This report summarizes the FY2010 budget request for research & development (R&D) funding, including comparisons to R&D funding requests in the FY2009 budget. This report breaks down in detail the various aspects of the President's FY2010 R&D funding request.

This report examines the hydrologic test results for both local vertical profile characterization and large-scale hydrologic tests associated with a new extraction well (well 299-W15-225) that was constructed during FY2009 for inclusion within the future 200-West Area Groundwater Treatment System that is scheduled to go on-line at the end of FY2011. To facilitate the analysis of the large-scale hydrologic test performed at newly constructed extraction well 299-W15-225 (C7017; also referred to as EW-1 in some planning documents), the existing 200-ZP-1 interim pump-and-treat system was completely shut-down ~1 month before the performance of the large-scale hydrologic test. Specifically, this report 1) applies recently developed methods for removing barometric pressure fluctuations from well water-level measurements to enhance the detection of hydrologic test and pump-and-treat system effects at selected monitor wells, 2) analyzes the barometric-corrected well water-level responses for a preliminary determination of large-scale hydraulic properties, and 3) provides an assessment of the vertical distribution of hydraulic conductivity in the vicinity of newly constructed extraction well 299-W15-225. The hydrologic characterization approach presented in this report is expected to have universal application for meeting the characterization needs at other remedial action sites located within unconfined and confined aquifer systems.

Iodine-129 ({sup 129}I) has not received as much attention in basic and applied research as other contaminants associated with DOE plumes. These other contaminants, such as uranium, plutonium, strontium, and technetium are more widespread and exist at more DOE facilities. Yet, at the Hanford Site and the Savannah River Site {sup 129}I occurs in groundwater at concentrations significantly above the primary drinking water standard and there is no accepted method for treating it, other than pump-and-treat systems. With the potential arrival of a 'Nuclear Renaissance', new nuclear power facilities will be creating additional {sup 129}I waste at a rate of 1 Ci/gigawatts energy produced. If all 22 proposed nuclear power facilities in the U.S. get approved, they will produce more {sup 129}I waste in seven years than presently exists at the two facilities containing the largest {sup 129}I inventories, ({approx}146 Ci {sup 129}I at the Hanford Site and the Savannah River Site). Hence, there is an important need to fully understand {sup 129}I behavior in the environment to clean up existing plumes and to support the expected future expansion of nuclear power production. {sup 129}I is among the key risk drivers at all DOE nuclear disposal facilities where {sup 129}I …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Of the estimated 1.1 million Americans living with HIV, not all are aware of their HIV-positive status. Timely testing of HIV-positive individuals is important to improve health outcomes and to slow the disease's transmission. It is also important that individuals have access to HIV care after being diagnosed, but not all diagnosed individuals are receiving such care. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides grants to state and local health departments for HIV prevention and collects data on HIV. In 2006, CDC recommended routine HIV testing for all individuals ages 13-64. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) provides grants to states and localities for HIV care and services. GAO was asked to examine issues related to identifying individuals with HIV and connecting them to care. This report examines: 1) CDC and HRSA's coordination on HIV activities and steps they have taken to encourage routine HIV testing; 2) implementation of routine HIV testing by select state and local health departments; 3) available information on CDC funding for HIV testing; and 4) available data on the number of HIV-positive individuals not receiving care for HIV. …

This was a grant to support travel for scientists to present data and interact with others in their field. Specifically, speakers presented their data in a session entitled “Interfacial Phenomena: Linking Atomistic and Macroscopic Properties: Theoretical and Experimental Studies of the Structure and Reactivity of Mineral Surfaces”. The session ran across three ½ day periods, March 30-31 2004. The session’s organizers were David J. Wesolowski andGordon E. Brown Jr. There were a total of 30 talks presented.

In early 2007, after several years of internal discussions and consultations with Poland and the Czech Republic, the Bush Administration formally proposed to defend against an Iranian missile threat by deploying a ground-based mid-course defense (GMD) element in Europe as part of the global U.S. BMDS (Ballistic Missile Defense System). The system would have included 10 interceptors in Poland, a radar in the Czech Republic, and another radar that would have been deployed in a country closer to Iran, to be completed by 2013 at a reported cost of at least $4 billion. This report is designed to retain background information and analysis of the Bush-proposed European BMD initiative up to the Obama Administration's decision to cancel it.

This report provides background information and issues for Congress on the Navy's proposal to homeport a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier (CVN) at Mayport, Florida. Transferring a CVN from Norfolk, Virginia, to Mayport would also shift the local economic activity associated with homeporting a CVN, which some sources estimate as being worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year.

