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The text of this report is a guide to of the original (Department of Transportation and Related Agencies) appropriations bill for FY1999. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Transportation Appropriations. It summarizes the current legislative status of the bill, its scope, major issues, funding levels, and related legislative activity. The report lists the key CRS staff relevant to the issues covered and related CRS products.

Molten Salt Oxidation (MSO) is a promising alternative to incineration for the treatment of a variety of organic wastes. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has prepared a facility in which an integrated pilot-scale MSO treatment system is being tested and demonstrated. The system consists of a MSO vessel with a dedicated off-gas treatment system, a salt recycle system, feed preparation equipment, and a ceramic final waste forms immobilization system. This integrated system was designed and engineered based on operational experience with an engineering-scale reactor unit and extensive laboratory development on salt recycle and final forms preparation. The MSO/off-gas system has been operational since December 1997. The salt recycle system and the ceramic final forms immobilization became operational in May 1998. In FY98, we have tested the MSO facility with various organic feeds, including chlorinated solvents, tributyl phosphate/kerosene, PCB-contaminated waste oils and solvents, booties, plastic pellets, ion exchange resins, activated carbon, radioactive-spiked organics, and well-characterized low-level liquid mixed wastes. MSO is shown to be a versatile technology for hazardous waste treatment and may be a solution to many waste disposal problems in DOE sites. The results of the demonstration conducted in FY98 has been reported [1]. In FY99 (October 1998 to …

This describes a comprehensive, integrated approach for the development of HTS (high-temperature superconductivity) technology for cost-effective use in electric power applications. This approach supports the program`s mission: to develop the technology that could lead to industrial commercialization of HTS electric power applications, such as fault-current limiters, motors, generators, transmission cables, superinductors, and superconducting energy storage. The vision is that, by 2010, the US power systems equipment industry will regain a major share of the global market by offering superconducting products that outperform the competition; and in US, the power grid will gain increased efficiency and stability by incorporating many kinds of HTS devices. After an overview and a discussion of the program plan (wires, systems technology, partnership initiative), this document discusses technology status, stakeholders, and the role of US DOE.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) continues to face a major tank remediation problem with approximately 332 tanks storing over 378,000 ml of high-level waste (HLW) and transuranic (TRU) waste across the DOE complex. Most of the tanks have significantly exceeded their life spans. Approximately 90 tanks across the DOE complex are known or assumed to have leaked. Some of the tank contents are potentially explosive. These tanks must be remediated and made safe. How- ever, regulatory drivers are more ambitious than baseline technologies and budgets will support. Therefore, the Tanks Focus Area (TFA) began operation in October 1994. The focus area manages, coordinates, and leverages technology development to provide integrated solutions to remediate problems that will accelerate safe and cost-effective cleanup and closure of DOE`s national tank system. The TFA is responsible for technology development to support DOE`s four major tank sites: Hanford Site (Washington), INEL (Idaho), Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) (Tennessee), and Savannah River Site (SRS) (South Carolina). Its technical scope covers the major functions that comprise a complete tank remediation system: safety, characterization, retrieval, pretreatment, immobilization, and closure.

Sandia recently completed an updated strategic plan, the essence of which is presented in chapter 4. Sandia`s Strategic Plan 1994 takes its direction from DOE`s Fueling a Competitive Economy: Strategic Plan and provides tangible guidance for Sandia`s programs and operations. Although it is impossible to foresee precisely what activities Sandia will pursue many years from now, the strategic plan makes one point clear: the application of our scientific and engineering skills to the stewardship of the nation`s nuclear deterrent will be central to our service to the nation. We will provide the necessary institutional memory and continuity, experience base, and technical expertise to ensure the continued safety, security, and reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile. As a multiprogram laboratory, Sandia will also continue to focus maximum effort on a broad spectrum of other topics consistent with DOE`s enduring core mission responsibilities: Defense (related to nuclear weapons), Energy, Environment (related to waste management and environmental remediation), and Basic Science.

