A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Defense's use of large orders under multiple-award contracts to acquire information technology products and services, focusing on: (1) whether contractors were provided a fair opportunity to be considered and the extent of competition realized; and (2) how ordering offices met requirements to clearly specify the tasks to be performed or property to be delivered under the orders."

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is developing and implementing a customer satisfaction assessment program (CSAP) to assess the quality of research and development provided by the laboratory. We present the customer survey component of the PNNL CSAP. The customer survey questionnaire is composed of 2 major sections, Strategic Value and Project Performance. The Strategic Value section of the questionnaire consists of 5 questions that can be answered with a 5 point Likert scale response. These questions are designed to determine if a project is directly contributing to critical future national needs. The Project Performance section of the questionnaire consists of 9 questions that can be answered with a 5 point Likert scale response. These questions determine PNNL performance in meeting customer expectations. Many approaches could be used to analyze customer survey data. We present a statistical model that can accurately capture the random behavior of customer survey data. The properties of this statistical model can be used to establish a "gold standard'' or performance expectation for the laboratory, and then assess progress. The gold standard is defined from input from laboratory management --- answers to 4 simple questions, in terms of the information obtained from the CSAP customer survey, …

The D-Zero silicon trough is segmented into two half troughs. Loading to the Central Fiber Tracker Barrel 1 is at both ends and near Z = 0. The loading near Z = 0 is thought to be 4 lbs at 4 points. The point locations are at +/-45 degrees for each half trough on each side of Z = O. An additional support at Z = O is required to prevent beam sag and out of round distortions to the CFT Barrel 1. An additional joining washer will be attached between barrels 1 and 2 at Z = 0. Also a support ring will be attached to the inner diameter of barrel 1 to further help in out of round distortions. Details of the washer and loading are modeled using ANSYS.

The Department of Energy Office of Building Technology, State and Community Programs (BTS) is interested in assessing the potential economic impacts of its portfolio of programs on national employment and income. A special purpose version of the IMPLAN input-output model called ImBuild is used in this study of all 38 BTS programs included in the FY2001 federal budget. Energy savings, investments, and impacts on U.S. national employment and wage income are reported by program for selected years to the year 2030. Energy savings from these programs have the potential of creating a total of nearly 332,000 jobs and about $5.3 billion in wage income (1999$) by the year 2030. Because the required investments to achieve these savings are capital intensive, the net effect after investment is 304,000 jobs and $5.0 billion.

Experimental and theoretical studies have shown that excitonic effects play an important role in the optical properties of conjugated polymers. The optical absorption spectrum of trans-polyacetylene, for example, can be understood as completely dominated by the formation of exciton bound states. We review a recently developed first-principles method for computing the excitonic effects and optical spectrum, with no adjustable parameters. This theory is used to study the absorption spectrum of two conjugated polymers: trans-polyacetylene and poly-phenylene-vinylene(PPV).

By using simple frequency calculations and fault tree logic, an evaluation of the design basis accident frequencies at the Canister Storage Building has been performed. The following are the design basis accidents: Mechanical damage of MCO; Gaseous release from the MCO; MCO internal hydrogen deflagration; MCO external hydrogen deflagration; Thermal runaway reactions inside the MCO; and Violation of design temperature criteria.

Majors advances have been made during the past three years in our research on interwell partitioning tracers tests (PITTs). These advances include (1) progress on the inverse problem of how to estimate the three-dimensional distribution of NAPL in aquifers from the tracer data, (2) the first ever partitioning tracer experiments in dual porosity media, (3) the first modeling of partitioning tracers in dual porosity media (4) experiments with complex NAPLs such as coal tar, (5) the development of an accurate and simple method to predict partition coefficients using the equivalent alkane carbon number approach, (6) partitioning tracer experiments in large model aquifers with permeability layers, (7) the first ever analysis of partitioning tracer data to estimate the change in composition of a NAPL before and after remediation (8) the first ever analysis of partitioning tracer data after a field demonstration of surfactant foam to remediate NAPL and (9) experiments at elevated temperatures .

Student newspaper of the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma that includes national, local, and campus news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Altus, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Alvin, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Chickasha, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Various statutes and regulations authorize the President to restrict or prohibit trade with targeted countries for national security or foreign policy reasons. The exercise of these authorities has resulted in restrictions or prohibitions at times being placed on the export of U.S. agricultural commodities and products. The U.S. government currently restricts exports of agricultural products as part of across-the-board economic sanctions imposed on Cuba and Iraq. Exceptions are made for humanitarian reasons, allowing food to be sold or donated to these two countries.

Congressional interest in the labeling of genetically modified foods (GM foods) has been rising. So far, two bills have been introduced to mandate that all foods from genetically modified crops (GM crops) be labeled as such. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued its current GM food labeling policy in May 1992. At that time, the agency determined that it would regulate GM foods no differently than foods created by conventional means because FDA considered them substantially equivalent to traditional foods and decided that no special label would be needed. In the intervening period, extensive public debate surrounding the genetic modification of foods has led some consumers to call for labeling of such products. A label would permit customers to choose to avoid purchasing or consuming them. Others oppose labeling because to make such labels "truthful and not misleading" all commodities would need to be segregated and tested, and the label would not have room to impart information that could not be distributed in other ways. The federal government's role in regulating these foods is explained in CRS report RL30198, Food Biotechnology in the United States: Science, Regulation, and Issues. This report focuses specifically on views surrounding the labeling of …

