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

The purpose of the environmental monitoring plan (EMP) is to promote the early identification of, and response to, potential adverse environmental impacts associated with DOE operations. Environmental monitoring supports the Integrated Safety Management System (ISMS) to detect, characterize, and respond to releases from DOE activities; assess impacts; estimate dispersal patterns in the environment; characterize the pathways of exposure to members of the public; characterize the exposures and doses to individuals and to the population; and to evaluate the potential impacts to the biota in the vicinity of the DOE activity. In addition, the EMP addresses the analytical work supporting environmental monitoring to ensure the following: (1) A consistent system for collecting, assessing, and documenting environmental data of known and documented quality; (2) A validated and consistent approach for sampling and analysis of radionuclide samples to ensure laboratory data meets program-specific needs and requirements within the framework of a performance-based approach for analytical laboratory work; and (3) An integrated sampling approach to avoid duplicative data collection. Until recently, environmental monitoring at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) was required by DOE Order 5400.1, which was canceled in January 2003. LLNL is in the process of adopting the ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems …

Compatibility and outgassing studies of non-nuclear materials were carried out in support of the W80 Life Extension Program. These studies included small-scale laboratory experiments as well as participation in Sandia's Materials Aging and Compatibility test (MAC-1). Analysis of the outgassing signature of removable epoxy foam (REF) revealed unusually high levels of volatile organic compounds in the material. REF was replaced with the polyurethane PMDI. Laboratory compatibility tests of high priority materials were performed and revealed incompatibilities between Viton A (LX-07 binder) and syntactic polysulfide as well as Viton A and REF. With the removal of REF from the system, the incompatibility with Viton A is not an issue. In the case of the viton/polysulfide, both of these materials have a history of reliability in the stockpile, and the observed results, while scientifically interesting, appear to be a laboratory anomaly. Participation in the MAC-1 test led to a detailed study of Viton A degradation. At elevated temperatures up to 70 C, the Viton A samples darkened and exhibited increased crosslinking. Laboratory experiments were pursued to correlate the observed changes to exposure to specific compounds that were present in the MAC-1 canister atmospheres. Exposure to siloxanes resulted in changes similar to those …

Removable epoxy foam (REF) is a novel material developed by researchers at Sandia National Laboratories to simplify the removal of encapsulants from electronic components [McElhanon, et al., Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 2002, 85, 1496-1502]. The material is based on a resin that includes a thermally reversible chemical bond. When the material is heated at relatively mild temperatures ({approx}50-90 C) in the presence of appropriate solvents, the reversible bonds are broken, and the material is easily rinsed away. In order to ease the removal of the encapsulant for surveillance purposes, it was proposed to use REF in the W80 LEP in place of the polyurethane TDI (toluene diisocyanate), which is being phased out at the Kansas City Plant due to toxicity concerns. Colleagues at Sandia noted that REF exhibited especially high outgassing of the liquid fluorinert, FC-72, which is used at a level of 5 wt% as the blowing agent in the foaming process. After obtaining a sample of the material from Sandia, headspace solid phase microextraction gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME GC/MS) measurements were performed. These measurements revealed significant outgassing of fluorinert as well as other solvents and siloxanes [Memo, Vance, 3/3/05 & Vance, Foam PRT presentation UCRL-PRES-212462]. This report …

This article discusses the linear response to perturbation of nonexponential renewal processes.

None

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

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

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

Daily newspaper from Chickasha, Oklahoma 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.

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

Plutonium, because of its radioactive nature, ages from the 'inside out' by means of self-irradiation damage and thus produces nanoscale internal defects. The self-irradiation induced defects come in the form of Frenkel-type defects (vacancies and self-interstitial atoms), helium in-growth, and defect clusters. At present there are neither experimental nor theoretical models describing the changes in the electronic structure caused by the aging in Pu. This fact appears to be associated primarily with the absence of reasonably convincing spectroscopic evidence of the changes. This paper demonstrates that Resonant Photoemission, a variant of Photoelectron Spectroscopy, has strong sensitivity to aging of Pu samples. The spectroscopic results are correlated with an extra-atomic screening model [1], and are shown to be the fingerprint of mesoscopic or nanoscale internal damage in the Pu physical structure. This means that a spectroscopic signature of internal damage due to aging in Pu has been established.

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

This report presents numerical simulations of isothermalreactive flows which might be induced in the caprock of an Italiandepleted gas reservoir by the geological sequestration of carbon dioxide.Our objective is to verify that CO2 geological disposal activitiesalready planned for the study area are safe and do not induce anyundesired environmental impact.Gas-water-rock interactions have beenmodelled under two different intial conditions, i.e., assuming that i)caprock is perfectly sealed, or ii) partially fractured. Field conditionsare better approximated in terms of the "sealed caprock model". Thefractured caprock model has been implemented because it permits toexplore the geochemical beahvior of the system under particularly severeconditions which are not currently encountered in the field, and then todelineate a sort of hypothetical maximum risk scenario.Major evidencessupporting the assumption of a sealed caprock stem from the fact that nogas leakages have been detected during the exploitation phase, subsequentreservoir repressurization due to the ingression of a lateral aquifer,and during several cycles of gas storage in the latest life of reservoirmanagement.An extensive program of multidisciplinary laboratory tests onrock properties, geochemical and microseismic monitoring, and reservoirsimulation studies is underway to better characterize the reservoir andcap-rock behavior before the performance of a planned CO2 sequestrationpilot test.In our models, fluid flow and mineral alteration …

