A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "For fiscal year 2003, the Department of Defense (DOD) asked for about $185 billion to develop, procure, operate, and maintain its weapon systems. This request represents an increase of 18 percent since 2001 for the total ownership costs of DOD weapon systems. Often, DOD systems need expensive spare parts and support systems after they are fielded to meet required readiness levels. DOD has been increasingly concerned that the high cost of maintaining systems has limited its ability to modernize and invest in new weapons. This report examines the best practices of leading commercial firms to manage a product's total ownership costs and determines if those practices can be applied to DOD."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "By the year 2006, the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) projects it will lose a significant portion of its mission-critical workforce to retirement. Since fiscal year 1998, VBA has hired over 2,000 new employees to begin to fill this expected gap. GAO was asked to review, with particular attention for new employees, (1) the attrition rate at VBA and the soundness of its methods for calculating attrition and (2) whether VBA has adequate data to effectively analyze the reasons for attrition. To answer these questions, we obtained and analyzed attrition data from VBA's Office of Human Resources, calculated attrition rates for VBA and other federal agencies using a government-wide database on federal employment, and interviewed VBA officials about their efforts to measure attrition and determine why new employees leave."

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate relating to inviting the Governor to address a joint session of the legislature on Tuesday, February 11, 2003, at 11:30 a.m.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Implementation of 1999 amendments to article XVI, section 30a, of the Texas Constitution, which governs the membership and terms of office of members of certain state boards (RQ-0587-JC)

This report discusses bills related to Medicare benefits, which include additional assistance for low-income beneficiaries. The assistance would have been in the form of reduced, subsidized or eliminated premiums, deductibles and other cost-sharing. Proposals in the 108th Congress will probably also include some of these features for low-income beneficiaries.

The work conducted under this grant demonstrated that the hyperthermophilic bacterium Thermotoga neapolitana carries out glucose and lactose transport in a sodium-dependent manner and that energization of anaerobic cells is required to observe transport. We also demonstrated that Thermotoga maritima carries out maltose and glucose transport using periplasmic sugar binding proteins. We began defining patterns of expression of genes encoding sugar transport and catabolic functions in both T. maritima and T. neapolitana. We began a collaborative effort to identify all the genes regulated at the transcriptional level in response to sugars substrates. These funds also allowed us to begin an examination of the functions of several periplasmic substrate binding proteins encoded in the genome of T. maritima.

Reservoir simulations of different fields in the Green River Formation are reported. Most extensive simulations were performed on the Monument Butte Northeast unit. Log data were used to construct detailed geostatistical models, which were upscaled to obtain reasonable number of grid blocks for reservoir simulation. Porosities, permeabilities, and water saturations required for reservoir simulation were thus generated. Comparison of the production results with the field data revealed that there was a phenomenological deficiency in the model. This was addressed by incorporating hydraulic fractures into the models. With this change, much better agreement between simulation results and field data was obtained. Two other fields, Brundage Canyon and Uteland Butte, were simulated in primary production. Only preliminary simulations were undertaken since a number of critical data elements were missing and could not be obtained from the operators. These studies revealed that the production performance of the Brundage Canyon field is much better than what can be predicted from simulations of a typical non-fractured, undersaturated reservoir. Uteland Butte field performance was that of a typical undersaturated reservoir.

A new kind of fishbone instability associated with circulating energetic ions is predicted. The considered instability is essentially the energetic particle mode; it is characterized by m/n not equal to 1 (m and n are the poloidal and toroidal mode numbers, respectively). The mode is localized inside the flux surface where the safety factor (q) is q* = m/n, its amplitude being maximum near q*. The instability arises in plasmas with small shear inside the q* surface and q(0) > 1. A possibility to explain recent experimental observations of the m = 2 fishbone oscillations accompanied by strong changes of the neutron emission during tangential neutral-beam injection in the National Spherical Torus Experiment [M. Ono, et al., Nucl. Fusion 40 (2000) 557] is shown.

This report is a summary of results from characterization of the glass waste form that was produced from pretreatment and melter vitrification of this supernate sample.

