In August of 1990 the Savannah River Site Photography Group began testing on a different type of silver recovery system. This paper describes the baseline study and the different phases of installation and testing of the system.

This experimental program generated data to improve computer-code modeling of impact phenomena. The improved computation technique will be used to design a fissile-material container able to withstand a 335 m/s impact. The program involved flyer-plate-impact tests using thin shells of annealed 304 stainless steel and annealed tantalum at impact velocities of 28 to 180 m/s. No active instrumentation was used in this study; instead, all data were derived from measurements of test specimens. Pre- and post-test measurement of interior and exterior dot patterns etched on the shells provided surface-strain information. Radiographs of the deformed shells provided shell-contour data that we plotted vs impact velocity. Curves were fit to these data. We found that normalized crush height varies almost linearly with impact velocity for both materials, that normalized radius of contact varies directly with impact velocity for both materials but appears independent of shell thickness for tantalum, and that normalized interior-fold radius varies inversely with impact velocity and directly with shell thickness for stainless steel, but no clear relationship appears for tantalum.

This report briefly describes the Guidance; provides opposing views on the Guidance, including past congressional legislation; summarizes a study on potential corporate costs and benefits of implementing the Guidance; and examines the impact of the Guidance from the perspectives of investors, corporations, and finance professionals.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) performs critical functions that contribute to ensuring safe, orderly, and efficient air travel in the national airspace system. To that end, it operates and relies extensively on an array of interconnected automated information systems and networks that comprise the nation's air traffic control systems. These systems provide information to air traffic controllers and aircraft flight crews to help ensure the safe and expeditious movement of aircraft. Interruptions of service by these systems could have a significant adverse impact on air traffic nationwide. Effective information security controls are essential for ensuring that the nation's air traffic control systems are adequately protected from inadvertent or deliberate misuse, disruption, or destruction. Accordingly, GAO was asked to evaluate the extent to which FAA has implemented information security controls for these systems."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "NASA's Constellation program is developing the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle and the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle as the agency's first major efforts in a plan to return to the moon and eventually send humans to Mars. GAO has issued a number of reports and testimonies on various aspects of this program, and made several recommendations. GAO was asked to assess NASA's progress in implementing GAO's recommendations for the Ares I and Orion projects, and identify risks the program faces. GAO analyzed NASA plans and schedules, risk mitigation information, and contract performance data relative to knowledge-based acquisition practices identified in prior GAO reports, and interviewed government officials and contractors."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) Diversion Control Program is responsible for enforcing the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and ensuring the availability of prescription drugs such as pain relievers and stimulants while preventing their diversion for abuse. The CSA requires entities handling controlled substances--such as manufacturers, pharmacies, and physicians, among others-- to register with DEA, which conducts regulatory investigations of registrants, as well as criminal investigations. GAO was asked (1) how DEA manages diversion investigation efforts, and (2) how DEA ensures policies and procedures are followed for investigations and the extent to which it determines the results of its efforts. GAO reviewed DEA policies and procedures, and interviewed DEA, state, and local officials at eleven locations which were selected on the basis of volume of cases handled, geographic diversity, and other considerations. These observations are not generalizable, but provided insights on DEA operations."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since its creation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has operated passenger aircraft services. These operations have been questioned in several prior audit reports. GAO was asked to perform a series of audits of NASA's controls to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse of taxpayer dollars. In this audit, GAO assessed (1) the relative cost of NASA passenger aircraft services in comparison with commercial costs, (2) whether NASA aircraft services were retained and operated in accordance with governmentwide guidance, and (3) the effectiveness of NASA's oversight and management of this program."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2005, Americans will pay about $2.1 trillion in combined federal taxes, including income, payroll, and excise taxes, or about 16.8 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, the amount of taxes paid does not reflect the total cost to taxpayers of the federal tax system. In addition to taxes paid, taxpayers also bear compliance costs and efficiency costs. Understanding the magnitude of these additional costs is important because every dollar spent on compliance and lost due to inefficiency represents a dollar that society could have spent for other purposes. In response to a congressional request for information on the magnitude of the compliance and efficiency costs of the current federal tax system, this study describes the nature of these costs, presents the difficulties associated with estimating them, and summarizes existing estimates of their magnitude. GAO did not make independent estimates of compliance or efficiency costs nor did we replicate any of the studies. GAO is not making any recommendations in this report."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) is implementing a new approach to overseeing the safety of a 2.2-million-mile network of pipelines in the United States that transports potentially dangerous materials, including hazardous liquids, such as oil and natural gas. OPS has to complete several important steps to implement its integrity management approach within an ambitious, self-imposed schedule. The agency began applying this new regulatory approach to hazardous liquid pipelines in 2000 by issuing final rules requiring operators of these pipelines to develop integrity management programs. While implementing its integrity management approach, OPS must also perform ongoing oversight duties, such as inspecting the construction of new pipelines and investigating pipeline incidents. In addition to meeting its ambitious schedule, OPS faces a number of other challenges in implementing this new regulatory approach. These challenges include (1) enforcing the integrity management requirements consistently and effectively, (2) ensuring that natural gas transmission pipeline operators use assessment methods appropriately, (3) establishing an inspection interval for natural gas transmission pipelines, (4) measuring and reporting on the effectiveness of the approach, and (5) developing and implementing an approach for overseeing pipeline security. OPS's …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO updated its previous report on the security of the Department of Defense's (DOD) information systems, focusing on DOD's efforts to: (1) address specific weaknesses identified in GAO's 1996 reports; and (2) develop a comprehensive departmentwide information security program."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed certain aspects of the military assistance provided to law enforcement agencies during the Branch Davidians incident, focusing on: (1) whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) requests for support from military counterdrug programs met requirements for authorizing that support; (2) the measures ATF took to deal with any drug activity it might find during its warrant service, and whether those measures were appropriate for such operations where a methamphetamine laboratory might be encountered; and (3) the types, costs, and reimbursements of all military support, including that from counterdrug programs, provided to ATF and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)."

