None

This CRADA provided technical support to the Weyerhaeuser Company on a number of issues related to the performance and/or selection of materials at a number of locations in a pulp and paper mill. The studies related primarily to components for black liquor recovery boilers, but some effort was directed toward black liquor gasifiers and rolls for paper machines. The purpose of this CRADA was to assist Weyerhaeuser in the evaluation of materials exposed in various paper mill environments and to provide direction in the selection of alternate materials, when appropriate.

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO addressed the Air Force's plan to replace a portion of its KC-135 aerial refueling tanker fleet with leased Boeing 767 aircraft. Although the Air Force has a long term requirement to replace its aging fleet of KC-135 tankers, the urgency of the need in the short term is unclear. The Air Force stated that the leasing arrangement would allow it to acquire new tankers three years earlier than through its most recent procurement plan. This would allow the Air Force to retire old, less capable KC-135s, thus saving maintenance costs on those aircraft. Because the Air Force is still negotiating the lease details, it could not provide information on the cost effectiveness of leasing aircraft instead of purchasing them. Although GAO has not taken a position on the overall policy of leasing versus purchasing defense equipment, it found that, from a cost standpoint, leasing is more expensive in the long run. Because the 767 aircraft is larger than the KC-135, there will be some infrastructure improvement costs, such as for building or modifying hangars, taxiways, and runway aprons. Additional costs would likely include simulators and project management. …

This ALARA analysis of Radiological Control Criteria (RCC) considers alternatives to continued storage of certain DOE mixed wastes. It also considers the option of treating hazardous wastes generated by DOE facilities, which have a very low concentration of radionuclide contaminants, as purely hazardous waste. Alternative allowable contaminant levels examined correspond to doses to an individual ranging from 0.01 mrem/yr to 10 to 20 mrem/yr. Generic waste inventory data and radionuclide source terms are used in the assessment. Economic issues, potential health and safety issues, and qualitative factors relating to the use of RCCs are considered.

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

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

The U.S. Energy Services Company (ESCO) industry is often cited as the most successful model for the private sector delivery of energy-efficiency services. This study documents actual performance of the ESCO industry in order to provide policymakers and investors with objective informative and customers with a resource for benchmarking proposed projects relative to industry performance. We have assembled a database of nearly 1500 case studies of energy-efficiency projects - the most comprehensive data set of the U.S. ESCO industry available. These projects include $2.55B of work completed by 51 ESCOs and span much of the history of this industry.

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

This patent-pending robust on-line weld process monitor developed by Argonne National Laboratory is capable of non-intrusively sensing weld surface changes, weld penetration, occurrence of weld spatter, direction of motion of workpiece relative to cover gas flow, and presence of surface impurities like oil on the workpiece. The development of the weld monitor took into account the constraints and operating environment of the factory floor in addition to monitoring needs for quality assurance. The non-intrusive weld monitor is rugged and simple to use, does not require power to operate, is weld spatter protected and low cost. This process monitor is available as a stand-alone monitor with laser pointing suitable as an inexpensive addition to an existing processing system. For constrained configurations, the monitor can be easily integrated into an existing optic module resulting in through-the-optic viewing. The stand-alone monitor's flexibility is suitable for test and evaluation or research and development applications where flexibility in pointing or change in optics is required. A photograph of the monitor is shown in Figure 1. The reproducibility of the monitor's signal output will depend on the accuracy and repeatability in aiming. Laser aiming that comes with the monitor offers the best overall accuracy and ease. …

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

Semi-weekly newspaper from Clifton, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

The Minimum Degree algorithm, one of the classical algorithms of sparse matrix computations, is widely used to order graphs to reduce the work and storage needed to solve sparse systems of linear equations. There has been extensive research involving practical implementations of this algorithm over the past two decades. However, little has been done to establish theoretical bounds on the computational complexity of these implementations. We study the Minimum Degree algorithm, and prove time complexity bounds for its widely used variants.

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

In previous years, the annual report concentrated on the work that was performed in the immediate past year. This year, in order to emphasize the great amount of progress that has been made, we will summarize our process and present the many membranes that we fabricated with high separation factors. One of our past major problems has been the classified status of much of our fabrication process. DOE has developed a review process whereby developed membranes can be reviewed for classified information and non-proliferation risk. When a membrane passes that review process the membrane can be declared unclassified and available for commercial manufacture. Currently, we have fifteen membranes/filters approved for commercial manufacture. At present; Pall Corporation is the only company licensed to manufacture these membranes/filters.

Neutron probes are being developed at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) for the detection, identification and quantification of hazardous materials in the ground. Such materials include plutonium, uranium, americium, chlorine and fluorine. Both a Neutron Gamma (NG) probe and a Prompt Fission Neutron (PFN) probe are being developed. The NG probe is used primarily for nuclide identification and quantification measurements. The PFN is used mostly for the detection and measurement of fissile material, but also for the determination of thermal neutron macroscopic absorption cross sections of the various elements comprising the ground matrix. Calibration of these probes will be carried out at the INEEL using an indoor facility that has been designed for this activity.

