Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses (1) the relationship between Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audits of taxpayers and other programs IRS uses to ensure that taxpayers' returns are accurate and (2) how IRS is managing the increased workload in two of its programs--offers-in-compromise and innocent spouse claims. IRS audited more than 600,000 taxpayers in fiscal year 2000, either face-to-face or through the mail. IRS has several programs that use computerized screening procedures to review all tax returns to detect certain types of errors. These programs result in millions of contacts with taxpayers to inform them of adjustments IRS made to their liabilities, seek explanations for errors IRS believes were made, or ask taxpayers to check whether they erred on their returns. The programs vary in their similarity to audits; some of the programs are most similar to audits that IRS conducts through the mail. The programs that IRS uses to detect errors on tax returns rely completely on information that taxpayers report on the tax returns and that IRS receives from third parties. Therefore, audits remain an important tax enforcement tool. Several factors suggest that IRS may be gaining better management …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses GAO's analysis of security audits at federal agencies. The widespread interconnectivity of computers poses significant risks to federal computer systems and the operations and the infrastructures they support. GAO's evaluations show that federal computer systems are riddled with weaknesses that continue to put critical operations and assets at risk. GAO found weaknesses in following six areas: (1) security program management, (2) access controls, (3) software development and change controls, (4) segregation of duties, (5) operating systems controls, and (6) service continuity. Weaknesses in these areas place a broad range of critical operations and assets at risk for fraud, misuse, and disruption. Federal agencies have tried to address these problems, and many have good remedial efforts underway. However, these efforts will not be fully effective and lasting unless they are supported by a strong agencywide security management framework. Establishing such a management framework requires that agencies take a comprehensive approach that involves both (1) senior agency program managers who understand which aspects of their missions are the most critical and sensitive and (2) technical experts who know the agencies' systems and can suggest appropriate technical security …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "To determine the number and type of munitions needed, the military annually evaluates its munition requirements using a multiphase analytical process. The Department of Defense (DOD) is working to ensure that the requirements determination process yields accurate numbers and the types of munitions needed to defeat threats specified in the Defense Planning Guidance. Although DOD has made progress and has identified specific areas still requiring attention, there is no clear plan with time frames for resolving key issues. Some of these issues have only been partially completed and others are in the early stages of evolution. Specifically, target templates have not been completed and munitions effectiveness data has not been updated, nor have decisions been made on more detailed warfighting scenarios and the ranking of scenarios. Consequently, the reliability of the services' munitions requirements remain uncertain and could affect munitions planning, programming, budgeting, and industrial production base decisions. Until these issues are resolved and a revised Capabilities-Based Management Requirements instruction is issued, the accuracy of the munitions requirements will remain uncertain."

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The rise in greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion and industrial and agricultural activities has aroused international concern about the possible impacts of these emissions on climate. Greenhouse gases--mostly carbon dioxide, some methane, nitrous oxide and other trace gases--are emitted to the atmosphere, enhancing an effect in which heat reflected from the earth's surface is kept from escaping into space, as in a greenhouse. Thus, there is concern that the earth's surface temperature may rise enough to cause global climate change. Approximately 90% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from anthropogenic sources come from energy production and use, most of which are a byproduct of the combustion of fossil fuels. On a per capita basis, the United States is one of the world's largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, comprising 4% of the world's population, yet emitting 23% of the world's greenhouse gases. Emissions in the United States are increasing at around 1.2% annually, and the Energy Information Administration forecasts that emissions levels will continue to increase at this rate in the years ahead if we proceed down the business-as-usual path. President Clinton has presented a two-part challenge for the United States: reduce greenhouse gas emissions and grow the economy. …

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

Advanced structural ceramics are enabling materials for new transportation engine systems that have the potential for significantly reducing energy consumption and pollution in automobiles and heavy vehicles. Ceramic component reliability and performance have been demonstrated in previous U.S. DOE initiatives, but high manufacturing cost was recognized as a major barrier to commercialization. Norton Advanced Ceramics (NAC), a division of Saint-Gobain Industrial Ceramics, Inc. (SGIC), was selected to perform a major Advanced Ceramics Manufacturing Technology (ACMT) Program. The overall objectives of NAC's program were to design, develop, and demonstrate advanced manufacturing technology for the production of ceramic exhaust valves for diesel engines. The specific objectives were (1) to reduce the manufacturing cost by an order of magnitude, (2) to develop and demonstrate process capability and reproducibility, and (3) to validate ceramic valve performance, durability, and reliability. The program was divided into four major tasks: Component Design and Specification, Component Manufacturing Technology Development, Inspection and Testing, and Process Demonstration. A high-power diesel engine valve for the DDC Series 149 engine was chosen as the demonstration part for this program. This was determined to be an ideal component type to demonstrate cost-effective process enhancements, the beneficial impact of advanced ceramics on transportation systems, …

