Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Iran's economy and government are reliant on revenues from its oil and gas industry. According to the 2011 Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook, oil accounts for approximately 80 percent of Iran's exports, and, according to the International Monetary Fund, Iran's 2009 oil revenues were about 66 percent of the Government of Iran's revenues. According to the Department of Energy (DOE), Iran ranks among the top three holders of proven oil and natural gas reserves in the world, and is one of the largest exporters of crude oil in the world. While Iran continues to produce significant amounts of crude oil, its peak production occurred in 1978 and has not been matched since then because of a high rate of natural decline in mature oil fields, limited investment, and sanctions. IHS Global Insight found that the oil sector will require approximately $25 billion in annual investments to maintain existing production and considerably more to develop and enhance recovery techniques that would lift Iran's daily output to 5.8 million barrels by 2015. While Department of State (State) officials state that sanctions have an impact on Iran, the Iranian government continues …

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This report provides an overview of the issues and options that have been raised during prior consideration of proposals for an amendment to the constitution regarding the balancing of the U.S. government.

This report discusses how the total debt of the federal government can increase, an historical overview of debt limits, and how the current economic slowdown has led to higher deficits and thereby a series of debt limit increases, as well as legislation related to these increases.

This report presents statistics from a variety of sources on casualties sustained during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), which began on October 7, 2001, and is ongoing. OEF actions take place primarily in Afghanistan; however, OEF casualties also includes American casualties in Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Guantanamo Bay (Cuba), Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, the Philippines, Seychelles, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Yemen.

This report provides an overview of the economic issues surrounding the current debate over China's currency policy. It identifies the economic costs and benefits of China's currency policy for both China and the United States, and possible implications if China were to allow its currency to significantly appreciate or to float freely. It also examines proposed legislation in the 111th Congress that seek to address China's currency policy.

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

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Understanding the prevalence and structure of higher-order modes (HOMs) in accelerator cavities is critical because their excitation can result in problematic single bunch and multi-bunch effects. Particularly hazardous are dipole modes, which are more easily excited due to their linear field nature near the beam center. During a recent superconducting test on the energy recovery linac (ERL) cavity at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), 8 of the highest-Q HOMs were measured for the first time. In conjunction with analysis of CST Microwave Studio simulation results for the ERL model, one of these modes was further studied in the copper prototype ERL cavity. A method of identifying HOMs utilizing existing holes drilled in copper cavity cells was developed and used to conclude that the observed high-Q mode was a quadrupole.

The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) was requested to develop a bench scale test facility, using a mixer, transfer pump, and transfer line to determine the impact of conveying the grout through the transfer lines to the vault on grout properties. Bench scale testing focused on the effect the transfer line has on the rheological property of the grout as it was processed through the transfer line. Rheological and other physical properties of grout samples were obtained prior to and after pumping through a transfer line. The Bench Scale Mixing Rig (BSMR) consisted of two mixing tanks, grout feed tank, transfer pump and transfer hose. The mixing tanks were used to batch the grout which was then transferred into the grout feed tank. The contents of the feed tank were then pumped through the transfer line (hose) using a progressive cavity pump. The grout flow rate and pump discharge pressure were monitored. Four sampling stations were located along the length of the transfer line at the 5, 105 and 205 feet past the transfer pump and at 305 feet, the discharge of the hose. Scaling between the full scale piping at Saltstone to bench scale testing at SRNL was performed …

SRNL was requested to quantify the amount of 'fines passage' through the 0.5 micron membranes currently used for the rotary microfilter (RMF). Testing was also completed to determine if there is any additional benefit to utilizing a 0.1 micron filter to reduce the amount of fines that could pass through the filter. Quantifying of the amount of fines that passed through the two sets of membranes that were tested was accomplished by analyzing the filtrate by Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES) for titanium. Even with preparations to isolate the titanium, all samples returned results of less than the instrument's detection limit of 0.184 mg/L. Test results show that the 0.5 micron filters produced a significantly higher flux while showing a negligible difference in filtrate clarity measured by turbidity. The first targeted deployment of the RMF is with the Small Column Ion Exchange (SCIX) at the Savannah River Site (SRS). SCIX uses crystalline silicotitanate (CST) to sorb cesium to decontaminate a clarified salt solution. The passage of fine particles through the filter membranes in sufficient quantities has the potential to impact the downstream facilities. To determine the amount of fines passage, a contract was established with SpinTek Filtration to …

