A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal year 2000, the Department of Agriculture's Food Stamp Program, administered jointly by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) and the states, provided $15 billion in benefits to an average of 17.2 million low-income persons each month. FNS, which pays the full cost of food stamp benefits and half of the states' administrative costs, promulgates program regulations and oversees program implementation. The states run the program, determining whether households meet eligibility requirements, calculating monthly benefits the households should receive, and issuing benefits to participants. FNS assesses the accuracy of states' efforts to determine eligibility and benefits levels. Because of concerns about the integrity of Food Stamp Program payments, GAO examined the states' efforts to minimize food stamp payment errors and what FNS has done and could do to encourage and assist the states reduce such errors. GAO found that all 28 states it examined had taken steps to reduce payment errors. These steps included verifying the accuracy of benefit payments calculated through supervisory and other types of casefile reviews, providing specialized training for food stamp workers, analyzing quality control data to determine causes of errors …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since 1992, Congress has authorized more than $3 billion for the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program to help Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Moldova, and Georgia secure and eliminate weapons of mass destruction. Concerned about proper oversight of equipment and services provided by the program, Congress required the Department of Defense (DOD) to report annually on whether the assistance was being used as intended. This report reviews (1) whether DOD's oversight procedures produce the necessary information to determine if the threat reduction assistance, including equipment provided and services furnished, is being used as intended and (2) whether DOD can improve its oversight. GAO found that DOD has procedures in place that reasonably ensure that at least 95 percent of the assistance is being used as intended and is adequately accounted for. Because of access restrictions imposed by the Russian government, a limited amount of equipment--less than five percent of the total value of assistance provided--is in locations where access by U.S. personnel is not permitted. DOD can enhance the quality of its program oversight by better targeting and expanding the scope of its formal audit and …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Joint Strike Fighter Program (JSFP), the military's most expensive aircraft program, is intended to produce affordable, next-generation aircraft to replace aging aircraft in military inventories. Although JSFP has made good progress in some technology areas, the program may not meet its affordability objective because critical technologies are not projected to be matured to levels GAO believes would indicate a low risk program at the planned start of engineering and manufacturing development in October 2001."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "As concerns about terrorism have grown, Executive Branch responsibilities and authorities have received greater attention, which led to the 1998 appointment of a national coordinator in the National Security Council. Both Congress and the President have recognized the need to review and clarify the structure for overall leadership and coordination. The President recently requested that the Vice President oversee a coordinated national effort to improve national preparedness, including efforts to combat terrorism. Federal efforts to develop a national strategy to combat terrorism and related guidance have progressed, but key efforts remain incomplete. The first step toward developing a national strategy is to conduct a national threat and risk assessment. The Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have collaborated on such an assessment, but they have not formally coordinated with other departments and agencies on this task. Under current policy, the federal government also has improved its capabilities to respond to a domestic terrorist incident. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are tasked with leading federal efforts in their respective roles for managing a terrorist crisis and the consequences …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Congress authorized the Pilot Mentor Protege Program to boost the participation of small disadvantaged businesses as subcontractors and suppliers under Department of Defense (DOD) contracts. The program provides incentives for major defense contractors (mentors) to assist small disadvantaged businesses (proteges) in strengthening their ability to compete for work. However, DOD has been criticized for not establishing compelling evidence about the program's overall effectiveness. This report reviews (1) the relationship between the results of the Mentor-Protege Program and the statutory goal of awarding five percent of the total dollar amount contracted by DOD and subcontracted by DOD prime contractors to small disadvantaged businesses; (2) whether the Mentor-Protege Program enhanced the business competitiveness, financial independence, and business development of protege firms; and (3) whether program funds had been used as an effective incentive for mentor firms to participate in the program. GAO found that DOD lacks data integral to assessing the success of the Mentor-Protege Program. DOD lacks enough information to determine the relationship between the program and the goal of awarding five percent of the total dollar amount contracted to small disadvantaged businesses. Although DOD has consistently …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Concerns have arisen about the 37-year-old statutory provision commonly known as Section 13(c). Before the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) may make grants to transit applicants, the Department of Labor (DOL) must certify that fair and equitable arrangements are in place to protect mass transit employees affected. Section 13(c) requires that the arrangements provide for continued of collective bargaining rights and protect of employees against a worsening of their positions. Once certified, the arrangements are incorporated into the grant agreement between FTA and the grantee. Critics claim that Section 13(e) greatly increases the cost of transit operations, hinders transit agencies' efforts to adopt new technology, and constrains the efficient operation of transit systems. Supporters counter that Section 13(c) has enhanced labor-management stability and has improved communication and working relationships between management and labor. The transit agencies GAO surveyed reported that Section 13(c) had a minimal impact on their (1) labor costs, (2) ability to adopt new technologies, and (3) ability to modify transit operations. Transit agencies reported that Section 13(c) has delayed the award of federal grants and has presented a burden regarding time, efforts, and resources. …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Public assessments by Department of Defense (DOD) officials have emphasized the seriousness of the military threat from chemical and biological (CB) weapons. However, neither DOD nor the services have systematically examined the adequacy of the current specialty mix of medical personnel for CB defense. Although some of the services have begun to review the adequacy of staffing of deployable medical units that would manage the consequences of chemical warfare scenarios, they have not done so for biological warfare scenarios. Joint protocols for treating CB casualties have recently been completed, but the services have not yet agreed on which health care providers should provide treatment. Relatively few military health care providers are trained to a standard of proficiency in providing care to CB casualties. The service surgeons general have begun integrating chemical and a few biological scenarios into their medical exercises, but no realistic field exercise of medical support for CB warfare had been concluded. DOD and the services have not fully addressed weaknesses and gaps in modeling, planning, training, tracking, or proficiency testing for the treatment of CB casualties. The resulting medical structure has not been …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The federal government has an annual, governmentwide procurement goal of at least five percent for small disadvantaged businesses (SDB). SDBs are eligible for various price and evaluation benefits when being considered for federal contract awards. SDB firms must have their SDB status certified by the Small Business Administration (SBA). Because of concerns over reports that fewer businesses were receiving SDB certification than expected, GAO examined the SBA certification processes to (1) determine the number of businesses that SBA had certified as socially and economically disadvantaged since the implementation of the Small Disadvantaged Business Certification program and (2) obtain views on reasons for the current difference in the number of SDB certifications from the number that had previously self-certified as SDBs. SBA records show that 9,034 small business firms were certified as SDBs as of August 24, 2000. According to SDB officials, 6,405 of these were automatically certified because of their 8(a) certification. The number of SDBs that have been certified by SBA is significantly lower than the 30,000 projected by SBA based on the number of firms that had self-certified as SDBs. Possible reasons for this …

