Report concerning the Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA), its legislative history, a program overview, and issues regarding FECA's generous benefits.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The four main U.S. agency Afghan development programs and accounts have similar goals and activities and hence overlap to some degree. In fiscal year 2011, the Economic Support Fund (ESF) and other smaller accounts administered by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Commander's Emergency Response Program (CERP), administered by the Department of Defense (DOD), funded similar activities related to agriculture; democracy and governance; education and health; energy and electricity; economic growth; and transportation. Both funded activities in 33 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces and in 249 of Afghanistan's 399 districts. The Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO), administered by DOD, and the Afghanistan Infrastructure Fund (AIF), administered by DOD and the Department of State (State), also funded efforts in some of the same categories of assistance as ESF and CERP in fiscal year 2011. According to agency officials, these overlapping development efforts can be beneficial, provided that agencies leverage their respective expertise and coordinate efforts."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Various options are available to make the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's (PBGC) premium structure more risk-based and better reflect the risk of future claims. Historically, PBGC's premiums have not fully reflected the risks PBGC insures against--chiefly that a plan sponsor with an underfunded plan will become bankrupt, forcing the termination of the plan and imposing a claim on PBGC. PBGC's current structure relies largely on a flat-rate premium that is based on the number of plan participants and that assesses rates equally per plan participant across all sponsors. PBGC also charges a variable-rate premium that is based on just one risk factor, plan underfunding. One available option is to further increase rates within this current structure; however, plan underfunding alone is a poor proxy for the risk of new claims. An alternative option is to redesign premiums to incorporate additional risk factors, such as a sponsor's financial strength (as currently being explored by PBGC) or a plan's investment strategy (as is currently done in the United Kingdom)."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "According to U.S. Census Bureau (Bureau) officials, to inform timely design decisions, research on new methods to improve the cost effectiveness of the 2020 Census must be accomplished early enough in the decade to confirm their likely impact on both cost and quality. Three key efforts--(1) the use of the Internet as a response option, (2) a potential move towards targeted address canvassing, and (3) the possible use of administrative records to replace data collected during census field operations--present the Bureau with potential opportunities to reduce costs while maintaining quality. The Bureau's 2020 Research and Testing Program has 14 fiscal year 2012 projects focused on informing design decisions related to the three key efforts. Bureau officials are also aware that the changes they are testing come with many risks, and for each project the Bureau has identified a number of risks and prioritized them from high to low. However, the Bureau has not developed mitigation or contingency plans for these project risks. For example, there are several risks, including tight time frames and accurate cost information, without mitigation and contingency plans. Additionally, GAO found that the …

Report containing a history of U.S.-Israeli relationships and current Israeli issues such as border security, defense, Israel-Palestinian conflicts, economy, and democracy.

This report discusses the national security problem of the People's Republic of China's (PRC) role in weapons proliferation and issues related to the U.S. policy response, including legislation since the mid-1990's.

This report analyzes the impacts of wind generation on competitive power markets, including financial and economic impacts on electric power generators. Overall, the report aims to provide context for several electricity market concepts that are relevant to understanding the economic effects of wind power generation.

This effort is part of the technetium management initiative and provides data for the handling and disposition of technetium. To that end, the objective of this effort was to challenge tin(lI)apatite (Sn(II)apatite) against double-shell tank 241-AN-105 simulant spiked with pertechnetate (TcO{sub 4}). The Sn(II)apatite used in this effort was synthesized on site using a recipe developed at and provided by Sandia National Laboratories; the synthesis provides a high quality product while requiring minimal laboratory effort. The Sn(ll)apatite reduces pertechnetate from the mobile +7 oxidation state to the non-mobile +4 oxidation state. It also sequesters the technetium and does not allow for re-oxidization to the mobile +7 state under acidic or oxygenated conditions within the tested period of time (6 weeks). Previous work indicated that the Sn(II) apatite can achieve an ANSI leachability index in Cast Stone of 12.8. The technetium distribution coefficient for Sn(lI)apatite exhibited a direct correlation with the pH of the technetium-spiked simulant media.

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The survey includes degrees granted between September 1, 2010 and August 31, 2011. Enrollment information refers to the fall term 2011. The enrollment and degree data include students majoring in health physics or in an option program equivalent to a major. Twenty-four academic programs reported having health physics programs during 2011. The data for two health physics options within nuclear engineering programs are also included in the enrollments and degrees that are reported in the nuclear engineering enrollments and degrees data.

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The purpose of this document is to describe the current state of the art for determination of hydrogen generation rates of radioactive slurries and solutions to provide a basis for design, fabrication, testing, and implementation of a measurement method for Hydrogen Generation Rate (HGR) during qualification of waste feeds for the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). The HGR measurement will be performed on samples of the Low Activity Waste (LAW) and High Level Waste (HLW) staged waste feeds for the WTP as well as on samples from selected unit operations testing during the qualification program. SRNL has performed a review of techniques utilized to measure HGR of high level radioactive waste slurries, evaluated the Hanford 222-S Laboratory method for measurement of hydrogen, and reviewed the hydrogen generation rate models for Hanford waste.Based on the literature review, method evaluation, and SRNL experience with measuring hydrogen generation rate, SRNL recommends that a continuous flow system with online gas analysis be used as the HGR measurement method during waste qualification.

