The US nuclear waste disposal program is evaluating the Yucca Mountain (YM) site for possible disposal of nuclear waste. Radioactive decay of the waste, particularly spent fuel, generates sufficient heat to significantly raise repository temperatures. Environmental conditions in the repository system evolve in response to this heat. The amount of temperature increase, and thus environmental changes, depends on repository design and operations. Because the evolving environment cannot be directly measured until after waste is emplaced, licensing decisions must be based upon model and analytical projections of the environmental conditions. These analyses have inherent uncertainties. There is concern that elevated temperatures increase uncertainty, because most chemical reaction rates increase with temperature and boiling introduces additional complexity of vapor phase reactions and transport. This concern was expressed by the NWTRB, particularly for above boiling temperatures. They state that ''the cooler the repository, the lower the uncertainty about heat-driven water migration and the better the performance of waste package materials. Above this temperature, technical uncertainties tend to be significantly higher than those associated with below-boiling conditions.'' (Cohon 1999). However, not all uncertainties are reduced by lower temperatures, indeed some may even be increased. This paper addresses impacts of temperatures on uncertainties.

Weekly newspaper from Emory, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Waste emplacement and activities associated with construction of a repository system potentially will change environmental conditions within the repository system. These environmental changes principally result from heat generated by the decay of the radioactive waste, which elevates temperatures within the repository system. Elevated temperatures affect distribution of water, increase kinetic rates of geochemical processes, and cause stresses to change in magnitude and orientation from the stresses resulting from the overlying rock and from underground construction activities. The recognition of this evolving environment has been reflected in activities, studies and discussions generally associated with what has been termed the Near-Field Environment (NFE). The NFE interacts directly with waste packages and engineered barriers as well as potentially changing the fluid composition and flow conditions within the mountain. As such, the NFE defines the environment for assessing the performance of a potential Monitored Geologic Repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The NFe evolves over time, and therefore is not amenable to direct characterization or measurement in the ambient system. Analysis or assessment of the NFE must rely upon projections based on tests and models that encompass the long-term processes of the evolution of this environment. This NFE Process Model Report (PMR) describes the analyses …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Pentagon believes that chemical and biological weapons are likely to be used early in a conflict to disrupt U.S. operations and logistics and to potentially offset the overwhelming conventional warfare capabilities of U.S. forces; however, studies have confirmed that U.S. forces are not fully prepared to defend against chemical or biological weapons and could suffer significant casualties if they are used. A study of Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps divisions showed that recent changes to the system are a step in the right direction to improving chemical and biological defense readiness reporting, but the changes do not require units to report on the condition of their chemical and biological defense equipment; thus, these reports could provide incomplete or misleading information on the status of equipment, a key element in assessing overall unit readiness."

Semiweekly newspaper from Boerne, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Melvin Dusek. Dusek left college to join the Army in May 1943 and received basic training at Camp Maxey. He then received nine months of engineering training, specializing in rebuilding war-torn infrastructure. In September 1944 he was sent to the battlefield in Belgium with the 394th Infantry Regiment, 99th Infantry Division. He was hit by shrapnel from a German tank and was discovered 30 minutes later by German soldiers. He was taken to a German field hospital, but he was not given any pain medication for his wounds. That evening, after the German had tended to their own wounded, Dusek was given surgical treatment. He was transferred to Stalag IVB and was treated very well. Upon recovery, he was sent to Halle, where conditions were fair. An American air raid struck the camp on 1 April 1945, killing all but 10 of the 80 American prisoners. Dusek was liberated by the 8th Armored Division on 25 April and sent to McCloskey Veterans Hospital. He received a medical discharge in September 1945 and returned to college on the GI Bill.

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

Weekly newspaper from Harper, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Altus, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Melvin Dusek. Dusek left college to join the Army in May 1943 and received basic training at Camp Maxey. He then received nine months of engineering training, specializing in rebuilding war-torn infrastructure. In September 1944 he was sent to the battlefield in Belgium with the 394th Infantry Regiment, 99th Infantry Division. He was hit by shrapnel from a German tank and was discovered 30 minutes later by German soldiers. He was taken to a German field hospital, but he was not given any pain medication for his wounds. That evening, after the German had tended to their own wounded, Dusek was given surgical treatment. He was transferred to Stalag IVB and was treated very well. Upon recovery, he was sent to Halle, where conditions were fair. An American air raid struck the camp on 1 April 1945, killing all but 10 of the 80 American prisoners. Dusek was liberated by the 8th Armored Division on 25 April and sent to McCloskey Veterans Hospital. He received a medical discharge in September 1945 and returned to college on the GI Bill.