This report was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) Existing Plants Research Program, which has an energy-water research effort that focuses on water use at power plants. This study complements the Existing Plants Research Program's overall research effort by evaluating water issues that could impact power plants. Obtaining adequate water supplies for cooling and other operations at a reasonable cost is a key factor in siting new and maintaining existing thermoelectric power plant operations. One way to reduce freshwater consumption is to use alternative water sources such as reclaimed (or recycled) water, mine pool water, and other nontraditional sources. The use of these alternative sources can pose institutional challenges that can cause schedule delays, increase costs, or even require plants to abandon their plans to use alternative sources. This report identifies and describes a variety of institutional challenges experienced by power plant owners and operators across the country, and for many of these challenges it identifies potential mitigating approaches. The information comes from publically available sources and from conversations with power plant owners/operators familiar with using alternative sources. Institutional challenges identified in this investigation include, but are not limited to, the following: (1) …

Some energetic materials may explode at fairly low temperatures and the violence from thermal explosion may cause a significant damage. Thus it is important to understand the response of energetic materials to thermal insults for safe handling and storage of energetic materials. The One Dimensional Time to Explosion (ODTX) system at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory can measure times to explosion, lowest explosion temperatures, and determine kinetic parameters of energetic materials. Samples of different configurations can be tested in the system. The ODTX testing can also generate useful data for determining thermal explosion violence of energetic materials. We also performed detonation experiments of LX-10 in aluminum anvils to determine the detonation violence and validated the Zerilli Armstrong aluminum model. Results of the detonation experiments agreed well with the model prediction.

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Approximately 25,000 lbs of lead bricks at Site 300 were assessed by the Site 300 Industrial Hygienis tand Health Physicist for potential contamination of beryllium and radiation for reuse. These lead bricks and shielding had been used as shielding material during explosives tests that included beryllium and depleted uranium. Based on surface swipe sampling that was performed between July 26 and October 11, 2010, specifically for beryllium, the use of a spray encapsulant was found to be an effective means to limit removable surface contamination to levels below the DOE release limit for beryllium, which is 0.2 mcg/100 cm{sup 2}. All the surface swipe sampling data for beryllium and a timeline of when the samples were collected (and a brief description) are presented in this report. On December 15, 2010, the lead bricks and shielding were surveyed with an ion chamber and indicated dose rates less than 0.05 mrem per hour on contact. This represents a dose rate consistent with natural background. An additional suevey was performed on February 8, 2011, using a GM survey instrument to estimate total activity on the lead bricks and shielding, confirming safe levels of radioactivity. The vendor is licensed to possess and work with …

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Radiation monitoring in nuclear facilities is essential to safe operation of the equipment as well as protecting personnel. In specific, typical air monitoring of radioactive gases or particulate involves complex systems of valves, pumps, piping and electronics. The challenge is to measure a representative sample in areas that are radioactively contaminated. Running cables and piping to these locations is very expensive due to the containment requirements. Penetration into and out of an airborne or containment area is complex and costly. The process rooms are built with thick rebar-enforced concrete walls with glove box containment chambers inside. Figure 1 shows high temperature radiation resistance cabling entering the top of a typical glove box. In some case, the entire processing area must be contained in a 'hot cell' where the only access into the chamber is via manipulators. An example is shown in Figure 2. A short range wireless network provides an ideal communication link for transmitting the data from the radiation sensor to a 'clean area', or area absent of any radiation fields or radioactive contamination. Radiation monitoring systems that protect personnel and equipment must meet stringent codes and standards due to the consequences of failure. At first glance a wired …

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