The Advanced Technology Program (ATP) was created by P.L. 100-418, the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, to encourage public-private cooperation in the development of pre-competitive technologies with broad application across industries. This activity has been targeted for elimination as a means to cut federal spending. This report discusses the ATP and related issues of federal appropriations (or the lack thereof).

Limitations on the use of petroleum-based diesel fuel in California could occur pursuant to the 1998 declaration by California's Air Resources Board (CARB) that the particulate matter component of diesel exhaust is a carcinogen, therefore a toxic air contaminant (TAC) subject to provisions of the state's Proposition 65. It is the declared intention of CARB not to ban or restrict diesel fuel, per se, at this time. Assuming no total ban, Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) explored two feasible ''mid-course'' strategies. (1) Increased penetration of natural gas and greater gasoline use in the transportation fuels market, to the extent that some compression-ignition (CI) applications revert to spark-ignition (SI) engines. (2) New specifications requiring diesel fuel reformulation based on exhaust products of individual diesel fuel constituents. Each of these alternatives results in some degree of (conventional) diesel displacement. In the first case, diesel fuel is assumed admissible for ignition assistance as a pilot fuel in natural gas (NG)-powered heavy-duty vehicles, and gasoline demand in California increases by 32.2 million liters per day overall, about 21 percent above projected 2010 baseline demand. Natural gas demand increases by 13.6 million diesel liter equivalents per day, about 7 percent above projected (total) consumption level. In …

Daily newspaper from Altus, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Approximately 2100 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) discharged from the N-Reactor have been stored underwater at the K-Basins in the 100 Area of the Hanford Site. The spent fuel has been stored in the K-East Basin since 1975 and in the K-West Basin since 1981. Some of the SNF elements in these basins have corroded because of various breaches in the Zircaloy cladding that occurred during fuel discharge operations and/or subsequent handling and storage in the basins. Consequently, radioactive material in the fuel has been released into the basin water, and water has leaked from the K-East Basin into the soil below. To protect the Columbia River, which is only 380 m from the basins, the SNF is scheduled to be removed and transported for interim dry storage in the 200 East Area, in the central portion of the Site. However, before being shipped, the corroded fuel elements will be loaded into Multi-Canister OverPacks and conditioned. The conditioning process will be selected based on the Integrated Process Strategy (IPS) (WHC 1995), which was prepared on the basis of the dry storage concept developed by the Independent Technical Assessment (ITA) team (ITA 1994).

Ignition tests and analyses of damage/corroded N-Reactor spent nuclear fuel (SNF) were performed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as part of a series of studies on the deteriorating spent fuel in the Hanford K-Basins. The ignition temperature tests were conducted to assess tie pyrophoric properties of selected spent fuel elements from K-West Basin. The objective of these tests was to determine pyrophoric characteristics of samples cut from both damaged and undamaged regions of fhel elements. Furnace ignition tests were also petiormed on samples subjected to the conditioning process proposed by the Independent Technical Assessment and the Integrated Process Strategy to establish any significant effect on the SNF pyrophoric pefiormance parameters. Part of the analysis of the ignition data in this report was petiormed by FIuor Daniel Northwest. One of the safety issues being evaluated is the possibility of a fiel ignition during processing, handling, and transportation to the interim storage facility.

Obtaining an analytical expression for the axial density profile can provide us with a quick and convenient way to evaluate the density evolution for targets with different densities and dimensions. In this note, we show that such an analytical expression can be obtained based on the self-similar solutions and the method of characteristics for 1-D slab expansion.

A major upgrade of the first ATLAS 10 GHz ECR ion source, which began operations in 1987, is in the planning and procurement phase. The new design will convert the old two-stage source into a single-stage source with an electron donor disk and high gradient magnetic field that preserves radial access for solid material feeds and pumping of the plasma chamber. The new magnetic field profile allows for the possibility of a second ECR zone at a frequency of 14 GHz. An open hexapole configuration, using a high energy-product Nd-Fe-B magnet material, having an inner diameter of 8.8 cm and pole gaps of 2.4 cm has been adopted. Models indicate that the field strengths at the chamber wall, 4 cm in radius, will be 9.3 kG along the magnet poles and 5.6 kG along the pole gaps. The individual magnet bars will be housed in austenitic stainless steel allowing the magnet housing within the aluminum plasma chamber to be used as a water channel for direct cooling of the magnets. Eight solenoid coils from the existing ECR will be enclosed in an iron yoke to produce the axial mirror. Based on a current of 500 A, the final model predicts …

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Semiweekly newspaper from Boerne, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

XPS studies have been carried out on sputter deposited copper on a substantially hydroxylated {alpha}-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}(0001) (sapphire) surface under ultra-high vacuum (UHV) conditions. XPS-derived Cu uptake curves show a sharp change in slope at a coverage of 0.35 monolayer (on a Cu/O atomic basis), indicative of initial layer-by-layer growth. CU(LMM) lineshape data indicate that, prior to the first break in the curve, Cu is oxidized to Cu(I). At higher coverages, metallic CU(0) is. observed. These data agree with first principles theoretical calculations, indicating that the presence of ad-hydroxyl groups greatly enhances the binding of Cu to bulk sapphire surfaces, stabilizing Cu(I) adatoms over two-dimensional metallic islands. In the absence of hydroxylation, calculations indicate significantly weaker Cu binding to the bulk sapphire substrate and non-wetting. Calculations also predict that at Cu coverages above 1/3 monolayer (ML), Cu-Cu interactions predominate, leading to Cu(0) formation. These results are in excellent agreement with experiment. The ability of surface hydroxyl groups to enhance binding to alumina substrates suggests a reason for contradictory experimental results reported in the literature for Cu wetting of alumina.

