Congress continues to face questions about forestry practices, funding levels, and the federal role in wildland fire protection. The 2000 and 2002 fire seasons were, by most standards, among the worst in the past half-century. National attention began to focus on wildfires when a prescribed burn in May 2000 escaped control and burned 239 homes in Los Alamos, NM. President Clinton responded by requesting a doubling of wildfire management funds, and Congress enacted much of this proposal in the FY2001 Interior Appropriations Act (P.L. 106-291).

This report provides information about the FY2006 Appropriations for State and Local Homeland Security. This report is a preliminary overview of the administration FY2006 budget request and congress proposed appropriations for selected programs of homeland security.

None

The 500-700 m thick Yucca Mountain unsaturated zone (UZ) is under extensive investigation as a subsurface repository for the permanent disposal of high-level nuclear wastes. The site characterization has been mostly carried out for analyzing unsaturated flow and radionuclide transport under ambient, isothermal conditions. However, significant research effort has also been devoted to understand the nature of flow and transport processes under non-isothermal conditions. In particular, substantial repository heating from radioactive waste decay has motivated investigations of the coupled thermo-hydrologic (TH) behavior of the UZ under repository heating and its potential impact on repository performance. Significant progress has been made in quantitative coupled TH studies in the last decade. Despite the significant advances made so far in modeling and understanding TH processes, the previous studies have been in general limited to modeling in 1-D and 2-D (instead of the full 3-D representation), and/or small spatial and temporal scale analysis. In addition to these limited modeling exercises, multidimensional modeling has been carried out for large-scale (at the scale of the entire mountain) TH analyses. However, these previous large, mountain-scale TH models utilized the effective continuum model (ECM), rather than the more rigorous dual-continuum model (DKM). This is primarily due to numerical …

During the 2001-2003 grant period, Institute for Fusion Studies (IFS) scientist made notable progress in a number of research areas. This report summarizes the work that has been accomplished in the following areas: (1) Magnetohydrodynamics; (2) Burning plasma and energetic particle physics; (3) Turbulent transport; (4) Computational physics; (5) Fundamental Theory; (6) Innovative confinement concepts; and (7) Plasma applications.

Elections for a transitional National Assembly, provincial councils, and a Kurdish regional assembly were held on January 30, 2005. High voter turnout in mostly Shiite and Kurdish areas led to a first and second-place finish for slates backed by these two communities. Sunni Arabs, dominant under Saddam Hussein, appear to have been further marginalized by their relative lack of participation in the vote. This report will be updated regularly. See CRS Report RL31339, Iraq: U.S. Regime Change Efforts and Post-Saddam Governance.

This report summarizes the amount of federal appropriations for K-12 education, including total elementary and secondary funding, recent increases, and the major components counted in the K-12 total. K-12 components include: the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLBA), P.L. 107-110; the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA); the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998; and the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA).

None

This report discusses the current congressional issues which include (1) deciding the amount to appropriate each year to each of the four federal agencies, and to the state grant program; (2) identifying which lands should be acquired; and (3) determining whether the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) funds should be appropriated for additional related purposes.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federal banking regulators reported that commercial banks held about $1.6 trillion in syndicated loans in 2003. Loan commitments--a promise to make a set amount of credit available in the future--represented $1 trillion (about 64 percent) of these loans. Issues have been raised whether commercial banks systematically underprice loan commitments and whether generally accepted accounting principles provide meaningful disclosure of the economics of these commitments. This report discusses (1) differences between the pricing of loan commitments and loans, and assesses data that are available about the trading of loan commitments; (2) the extent to which credit default swaps are used to reduce the credit risk from loan commitments, and what credit default swap prices indicate about the prices of loan commitments; and (3) differences between commercial and investment banks' accounting treatment of loan commitments, and the strengths and weaknesses of fair value accounting."

Student newspaper of Harper Independent School District in Harper, Texas that includes school news and information along with advertising.

Newsletter of Congregation Beth Yeshurun in Houston, including news and events, upcoming services, member announcements, editorials, and other information of interest to congregants.

The compilation of Metal Waste Form (MWF) immersion test data in this document is part of the effort initiated to qualify the stainless steel-15% zirconium (SS-15Zr) alloy for repository disposal. The SS-15Zr alloy was developed as part of the waste stream from the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) electrometallurgical process for spent nuclear fuel. There were four areas of significant relevance concerning MWF performance in a long-term repository setting addressed in the test model. The areas encompassed the study of the effects of (1) the solution aggressiveness [simulated by concentrated J13 solution (CJ13)], (2) high-chloride content of the solution [simulated by 10,000 ppm chloride solution (10KCl)], (3) solution pH [simulated by acidified J13 solution (AJ13)], and (4) the state of the metal surface--polished vs. oxidized on the releases. The simulated J-13 solution was intended to replicate the groundwater in the J-13 well at the Yucca Mountain geologic repository. A fifth area of interest was to determine if the releases were limited by iron saturation of the solution. The data obtained from the entire study will be compared with the data from the High Level Waste Glass (HLWG) form previously qualified for repository disposal. Even though the MWF samples used in these …

SRNL was tasked to simulate the draining of interstitial liquid from Tank 25 saltcake which is scheduled to take place in 2005. The salt processing plan baseline identifies a target of 135,000 gallons of interstitial liquid to be removed from Tank 25. Due to the uncertainty of the Tank 25 material properties and conditions, several cases were modeled varying the saltcake and interstitial liquid properties. The cases present a wide range of performance. The nominal baseline, case 1, removed the 135,000 gallons in approximately 1,030 hours of pump operation. The cases with optimal drain characteristics (high intrinsic permeability, high temp.) drain the 135,000 gallons in less time. Those with less favorable drain conditions did not approach the 135,000 gallons in a reasonable amount of time. Common to all cases unable to achieve the target volume was the low temperature at which they were run, 30 C (the lowest modeled), though there were additional contributing factors. A summary of the results are shown in Table 1.

