A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the Financial Management Service's (FMS) computer controls in fiscal year (FY) 1999, focusing on: (1) the significant weaknesses GAO identified in its limited official use report and the recommendations that GAO had made; and (2) a follow-up on previously reported weaknesses."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on college tuition and fees, focusing on the changes in the 1995-1996 and 1999-2000 period compared with median household income."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Social Security Administration's (SSA) new rule on supplemental security income for childhood disabilities. GAO noted that: (1) the rule would revise and finalize the interim rule published on February 11, 1997, which implemented the childhood disabilities provisions of Public Law 104-193; and (2) SSA complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the letters the Social Security Administration (SSA) sends to the public, focusing on: (1) awarding Social Security benefits; (2) adjusting Social Security benefits; (3) awarding Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Program, benefits; and (4) adjusting SSI benefits."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO assessed the equality of the Social Security Administration's (SSA) letters to the public, focusing on the: (1) problems that make SSA's letters difficult to understand; and (2) status of SSA's actions to fix the problems."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the National Railroad Passenger Corporation's (Amtrak) intercity passenger rail, focusing on: (1) Amtrak's progress toward achieving operating self-sufficiency; (2) its capital investment needs and how these capital needs compare with expected federal funding; and (3) the future of Amtrak and intercity passenger rail."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the management challenges facing the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), focusing on: (1) HUD's progress in addressing the major management challenges identified in the past and GAO's plans for updating the risk status of HUD's programs; (2) issues HUD faces in ensuring that the reforms it has implemented are sustainable and will result in its becoming a high-performing federal agency, including GAO's plans for monitoring HUD's activities; and (3) the importance of congressional oversight in ensuring that federal agencies like HUD, successfully manage for results in the 21st century."

A new method for the solution of the unsteady Euler equations has been developed. The method combines staggered grid Lagrangian techniques with structured local adaptive mesh refinement (AMR). This method is a precursor to a more general adaptive arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE-AMR) algorithm under development, which will facilitate the solution of problems currently at and beyond the boundary of soluble problems by traditional ALE methods by focusing computational resources where they are required. Many of the core issues involved in the development of the ALE-AMR method hinge upon the integration of AMR with a Lagrange step, which is the focus of the work described here. The novel components of the method are mainly driven by the need to reconcile traditional AMR techniques, which are typically employed on stationary meshes with cell-centered quantities, with the staggered grids and grid motion employed by Lagrangian methods. These new algorithmic components are first developed in one dimension and are then generalized to two dimensions. Solutions of several model problems involving shock hydrodynamics are presented and discussed.

The radiation-damaged polystyrene (given the identification name of 'polycube') was fabricated by mixing high-density polystyrene material ("Dylene Fines # 100") with plutonium and uranium oxides. The polycubes were used in the 1960s for criticality studies during processing of spent nuclear fuel. The polycubes have since been stored for almost 40 years at the Hanford Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) after failure of two processes to reclaim the plutonium and uranium oxides from the polystyrene matrix. Thermal decomposition products from this highly cross-linked polystyrene matrix were characterized using Gas Chromatograph/Mass Spectroscopy (GC/MS) system coupled to a horizontal furnace. The decomposition studies were performed in air and helium atmospheres at about 773 K. The volatile and semi-volatile organic products for the radiation-damaged polystyrene were different compared to virgin polystyrene. The differences were in the number of organic species generated and their concentrations. In the inert (i.e., helium) atmosphere, the major volatile organic products identified (in order of decreasing concentrations) were styrene, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, nathphalene, propane, .alpha.-methylbenzene, indene and 1,2,3-trimethylbenzene. But in air, the major volatile organic species identified changed slightly. Concentrations of the organic species in the inert atmosphere were significantly higher than those for the air atmosphere processing. Overall, 38 …

Sluicing operations were performed to retrieve high-heat sludge from single-shell tank 241-C-106 and transfer it to double-shell tank 241-AY-102 using the Waste Retrieval Sluicing System. This eliminated the high-heat safety issue for C-106 and demonstrated a technology for retrieval of single-shell tank waste. Both AY-102 and C-106 were monitored during the waste transfer operations, providing a clear picture of general trends in each tank. Specific issues addressed were evaluation of the data for evidence of flammable gas accumulation in AY-102 and thermal performance of AY-102 under the increasing heat load.

Representing samll-scale features can be a challenge when one wants to model unsaturated flow in large domains. In this report, the various upscaling techniques are reviewed. The following upscaling methods have been identified from the literature: stochastic methods, renormalization methods, volume averaging and homogenization methods. In addition, a final technique, full resolution numerical modeling, is also discussed.