This research was directed toward developing a systematic reservoir characterization methodology which can be used by the petroleum industry to implement infill drilling programs and/or enhanced oil recovery projects in naturally fractured reservoir systems in an environmentally safe and cost effective manner. It was anticipated that the results of this research program will provide geoscientists and engineers with a systematic procedure for properly characterizing a fractured reservoir system and a reservoir/horizontal wellbore simulator model which can be used to select well locations and an effective EOR process to optimize the recovery of the oil and gas reserves from such complex reservoir systems.

This research program was directed at improving the knowledge of reservoir ecology and developing practical microbial solutions for improving oil production. The goal was to identify indigenous microbial populations which can produce beneficial metabolic products and develop a methodology to stimulate those select microbes with nutrient amendments to increase oil recovery. This microbial technology has the capability of producing multiple oil-releasing agents.

Two, 111-GBq (3 Curie) radium-beryllium (RaBe) sources were in underground storage at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) since 1988. These sources originated from the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) where they were used to calibrate neutron detection diagnostics. In 1999, PPPL and BNL began a collaborative effort to expand the use of an innovative pilot-scale technology and bring it to full-scale deployment to shield these sources for eventual transport and burial at the Hanford Burial site. The transport/disposal container was constructed of depleted uranium oxide encapsulated in polyethylene to provide suitable shielding for both gamma and neutron radiation. This new material can be produced from recycled waste products (depleted uranium and polyethylene), is inexpensive, and can be disposed with the waste, unlike conventional lead containers, thus reducing exposure time for workers. This paper will provide calculations and information that led to the initial design of the shielding. We will also describe the production-scale processing of the container, cost, schedule, logistics, and many unforeseen challenges that eventually resulted in the successful fabrication and deployment of this shield. We will conclude with a description of the final configuration of the shielding container and shipping package along with recommendations for future shielding designs.

As part of the River Protection Project (RPP), the United States Department of Energy (DOE) is developing a process for treating and immobilizing radioactive waste that is being stored in tanks at the DOE site in Hanford Washington. The results in this report are from analysis of a glass waste form that was produced by six furnace vitrification tests.

This research program was directed at improving the knowledge of reservoir ecology and developing practical microbial solutions for improving oil production. The goal was to identify indigenous microbial populations which can produce beneficial metabolic products and develop a methodology to stimulate those select microbes with inorganic nutrient amendments to increase oil recovery. This microbial technology has the capability of producing multiple oil releasing agents. The potential of the system will be illustrated and demonstrated by the example of biopolymer production on oil recovery.

Experimental and computational studies were performed to evaluate the effectiveness of an Argon Reservoir (AR). The AR is designed to prevent the ingress of air into the extraction furnace during the insertion and removal of the extraction basket, which contains Tritium Producing Burnable Absorber Rods. Computational computer code studies were performed to evaluate the AR design concept. Based on the results of this study it was concluded that the Argon reservoir would be very effective in keeping air and moisture from infiltrating into the furnace module if the reservoir was continuously supplied with make-up argon.

Log data (porosity and water saturation) for D and the C sands was available at 0.5 foot intervals. The data was imported into HERESIM, a geostatistical tool. This permitted assigning constraining surfaces.

This research program was directed at improving the knowledge of reservoir ecology and developing practical microbial solutions for improving oil production. The goal was to identify indigenous microbial populations which can produce beneficial metabolic products and develop a methodology to stimulate those select microbes with inorganic nutrient amendments to increase oil recovery. This microbial technology has the capability of producing multiple oil-releasing agents.

