A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), working with state and local partners, provides landowners with technical assistance for multiple programs to plan and implement conservation measures that protect soil, water, and wildlife. For years, the Congress has been seeking detailed cost information on this assistance as it examined USDA budget requests. In part, because NRCS's financial system was not designed for estimating future budgets, in 1998 NRCS began developing additional cost data and a computer model for estimating future technical assistance costs. GAO was asked to (1) review NRCS's technical assistance cost estimates and (2) identify causes of any differences between the estimates and actual costs ultimately reported by NRCS."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The war on terrorism has made physical security for federal facilities a governmentwide concern. The Interagency Security Committee (ISC), which is chaired by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is tasked with coordinating federal agencies' facility protection efforts, developing protection standards, and overseeing implementation. GAO's objectives were to (1) assess ISC's progress in fulfilling its responsibilities and (2) identify key practices in protecting federal facilities and any related implementation obstacles."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. consumption of oil and natural gas increasingly outpaces domestic production, a gap that is expected to grow rapidly over the next 20 years. There has been increasing concern about U.S. reliance on foreign energy sources. One option being considered is to increase domestic production of resources on land under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and Minerals Management Service (MMS) and the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service. GAO determined (1) the stages when agency decisions about oil and gas development can be challenged by the public, (2) the extent to which BLM gathers and uses public challenge data to manage its oil and gas program, and (3) for fiscal years 1999-2003, the number of MMS offshore development decisions that were challenged."

The first quarter of 2004 was dedicated to tree planting activities in two locations in Kentucky. During the first year of this project there was not available mine land to plant in the Hazard area, so 107 acres were planted in the Martin County mine location. This year 120 acres were planted in the Hazard area to compensate for the prior year and an additional 57 acres were planted on Peabody properties in western Kentucky. Additional sets of special plots were established on each of these areas that contained 4800 seedlings each for carbon sequestration demonstrations. Plantings were also conducted to continue compaction and water quality studies on the newly established areas as well as continual measurements of the first year's plantings. Total plantings on this project now amount to 357 acres containing 245,960 seedlings. During the second quarter of this year monitoring systems were established for all the new research areas. Weather data pertinent to the research as well as hydrology and water quality monitoring continues to be conducted on all areas. Studies established to assess specific questions pertaining to carbon flux and the invasion of the vegetation by small mammals are being quantified. Experimental practices initiated with this …

Most current seismic methods to seismically characterize fractures in tight reservoirs depend on a few anisotropic wave propagation signatures that can arise from aligned fractures. While seismic anisotropy can be a powerful fracture diagnostic, a number of situations can lessen its usefulness or introduce interpretation ambiguities. Fortunately, laboratory and theoretical work in rock physics indicates that a much broader spectrum of fracture seismic signatures can occur, including a decrease in P- and S-wave velocities, a change in Poisson's ratio, an increase in velocity dispersion and wave attenuation, as well as well as indirect images of structural features that can control fracture occurrence. The goal of this project was to demonstrate a practical interpretation and integration strategy for detecting and characterizing natural fractures in rocks. The approach was to exploit as many sources of information as possible, and to use the principles of rock physics as the link among seismic, geologic, and log data. Since no single seismic attribute is a reliable fracture indicator in all situations, the focus was to develop a quantitative scheme for integrating the diverse sources of information. The integrated study incorporated three key elements: The first element was establishing prior constraints on fracture occurrence, based on …

In support of technology development to utilize coal for efficient, affordable, and environmentally clean power generation, the Power Systems Development Facility (PSDF) located in Wilsonville, Alabama, routinely demonstrates gasification technologies using various types of coals. The PSDF is an engineering scale demonstration of key features of advanced coal-fired power systems, including a KBR (formerly Kellogg Brown & Root) Transport Gasifier, a hot gas particulate control device, advanced syngas cleanup systems, and high-pressure solids handling systems. This report summarizes the results gasification operation with Illinois Basin bituminous coal in PSDF test campaign TC17. The test campaign was completed from October 25, 2004, to November 18, 2004. System startup and initial operation was accomplished with Powder River Basin (PRB) subbituminous coal, and then the system was transitioned to Illinois Basin coal operation. The major objective for this test was to evaluate the PSDF gasification process operational stability and performance using the Illinois Basin coal. The Transport Gasifier train was operated for 92 hours using PRB coal and for 221 hours using Illinois Basin coal.

