A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO: (1) identified and described practices that were applied in some federal agencies' 1999 performance plans that might, if consistently applied, improve the usefulness of all agencies' annual performance plans; and (2) provided examples from agencies' fiscal year 1999 performance plans that illustrate each practice."

The Shane 3 meter telescope was recollimated in August 1998 to remove aberrations that were perceived to affect image quality in good seeing conditions. The Lick Adaptive Optics system is capable, indirectly, of measuring the static aberrations introduced by the telescope primary and secondary mirror pair. Since A0 runs were scheduled both before and after the collimation, this allowed a comparison of the pre and post collimation telescope aberrations. The absolute calibration of the wavefront measurement is complicated by the indirect measurement technique, which uses the shape of the deformable mirror in its closed-loop corrected position as an indicator of telescope wavefront. The shape of the deformable mirror is not measured directly, but is inferred from the voltages applied to its piezoelectric actuators. The actuators are known to have temperature-dependent hysteresis and is thus a source of error in this technique. In November, an interferometer was added to the A0 system which will allow more direct measurements of corrected wavefront in future tests. Data from six measurements in July (pre-collimation) and nine measurements in September and November (post-collimation) were analyzed. The resulting phase maps show a slight difference in the wavefront with some improvement in the coma and spherical zernike …

This report addresses the Background and the then current issues related to Animal Waste Management and the Environment.This background report describes the livestock production industry along with the public health and environmental concerns related to the industry.

This report discusses Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations for FY2000.

Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Energy and Water Development Appropriations.

This report discusses the results of the environmental protection program at Argonne National Laboratory-East (ANL-E) for 1998. To evaluate the effects of ANL-E operations on the environment, samples of environmental media collected on the site, at the site boundary, and off the ANL-E site were analyzed and compared with applicable guidelines and standards. A variety of radionuclides were measured in air, surface water, on-site groundwater, and bottom sediment samples. In addition, chemical constituents in surface water, groundwater, and ANL-E effluent water were analyzed. External penetrating radiation doses were measured, and the potential for radiation exposure to off-site population groups was estimated. Results are interpreted in terms of the origin of the radioactive and chemical substances (i.e., natural, fallout, ANL-E, and other) and are compared with applicable environmental quality standards. A US Department of Energy dose calculation methodology, based on International Commission on Radiological Protection recommendations and the US Environmental Protection Agency's CAP-88 (Clean Air Act Assessment Package-1988) computer code, was used in preparing this report. The status of ANL-E environmental protection activities with respect to the various laws and regulations that govern waste handling and disposal is discussed, along with the progress of environmental corrective actions and restoration projects.

This document summarizes the impact of radionuclide releases from Savannah River Site (SRS) facilities from 1954 through 1996. The radionuclides reported here are those whose release resulted in the highest dose to people living near SRS.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the U.S. Marshals Service's (USMS) asset forfeiture programs, focusing on: (1) controls over selected categories of seized assets--namely vehicles, vessels, real property, financial instruments, and general property--at four large USMS districts: the Central District of California, the Southern District of Florida, and the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York; and (2) whether selected seized assets at the test locations under USMS control were accurately accounted for and safeguarded against theft, loss, and deterioration."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on whether consumers are able to make informed choices about their care and about the nature and extent of problems that may be occurring in assisted living, focusing on: (1) residents' needs and the services provided in assisted living facilities; (2) the extent to which facilities provide consumers with information sufficient to help them choose a facility that is appropriate for their needs; (3) state approaches to the oversight of assisted living; and (4) the type and frequency of quality-of-care and consumer protection problems identified by Congress."

The decommissioning of the 324 Facility B Cell includes the onsite transport of grouted remote-handled radioactive waste from the 324 Facility to the 200 Areas for disposal. The grouted waste has been transported in the leased ATG Nuclear Services 3-82B Radioactive Waste Shipping Cask (3-82B cask). Because the 3-82B cask is a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)-certified Type B shipping cask, the lease cost is high, and the cask operations in the onsite environment may not be optimal. An alternatives study has been performed to develop cost and schedule information on alternative waste transportation systems to assist in determining which system should be used in the future. Five alternatives were identified for evaluation. These included continued lease of the 3-82B cask, fabrication of a new 3-82B cask, development and fabrication of an onsite cask, modification of the existing U.S. Department of Energy-owned cask (OH-142), and the lease of a different commercially available cask. Each alternative was compared to acceptance criteria for use in the B Cell as an initial screening. Only continued leasing of the 3-82B cask, fabrication of a new 3-82B cask, and the development and fabrication of an onsite cask were found to meet all of the B …

Commissioning the compensation system of the solenoid in the BaBar detector presents a challenging problem due to the complexity of the system, which uses twelve normal quadrupoles and twelve skew quadrupoles in each ring. The setting of these skew quadrupoles needs to be readjusted according to the machine optical parameters since the machines always have some unknown errors. In this paper, we will describe a beam based method to match the coupling and optics in the interaction region to compensate for the optical effects due to the solenoid. The method has been successfully used to find the wrong polarities and the wrong scaling factor of the skew quadrupoles in the early stage of the commissioning. It is being refined to set the skew quadrupoles in the machines in order to reduce the beam size at the interaction point and improve the luminosity of PEP-II.

Commissioning the compensation system of the solenoid in the BaBar detector presents a challenging problem due to the complexity of the system, which uses twelve normal quadrupoles and twelve skew quadrupoles in each ring. The setting of these skew quadrupoles needs to be readjusted according to the machine optical parameters since the machines always have some unknown errors. In this paper, we will describe a beam based method to match the coupling and optics in the interaction region to compensate for the optical effects due to the solenoid. The method has been successfully used to find the wrong polarities and the wrong scaling factor of the skew quadrupoles in the early stage of the commissioning. It is being refined to set the skew quadrupoles in the machines in order to reduce the beam size at the interaction point and improve the luminosity of PEP-II.

