In the operation of 6-in.-dia. foam-liquid columns, increase in either the liquid flow or foam flow caused increased channeling with increased HTU. Flooding values for the Immi mixer-settler were obtalned using the amine extraction final cycle Pu flowsheet. Two tests of the addltlon of uranyl nitrate to a thoria sol were made, one of which gave a good product and the other a product which disintegrated during calcination. Material balances for 22 waste calcination runs are summarized. (auth)

A transistorized instrument prototype was designed and constructed to replace a vacuum-tube instrument in an alpha gauge, which measures the thickness density of gases. The instrument amplifies, shapes, discriminates, and counts alpha pulses from a Au-Si surface-barrier detector exposed to an alpha source in a gas-filled chamber. The circuit consists of a charge-sensitive preamplifier, a main amplifier with pulse clipping, a Schmitt trigger, a diode pump, and a count rate meter. Preliminary tests gave results comparable to the vacuum-tube instrument. Accuracy of counting was within 10% for 0.5- to 10-Mev alpha particles emitted at a maximum rate of 10/sup 6 per sec. The instrument was stable at 25 to 55 deg C, is small and portable, and costs less than 0. An infinitely thick, alpha source that will give a high count rate is being constructed for final tests. (auth)

Containment of the ORR is attained by means of a ventilation system which is capable of exhausting air from the building at a rate sufficient to ensure that all leakage of air at ground level is into the building. The exhaust air is treated by scrubbing and filtration and is discharged from a large stack at a height and velocity sufficient to guarantee that meteorological dispersion will reduce the resulting concentration of radioactive material to an acceptable level. Factors involved in selection of this type of controlled containment are discussed. Original design and modifications are described. Performance is also discussed. (M.C.G.)

The over-all design and operation of ORR is reviewed in the light of four years of operating experience. Items discussed consist of the reactor components and instrumentation, reactor and pool cooling systems (including system cleanup), the emergency systems for electric power and reactor cooling, the waste-disposal systems (liquid, gaseous, and solid), and the building, itself. The ORR was the first of a class of reactors which combined the features of both the pool-reactor and tank-reactor types. Four years of operation indicated areas where problems of various degrees have developed. These problems are discussed. (auth)

This report examines the distribution of seats based on the most recent estimates of the population of the states (as of July 1, 2012). It explores the question of, what, if any, would be the impact on the distribution of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives if the apportionment were conducted today, using the most recent official U.S. Census population figures available.

