A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on student loan trustee arrangements, focusing on the: (1) number and cost of trustee arrangements and their shared characteristics; (2) benefits and protections afforded the federal government through use of trustee arrangements; and (3) effect of trustee arrangements on market participation and the availability of student loans."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Army's acquisition of Category 2 weapons systems."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Real Estate Assessment Center's (REAC) new physical inspection system for the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) public and multifamily housing properties, focusing on whether: (1) REAC's inspection system represents an improvement over HUD's prior inspection systems; and (2) REAC's inspections are reliable."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on Soviet-designed nuclear power reactors, focusing on: (1) how much money has been spent by the United States and other countries for assistance to improve the safety of Soviet-designed nuclear power reactors--and the types of assistance being provided--as well as planned U.S. expenditures; (2) experts' views on the impact of the assistance; (3) the status of efforts to close high-risk Soviet-designed reactors; and (4) the management of the Department of Energy's (DOE) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) safety assistance activities."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) efforts to implement changes to the Medicare program, focusing on HCFA's implementation of the: (1) expansion of the partial hospitalization benefit; and (2) more recent changes under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA) to determine whether HCFA is acting upon lessons learned from the partial hospitalization program."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO audited the National Park Service's (NPS), the National Symphony Orchestra's (NSO), and Capital Concerts, Incorporated's (CCI) receipt and use of concert designated funding."

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) progress in performing planning actions for its loan monitoring system."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO: (1) reviewed the application of the Federal Claims Collection Act to the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) settlement of overpayment matters with providers; and (2) developed case studies of settlements that may have been improper."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed certain aspects of the Judicial Survivors' Annuities Systems (JSAS), which provides annuities to the surviving spouses and dependent children of deceased federal judges and other judicial officials who participate in JSAS."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Global Hawk Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration, focusing on: (1) whether the average unit flyaway price for the 10 Global Hawk production aircraft numbered 11 through 20 will be within the Department of Defense's (DOD) price goal of $10 million each in fiscal year 1994 dollars; (2) the status of the military user demonstration, including the extent to which Global Hawk has demonstrated reconnaissance capabilities; and (3) DOD and Air Force plans to transition to a formal acquisition program."

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) merit review practices, focusing on: (1) what procedures DOE has established for performing merit reviews; and (2) whether DOE could document that it has followed the merit review procedures it has established."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed information on the actions needed to sustain reform initiatives and achieve greater results in the Department of Defense (DOD), focusing on the: (1) effectiveness of the Department's management emphasis and oversight structure in providing sustained direction and emphasis to the program; (2) status of individual reform initiatives and the barriers that could limit their success; and (3) extent to which the Reform Initiative resulted in savings enabling DOD to shift operation and maintenance funds to support weapons modernization."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the development of competition in telecommunications markets, focusing on the: (1) development of competition in local telephone markets and the market strategies employed by new carriers in five states under the 1996 Telecommunications Act; and (2) key issues affecting that development and the enforcement activities of federal and state regulators to address those issues."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the status of the Bureau of the Census' Be Counted and Questionnaire Assistance Center programs, focusing on the steps the Bureau has taken to address certain shortcomings that the Bureau encountered during the dress rehearsal for the 2000 Census."

This Facility Work Plan (FWP) has been prepared as required by Module VII,Section VII.M.1 of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Hazardous Waste Permit, NM4890139088-TSDF (the Permit); (NMED, 1999a). This work plan describes the programmatic facility-wide approach to future investigations at Solid Waste Management Units (SWMUs) and Areas of Concern (AOCs) specified in the Permit. This FWP addresses the current Permit requirements. It uses the results of previous investigations performed at WIPP and expands the investigations as required by the Permit. As an alternative to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Facility Investigation (RFI) specified in Module VII of the Permit, current New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) guidance identifies an Accelerated Corrective Action Approach (ACAA) that may be used for any SWMU or AOC (NMED, 1998). This accelerated approach is used to replace the standard RFI Work Plan and Report sequence with a more flexible decision-making approach. The ACAA process allows a Facility to exit the schedule of compliance contained in the Facility’s Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA) permit module and proceed on an accelerated time frame. Thus, the ACAA process can be entered either before or after an RFI Work Plan. According to NMED’s guidance, a facility …

This report chronicles major developments in U.S. - China relations during the Clinton Administration, and in the 103rd through the 106th Congresses, from late 1992 to 1999.