Sirrine Environmental Consultants provided technical oversight of the installation of eighteen groundwater monitoring wells and six exploratory borings around the location of the Burial Ground Expansion.

Sirrine Environmental Consultants provided technical oversight of the installation of eighteen groundwater monitoring wells and six exploratory borings around the location of the Burial Ground Expansion.

Legislation provides Caribbean countries similar tariff benefits as Mexico under the Caribbean and Central American Relief and Economic Stabilization Act. A senate bill provides relief to the hurricane affected countries of Central America. The senate bill is more restrictive than the House bill in the scope of tariff benefits offered.

To demonstrate the feasibility of producing and utilizing a channeling-radiation beam at a typical medical electron accelerator. The experiment consisted of two distinct stages, designing and assembling an extension to the existing beam line and running the experiment using silicon and diamond crystals.

Uranium metal corrosion products from ZPPR fuel plates involved in the March 13, 1998 pyrophoric event in the Fuel Manufacturing Facility at Argonne National Laboratory-West were characterized using thermo-gravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, and BET gas sorption techniques. Characterization was performed on corrosion products in several different conditions: immediately after separation from the source metal, after low-temperature passivation, after passivation and extended vault storage, and after burning in the pyrophoric event. The ignition temperatures and hydride fractions of the corrosion product were strongly dependent on corrosion extent. Corrosion products from plates with corrosion extents less than 0.7% did not ignite in TGA testing, while products from plates with corrosion extents greater than 1.2% consistently ignited. Corrosion extent is defined as mass of corrosion products divided by the total mass of uranium. The hydride fraction increased with corrosion extent. There was little change in corrosion product properties after low-temperature passivation or vault storage. The burned products were not reactive and contained no hydride; the principal constituents were UO{sub 2} and U{sub 3}O{sub 7}. The source of the event was a considerable quantity of reactive hydride present in the corrosion products. No specific ignition mechanism could be conclusively identified. The most likely initiator …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) for the Oregon and Washington communities surrounding the Umatilla Chemical Depot, focusing on: (1) the progress communities have made since GAO's 1997 report on their CSEPP efforts; and (2) strategies for enhancing the program's implementation in Oregon."

This Test Plan provides a test method to dedicate the leak detection relays used on the new Pumping and Instrumentation Control (PIC) skids. The new skids are fabricated on-site. The leak detection system is a safety class system per the Authorization Basis.

We completed the process of locating events and identifying shear-wave splitting in the mammoth area. A total of 2250 split shear wave observations were recorded in the four month period that our network was in place. Fast polarization direction map in Figure 1 shows that most of the stations in the mammoth area display consistent direction throughout the main field, between 300{degree} azimuth to 0{degree} azimuth. Some exemptions to the consistent crack alignment (fast polarization direction) can be seen in station M19, and some stations display inconsistent trend as can be observed in stations M25, M18, and M07. It is possible that station M19 was misaligned during installment. Figure 2 shows the cumulative rose diagram for all observations with a clear preferred direction. Figure 3 also shows that most of the observations of fast split shear wave are in the same direction and that those observation are distributed throughout the target area. If we treat measurements of polarization direction as a statistical process, same as deep of layer measurement, we can say that in the small area of the station we have aligned cracks. Figures 4 and 5 show results of the crack density inversion assuming regional crack azimuth of …

This Corrective Action Decision Document has been prepared for the Nevada Test Site's Area 23 Mercury Fire Training Pit (Corrective Action Unit 342) in accordance with the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (FFACO, 1996). Corrective Action Unit 342 is comprised of Corrective Action Site 23-56-01. The purpose of this Corrective Action Decision Document is to identify and provide a rationale for the selection of a recommended corrective action alternative for Corrective Action Unit 342. The scope of this document consists of the following: Develop corrective action objectives; Identify corrective action alternative screening criteria; Develop corrective action alternatives; Perform detailed and comparative evaluations of corrective action alternatives in relation to corrective action objectives and screening criteria; and Recommend and justify a preferred corrective action alternative for the Corrective Action Unit.

The Corrective Action Investigation Plan for Corrective Action Unit 428, Area 3 Septic Waste Systems 1 and 5, has been developed in accordance with the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order that was agreed to by the U. S. Department of Energy, Nevada Operations Office; the State of Nevada Division of Environmental Protection; and the U. S. Department of Defense. Corrective Action Unit 428 consists of Corrective Action Sites 03- 05- 002- SW01 and 03- 05- 002- SW05, respectively known as Area 3 Septic Waste System 1 and Septic Waste System 5. This Corrective Action Investigation Plan is used in combination with the Work Plan for Leachfield Corrective Action Units: Nevada Test Site and Tonopah Test Range, Nevada , Rev. 1 (DOE/ NV, 1998c). The Leachfield Work Plan was developed to streamline investigations at leachfield Corrective Action Units by incorporating management, technical, quality assurance, health and safety, public involvement, field sampling, and waste management information common to a set of Corrective Action Units with similar site histories and characteristics into a single document that can be referenced. This Corrective Action Investigation Plan provides investigative details specific to Corrective Action Unit 428. A system of leachfields and associated collection systems was …

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Customs Service's management of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), focusing on whether Customs has adequately justified ACE cost-effectiveness."

This report presents a summary of the definitive data validation and verification for the 1998 semiannual tritium surveys for Fourmile Branch and the F- and H-Area Seeplines. The project was performed under the direction of WSRC EAS/Ecology. This report was prepared under the direction of EPD/EMS.