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The author assumes that the reader is familiar with the Spherical harmonics, Pn, method and the discrete ordinates, S{sub n}, method; for a derivation of the equations used in these methods. I will only discuss the Boltzmann equation in one dimension, and the Sn method using Gaussian quadrature. I will do this merely to simplify the following discussion; once you understand the concepts presented here you can easily extend the conclusions to more general situations. Why are the spherical harmonics P{sub n} and discrete ordinate S{sub n} methods, or more correctly the P{sub n} and S{sub n+1} methods, equivalent, e.g., P{sub 3} is equivalent to S{sub 4}? When the S{sub n} method uses a Gaussian quadrature most textbooks will tell you that both methods are equivalent to assuming that the angular flux can be represented by a Legendre polynomial expansion of order n. Most textbooks are wrong [1]. We know that the S{sub n} method constrains the ''particles'' to travel in discrete directions; when Gaussian quadrature is used these discrete directions correspond to the zeros of the Legendre polynomial P{sub n+1}({mu}). What is not immediately obvious is that the P{sub n} method constrains the ''particles'' in exactly the same way. …

This report discusses the fees associated with automated teller machines (ATMs) that was increased as a result of a 1996 Visa U.S.A. and MasterCard International decision.

Executive orders and proclamations are used extensively by Presidents to achieve policy goals, set uniform standards for managing the Executive Branch, or outline a policy view intended to influence the behavior of private citizens. The Constitution does not define these presidential instruments, and does not explicitly vest the President with the authority to issue them. Nonetheless, such orders are accepted as an inherent aspect of presidential power, and, if based on appropriate authority, they have the force and effect of law. This report discusses the nature of executive orders and proclamations, with a focus on the scope of presidential authority to execute such instruments and judicial and congressional responses thereto.

