A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "More than 5.5 billion pounds of explosives are used each year in the United States by private sector companies and government entities. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has authority to regulate explosives and to license privately owned explosives storage facilities. After the July 2004 theft of several hundred pounds of explosives from a state and local government storage facility, concerns arose about vulnerability to theft. GAO analyzed (1) the extent of explosives thefts from state and local government facilities, (2) ATF's authority to regulate and oversee state and local government explosives storage facilities, (3) the information ATF collects about state and local government storage facilities, and (4) security oversight measures in place at selected state and local government storage facilities."

Executive Correspondence - Letter dtd 09/19/05 from Chairman Principi to Iowa Senator Charles Grassley in reply to his letter of 09/12/05. The Chairman provides answers to the Senator's questions regarding Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois.

BRAC Early Bird 03 October, 2005

The second axis of the Dual Axial radiography Hydrodynamic Test (DARHT-II) facility at LANL is currently in the commissioning phase[1]. The beam parameters for the DARHT-II machine will be nominally 18 MeV, 2 kA and 1.6 {micro}s. This makes the DARHT-II downstream system the first system ever designed to transport a high current, high energy and long pulse beam [2]. We will test these physics issues of the downstream transport system on a scaled DARHT-II accelerator with a 7.8-MeV and 660-A beam at LANL before commissioning the machine at its full energy and current. The scaling laws for various physics concerns and the beam parameters selection is discussed in this paper.

A Joint Interagency Working Group (JIWG) under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security Office of Research and Development conducted a technology assessment of emergency radiological dose assessment capabilities as part of the overall need for rapid emergency medical response in the event of a radiological terrorist event in the United States. The goal of the evaluation is to identify gaps and recommend general research and development needs to better prepare the Country for mitigating the effects of such an event. Given the capabilities and roles for responding to a radiological event extend across many agencies, a consensus of gaps and suggested development plans was a major goal of this evaluation and road-mapping effort. The working group consisted of experts representing the Departments of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services (Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health), Food and Drug Administration, Department of Defense and the Department of Energy's National Laboratories (see appendix A for participants). The specific goals of this Technology Assessment and Roadmap were to: (1) Describe the general context for deployment of emergency radiation dose assessment tools following terrorist use of a radiological or nuclear device; (2) Assess current and emerging dose assessment …

The atomic structure of the characteristic defects (Mg-rich hexagonal pyramids) in p-doped bulk and MOCVD GaN:Mg thin films grown with Ga polarity was determined at atomic resolution by direct reconstruction of the scattered electron wave in a transmission electron microscope. Small cavities were present inside the defects, confirmed also with positron annihilation. The inside walls of the cavities were covered by GaN of reverse polarity compared to the matrix. Defects in bulk GaN:Mg were almost one order of magnitude larger than in thin films. An exchange of Ga and N sublattices within the defect compared to the matrix lead to a 0.6 {+-} 0.2 {angstrom} displacement between the Ga sublattices of these two areas. A [1100]/3 shift with change from AB stacking in the matrix to BC within the entire pyramid was observed. Annealing of the MOCVD layers lead to slight increase of the defect size and an increase of the photoluminescence intensity. Positron annihilation confirms presence of vacancies of different sizes triggered by the Mg doping in as-grown samples and decrease of their concentration upon annealing at 900 and 1000 C.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a provision of a home-rule city charter regulating dual office holding is inconsistent with article XVI, section 40 of the Texas Constitution to the extent the charter provision prohibits a municipal judge from serving as justice of the peace (RQ-0335-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a city that has not established a residence homestead exemption under article VIII, section 1-b of the Texas Constitution is authorized to establish the property tax limitation under article VIII, section 1-b(h) (RQ-0336-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether constables may receive, in addition to their salaries, fees for delivering notices required by Property Code section 24.005 (RQ-0337-GA)

The Savannah River Site (SRS) is a 310-square-mile Department of Energy site located near Aiken, South Carolina. With a workforce of over 10,000 employees and subcontractors, SRS emergency personnel must be able to respond to an emergency event in a timely and effective manner, in order to ensure the safety and security of the Site. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) provides the technology needed to give managers and emergency personnel the information they need to make quick and effective decisions. In the event of a site evacuation, knowing the number of on-site personnel to evacuate from a given area is an essential piece of information for emergency staff. SRS has developed a GIS Dynamic Population Model Tool to quickly communicate real-time information that summarizes employee populations by facility area and building and then generates dynamic maps that illustrate output statistics.

We have identified and developed new classes of quasi-axially symmetric configurations which have attractive properties from the standpoint of both near-term physics experiments and long-term power producing reactors. These new configurations were developed as a result of surveying the aspect ratio-rotational transform space to identify regions endowed with particularly interesting features. These include configurations with very small aspect ratios ({approx}2.5) having superior quasi-symmetry and energetic particle confinement characteristics, and configurations with strongly negative global magnetic shear from externally supplied rotational transforms so that the overall rotational transform, when combined with the transform from bootstrap currents at finite plasma pressures, will yield a small but positive shear, making the avoidance of low order rational surfaces at a given operating beta possible. Additionally, we have found configurations with NCSX-like characteristics but with the biased components in the magnetic spectrum that allow us to improve the confinement of energetic particles. For each new class of configurations, we have designed coils as well to ensure that the new configurations are realizable and engineering-wise feasible. The coil designs typically have coil aspect ratios R/{Delta}{sub min}(C-P) {le} 6 and coil separation ratios R/{Delta}{sub min}(C-C) {le} 10, where R is the plasma major radius, {Delta}{sub min}(C-P) and …

An approximate integral of the Manley-Rowe type is found for a particle moving in a high-frequency field, which may interact resonantly with natural particle oscillations. An effective ponderomotive potential is introduced accordingly and can capture nonadiabatic particle dynamics. We show that nonadiabatic ponderomotive barriers can trap classical particles, produce cooling effect, and generate one-way walls for resonant species. Possible atomic applications are also envisioned.