This report presents the results of a flight investigation to determine the effect on the performance of a turbosupercharged engine of an exhaust-gas-to-air heat exchanger installed between the engine-exhaust collector ring and the turbosupercharger. The background, results, and discussion of the investigation are described.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Navy is investing over $3 billion to develop technologies for a new type of aircraft carrier--the Ford class--and it expects to spend almost $11 billion to design and construct the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78)--the lead ship of the class. New technologies are to improve the carrier's performance and reduce crew size. The Navy requested authorization of CVN 78 in its fiscal year 2008 budget. GAO was asked to assess the Navy's ability to meet its goals for developing the new carrier. Specifically, this report assesses (1) the extent to which technology development could affect the capability and construction of CVN 78, (2) the status of efforts to achieve design stability, and (3) the challenges to building CVN 78 within budget. To accomplish this, our work includes analysis of test reports, development schedules, and ship progress reviews; interviews with Navy and other officials; and examinations of cost estimates and our own past work."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the U.S. Special Operations Command's (USSCOM) acquisition strategy for aircraft electronic warfare systems, focusing on the soundness of USSCOM's electronic warfare acquisition strategy in terms of correcting deficiencies and maximizing commonality in its aircraft survivability equipment."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The mission of the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) Nonproliferation and Verification Research and Development (R&D) Program is to conduct needs-driven research, development, testing, and evaluation of new technologies that are intended to strengthen the United States' ability to prevent and respond to nuclear, chemical, and biological attacks. In fiscal years 1998 through 2002, the Nonproliferation and Verification R&D program received an average of $218 million per year--a total of $1.2 billion. Nearly 75 percent of that total was distributed for R&D at three NNSA national laboratories. Two of the three research areas of the Nonproliferation and Verification R&D Program lack a formal process to identify users' needs, and the tools used to monitor project progress are inadequate. In terms of users, NNSA's role is to develop technologies for, and transfer them to, users in the federal government, the intelligence community, law enforcement, and others. The program requires that projects' life-cycle plans and quarterly reports contain detailed information on project time frames, milestones, users of technologies, and deliverables. Officials from federal, state, and local agencies that use the technology developed by NNSA's R&D program have found …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 1998, the Health Care Financing Administration implemented a prospective payment system (PPS) for skilled nursing facility (SNF) services provided to Medicare beneficiaries. PPS is intended to control the growth in Medicare spending for skilled nursing and rehabilitative services that SNFs provide. Two years after the implementation of PPS, the mix of patients across the categories of payment groups has shifted, as determined by the patients' initial minimum data set assessments. Although the overall share of patients classified into rehabilitation payment group categories based on their initial assessments remained about the same, more patients were classified into the high and medium rehabilitation payment group categories, and fewer were initially classified into the most intensive (highest paying) and least intensive (lowest paying) rehabilitation payment group categories. Two years after PPS was implemented the majority of patients in rehabilitation payment groups received less therapy than was provided in 1999. This was true even for patients within the same rehabilitation payment group categories. Across all rehabilitation payment group categories, fewer patients received the highest amounts of therapy associated with each payment group."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed Medicare Choice program payment issues, focusing on: (1) whether program spending for Medicare Choice plan enrollees has exceeded what Medicare-covered care for these beneficiaries would have cost in the fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare program; and (2) the extent to which payments to individual plans differ from expected FFS costs."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Households without employer-sponsored defined contribution (DC) pension plans or individual retirement accounts (IRA) had lower incomes and tax rates than households with those plans, and are also likely to have limited additional resources to draw upon in retirement, according to GAO estimates. The median adjusted gross income for households without DC plans or IRAs was $32,000, compared to $75,000 for those that did have them. The median marginal tax rate for households without DC plans or IRAs was 15 percent, compared to 25 percent for households with those savings vehicles. A defined benefit (DB) pension plan could provide a monthly benefit during retirement years for those without a DC plan or IRA; however, in 2010 only 15 percent of married households and 11 percent of single households without a DC plan or IRA had a DB plan."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The importance and widespread use of federal information makes its accuracy imperative. The Information Quality Act (IQA) required that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issue guidelines to ensure the quality of information disseminated by federal agencies by fiscal year 2003. GAO was asked to (1) assess OMB's role in helping agencies implement IQA; (2) identify the number, type, and source of IQA correction requests agencies received; and (3) examine if IQA has adversely affected agencies' overall operations and, in particular, rulemaking processes. In response, GAO interviewed OMB and agency officials and reviewed agency IQA guidelines, related documents, and Web sites."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federal efforts to support entrepreneurs are fragmented--including among 52 programs at the Department of Agriculture (USDA), Commerce, and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Small Business Administration (SBA). All overlap with at least one other program in terms of the type of assistance they are authorized to offer, such as financial (grants and loans) and technical (training and counseling), and the type of entrepreneur they are authorized to serve. Some entrepreneurs struggle to navigate the fragmented programs that provide technical assistance. For example, some entrepreneurs and technical assistance providers GAO spoke with said the system can be confusing and that some entrepreneurs do not know where to go for assistance. Collaboration could reduce some negative effects of overlap and fragmentation, but field staff GAO spoke with did not consistently collaborate to provide training and counseling services to entrepreneurs. The agencies have taken initial steps to improve how they collaborate by entering into formal agreements, but they have not pursued a number of other good collaborative practices GAO has previously identified. For example, USDA and SBA entered into a formal agreement in 2010 to coordinate their …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Civil tax penalties are an important tool to encourage taxpayer compliance with the tax laws. A number of civil tax penalties have fixed dollar amounts--a specific dollar amount, a minimum or maximum amount--that are not indexed for inflation. Because of Congress's concerns that civil penalties are not effectively achieving their purposes, we agreed to (1) determine the potential effect of adjusting civil tax penalties for inflation on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) assessment and collection amounts and (2) describe the likely administrative impact of regularly adjusting civil tax penalties on IRS and tax practitioners. GAO examined IRS data on civil tax penalties and conducted interviews with IRS employees and tax practitioners."