A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In accordance with 36 U.S.C. 2103, GAO is responsible for conducting audits of the agencywide financial statements of the American Battle Monuments Commission (the Commission). GAO audited the financial statements of the Commission for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2009, and 2008. The audits were done to determine whether, in all material respects, (1) the Commission's financial statements were presented fairly and (2) Commission management maintained effective internal control over financial reporting. GAO also tested Commission management's compliance with selected laws and regulations. Created in 1923, the Commission operates and maintains 24 American military cemeteries on foreign soil; 25 federal memorials, monuments, and markers; and 7 nonfederal memorials. GAO is not making any recommendations in this report, but will be reporting separately on our recommendations for strengthening the Commission's controls. In commenting on a draft of this report, the Commission concurred with its facts and conclusions. Further, the Commission stated it would report the Antideficency Act violation and noted that the appointment of Commissioners to provide governance resides with the President of the United States."

This report discusses the current political state of Iran, focusing particularly on the influence of the Taliban and other militant groups and on the leadership of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. This report also discusses the U.S.-Iran relationship and U.S. efforts under the Obama Administration to provide military, reconstructive, and stabilization aid.

This report discusses the high costs of fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that have rekindled congressional interest in the concept of the sale of a Treasury security to help finance these war costs.

This report summarizes the workforce, prevention, quality, and related provisions in H.R. 3590, as passed by the Senate. It begins with some background on health care delivery reform, followed by an overview of the report’s content and organization

This report provides an overview of the international treaty on plant genetic resources for food and agricultural.

When maintained under hydrate-stable conditions, methane hydrate in laboratory samples is often considered a stable and immobile solid material. Currently, there do not appear to be any studies in which the long-term redistribution of hydrates in sediments has been investigated in the laboratory. These observations are important because if the location of hydrate in a sample were to change over time (e.g. by dissociating at one location and reforming at another), the properties of the sample that depend on hydrate saturation and pore space occupancy would also change. Observations of hydrate redistribution under stable conditions are also important in understanding natural hydrate deposits, as these may also change over time. The processes by which solid hydrate can move include dissociation, hydrate-former and water migration in the gas and liquid phases, and hydrate formation. Chemical potential gradients induced by temperature, pressure, and pore water or host sediment chemistry can drive these processes. A series of tests were performed on a formerly natural methane-hydrate-bearing core sample from the BPX-DOE-USGS Mount Elbert Gas Hydrate Stratigraphic Test Well, in order to observe hydrate formation and morphology within this natural sediment, and changes over time using X-ray computed tomography (CT). Long-term observations (over several weeks) …

Climate change is a long-term process that will trigger a range of multi-dimensional demographic, economic, geopolitical, and national security issues with many unknowns and significant uncertainties. At first glance, climate-change-related national security dimensions seem far removed from today's major national security threats. Yet climate change has already set in motion forces that will require U.S. attention and preparedness. The extent and uncertainty associated with these situations necessitate a move away from conventional security practices, toward a small but flexible portfolio of assets to maintain U.S. interests. Thoughtful action is required now if we are to acquire the capabilities, tools, systems, and institutions needed to meet U.S. national security requirements as they evolve with the emerging stresses and shifts of climate change.

In 2009, the Nonproliferation Graduate Fellowship Program (NGFP) completed its 16th successful year in support of the NNSA’s mission by developing future leaders in nonproliferation and promoting awareness of career opportunities. We provide this annual report to review program activities from June 2008 through May 2009 - the fellowship term for the Class of 2008. Contents include: Welcome Letter Introduction The NGFP Team Program Management Highlights Class of 2008 Incoming Fellows Orientation Travel Career Development Management of the Fellows Performance Highlights Closing Ceremony Encore Performance Where They Are Now Alumnus Career Highlights: Christine Buzzard Class of 2009 Applicant Database Upgrades Fall Recruitment Activities Interviews Hiring and Clearances Introducing the Class of 2009 Class of 2010 Recruitment Strategy On the Horizon Appendix A: Class of 2009 Fellows

Jackson Park Hospital completed the construction of a new Medical Office Building on its campus this spring. The new building construction has adopted the City of Chicago’s recent focus on protecting the environment, and conserving energy and resources, with the introduction of green building codes. Located in a poor, inner city neighborhood on the South side of Chicago, Jackson Park Hospital has chosen green building strategies to help make the area a better place to live and work.

