Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the results of security tests we performed in which agents of the Office of Special Investigations (OSI), acting in an undercover capacity, entered the United States from various countries in the Western Hemisphere using counterfeit documentation and fictitious identities. This work was initially undertaken at the request of the Senate Finance Committee and was continued at the request of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims, House Committee on the Judiciary. The purpose of our tests was to determine whether U.S. government officials conducting inspections at ports of entry would detect the counterfeit identification documents."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Subcommittee on Government Efficiency and Financial Management, House Committee on Government Reform asked GAO to testify on the Improper Payments Information Act (PL-107-300) and related draft guidance issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and on GAO recommendations to agencies on actions they can take to prevent or reduce improper payments."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since 1998, the 34 democratic nations of the Western Hemisphere have been negotiating a Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement to eliminate tariffs and create common trade and investment rules for these nations. The United States will co-chair, with Brazil, the final phase of the negotiations, due to conclude in January 2005. GAO was asked to (1) review challenges that the United States faces as co-chair of the final negotiating phase and (2) discuss risks that the United States may encounter, as host, in Miami, of the November 2003 ministerial meeting."

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate relating to designating September 2003 as Leukemia and Lymphoma Awareness Month in Texas.

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; Whether a well that was installed prior to September 1, 2002, but that was capped and will not be used to produce water until some indefinite time after the date, is a "public water supply well" exempt from regulation by the Trinity Glen Rose Groundwater Conservation District (RQ-0631-JC)

Alloy 22 (UNS N60622) is a nickel-based alloy, which is extensively used in aggressive industrial applications, especially due to its resistance to localized corrosion and stress corrosion cracking in high chloride environments. The purpose of this work was to characterize the anodic behavior of Alloy 22 in concentrated calcium chloride (CaCl{sub 2}) brines and to evaluate the inhibitive effect of nitrate, especially to localized corrosion. Standard electrochemical tests such as polarization resistance and cyclic polarization were used. Results show that the corrosion potential of Alloy 22 was approximately -360 mV in the silver-silver chloride (SSC) scale and independent of the tested temperature. Cyclic polarization tests showed that Alloy 22 was mainly susceptible to localized attack in 5 M CaCl{sub 2} at 75 C and higher temperatures. The addition of nitrate in a molar ratio of chloride to nitrate equal to 10 increased the onset of localized corrosion to approximately 105 C. The addition of nitrate to the solution also decreased the uniform corrosion rate and the passive current of the alloy.

Negative halogen ion beams have recently been proposed as heavy ion fusion drivers. They would avoid the problem of electron accumulation in positive ion beams, and could be efficiently photodetached to neutrals if desired [1]. Initial experiments using chlorine produced a current density of 45 mA/cm{sup 2} of 99.5% atomic negative Cl with an e/Cl{sup -} ratio as low as 7:1 and good emittance.

Ophir Corporation was awarded a contract by the U. S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory under the Project Title ''Airborne, Optical Remote Sensing of Methane and Ethane for Natural Gas Pipeline Leak Detection'' on October 14, 2002. This six-month technical report summarizes the progress for each of the proposed tasks, discusses project concerns, and outlines near-term goals. Ophir has completed a data survey of two major natural gas pipeline companies on the design requirements for an airborne, optical remote sensor. The results of this survey are disclosed in this report. A substantial amount of time was spent on modeling the expected optical signal at the receiver at different absorption wavelengths, and determining the impact of noise sources such as solar background, signal shot noise, and electronic noise on methane and ethane gas detection. Based upon the signal to noise modeling and industry input, Ophir finalized the design requirements for the airborne sensor, and released the critical sensor light source design requirements to qualified vendors. Responses from the vendors indicated that the light source was not commercially available, and will require a research and development effort to produce. Three vendors have responded positively with proposed design solutions. Ophir has …

This paper provides a description of the remote ultrasonic examinations of a high level radioactive waste storage tank at the Savannah River Site. The inspections were performed from the contaminated, annular space of the 46 year old, inactive, 1.03 million gallon waste storage tank.

This report summarizes a 12-year program of various kinds of synchrotron spectroscopies directed at the electronic structures of narrow band and low-dimensional materials that display correlated electron behaviors such as metal-insulator transitions, mixed valence, superconductivity, Kondo moment quenching, heavy Fermions, and non-Fermi liquid properties.

The Department of Energy selected caustic-side solvent extraction (CSSX) as the preferred cesium-removal technology for SRS high-level waste. In the pretreatment step of the CSSX flowsheet, the incoming salt solution, which contains entrained sludge, is contacted with MST to adsorb strontium and selected actinides. An alternative approach replaces MST with the addition of sodium permanganate, strontium nitrate, and hydrogen peroxide. The pretreatment operation then filters the resulting slurry to remove the sludge and MST or manganese oxide and strontium carbonate solids. The filtrate receives further treatment in the solvent extraction system

Ultrafiltration and ion exchange are among the pretreatment processes selected for the WTP at the Hanford Site. This study is the second part of a two-part study on Evaluating the Effects of Tri-Butyl Phosphate and Normal Paraffin Hydrocarbon in Simulated Low-Activity Waste Solution on Ultrafiltration and Ion Exchange.

Aqueous radioactive wastes from Savannah River Site (SRS) separations and vitrification processes are contained in large underground carbon steel tanks. Inspections made during 2002 to evaluate these vessels and other waste handling facilities along with evaluations based on data from previous inspections are the subject of this report.

