None

On February 7th, 2005, the Bush Administration requested $3.16 billion for international HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria programs in FY2006, a 9% increase over the estimated amount to be provided in FY2005.

This report summarizes damage assessments and recovery efforts, with initial reports primarily anecdotal until more accurate assessments become available.

In the next ten years, nearly 20% of the nation’s nonfederal hydropower projects will require new federal licenses to continue operating. New licenses will establish facilities’ operating parameters for the next 30 to 50 years. These operating parameters will affect the total quantity and timing of electricity production. They will also affect flood control, irrigation, municipal and industrial water supplies, recreation, fish and wildlife habitat, and transportation.

Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) has been providing radiological performance assessment analysis for Savannah River Site (SRS) solid waste disposal facilities (McDowell-Boyer 2000). The performance assessment considers numerous potential exposure pathways that could occur in the future. One set of exposure scenarios, known as inadvertent intruder analysis, considers the impact on hypothetical individuals who are assumed to inadvertently intrude onto the waste disposal site. An Automated Intruder Analysis application was developed by SRNL (Koffman 2004) that simplifies the inadvertent intruder analysis into a routine, automated calculation. Based on SRNL's experience, personnel from Planning Integration & Technology of Closure Business Unit asked SRNL to assist with inadvertent intruder calculations for F Tank Farm to support the development of the Tank Closure Waste Determination Document. Meetings were held to discuss the scenarios to be calculated and the assumptions to be used in the calculations. As a result of the meetings, SRNL was asked to perform four scenario calculations. Two of the scenarios are the same as those calculated by the Automated Intruder Analysis application and these can be calculated directly by providing appropriate inputs. The other two scenarios involve use of groundwater by the intruder and the Automated Intruder Analysis application was …

None

Far-infrared absorption spectroscopy has been used to study the low frequency ({center_dot} 100 cm{sup -1}) intermolecular modes of methanol in mixtures with water. With the aid of a first principles molecular dynamics simulation on an equivalent system, a detailed understanding about the origin of the low frequency IR modes has been established. The total dipole spectrum from the simulation suggests that the bands appearing in the experimental spectra at approximately 55 cm{sup -1} and 70 cm{sup -1} in methanol and methanol-rich mixtures arise from both fluctuations and torsional motions occurring within the methanol hydrogen-bonded chains. The influence of these modes on both the solvation dynamics and the relaxation mechanisms in the liquid are discussed within the context of recent experimental and theoretical results that have emerged from studies focusing on the short time dynamics in the methanol hydrogen bond network.

This report describes the IQA and OMB's and the agencies information quality guidelines, noting how several key terms are defined, how risk-related information is to be treated, and how agencies correction process should be established.

The purpose of this analysis is to provide an initial radionuclide inventory (in grams per waste package) and associated uncertainty distributions for use in the Total System Performance Assessment for the License Application (TSPA-LA) in support of the license application for the repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. This document is intended for use in postclosure analysis only. Bounding waste stream information and data were collected that capture probable limits. For commercially generated waste, this analysis considers alternative waste stream projections to bound the characteristics of wastes likely to be encountered using arrival scenarios that potentially impact the commercial spent nuclear fuel (CSNF) waste stream. For TSPA-LA, this radionuclide inventory analysis considers U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) high-level radioactive waste (DHLW) glass and two types of spent nuclear fuel (SNF): CSNF and DOE-owned (DSNF). These wastes are placed in two groups of waste packages: the CSNF waste package and the codisposal waste package (CDSP), which are designated to contain DHLW glass and DSNF, or DHLW glass only. The radionuclide inventory for naval SNF is provided separately in the classified ''Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program Technical Support Document'' for the License Application. As noted previously, the radionuclide inventory data presented here is intended …

Interdisciplinary study of Shewanella putrefaciens

None

The Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) is currently processing and immobilizing radioactive sludge slurry into a durable borosilicate glass. The DWPF has already processed three sludge batches (Sludge Batch 1A, Sludge Batch 1B, and Sludge Batch 2) and is currently processing the fourth sludge batch (Sludge Batch 3). A sludge batch is defined as a single tank of sludge slurry or a combination of sludge slurries from different tanks that has been or will be qualified before being transferred to DWPF. As a part of the Sludge Batch 3 (SB3) qualification task, rheology measurements of the sludge slurry were requested at different insoluble solids loadings. These measurements were requested in order to gain insight into potential processing problems that may occur as the insoluble solids are adjusted up or down (by concentration or dilution) during the process. As a part of this study, a portion of the ''as received'' SB3 sample was washed with inhibited water (0.015 M NaOH and 0.015 M NaNO2) to target 0.5M Na versus a measured 1M Na in the supernate. The purpose of the ''washing'' step was to allow a comparison of the SB3 rheological data to the rheological data collected for Sludge Batch 2 …