Nano-Corpus Test Report

As described in the Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy’s Nuclear Energy R&D Roadmap, nuclear energy can play a significant role in supplying energy for a growing economy while reducing both our dependence on foreign energy supplies and emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. The industrial and transportation sectors are responsible for more than half of the greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., and imported oil supplies 70% of the energy used in the transportation sector. It is therefore important to examine the various ways nuclear energy can facilitate a transition away from fossil fuels to secure environmentally sustainable production and use of energy in the transportation and manufacturing industry sectors. Imperative 3 of the Nuclear Energy R&D Roadmap, entitled “Enable a Transition Away from Fossil Fuels by Producing Process Heat for use in the Transportation and Industrial Sectors”, addresses this need. This document presents an Implementation Plan for R&D efforts related to this imperative. The expanded use of nuclear energy beyond the electrical grid will contribute significantly to overcoming the three inter-linked energy challenges facing U.S. industry: the rising and volatile prices for premium fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas, dependence on foreign sources for …

This technical memorandum is intended to provide readers with information that may be useful in understanding the purposes, performance, and outcomes of the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Weatherization Assistance Program (Weatherization). Weatherization has been in operation for over thirty years and is the nation's largest single residential energy efficiency program. Its primary purpose, established by law, is 'to increase the energy efficiency of dwellings owned or occupied by low-income persons, reduce their total residential energy expenditures, and improve their health and safety, especially low-income persons who are particularly vulnerable such as the elderly, the handicapped, and children.' The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act PL111-5 (ARRA), passed and signed into law in February 2009, committed $5 Billion over two years to an expanded Weatherization Assistance Program. This has created substantial interest in the program, the population it serves, the energy and cost savings it produces, and its cost-effectiveness. This memorandum is intended to address the need for this kind of information. Statistically valid answers to many of the questions surrounding Weatherization and its performance require comprehensive evaluation of the program. DOE is undertaking precisely this kind of independent evaluation in order to ascertain program effectiveness and to improve its performance. Results …

Thermoelectric power plants use large volumes of water for condenser cooling and other plant operations. Traditionally, this water has been withdrawn from the cleanest water available in streams and rivers. However, as demand for electrical power increases it places increasing demands on freshwater resources resulting in conflicts with other off stream water users. In July 2002, NETL and the Governor of Pennsylvania called for the use of water from abandoned mines to replace our reliance on the diminishing and sometimes over allocated surface water resource. In previous studies the National Mine Land Reclamation Center (NMLRC) at West Virginia University has demonstrated that mine water has the potential to reduce the capital cost of acquiring cooling water while at the same time improving the efficiency of the cooling process due to the constant water temperatures associated with deep mine discharges. The objectives of this project were to develop and demonstrate a user-friendly computer based design aid for assessing the costs, technical and regulatory aspects and potential environmental benefits for using mine water for thermoelectric generation. The framework provides a systematic process for evaluating the hydrologic, chemical, engineering and environmental factors to be considered in using mine water as an alternative to …

An overview of the results of SOFC anode interactions with phosphorus, arsenic, selenium, sulfur, antimony, and hydrogen chloride as single contaminants or in combinations is discussed. Tests were performed using both anode- and electrolyte-supported cells in synthetic and actual coal gas for periods greater than 1000 hours. Post-test analyses were performed to identify reaction products formed and their distribution, and compared to phases expected from thermochemical modeling. The ultimate purpose of this work is to establish maximum permissible concentrations for impurities in coal gas, to aid in the selection of appropriate coal gas clean-up technologies.

This report presents the 2009 groundwater monitoring results collected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Legacy Management (LM) at the Project Shoal Area (PSA) Subsurface Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 447 in Churchill County, Nevada. Responsibility for the environmental site restoration of the PSA was transferred from the DOE Office of Environmental Management to LM on October 1, 2006. The environmental restoration process and corrective action strategy for CAU 447 are conducted in accordance with the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (FFACO 1996, as amended February 2008) entered into by DOE, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the State of Nevada. The corrective action strategy for the site includes monitoring in support of site closure. This report summarizes investigation activities associated with CAU 447 that were conducted at the PSA during fiscal year 2009.

We summarize and combine direct measurements of the width of the W boson in data collected by the Tevatron experiments CDF and D0 at Fermilab. Results from CDF and D0 Run-I (1992-1995) have been combined with the CDF 200 pb{sup -1} results from the first period of Run-II (2001-2004) and the recent 1 fb{sup -1} result in the electron channel from D0 (2002-2006). The results are corrected for any inconsistencies in parton distribution functions and assumptions about electroweak parameters used in the different analyses. The resulting Tevatron average for the width of the W boson is {Lambda}{sub W} = 2,046 {+-} 49 MeV.