This report discusses the process of naming Navy ships, which have traditionally been chosen and announced by the Secretary of the Navy. Congress in recent years has proposed, and sometimes passed, legislation regarding the naming of specific ships.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Before approving a drug, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) assesses a drug's effectiveness. This assessment may be based on evidence showing that a drug has a positive impact on a surrogate endpoint--a laboratory measure, such as blood pressure--instead of more direct clinical evidence, like preventing strokes. After approval, FDA often requires or requests a drug sponsor to further study the drug. Concerns have been raised about FDA's reliance on surrogate endpoints and its oversight of postmarketing studies. This report provides information on (1) all drug applications approved based on surrogate endpoints in FDA's accelerated approval process, (2) a subset of applications for potentially innovative drugs approved based on surrogate endpoints under FDA's traditional process, and (3) FDA's oversight of postmarketing studies. GAO identified drugs approved based on surrogate endpoints, obtained the status of related postmarketing studies, and reviewed FDA's oversight of a sample of 35 studies it required under its accelerated approval process, selected to include studies which were at varying levels of completion."

Particle in cell (PIC) methods are effective in computing Vlasov-Poisson system of equations used in simulations of magnetic fusion plasmas. PIC methods use grid based computations, for solving Poisson’s equation or more generally Maxwell’s equations, as well as Monte-Carlo type methods to sample the Vlasov equation. The presence of two types of discretizations, deterministic field solves and Monte-Carlo methods for the Vlasov equation, pose challenges in understanding and optimizing performance on today large scale computers which require high levels of concurrency. These challenges arises from the need to optimize two very different types of processes and the interactions between them. Modern cache based high-end computers have very deep memory hierarchies and high degrees of concurrency which must be utilized effectively to achieve good performance. The effective use of these machines requires maximizing concurrency by eliminating serial or redundant work and minimizing global communication. A related issue is minimizing the memory traffic between levels of the memory hierarchy because performance is often limited by the bandwidths and latencies of the memory system. This paper discusses some of the performance issues, particularly in regard to parallelism, of PIC methods. The gyrokinetic toroidal code (GTC) is used for these studies and a new …

PNL-MA-562 This manual provides specific information for operating and using portable radiological monitoring instruments available for use on the Hanford Site.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report, the third in response to a mandate under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act), addresses the following objectives: (1) selected states' and localities' uses of Recovery Act funds, (2) the approaches taken by the selected states and localities to ensure accountability for Recovery Act funds, and (3) states' plans to evaluate the impact of Recovery Act funds. GAO's work for the report is focused on 16 states and certain localities in those jurisdictions as well as the District of Columbia (District)-- representing about 65 percent of the U.S. population and two-thirds of the intergovernmental federal assistance available. Under the Recovery Act, GAO collected and analyzed documents and interviewed state and local officials. GAO also analyzed federal agency guidance and spoke with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) officials and with program officials at the federal agencies overseeing Recovery Act programs."

With increased application of MOX fuels and longer burnup times for conventional fuels, higher concentrations of the transplutonium actinides Am and Cm (and even heavier species like Bk and Cf) will be produced. The half-lives of the Am isotopes are significantly longer than those of the most important long-lived, high specific activity lanthanides or the most common Cm, Bk and Cf isotopes, thus the greatest concern as regards long-term radiotoxicity. With the removal and transmutation of Am isotopes, radiation levels of high level wastes are reduced to near uranium mineral levels within less than 1000 years as opposed to the time-fram if they remain in the wastes.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Preparing for the tax filing season is a significant undertaking for Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The filing season is when most individuals file their tax returns, receive refunds, and contact IRS if they have questions. As returns are received, IRS begins a series of automated compliance checks to correct errors on tax returns and ensure that refunds are justified. For example, IRS rejects electronically filed returns with basic errors requiring taxpayers to correct and resubmit them. It uses what is called "math error authority" to automatically correct obvious noncompliance such as violations of limits on deductions or credits, which allows IRS to avoid costly audits. IRS must begin preparing for each filing season months in advance and preparations include the following. (1) Revising tax forms and publications to implement tax law changes. Recent major law changes that affected the 2009 filing season include the (a) Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, which contained the recovery rebate credit allowing taxpayers who did not receive the full economic stimulus payment last year to claim some or all of the unpaid credit on their 2008 returns; (b) Housing and Economic …

The flowsheet for the digestion of Reillex{trademark} HPQ was validated both under the traditional alkaline conditions and under strongly acidic conditions. Due to difficulty in performing a pH adjustment in the large tank where this flowsheet must be performed, the recommended digestion conditions were changed from pH 8-10 to 8 M HNO{sub 3}. Thus, no pH adjustment of the solution is required prior to performing the permanganate addition and digestion and the need to sample the digestion tank to confirm appropriate pH range for digestion may be avoided. Neutralization of the acidic digestion solution will be performed after completion of the resin digestion cycle. The amount of permanganate required for this type of resin (Reillex{trademark} HPQ) was increased from 1 kg/L resin to 4 kg/L resin to reduce the amount of residual resin solids to a minimal amount (<5%). The length of digestion time at 70 C remains unchanged at 15 hours. These parameters are not optimized but are expected to be adequate for the conditions. The flowsheet generates a significant amount of fine manganese dioxide (MnO{sub 2}) solids (1.71 kg/L resin) and involves the generation of a significant liquid volume due to the low solubility of permanganate. However, since …

This report gives a summary of the usage of the War Powers Resolution (WPR) and various issues related to proposals to modify or repeal the resolution. The report summarizes most recent developments and background, and gives an overview of United Nations actions, and WPR activities in former Yugoslavia/Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq (post-1991), Haiti, and Somalia. It also includes commentary on the instances formally reported under the WPR, consultation with Congress, and the current issues which Congress is considering.