The purpose of the work described in this report was to identify methods that are currently being used in the Department of Energy (DOE) complex to identify and control hazards/risks in the workplace, evaluate them in terms of their effectiveness in reducing risk to the workers, and to develop a preliminary method that could be used to predict the relative risks to workers performing proposed tasks using some of the current methodology. This report describes some of the performance indicators (i.e., safety metrics) that are currently being used to track relative levels of workplace safety in the DOE complex, how these fit into an Integrated Safety Management (ISM) system, some strengths and weaknesses of using a statistically based set of indicators, and methods to evaluate them. Also discussed are methods used to reduce risk to the workers and some of the techniques that appear to be working in the process of establishing a condition of continuous improvement. The results of these methods will be used in future work involved with the determination of modifying factors for a more complex model. The preliminary method to predict the relative risk level to workers during an extended future time period is based on …

A total-system performance assessment (TSPA) for a potential nuclear-waste repository requires an estimate of the amount of water that might contact waste. This paper describes the model used for part of that estimation in a recent TSPA for the Yucca Mountain site. The discussion is limited to estimation of how much water might enter emplacement drifts; additional considerations related to flow within the drifts, and how much water might actually contact waste, are not addressed here. The unsaturated zone at Yucca Mountain is being considered for the potential repository, and a drift opening in unsaturated rock tends to act as a capillary barrier and divert much of the percolating water around it. For TSPA, the important questions regarding seepage are how many waste packages might be subjected to water flow and how much flow those packages might see. Because of heterogeneity of the rock and uncertainty about the future (how the climate will evolve, etc.), it is not possible to predict seepage amounts or locations with certainty. Thus, seepage is treated as a stochastic quantity in TSPA simulations, with the magnitude and spatial distribution of seepage sampled from uncertainty distributions. The distillation of the essential components of process modeling into …

On February 14 and 15, 2000, a demonstration of current perfluorocarbon tagging technology and the future potential of these methods was held at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The demonstration consisted of a brief technical discussion followed by a laboratory demonstration. The laboratory demonstrations included the detection of letters, parcels, briefcases and lockers containing perfluorocarbon-tagged papers. Discrimination between tagged and non-tagged items and between three perfluorocarbon tags was demonstrated along with the detection of perfluorocarbon in a background of non-fluorinated volatile organic solvent. All demonstrations involved real-time detection using a direct sampling ion trap mass spectrometer. The technical results obtained at ORNL during and in preparation for the demonstration are presented in Appendix 1 to assist Tracer Detection Technology Corp. in further evaluating their position on development and marketing of perfluorocarbon tracer technology.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Army's decision to revise its Shadow 200 tactical Unmanned Aerial vehicle acquisition strategy."

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Funeral program for Harold William Jones, M. D., born January 19, 1930 and died September 22, 2000. The funeral was held September 26, 2000 at St. Luke's Episcopal Church. Funeral arrangements were made through Lewis Funeral Home and he was buried in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery near San Antonio, Texas.

A theoretical model for the analysis of ultrasonic guided wave mode excitation of a comb transducer with time delay features was developed. Time delay characteristics are included via a Fourier transform into the frequency domain. The phase velocity spectrum can be used to determine the mode excitation on the phase velocity dispersion curves for a given structure. Experimental and theoretical results demonstrate the tuning of guided wave modes using a time delay comb transducer.

The Hanford Site 200 Area Effluent Treatment Facility (ETF) processes contaminated liquids derived from Hanford Site facilities. Groundwater monitoring for tritium and other constituents is required by the state-issued permit at 22 wells surrounding the facility. Water level measurements in nearby wells indicate that a small hydraulic mound exists around the SALDS facility as a result of discharges. Evaluation of this condition indicates that the network is currently adequate for tracking potential effects of the SALDS on the groundwater. During FY 2000, average tritium activities in most wells declined from average activities in 1999. The exception was deep well 699-48-77C, where tritium results were at an all-time high (710,000 pCi/L) as a result of the delayed penetration of effluent deeper into the aquifer. Of the 12 constituents with permit enforcement limits, which are monitored in SALDS proximal wells, all were within groundwater limitations during FY 2000. Analyses for conductivity, total dissolved solids, sulfate, chloride, sulfate, dissolved calcium, and dissolved sodium indicate that well 699-48-77A and, to a lesser extent, well 699-48-77D show the effects of dilute effluent entering groundwater, resulting in a depression of concentrations of these constituents below natural background levels. Recommendations for future monitoring include temporarily increasing the …

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

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ross Taggart. Taggart was born 21 May 1921 in Twin Falls, Idaho. He joined the Navy in 1938. He was assigned to the USS Langley (CV-1) and was wounded when she was attacked by Japanese aircraft and sank in February, 1942. He was rescued by the USS Whipple (DD-217) and transferred to the USS Pecos (AO-6). Two days later, the Pecos was attacked and sank. He was wounded again in the attack and transferred back to the Whipple, which went to Australia. After a stay in the hospital in Australia, Taggart returned to duty and was assigned to the USS Bullwheel (YO-46). Taggart was transferred to shore duty on Iwo Jima where he was severely wounded and placed aboard the hospital ship USS Bountiful (AH-9) for return to the United States. He traveled by hospital train to the Great Lakes Naval Hospital and spent 18 months recovering. He received a medical discharge and went to school using the GI Bill where he received a degree in chemical engineering.

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

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

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