The NIGHTMARE program calculates the gamma-dose rate at any point in or near a reactor by means of the NDA buildup-factor method. The source distributton is obtained from a two-group, two-dimensional diffusion code (EQUIPOISE-2). Seven gamma-energy groups are used. As many as nine different concentric cylindrical regions may be considered, but only radial variation of attenuation and buildup properties is permdtted. Two schemes of estimating buildup factors through a succession of materials are built into the code, and results may be obtained by using either or both methods. An IBM 7090 computer wtth seven tape untts is required. Computations are performed at the approximate rate of l0,000/n mesh points per minute, where n is the number of axial, radial, and angular increments. The program is run under the control of the IBM 7090 MONITOR system. (auth)

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This report discusses the following topics: Rayleigh-Benard convection with an imposed horizontal flow; Rayleigh-Benard convection in a gas under non-boussinesq conditions; electro- convection in a nematic liquid crystal; and Rayleigh-Benard convection in a nematic liquid crystal. (LSP)

A fuel jacket failure that occurred in May 1961 in the Type 304 stainless steel clad fuel element exposed in the Vallecitos Boiling Water Reactor superheated steam loop (SADE) was attributed to chloride stress corrosion cracking. In order to better understand the failure, a test program was carried out to try to reproduce the rapid stress corrosion attack in the simulated superheat reactor environment of the CL-1 superheat facility. The methods of corrosion testing under heat transfer conditions reported previously were modified: to apply a longitudinal stress on the test sheaths to produce a 0.1 per cent elongation in 1000 hours; to increase the chloride content of the moisture carryover with the steam by increasing the chloride in the recirculating water to 1.5 ppm; and to expose the solids deposits to various metal temperatures. After 1000 hours of exposure, no significant attack was noted on the test sheaths. The test procedures were further altered to simulate the significant amount of SADE fuel element exposure to saturated steam at varying temperatures with little to no superheat being generated. A 776-hour total exposure was carried out with the test conditions cycled several times. The entrance heater (calculated metal temperature during normal operation …

In SIII-D, good H-mode confinement has been obtained with up to 6 MW of neutral-beam injection (NBI). In this report we summarize the essential features of divertor operation for DIII-D H-mode plasma. Briefly, our measurements show that: Large edge density and temperarture gradients are obtained with scale lengths of a few cm at the midplane; In the steady state, approximately 10-20% of the input power is deposited on the divertor plates in a region that is peaked on the separatrix and extends radially over )approx equal) 2-4 cm at the outboard intercept. More power (2:1) reaches the outboard intercept than the inboard; Low electron temperature (less than or equal to20eV) and high density (n/sub e//sup div/ )approx equal) n/sub e//sup main/ greater than or equal to 3-10 )times)10/sup 19/ m/sup -3/ at the divertor plates indicate that DIII-D obtains a high-recycling divertor during H-mode. DEGAS neutral transport modeling is consistent with these results; The duration of good H-mode confinement is limited by Edge Localized Modes (ELMs) rather than increasing impurity radiation; The dominant impurities, C and Ni are concentrated in the edge plasma (ra greater than or equal to 0.5) for I/sub p/ greater than or equal to 1 MA; …

This report describes the well-established routine that occurs on the opening day of a new Congress.

This report looks at how free trade areas (FTAs) affect U.S. trade policy, specifically tariffs. It looks closely at the Bush Administration's Trade Promotion Policy, and pending FTAs leftover from this administration. Additionally, it looks at the Obama Administration's work in the prospective Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP).

This report offers background information on Ukraine's current political and economic situation, foreign policy towards NATO, the European Union, and Russia. It also discusses U.S. policy, U.S. aid to Ukraine, the congressional response, and other legislation.

This report discusses how drought is defined (e.g., why drought in one region of the country is different from drought in another region) and why drought occurs in the United States. It briefly describes periods of drought in the country's past that equaled or exceeded drought conditions experienced during the 20th century. This is followed by a discussion of the nature and extent of recent droughts that affected Texas and the U.S. midcontinent, and the current drought in California. Lastly, the report discusses future prospects for a climate in the western United States that might be drier than the average 20th-century climate and the possible influence of human-induced climate change.