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Travel support was provided for a range of invited speakers, students, early-career, and developing-country, and key scientists who required financial assistance to participate, and would otherwise be unable to attend, to contribute to, and benefit from, this important event. This support also allowed participants to present their research findings, provide input to WCRP planning and plans, and encourage collaboration with other research scientists. In particular, the participation and engagement of regional scientists in the OSC helped to ensure communication and advocacy in identifying the climate research needs of the region and their inclusion in the WCRP long-range research priorities.

Twelve AFIP in-process foil samples, fabricated by either Y-12 or LANL, were shipped from LANL to PNNL for potential characterization using optical and scanning electron microscopy techniques. Of these twelve, nine different conditions were examined to one degree or another using both techniques. For this report a complete description of the results are provided for one archive foil from each source of material, and one unirradiated piece of a foil of each source that was irradiated in the Advanced Test Reactor. Additional data from two other LANL conditions are summarized in very brief form in an appendix. The characterization revealed that all four characterized conditions contained a cold worked microstructure to different degrees. The Y-12 foils exhibited a higher degree of cold working compared to the LANL foils, as evidenced by the highly elongated and obscure U-Mo grain structure present in each foil. The longitudinal orientations for both of the Y-12 foils possesses a highly laminar appearance with such a distorted grain structure that it was very difficult to even offer a range of grain sizes. The U-Mo grain structure of the LANL foils, by comparison, consisted of a more easily discernible grain structure with a mix of equiaxed and …

There is an increasing need to develop faster analytical methods for emergency response, including emergency soil and air filter samples. The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) performed analyses on samples received from Japan in April, 2011 as part of a U.S. Department of Energy effort to provide assistance to the government of Japan, following the nuclear event at Fukushima Daiichi, resulting from the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. Of particular concern was whether it was safe to plant rice in certain areas (prefectures) near Fukushima. The primary objectives of the sample collection, sample analysis, and data assessment teams were to evaluate personnel exposure hazards, identify the nuclear power plant radiological source term and plume deposition, and assist the government of Japan in assessing any environmental and agricultural impacts associated with the nuclear event. SRNL analyzed approximately 250 samples and reported approximately 500 analytical method determinations. Samples included soil from farmland surrounding the Fukushima reactors and air monitoring samples of national interest, including those collected at the U.S. Embassy and American military bases. Samples were analyzed for a wide range of radionuclides, including strontium-89, strontium-90, gamma-emitting radionuclides, and plutonium, uranium, americium and curium isotopes. Technical aspects of the rapid …

The ACNS provides a focal point for the North American neutron user community, strengthening ties within this diverse group, and promoting neutron research in related disciplines. The conference thus serves a dual role as both a national user meeting and a scientific meeting. As a venue for scientific exchange, the ACNS showcases recent results and provides a forum for scientific discussion of neutron-enabled research in fields as diverse as hard and soft condensed matter, liquids, biology, magnetism, engineering materials, chemical spectroscopy, crystal structure, elementary excitations, fundamental physics, and development of neutron instrumentation. This is achieved through a combination of invited oral presentations, contributed oral presentations, and poster sessions. Adequate opportunity for spontaneous discussion and collaboration is also built into the ACNS program in order to foster free exchange of new scientific ideas and the potential for use of powerful neutron scattering methods beyond the current realms of application. The sixth American Conference on Neutron Scattering (ACNS 2012) provided essential information on the breadth and depth of current neutron-related research worldwide. A strong program of plenary, invited and contributed talks showcased recent scientific results in neutron science in a wide range of fields, including soft and hard condensed matter, biology, chemistry, …

In this project, we conducted preliminary research to create a flexible environment that encapsulates the knowledge of the application developers, site system administrators, and the vendors to assist application building and execution on HPC systems, in particular the DOE leadership computing platforms. The key research involved how to describe and use the knowledge from these varied sources to improve productivity of the end-user scientists, while creating a flexible and modular environment supporting all these features.

Occupancy sensor systems are gaining traction as an effective technological approach to reducing energy use in exterior commercial lighting applications. Done correctly, occupancy sensors can substantially enhance the savings from an already efficient lighting system. However, this technology is confronted by several potential challenges and pitfalls that can leave a significant amount of the prospective savings on the table. This report describes anecdotal experiences from field installations of occupancy sensor controlled light-emitting diode (LED) lighting at two parking structures and two parking lots. The relative levels of success at these installations reflect a marked range of potential outcomes: from an additional 76% in energy savings to virtually no additional savings. Several issues that influenced savings were encountered in these early stage installations and are detailed in the report. Ultimately, care must be taken in the design, selection, and commissioning of a sensor-controlled lighting installation, else the only guaranteed result may be its cost.

A sampling of publications resulting from this grant is provided. One is on the subject of NF-κB-Mediated HER2 Overexpression in Radiation-Adaptive Resistance. Another is on NF-κB-mediated adaptive resistance to ionizing radiation.