Recording of the eleventh public hearing held by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States on May 18, 2004 at New School University in New York City. The two-day hearing examined the response of local and federal emergency response departments on September 11, 2001, and considered how to improve these critical functions in the event of future terrorist attacks. Two staff statements were presented during the course of the hearing. This section includes the staff statement on emergency preparedness and response.

Recording of the eleventh public hearing held by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States on May 18, 2004 at New School University in New York City. The two-day hearing examined the response of local and federal emergency response departments on September 11, 2001, and considered how to improve these critical functions in the event of future terrorist attacks. Two staff statements were presented during the course of the hearing. This section includes the first panel, with testimony from Alan Reiss and Joseph Morris.

Recording of the eleventh public hearing held by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States on May 18, 2004 at New School University in New York City. The two-day hearing examined the response of local and federal emergency response departments on September 11, 2001, and considered how to improve these critical functions in the event of future terrorist attacks. Two staff statements were presented during the course of the hearing. This section includes the second panel with testimony from Bernard B. Kerik, Thomas Von Essen, and Richard Sheirer.

Recording of the eleventh public hearing held by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States on May 18, 2004 at New School University in New York City. The two-day hearing examined the response of local and federal emergency response departments on September 11, 2001, and considered how to improve these critical functions in the event of future terrorist attacks. Two staff statements were presented during the course of the hearing.This section includes the beginning of the third panel, with testimony from Raymond W. Kelly.

Recording of the eleventh public hearing held by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States on May 18, 2004 at New School University in New York City. The two-day hearing examined the response of local and federal emergency response departments on September 11, 2001, and considered how to improve these critical functions in the event of future terrorist attacks. Two staff statements were presented during the course of the hearing.This section includes the staff statement on crisis management.

Recording of the eleventh public hearing held by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States on May 18, 2004 at New School University in New York City. The two-day hearing examined the response of local and federal emergency response departments on September 11, 2001, and considered how to improve these critical functions in the event of future terrorist attacks. Two staff statements were presented during the course of the hearing. This section includes testimony from former Mayor of New York City, Rudolph W. Giuliani.

Recording of the eleventh public hearing held by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States on May 18, 2004 at New School University in New York City. The two-day hearing examined the response of local and federal emergency response departments on September 11, 2001, and considered how to improve these critical functions in the event of future terrorist attacks. Two staff statements were presented during the course of the hearing. This section includes the fourth panel on the state of emergency preparedness across the nation, with testimony from Dennis Smith, Jerome M. Hauer, and Edward P. Plaugher.

Recording of the eleventh public hearing held by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States on May 18, 2004 at New School University in New York City. The two-day hearing examined the response of local and federal emergency response departments on September 11, 2001, and considered how to improve these critical functions in the event of future terrorist attacks. Two staff statements were presented during the course of the hearing. This section includes the fourth panel on emergency preparedness throughout the nation and includes testimony from Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York.

Recording of the eleventh public hearing held by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States on May 18, 2004 at New School University in New York City. The two-day hearing examined the response of local and federal emergency response departments on September 11, 2001, and considered how to improve these critical functions in the event of future terrorist attacks. Two staff statements were presented during the course of the hearing. This section includes the fourth panel on emergency preparedness throughout the nation with testimony from Secretary of Homeland Security, Thomas J. Ridge.

The 2005 Solar Decathlon Brochure is a multipurpose document that provides a broad overview of the Decathlon's background, purpose, scope, the student participants, as well as the successes from the 2002 competition and the excitement and energy surrounding the event.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In the 1990 and 2000 Censuses, U.S. military and federal civilian employees overseas were included in the numbers used for apportioning Congress. Currently, the U.S. Census Bureau (Bureau) is assessing the practicality of counting all Americans abroad by holding a test census in France, Kuwait, and Mexico. GAO was asked to (1) assess the soundness of the test design, and (2) examine what past court decisions have held about Americans' rights and obligations abroad."

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate relating to granting permission to adjourn from April 27 to May 3, 2004.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate relating to granting permission to adjourn from May 5 to May 11, 2004.

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

This report summarizes the work done during the sixth quarter of the project. Effort was directed in three areas: (1) Further development of the model on the role of connectivity on ionic conductivity of porous bodies, including the role of grain boundaries and space charge region. (2) Calculation of the effect of space charge and morphology of porous bodies on the effective charge transfer resistance of porous composite cathodes. (3) The investigation of the three electrode system for the measurement of cathodic polarization using amperometric sensors.

This report is an addendum to the report Calcined Waste Storage at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center, INEEL/EXT-98-00455 Rev. 1, June 2003. The original report provided a summary description of the Calcined Solids Storage Facilities (CSSFs). It also contained dozens of pages of detailed data tables documenting the volume and composition (chemical content and radionuclide activity) of the calcine stored in the CSSFs and the liquid waste from which the calcine was derived. This addendum report compiles the calcine composition data from the original report. It presents the compiled data in a graphical format with units (weight percent, curies per cubic meter, and nanocuries per gram) that are commonly used in regulatory and waste acceptance criteria documents. The compiled data are easier to use and understand when comparing the composition of the calcine with potential regulatory or waste acceptance criteria. This addendum report also provides detailed explanations for the large variability in the calcine composition among the CSSFs. The calcine composition varies as a result of reprocessing different types of fuel that had different cladding materials. Different chemicals were used to dissolve the various types of fuel, extract the uranium, and calcine the resulting waste. This resulted in …

The article summarizes the deficiency in the Army's budget as tensions rose in Iraq in 2004. Moreover, the report includes monthly data on the cost of military action in Iraq and recommends the gathering of further data to better assess the cost. Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff estimated a budget shortfall of 4 billion dollars, and explained that the Department of Defense (DOD) was assessing if further funds would be needed.