Many organizations worldwide develop standards that affect nuclear instrumentation and control (I and C). Two of the primary standards organizations are the US IEEE's Nuclear Power Engineering Committee (NPEC), and the IEC subcommittee on Reactor Instrumentation (SC45A). This paper surveys the contents of the two sets of standards. Opportunities for complementary use of IEEE and IEC standards are discussed. The collections of IEEE. and IEC standards have some overlap, but in many cases cover significantly different topics. For example, IEEE standards go to great depth on environmental qualification of many specific types of components, while IEC covers the topic only at the general level. Conversely, certain IEC standards deal with specific instrumentation and control functions, a topic area where IEEE standards are largely mute. This paper considers how the two sets of standards may be used in a complementary fashion to achieve broader topic coverage than is possible using only one or the other standard suite. To understand the similarities and differences between IEC and IEEE nuclear standards layer diagrams were developed for each set of standards. Another paper [Johnson, 2001] used the same layer diagrams to investigate where coordination between the two sets of standards is most critical.

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This report provides the results of detailed hydrologic characterization tests conducted within newly constructed Hanford Site wells during FY 1999. Detailed characterization tests performed during FY 1999 included: groundwater flow characterization, barometric response evaluation, slug tests, single-well tracer tests, constant-rate pumping tests, and in-well vertical flow tests. Hydraulic property estimates obtained from the detailed hydrologic tests include: transmissivity, hydraulic conductivity, specific yield, effective porosity, in-well lateral flow velocity, aquifer flow velocity, vertical distribution of hydraulic conductivity (within the well-screen section) and in-well vertical flow velocity. In addition, local groundwater flow characteristics (i.e., hydraulic gradient and flow direction) were determined for four sites where detailed well testing was performed.

This report catalogs the existing geologic data that can be found in various databases, published and unpublished reports, and in individuals' technical files. The scope of this catalog is primarily on the 100, 200, and 300 Areas, with a particular emphasis on the 200 Areas. Over 2,922 wells are included in the catalog. Nearly all of these wells (2,459) have some form of driller's or geologist's log. Archived samples are available for 1,742 wells. Particle size data are available from 1,078 wells and moisture data are available from 356 wells. Some form of chemical property data is available from 588 wells. However, this catalog is by no means complete. Numerous individuals have been involved in various geologic-related studies of the Hanford Site. The true extent of unpublished data retained in their technical files is unknown. However, this data catalog is believed to represent the majority (>90%) of the geologic data that is currently retrievable.

The objective of this report is to compare the benefits and costs of modifications proposed for intake gate closure systems at four hydroelectric stations on the Lower Snake and Upper Columbia Rivers in the Walla Walla District that are unable to meet the COE 10-minute closure rule due to the installation of fish screens. The primary benefit of the proposed modifications is to reduce the risk of damage to the station and environs when emergency intake gate closure is required. Consequently, this report presents the results and methodology of an extensive risk analysis performed to assess the reliability of powerhouse systems and the costs and timing of potential damages resulting from events requiring emergency intake gate closure. As part of this analysis, the level of protection provided by the nitrogen emergency closure system was also evaluated. The nitrogen system was the basis for the original recommendation to partially disable the intake gate systems. The risk analysis quantifies this protection level.

This report is a compilation of 7 studies conducted for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1995 and 1998 which used hydroacoustic methods to study the behavior of migrating salmon in response to navigation channel maintenance activities in the lower Columbia River near river mile 45. Differences between daytime and nighttime behavior and fish densities were noted. Comparisons were made of fish distribution across the river (in the channel, channel margin or near shore) and fish depth upstream and downstream of dikes, dredges, and pile driving areas.

Discovered three new proteins involved in DNA damage assessment. Interestingly they are all proteins involved in recombination, but they have very different roles in that process and other proteins that might be expected to be equivalently involved are not. This is developing into a very significant area of research.

