Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This correspondence discusses financial weaknesses reported in the Department of Education's fiscal year 1999 financial statement audit. A major area needing improvement involves internal controls, which provide the framework for the accomplishment of management objectives, accurate financial reporting, and compliance with laws and regulations. This lack of good internal controls puts Education at risk of waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. Corrective actions undertaken by Education in response to the identified weaknesses indicate that it is making progress in working towards financial accountability. These corrective actions include purchasing a new general ledger system, acquiring a software tool to help automate the reconciliation process, improving computer controls, and establishing a process to transfer certain excess Federal Family Education Loan Program funds to the Treasury. The effectiveness of the corrective actions will be determined as part of the fiscal year 2000 financial statement audit."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Some of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) regulations set standards that limit environmental contaminants to levels that are determined, in large part, on the basis of the health risks they pose. When EPA assesses the health risks of contaminants, however, the agency is faced with uncertainties and gaps in scientific knowledge and data. This report summarizes GAO's findings on whether EPA's benefits estimates for major environmental regulations that establish health-based standards reflect precautionary assumptions about health risks. Three key factors influence EPA's use of precautionary assumptions in assessing health risks. First, EPA is influenced by its mission to protect human health and safeguard the natural environment. Second, EPA is influenced by the nature and extent of relevant data. Finally, EPA is influenced by the nature of the health risk being evaluated."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Under U.S. patent law, a patent must describe the subject invention in enough detail for someone skilled in that field to use or make it. In cases involving biological materials, the inventor may have to submit a sample. Some members of the biotechnology industry believe that biological deposits make patent infringement easier, reasoning that a person or organization can obtain a sample of the deposit and then reproduce the invention with minimal effort and expense. GAO found that access to biological deposits once a patent is granted has not increased the risk of patent infringement for the biotechnology industry. These concerns persist especially since the passage of the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999, which publishes the patent application 18 months from the date of filing and is made available to the public at that time rather than at the time the patent is granted."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report discusses the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) efforts to resolve serious internal control weaknesses. During the past several years, serious internal control weaknesses and other deficiencies have plagued HUD's activities. In 1997, HUD announced its 2020 Management Reform Plan to overcome the agency's problems. HUD has made reasonable progress toward resolving material internal control weaknesses, but more remains to be done. Major steps that remain include bringing core financial systems into compliance with federal financial systems requirements, ensuring that rental subsidies are based on correct tenant income, improving the Federal Housing Administration's (FHA) multifamily project monitoring, improving budgetary and financial accounting controls, and enhancing support in the FHA business processes."

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Gathering from 33 countries around the world, 408 registrants and a number of local drop-in participants descended on the Clark Kerr Campus of the University of California, Berkeley, from Monday, August 7 through Saturday, August 12, 2000 for the Eighth International Conference on Electronic Structure and Spectroscopy (ICESS8). At the conference, participants benefited from an extensive scientific program comprising more than 100 oral presentations (plenary lectures and invited and contributed talks) and 330 poster presentations, as well as ample time for socializing and a tour of the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at the nearby Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

This document summarizes the analysis of 3 basic criteria for the sampling systems that will provide waste validation samples of tank waste feeds prior to delivery to the waste treatment and immobilization plant where the wastes will be converted to glass forms. The assessed criteria includes sampling through a 4-inch riser, sampling while a mixer pump is operating, and the deployment of an at-tank analysis system. The assessment, based on the Phase I, 3S6 waste feed scenario, indicated that for high level waste, sampling through a 4-inch riser is not required but sampling while mixer pumps are operating will be required. For low activity waste, sampling through a 4-inch riser will be required but sampling while mixer pumps are operating is not required. The assessment indicated that an at-tank analysis system to provide tank mixing/settling (homogeneity) status is not needed since the number of tanks providing LAW feed was expanded and the payment basis in the original privatization contract has been modified.

The purpose of this document is to list the Interim Stabilization equipment drawings that are classified as Essential or Support drawings. Essential Drawings are those drawings identified by the facility staff as necessary to directly support the safe operation of the facility or equipment. [CHG 2000a]. Support Drawings are those drawings identified by the facility staff that further describe the design details of structures, systems or components shown on essential drawings. [CHG 2000a].

