A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Small Business Administration's (SBA) 8(a) program's progress in developing small businesses that are owned by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals, focusing on: (1) the extent to which firms are obtaining federal contracts; (2) how SBA tracks the training and assistance provided to firms; and (3) how firms view the program."

A number of DOE sites are contaminated with mixtures of dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs) such as carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, perchloroethylene, and trichloroethylene. At many of these sites, in situ microbial bioremediation is an attractive strategy for cleanup, since it has the potential to degrade DNAPLs in situ without the need for pump-and-treat or soil removal procedures, and without producing toxic byproducts. A rapid screening method to determine broad range metabolic and genetic potential for contaminant degradation would greatly reduce the cost and time involved in assessment for in situ bioremediation, as well as for monitoring ongoing bioremediation treatment. The objective of this project was the development of mass-spectrometry-based methods to screen for genetic potential for both assessment and monitoring of in situ bioremediation of DNAPLs. These methods were designed to provide more robust and routine methods for DNA-based characterization of the genetic potential of subsurface microbes for degrading pollutants. Specifically, we sought to (1) Develop gene probes that yield information equivalent to conventional probes, but in a smaller size that is more amenable to mass spectrometric detection, (2) Pursue improvements to matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) methodology in order to allow its more general application to gene probe …

The River Protection Project (RPP) is planning to retrieve radioactive waste from the single-shell tanks (SST) and double-shell tanks (DST) underground at the Hanford Site. This waste will then be transferred to a waste treatment plant to be immobilized (vitrified) in a stable glass form. Over the years, the waste solids in many of the tanks have settled to form a layer of sludge at the bottom. The thickness of the sludge layer varies from tank to tank, from no sludge or a few inches of sludge to about 15 ft of sludge. The purpose of this technology and engineering case study is to evaluate the Flygt{trademark} submersible propeller mixer as a potential technology for auxiliary mobilization of DST HLW solids. Considering the usage and development to date by other sites in the development of this technology, this study also has the objective of expanding the knowledge base of the Flygt{trademark} mixer concept with the broader perspective of Hanford Site tank waste retrieval. More specifically, the objectives of this study delineated from the work plan are described.

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This report outlines Supreme Court opinions from the October 1999 term.

This report discusses social security and its place in the federal budget. As a result of a series of laws enacted in 1983, 1985 and 1990, Social Security is considered to be "off budget" for federal budget purposes. While the meaning of this might seem obvious--that Social Security is not to be considered as part of the federal budget--many people are confused by the continued use of aggregate budget figures that include Social Security's receipts and expenditures.

Since the mid-l980's, assessment of the wind and tornado risks at the Department of Energy (DOE) high and moderate hazard facilities has been based on the straight wind/tornado hazard curves given in UCRL-53526 (Coats, 1985). These curves were developed using a methodology that utilized a model, developed by McDonald, for severe winds at sub-tornado wind speeds and a separate model, developed by Fujita, for tornado wind speeds. For DOE sites not covered in UCRL-53526, wind and tornado hazard assessments are based on the criteria outlined in DOE-STD-1023-95 (DOE, 1996), utilizing the methodology in UCRL-53526; Subsequent to the publication of UCRL53526, in a study sponsored by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the Pacific Northwest Laboratory developed tornado wind hazard curves for the contiguous United States, NUREG/CR-4461 (Ramsdell, 1986). Because of the different modeling assumptions and underlying data used to develop the tornado wind information, the wind speeds at specified exceedance levels, at a given location, based on the methodology in UCRL-53526, are different than those based on the methodology in NUREG/CR-4461. In 1997, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) was funded by the DOE to review the current methodologies for characterizing tornado wind hazards and to develop a state-of-the-art wind/tornado characterization methodology …

