From Summary: "This report describes the provisions of the reported version of S. 147; outlines some federal statutes and recent cases which might be relevant to the issue of federal recognition of a Hawaiian entity; and recounts some legal arguments that have been presented in the debate on this legislation."

Spent fuel tests in support of Yucca Mountain have been performed for many years. Most of these tests have been either single-pass flowthrough (SPFT) or unsaturated drip tests that have been used to elucidate waste form degradation rates. In general, the tests have been considered accelerated tests per the definition found in ASTM Standard C1174 in that either the temperature or flow rate has been increased in order to increase the rate of alteration. However, as the design and models for the proposed repository have solidified, it is clear that much of what was originally considered an accelerated test is, in reality, either a service condition test or a test that determines bounding conditions that grossly overestimate radionuclide degradation and release rates under repository relevant conditions. This presentation will examine the factors that need to be considered for future waste form, including waste package internals, degradation tests.

This report discusses how the 108th Congress considered, but ultimately did not reauthorize the federal adult education and literacy programs. Furthermore, the report covers what was passed specifically by the 108th Congress. The report largely examines the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) and its funding.

This report discusses projected agricultural imports and exports for FY2005, as well as legislation that deals with federal programs in support of agricultural exports and federal aid dedicated to farms and agricultural reform.

This report discusses the issue of children that have been left as orphans due to AIDS taking their parents lives. Moreover, the report details that between 2001 and 2003 the number of children orphaned from AIDS increased by 3.5 million. The rate of orphaned children is only expected to increase in the future if massive spending is not issued to curb the problem.

Decisions on the composition of the Air Force aerial refueling fleet were made decades ago, when the primary mission was to refuel long-range strategic bombers. Modifications have been made to many of these tanker aircraft (KC-135s and KC-10s) to make them more effective in refueling fighter aircraft. This report, which will be updated, examines the balance between two different refueling methods in today’s refueling fleet — “flying boom” and “hose-and-drogue.”

This report is a primer that briefly describes the main avenues for foreign nationals living in the United State (legally or illegally) to become LPRs (Legal Permanent Residents).

This annual report of the Advanced Light Source details science highlights and facility developments during the year. It also offers information on events sponsored by the facility, technical specifications, and staff and publication information.

The report is about The Americans with disabilities act (ADA) and the Coverage of contagious disease

The Next Linear Collider (NLC) accelerator proposal at SLAC requires a highly efficient and reliable, low cost, pulsed-power modulator to drive the klystrons. A solid-state induction modulator has been developed at SLAC to power the klystrons; this modulator uses commercial high voltage and high current Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) modules. Testing of these IGBT modules under pulsed conditions was very successful; however, the IGBTs failed when tests were performed into a low inductance short circuit. The internal electrical connections of a commercial IGBT module have been analyzed to extract self and mutual partial inductances for the main current paths as well as for the gate structure. The IGBT module, together with the partial inductances, has been modeled using PSpice. Predictions for electrical paths that carry the highest current correlate with the sites of failed die under short circuit tests. A similar analysis has been carried out for a SLAC proposal for an IGBT module layout. This paper discusses the mathematical model of the IGBT module geometry and presents simulation results.

Our research grant provides support for a program to measure forward production of neutrons and photons produced by high-energy proton beams striking a variety of targets. This will provide data essential to proton radiography. This work is carried out in conjunction with the Fermilab E-907 (MIPP) collaboration including physicists from Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. Our group is responsible for the E907 forward neutron/photon calorimeters. We are taking a leading role in obtaining and analyzing the forward production data and in helping to develop an optimal detector for proton radiography. With the support of our Stewardship Science Academic Alliances Grant DE-FG03-03NA00077, we were able to design, build, and commission the calorimeters on budget and ahead of schedule. E-907 officially started physics running at Fermilab in January 2005. We expect to continue data taking through October 2005. The analysis of the data, which we expect will be challenging because data from many different detector systems must be understood and merged, will take several years. Our group is in a unique position to complete the measurements, analyze the data, and help set up a database to be used by LLNL and LANL to make this information accessible for proton radiography. This work will be …

This report tracks the legislative progress of the FY2005 appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies (L-HHS-ED).

This report discusses the ongoing debate about whether or not to approve energy development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Current law forbids energy leasing in the Refuge. This report addresses several legislative options on the issue, as well as policymakers' arguments for and against development, especially in the wake of increasing terrorism since 2000-2001.

An acidic/metals/sulfate, groundwater contaminant plume emanates from the D-Area Coal Pile Runoff Basin (DCPRB) at the Savannah River Site (SRS), due to the contaminated runoff the basin receives from the D-Area coal pile. A Treatability Study Work Plan (TSWP) (WSRC 2001) was implemented to evaluate the potential for the sulfate reduction remediation of the DCPRB acidic/metals/sulfate, groundwater contaminant plume. The following studies, implemented as part of the TSWP, are documented herein: Bacteria Population and Organic Selection Laboratory Testing; DTT-1 Trench Evaluation; DIW-1 Organic Application Field Study-Part 1; and DIW-1 Organic Application Field Study-Part 2. Evaluation of sulfate reduction applicability actually began with a literature search and feasibility report in mid 2001, which fed into the TSWP. Physical completion of TSWP work occurred in late 2004 with the completion of the DIW-1 Organic Application Field Study-Part 2. The following are the primary conclusions drawn based upon this 3-year effort: (1) Pure soybean oil provides a long-term, indirect, SRB carbon source that floats on top of the water table (by indirect it means that the soybean oil must be degraded by other microbes prior to utilization by SRB) for the promotion of sulfate reduction remediation. Soybean oil produces no known SRB inhibitory …