Following a Design Basis Event (DBE), potential plugging of the PJM systems is highly probable after air compressors and/or electric power become unavailable for up to 100 hrs. Under such conditions, the rheologically bounding yield stress of the pretreated sludge simulant could reach 300-625 Pa. (Defined in WTP-RPP-100, Rev. 0, Sec. 6.1. [1] and WTP-RPP-98, Rev. 0, Secs. 5.1 and 5.2 [2].) The tests covered under this report are conservative since this range of bounding yield stress is based on the settled solids component in the tank. Also, note that CCN 065607 states that the design basis is 70 Pa for 'gelled material' over the entire tank. Three issues must be addressed by these tests: (1) Determine the required pressure and air flow to overcome the plugged sparger tube resistance following a DBE event. (2) Can the UFP PJMs be restarted with or without assistance from air spargers? (3) Show that solids can be mixed by air spargers following a DBE to allow generated hydrogen gas to rise and be vented to the vessel head space. This is to limit hydrogen concentrations below LFL level. In the first test, a full-scale sparger was simulated by a 2-inch dia. Schedule 160 …

Quarterly publication of the Texas Comptroller's Office regarding sales and use tax in the state of Texas, including an analysis by county, analysis by industry, and related notes.

Monthly report written by the Texas Daily Newspaper Association's (TDNA's) office manager, Darla Thompson, to Phil Berkebile providing a summary of revenues and account balances, programs, meetings, and other activities in the office during the previous months. The header states that no officer report has been done for November/December as TDNA moved offices.

No-core shell model (NCSM) calculations using ab initio effective interactions are very successful in reproducing the experimental nuclear spectra. While a great deal of work has been directed toward computing effective interactions from bare nucleon-nucleon (NN) and three-nucleon forces, less progress has been made in calculating the effective operators. Thus, except for the relative kinetic energy, the proton radius, and the NN pair density, all investigations have used bare operators. We apply the Lee-Suzuki procedure to general two-body operators, investigating the importance of the approximations involved. In particular we concentrate on the limitations of the two-body cluster approximation.

This report is divided into two segments. The first segment provides the most recent developments regarding the FY2005 continuing resolutions (CRs). The second segment provides information on the history of CRs; the nature, scope, and duration of CRs during the last 30 years; the various types of CRs that have been enacted; and an overview of those instances when budget authority has lapsed and a funding gap has resulted.

There has been significant progress in the ab initio approaches to the structure of light nuclei. One such method is the ab initio no-core shell model (NCSM). Starting from realistic two- and three-nucleon interactions this method can predict low-lying levels in p-shell nuclei. In this contribution, we present a brief overview of the NCSM with examples of recent applications. We highlight our study of the parity inversion in {sup 11}Be, for which calculations were performed in basis spaces up to 9{Dirac_h}{Omega} (dimensions reaching 7 x 10{sup 8}). We also present our latest results for the p-shell nuclei using the Tucson-Melbourne TM three-nucleon interaction with several proposed parameter sets.

This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress considers each year, related to foreign operations, export financing and other programs. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Foreign Operations. It summarizes the status of the bill, its scope, major issues, funding levels, and related congressional activity, and is updated as events warrant.

The West Virginia State Building Code contains two options for energy efficiency requirements in one- and two-family dwellings. One is the International Code Council?s (ICC) 2000 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) (ICC 1999a,b) (87-4-4.1.6). The second is an exception (replacement) for Chapter 11 of the ICC International Residential Code (IRC) (87-4-4.1.7). The West Virginia Energy Efficiency Program, West Virginia Development Office, has asked the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to compare the energy use resulting from the application of the 2000 IECC code and the IRC code, as amended by West Virginia. The Department's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) compared the energy use from compliance with the 2000 IECC to the exception to Chapter 11 of the IRC known as the ''Alternate Energy Code''.