The Clinton Administration is scheduled to decide by Fall 2000 whether the United States should begin deploying a National Missile Defense (NMD) system.This system could achieve initial operational capability by 2005 and would be designed to protect the United States from a limited attack by intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). As currently envisioned, the NMD system would operate as an integrated system that would rely on a variety of sensors to detect and track incoming missiles. One key program element is to upgrade the existing Early Warning Radars (EWR) so that they can detect and track the incoming missiles sooner. This report provides background information and technical details of these planned upgrades as well as their cost and schedule.

This plan includes the sampling, analysis, and quality assurance requirements for the 100-BC-5 Operable Unit on the USDOE Hanford Site.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory was awarded ten Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP) research grants in fiscal year 1996, six in fiscal year 1997, eight in fiscal year 1998 and seven in fiscal year 1999.(a) All of the fiscal year 1996 awards have been completed and the Principal Investigators are writing final reports, so their summaries will not be included in this document. This section summarizes how each of the currently funded grants addresses significant U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) cleanup issues, including those at the Hanford Site. The technical progress made to date in each of these research projects is addressed in more detail in the individual progress reports contained in this document. This research performed at PNNL is focused primarily in four areas: Tank Waste Remediation, Decontamination and Decommissioning, Spent Nuclear Fuel and Nuclear Materials, and Soil and Groundwater Cleanup.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory conducted a proof-of-principle test at the Fort Lewis Logistics Center to determine the feasibility of using the innovative remedial technology In Situ Redox Manipulation (ISRM) to treat groundwater contaminated with dissolved TCE. ISRM creates a permeable treatment zone in the subsurface to remediate redox-sensitive contaminants in groundwater. The permeable treatment zone is created by injecting a chemical reducing agent (sodium dithionite with pH buffers) into the aquifer through a well to chemically reduce the naturally occurring ferric iron in the sediments to ferrous iron. Once the reducing agent has been given sufficient time to react with aquifer sediments, residual chemicals and reaction products are withdrawn through the same well. Redox-sensitive contaminants such as TCE, moving in a dissolved-phase plume through the treatment zone, are destroyed. TCE is degraded via reductive dechlorination within the treatment zone to benign degradation products (acetylene, ehtylene). Analyses of sediment samples collected from post-test boreholes showed a high degree of iron reduction, which confirmed the effectiveness of the treatment zone.

By 2050, when cleanup of the Hanford Site is expected to be completed, large worldwide demands to increase the global production of animal and fish protein, food, and fiber are anticipated, despite advancements in crop breeding, genetic engineering, and other technologies. The most likely large areas for expanded irrigation in the Pacific Northwest are the undeveloped East High areas of the Columbia Basin Project and non-restricted areas within the Hanford Site in south-central Washington State. The area known as the Hanford Site has all the components that favor successful irrigated farming. Constraints to agricultural development of the Hanford Site are political and social, not economic or technical. Obtaining adequate water rights for any irrigated development will be a major issue. Numerous anticipated future advances in irrigation and resource conservation techniques such as precision agriculture techniques, improved irrigation systems, and irrigation system controls will greatly minimize the negative environmental impacts of agricultural activities.

This plan includes the sampling, analysis, and quality assurance requirements for the 100-FR-3 Operable Unit on the USDOE Hanford Site.

The Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) as amended by the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPACT) establishes that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) regulate efficiency levels of certain categories of commercial heating, cooling, and water-heating equip-ment. EPACT establishes the initial minimum efficiency levels for products falling under these categories, based on ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-1989 requirements. EPCA states that, if ASHRAE amends Standard 90.1-1989 efficiency levels, then DOE must establish an amended uniform national manufacturing standard at the minimum level specified in the amended Standard 90.1 and that it can establish higher efficiency levels if they would result in significant additional energy savings. Standard 90.1-1999 increases minimum efficiency levels for some of the equipment categories covered by EPCA 92. DOE conducted a screening analysis to determine the energy-savings potential for EPACT-covered products meet and exceeding these levels. This paper describes the methodology, data assumptions, and results of the analysis.

The purpose of this calculation is to evaluate the thermal performance of the naval long spent nuclear fuel (SNF) waste package (WP) under multiple disposal conditions in a monitored geologic repository (MGR). The scope of this calculation is limited to determination of thermal temperature profiles upon the surface of, and within, the naval long SNF WP. The objective is to develop a temperature profile history within the WP, at time increments up to 10,000 years of emplacement. The results of this calculation are intended to support the Naval SNF WP Analysis and Model Report (AMR) for Site Recommendation (SR). This calculation was performed to the specifications within its Technical Development Plan (TDP) (Ref. 8.16). This calculation is developed and documented in accordance with the AP-3.12Q/REV. 0IICN. 0 procedure, Calculations.