This report discusses a new law, Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), that the European Union (EU) began to implement On June 1, 2007.

This report discusses the national security problem of China's role in weapons proliferation and issues related to the U.S. policy response, including legislation, since the mid-1990's.

This report mainly focuses on Current Issues and Implications for U.S. Policy of China-U.S. Relations.U.S relations with China remarkably smooth from 2001-2004 have shown signs of becoming somewhat more problematic again since 2005 as some U.S policymakers.

This report examines the major U.S. - China trade issues.

This report discusses China’s Economic Conditions.

This report provides a brief overview of the climate change issue as well as other Clean Air Act issues of interest in the 110th Congress.

This report describes the statutory background of the Title V program and the status of implementation, in terms of federal approval of state and local permitting authorities and permit issuance. It also discusses broad policy issues identified by various stakeholders, including program complexity and costs, and inconsistencies due to a lack of sufficient federal guidance.

This report presents a summary of the law, describing the essence of the statute without discussing its implementation. Other CRS products do discuss implementation, including CRS Report RL33800, Water Quality Issues in the 110th Congress: Oversight and Implementation, and numerous products cited in that report.

Report discussing specifics of the U.S. Clean Water Act. Section 401 of the Clean Water Act requires that an applicant for a federal license or permit provide a certification that any discharges from the facility will comply with the act, including water quality standard requirements. Disputes have arisen over the states' exercise of authority under Section 401. For the most part, the debate over the Section 401 certification issue has been between states and hydropower interests.

This cleanup verification package documents completion of remedial action, sampling activities, and compliance with cleanup criteria for the 118-F-8:4 Fuel Storage Basin West Side Adjacent and Side Slope Soils. The rectangular-shaped concrete basin on the south side of the 105-F Reactor building served as an underwater collection, storage, and transfer facility for irradiated fuel elements discharged from the reactor.

This report discusses legislative and administrative duties related to Clerk of the House.

This report summarizes highlights of new scientific research and assessments released in 2007 related to global warming.

This is a complete (Fiscal Years 2000–2006) collection of the Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL) research and development contributions to the project, “CO2 Separation Using Thermally Optimized Membranes.” The INL scientific contribution to the project has varied due to the fluctuations in funding from year to year. The focus of the project was polybenzimidazole (PBI) membranes and developing PBI compounds (both substitution and blends) that provide good film formation and gas separation membranes. The underlying problem with PBI is its poor solubility in common solvents. Typically, PBI is dissolved in “aggressive” solvents, like N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) and N methylpyrrolidone (NMP). The INL FY-03 research was directed toward making soluble N-substituted PBI polymers, where INL was very successful. Many different types of modified PBI polymers were synthesized; however, film formation proved to be a big problem with both unsubstituted and N-substituted PBIs. Therefore, INL researchers directed their attention to using plasticizers or additives to make the membranes more stable and workable. During the course of these studies, other high-performance polymers (like polyamides and polyimides) were found to be better materials, which could be used either by themselves or blends with PBI. These alternative high-performance polymers provided the best pathway forward for soluble high-temperature …

This is a complete (Fiscal Years 2000–2006) collection of the Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL) research and development contributions to the project, “CO2 Separation Using Thermally Optimized Membranes.” The INL scientific contribution to the project has varied due to the fluctuations in funding from year to year. The focus of the project was polybenzimidazole (PBI) membranes and developing PBI compounds (both substitution and blends) that provide good film formation and gas separation membranes. The underlying problem with PBI is its poor solubility in common solvents. Typically, PBI is dissolved in “aggressive” solvents, like N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) and N methylpyrrolidone (NMP). The INL FY-03 research was directed toward making soluble N-substituted PBI polymers, where INL was very successful. Many different types of modified PBI polymers were synthesized; however, film formation proved to be a big problem with both unsubstituted and N-substituted PBIs. Therefore, INL researchers directed their attention to using plasticizers or additives to make the membranes more stable and workable. During the course of these studies, other high-performance polymers (like polyamides and polyimides) were found to be better materials, which could be used either by themselves or blends with PBI. These alternative high-performance polymers provided the best pathway forward for soluble high-temperature …

This report gives an overview of Safety and Health Conditions in the Coal Mining industry, regulatory regime, and Legislative activity ( MINER act and S-MINER act)

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory researchers are working on the Columbia River Protection Supplemental Technologies Project. This project is a U. S. Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management-funded initiative designed to develop new methods, strategies, and technologies for characterizing, modeling, remediating, and monitoring soils and groundwater contaminated with metals, radionuclides, and chlorinated organics. This Quality Assurance Project Plan provides the quality assurance requirements and processes that will be followed by the Technologies Project staff.

