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This report looks at the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to “assist the development and support of a sustainable commercial biofuels industry" which was entered into by the Secretaries of Energy, Agriculture, and the Navy. It raises issues and concerns for Congress to consider when deciding how to fund MOU.

This report gives an overview of the federal debt limit, its history, and recent increases

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This report consists of the Americans with disabilities act (ADA): statutory language and recent issues.

Assessing the performance of Spent (or Used) Nuclear Fuel (UNF) in geological repository requires quantification of time-dependent phenomena that may influence its behavior on a time-scale up to millions of years. A high-level waste repository environment will be a dynamic redox system because of the time-dependent generation of radiolytic oxidants and reductants and the corrosion of Fe-bearing canister materials. One major difference between used fuel and natural analogues, including unirradiated UO2, is the intense radiolytic field. The radiation emitted by used fuel can produce radiolysis products in the presence of water vapor or a thin-film of water that may increase the waste form degradation rate and change radionuclide behavior. To study UNF, we have been working on producing synthetic UO2 ceramics, or SimFuels that can be used in testing and which will contain specific radionuclides or non-radioactive analogs so that we can test the impact of radiolysis on fuel corrosion without using actual spent fuel. Although, testing actual UNF would be ideal for understanding the long term behavior of UNF, it requires the use of hot cells and is extremely expensive. In this report, we discuss, factors influencing the preparation of SimFuels and the requirements for dopants to mimic the …

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A premier applied-science laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has earned the reputation as a leader in providing science and technology solutions to the most pressing national and global security problems. The LDRD Program, established by Congress at all DOE national laboratories in 1991, is LLNL's most important single resource for fostering excellent science and technology for today's needs and tomorrow's challenges. The LDRD internally directed research and development funding at LLNL enables high-risk, potentially high-payoff projects at the forefront of science and technology. The LDRD Program at Livermore serves to: (1) Support the Laboratory's missions, strategic plan, and foundational science; (2) Maintain the Laboratory's science and technology vitality; (3) Promote recruiting and retention; (4) Pursue collaborations; (5) Generate intellectual property; and (6) Strengthen the U.S. economy. Myriad LDRD projects over the years have made important contributions to every facet of the Laboratory's mission and strategic plan, including its commitment to nuclear, global, and energy and environmental security, as well as cutting-edge science and technology and engineering in high-energy-density matter, high-performance computing and simulation, materials and chemistry at the extremes, information systems, measurements and experimental science, and energy manipulation. A summary of each project was submitted by the principal investigator. …

H-Canyon and HB-Line are tasked with the production of PuO{sub 2} from a feed of plutonium metal. The PuO{sub 2} will provide feed material for the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility. After dissolution of the Pu metal in H-Canyon, the solution will be transferred to HB-Line for purification by anion exchange. Subsequent unit operations include Pu(IV) oxalate precipitation, filtration and calcination to form PuO{sub 2}. This report details the results from SRNL anion exchange, precipitation, filtration, calcination, and characterization tests, as requested by HB-Line1 and described in the task plan. This study involved an 80-g batch of Pu and employed test conditions prototypical of HB-Line conditions, wherever feasible. In addition, this study integrated lessons learned from earlier anion exchange and precipitation and calcination studies. H-Area Engineering selected direct strike Pu(IV) oxalate precipitation to produce a more dense PuO{sub 2} product than expected from Pu(III) oxalate precipitation. One benefit of the Pu(IV) approach is that it eliminates the need for reduction by ascorbic acid. The proposed HB-Line precipitation process involves a digestion time of 5 minutes after the time (44 min) required for oxalic acid addition. These were the conditions during HB-line production of neptunium oxide (NpO{sub 2}). In addition, a series …

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This report describes the GI Bills enacted prior to 2008. Although participation in the programs has ended or is declining, the programs' evolution and provisions inform current policy. Included is a description of the eligibility requirements, eligible programs of education, benefit availability, and benefits. The report also provides some summary statistics, comparisons between the programs, and brief discussions of related programs.

The originally proposed and funded research activities followed two major areas of study: semileptonic probes of the hadronic neutral current and charm production. The charm production work revolved around the Jefferson Lab experiment E03-008, 'Sub-threshold J/psi Photoprouction', which ran in late 2004. The PI was a co-spokesperson for the experiment. For the three year renewal proposal starting in 2007, the scope and size of the research project changed and increased. In addition to the parity violating studies, the PI had well defined lead roles in a series experiments nucleon spin-structure functions.

This report looks at President Obama's FY2013 budget request, which included an $11.2 billion for military construction appropriations.

The project validated the use of stainless steel flexible substrate coated with silicone-based resin dielectric, developed by Dow Corning Corporation, for Cu(InGa)Se2 based photovoltaics. The projects driving force was the high performance of Cu(InGa)Se2 based photovoltaics coupled with potential cost reduction that could be achieved with dielectric coated SS web substrate.

This report provides a brief history about the Federal Affirmative Action Law which remains a focal point of public debate as a result of legal and political developments at the federal,state and local levels.

This report provides information about the Compensating State and Local Governments for the Tax-Exempt Status of Federal Lands .State and local governments provide a wide variety of services-education, social services etc.

This report examines the original intent and purpose of the Berry Amendment and legislative proposals to amend the application of domestic source restrictions, as well as potential options for Congress.

Congressional interest in a major reform of the individual income tax that would broaden the base and use the additional tax revenues to lower rates and/or reduce the deficit has increased. This report discusses ways in which the tax base can be broadened, tax expenditures, and impediments to broadening the base/eliminating or reducing expenditures.

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Report on on sediment transport modeling of reach scale geomorphic processes: "[The] study investigated the use of a modeling strategy to predict channel adjustment and floodplain accretion in the lower San Antonio River. The modeling strategy was employed in three subbranches with different channel characteristics to capture a range of possible geomorphic responses in the river and validated with empirical observations where possible. Using the modeling strategy, flow simulations of prescribed in-stream flows can provided initial insights into the response of the river" (p. 2).

In this project, we are developing a high speed digital spectrometer that a) captures detector waveforms at rates up to 500 MSPS b) has upgraded event data acquisition with additional data buffers for zero dead time operation c) moves energy calculations to the FPGA to increase spectrometer throughput in fast scintillator applications d) uses a streamlined architecture and high speed data interface for even faster readout to the host PC These features are in addition to the standard functions in our existing spectrometers such as digitization, programmable trigger and energy filters, pileup inspection, data acquisition with energy and time stamps, MCA histograms, and run statistics. In Phase I, we upgraded one of our existing spectrometer designs to demonstrate the key principle of fast waveform capture using a 500 MSPS, 12 bit ADC and a Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGA. This upgraded spectrometer, named P500, performed well in initial tests of energy resolution, pulse shape analysis, and timing measurements, thus achieving item (a) above. In Phase II, we are revising the P500 to build a commercial prototype with the improvements listed in items (b)-(d). As described in the previous report, two devices were built to pursue this goal, named the Pixie-500 and the …

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The Department of Energy Office of Nonproliferation Policy (NA-241) is supporting the project 'Coincidence Counting With Boron-Based Alternative Neutron Detection Technology' at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for development of an alternative neutron coincidence counter. The goal of this project is ultimately to design, build and demonstrate a boron-lined proportional tube based alternative system in the configuration of a coincidence counter. This report, providing background information for this project, is the deliverable under Task 1 of the project.