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Electron cyclotron emission (ECE) has been employed as a standard electron temperature profile diagnostic on many tokamaks and stellarators, but most magnetically confined plasma devices cannot take advantage of standard ECE diagnostics to measure temperature. They are either overdense, operating at high density relative to the magnetic field (e.g. where the plasma frequency is much greater than the electron cyclotron frequency, as in a spherical torus) or they have insufficient density and temperature to reach the blackbody condition. Electron Bernstein waves (EBWs) are electrostatic waves that can propagate in overdense plasmas and have a high optical thickness at the electron cyclotron resonance layers, as a result of their large perpendicular wavenumber. This paper reports on measurements of EBW emission on the CDX-U spherical torus, where B{sub o} {approximately} 2 kG, <n{sub e}> {approximately}10{sup 13} cm{sup {minus}3} and T{sub e} {approx} to 10 -- 200 eV. Results are presented for electromagnetic measurements of EBW emission, mode-converted near the plasma edge. The EBW emission was absolutely calibrated and compared to the electron temperature profile measured by a multi-point Thomson scattering diagnostic. Depending on the plasma conditions, the mode converted EBW radiation temperature was found to be less than or equal to T{sub …

The trajectories of ions confined in a Solovev FRC equilibrium magnetic geometry and heated with a small-amplitude, odd-parity rotating magnetic field, have been studied with a Hamiltonian computer code. When the RMF frequency is in the ion-cyclotron range, explosive heating occurs. Higher-energy ions are found to have betatron-type orbits, preferentially localized near the FRC midplane. These results are relevant to a compact magnetic-fusion-reactor design.

The Tokamak Simulation Code [TSC] is widely used for the design of new axisymmetric toroidal experiments. In particular, TSC was used extensively in the design of the National Spherical Torus eXperiment [NSTX]. The authors have now benchmarked TSC with initial NSTX results and find excellent agreement for plasma and vessel currents and magnetic flux loops when the experimental coil currents are used in the simulations. TSC has also been coupled with a ballooning stability code and with DCON to provide stability predictions for NSTX operation. TSC has also been used to model initial CHI experiments where a large poloidal voltage is applied to the NSTX vacuum vessel, causing a force-free current to appear in the plasma. This is a phenomenon that is similar to the plasma halo current that sometimes develops during a plasma disruption.

This corrective action investigation plan contains the U.S. Department of Energy, Nevada Operations Office's approach to collect data necessary to evaluate corrective action alternatives appropriate for the closure of Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 262 under the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order. Corrective Action Unit 262 consists of nine Corrective Action Sites (CASs): Underground Storage Tank (25-02-06), Septic Systems A and B (25-04-06), Septic System (25-04-07), Leachfield (25-05-03), Leachfield (25-05-05), Leachfield (25-05-06), Radioactive Leachfield (25-05-08), Leachfield (25-05-12), and Dry Well (25-51-01). Situated in Area 25 at the Nevada Test Site (NTS), sites addressed by CAU 262 are located at the Reactor-Maintenance, Assembly, and Disassembly (R-MAD); Test Cell C; and Engine-Maintenance, Assembly, and Disassembly (E-MAD) facilities. The R-MAD, Test Cell C, and E-MAD facilities supported nuclear rocket reactor and engine testing as part of the Nuclear Rocket Development Station. The activities associated with the testing program were conducted between 1958 and 1973. Based on site history collected to support the Data Quality Objectives process, contaminants of potential concern (COPCs) for the site include oil/diesel-range total petroleum hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, semivolatile organic compounds, polychlorinated biphenyls, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act metals, and gamma-emitting radionuclides, isotopic uranium, isotopic plutonium, strontium-90, and tritium. …

Laser pulses can be efficiently compressed to femtosecond duration when a smaller-frequency short pulse collides with high frequency long pulse in rare plasma, absorbing most of its energy. The mechanism of short pulse amplification is nonlinear superradiance.

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Semiannual report providing tabular statistical information about motor vehicle accidents that involved motorcycles in Texas during calendar year 2000, with data broken out by various criteria including number of persons, locations, types of accidents, time of day, and other factors.

Annual report providing tabular statistical information about motor vehicle accidents involving military drivers in Texas during 2000, with data broken out by various criteria including number of persons, locations, types of accidents, time of day, and other factors.

Semiannual report providing tabular statistical information about motor vehicle accidents in Texas during 2000, with data broken out by various criteria including number of persons, locations, types of accidents, time of day, and other factors.

Semiannual report providing tabular statistical information about motor vehicle accidents in Texas involving DWI (driving while impaired) during 1999, with data broken out by various criteria including number of persons, locations, types of accidents, time of day, and other factors.

Semiannual report providing tabular statistical information about motor vehicle accidents in rural areas of Texas during 2000, with data broken out by various criteria including number of persons, locations, types of accidents, time of day, and other factors.