The objective of the research is the reduction of emissions of NOx and carbon from wood waste combustion and dryer systems. Focus in on suspension (dust) burners, especially the cyclone burners that are widely used in the industry. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used to help understand the details of combustion and pollutant formation in wood waste combustion systems, and to help determine the potential of combustion modification for reducing emissions. Field burners are examined with the modeling.

The Radiological Control Operations (RCO) group at the Savannah River Site (SRS) is tasked with conducting routine surveys for the detection of radiological contaminants in the environment. The Radiological Survey Tool Set (RSTS) was developed by the Environmental & Geographic Information Systems (EGIS) group of SRS to assist RCO personnel in this survey process. The tool set consists of two major components. The first component is a custom extension for ArcGIS 8.3 that allows the user to interactively create a sampling plan prior to entering the field. Additionally, the extension allows the user to upload field-collected data to the GIS with post-processing functionality. The second component is a custom ArcPad 6.0 applet. This applet provides the user with navigational capabilities to a selected origin point with the help of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) technology, and the recording of the sample data results into a hand-held field computer via ArcPad 6.0 software.

The 31st ICFA Advanced Beam Dynamics Workshop on Electron-Cloud Effects ''ECLOUD'04'' was held April 19-23, 2004 at Napa, CA, USA. A broad range of current topics in this field were illuminated by 53 talks in 7 sessions plus 6 session summaries at the final summary session. These covered a variety of experimental methods and results, along with progress on understanding of the topic obtained from simulations and analytic theory, and evaluations of the effectiveness of various methods/mechanisms for mitigation of the adverse impact on accelerator performance. In addition, a panel discussion was held on ''Future Needs and Future Directions''. A summary of progress on the major themes covered at ECLOUD'04 is presented.

This report describes the results of the one-year project entitled ''Improved Approaches to Design of Polymer Gel Treatments in Mature Oil Fields: Field Demonstration in Dickman Field, Ness County, Kansas''. The project was a 12-month collaboration of Grand Mesa Operating Company (a small independent), TIORCO Inc. (a company focused on improved recovery technology) and the University of Kansas. The study undertook tasks to determine an optimum polymer gel treatment design in Mississippian reservoirs, demonstrate application, and evaluate the success of the program. The project investigated geologic and engineering parameters and cost-effective technologies required for design and implementation of effective polymer gel treatment programs in the Mississippian reservoir in the Midcontinent. The majority of Mississippian production in Kansas occurs at or near the top of the Mississippian section just below the regional sub-Pennsylvanian unconformity and karst surface. Dickman Field with the extremely high water cuts and low recovery factors is typical of Mississippian reservoirs. Producibility problems in these reservoirs include inadequate reservoir characterization, drilling and completion design problems, and most significantly extremely high water cuts and low recovery factors that place continued operations at or near their economic limits. Geologic, geophysical and engineering data were integrated to provide a technical foundation …

This report summarizes techniques that use possibility theory to estimate the risk of terrorist acts. These techniques were developed under the sponsorship of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as part of the National Infrastructure Simulation Analysis Center (NISAC) project. The techniques have been used to estimate the risk of various terrorist scenarios to support NISAC analyses during 2004. The techniques are based on the Logic Evolved Decision (LED) methodology developed over the past few years by Terry Bott and Steve Eisenhawer at LANL. [LED] The LED methodology involves the use of fuzzy sets, possibility theory, and approximate reasoning. LED captures the uncertainty due to vagueness and imprecision that is inherent in the fidelity of the information available for terrorist acts; probability theory cannot capture these uncertainties. This report does not address the philosophy supporting the development of nonprobabilistic approaches, and it does not discuss possibility theory in detail. The references provide a detailed discussion of these subjects. [Shafer] [Klir and Yuan] [Dubois and Prade] Suffice to say that these approaches were developed to address types of uncertainty that cannot be addressed by a probability measure. An earlier report discussed in detail the problems with using a probability measure to …

Nuclear plant operators face a significant challenge designing and modifying control rooms. This report provides guidance on planning, designing, implementing and operating modernized control rooms and digital human-system interfaces.