Anastamosing, low gradient distributary channels produce {approx}30 gravity, paraffinic oils from the Middle Member of the lacustrine Eocene Green River Formation in the south-central portion of the Uinta Basin. This localized depocenter was situated along the fluctuating southern shoreline of Lake Uinta, where complex deposits of marginal-lacustrine to lower delta plain accumulations are especially characteristic. The Middle Member contains several fining-upward parasequences that can be recognized in outcrop, core, and downhole logs. Each parasequence is about 60 to 120 feet thick and consists of strata deposited during multiple lake level fluctuations that approach 30 to 35 feet in individual thickness. Such parasequences represent 300,000-year cycles based on limited absolute age dating. The subaerial to subaqueous channels commonly possess an erosional base and exhibit a fining upward character. Accordingly, bedding features commonly range from large-scale trough and planar cross bedding or lamination at the base, to a nonreservoir, climbing ripple assemblage near the uppermost reservoir boundary. The best reservoir quality occurs within the laminated to cross-stratified portions, and the climbing ripple phase usually possesses more deleterious micas and/or detrital clays. Diagenesis also exerts a major control on reservoir quality. Certain sandstones were cemented by an early, iron-poor calcite cement, which can …

High Harmonic Fast Wave (HHFW) heating has been proposed as a particularly attractive means for plasma heating and current drive in the high-beta plasmas that are achievable in spherical torus (ST) devices. The National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) [Ono, M., Kaye, S.M., Neumeyer, S., et al., Proceedings, 18th IEEE/NPSS Symposium on Fusion Engineering, Albuquerque, 1999, (IEEE, Piscataway, NJ (1999), p. 53.)] is such a device. An radio-frequency (rf) heating system has been installed on NSTX to explore the physics of HHFW heating, current drive via rf waves and for use as a tool to demonstrate the attractiveness of the ST concept as a fusion device. To date, experiments have demonstrated many of the theoretical predictions for HHFW. In particular, strong wave absorption on electrons over a wide range of plasma parameters and wave parallel phase velocities, wave acceleration of energetic ions, and indications of current drive for directed wave spectra have been observed. In addition HHFW heating has been used to explore the energy transport properties of NSTX plasmas, to create H-mode (high-confinement mode) discharges with a large fraction of bootstrap current and to control the plasma current profile during the early stages of the discharge.

None

Vertical vibration of linac components (accelerating structures, girders and quadrupoles) in the NLC has been studied experimentally and analytically. Effects such as structural resonances and vibration caused by cooling water both in accelerating structures and quadrupoles have been considered. Experimental data has been compared with analytical predictions and simulations using ANSYS. A design, incorporating the proper decoupling of structure vibrations from the linac quadrupoles, is being pursued.

The purpose of this document is to provide the initial scientific basis for considering supplementary techniques for removing or stabilizing 129-I and 99-Tc in the subsurface. These methods must be deployable in conjunction with in situ pH adjustment or other in situ remediation of groundwater associated with the F-Area Seepage Basins. Other criteria for inclusion in this report are that the method satisfies generally accepted regulatory guidance, is relatively easy to apply, and is cost effective.

At the Savannah River Site (SRS), the High-Level Waste (HLW) Tank Farms store and process high-level liquid radioactive wastes from the Canyons and recycle water from the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF). The waste is concentrated using evaporators to minimize the volume of space required for HLW storage. After evaporation, the waste concentrate is transferred to one or more receipt storage tanks. Recently, the 2H Evaporator was shutdown due to the crystallization of sodium aluminosilicates (NAS) solids that contained elementally enriched uranium (U) precipitates. The scale deposits resided on the evaporator walls and other exposed internal surfaces within the evaporator pot. Little is known about U interactions with NAS in HLW solutions. Hence, this research was conducted to improve our basic understanding of one possible mechanism for U accumulation in the evaporators and in other SRS process areas. These studies will help support the basis for the continued safe operation of SRS evaporators and provide information on other issues associated with U behavior in the tank farms. For example, the knowledge of such fundamental information could help mitigate U accumulation during evaporator operation and optimize saltcake dissolution.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 2000, Congress created general aviation entitlement grants to provide funding up to $150,000 per fiscal year to individual general aviation airports. These grants fund capital improvements and repair projects. GAO was asked to (1) assess the amount of funding airports used, (2) identify the types of projects undertaken, and (3) convey suggestions made by interested parties to improve the grants in preparation for the reauthorization of the legislation in 2003."