The effect of Cl on the activity of Pt/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} catalysts for methane oxidation has been studied by H{sub 2} and CO chemisorption, O{sub 2} isotopic exchange, kinetic studies and EXAFS spectroscopy. Catalysts containing 1.5% pt/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} were prepared by incipient wetness from H{sub 2}PtCl{sub 6} and Pt(NH{sub 3}){sub 4}(NO{sub 3}){sub 2} precursors. Both reduced catalysts have similar dispersion (0.8) as determined by H{sub 2} chemisorption. At low methane concentration (0.3 vol.% CH{sub 4}, 16 vol.% O{sub 2}) the Cl-free catalyst was about 20 times more active during complete methane oxidation than the Cl-containing catalyst. Both CO chemisorption and oxygen exchange were observed on the Cl-free catalyst, whereas they were not detected on the Cl-containing catalyst. On the Cl-free catalyst, only Pt-Pt and Pt-O bonds were detected from the EXAFS results, while on the Cl-containing catalyst additional Pt-Cl bonds were present. The effect of chlorine on activity strongly depended on the reactant concentration. Exposure of the Cl-free catalyst to higher concentrations of methane (3 vol.% CH{sub 4}) reduced the activity to a level similar to that of the Cl-containing catalyst. Addition of HCl to the Cl-free catalyst rendered the activity identical to the catalyst prepared from Cl-containing precursors. …

This study develops cumulative carbon ''supply curves'' for global forests utilizing a dynamic timber supply model for sequestration of forest carbon. Because the period of concern is the next century, and particular time points within that century, the curves are not traditional Marshallian supply curves or steady-state supply curves. Rather, the focus is on cumulative carbon cost curves (quasi-supply curves) at various points in time over the next 100 years. The research estimates a number of long-term, cumulative, carbon quasi-supply curves under different price scenarios and for different time periods. The curves trace out the relationship between an intertemporal price path for carbon, as given by carbon shadow prices, and the cumulative carbon sequestered from the initiation of the shadow prices, set at 2000, to a selected future year (2010, 2050, 2100). The timber supply model demonstrates that cumulative carbon quasi-supply curves that can be generated through forestry significantly depend on initial carbon prices and expectations regarding the time profile of future carbon prices. Furthermore, long-run quasi-supply curves generated from a constant price will have somewhat different characteristics from quasi-supply curves generated with an expectation of rising carbon prices through time.The ?least-cost? curves vary the time periods under consideration and …

In an earlier project, we analyzed data on total system load as well as the loads of eight large industrial customers (Kirby and Hirst 2000). We analyzed these data in terms of system and customer-specific requirements for two real-power ancillary services, regulation and load following. We conducted these analyses using 12 days of data from February 1999 plus 12 days of data from August and September 1999. The project discussed here focused on the supply side (provision) of these two services. Specifically, we examined the output of this control area's generation resources, in aggregate and by unit. We analyzed the performance of these generating units in two ways. First, we analyzed the contribution of these generators to overall system performance [generally relative to the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) standards]. Second, we analyzed performance relative to what the control center requested of the generators.

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The baseline DARHT-II converter target consists of foamed tantalum within a solid-density cylindrical tamper. The baseline design has been modified by D. Ho to further optimize the integrated line density of material in the course of multiple beam pulses. LASNEX simulations of the hydrodynamic expansion of the target have been performed by D. Ho (documented elsewhere). The resulting density profiles have been used as inputs in the MCNP radiation transport code to calculate the X-ray dose and spot size assuming a incoming Gaussian electron beam with {sigma} = 0.65mm, and a PIC-generated beam taking into account the ''swept'' spot emerging from the DARHT-II kicker system. A prerequisite to these calculations is the absorption spectrum of air. In order to obtain this, a separate series of MCNP runs was performed for a set of monoenergetic photon sources, tallying the energy deposited in a volume of air. The forced collision feature was used to improve the statistics since the photon mean free path in air is extremely long at the energies of interest. A sample input file is given below. The resulting data for the MCNP DE and DF cards is shown in the beam-pulse input files, one of which is listed …

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The purpose of this calculation is to determine the thermal response of the 44-boiling water reactor (BWR) waste package (WP) to the hypothetical regulatory fire accident. The objective is to calculate the temperature response of the waste package materials to the hypothetical short-term fire defined in 10 CFR 7 1, Section 73(c)(4), Reference 1. The scope of the calculation includes evaluation of the accident with the waste package above ground, at the Yucca Mountain surface facility. The scope of this calculation is limited to the two-dimensional waste package temperature calculations to support the waste package design. The information provided by the sketches attached to this calculation is that for the potential design of the type of WP considered in this calculation. In addition to the nominal design configuration thermal load case, the effects of varying the BWR thermal load are determined. The associated activity is the development of engineering evaluations to support the Licensing Application (LA) design activities.

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