The survey includes degrees granted between September 1, 2008 and August 31, 2009, and fall 2009 enrollments. Thirty-two academic programs reported having nuclear engineering programs during 2009, and data was obtained from all thirty-two.

This report describes the development of the necessary and needed wind and solar datasets used in the Western Wind and Solar Integration Study (WWSIS).

This program has involved investigations of the stability of CdTe and copper-indium-gallium-diselenide (CIGS) solar cells under damp heat conditions and effects of barrier coatings.

A computer software package was developed to predict tissue doses to an infant due to intake of radionuclides in breast milk based on bioassay measurements and exposure data for the mother. The package is intended mainly to aid in decisions regarding the safety of breast feeding by a mother who has been acutely exposed to a radionuclide during lactation or pregnancy, but it may be applied to previous intakes during the mother s adult life. The package includes biokinetic and dosimetric information needed to address intake of Co-60, Sr-90, Cs-134, Cs-137, Ir-192, Pu-238, Pu-239, Am-241, or Cf-252 by the mother. It has been designed so that the library of biokinetic and dosimetric files can be expanded to address a more comprehensive set of radionuclides without modifying the basic computational module. The methods and models build on the approach used in Publication 95 of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP 2004), Doses to Infants from Ingestion of Radionuclides in Mothers Milk . The software package allows input of case-specific information or judgments such as chemical form or particle size of an inhaled aerosol. The package is expected to be more suitable than ICRP Publication 95 for dose assessment for real …

The status of groundwater level monitoring at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2009 is provided in this report. This report summarizes groundwater level data for 179 monitoring wells, including 55 regional aquifer wells (including 11 regional/intermediate wells), 26 intermediate wells, 98 alluvial wells, and 12 water supply wells. Pressure transducers were installed in 161 monitoring wells for continuous monitoring of groundwater levels. Time-series hydrographs of groundwater level data are presented along with pertinent construction and location information for each well. The report also summarizes the groundwater temperatures recorded in intermediate and regional aquifer monitoring wells.

As the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Solar Energy Technologies Program prepares to initiate a new cost-shared research and development (R&D) effort on photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing, it is useful to review the experience to date with consortia focused on PV R&D, manufacturing, and testing. Information was gathered for this report by conducting interviews and accessing Web sites of 14 U.S. consortia and four European consortia, each with either a primary focus on or an emerging interest in PV technology R&D, manufacturing, or testing. Additional input was collected from several workshops held by the DOE and National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 2009, which examined the practical steps -- including public-private partnerships and policy support -- necessary to enhance the United States' capacity to competitively manufacture photovoltaics. This report categorizes the 18 consortia into three groups: university-led consortia, industry-led consortia, and manufacturing and testing facilities consortia. The first section summarizes the organizations within the different categories, with a particular focus on the key benefits and challenges for each grouping. The second section provides a more detailed overview of each consortium, including the origins, goals, organization, membership, funding sources, and key contacts. This survey is a useful resource for stakeholders interested in …

This report presents experimental and numerical results from thermal performance studies. The purpose of this Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between UT-Battelle, LLC and John s Manville was to design a basic concept of a new generation of thermally-enhanced fiber glass insulation. Different types of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) have been tested as dynamic components in buildings during the last 4 decades. Most historical studies have found that PCMs enhance building energy performance. Some PCM-enhanced building materials, like PCM-gypsum boards or PCM-impregnated concretes have already found their limited applications in different countries. Today, continued improvements in building envelope technologies suggest that throughout Southern and Central U.S. climates, residences may soon be routinely constructed with PCM in order to maximize insulation effectiveness and maintain low heating and cooling loads. The proposed thermally-enhanced fiber glass insulation will maximize this integration by utilizing a highly-efficient building envelope with high-R thermal insulation, active thermal mass and superior air-tightness. Improved thermal resistance will come from modifications in infrared internal characteristics of the fiber glass insulation. Thermal mass effect can be provided by proprietary thermally-active microencapsulated phase change material (PCM). Work carried out at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) on the CRADA is described …

The purpose of the Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) role in the evaluation of the SAPHIRE 8 Software Acceptance Test Plan is to assess the approach to be taken for intended testing activities. The plan typically identifies the items to be tested, the requirements being tested, the testing to be performed, test schedules, personnel requirements, reporting requirements, evaluation criteria, and any risks requiring contingency planning. The IV&V team began this endeavor after the software engineering and software development of SAPHIRE had already been in production.