The objective of this LDRD project was to develop one or more models for the production of {beta}-delayed {gamma} rays following neutron-induced fission of a special nuclear material (SNM) and to define a standardized formatting scheme which will allow them to be incorporated into some of the modern, general-purpose Monte Carlo transport codes currently being used to simulate inspection techniques proposed for detecting fissionable material hidden in sea-going cargo containers. In this report, we will describe a Monte Carlo model for {beta}-delayed {gamma}-ray emission following the fission of SNM that can accommodate arbitrary time-dependent fission rates and photon collection histories. The model involves direct sampling of the independent fission yield distributions of the system, the branching ratios for decay of individual fission products and spectral distributions representing photon emission from each fission product and for each decay mode. While computationally intensive, it will be shown that this model can provide reasonably detailed estimates of the spectra that would be recorded by an arbitrary spectrometer and may prove quite useful in assessing the quality of evaluated data libraries and identifying gaps in the libraries. The accuracy of the model will be illustrated by comparing calculated and experimental spectra from the decay …

In recent years it has been recognized that the application of passive safety systems (i.e., those whose operation takes advantage of natural forces such as convection and gravity), can contribute to simplification and potentially to improved economics of new nuclear power plant designs. In 1991 the IAEA Conference on ''The Safety of Nuclear Power: Strategy for the Future'' noted that for new plants the use of passive safety features is a desirable method of achieving simplification and increasing the reliability of the performance of essential safety functions, and should be used wherever appropriate''.

This report provides a concise overview of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and its major functions, and highlights a number of issues influenced by OMB in matters of policy, budget, management, and OMB's internal operations.

Student newspaper of the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma that includes national, local, and campus news along with advertising.

The possibility of an asymmetric ponderomotive barrier in a nonuniform dc magnetic field by high-frequency radiation near the cyclotron resonance for selected plasma species was contemplated in Physics of Plasmas 11 (November 2004) 5046-5064. Here we show that a similar one-way barrier, which reflects particles incident from one side while transmitting those incident from the opposite side, can be produced also in a uniform magnetic field, entirely due to inhomogeneity of high-frequency drive.

Interview with Oral interview with Hermi Salas, a U. S. Marine during World War II. Salas was assigned to the Third Marine Division and was present for the invasion of Guam in the Mariana Islands. He was wounded on Guam and evacuated to a hospital ship, the USS Solace. He also participated in the Iwo Jima landings. After a few weeks at Iwo Jima, Salas was wounded again and placed aboard the USS Solace. He discusses his experiences in the hospital recovering from the wounds he received in the Battle of Iwo Jima. Eventually, he made his way back to San Antonio. He also discusses a brief leave at home before he reported to prison guard duty in Corpus Christi. Upon being discharged after the war, Salas went to radio school and worked at Kelly Air Force Base in the Civil Service.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Hermi Salas. Salas was assigned to the Third Marine Division and was present for the invasion of Guam in the Mariana Islands. He was wounded on Guam and evacuated to a hospital ship, the USS Solace. He also participated in the Iwo Jima landings. After a few weeks on Iwo Jima, Salas was wounded again and placed aboard the USS Solace. He discusses his experiences in the hospital recovering from wounds received in battle at Iwo Jima. Eventually, he made his way back to San Antonio and discusses a brief leave at home before reporting to prison guard duty in Corpus Christi. Upon being discharged after the war, Salas went to radio school and worked at Kelly Air Force Base in the Civil Service.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Hermi Salas. Salas was assigned to the Third Marine Division and was present for the invasion of Guam in the Mariana Islands. He was wounded on Guam and evacuated to a hospital ship, the USS Solace. He also participated in the Iwo Jima landings. After a few weeks on Iwo Jima, Salas was wounded again and placed aboard the USS Solace. He discusses his experiences in the hospital recovering from wounds received in battle at Iwo Jima. Eventually, he made his way back to San Antonio and discusses a brief leave at home before reporting to prison guard duty in Corpus Christi. Upon being discharged after the war, Salas went to radio school and worked at Kelly Air Force Base in the Civil Service.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Walter Loyd. Loyd joined the Navy after finishing high school in 1941. He trained at San Diego until he was assigned to the boilers in the main engine room aboard the USS Neosho (AO-23). Loyd was aboard the Neosho at Ford Island when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Loyd's battle station was on the deck near the bow of the ship, so he got a good look at the action around the harbor. In February 1942, Loyd swapped duties with a man at Hickam Field and got off the Neosho. His new assignment was degaussing ships. Also while in Hawaii, he served aboard the USS Skenandoa (YT-336), an ocean going tugboat. In early 1944, Loyd was assigned to the USS Springfield (CL-66). He was aboard her when the war ended.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Walter Loyd. Loyd joined the Navy after finishing high school in 1941. He trained at San Diego until he was assigned to the boilers in the main engine room aboard the USS Neosho (AO-23). Loyd was aboard the Neosho at Ford Island when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Loyd's battle station was on the deck near the bow of the ship, so he got a good look at the action around the harbor. In February 1942, Loyd swapped duties with a man at Hickam Field and got off the Neosho. His new assignment was degaussing ships. Also while in Hawaii, he served aboard the USS Skenandoa (YT-336), an ocean going tugboat. In early 1944, Loyd was assigned to the USS Springfield (CL-66). He was aboard her when the war ended.