Temperature and salinity are two of the key properties of ocean water masses. The distribution of these two independent but related characteristics reflects the interplay of incoming solar radiation (insolation) and the uneven distribution of heat loss and gain by the ocean, with that of precipitation, evaporation, and the freezing and melting of ice. Temperature and salinity to a large extent, determine the density of a parcel of water. Small differences in temperature and salinity can increase or decrease the density of a water parcel, which can lead to convection. Once removed from the surface of the ocean where 'local' changes in temperature and salinity can occur, the water parcel retains its distinct relationship between (potential) temperature and salinity. We can take advantage of this 'conservative' behavior where changes only occur as a result of mixing processes, to track the movement of water in the deep ocean (Figure 1). The distribution of density in the ocean is directly related to horizontal pressure gradients and thus (geostrophic) ocean currents. During the Quaternary when we have had systematic growth and decay of large land based ice sheets, salinity has had to change. A quick scaling argument following that of Broecker and Peng …

Product imaging has been used to investigate several processes important to a fundamental understanding of combustion. The imaging technique produces a "snapshot" of the three-dimensional velocity distribution of a state-selected reaction product. Research in three main areas is planned or underway. First, product imaging has been used to investigate the reactive scattering of radicals or atoms with species important in combustion. These experiments, while more difficult than studies of inelastic scattering or photodissociation, are now becoming feasible. They provide both product distributions of important processes as well as angular information important to the interpretation of reaction mechanisms. Second, the imaging technique has been used to measure rotationally inelastic energy transfer on collision of closed-shell species with important combustion radicals. Such measurements improve our knowledge of intramolecular potentials and provide important tests of ab initio calculations. Finally, experiments using product imaging have explored the vacuum ultraviolet photodissociation of O2, N2O, SO2, CO2 and other important species. Little is known about the highly excited electronic states of these molecules and, in particular, how they dissociate. These studies provide product vibrational energy distributions as well as angular information that can aid in understanding the symmetry and crossings among the excited electronic states

Mechanically alloyed oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) Fe-Cr-Al alloy thin walled tubes and sheets, produced via powder processing and consolidation methodologies, are promising materials for eventual use at temperatures up to 1200 C in the power generation industry, far above the temperature capabilities of conventional alloys. Target end-uses range from gas turbine combustor liners to high aspect ratio (L/D) heat exchanger tubes. Grain boundary creep processes at service temperatures, particularly those acting in the hoop direction, are the dominant failure mechanisms for such components. The processed microstructure of ODS alloys consists of high aspect ratio grains aligned parallel to the tube axis, a result of dominant axial metal flow which aligns the dispersoid particles and other impurities in the longitudinal direction. The dispersion distribution is unaltered on a micro scale by recrystallization thermal treatments, but the high aspect ratio grain shape typically obtained limits transverse grain spacing and consequently the hoop creep response. Improving hoop creep in ODS-alloy components will require understanding and manipulating the factors that control the recrystallization behavior, and represents a critical materials design and development challenge that must be overcome in order to fully exploit the potential of ODS alloys. The objectives of this program are to …

Weekly student newspaper from the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas that includes campus news and commentaries along with advertising.

This report examines EPA's analysis and adjusts some of its assumptions to reflect current regulations. The most important adjustment is the choice of baseline. The agency’s analysis assumes as a baseline that, in the absence of new federal legislation, EPA and the states will take no additional action to control SO2, NOx, Hg, or CO2 emissions beyond those actions finalized by mid-2004. This baseline is put forth despite three rules recently promulgated by EPA that limit SO2, NOx, and Hg emissions on a timeframe similar to that proposed by the Clear Skies legislation.

The federal government has a long history of providing credit assistance to farmers by issuing direct loans and guarantees, and creating rural lending institutions. These institutions include the Farm Credit System (FCS), which is a network of borrower-owned lending institutions operating as a government-sponsored enterprise, and the Farm Service Agency (FSA) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which makes or guarantees loans to farmers who cannot qualify at other lenders. When loans cannot be repaid, special bankruptcy provisions help family farmers reorganize debts and continue farming (P.L. 109-8 made Chapter 12 permanent and expanded eligibility). S. 238 and H.R. 399 (the Rural Economic Investment Act) would exempt commercial banks from paying taxes on profits from farm real estate loans, thus providing similar benefits as to the Farm Credit System.

This report discusses the Farm Credit System (FCS) is a nationwide financial cooperative that lends to agricultural producers, rural homeowners, certain agriculture-related businesses, and agricultural, aquatic, and public utility cooperatives. Established by the Federal Farm Loan Act in 1916 as a government-sponsored enterprise (GSE), it has a statutory mandate to serve agriculture and related enterprises.

This report consists of american bankers association v. lockyer: Whether California’s Financial Information Privacy Law Has Been Preempted by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act.

This report presents current data on estimated ownership of United States Treasury securities and major holders of federal debt by country.