The purpose of the inventory abstraction, which has been prepared in accordance with a technical work plan (CRWMS M&O 2000e for ICN 02 of the present analysis, and BSC 2001e for ICN 03 of the present analysis), is to: (1) Interpret the results of a series of relative dose calculations (CRWMS M&O 2000c, 2000f). (2) Recommend, including a basis thereof, a set of radionuclides that should be modeled in the Total System Performance Assessment in Support of the Site Recommendation (TSPA-SR) and the Total System Performance Assessment in Support of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (TSPA-FEIS). (3) Provide initial radionuclide inventories for the TSPA-SR and TSPA-FEIS models. (4) Answer the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)'s Issue Resolution Status Report ''Key Technical Issue: Container Life and Source Term'' (CLST IRSR) key technical issue (KTI): ''The rate at which radionuclides in SNF [spent nuclear fuel] are released from the EBS [engineered barrier system] through the oxidation and dissolution of spent fuel'' (NRC 1999, Subissue 3). The scope of the radionuclide screening analysis encompasses the period from 100 years to 10,000 years after the potential repository at Yucca Mountain is sealed for scenarios involving the breach of a waste package and subsequent degradation …

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has prepared a total system performance assessment for a site recommendation (TSPA-SR), if suitable, on Yucca Mountain for disposal of radioactive waste. Discussed here is the Cladding Degradation Component of the Waste Form Degradation Model (WF Model), of the TSPA-SR. The Cladding Degradation Component determines the degradation rate of the Zircaloy cladding on commercial spent nuclear fuel (CSNF) and, thereby, the CSNF matrix exposed and radioisotopes available for dissolution in any water present. Since the 1950s, most CSNF has been clad with less than 1 mm (usually between 600 and 900 {micro}m) of Zircaloy, a zirconium alloy. Zircaloy cladding is not a designed engineered barrier of the Yucca Mountain disposal system, but rather is an existing characteristic of the CSNF that is important to determining the release rate of radioisotopes once the waste package (WP) has breached. Although studies of cladding degradation from fluoride [F] began at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as early as 1984, cladding as a characteristic of the waste was not considered in TSPAs, conducted in the early 1990s. However, enough information on cladding performance has accumulated in the literature such that cladding was considered in 1993 when examining the performance …

Pennsylvanian-age Morrow reservoirs are a key component of a large fluvial-deltaic system that extends across portions of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. A problem that operators have to solve in some Morrow plays in this multi-state area is that many of the fluvial channels within the Morrow interval are invisible to seismic compressional (P) waves. This P-wave imaging problem forces operators in such situations to site infill, field-extension, and exploration wells without the aid of 3-D seismic technology. The objective of this project was to develop and demonstrate seismic technology that can improve drilling success in Morrow plays. Current P-wave technology commonly results in 80-percent of Morrow exploration wells not penetrating economic reservoir facies. Studies at Colorado School of Mines have shown that some of the Morrow channels that are elusive as P-wave targets create robust shear (S) wave reflections (Rampton, 1995). These findings caused Visos Energy to conclude that exploration and field development of Morrow prospects should be done by a combination of P-wave and S-wave seismic imaging. To obtain expanded information about the P and S reflectivity of Morrow facies, 9-component vertical seismic profile (9-C VSP) data were recorded at three locations along the Morrow trend. These data …

The report presents calculation results of isotopic composition of irradiated fuel performed for the Quad Cities-1 reactor bundle with UO{sub 2} and MOX fuel. The MCU-REA code was used for calculations. The code is developed in Kurchatov Institute, Russia. The MCU-REA results are compared with the experimental data and HELIOS code results.

This report covers work performed during FY 1999-2000 in support of treatment demonstrations conducted for the Mercury Working Group of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Mixed Waste Focus Area. In order to comply with the requirements of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, as implemented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), DOE must use one of these procedures for wastes containing mercury at levels above 260 ppm: a retorting/roasting treatment or an incineration treatment (if the wastes also contain organics). The recovered radioactively contaminated mercury must then be treated by an amalgamation process prior to disposal. The DOE Mixed Waste Focus Area and Mercury Working Group are working with the EPA to determine if some alternative processes could treat these types of waste directly, thereby avoiding for DOE the costly recovery step. They sponsored a demonstration in which commercial vendors applied their technologies for the treatment of two contaminated waste soils from Brookhaven National Laboratory. Each soil was contaminated with {approx}4500 ppm mercury; however, one soil had as a major radioelement americium-241, while the other contained mostly europium-152. The project described in this report addressed the need for data on the mercury vapor released by the solidified/stabilized mixed …