Various projects under study require an angular-momentum-dominated electron beam generated by a photoinjector. Some of the proposals directly use the angular-momentum-dominated beams (e.g. electron cooling of heavy ions), while others require the beam to be transformed into a flat beam (e.g. possible electron injectors for light sources and linear colliders). In this paper, we report our experimental study of an angular-momentum-dominated beam produced in a photoinjector, addressing the dependencies of angular momentum on initial conditions. We also briefly discuss the removal of angular momentum. The results of the experiment, carried out at the Fermilab/NICADD Photoinjector Laboratory, are found to be in good agreement with theoretical and numerical models.

Crystalline Silicotitanate (CST) in its engineered form (IONSIV (registered) IE-911) continues to be studied for possible use for removing radioactive cesium from several types of waste solutions at the Savannah River Site. This study involved deriving information about spent CST that assists in determining possible disposition alternatives. Results for this work include: After passing 3000 column volumes of a dissolved saltcake simulant containing RCRA hazardous metals, the spent CST passed a TCLP test and is RCRA nonhazardous. The spent CST was found to have transuranic concentrations greater than the TRU limit of 100 nCi/g. The triplicate measurement showed TRU levels greater than 4000 nCi/g. Studies involving simulating storage of ground CST in sludge slurries indicated no detrimental effects on the measured yield stress or viscosity of the slurries when stored for up to 4 months at 50 degrees C. During the storage testing, there was no indication of significant degradation of the C ST as measured by in growth of CST-specific elements in the liquid phase of the slurry. Also, during storage tests minor desorption of cesium from the ground CST material was observed.

These contract efforts involved the demonstration of a unique liquid free stimulation technology which was, at the beginning of these efforts, in 1993 unavailable in the US. The process had been developed, and patented in Canada in 1981, and held promise for stimulating liquid sensitive reservoirs in the US. The technology differs from that conventionally used in that liquid carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}), instead of water is the base fluid. The CO{sub 2} is pumped as a liquid and then vaporizes at reservoir conditions, and because no other liquids or chemicals are used, a liquid free fracture is created. The process requires a specialized closed system blender to mix the liquid CO{sub 2} with proppant under pressure. These efforts were funded to consist of up to 21 cost-shared stimulation events. Because of the vagaries of CO{sub 2} supplies, service company support and operator interest only 19 stimulation events were performed in Montana, New Mexico, and Texas. Final reports have been prepared for each of the four demonstration groups, and the specifics of those demonstrations are summarized. A summary of the demonstrations of a novel liquid-free stimulation process which was performed in four groups of ''Candidate Wells'' situated in Crockett Co., …

While demand for electricity continues to grow, expansion of the traditional electricity supply system, or macrogrid, is constrained and is unlikely to keep pace with the growing thirst western economies have for electricity. Furthermore, no compelling case has been made that perpetual improvement in the overall power quality and reliability (PQR)delivered is technically possible or economically desirable. An alternative path to providing high PQR for sensitive loads would generate close to them in microgrids, such as the Consortium for Electricity Reliability Technology Solutions (CERTS) Microgrid. Distributed generation would alleviate the pressure for endless improvement in macrogrid PQR and might allow the establishment of a sounder economically based level of universal grid service. Energy conversion from available fuels to electricity close to loads can also provide combined heat and power (CHP) opportunities that can significantly improve the economics of small-scale on-site power generation, especially in hot climates when the waste heat serves absorption cycle cooling equipment that displaces expensive on-peak electricity. An optimization model, the Distributed Energy Resources Customer Adoption Model (DER-CAM), developed at Berkeley Lab identifies the energy bill minimizing combination of on-site generation and heat recovery equipment for sites, given their electricity and heat requirements, the tariffs they face, …