Various types of neutron generator systems have been designed and tested at the Plasma and Ion Source Technology Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. These generators are based on a D-D fusion reaction. These high power D-D neutron generators can provide neutron fluxes in excess of the current state of the art D-T neutron generators, without the use of pre-loaded targets or radioactive tritium gas. Safe and reliable long-life operations are the typical features of these D-D generators. All of the neutron generators developed in the Plasma and Ion Source Technology Group are utilizing powerful RF-induction discharge to generate the deuterium plasma. One of the advantages of using the RF-induction discharge is it's ability to generate high fraction of atomic ions from molecular gases, and the ability to generate high plasma densities for high extractable ion current from relatively small discharge volume.

The Department of Energy selected caustic side solvent extraction (CSSX) as the preferred cesium removal technology for Savannah River Site waste. As a pretreatment step for the CSSX flowsheet, personnel contact the incoming salt solution that contains entrained sludge with monosodium titanate (MST) to adsorb strontium and select actinides. They filter the resulting slurry to remove the sludge and MST. The conclusions from this work is detailed in this report.

Interview with John J. Clemens. The interview includes Clemens' personal experiences about childhood and early adulthood in Houston, Texas, World War II-era service in the U.S. Navy, serving aboard USS Wren in the Pacific Theater, and piloting a ship into Tokyo Bay immediately following the Japanese surrender. Clemens speaks about convoy missions across the Atlantic Ocean, the January 4, 1944 sinking of the USS Turner while moored in New York Harbor and the court of inquiry regarding the sinking, actions in the Aleutian Islands, Attu, Okinawa, and Philippine campaigns and anti-kamikaze warfare while aboard the USS Wren, and the effects that Allied bombing had on Tokyo.

The regulatory requirement to develop an upgraded safety basis for a DOE Nuclear Facility was realized in January 2001 by issuance of a revision to Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations Section 830 (10 CFR 830). Subpart B of 10 CFR 830, ''Safety Basis Requirements,'' requires a contractor responsible for a DOE Hazard Category 1, 2, or 3 nuclear facility to either submit by April 9, 2001 the existing safety basis which already meets the requirements of Subpart B, or to submit by April 10, 2003 an upgraded facility safety basis that meets the revised requirements. 10 CFR 830 identifies Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Regulatory Guide 1.70, ''Standard Format and Content of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear Power Plants'' as a safe harbor methodology for preparation of a DOE reactor documented safety analysis (DSA). The regulation also allows for use of a graded approach. This report presents the methodology that was developed for preparing the reactor accident analysis portion of the Advanced Test Reactor Critical Facility (ATRC) upgraded DSA. The methodology was approved by DOE for developing the ATRC safety basis as an appropriate application of a graded approach to the requirements of 10 CFR 830.

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

Funeral program for Mr. Charles W. Lawson, born November 30, 1925 and died May 8, 2003. The funeral was held Tuesday, May 13, 2003 at Mt. Zion First Baptist Church, officiated by Rev. Kenneth A. Allen, Senior Pastor. Funeral arrangements were made through Sutton-Sutton Mortuary and he was buried in Meadowlawn Memorial Park in San Antonio, Texas.

CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc. is identifying and developing supplemental process technologies to accelerate the Hanford tank waste cleanup mission. Bulk vitrification, containerized grout, and steam reforming are three technologies under consideration for treatment of the radioactive saltcake wastes in 68 single-shell tanks. To support development and testing of these technologies, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) was tasked with developing a cold dissolved saltcake simulant formulation to be representative of an actual saltcake waste stream, preparing 25- and 100-L batches of the simulant, and analyzing the composition of the batches to ensure conformance to formulation targets. Lacking a defined composition for dissolved actual saltcake waste, PNNL used available tank waste composition information and an equilibrium chemistry model (Environmental Simulation Program [ESP{trademark}]) to predict the concentrations of analytes in solution. Observations of insoluble solids in initial laboratory preparations for the model-predicted formulation prompted reductions in the concentration of phosphate and silicon in the final simulant formulation. The analytical results for the 25- and 100-L simulant batches, prepared by an outside vendor to PNNL specifications, agree within the expected measurement accuracy ({approx}10%) of the target concentrations and are highly consistent for replicate measurements, with a few minor exceptions. In parallel with the …

The high-level radioactive wastes in many single-shell tanks (SSTs) at the Hanford Site are to be retrieved by a modified sluicing method. Retrieval operations will hydraulically erode and dissolve the saltcake waste, and the resulting brine will then be pumped to a double-shell tank (DST). Waste gases residing in the solid waste matrix will be released into the tank headspace when the matrix is eroded or dissolved. These retained waste gases include the flammable species hydrogen, methane, and ammonia, and there is a concern that these flammable gases could produce a flammable mixture in the tank headspaces during the retrieval operations. This report combines conservative retained gas inventory estimates and tank data with anticipated waste retrieval rates to estimate the potential headspace flammability of selected SSTs during waste retrieval operations. The SSTs considered here are ten of the twelve 241-S farm tanks (tanks 241-S-107 and 241-S-111 are excluded from consideration here) and tank 241-U-107 (U-107).

We are testing a high-current-density high-brightness Argon-Ion Source for Heavy Ion Fusion applications. The 100-kV 20-{micro}s source has produced up to 5 mA of Ar{sup +} in a single beamlet. The extraction current density is 100 mA/cm2. We have measured the emittance of the beamlet, and the fraction of Ar{sup ++} ions under several operating conditions. We present measurements of the extracted current density as a function of RF power and gas pressure ({approx} 2 mT), current density uniformity, and energy dispersion (due to charge exchange). We are testing a 80-kV 61-hole multi-beamlet array that will produce a total current > 200 mA. In the current experiments the beamlets are not merged into a single beam. A 500-kV experiment where the beamlets will be merged to a produce 0.5-A beam is being planned.

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Interview with Robert Edward Harris, a veteran of World War II, serving in India at the time. Harris answers questions relating to his training, duties, and activities while over in India towards the end of the war; Harrs also answers questions concerning his feelings towards the war and his enemies.