A staff study issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO presented a compendium of fiscal year (FY) 2000 budget accounts to give users a convenient way to: (1) sort through the fiscal structure of the federal government; and (2) determine the level of budgetary resources--used, estimated, or requested by fiscal year--for individual accounts."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the free admission policy of the National Gallery of Art and its contract for the distribution of tickets for major exhibitions held at the Gallery."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Energy's (DOE) contractor travel costs, and DOE's efforts to reduce these costs, focusing on the: (1) travel costs incurred by DOE contractors and their primary destinations during fiscal years (FY) 1996 through 1998; (2) purpose of this travel; and (3) success that DOE has had in reducing contractor travel costs and additional actions available to reduce these costs further."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the effectiveness of efforts to assist homeless veterans, focusing on: (1) describing the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) homeless programs; (2) determining what VA knows about the effectiveness of its homeless programs; and (3) examining promising approaches aimed at different groups of homeless veterans."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This French-language edition of the journal of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) includes articles regarding: (1) changes in international auditing personnel; (2) audit planning; (3) implementing guidelines for INTOSAI auditing standards; (4) recognizing fraud indicators; (5) the Royal Audit Authority of Bhutan; (6) reports in print on auditing; and (7) activities inside INTOSAI."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This German-language edition of the journal of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) includes articles regarding: (1) changes in international auditing personnel; (2) audit planning; (3) implementing guidelines for INTOSAI auditing standards; (4) recognizing fraud indicators; (5) the Royal Authority of Bhutan; (6) reports in print on auditing; and (7) activities inside INTOSAI."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) new rule on over-the-counter human drugs and labeling requirements. GAO noted that: (1) the rule would establish a standardized format and standardized content requirements for the labeling of over-the-counter drug products; (2) the final rule has an announced effective date of April 16, 1999, which is less than the 60-day delay in a major rule's effective date required by the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act; and (3) FDA, with the exception of the failure to allow the 60-day delay, complied with the applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO published a functional requirements document for human resource and payroll systems for U.S. civilian personnel. This document concerns human resources and payroll financial systems analysts, system accountants, and others who design, develop, implement, operate, and maintain financial management systems."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed compliance by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) with the requirements of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, focusing on OMB and CBO reports issued for legislation enacted during the 2nd session of the 105th Congress, which ended on October 21, 1998."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO published a glossary describing the most commonly used terms, practices, and techniques currently employed by the government and private sector asset management community."

Weekly newspaper from Rusk, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with extensive advertising.

Weekly student newspaper from Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, Texas that includes campus and local news along with advertising.

The 200 Area at Hanford (also called the Central Plateau) contains approximately 817 waste sites, 44 facilities to be demolished, and billions of gallons of contaminated groundwater resulting from chemical processing plants and associated waste facilities (e.g., waste tanks). From 1955 to 1973, carbon tetrachloride, nitrate, and other materials were discharged to subsurface liquid waste disposal facilities in the 200 Area. As much as 600,000 kilograms of carbon tetrachloride may have entered the soil column and a portion of this has contaminated the underlying aquifer. In Situ Bioremediation for the Hanford Carbon Tetrachloride Plume (ISB), which is the term used in this report for an in situ treatment process using indigenous micro-organisms with a computer based Accelerated Bioremediation Design Tool (ABDT), remediates groundwater contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrates under anaerobic conditions. ISB involves the injection of nutrients into the groundwater and subsequent extraction and re-injection of the groundwater to provide nutrient distribution in the aquifer.

An important need while using robots or remotely operated equipment is the ability for the operator or an observer to easily and accurately perceive the operating environment. A classic problem in providing a complete representation of a work area is sensory overload or excessive complexity in the human–machine interface. In addition, remote operations often benefit from depth perception capability while viewing or manipulating objects. Thus, there is an on going effort within the robotic field to develop simplified telepresence interfaces. The Department of Energy’s Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) has been researching methods to generalize a human-machine interface for telepresence applications. Initial telepresence research conducted at the INEEL developed and implemented a concept called the VirtualwindoW. This system minimized the complexity of remote stereo viewing controls and provided the operator the “feel” of viewing the environment, including depth perception, in a natural setting. The VirtualwindoW has shown that the human-machine interface can be simplified while increasing operator performance. This paper deals with the continuing research and development of the VirtualwindoW to provide a generalized, reconfigurable system that easily utilizes commercially available components. The original system has now been expanded to include support for zoom lenses, camera blocks, wireless …