One method of increasing automotive energy efficiency is through mass reduction of structural components by the incorporation of composite materials. Significant use of glass reinforced polymers as structural components could yield a 20--30% reduction in vehicle weight while the use of carbon fiber reinforced materials could yield a 40--60% reduction in mass. Specific areas of research for lightweighting automotive components are listed, along with research needs for each of these categories: (1) low mass metals; (2) polymer composites; and (3) ceramic materials.

The North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) at the request of the Department of Energy is coordinating an effort to minimize the vulnerability of the nation's electric utility system to disruption resulting from computer failures as the date changes to January 1, 2000, the so-called Y2K computer problem. NERC now believes that the electric power industry would be able to reliably meet demand during the transition from 1999 to 2000 with the systems that are now Y2K ready. Nevertheless, at least 30% of the nation's utilities and 35% of the nation's nuclear power plants are not now expected to be Y2K ready until the last half of 1999.

Daily newspaper from Chickasha, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO followed up on the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) efforts to implement GAO's recommendations addressing FDA's property control weaknesses."

Funeral program for Mrs. Camilla A. Taylor, born June 26, 1919 and died August 3, 1999. The funeral was held August 10, 1999 at Second Baptist Church, officiated by Reverend Robert L. Jemerson. Funeral arrangements were made through Sutton-Sutton Mortuary, Inc., and she was buried in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery near San Antonio, Texas.

To better understand the vortex dynamics of coherent structures in turbulent and transitional boundary layers, we consider direct numerical simulation of the interaction between a flat-plateboundary-layer flow and an isolated hemispherical roughness element. Of principal interest is the evolution of hairpin vortices that form an interlacing pattern in the wake of the hemisphere, lift away from the wall, and are stretched by the shearing action of the boundary layer. Using animations of unsteady three-dimensional representations of this flow, produced by the vtk toolkit and enhanced to operate in a CAVE virtual environment, we identify and study several key features in the evolution of this complex vortex topology not previously observed in other visualization formats.

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

This report covers how House committees plan and conduct hearings; it also reviews post-hearing activities of committees. It discusses applicable rules of the House, rules adopted by individual committees, and common committee practices.

Significant effort is presently focused on reducing the size and weight of power electronic modules. To achieve these goals in high-power capacitors, alternative materials and fabrication processes are needed. Thin film (<0.5 {micro}m) and bulk capacitors that use perovskite-based ferroelectric dielectrics are promising alternative technologies. Ferroelectrics possess high dielectric constants, thus offering substantial increases in volumetric capacitance. In thin film form, these materials display low loss and high breakdown strength. The unique properties of some of these materials, such as a nonlinear dielectric response or a high energy-storage capacity accompanying a phase change, can be exploited for power electronic capacitors. Prototype capacitors of two such materials, (Ba,Sr)TiO{sub 3} and PbZrO{sub 3}, have been fabricated in both thin film and bulk ceramic form. The influence of fabrication conditions on dielectric properties has been studied. Initial studies have demonstrated the viability of perovskite ferroelectrics for next-generation capacitor components.

The linear shaped charge is designed to produce a knife blade-like flat jet, which will perforate and sever one side of a modestly hard target from the other. This charge is approximately plane wave initiated and used a water pipe quality circular copper liner. To establish the quality of this jet we report about an experiment using several of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory high-resolution diagnostics previously published in this meeting [1]. Image converter tube camera stereo image pairs were obtained early in the jet formation process. Individual IC images were taken just after the perforation of a thin steel plate. These pictures are augmented with 70 mm format rotating mirror framing images, orthogonal 450 KeV flash radiograph pairs, and arrival time switches (velocity traps) positioned along the length of the jet edge. We have confirmed that linear shaped charges are subject to the same need for high quality copper as any other metal jetting device.

Letter from Tom Kaine of Crossroads Market concerning the Razzle Dazzle Dallas street party and its effect on business.

Xerographic of a letter and a draft of a letter protesting the annual Razzle Dazzle Street Market in Dallas.

This paper presents measurements of the mass of the W vector boson from the CDF and D0 experiments using data collected at {radical}s = 1.8 TeV during the 1994-1995 data taking run. CDF finds a preliminary mass of M{sub W} = 80.43 {+-} 0.16 GeV and D0 measures a mass of M{sub W} = 80.44 {+-} 0.12 GeV.

Mesoporous synthetic clays (MSCs) are obtained when polymer-containing silicate gels are hydrothermally crystallized to form layered magnesium silicate hectorite clays containing polymers that are incorporated in situ. Polyvinylpyrrolidone of several average molecular weights ranging from 10K to 1.3M, in gel loadings varying from 5-30 wt%, were used. The organic polymer template molecules were removed from synthetic polymer-clay complexes via calcination. Pore radii, surface areas, and pore volumes of the resulting porous inorganic networks were then measured. For the most part there is a direct correlation between both PVP molecular weight and polymer loading on the diameter of the average pore. In addition to conventional techniques, the polymer-clay materials were also characterized by small angle x-ray scattering to ascertain the disposition of the polymeric matrix. The MSC materials after calcination were examined as potential supports for hydrodesulfurization (HDS). They were loaded with a bimetallic Co/Mo catalyst system for comparison with a commercial Co/Mo alumina catalyst. Dibenzothiophene (DBT) diluted with hexadecane (0.75 wt% S) was utilized as a liquid feed for the HDS tests. This feed was chosen as a deep HDS test of a heavy model oil. The pore diameters of the MSC catalysts were found to have a strong effect …