Price-responsive load (PRL) programs vary significantly in overall design, the complexity of relationships between program administrators, load aggregators, and customers, and the availability of ''enabling technologies''. Enabling technologies include such features as web-based power system and price monitoring, control and dispatch of curtailable loads, communications and information systems links to program participants, availability of interval metering data to customers in near real time, and building/facility/end-use automation and management capabilities. Two state agencies - NYSERDA in New York and the CEC in California - have been conspicuous leaders in the demonstration of demand response (DR) programs utilizing enabling technologies. In partnership with key stakeholders in these two states (e.g., grid operator, state energy agencies, and program administrators), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) surveyed 56 customers who worked with five contractors participating in CEC or NYSERDA-sponsored DR programs. We combined market research and actual load curtailment data when available (i.e., New York) or customer load reduction targets in order to explore the relative importance of contractor's program design features, sophistication of control strategies, and reliance on enabling technologies in predicting customer's ability to deliver load reductions in DR programs targeted to large commercial/industrial customers. We found …

None

The preparation and characterization of energetic composite materials containing nanometer-sized constituents is currently a very active and exciting area of research at laboratories around the world. Some of these efforts have produced materials that have shown very unique and important properties relative to traditional energetic materials. We have previously reported on the use of sol-gel chemical methods to prepare energetic nanocomposites. Primarily we reported on the sol-gel method to synthesize nanometer-sized ferric oxide that was combined with aluminum fuel to make pyrotechnic nanocomposites. Since then we have developed a synthetic approach that allows for the preparation of hybrid inorganic/organic energetic nanocomposites. This material has been characterized by thermal methods, energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy (EFTEM), N, adsorption/desorption methods, and Fourier-Transform (FT-IR) spectroscopy, results of which will be discussed. According to these characterization methods the organic polymer phase fills the nanopores of the composite material, providing superb mixing of the component phases in the energetic nanocomposite. The EFTEM results provide a convenient and effective way to evaluate the intimacy of mixing between these component phases. The safe handling and preparation of energetic nanocomposites is of paramount importance to this research and we will report on studies performed to ensure such.

Omnibus energy legislation (H.R. 4) that is now in conference would expand energy tax incentives significantly. The House passed the bill on August 2, 2001, and the Senate approved its version April 25, 2002. Several energy tax issues are addressed in these bills: 1) tax incentives to increase the supply of oil and gas, and the demand for coal; 2) energy tax issues relating to energy conservation and energy efficiency; 3) energy tax issues relating to alternative fuels; 4) selected issues relating to electricity restructuring; and 5) expiring energy tax provisions.

Cementitious materials have physical and chemical properties that are well suited for the requirements of radioactive waste management. Namely, the materials have low permeability and durability that is consistent with the time frame required for short-lived radionuclides to decay. Furthermore, cementitious materials can provide a long-term chemical environment that substantially reduces the mobility of some long-lived radionuclides of concern for decommissioning (e.g., C-14, Ni-63, Ni-59). Because of these properties, cementitious materials are common in low-level radioactive waste disposal facilities throughout the world and are an attractive option for entombment of nuclear facilities. This paper describes design considerations for cementitious barriers in the context of performance over time frames of a few hundreds of years (directed toward short-lived radionuclides) and time frames of thousands of years (directed towards longer-lived radionuclides). The emphasis is on providing a n overview of concepts for entombment that take advantage of the properties of cementitious materials and experience from the design of low-level radioactive waste disposal facilities. A few examples of the previous use of cementitious materials for entombment of decommissioned nuclear facilities and proposals for the use in future decommissioning of nuclear reactors in a few countries are also included to provide global perspective.

This letter report addresses the KE Basin sludge that will be retrieved and stored in large-diameter containers (LDCs.) A fraction of the hydrogen gas bubbles generated from the corrosion of uranium metal and oxides may be retained within the sludge matrix. Those entrapped bubbles will expand the sludge bed volume and, therefore, will affect how much sludge can be loaded into a container. The entrapped gas bubbles will also impact the overall thermal conductivity and heat capacity of the sludge bed. The evaluation summarized here was performed to estimate the maximum gas holdup (volume fraction gas) that could occur sludge stored in large-diameter containers, assuming uniform gas generation (i.e., uniform distribution of metallic uranium particles). This report represents an evaluation of the retention of uniformly distributed bubbles and an estimate of the maximum gas fraction that might be retained in K Basin LDCs based on existing literature data on bubble retention and Basin sludge characterization data. Existing data show that the maximum gas fraction varies, depending on physical properties and the configuration of the material or waste.

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

None

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO audited the financial statements of the Congressional Award Foundation for fiscal years 2000 and 1999 and the related statements of activities and cash flows. GAO found that (1) the financial statements were presented fairly in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, (2) the Foundation had effective internal control over financial reporting and compliance with laws and regulations, and (3) there was no reportable noncompliance with laws and regulations tested."