Over the last decade, most laser-driven collisional excitation x-ray lasers have relied on the absorption of the pump energy incident at normal incidence to a pre-formed plasma. The main advantage is that the inversion can be created at various plasma regions in space and time where the amplification and ray propagation processes are best served. The main disadvantage is that different plasma regions regardless of the contribution to the inversion have to be pumped simultaneously in order to make the laser work. This leads to a loss of efficiency. The new scheme of grazing incidence pumping (GRIP) addresses this issue. In essence, a chosen electron density region of a pre-formed plasma column, produced by a longer pulse at normal incidence onto a slab target, is selectively pumped by focusing a short pulse of 100 fs-10 ps duration laser at a determined grazing incidence angle to the target surface. The exact angle is dependent on the pump wavelength and relates to refraction of the drive beam in the plasma. The controlled use of refraction of the pumping laser in the plasma results in several benefits: The pump laser path length is longer and there is an increase in the laser absorption …

The interaction of edge plasma with material surfaces raises key issues for the viability of the International Thermonuclear Reactor (ITER) and future fusion reactors, including heat-flux limits, net material erosion, and impurity production. After exposure of the graphite divertor plate to the plasma in a fusion device, an amorphous C/H layer forms. This layer contains 20-30 atomic percent D/T bonded to C. Subsequent D/T impingement on this layer produces a variety of hydrocarbons that are sputtered back into the sheath region. We present molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of D/T impacts on amorphous carbon layer as a function of ion energy and orientation, using the AIREBO potential. In particular, energies are varied between 10 and 150 eV to transition from chemical to physical sputtering. These results are used to quantify yield, hydrocarbon composition and eventual plasma contamination.

Progress report covering activities at the DOE-Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, California for the period 2002-2005.

This is the final technical report of the subject grant. It describes the scientific results obtained during the reporting period. These results are focused on the reactions of atomic oxygen with terminal alkenes. We have studied the production of vinoxy in these reactions. We have characterized the energy disposal in the reactions and have elaborated the reaction mechanism.

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This report provides information about The Emergency Alert System (EAS) and All-Hazard Warnings on Emergency Communications.EAS is one of several federally managed warning systems.

This report discusses DNA testing for law enforcement and identifies issues with such testing, such as broadband the database, post-conviction DNA testing, DNA standards in testing and saving DNA samples.

This report documents the work performed during the first phase of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Research Announcement (NRA) Technology Development Program for an Advanced Potassium Rankine Power Conversion System Compatible with Several Space Reactor Designs. The document includes an optimization of both 100-kW{sub e} and 250-kW{sub e} (at the propulsion unit) Rankine cycle power conversion systems. In order to perform the mass optimization of these systems, several parametric evaluations of different design options were investigated. These options included feed and reheat, vapor superheat levels entering the turbine, three different material types, and multiple heat rejection system designs. The overall masses of these Nb-1%Zr systems are approximately 3100 kg and 6300 kg for the 100- kW{sub e} and 250-kW{sub e} systems, respectively, each with two totally redundant power conversion units, including the mass of the single reactor and shield. Initial conceptual designs for each of the components were developed in order to estimate component masses. In addition, an overall system concept was presented that was designed to fit within the launch envelope of a heavy lift vehicle. A technology development plan is presented in the report that describes the major efforts that are required to reach a …

The properties of ultrahigh carbon steels (UHCS) are strongly influenced by aluminum additions. Hardness studies of quenched UHCS-Al alloys reveal that the temperature for the start of transformation increases with increases in aluminum content. It is shown that this change is a function of the atomic percent of solute and of the valence state when comparisons are made with UHCSs containing silicon and tin as solutes. The thermal expansion of UHCSs with dilute aluminum additions shows no discontinuity in the vicinity of the ferrite-austenite transformation temperature. This is the result of a three phase region of ferrite, carbides and austenite. The slope of the expansion curve is higher in the austenite range than in the ferrite range as a result of the dissolution of carbon in austenite with temperature. Processing to achieve a fine grain size in UHCS-Al alloys was principally by hot and warm working (HWW) followed by isothermal warm working (IWW). The high temperature mechanical properties of a UHCS-10Al-1.5C material show nearly Newtonian-viscous behavior at 900 to 1000 C. Tensile elongations of 1200% without failure were achieved in the 1.5%C material. The high oxidation corrosion resistance of the UHCS-10Al materials is described.

A description of the main features of e.m. and hadronic shower simulation models used in the FLUKA code is summarized and some recent applications are discussed. The general status of the FLUKA project is also reported.

Understanding core scale and pore scale migration of CO2 will improve our ability to predict storage capacity and determine the effectiveness of solubility and capillary (residual CO2) trapping. While the theoretical underpinnings of multi-phase flow are well developed for oil and gas production, there are few, if any measurements relevant to CO2 storage in saline formations. To fill this gap, core scale and porescale measurements of CO2 migration in sandstone are being conducted.