This paper presents a case study of the potential market for the dual-service residential integrated water heater/dehumidifier (WHD). Its principal purpose is to evaluate the extent to which this integrated appliance might penetrate the residential market sector, given current market trends, producer and consumer attributes, and technical parameters. The report's secondary purpose is to gather background information leading to a generic framework for conducting market analyses of technologies. This framework can be used to assess market readiness as well as factor preferred product attributes into the design to drive consumer demand for this product. This study also supports analysis for prototype design. A full market analysis for potential commercialization should be conducted after prototype development. The integrated WHD is essentially a heat-pump water heater (HPWH) with components and controls that allow dedicated dehumidification. Adequate residential humidity control is a growing issue for newly constructed residential homes, which are insulated so well that mechanical ventilation may be necessary to meet fresh air requirements. Leveraging its successful experience with the energy-efficient design improvement for the residential HPWH, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL's) Engineering Science and Technology Division's (ESTD's) Building Equipment Group designed a water-heating appliance that combines HPWH efficiency with dedicated …

Recent research has shown that certain manganese oxides have the ability to sorb aqueous metal cations much more efficiently than any of the naturally occurring iron oxides when normalized to surface area. This ability is, at least in part, related to the internal sites available in many manganese oxide structures, including those within tunnels and between sheets. Additionally, a new naturally-occurring manganese oxide structurally related to vernadite ({delta}-MnO{sub 2}), collected along the Clark Fork River in western Montana, USA, has shown the ability to sorb arsenate, an anionic complex. The potential for manganese oxides to sorb anions has made it an attractive material as a radionuclide ''getter''. According to the US Department of Energy's Total Systems Performance Assessment, technetium and iodine are two major anionic radionuclides contributing to the list of potential contaminants released from Yucca Mountain repository, Nevada, USA. These two radionuclides are extremely problematic because they are very mobile in the environment. This project involves running flow-through sorption experiments using rhenium (a surrogate for technetium) and stable iodine as sorbates and several synthetic manganese oxides, including birnessite, vernadite, cryptomelane, and possibly the new vernadite-like phase mentioned earlier, as sorbants. For all synthesis reactions, manganese (VII) salts are reduced …

In late 2002, Brazil initiated a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement case (DS267) against specific provisions of the U.S. cotton program. This report provides background to the dispute, as well as details of the WTO dispute settlement case. It will not be updated. For information on the U.S. response to panel recommendations and their implications for the U.S. cotton sector, see CRS Report RS22187, U.S. Agricultural Policy Response to WTO Cotton Decision.

This report discusses about Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005

The implementation plans and preparations for installation of the Fissile Mass Flow Monitor (FMFM) equipment at the ElectroChemical Plant (ECP), Zelenogorsk, Russia, are presented in this report. The FMFM, developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is part of the Blend Down Monitoring System (BDMS), developed for the U.S. Department of Energy Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) Transparency Implementation Program. The BDMS provides confidence to the United States that the Russian nuclear facilities supplying the lower-assay ({approx}4%) product low enriched uranium (P-LEU) to the United States from down-blended weapons-grade HEU are meeting the nonproliferation goals of the government-to-government HEU Purchase Agreement, signed between the Russian Federation and the United States in 1993. The first BDMS has been operational at Ural Electrochemical Integrated Plant, Novouralsk, since February 1999 and is successfully providing HEU transparency data to the United States. The second BDMS was installed at ECP in February 2003. The FMFM makes use of a set of thermalized californium-252 ({sup 252}Cf) spontaneous neutron sources for a modulated fission activation of the UF{sub 6} gas stream for measuring the {sup 235}U fissile mass flow rate. To do this, the FMFM measures the transport time of the fission fragments created from the fission activation process …

Russia's then-Premier Vladimir Putin ordered military, police, and security forces to enter the breakaway Chechnya region in September 1999, and these forces occupied most of the region by early 2000. The conflict has resulted in thousands of military and civilian casualties and the massive destruction of housing and infrastructure. Putin's rise to power and continuing popularity have been tied at least partly to his perceived ability to prosecute this conflict successfully. This report details the background on the conflict in the region, elections and peace-making, and related material over the Russian-Chechnyan conflict.

This is a report on the Calendars of the house of representatives.

In the House of Representatives, the term “calendar” has two related meanings. This fact sheet, one of a series of fact sheets on legislative process, explains calendars and their use in the House of Representatives.

This report mainly discusses about the Campus-Based Student Financial Aid Programs Under the Higher Education Act.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report is a publicly available version of our report on the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT). The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) designated our original report as Limited Official Use because of the sensitive and specific nature of the information it contained. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the DHS bureau responsible for protecting the nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry, has the dual goals of preventing terrorists and terrorist weapons from entering the United States and also facilitating the flow of legitimate trade and travel. Approximately 90 percent of the world's cargo moves by container. Addressing the threat posed by the movement of containerized cargo across U.S. borders has traditionally posed many challenges for CBP, in particular balancing the bureau's border protection functions and trade enforcement mission with its goal of facilitating the flow of cargo and persons into the United States. CBP has said that the large volume of imports and its limited resources make it impossible to physically inspect all oceangoing containers without disrupting the flow of commerce, and it is unrealistic to expect that all containers warrant …