A schematic of a neutral beam injector is shown. Neutral gas is injected into the ion source, where a discharge ionizes the gas. The ions are drawn from the source by an extractor grid and then accelerated to full energy by the accel grids. After acceleration the ions pass through the neutralizer cell. Once through the neutralizer cell, the beam consists of neutrals and ions. The ions traveling with the beam are space charge neutralized by background electrons. The grid which precedes the direct converter is negatively charged and acts to separate the electrons from the rest of the beam. As a result of the beam's uncompensated space charge the remaining ions spread out from the beam to be collected at the direct converter. This paper presents a generalized analysis which will be useful in determining effects of energy and particle fluxes on the long-term performance of the grids. (MOW)

Determining the age of groundwater from monitoring wells can greatly aid in understanding a hydrologic system. Groundwater dating techniques have been used to estimate residence times ranging from about 1000 to 50,000 years. While such measurements have been very useful in hydrothermal and geochemical studies and in the development of groundwater supplies, they have been of limited use in contaminant studies associated with shallow groundwater systems since residence times are often much less than 1000 years.

This report provides background information regarding U.S. policy on "One China". The second part of this report discusses the highlights of key statements by Washington, Beijing, and Taipei.

The DOE-EM Office of Engineering and Technology is responsible for implementing EM's international cooperative program. The Office of Engineering and Technology's international efforts are aimed at supporting EM's mission of risk reduction and accelerated cleanup of the environmental legacy of the nation's nuclear weapons program and government-sponsored nuclear energy research. To do this, EM pursues collaborations with government organizations, educational institutions, and private industry to identify and develop technologies that can address the site cleanup needs of DOE. The Office of Engineering and Technology has developed a Technology Roadmap and a Multi-year Program Plan to identify technology needs and identify areas for focused research and development to support DOE-EM's environmental cleanup and waste management objectives. The international cooperative program is an important element of the technology development roadmap, leveraging of world-wide expertise in the advancement and deployment of remediation and treatment technologies. Introductory briefings aimed at furthering familiarity with the DOE-EM mission, and the vital role that technology development plays within it, were presented at two international meetings. The Office of Engineering and Technology currently works with the Khlopin Radium Institute (KRI) and SIA Radon Institute in Russia, the International Radioecology Laboratory (IRL) in Ukraine and the Nuclear Engineering and …

This cleanup verification package documents completion of remedial action for the 300-18 waste site. This site was identified as containing radiologically contaminated soil, metal shavings, nuts, bolts, and concrete.

A simplified mechanical model is used to simulate the deformation of a scoria cone due to pressurization of magma in a feeder conduit. The scoria cone is modeled as consisting of a cone of stabilized scoria with an axial region of loose scoria (height h{sub 1}), all overlying a vertically oriented cylindrical conduit intruded into rhyolite tuff country rock. For our analyses, the conduit is filled with basalt magma, usually with the upper length (h{sub 2}) solidified. The style of deformation of the cone depends on both h{sub 1} and h{sub 2}. If magma is prevented from hydrofracturing out of the conduit (as, for example, might be the case if the magma is surrounded by a solidified, but plastically deformable layer acting as a gasket backed up by the brittle country rock) pressures in the magma can build to 10s of MPa. When h{sub 1} is 100 m, not unusual for a small isolated basaltic cinder cone, the magma pressure needed to destabilize the cone when molten magma extends all the way to the original ground surface (h{sub 2} = 0) is only about one-third of the pressure when the upper part of the conduit is solidified (h{sub 2} = …

A probabilistic analysis was conducted to estimate ranges for the numbers of waste packages that could be damaged in a potential future igneous event through a repository at Yucca Mountain. The analyses include disruption from an intrusive igneous event and from an extrusive volcanic event. This analysis supports the evaluation of the potential consequences of future igneous activity as part of the total system performance assessment for the license application for the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP). The first scenario, igneous intrusion, investigated the case where one or more igneous dikes intersect the repository. A swarm of dikes was characterized by distributions of length, width, azimuth, and number of dikes and the spacings between them. Through the use in part of a latin hypercube simulator and a modified video game engine, mathematical relationships were built between those parameters and the number of waste packages hit. Corresponding cumulative distribution function curves (CDFs) for the number of waste packages hit under several different scenarios were calculated. Variations in dike thickness ranges, as well as in repository magma bulkhead positions were examined through sensitivity studies. It was assumed that all waste packages in an emplacement drift would be impacted if that drift were intersected …