Daily newspaper from Sapulpa, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Implementation of the Federal Tier 2 vehicular emission standards according to the schedule presented in the December, 1999 Final Rule will result in substantial reductions of NMHC, CO, NO{sub x}, and fine particle emissions from motor vehicles. Currently, when compared to Tier 1 and even NLEV certification requirements, the emissions performance of automobiles and light-duty trucks powered by non-petroleum (especially, gaseous) fuels (i.e., vehicles collectively termed AFVs) enjoy measurable advantage over their gasoline- and diesel-fueled counterparts over the full Federal Test Procedure and, especially, in Bag 1 (cold start). For the lighter end of these vehicle classes, this advantage may disappear shortly after 2004 under the new standards, but should continue for a longer period (perhaps beyond 2008) for the heavier end as well as for heavy-duty vehicles relative to diesel-fueled counterparts. Because of the continuing commitment of the U.S. Department of Energy's Clean Cities coalitions to the acquisition and operation of AFVs of many types and size classes, it is important for them to know in which classes their acquisitions will remain clear relative to the petroleum-fueled counterparts they might otherwise procure. This paper provides an approximate timeline for and expected magnitude of such savings, assuming that full implementation …

Two-phase flow and transport of reactants and products in the air cathode of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells is studied analytically and numerically. Four regimes of water distribution and transport are classified by defining three threshold current densities and a maximum current density. They correspond to first appearance of liquid water at the membrane/cathode interface, extension of the gas-liquid two-phase zone to the cathode/channel interface, saturated moist air exiting the gas channel, and complete consumption of oxygen by the electrochemical reaction. When the cell operates above the first threshold current density, liquid water appears and a two-phase zone forms within the porous cathode. A two-phase, multi-component mixture model in conjunction with a finite-volume-based computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique is applied to simulate the cathode operation in this regime. The model is able to handle the situation where a single-phase region co-exists with a two-phase zone in the air cathode. For the first time, the polarization curve as well as water and oxygen concentration distributions encompassing both single- and two-phase regimes of the air cathode are presented. Capillary action is found to be the dominant mechanism for water transport inside the two-phase zone. The liquid water saturation within the cathode …

Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) has developed and demonstrated an electrometallurgical process for the Department of Energy (DOE) to treat sodium bonded spent nuclear fuel. One of the key steps in the demonstration was electrorefining the spent fuel in a molten LiCl-KCl-UCl{sub 3}/liquid cadmium system using a pilot scale electrorefiner (Mark-IV ER). This article summarizes experimental observations and engineering aspects for the roles of the liquid cadmium during electrorefining spent fuel in the Mark-IV ER. It was found that the liquid cadmium pool acted as an intermediate electrode during the electrorefining process. The cadmium level was gradually decreased due to its high vapor pressure and vaporization rate at the ER operational temperature. The low cadmium level caused the anode assembly to electrically short with the ER vessel hardware, which resulted in the difficulties to determine the endpoint of uranium dissolution from the anode baskets and reducing the current efficiency. A reflux cadmium vapor trap was installed and has successfully prevented the cadmium level from decreasing.

The Department of Energy Office of Building Technology, State and Community Programs (BTS) is interested in assessing the potential economic impacts of its portfolio of programs on national employment and income. A special purpose version of the IMPLAN input-output model allied In Build is used in this study of all 38 BTS programs included in the FY2001 federal budget. Energy savings, investments, and impacts on U.S. national employment and wage income are reported by program for selected years to the year 2030. Energy savings from these programs have the potential of creating a total of nearly 332,000 jobs and about $5.3 billion in wage income (1995$) by the year 2030. Because the required investments to achieve these savings are capital intensive, the net effect after investment is 304,000 jobs and $5.0 billion.

Criticality safety issues for disposal of the ANL ceramic waste were examined for configurations within the waste package. Co-disposal of ceramic waste and DOE spent fuel is discussed briefly; co-disposal of ANL ceramic and metal wastes is examined in detail. Calculations indicate that no significant potential for criticality exists until essentially all of the important neutron absorbers are flushed from the degraded ceramic waste. Even if all of the neutron absorbers are removed from the ceramic waste rubble, the package remains far subcritical if the blended salts used in ceramic waste production have an initial U-235 enrichment below 40%.

Several recent advances have been achieved for the electrometallurgical treatment of spent nuclear fuel. In anticipation of production operations at Argonne National Laboratory-West, development of both electrorefining and metal processing has been ongoing in the post-demonstration phase in order to further optimize the process. These development activities show considerable promise. This paper discusses the results of recent experiments as well as plans for future investigations.

This paper examines the security and safeguards implications of potential management options for DOE's sodium-bonded blanket fuel from the EBR-II and the Fermi-1 fast reactors. The EBR-II fuel appears to be unsuitable for the packaging alternative because of DOE's current safeguards requirements for plutonium. Emerging DOE requirements, National Academy of Sciences recommendations, draft waste acceptance requirements for Yucca Mountain and IAEA requirements for similar fuel also emphasize the importance of safeguards in spent fuel management. Electrometallurgical treatment would be acceptable for both fuel types. Meeting the known requirements for safeguards and security could potentially add more than $200M in cost to the packaging option for the EBR-II fuel.

A small brochure about solar electricity for the general public to be handed out on Earth Day 2000.

In fulfillment of statutory requirements, this report provides information on energy consumption in Federal buildings and operations and also documents activities conducted by Federal agencies in fulfilling those requirements during Fiscal Year 1998.