This report discusses droughts in relation to several issues for Congress, including how to measure and predict drought, how to prepare, and how to coordinate federal agency actions responding to drought.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal year 2006, the Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA) program paid over $1.8 billion in wage loss compensation to federal employees who were unable to work after being injured on the job. Under the Comptroller General's authority to conduct evaluations on his own initiative, GAO examined (1) how effectively the Department of Labor's (Labor) Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP) manages the risk of improper FECA compensation payments; (2) what vulnerabilities to improper payments, if any, exist in OWCP's procedures for making FECA wage loss payments; and (3) how well OWCP ensures the recovery of identified FECA overpayments. To address these issues, GAO reviewed OWCP documents, analyzed data obtained from OWCP, reviewed a random and projectable sample of FECA claims files, visited five OWCP district offices, and interviewed OWCP headquarters and district officials."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Political appointees in the federal government sometimes seek appointments to career positions, which do not end with an administration. Although merit system principles require that selections be determined solely on the basis of merit after fair and open competition, questions have been raised about whether some individuals have received political favoritism or an unfair advantage, even the appearance of which could adversely compromise the integrity of the system. The 45 agencies GAO surveyed reported that 100 employees converted from political appointments and 11 converted from congressional staff positions from October 1998 through April 2001. All the conversions took place at 21 agencies. Ninety-five of the 111 conversions were to positions at the GS-12 level and above. GAO found that the 21 agencies used appropriate appointment authorities, such as civil service certificates from the competitive selection process, and generally followed merit system procedures. In 17 instances, however, the appointments could give the appearance that individuals had received political favoritism or preferences."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Customs Service's management of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), focusing on whether Customs has adequately justified ACE cost-effectiveness."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In August 2000, the Defense Department's (DOD) Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), made 50 recommendations on a test program for a system to defeat long-range ballistic missile threats against the United States. DOD's Missile Defense Agency (MDA) plans to begin fielding the system by September 2004. GAO examined (1) how MDA addressed DOT&E's recommendations and (2) what is known about the effectiveness of the system to be fielded by September 2004. GAO issued a classified report on this subject in June 2003. This unclassified, updated version reflects changes in MDA's test schedule."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has established buildout requirements—which require a licensee to build the necessary infrastructure and put the assigned spectrum to use within a set amount of time—for most wireless services, including cellular and personal communication services. FCC tailors the buildout requirements it sets for a wireless service based on the physical characteristics of the relevant spectrum and comments of stakeholders, among other factors. Therefore, buildout requirements vary across wireless services. For example, a buildout requirement can set the percentage of a license's population or geographic area that must be covered by service or can describe the required level of service in narrative terms rather than numeric benchmarks. Buildout requirements also vary by how much time a licensee has to meet a requirement and whether it has to meet one requirement or multiple requirements in stages."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The federal government must overcome several major challenges before public key infrastructure (PKI) technology can be widely and effectively used. These challenges include providing interoperability among agency PKIs, ensuring that PKI implementations can support a potential large scale of users, reducing the cost of building PKI systems, setting policies to maintain trust levels among agencies, and establishing training programs for users at all levels. Although such challenges are difficult to overcome in the near term, the federal government can take steps to better assist agencies develop and implement PKIs that may eventually be interconnected into a federal governmentwide system. The recent effort to develop a Federal Bridge Certification Authority (FBCA) is an excellent first step in this direction, but this effort lacks the context of a well-defined program plan for the government as well as key policy and technical standards. Establishing a federal PKI management framework could facilitate and accelerate participation in the FBCA as well as overall federal adoption of key technology for enabling electronic government."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Distance education--that is, offering courses by Internet, video, or other forms outside the classroom--has changed considerably in recent years and is a growing force in postsecondary education. More than a decade ago, concerns about fraud and abuse by some correspondence schools led to federal restrictions on, among other things, the percentage of courses a school could provide by distance education and still qualify for federal student aid. Given the recent changes in distance education, GAO was asked to review the extent to which the restrictions affect schools' ability to offer federal student aid and the Department of Education's assessment of the continued appropriateness of the restrictions. Additionally, GAO was asked to look at the extent to which accrediting agencies evaluate distance education programs, including their approach for assessing student outcomes."