Eruptive conduit geometry has direct relation to number of waste packages that would be damaged if a new volcano were to form at the proposed Yucca Mountain radioactive waste repository, and therefore is a key factor in predicting the consequences of such an eruption. Current risk calculations treat conduits as having circular plan view and range from a few meters to 150 m diameter at repository depths ({approx}300 m). We present new observations of shallow basaltic plumbing at analog sites aimed at testing these parameter values. East Grants Ridge. NM, is a remnant of a {approx}2.6 Ma alkali basaltic volcano with a chain of 2-3 vents that fed {approx}10-km long lava flows. The south side of the ridge exposes a plug of vertically jointed, dense basalt that intruded rhyolitic tuffs. The plug is exposed vertically for {approx}125 m, including 40 m beneath the paleosurface, and has a relatively constant width of {approx}135 m with no indication of downward narrowing. The size of the plug in the third dimension is not well known but could extend laterally up to {approx}1.5 km beneath the chain of vents. Paiute Ridge, NV, is an 8.6 Ma alkali basalt intrusion into Paleozoic carbonate and shale …

Formation of desert pavement and accretionary soils are intimately linked in arid environments such as the Mojave Desert. Well-sorted fallout scoria lapilli at Lathrop Wells (75-80 ky) and Red Cone ({approx}1 Ma) volcanoes (southern Nevada) formed an excellent starting material for pavement, allowing infiltration of eolian silt and fine sand that first clogs the pore space of underlying tephra and then aggrades and develops vesicular A (Av) horizons. Variations in original pyroclast sizes provide insight into minimum and maximum clast sizes that promote pavement and soil formation: pavement becomes ineffective when clasts can saltate under the strongest winds, while clasts larger than coarse lapilli are unable to form an interlocking pavement that promotes silt accumulation (necessary for Av development). Contrary to predictions that all pavements above altitudes of {approx}400 m would have been ''reset'' in their development after late Pleistocene vegetation advances (about 15 ka), the soils and pavements show clear differences in maturity between the two volcanoes. This indicates that either the pavements/soils develop slowly over many 10,000's of years and then are very stable, or that, if they are disrupted by vegetation advances, subsequent pavements are reestablished with successively more mature characteristics.

The method selected for dealing with spent nuclear fuel in the US is to seal the fuel in waste packages and then to place them in an underground repository at the Yucca Mountain Site in Nevada. This article describes the Waste Package Closure System (WPCS) currently being designed for sealing the waste packages.

This cleanup verification package documents completion of interim remedial action for the 600-47 waste site. This site consisted of several areas of surface debris and contamination near the banks of the Columbia River across from Johnson Island. Contaminated material identified in field surveys included four areas of soil, wood, nuts, bolts, and other metal debris.

The purpose of this report is to evaluate the potential for penetration of the Alloy 22 (UNS N06022) waste package outer barrier by localized corrosion due to the deliquescence of soluble constituents in dust present on waste package surfaces. The results support a recommendation to exclude deliquescence-induced localized corrosion (pitting or crevice corrosion) of the outer barrier from the total system performance assessment for the license application (TSPA-LA). Preparation of this report, and supporting laboratory studies and calculations, were performed as part of the planned effort in Work Package AEBM21, as implemented in ''Technical Work Plan for: Screening Evaluation for Dust Deliquescence and Localized Corrosion'' (BSC 2004 [DIRS 172804]), by Bechtel SAIC Company, LLC, and staff from three national laboratories: Sandia National Laboratories, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). The analysis and conclusions presented in this report are quality affecting, as determined in the controlling technical work plan. A summary of background information, based on work that was not performed under a quality assurance program, is provided as Appendix E. In this instance, the use of unqualified information is provided for transparency and corroboration only, and is clearly separated from uses of qualified information. Thus, …

The goal of this work was to develop a composite proton exchange membrane utilizing 1) readily available, low cost materials 2) readily modified and 3) easily processed to meet the chemical, mechanical and electrical requirements of high temperature PEM fuel cells. One of the primary goals was to produce a conducting polymer that met the criteria for strength, binding capability for additives, chemical stability, dimensional stability and good conductivity. In addition compatible, specialty nanoparticles were synthesized to provide water management and enhanced conductivity. The combination of these components in a multilayered, composite PEM has demonstrated improved conductivity at high temperatures and low humidity over commercially available polymers. The research reported in this final document has greatly increased the knowledge base related to post sulfonation of chemically and mechanically stable engineered polymers (Radel). Both electrical and strength factors for the degree of post sulfonation far exceed previous data, indicating the potential use of these materials in suitable proton exchange membrane architectures for the development of fuel cells. In addition compatible, hydrophilic, conductive nano-structures have been synthesized and incorporated into unique proton exchange membrane architectures. The use of post sulfonation for the engineered polymer and nano-particle provide cost effective techniques to produce …