This Field Sampling Plan describes the Operable Unit 3-13, Group 3, Other Surface Soils, Phase II remediation field sampling activities to be performed at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center located within the Idaho National Laboratory Site. Sampling activities described in this plan support characterization sampling of new sites, real-time soil spectroscopy during excavation, and confirmation sampling that verifies that the remedial action objectives and remediation goals presented in the Final Record of Decision for Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center, Operable Unit 3-13 have been met.

The U.S. Department of Energy has established long-term stewardship programs to protect human health and the environment at sites where residual contamination remains after site cleanup. At the Idaho National Laboratory Site, Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERLA) long-term stewardship activities performed under the aegis of regulatory agreements, the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order for the Idaho National Laboratory, and state and federal requirements are administered primarily under the direction of the Idaho Cleanup Project. It represents a subset of all on-going environmental activity at the Idaho National Laboratory Site. This plan provides a listing of applicable CERCLA long-term stewardship requirements and their planned and completed implementation goals. It proffers the Long-Term Stewardship Environmental Data Warehouse for Sitewide management of environmental data. This plan will be updated as needed over time, based on input from the U.S. Department of Energy, its cognizant subcontractors, and other local and regional stakeholders.

On November 9, 2002, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality approved the Record of Decision Experimental Breeder Reactor-I/Boiling Water Reactor Experiment Area and Miscellaneous Sites, which requires a Sitewide Institutional Controls Plan for the then Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (now known as the Idaho National Laboratory). This document, first issued in June 2004, fulfilled that requirement. The revision is needed to provide an update as remedial actions are completed and new areas of concern are found. This Sitewide Institutional Controls Plan is based on guidance in the May 3, 1999, EPA Region 10 Final Policy on the Use of Institutional Controls at Federal Facilities; the September 29, 2000, EPA guidance Institutional Controls: A Site Manager's Guide to Identifying, Evaluating, and Selecting Institutional Controls at Superfund and RCRA Corrective Action Cleanups; and the April 9, 2003, DOE Policy 454.1, "Use of Institutional Controls." These policies establish measures that ensure short- and long-term effectiveness of institutional controls that protect human health and the environment at federal facility sites undergoing remedial action pursuant to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and/or corrective action pursuant to …

Water and energy production issues intersect in numerous ways. Water is produced along with oil and gas, water runs off of or accumulates in coal mines, and water is needed to operate steam electric power plants and hydropower generating facilities. However, water and energy are often not in the proper balance. For example, even if water is available in sufficient quantities, it may not have the physical and chemical characteristics suitable for energy or other uses. This report provides preliminary information about an opportunity to reuse an overabundant water source--ground water accumulated in underground coal mines--for cooling and process water in electric generating facilities. The report was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), which has implemented a water/energy research program (Feeley and Ramezan 2003). Among the topics studied under that program is the availability and use of ''non-traditional sources'' of water for use at power plants. This report supports NETL's water/energy research program.

This article reports world averages for measurements on b-hadron properties obtained by the Heavy Flavor Averaging Group (HFAG) using the available results as of at the end of 2005. In the averaging, the input parameters used in the various analyses are adjusted (rescaled) to common values, and all known correlations are taken into account. The averages include lifetimes, neutral meson mixing parameters, parameters of semileptonic decays, branching fractions of B decays to final states with open charm, charmonium and no charm, and measurements related to CP asymmetries.

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The purpose of this project was to demonstrate the energy efficiency and reduced emissions that can be obtained with a dual torch DC plasma transferred arc-melting system. Plasmelt Glass Technologies, LLC was formed to solicit and execute the project, which utilize a full-scale test melter system. The system is similar to the one that was originally constructed by Johns Manville, but Plasmelt has added significant improvements to the torch design and melter system that has extended the original JM short torch lives. The original JM design has been shown to achieve melt rates 5 to 10 times faster than conventional gas or electric melting, with improved energy efficiency and reduced emissions. This project began on 7/28/2003 and ended 7/27/06. A laboratory scale melter was designed, constructed, and operated to conduct multiple experimental melting trials on various glass compositions. Glass quality was assessed. Although the melter design is generic and equally applicable to all sectors within the glass industry, the development of this melter has focused primarily on fiberglass with additional exploratory melting trials of frits, specialty, and minerals-melting applications. Throughput, energy efficiency, and glass quality have been shown to be heavily dependent on the selected glass composition. During this project, …