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Bureau of Land Management (BLM) data indicate that BLM received about half as many applications for permit to drill (APD) for federal oil and gas resources in fiscal year 2012 as it had in fiscal year 2007. The decline in APDs since 2007 was driven by declines in natural gas and coalbed methane APDs on federal lands even while oil development on federal lands increased significantly. The reasons BLM officials and industry representatives cited for these changes in APDs include, among other things, a general industry move toward developing gas in shale formations using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing; shale development has largely occurred on state and private lands, where shale resources are predominately located. However, the number of APDs has varied by BLM location, with 23 of 33 BLM offices seeing declines, 9 offices seeing increases, and 1 office seeing no change in APDs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Several federal programs have been developed to provide homeownership opportunities for Native Americans because private institutions have rarely supplied conventional home loans to Native Americans on trust lands. In 1992, Congress directed the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to create the Native American Veterans Direct Home Loan Program to assist veterans in purchasing, constructing and improving homes. The Native American Veterans Direct Home Loan Program has been characterized by differences in the numbers served, with native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders together receiving almost five times as many as loans as Native Americans. Several factors that apply to Native Americans, but not to native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, may explain this difference. Long-standing barriers to lending on Native American trust lands include insufficient income and credit history, a lack of meaningful interest in land among many Native Americans, and insufficient infrastructure on trust lands. Other factors that VA can address include program limits that may be lower than housing costs for some trust lands and potential applicants' inexperience with the mortgage lending process. VA has conducted outreach but has taken limited steps to meet the assessment and …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) estimates that cleaning up contamination and hazards at thousands of properties that it formerly owned or controlled will take more than 70 years and cost as much as $20 billion. These formerly used defense sites (FUDS), which can range in size from less than an acre to many thousands of acres, are now used for parks, farms, schools, and homes. Hazards at these properties include unsafe buildings, toxic and radioactive wastes, containerized hazardous wastes, and ordnance and explosive wastes. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for identifying, investigating, and cleaning up hazards resulting from military use. GAO found that the Corps lacks a sound basis for its conclusion that 38 percent of 3,840 FUDS need no further study or cleanup action. The Corps' determinations are questionable because there is no evidence that it reviewed or obtained information that would allow it to identify all the potential hazards at the properties, or that it took sufficient steps to assess the presence of potential hazards. GAO also found that the Corps often did not notify owners of its determinations that the …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has a staff of 6,426 and collected $1.1 billion in patent and trademark fees in fiscal year 2001. As the U.S. economy depends increasingly on new innovations, the need to patent or trademark quickly the intellectual property resulting from such innovations becomes more important. Expressing concerns about USPTO's plans for the future, Congress directed USPTO to develop a 5-year plan. In February 2001, USPTO issued its first 5-year plan, called the USPTO Business Plan. Because the Director of USPTO did not believe that the Business Plan went far enough, in June 2002, USPTO produced another 5-year plan, called the 21st Century Strategic Plan. GAO found that patent activity grew substantially from 1990 through 2001. The numbers of patent applications filed and patents granted nearly doubled; the inventory of patent applications nearly tripled; patent pendency increased from slightly over 18 months to nearly 25 months, and the number of patent examiners increased by about 80 percent. Furthermore, in fiscal year 2001, both fee collections and agency funding requirements exceeded $1 billion for the first time in the agency's history. Although …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO provided information on the Department of Defense's (DOD) efforts to implement the maintenance, repair, and operations prime vendor program, focusing on: (1) how much the program is being used and how selected installations are using the program; and (2) whether DOD has a mechanism for evaluating the program's effectiveness relative to other procurement alternatives and for identifying and addressing implementation obstacles."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the timeliness and accuracy of the Department of Defense's (DOD) health care claims processing procedures."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed travel-related issues at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), focusing on: (1) how VA formulates its travel budget request; (2) whether VA's use of excess travel funds is in accordance with guidance from the Senate Appropriations Committee regarding the reprogramming of funds between programs, activities, or elements; (3) whether VA has adequate internal controls over the authority it grants to certain employees to authorize their own travel and approve their own travel vouchers; and (4) whether it has adequate control over employees who are issued limited open travel authorizations, which allow them to travel without additional authorization."

Normal incident solar energy measurements made at Upton, L.I., New York, are reported and analyzed relative to the total energy received on a horizontal surface. A new method for estimating normal incident solar radiation is developed and used to determine average values for other east coast locations.

The Bottom Collider Detector (BCD) has been proposed as a device to study large numbers of events containing B mesons. To identify secondary vertices in hadronic events it will employ the most ambitious silicon strip tracking detector proposed to-date. This report will discuss results from measurements on a first mechanical/thermal model of the vertex detector support structure. The model that was built and used for the studies described here is made of brass. Brass was used because it is readily available and easily assembled by soft soldering, and, for appropriate thicknesses, it will behave similarly to the beryllium that will be used in the actual detector. The trough was built to full scale with the reinforcement webbing and the cooling channels in place. There were no detector modules in place. We plan, however, to install modules in the trough in the future. The purpose of the model was to address two concerns that have arisen about the proposed structure of the detector. The first is whether or not the trough will be stable enough. The trough must be very light in weight yet have a high degree of rigidity. Because of the 3m length of the detector there is question …