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

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A set of Monte Carlo calculations of the neutron dose rates and neutron spectra outside Blend Down Monitoring System (BDMS) shielding were performed with U.S. and Russian neutron fluence-to-dose conversion coefficients. The purpose of these calculations was to facilitate the proper interpretation of the dose rate measurements from rem meters outside the BDMS shielding. An accurate determination of the dose rate is of particular interest so that dose rate can be compared with the applicable regulatory limit. The calculations show that the neutrons outside the BDMS shielding are significantly reduced in energy, i.e. the spectrum is shifted (moderated) towards the lower energies and contains significantly larger amount of neutrons in the energy range below 100 keV. The result of these calculations indicates that the dose measurement for the BDMS neutrons is overestimated from 25% to 55% depending on the location around BDMS when using either Russian or U.S. dose conversion coefficients. For an accurate neutron dose determination the application of an appropriate correcting factor to the neutron dose measurement is necessary.

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

The Photovoltaic Radiometric Measurements Task has improved broadband and spectral measurement capabilities at NREL. These improved NREL's capabilities affect the Photovoltaic Module and Array Performance and Reliability and Photovoltaic Measurements and Characterization Projects. Recent improvements (during 2000) in broadband radiometer calibrations result in the removal of bias errors on the order of 20 watts per square meter (W/m{sup 2}) in the measurement of global-hemispherical solar radiation. The improvements described are partially due to technical interactions by members of the Measurements and Instrumentation Team with the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Earth Observing System (EOS) Validation Program, World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Baseline Surface Measurement Network (BSRN), and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Solar Radiation Research Branch (SRRB). New equipment has been purchased and techniques have been developed to characterize pulsed solar simulator spectral distributions. New equipment has been purchased and will be installed in the redesigned Solar Radiation Research Laboratory (SRRL) Baseline Measurement System (BMS). Expanded measurement capability, including sky radiance mapping, extensive ultraviolet and infrared radiation measurements, and routine spectral sampling will provide a unique complement of data for investigating PV device, module, and system design and performance, model …

Some of the highlights of the 14th International Symposium on Spin Physics are presented with emphasis on recent and planned progress in experimental tools and tools and facilities.

Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) has been creating a special-purpose software-engineering tool to support research and development of spectrum-output-type [chemical] sensors. The modular software system is called SAGE, the Sensor Algorithm Generation Environment and includes general-purpose signal conditioning algorithms (GP/SAGE) as well as intelligent classifiers, pattern recognizes, response accelerators, and sensitivity analyzers. GP/SAGE is an implementation of an approach for delivering a level of encapsulated intelligence to a wide range of sensors and instruments. It capitalizes on the genene classification and analysis needed to process most profile-type data. The GP/SAGE native data format is a generalized one-dimensional vector, signature, or spectrum. GP/SAGE modules form a computer-aided software engineering (CASE) workbench where users can experiment with various conditioning, filtering, and pattern recognition stages, then automatically generate final algorithm source code for data acquisition and analysis systems. SAGE was designed to free the [chemical] sensor developer from the signal processing allowing them to focus on understanding and improving the basic sensing mechanisms. The SAGE system's strength is its creative application of advanced neural computing techniques to response-vector and response-surface data, affording new insight and perspectives with regard to phenomena being studied for sensor development.

This report summarizes the research performed in the past year in the Argonne Physics Division. The Division's programs include operation of ATLAS as a national heavy-ion user facility, nuclear structure and reaction research with beams of heavy ions, accelerator research and development especially in superconducting radio frequency technology, nuclear theory and medium energy nuclear physics. The Division took significant strides forward in its science and its initiatives for the future in the past year. Major progress was made in developing the concept and the technology for the future advanced facility of beams of short-lived nuclei, the Rare Isotope Accelerator. The scientific program capitalized on important instrumentation initiatives with key advances in nuclear science. In 1999, the nuclear science community adopted the Argonne concept for a multi-beam superconducting linear accelerator driver as the design of choice for the next major facility in the field a Rare Isotope Accelerator (RIA) as recommended by the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee's 1996 Long Range Plan. Argonne has made significant R&D progress on almost all aspects of the design concept including the fast gas catcher (to allow fast fragmentation beams to be stopped and reaccelerated) that in large part, defined the RIA concept the superconducting rf …

The recent progress in polarized ion source development is reviewed. In dc operation a 1.0 mA polarized H{sup -} ion current is now available from the Optically-Pumped Polarized Ion Source (OPPIS) . In pulsed operation a 10 mA polarized H{sup -} ion current was demonstrated at the TRIUMF pulsed OPPIS test bench and a 3.5 mA peak current was obtained from an Atomic Beam Source (ABS) at the INR Moscow test bench. The possibilities for future improvements with both techniques are discussed. A new OPPIS for RHIC spin physics is described. The OPPIS reliably delivered polarized beam for the polarized run at RHIC. The results obtained with a new pulsed ABS injector for the IUCF Cooler Ring are also discussed.

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This document serves as a preliminary review to examine potential bounding hazard consequences associated with the receipt of U-233 material from ORNL to the SRS F- Area Tank Farm.