The measurement of the branching fraction of the flavor changing neutral current B {yields} X{sub s}{gamma} transition can be used to expose physics outside the Standard Model. In order to make a precise measurement of this inclusive branching fraction, it is necessary to be able to effectively separate signal and background in the data. In order to achieve better separation, an algorithm based on Boosted Decision Trees (BDTs) is implemented. Using Monte Carlo simulated events, ''forests'' of trees were trained and tested with different sets of parameters. This parameter space was studied with the goal of maximizing the figure of merit, Q, the measure of separation quality used in this analysis. It is found that the use of 1000 trees, with 100 values tested for each variable at each node, and 50 events required for a node to continue separating give the highest figure of merit, Q = 18.37.

We perform simulations of two types of large-scale Compton imaging detectors. The first type uses silicon and germanium detector crystals, and the second type uses silicon and CdZnTe (CZT) detector crystals. The simulations use realistic detector geometry and parameters. We analyze the performance of each type of detector, and we present results using receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves.

Simulations are performed for seven different geometrical configurations of CdZnTe (CZT) detector arrays for Intelligent Personal Radiation Locator (IPRL) devices. IPRL devices are portable radiation detectors that have gamma-ray imaging capability. The detector performance is analyzed for each type of IPRL configuration, and the intrinsic photopeak efficiency, intrinsic photopeak count rate, detector image resolution, imaging efficiency, and imaging count rate are determined.

Re-entry vehicles on missiles launched at Vandenberg Air Force base in California re-enter at the Western Test Range, the Regan Test Site (RTS) at Kwajalein Atoll. An environmental Assessment (EA) was written at the beginning of the program to assess potential impact of Depleted Uranium (DU) and Beryllium (Be), the major RV materials of interest from a health and environmental perspective. The chemical and structural form of DU and Be in RVs is such that they are insoluble in soil water and sea water. Consequently, residual concentrations of DU and Be observed in soil on the island are not expected to be toxic to plant life because there is essentially no soil to plant uptake. Similarly, due to their insolubility in sea water there is no uptake of either element by marine biota including fish, mollusks, shellfish and sea mammals. No increase in either element has been observed in sea life around Illeginni Island where deposition of DU and Be has occurred. The critical terrestrial exposure pathway for U and Be is inhalation. Concentration of both elements in air over the test period (1989 to 2006) is lower by a factor of 10,000 than the most restrictive U.S. guideline for …

Savannah River National Laboratory's frit development effort for SB4 is being driven by the most current CBU option for this sludge, referred to as Case 15C Blend 1. Candidate frits have been identified for this option via a paper study approach developed by Peeler and Edwards with the intent of down-selecting to a set of key frits whose operating windows (i.e., WL intervals that meet PCCS MAR criteria) are robust to and/or selectively optimal for this sludge option. The primary frits that appear attractive on paper (i.e., down-selected via the paper study) are now being incorporated into this experimental study. The potential for the formation of a nepheline primary crystalline phase is an important factor in frit development for SB4, due to the high Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} content of this sludge. Based upon earlier work by Li et al., glasses that do not satisfy the constraint: (SiO{sub 2}/SiO{sub 2} + Na{sub 2}O + Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}) > 0.62 where the oxides are expressed as mass fractions in the glass, will precipitate nepheline as their primary crystalline phase, hindering the durability of the glass. Based on the most recent compositional projection from the CBU for SB4 (Case 15C Blend 1), 16 …

LLNL received a request from the US ITER organization to perform a scoping study of optical design for visible/IR camera systems for the 6 upper ports of ITER. A contract was put in place and the LLNL account number was opened July 19, 2006. A kickoff meeting was held at LLNL July 26. The principal work under the contract is being performed by Lynn Seppala (optical designer), Kevin Morris (mechanical designer), Max Fenstermacher (visible cameras), Mathias Groth (assisting with visible cameras), and Charles Lasnier (IR cameras and Principal Investigator), all LLNL employees. Kevin Morris has imported ITER CAD files and developed a simplified 3D view of the ITER tokamak with upper ports, which he used to determine the optimum viewing angle from an upper port to see the outer target. He also determined the minimum angular field of view needed to see the largest possible coverage of the outer target. We examined the CEA-Cadarache report on their optical design for ITER visible/IRTV equatorial ports. We found that the resolution was diffraction-limited by the 5-mm aperture through the tile. Lynn Seppala developed a similar front-end design for an upper port but with a larger 6-inch-diameter beam. This allows the beam to …