This report is a guide to the regular appropriations bills that Congress consider each year. It lists the key CRS staff relevant to the issues covered and related CRS products.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) is subject to most U.S. laws but, under the terms of its 1976 covenant with the United States, administers its own immigration system. It has applied this flexibility to admit substantial numbers of foreign workers, in addition to admitting tourists and foreign investors. The covenant grants Congress the right to apply federal immigration law to the CNMI. On December 11, 2007, the House of Representatives passed legislation applying U.S. immigration law to the CNMI; as of report issuance, this legislation was pending in the Senate. If passed, it will amend the covenant and will apply federal immigration law to the CNMI 1 year after the legislation's enactment, subject to a transition period that begins 1 year after enactment but may be delayed 180 days. GAO was asked to review key provisions of the pending legislation, current U.S. immigration law, and current CNMI immigration law, particularly regarding (1) foreign workers, (2) tourists, and (3) foreign investors. The Departments of Homeland Security and the Interior generally agreed with the findings in this report, and the Department of Labor provided no …

We perform a comparative study for the harmonic versus arithmetic averaging of the heat conduction coefficient when solving non-linear heat transfer problems. In literature, the harmonic average is the method of choice, because it is widely believed that the harmonic average is more accurate model. However, our analysis reveals that this is not necessarily true. For instance, we show a case in which the harmonic average is less accurate when a coarser mesh is used. More importantly, we demonstrated that if the boundary layers are finely resolved, then the harmonic and arithmetic averaging techniques are identical in the truncation error sense. Our analysis further reveals that the accuracy of these two techniques depends on how the physical problem is modeled.

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The IECC was updated in 2006. As required in the Energy Conservation and Production Act of 1992, Title 3, DOE has a legislative requirement to "determine whether such revision would improve energy efficiency in residential buildings" within 12 months of the latest revision. This requirement is part of a three-year cycle of regular code updates. To meet this requirement, an independent review was completed using personnel experienced in building science but not involved in the code development process.

Well ER-6-2 and its satellite hole, Well ER-6-2 No.1, were drilled for the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office in support of the Nevada Environmental Restoration Project at the Nevada Test Site, Nye County, Nevada. Well ER-6-2 was drilled in two stages in 1993 and 1994; the satellite hole, Well ER-6-2 No.1 was drilled nearby in 1993 but was abandoned. The wells were drilled as part of a hydrogeologic investigation program for the Yucca Flat-Climax Mine Corrective Action Unit Number 97, in the northeastern portion of the Nevada Test Site. The wells are located in Yucca Flat, within Area 6 of the Nevada Test Site. The wells provided information regarding the radiological and hydrogeological environment in a potentially down-gradient position from tests conducted in northern and central Yucca Flat. Construction of Well ER-6-2 began with a 1.2-meter-diameter surface conductor hole, which was drilled and cased off to a depth of 30.8 meters below the surface. A 50.8-centimeter diameter surface hole was then rotary drilled to the depth of 578.5 meters and cased off to the depth of 530.4 meters. The hole diameter was then reduced to 27.0 centimeters, and the borehole was advanced to a …

This report provides a brief history and recent developments regarding the comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty (CTBT). The U.N. General Assembly adopted the CTBT in 1996. The report discusses the national positions on testing and the CTBT, The North Korean nuclear test, stockpile stewardship, and CTBT pros and cons.

This report discusses the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty that would ban all nuclear explosions. The report presents a detailed, comprehensive discussion of the treaty's pros and cons from a U.S. perspective.