Eaton has developed an advanced energy management solution that has been deployed to several Industries of the Future (IoF) sites. This demonstrated energy savings and reduced unscheduled downtime through an improved means for performing predictive diagnostics and energy efficiency estimation. Eaton has developed a suite of online, continuous, and inferential algorithms that utilize motor current signature analysis (MCSA) and motor power signature analysis (MPSA) techniques to detect and predict the health condition and energy usage condition of motors and their connect loads. Eaton has also developed a hardware and software platform that provided a means to develop and test these advanced algorithms in the field. Results from lab validation and field trials have demonstrated that the developed advanced algorithms are able to detect motor and load inefficiency and performance degradation. Eaton investigated the performance of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) within various industrial facilities to understand concerns about topology and environmental conditions that have precluded broad adoption by the industry to date. A Wireless Link Assessment System (WLAS), was used to validate wireless performance under a variety of conditions. Results demonstrated that wireless networks can provide adequate performance in most facilities when properly specified and deployed. Customers from various IoF expressed …

This report discusses the current political state of Afghanistan, as well as the Afghan government. This report also discusses Afghanistan's relationship with the United States, particularly U.S. efforts to urge President Hamid Karzai to address corruption within the Afghan government.

This report discusses issues for Congress in FY2011, which are whether to approve, reject, or modify DOD's new KC-X competition strategy, and whether to approve, reject, or modify the Air Force's request for FY2011 research and development funding for the new KC-X program.

In order to provide more accurate and precise estimates of individual dose (and thus more precise estimates of radiation risk) for the members of the ETRC, a new dosimetric calculation system, the Techa River Dosimetry System-2009 (TRDS-2009) has been prepared. The deterministic version of the improved dosimetry system TRDS-2009D was basically completed in April 2009. Recent developments in evaluation of dose-response models in light of uncertain dose have highlighted the importance of different types of uncertainties in the development of individual dose estimates. These include uncertain parameters that may be either shared or unshared within the dosimetric cohort, and also the nature of the type of uncertainty as aleatory or epistemic and either classical or Berkson. This report identifies the nature of the various input parameters and calculational methods incorporated in the Techa River Dosimetry System (based on the TRDS-2009D implementation), with the intention of preparing a stochastic version to estimate the uncertainties in the dose estimates. This report reviews the equations, databases, and input parameters, and then identifies the author’s interpretations of their general nature. It presents the approach selected so that the stochastic, Monte-Carlo, implementation of the dosimetry System - TRDS-2009MC - will provide useful information regarding the …

This best practices guide is the ninth in a series of guides for builders produced by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America Program. This guide book is a resource to help builders design and construct homes that are among the most energy-efficient available, while addressing issues such as building durability, indoor air quality, and occupant health, safety, and comfort. With the measures described in this guide, builders in the hot-dry and mixed-dry climates can achieve homes that have whole house energy savings of 40% over the Building America benchmark (a home built to mid-1990s building practices roughly equivalent to the 1993 Model Energy Code) with no added overall costs for consumers. These best practices are based on the results of research and demonstration projects conducted by Building America’s research teams. The guide includes information for managers, designers, marketers, site supervisors, and subcontractors, as well as case studies of builders who are successfully building homes that cut energy use by 40% in the hot-dry and mixed-dry climates.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As a result of internal control deficiencies discussed in GAO's 2007 report on certain contracts at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), GAO was asked to identify the extent to which CMS (1) implemented effective control procedures over contract actions, and (2) established a strong control environment for contract management. GAO used a statistical random sample of 2008 CMS contract actions (including contract awards and modifications) to assess CMS internal control procedures. The results were projected to the population of 2008 CMS contract actions. GAO also determined the extent to which CMS implemented recommendations GAO made in 2007 to improve internal control over contracting and payments to contractors. GAO reviewed contract file documentation and interviewed senior acquisition management officials."

This report provides background information and oversight issues for Congress on the Coast Guard's Deepwater acquisition programs for replacing and modernizing the service's aging fleet of deepwater-capable ships and aircraft.

This report provides background information and issues for Congress on the modernization of the Coast Guard's polar icebreaker fleet, which performs a variety of missions supporting U.S. interests in polar regions.