For the time being, Social Security receipts are more than enough to fund current benefits. But beginning in 2017, under current law, benefits are projected to exceed Social Security receipts. At that point, if not before, either benefit will have to be cut, taxes will have to be raised, or the shortfall will have to be made up either by tapping non-Social Security revenues, which would reduce the unified federal budget surplus or by an increase in federal borrowing.

None

Large-scale reconstruction assistance programs are being undertaken by the United States following the war with Iraq. To fund such programs, in April 2003, Congress approved a $2.48 billion Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund (IRRF) in the FY2003 Supplemental Appropriation. In November 2003, the FY2004 Supplemental Appropriation provided an additional $18.4 billion for the IRRF. The FY2005 Emergency Supplemental signed into law in May 2005 provides $5.7 billion in a new Iraqi Security Forces Fund for the training and equipping of Iraqi security forces.

This report provides an overview of opinions addressing issues related to the law of church and state written by Judge Alito while serving on the Third Circuit and Supreme Court precedent relevant to those cases.

The primary objective of this cooperative research is to develop and verify models of internal combustion engine spark ignition devices in order to improve combustion chamber fuel ignition characteristics and to improve spark plug durability. As a direct result of this joint research, a novel spark plug design was improved. A theory of spark arc motion was developed that explains experimentally observed effects not explained by other published theories. The knowledge developed by this research will be used to further improve spark plugs as well as improve the ignition process in a combustion chamber. The predictive models developed here are compared with experimental measurements, including high-speed photographs, of the spark as it translates across the gap. Two different spark plug configurations were investigated: the conventional or J-gap plug, and a novel spark ignition device (the FANG plug) invented by Cummins, Inc., the CRADA partner. A description of the physics of arc dynamic motion in a spark plug gap, including the effects of an imposed transverse magnetic field, appears here in Appendix A as a result of the analytical effort. The theory proposed here does explain experimentally observed effects not completely explained by other research publications appearing in the scientific literature. …

The next generation of linear colliders will require more stringent alignment tolerances than those for the SLC with regard to the accelerating structures, quadrupoles, and beam position monitors. New techniques must be developed to achieve these tolerances. A combination of mechanical-electrical and beam-based methods will likely be needed.

None

Magnets in accelerator beamlines have, for the most part, been made with ferromagnetic poles and traditionally these pole surfaces have been used as the references for external alignment aids, tooling balls, CERN sockets and so on. This practice assumes that the magnetic field is well-defined by the poles (which fails in the presence of saturation). It also fails in the case of superconducting magnets, which have no tangible poles. Other difficulties are well-known to those working in the field: the poles of an iron dipole magnet are never perfectly flat, or perfectly parallel. Where, then, is the magnetic mid-plane? The corresponding problem for iron quadrupoles, sextupoles etc, is that there is no unique inscribed circle that is tangent to more than three of these poles. The magnetic axis is then difficult to define. The greater the precision that is sought in the alignment, the more apparent these problems become. The answer, I believe, is to use magnetic field measurements to establish the references. Most magnets undergo some magnetic measurement before use--they certainly should--and so the opportunity is there to combine fiducialization with magnetic field definition. A substantial part of the Final Focus Test Beam program at SLAC will address this …

This paper reviews the state-of-the-art understanding of the degradation processes by the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP) with focus on interaction between the in-drift environmental conditions and long-term materials degradation of waste packages and drip shields within the repository system during the first 10,000-years after repository closure. This paper provides an overview of the degradation of the waste packages and drip shields in the repository after permanent closure of the facility. The degradation modes discussed in this paper include aging and phase instability, dry oxidation, general and localized corrosion, stress corrosion cracking, and hydrogen induced cracking of Alloy 22 and titanium alloys. The effects of microbial activity and radiation on the degradation of Alloy 22 and titanium alloys are also discussed. Further, for titanium alloys, the effects of fluorides, bromides, and galvanic coupling to less noble metals are considered. It is concluded that the materials and design adopted will provide sufficient safety margins for at least 10,000-years after repository closure.

This report discusses the responsibility of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) for inspecting most meat, poultry, and processed egg products for safety, wholesomeness, and proper labeling.

None

None