Daily newspaper from Chickasha, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

This is a select chronology of, and a finding guide for information on, congressional and presidential actions and documents related to major budget events in calendar year 2000, covering the FY2001 budget. Brief information is provided for the President’s budget, congressional budget resolutions, appropriations measures (regular, continuing, supplementals, and rescissions), budget reconciliation, House and Senate votes, line-item vetoes, publications, testimony, charts, and tables.

The Clean Air Act and its 1990 amendments appear to have contributed to a marked improvement in air quality nationwide. Of nearly 100 metropolitan areas not meeting air quality standards for ozone in 1990, more than two-thirds now do so. Even greater progress has been achieved with carbon monoxide: 36 of 42 areas not in attainment in 1990 now meet the standard. Nevertheless, EPA remains concerned about air pollution. In 1997, the Agency promulgated major revisions to its air quality standards for ozone and particulates, an action that would require most states and urban areas to establish additional controls on a wide range of pollution sources. The revised standards were challenged by numerous parties and the courts have remanded the standards to EPA. Implementation is currently in limbo, pending resolution of appeals by the Supreme Court.

The United States is the largest national contributor to international humanitarian assistance programs for refugees. Traditionally, we contribute to refugee appeals both because of our wish to alleviate the suffering of innocent victims and out of concern that refugee flows can lead to instability in countries or regions important to U.S. foreign policy interests.

Daily newspaper from Sapulpa, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

The authors have performed a fully differential calculation of QCD corrections to electroweak production of single top quarks. The method used allows for jet definitions and experimental cuts. The corresponding computer code passes the necessary check of reproducing the previously known total rate. First examination of the rapidity and transverse momentum of the top quark shows the corrections to be flat relative to leading order. Additional phenomenological studies are in order. Further work is in progress on the corrections to t-b-jet final states which will give a comprehensive set of tools for studying single-top-quark production at future hadron-hadron colliders.

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This issue of Alternative Fuel News focuses on transit buses and refuse haulers. Many transit agencies and waste management companies are investigating alternatives to traditional diesel buses and refuse haulers.

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The morphology, number density, orientation, distribution, and crystallographic aspects of Zr hydrides in Zircaloy fuel cladding play important roles in fuel performance during all phases before and after discharge from the reactor, i.e., during normal operation, transient and accident situations in the reactor, temporary storage in a dry cask, and permanent storage in a waste repository. In the past, partly because of experimental difficulties, hydriding behavior in irradiated fuel cladding has been investigated mostly by optical microscopy (OM). In the present study, fundamental metallurgical and crystallographic characteristics of hydride precipitation and reorientation were investigated on the microscopic level by combined techniques of OM and transmission electron and scanning electron microscopy (TEM and SEM) of spent-fuel claddings discharged from several boiling and pressurized water reactors (BWRs and PWRs). Defueled sections of standard and Zr-lined Zircaloy-2 fuel claddings, irradiated to fluences of {approx}3.3 x 10{sup 21} n cm{sup {minus}2} and {approx}9.2 x 10{sup 21} n cm{sup {minus}2} (E > 1 MeV), respectively, were obtained from spent fuel rods discharged from two BWRs. Sections of standard and low-tin Zircaloy-4 claddings, irradiated to fluences of {approx}4.4 x 10{sup 21} n cm{sup {minus}2}, {approx}5.9 x 10{sup 21} n cm{sup {minus}2}, and {approx}9.6 x 10{sup 21} …

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Raman scattering instability of an intense laser pulse in a plasma channel proceeds differently than in a homogeneous plasma: the growth rate is reduced and the scaling with the laser intensity modified. These differences, significant even for shallow plasma channels, arise because of the radial shear of the plasma frequency and the existence of the weakly damped hybrid (electrostatic/electromagnetic) modes of the radially inhomogeneous plasma. The interplay of these two effects produces double-peaked spectra for the direct forward scattering in a channel.