The Portable Articulated Arm Deployment System (PAADS) is a remotely controlled vehicle for delivering a tele-operated electro-hydraulic manipulator arm to a field deployable location. The self-contained system includes a boom vehicle with long reach capability, an electro-hydraulic manipulator arm, closed circuit television (CCTV) systems, and onboard tools. On board power systems consist of a self contained, propane fired 8 KW generator and an air compressor for pneumatic tools. The generator provides the power to run the air compressor as well as provide power to operate the 110 VAC auxiliary lighting system for the video cameras. The separate control console can be located up to 500 ft from the vehicle. PAADS is a fully integrated system, containing all equipment required to perform complex field operations. Hydraulic integration of the manipulator arm into the vehicle hydraulic drive system was necessary to eliminate the tether management of hoses, which extended vehicle operating range, minimized hydraulic pressure losses, and provided the opportunity to go to a radio frequency (RF) control system in the future, thereby eliminating the control cable. This paper presents the key decision points during system development. Emphasis is placed on ease of operator control and not on an intelligent machine approach. …

The United States Department of Energy (DOE)continually seeks safer, more cost-effective, and better performing technologies for decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) of nuclear facilities. The Deactivation and Decommissioning Focus Area (DDFA) of the DOE Federal Energy Technology Center (FETC) sponsors Large Scale Demonstration and Deployment Projects (LSDDPs) which are conducted at various DOE sites. The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) is one of the DOE sites for demonstration of these newa and improved technologies. The INEEL needs statement defines specific needs or problems for their D&D program. One of the needs identified at the INEEL was for new or improved site characterization technologies. A variety of in-situ site characterization technologies have been demonstrated through the INEEL LSDDP. These technologies provide a safer means of characterization, improved documentation, real-time information, improved D&D schedules, and reduction in costs and radiation exposures to workers. These technologies have provided vast improvements to the D&D site characterizations. Some of these technologies include: • The Global Positioning Radiometric Scanner System for large-area, surface gamma radiation surveys • Remote underwater characterization system• Identifying heavy metals in painted surfaces and determining the alloy composition in metallic material • In-Situ Object Counting System for free release • Real-time …

The dissolution of Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC) pilot plant calcines was examined to determine solubility of calcine matrix components in acidic media. Two representatives pilot plant calcine types were studied: Zirconia calcine and Zirconia/ Sodium calcine. Dissolution of these calcines was evaluated using lower initial concentrations of nitric acid than used in previous tests to decrease the [H+] concentration in the final solutions. Lower [H+] concentrations contribute to more favorable TRUEX/SREX solvent extraction flowsheet performance. Dissolution and analytical results were also obtained for radioactive calcines produced using high sodium feeds blended with non-radioactive A1(NO3)3 solutions to dilute the sodium concentration and prevent bed agglomeration during the calcination process. Dissolution tests indicated >95 wt. % of the initial calcine mass can be dissolved using the baseline dissolution procedure, with the exception that higher initial nitric acid concentrations are required. The higher initial acid concentration is required for stoichiometric dissolution of the oxides, primarily aluminum oxide. Statistically designed experiments using pilot plant calcine were performed to determine the effect of mixing rate on dissolution efficiency. Mixing rate was determined to provide minimal effects on wt. % dissolution. The acid/calcine ratio and temperature were the predominate variables affecting the wt. …

Section 114(d) of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended (NWPA), limits the overall capacity of the first repository to 70,000 metric tons of heavy metal (MTHM). Current DOE policy is to allocate DOE spent fuel and high-level waste (HLW) at 10 percent of the total, or 7,000 MTHM. For planning purposes, 4,667 MTHM will be allocated for HLW. While the NWPA provides a technical basis for determining the MTHM equivalence of HLW, it does not address the significant technical differences between DOE HLW and commercial spent nuclear fuel (SNF). Although more than 170,000 MTHM of DOE fuel has been reprocessed to produce the inventory of HLW, the amount of radioactive waste generated per metric ton of DOE fuel is only a few percent of that in a metric ton of commercial fuel. This study compares the results of four methods for determining the MTHM equivalence of DOE HLW. These methods include (1) using the actual weight of heavy metal in reprocessed DOE fuel, (2) assuming the historical equivalence of 0.5 MTHM/canister of vitrified DOE HLW, (3) comparing the total radioactivity in DOE HLW to the radioactivity of commercial SNF, and (4) comparing the total radiotoxicity of DOE …

With the advent of three-dimensional modeling in nuclear safety analysis codes, the need has arisen for a new display methodology. Currently, analysts either sort through voluminous numerical displays of data at points in a region, or view color coded interpretations of the data on a two-dimensional rendition of the plant. RGUI 1.0 provides 3D capability for displaying data. The 3D isometric hydrodynamic image is built automatically from the input deck without additional input from the user. Standard view change features allow the user to focus on only the important data. Familiar features that are standard to the nuclear industry, such as run, interact, and monitor, are included. RGUI 1.0 reduces the difficulty of analyzing complex three dimensional plants.

