Preventing the acquisition of nuclear weapons is a longstanding goal of U.S. national security policy. Five countries are recognized as having legal status as nuclear weapons states: United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom, and France. All five signed the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), which recognizes only these five that tested nuclear weapons before 1968 as de jure nuclear weapons states. Three more: India, Israel, and Pakistan, have significant nuclear capabilities, but are not members of the NPT. India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons in May 1998.

This report "includes background information (encyclopedias, almanacs, and business, statistical, and biographical directories), current information (books and magazines), sources such as organizations and foundations and sources for government, politics, and legislation. It lists a number of Internet search engines, which can be used at many public libraries." (from Summary)

President Clinton created a number of new national monuments, using authority given the President under the Antiquities Act of 1906. Many of the designations were controversial and renewed discussion of that Act and whether a President can modify or eliminate a Presidentially created national monument. This report examines that question.

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

Weekly newspaper from Albany, Texas that includes local, county, and state news along with extensive advertising.

Weekly newspaper published in Duncanville, Texas that includes local Cedar Hill, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Port Aransas, Texas on Mustang Island that includes local, state and national news along with advertising.

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

Interview with Louis Heimann, Jr., a bus driver from Kerrville, Texas. The interview includes his stories of working for the Kerrville Bus Company for over 40 years.

Interview with Robert Edward Sieker, an Air Corps pilot during World War II and resident of Kerrville for 70 years. The interview includes his life as a pilot as well as the owner of ranches in both South Dakota and Texas.

None

Monthly newsletter discussing news and activities related to the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program, articles about weather and atmospheric phenomena, and other related topics.

None

Computers transfer data in a number of different ways. Whether through a serial port, a parallel port, over a modem, over an ethernet cable, or internally from a hard disk to memory, some data will be lost. To compensate for that loss, numerous error detection and correction algorithms have been developed. One of the most common error correction codes is the Reed-Solomon code, which is a special subset of BCH (Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem) linear cyclic block codes. In the AURA project, an unmanned aircraft sends the data it collects back to earth so it can be analyzed during flight and possible flight modifications made. To counter possible data corruption during transmission, the data is encoded using a multi-block Reed-Solomon implementation with a possibly shortened final block. In order to maximize the amount of data transmitted, it was necessary to reduce the computation time of a Reed-Solomon encoding to three percent of the processor's time. To achieve such a reduction, many code optimization techniques were employed. This paper outlines the steps taken to reduce the processing time of a Reed-Solomon encoding and the insight into modern optimization techniques gained from the experience.

None

Fast Z-pinch technology developed on the Z machine at Sandia National Laboratories can produce up to 230 TW of thermal x-ray power for applications in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and weapons physics experiments. During implosion, these Z-pinches develop Rayleigh-Taylor (R-T) instabilities which are very difficult to diagnose and which functionally diminish the overall pinch quality. The Power-Space-Time (PST) instrument is a newly configured diagnostic for measuring the pinch power as a function of both space and time in a Z-pinch. Placing the diagnostic at 90 degrees from the Z-pinch axis, the PST provides a new capability in collecting experimental data on R-T characteristics for making meaningful comparisons to magneto-hydrodynamic computer models. This paper is a summary of the PST diagnostic design. By slit-imaging the Z-pinch x-ray emissions onto a linear scintillator/fiber-optic array coupled to a streak camera system, the PST can achieve {approximately}100 {micro}m spatial resolution and {approximately}1.3 ns time resolution. Calculations indicate that a 20 {micro}m thick scintillating detection element filtered by 1,000 {angstrom} of Al is theoretically linear in response to Plankian x-ray distributions corresponding to plasma temperatures from 40 eV to 150 eV, By calibrating this detection element to x-ray energies up to 5,000 eV, the PST …

None

None

None

None

None

None

The Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) remediation requires that almost 40 kg of uranium hexafluoride (UF{sub 6}) be converted to uranium oxide (U{sub 3}O{sub 8}). In the process of this conversion, six moles of hydrofluoric acid (HF) are produced for each mole of UF{sub 6} converted. The entire conversion process can be summarized by the following reaction: UF{sub 6} + 3H{sub 2}O {yields} UO{sub 3} + 6HF. (The UO{sub 3} is not stable at high temperatures and therefore decomposes to U{sub 3}O{sub 8}). HF is well known for its ability to attack most metals and silica-containing compounds. It reacts rapidly to destroy protective films and can be fatal in very small quantities (e.g., 2% exposure of the body or 50 ppm in air). Because most of the conversion system is made of various metals, the sections that come in contact with HF must be able to withstand corrosion, high temperatures, elevated pressures, and radiation. Consequently, most of these sections will be plated with gold for increased protection of the metal. This report summarizes the results from the tests that were performed on the metal samples. Section 2 covers the approach to the tests, gives a general background of the sample …

None