This report summarizes the history, functionality, and current events of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AO). The report's overview includes information on why the administration was founded by examining its origins and the role of it in contemporary court proceedings. Moreover, the report highlights how the AO has taken on roles in emergency management.

The recent reports of abuse of prisoners held by U.S. military personnel have raised questions about how the armed forces control servicemembers. Congress, under the authorities vested in it by the U.S. Constitution, has enacted procedures for addressing misconduct by servicemembers. One such procedure is an administrative separation under which a member’s continued suitability for service is determined. Administrative separations are non-punitive and can be initiated for a number of reasons, including misconduct or criminal offenses. They may be used in place of or after the servicemember has been subject to a court-martial or nonjudicial punishment. This report provides an overview of administrative separations as an alternative or companion to courts-martial.

The advanced Chemistry Basin Model project has been operative for 48 months. During this period, about half the project tasks are on projected schedule. On average the project is somewhat behind schedule (90%). Unanticipated issues are causing model integration to take longer then scheduled, delaying final debugging and manual development. It is anticipated that a short extension will be required to fulfill all contract obligations.

The objective of this subcontract is to develop and integrate the various pieces of new technology that EPV considers enabling for cost-effective production of CIGS modules. EPV has conducted research to help generate a technology base for production of CIGS PV modules using vacuum deposition of CIGS onto glass. This strategy is consistent with the observation that, despite there being several approaches to forming device-quality CIGS, vacuum deposition has maintained the world record for the highest-efficiency CIGS device. A record thin-film solar cell efficiency of 19.2% (with Ni-Al grid and MgF2 ARC) for a 0.41-cm2 device was achieved by NREL in 2003 using vacuum-deposited CIGS. The deposition employed four point sources and detection of the Cu-poor to Cu-rich transition for process control. To extend this type of processing to the realm of large-area substrates, EPV developed vacuum equipment designed for heating and coating 0.43-m2 moving substrates, with a projected further scale up to 0.79 m2. The substrates are typically low-cost, soda-lime glass, and the materials are supplied to the moving substrates using novel linear-source technology developed by EPV. The use of elemental selenium rather than toxic H2Se gas helps make for a safe manufacturing environment. These choices concerning film deposition, …

Utility-scale wind turbines require active control systems to operate at variable rotational speeds. As turbines become larger and more flexible, advanced control algorithms become necessary to meet multiple objectives such as speed regulation, blade load mitigation, and mode stabilization. At the same time, they must maximize energy capture. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has developed control design and testing capabilities to meet these growing challenges.

A two-year effort focused on applying ASCI technology developed for the analysis of weapons systems to the state-of-the-art accident analysis of a nuclear reactor system was proposed. The Sandia SIERRA parallel computing platform for ASCI codes includes high-fidelity thermal, fluids, and structural codes whose coupling through SIERRA can be specifically tailored to the particular problem at hand to analyze complex multiphysics problems. Presently, however, the suite lacks several physics modules unique to the analysis of nuclear reactors. The NRC MELCOR code, not presently part of SIERRA, was developed to analyze severe accidents in present-technology reactor systems. We attempted to: (1) evaluate the SIERRA code suite for its current applicability to the analysis of next generation nuclear reactors, and the feasibility of implementing MELCOR models into the SIERRA suite, (2) examine the possibility of augmenting ASCI codes or alternatives by coupling to the MELCOR code, or portions thereof, to address physics particular to nuclear reactor issues, especially those facing next generation reactor designs, and (3) apply the coupled code set to a demonstration problem involving a nuclear reactor system. We were successful in completing the first two in sufficient detail to determine that an extensive demonstration problem was not feasible at …

The Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) is a pressurized light-water reactor with a design thermal power of 250 MW. The principal function of the ATR is to provide a high neutron flux for testing reactor fuels and other materials. The reactor also provides other irradiation services such as radioisotope production. The ATR and its support facilities are located at the Test Reactor Area of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). An audit conducted by the Department of Energy's Office of Independent Oversight and Performance Assurance (DOE OA) raised concerns that design conditions at the ATR were not adequately analyzed in the safety analysis and that legacy design basis management practices had the potential to further impact safe operation of the facility.1 The concerns identified by the audit team, and issues raised during additional reviews performed by ATR safety analysts, were evaluated through the unreviewed safety question process resulting in shutdown of the ATR for more than three months while these concerns were resolved. Past management of the ATR safety basis, relative to facility design basis management and change control, led to concerns that discrepancies in the safety basis may have developed. Although not required by DOE orders or regulations, …