Financial statements from Texas Human Rights Foundation, Inc. documenting assets, expenditures, and other financial information for fiscal years 1997 and 1998.

Subsurface contamination from volatile organic compounds (VOCs) has been found at many Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Defense (DoD) and industrial sites due to the widespread use of organic solvents and hydrocarbon fuels. At ambient pressures and temperatures in the shallow subsurface, these substances are liquids that are immiscible with water; hence they are commonly designated as non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs). At some DOE sites, NAPLs are the presumed source of groundwater contamination in fractured rocks, such as basalts (at Hanford and Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL)), shales (Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant), and welded tuffs (Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)). The flow, transport and biodegradation processes controlling NAPL behavior in the vadose zone must be understood in order to establish the possible extent of contamination, the risk to groundwater supplies, and appropriate remediation action. This is particularly important in and sites with deep water tables (such as at Hanford, INEEL and LANL). In fractured rock aquifers, NAPL migration is likely to be dominated by the highly permeable pathways provided by rock fractures and joints. Two- and three-phase fluid phases may be present in vadose zone fractures, including NAPL-gas, NAPL-water (in regions of perched water) and NAPL-water-gas.

FFTF was originally designed/constructed/operated to develop LMFBR fuels and materials. Inherent safety became a major focus of the US nuclear industry in the mid 1980`s. The inherent safety characteristics of LMFBRs were recognized but additional enhancement was desired. The presentation contents are: Fast Flux Test Facility history and status; Overview of contract activities; Summary of loss of flow without scram with GEMs testing; and Summary of pump start with GEMs testing.

To model tank waste aging and interpret tank waste speciation results, the authors began measuring the reactivity of organic complexants and related compounds towards radiation-induced oxidation reactions. Because of the high efficiency of scavenging of the primary radicals of water radiolysis by nitrate and nitrite ion, the major radiolytically-generated radicals in these solutions, and in Hanford tank wastes, are NO{sub 2}, NO and O{sup {minus}}. Prior to this effort, little quantitative information existed for the reactions of these radicals with organic compounds such as those that were used in Hanford processes. Therefore, modeling of actual waste aging, or even simulated waste aging, was not feasible without measuring reactivities and determining reaction paths. The authors have made the first rate measurements of complexant aging and determined some of their degradation products.

The Government Management Reform Act and the Government Performance and Results Act both have the objective of ensuring that Federal government agencies are accountable to American taxpayers. This report provides a clear accounting of the return on the investment entrusted to the Department of Energy. Unlike previous annual reports prepared by the Department, this report is fashioned along the lines of a corporate report to the shareholders. Not only does this report contain audited financial statements for the fiscal year but it also describes what the shareholders, American taxpayers, received in the way of services and contributions to the important National goals this Administration and the Department have promised to provide. This report provides a progress report on how the Department is serving the country and how they are doing it for much lower cost.

The general purpose of the Grout Development Program is to solidify and stabilize the liquid low-activity wastes (LAW) generated at the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant (ICPP). It is anticipated that LAW will be produced from the following: (1) chemical separation of the tank farm high-activity sodium-bearing waste, (2) retrieval, dissolution, and chemical separation of the aluminum, zirconium, and sodium calcines, (3) facility decontamination processes, and (4) process equipment waste. Grout formulation studies for sodium-bearing LAW, including decontamination and process equipment waste, continued this fiscal year. A second task was to develop a grout formulation to solidify potential process residual heels in the tank farm vessels when the vessels are closed.