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "From fiscal years 2007 through 2011, three individuals who served as Attorney General (AG) and the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) accounted for 95 percent (659 out of 697 flights) of all Department of Justice (DOJ) executive nonmission flights using DOJ aircraft at a total cost of $11.4 million. Specifically, the AG and FBI Director collectively took 74 percent (490 out of 659) of all of their flights for business purposes, such as conferences, meetings, and field office visits; 24 percent (158 out of 659) for personal reasons; and 2 percent (11 out of 659) for a combination of business and personal reasons. All AGs and FBI Directors are "required use" travelers who are required by executive branch policy to use government aircraft for all their travel, including travel for personal reasons, because of security and communications needs. However, according to DOJ officials, while the AG has historically been required to use government aircraft for all types of travel, including personal travel, the FBI Director had, until 2011, the discretion to use commercial air service for his personal travel. DOJ officials told us …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Increasingly, the federal government relies on networks and partnerships to achieve its goals, and many of these involve nonprofit organizations. GAO was asked to assess (1) the mechanisms through which federal dollars flow to nonprofits and (2) what is known about federal dollars flowing through them to nonprofit organizations in fiscal year 2006. To address these objectives, GAO conducted a literature review of funding; analyzed data from several sources, including the Federal Procurement Data System--Next Generation (FPDS-NG) and the Federal Awards and Assistance Data System (FAADS); and analyzed nonprofit organizations' roles in 19 federal programs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Army Corps of Engineers' Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP), focusing on the: (1) Corps' cost and schedule estimates for cleaning up the FUSRAP sites; (2) Corps' progress in meeting milestones for site cleanups, FUSRAP staffing levels, and environmental document preparation; and (3) transition of the program from the Department of Energy (DOE) to the Corps."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In its fiscal year 2004 budget request to Congress, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (the Board) proposed the elimination of 17 Central and Eastern European language services managed by the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) in order to free resources for higher-priority initiatives such as the war on terrorism. GAO was asked to examine (1) how the Board determines which language services should be proposed for reduction or termination and (2) the extent to which local media conditions are considered before a termination proposal is made. In addition, GAO's report provides summary analysis and conclusions relating to the media conditions in three countries impacted by the Board's language service termination decisions."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, the government's centralized repository for crime data, provides the only available standardized way to track crime levels in border counties over time. However, UCR data lack information on whether reported offenses are attributable to spillover crime, and have other limitations, such as underreporting to police. Also, UCR data cannot be used to identify links with crimes often associated with spillover from Mexico, such as cartel-related drug trafficking. Cognizant of these limitations, GAO's analysis of data for southwest border counties with sufficiently complete data show that, generally, both violent and property crimes were lower in 2011 than in 2004. For example, the violent crime rate in three states' border counties was lower by at least 26 percent in 2011 than in 2004 and in one other state lower by 8 percent in 2011 than in 2005."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO has conducted a body of work over the past several years to help the nation better prepare for, respond to, and recover from a possible influenza pandemic, which could result from a novel strain of influenza virus for which there is little resistance and which therefore is highly transmissible among humans. GAO's work has pointed out that while the previous administration had taken a number of actions to plan for a pandemic, including developing a national strategy and implementation plan, much more needs to be done. However, national priorities are shifting as a pandemic has yet to occur, and other national issues have become more immediate and pressing. Nevertheless, an influenza pandemic remains a real threat to our nation and the world. For this report, GAO synthesized the results of 11 reports and two testimonies issued over the past 3 years using six key thematic areas: (1) leadership, authority, and coordination; (2) detecting threats and managing risks; (3) planning, training, and exercising; (4) capacity to respond and recover; (5) information sharing and communication; and (6) performance and accountability. GAO also updated the status of recommendations …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 required GAO to study the potential effects of requiring public companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to periodically rotate the public accounting firms that audit their financial statements. On November 21, 2003, GAO issued its report entitled Public Accounting Firms: Required Study on the Potential Effects of Mandatory Audit Firm Rotation (GAO-04-216). This supplemental report contains a copy of each questionnaire used in our study, annotated to show summary responses for each question and selected comments from respondents. GAO is issuing this supplemental report to provide additional detail on the responses to our surveys on the potential effects of mandatory audit firm rotation and to facilitate future research efforts in performing studies related to these matters."