Most of our work involves photogenerated donor (D+) and acceptor (A-) radical ion pairs and their escape and recombination. The geminate radical ions are produced by inter or intramolecular electron transfer quenching of photoexcited acceptors. We made great progress in understanding the effect of charge separation distance and other factors on free ion formation. For geminate radical ion pairs formed by intermolecular electron transfer quenching, we found that, at least in a medium polarity solvent lilce dichloromethane, free radical ions are mainly formed from solvent separated radical ion pairs (SSRIPs). Contact radical ion pairs (CRIPs) make a very small contribution to free radical ion formation. It is observed that CRIPs and SSRIPs are kinetically distinguishable species. There is a potential barrier between CRIPs and SSRIPs that prevents a fast equilibrium between the two during the recombination of radical ion pairs and free radical ion formation. We confirmed for the first time that, for the recombination of both CRIPs and SSRIPs that are in the Marcus inverted region, rate constants of SSRIPs are larger than those of CRIPs. Our study indicates that initial charge separation distance and the potential barrier between CRIPs and SSRIPs play a more important role than recombination …

High-redshift blazars are promising candidates for detection by the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST). GLAST, expected to be launched in the Fall of 2007, is a high-energy gamma-ray observatory designed for making observations of celestial gamma-ray sources in the energy band extending from 10 MeV to more than 200 GeV. It is estimated that GLAST will find several thousand blazars. The motivations for measuring the gamma-ray emission from distant blazars include the study of the high-energy emission processes occurring in these sources and an indirect measurement of the extragalactic background light. In anticipation of the launch of GLAST we have compiled a catalog of candidate high-redshift blazars. The criteria for sources chosen for the catalog were: high radio emission, high redshift, and a flat radio spectrum. A preliminary list of 307 radio sources brighter than 70mJy with a redshift z {ge} 2.5 was acquired using data from the NASA Extragalactic Database. Flux measurements of each source were obtained at two or more radio frequencies from surveys and catalogs to calculate their radio spectral indices {alpha}. The sources with a flat-radio spectrum ({alpha} {le} 0.5) were selected for the catalog, and the final catalog includes about 200 sources.

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To assist with the development of a space-based Rankine cycle power system using liquid potassium as the working fluid, a study has been conducted on possible scaled experiments with simulant fluids. This report will consider several possible working fluids and describe a scaling methodology to achieve thermal-hydraulic similarity between an actual potassium system and scaled representations of the Rankine cycle boiler or condenser. The most practical scaling approach examined is based on the selection of perfluorohexane (FC-72) as the simulant. Using the scaling methodology, a series of possible solutions have been calculated for the FC-72 boiler and condenser. The possible scaled systems will then be compared and preconceptual specifications and drawings given for the most promising design. The preconceptual design concept will also include integrating the scaled boiler and scaled condenser into a single experimental loop. All the preconceptual system specifications appear practical from a fabrication and experimental standpoint, but further work will be needed to arrive at a final experiment design.

A report discussing environmental issues such as resource scarcity and energy shortages.

This report provides an overview of the law of the sea convention and U.S. policy.

This report briefly discusses how the Congressional Record is created and distributed. The Congressional Record is the most widely recognized published account of the debates and activities in Congress and it often reflects the intent of Congress in enacting legislation.

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This report discusses the Pension Protection Act (PPA) reforms and the funding rules for defined benefit pensions; requires employers to disclose more information about pension funding; restricts benefit payments and accruals in underfunded plans; and clarifies, prospectively, that cash balance pension plans do not violate legal prohibitions on age discrimination in employee benefits.

This report provides a brief overview and summary of the federal laws, ethical rules, and regulations which may be relevant to the activities of those who lobby the United States Congress.

This report summarizes those procedures and lists membership on each party's steering committee.