The purpose of this revision is to update the Line Item Project, 93-L-GFW-152 Functional Design Criteria (FDC) to reflect changes approved in change control M-24-91-6, Engineering Change Notices (ECNs), and expand the scope to include subsurface investigations along with the borehole drilling. This revision improves the ability and effectiveness of maintaining RCRA and Operational groundwater compliance by combining borehole and well drilling with subsurface data gathering objectives. The total projected number of wells to be installed under this project has decreased from 200 and the scope has been broadened to include additional subsurface investigation activities that usually occur simultaneously with most traditional borehole drilling and monitoring well installations. This includes borehole hydrogeologic characterization activities, and vadose monitoring. These activities are required under RCRA 40 CFR 264 and 265 and WAC 173-303 for site characterization, groundwater and vadose assessment and well placement.

This document reaffirms the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy commitment to implement the National Oil Research Program in a way to maximize assurance of energy security, economic growth, environmental protection, jobs, improved economic competitiveness, and improved US balance of trade. There are two sections and an appendix in this document. Section 1 is background information that guided its formulation and a summary of the Oil Program Implementation Plan. This summary includes mission statements, major program drivers, oil issues and trends, budget issues, customers/stakeholders, technology transfer, measures of program effectiveness, and benefits. Section 2 contains more detailed program descriptions for the eight technical areas and the NIPER infrastructure. The eight technical areas are reservoir characterization; extraction research; exploration, drilling, and risk-based decision management; analysis and planning; technology transfer; field demonstration projects; oil downstream operations; and environmental research. Each description contains an overview of the program, descriptions on main areas, a discussion of stakeholders, impacts, planned budget projections, projected schedules with Gantt charts, and measures of effectiveness. The appendix is a summary of comments from industry on an earlier draft of the plan. Although changes were made in response to the comments, many of the suggestions will be …

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) continues to face a major radioactive waste tank remediation problem with hundreds of waste tanks containing hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of high-level waste (HLW) and transuranic (TRU) waste across the DOE complex. Approximately 80 tanks are known or assumed to have leaked. Some of the tank contents have reacted to form flammable gases, introducing additional safety risks. These tanks must be maintained in a safe condition and eventually remediated to minimize the risk of waste migration and/or exposure to workers, the public, and the environment. However, programmatic drivers are more ambitious than baseline technologies and budgets will support. Science and technology development investments are required to reduce the technical and programmatic risks associated with the tank remediation baselines. The Tanks Focus Area (TFA) was initiated in 1994 to serve as the DOE`s Office of Environmental Management`s (EM`s) national technology development program for radioactive waste tank remediation. The national program was formed to increase integration and realize greater benefits from DOE`s technology development budget. The TFA is responsible for managing, coordinating, and leveraging technology development to support DOE`s four major tank sites: Hanford Site (Washington), Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) (Idaho), …

Consistent with the Environmental Management`s (EM`s) plan titled, ``Accelerating Cleanup: Paths to Closure``, and ongoing efforts within the Executive Branch and Congress, this Multi-Year Program Plan (MYPP) for the Plutonium Focus Area was written to ensure that technical gap projects are effectively managed and measured. The Plutonium Focus Area (PFA) defines and manages technology development programs that contribute to the effective stabilization of nuclear materials and their subsequent safe storage and final disposition. The scope of PFA activities includes the complete spectrum of plutonium materials, special isotopes, and other fissile materials. The PFA enables solutions to site-specific and complex-wide technology issues associated with plutonium remediation, stabilization, and preparation for disposition. The report describes the current technical activities, namely: Plutonium stabilization (9 studies); Highly enriched uranium stabilization (2 studies); Russian collaboration program (2 studies); Packaging and storage technologies (6 studies); and PFA management work package/product line (3 studies). Budget information for FY 1999 and FY 2000 is provided.

The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) has created the Strategic Nuclear Research Collaboration. The SNRC brings together some of America's finest laboratory and university nuclear researchers in a carefully focused research program intended to produce ''breakthrough'' solutions to the difficult issues of nuclear economics, safety, non-proliferation, and nuclear waste. This integrated program aims to address obstacles that stand in the way of nuclear power development in the US These include fuel cycle concerns related to waste and proliferation, the need for more efficient regulatory practices, and the high cost of constructing and operating nuclear power plants. Funded at an FY99 level of $2.58M, the SNRC is focusing the efforts of scientists and engineers from the INEEL and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to solve complex nuclear energy challenges in a carefully chosen, integrated portfolio of research topics. The result of this collaboration will be research that serves as a catalyst for future direct-funded nuclear research and technology development and which preserves and enhances the INEEL's role as America's leading national laboratory for nuclear power research. In its first year, the SNRC has focused on four research projects each of which address one or more of the four issues …

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This report presents the details of the mission and strategic plan for Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory during the fiscal years of 1995--2000. It presents summaries of current programs and potential changes; critical success factors such as human resources; management practices; budgetary allowances; and technical and administrative initiatives.

