup of enriched uranium in a facility as part of an overall deactivation project of the facility. The facility was used to fabricate enriched uranium fuel assemblies, lithium-aluminum target tubes, neptunium assemblies, and miscellaneous components for the production reactors. The results of the holdup assays are essential for determining compliance with the Waste Acceptance Criteria, Material Control and Accountability, and to meet criticality safety controls. This report covers calibration of the detectors in order to support holdup measurements in the out-gassing ovens. These ovens were used to remove gas entrained in billet assembly material prior to the billets being extruded into rods by the extrusion press. A portable high purity germanium detection system was used to determine highly enriched uranium (HEU) holdup and to determine holdup of U-235, Np-237, and Am-24 1 that were observed in these components. The detector system was run by an EG and G system that contains the high voltage power supply and signal processing electronics. A personal computer with Gamma-Vision software was used to control and provide space to store and manipulate multiple channel spectra. The measured Np-237 and Am-241 …

We present an in situ calibration technique for the LBNL positron emission mammography (PEM) detector module that is capable of measuring depth of interaction (DOI). The detector module consists of 64LSO crystals coupled on one end to a single photomultiplier tube (PMT) and on the opposite end to a 64 pixel array of silicon photodiodes (PD). The PMT provides an accurate timing pulse, the PDs identify the crystal of interaction, the sum provides a total energy signal and the /splGamma/=PD/(PD+PMT) ratio determines the depth of interaction. We calibrate using the /sup 176/Lu natural background radiation of the LSO crystals. We determine the relative gain (K) of the PMT and PD by minimizing the asymmetry of the /spl Gamma/ distribution. We determine the depth dependence from the width of the /spl Gamma/ distribution with optimal K. The performance of calibrated detector modules is evaluated by averaging results from 12 modules. The energy resolution is a function of depth ranging from 24 percent FWHM at the PD end to 51 percent FWHM at the PMT end, and the DOI resolution ranges from 6 mm FWHM at the PD end to 11 mm FWHM at the PMT end.

Prior to enactment of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA), P.L. 107-155, the term “soft money” generally referred to unregulated funds, perceived as resulting from loopholes in the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), 2 U.S.C. §§ 431 et seq. Generally, the intent of BCRA, (effective Nov. 6, 2002), which amends FECA, is to restrict the raising and spending of soft money. This Issue Brief discusses constitutional and legal issues surrounding two major types of soft money that BCRA regulates: political party soft money and soft money used for issue advocacy communications. Corporate and labor union soft money, which FECA exempts from regulation and is not addressed by BCRA, is also discussed.