The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) and Utah State University’s Center for Self-Organizing and Intelligent Systems (CSOIS) have developed a team of autonomous robotic vehicles applicable to precision agriculture. A unique technique has been developed to plan, coordinate, and optimize missions in large structured environments for these autonomous vehicles in realtime. Two generic tasks are supported: 1) Driving to a precise location, and 2) Sweeping an area while activating on-board equipment. Sensor data and task achievement data is shared among the vehicles enabling them to cooperatively adapt to changing environmental, vehicle, and task conditions. This paper discusses the development of the autonomous robotic team, details of the mission-planning algorithm, and successful field demonstrations at the INEEL.

Characterization and inspection of water-cooled and moderated nuclear reactors and fuel storage pools requires equipment capable of operating underwater. Similarly, the deactivation and decommissioning of older nuclear facilities often requires the facility owner to accurately characterize underwater structures and equipment which may have been sitting idle for years. The underwater characterization equipment is often required to operate at depths exceeding 20 ft (6.1 m) and in relatively confined or congested spaces. The typical baseline approach has been the use of radiation detectors and underwater cameras mounted on long poles, or stationary cameras with pan and tilt features mounted on the sides of the underwater facility. There is a perceived need for an inexpensive, more mobile method of performing close-up inspection and radiation measurements in confined spaces underwater. The Remote Underwater Characterization System (RUCS) is a small, remotely operated submersible vehicle intended to serve multiple purposes in underwater nuclear operations. It is based on the commercially-available “Scallop” vehicle1, but has been modified by Department of Energy’s Robotics Technology Development Program to add auto-depth control, and vehicle orientation and depth monitoring at the operator control panel. The RUCS is designed to provide visual and gamma radiation characterization, even in confined or limited …

A field evaluation of enhanced reductive dechlorination of trichloroethene (TCE) in ground water has been in progress since November 1998 to determine whether in situ biodegradation can be significantly enhanced through the addition of an electron donor (lactate). An in situ treatment cell was established in the residual source area of a large TCE plume in a fractured basalt aquifer utilizing continuous ground water extraction approximately 150 meters downgradient of the injection location. After a 1-month tracer test and baseline sampling period, the pulsed injection of lactate was begun. Ground water samples were collected from 11 sampling points on a biweekly basis and in situ water quality parameters were recorded every 4 hours at two locations. Within 2 weeks after the initial lactate injection, dissolved oxygen and redox potential were observed to decrease substantially at all sampling locations within 40 m of the injection well. Decreases in nitrate and sulfate concentrations were also observed. Both quantitative in situ rate estimation methods and qualitative measures such as changes in redox conditions, decreases in chlorine number, and changes in biomass indicator parameters are being used throughout the test to evaluate the extent to which biodegradation of TCE is enhanced.

An important need while using unmanned vehicles is the ability for the remote operator or observer to easily and accurately perceive the operating environment. A classic problem in providing a complete representation of the remote work area is sensory overload or excessive complexity in the human-machine interface. In addition, remote operations often benefit from depth perception capability while viewing or manipulating objects. Thus, there is an on going effort within the remote and teleoperated robotic field to develop better human-machine interfaces. The Department of Energy's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) has been researching methods to simplify the human-machine interface using atypical operator techniques. Initial telepresence research conducted at the INEEL developed and implemented a concept called the VirtualwindoW. This system minimized the complexity of remote stereo viewing controls and provided the operator the "feel" of viewing the environment, including depth perception, in a natural setting. The VirtualwindoW has shown that the human-machine interface can be simplified while increasing operator performance. This paper deals with the continuing research and development of the VirtualwindoW to provide a reconfigurable, modular system that easily utilizes commercially available off the shelf components. This adaptability is well suited to several aspects of unmanned vehicle …

Weekly newspaper from San Antonio, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.