PSE is made up of four technical areas, ASCI Simulation Development Environment (ASDE), Data Exploration and Management (DEM), Data Transfer and Storage (DTS), and Distributed Systems (DS). The goal of ASDE is to create a truly scalable simulation development environment across ASCI platforms. Specific objectives are to improve the environment to accelerate application development, to improve reliability of codes, and to enable better scalable performance. DEM's effort is to provide an interactive environment for efficiently and visualizing massive amounts of data. WE are working to help scientists spend more time concentrating on data understanding by providing tools that both enhance interactions and minimize unnecessary manipulations of data. The goal of DTS is to provide multiple gigabytes/sec parallel data transfer, multiple petabytes of archival mass storage, and new architectures for ''end-to-end'' I/O all helping to ensure the highest utilization of ASCI resources. DS consists of secure networking, secure distributed computing, and resource management for ASCI platforms. These three research and development activities are fundamental to the creation of the basic infrastructure for the ASCI computing environment.

All sites in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Complex prepare this report annually for the DOE Office of Environment, Safety and Health (EH). The purpose of this report is to provide a summary of the previous and current year's Environment, Safety and Health (ES&H) execution commitments and the S&H resources that support these activities. The fiscal year (FY) 1999 and 2000 information (Sieracki 1999) and data contained in the ''Hanford Site Environment, Safety and Health Fiscal Year 2001 Budget-Risk Management Summary'' (RL 1999) were the basis for preparing this report. Fiscal year 2000 finding of Office of Environmental Management (EM) and Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology (NE) activities is based on the President's budget of $1,065.1 million and $28.0 million, plus $2.7 million carryover finding, respectively, as of October 31, 1999. Any funding changes as a result of the Congressional appropriation process will be reflected in the Fiscal Year 2002 ES&H Budget-Risk Management Summary to be issued in May 2000. This report provides the end-of-year status of FY 1999 ES&H execution commitments, including actual S&H expenditures, and describes planned FY 2000 ES&H execution commitments and the S&H resources needed to support those activities. This requirement is included …

This report contains a summary of the R&D activities at LBNL on RF cavities for the NLC damping rings during fiscal year19999. These activities include the optimization of the RF design for both efficiency and damping of higher-order (HOMs), by systematic study of the cavity profile, the effect of the beam pipe diameter, nosecone angle and gap, the cross section and position of the HOM damping waveguides and the coupler. The effect of the shape of the HOM waveguides and their intersection with the cavity wall on the local surface heating is also an important factor, since it determines the highest stresses in the cavity body. This was taken into account during the optimization so that the stresses could be reduced at the same time as the HOP damping was improved over previous designs. A new method of calculating the RF heating was employed, using a recently released high frequency electromagnetic element in ANSYS. This greatly facilitates the thermal and stress analysis of the design and fabrication methods have been developed with the goals of lower stresses, fewer parts and simpler assembly compared to previous designs. This should result in substantial cost savings. Preliminary designs are described for the cavity …

The Low-Activity Waste Process Technology Program at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC) anticipates that large volumes of low-level/low-activity wastes will need to be grouted prior to near-surface disposal. During fiscal year 1999, grout formulations were studied for transuranic waste derived from INTEC liquid sodium-bearing waste and for projected newly generated low-level liquid waste. Additional studies were completed on radionuclide leaching, microbial degradation, waste neutralization, and a small mockup for grouting the INTEC underground storage tank residual heels.

This report presents a five year plan for the laboratory. This plan takes advantage of the technical strengths of the lab and its staff to address issues of concern to the nation on a scope much broader than Sandia`s original mission, while maintaining the general integrity of the laboratory. The plan proposes initiatives in a number of technologies which overlap the needs of its customers and the strengths of its staff. They include: advanced manufacturing technology; electronics; information and computational technology; transportation energy technology and infrastructure; environmental technology; energy research and technology development; biomedical systems engineering; and post-cold war defense imperatives.